Looking for more ways to use News for You in the classroom? Try some of these activities to get your students reading, writing, speaking, and listening -- all based on the easy-to-read articles found in News for You.
Press Conference
Assign each student a personality from this week's news. Each student should then "become" that person and prepare 2-3 sentences telling his or her story and how he or she feels about the situation reported.
Students should take turns presenting their characters and answering questions posed by the class, who can act like journalists at a press conference.
A variation on this activity is to have two of the characters "meet." What would they say to each other?
Cartoon Caption
Blank out the caption on the cartoon and have students write captions of their own. Students will likely interpret the cartoon in different ways. Discuss the different points of view. Talk with the class about the key parts of the cartoon that each student used to come up with his or her point of view.
Letter to the Editor
Writing letters to the editor helps students express their opinions and ideas. Have students write a letter to the editor that expresses their opinion or response to a story that appeared in an issue of News for You.
Vocabulary Hunt
This activity is a good one to use with an ESL conversation class. It gives students practice using vocabulary presented in previous News for You lessons.
Write a vocabulary word on a piece of paper. Write its definition on another piece of paper. Make sure you have enough words and definitions so that each student can participate.
Put the definitions and the words together in an envelope. Have each student pick one piece of paper. Students must then go around the room to find its match. When two students have matched a word with the correct definition, they must sit down together and write a sentence using the word. Students then share their sentences with the class.
This exercise also works well with idioms.
The Five W's
Create a chart titled "The Five W's." The chart should have six columns and as many as seven rows. Write the following headings at the top of the columns: Name of Article, Who, What, Where, When, Why. Have students read News for You articles and fill in the boxes in the chart with the appropriate information from each article.
With an article broken down in this way, the meaning becomes more clear to ESL students. The technique also helps basic literacy learners by giving them a tool for reading, comprehension, organizing, and writing practice.
Ask for More Information
News stories seldom have all the information about a topic that there is to know. Have students each write one or two questions about the topic that are not answered in the story. This activity could lead to further discussion of the article or to a research project based on finding the answers to some of their questions.
Give Them Something to Talk About
The best topics for group discussion are those that students can readily relate to and for which they have definite opinions. To get your students to express their own ideas about a story, ask "Why do you suppose...," "Do you think it's important to...," "What would happen if...," or "How would you feel..." questions. Ask one or two questions to get the discussion started.
The instructor should act as moderator. From time to time, summarize briefly what has been said. Help students recognize when opinions are being stated as if they were facts.
Crossword Competition
Once students get used to doing the puzzles in class, it may not take them long to become able to do them independently. If that happens, place them in groups to work on the puzzles. Have the groups compete with one another.