There are several ways of making newspapers materials usable for the various levels of students, by selecting interesting materials. Involving students in pre-activity, while-activity preparation techniques, in the selection of materials and designing the tasks are the key to success.
There are plenty of activities that can be done in the classroom using the newspaper and here are some examples.
a) Guess the headline
Cut out some headlines and remove from each one an interesting word. Divide the students in groups and give them the incomplete headlines. Each group must provide one or two answers for each headline (the most likely or /and the funniest word). The task will be very pleasant because students get the chance of showing their creativity. Each possible and correct answer get a point. They can also listen to all the responses and vote the funniest/most original answer for each headline.
b) Guess the article
Select an interesting and unusual newspaper article, choose ten key words from it and write them on the whiteboard. In pairs or groups, the students must come up with a story including all the words. Once they’ve finished, they read their article. After that, read them the story from the original article.
c) Guess the lie
You will work in pairs. You will get a short article that needs to be read very carefully. Check out the newspaper article below. After reading the article, you need to tell the story to your partner but first, you must change a detail in the story. The partner needs to guess which of the facts are true and which has been changed.
d) Presentations
Find an interesting newspaper article and summarize it to the other students during the next class. Many articles in English can be found on the Internet, so you can choose from a variety of newspaper articles. Use 100-120 words.
e) Role play the news
You need to read an interesting story from a newspaper and try to improvise a short role play. Role plays can be done in two ways: 1. one learner plays the journalist and the other plays the protagonist of the story or 2. each student takes the role of a person in the story and acts out the story.
f) Arrange in sequence
Click on the link below.
ptetutorials.com/sample-questions/reading-re-order-paragraphs
Put the paragraphs in the right order.
g) Newspaper alphabet
Choose a letter from the alphabet. Browse through the newspaper and find five unfamiliar words beginning with the assigned letter and look up the definition of each. Then, you have to create and illustrate a dictionary page containing the five words and their meanings.
h) Newspaper show and tell
Here is a link to several online newspapers.
www.newspaperindex.com/
Choose a country and a newspaper article that you like. Read it carefully and prepare a report on it. Use 100 -120 words. You will then present your report to your classmates.
i) What’s new?
Choose a Romanian online newspaper and write some headlines showing both good and bad news happening during five days.
Bibliography
ptetutorials.com/sample-questions/reading-re-order-paragraphs
www.newspaperindex.com/