Breaking News English.

[Brian]

www.breakingnewsenglish.com is a pretty useful site with short news stories and pre-made lesson plans around them.  The articles are a little difficult for my lower-level middle school students, as are some of the activities, but can be used for more advanced middle school students or middle-of-the-road high school students.   

I tried this article and activity collection about bees during my summer school session, but the students found it too difficult to be worthwhile. (It was my back-up plan, as all the bilingual newspapers at school are locked away, and I didn't think to modfiy the article.)  However, they did enjoy doing the "warm-ups" so it wasn't a total wash.

[Brian]

I think teaching newspaper classes really suck.  Generally when people read newspapers they skim headlines for interesting articles, maybe spend a few seconds reading a couple paragraphs, and usually just flip through in a few minutes.  Trying to extend that process into a 45 minute class is difficult and frustrating for the students and for me.  Unless the students are near fluent---and even when they are---it becomes pretty brutal, especially since the English-language papers here are garbage. 

But, that site is useful in a pinch for your general reading comprehension activities.  I used it when I needed a lesson in a hurry and my students wanted to read something from a newspaper but didn't have access to authentic English-language ones.  So I just felt like sharing. 

Your right, a lot of the activities wouldn't work.  I find that true for a lot of the activities found in ESL / EFL books.  Basically anything that hinges on free talking or spontaneous discussion is out.    "Have a chat."  LOL. 

From that lesson we did the activity that ranks the insects according to usefulness.  The students could do that, and after they were finsihed we talked about their answers as a class for a few minutes.  We got through the article and then did that activity where they write what they'd do if 12 million various animals came through town. 

With some modification I think a lot of the other activities would have been good.  The topic itself wasn't the best, but my students are 13 and 14, so I didn't want to do anything too . . . topical or current.  The synonym activity, for example, was too hard but given more time I could have modified the words.  Likewise the A/B discussion activity would have worked with more time and some tinkering.

Oh, and I did that in a summer school session with 11 students, not a regular class of 35. 

Just another resource for people to take a look at.  It has gotten good reviews on Dave's, but I found it too tedious for most classes.  It was helpful in a pinch, and can be modified into a decent lesson for an after-school class. 

My original plan was to do a whole day about newspapers, and do the "newspaper scavenger hunt" activity, but I found all the English-language ones were locked up.   

[rianshearer]

That site is amazing.  Thanks. 

If it's too difficult/dry I suggest the textbook: 'News for Now' By Karen Blanchard and Christine Root (International Thomson Asia ELT), which also covers newspaper articles.  This is much more well suited to high school and comes with a tape or CD (make sure you get it).  It's still a little dry, but much more similar to what the students do to prepare for their 'suneung' (University Entrance Exam) and so in their minds, perhaps more useful than the kind of fun, cool activities we are supposed to teach and some teachers claim work fine.

By the way, my confidence in 'edutainment' is not high in our context, so I think traditional-type exercises, presented in the right way are often the way to go.

Again, thanks for that site, it's perfect for teaching teachers and special high-level classes - in my school anyway.

Rian