Using newspaper and magazine articles in the content areas

Teachers of any content area would agree that providing their students with the tools and strategies to become proficient readers is a must for them. I am sure they would also agree that students are much more likely to get engaged in a reading task when it is authentic, relevant and interesting. If used properly, newspapers will help students to develop not only reading skills but also writing and speaking. Students will also improve their vocabulary in the content area and develop  thinking skills as reading  newspaper articles will sure provide  them with an opportunity to express and exchange their ideas on a wide variety of issues.  

Needless to say that we do not have to supply students with physical newspapers. We are very lucky to have online versions of most newspapers, some of which with lesson plans that can be very helpful when you like the article but you lack the necessary time to prepare some activities for students to carry out while and after reading. The Guardian includes a series of free  lesson plans for different content areas. The New York Times also offers a learning section with lesson plans. 

Next seminar I will present some of my favourite activities to make the most of using newspaper and magazine  articles in the  classroom but before we meet let me share some of them with you.  You can find them here. 

To help students with summarizing skills and  new vocabulary when reading newspaper articles, you can use this template  provided by Readwritethink.

Most newspapers are included here:

http://www.learn-english-today.com/news/news.html

You can find some worksheets that relate to newspaper articles here:

http://busyteacher.org/classroom_activities-vocabulary/newspaper_english-worksheets/

The following is a collection of online magazines on very different topics:

http://www.yes-mag.com/volumes/

For Science topics:

http://www.sciencemag.org/

For History content:

http://www.historic-newspapers.co.uk/blog/

Spanish El País can be read in English:

http://elpais.com/elpais/inenglish.html

More student-friendly  websites you can use:

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

http://www.studentnewspaper.org/

http://edition.cnn.com/studentnews/