Teach Me Tuesday : The News

This week's TEACH ME TUESDAY is about how the news can help boost young people's literacy. I know we're all 'newsed out' at the moment, but this is a fun activity that can have some really positive developments.

When I was a 1:1 teaching assistant in a school, I was free to be creative and responsive to my 1:1 child's needs. Alex (not his real name) found learning tricky when it wasn't something he was interested in and when it felt like 'traditional learning'.

THE STRENGTH OF USING THE NEWS (from a trusted source, such as Newsround or First News) was that it would naturally offer a different story each day. It was great for Alex, as being able to choose his favourite story, allowed him to have some independence in his learning.

SO HERE'S THE FUN PART... after reading through the story, Alex would then turn it into a script which he would read as if he were on the TV news - effectively developing his comprehension and writing skills. Most of all, he enjoyed performing his script in his best news-reader voice!

I found this to be a great way to build up children's reading, comprehension, writing and confidence.

You can even jazz it up and make it more realistic with a free online autocue https://www.teleprompter-online.com/

What do you think about this tip? Have you tried it before?