Newspaper Association of America Foundation

More Ideas for Using the Newspaper:
HIGH SCHOOL

1. Look for a grocery ad with a soft drink advertisement. Figure out how many fluid ounces are in the eight bottle carton or six pack, and break it down into pints, quarts, gallons and liters.

2. Every week, check through the job listings and put a red X through those jobs that could not be filled by a high school dropout. Put a black X through those that could not be filled by a person with a technical school or college training. Discuss your findings.

3. Choose an editorial and read it carefully. Decide which statements or parts of the statements are facts, which are opinion, and whether or not the tone of the editorial is conservative or liberal. Watch for upcoming issues to see if there is any reaction to the editorial on the letters to the editor page.

4. To improve map skills and stimulate interest in current events, follow the route of a government official as he travels around the country or around the world. Show the route he or she takes on a map with a marker or pushpins.

5. Find the area of the floor in your classroom or library. Using a carpet or tile ad from The Times-Dispatch, compute the cost or carpet or tile the room. If the carpet was offered at a 20% discount, what would the cost of the carpeting be?

6. After skimming The Times-Dispatch each day, select the important news story of the day and post it on a bulletin board. At the end of the week, have the class vote on the most important story of the week.

7. Look in The Times-Dispatch for articles about countries at war. Use newspaper archives and reference books to look for the same topic 3 or 5 years ago - what has changed, been resolved or worsened over the past 3 to 5 years?

8. Have a discussion of employment trends and demands in your community, based on the help wanted section of the classified ads and any related articles.

9. Study the periodic chart of the elements, and then take a red magic marker and mark the appropriate chemical symbols found in scientific articles in The Times-Dispatch.

10. Select a sports story that is of interest to you, and rewrite passive voice sentences into active voice.

*Ideas compliments of the Newspaper Association of America Foundation