Beech Chapter 9

Should I use the newspaper in my secondary English classroom?

Absolutely! Being a news junkie, this is great "news". While they are many great applications to teachign from the local paper, like anything else there has to be some yin to the yang. Teaching writing by looking at articles can be a great door through which students can enter a world, which seems much more accessible than a 100 year selection of boring literature. Probably not the best thing for an English major to say. But truthully, reading about stories occurring in students' communities is much more personally relevant than trying to build similarities between Shakespeare and tenth graders. That effort to build personal relevance usually sounds something like, "Have you ever felt like..., well so did..."

So yes, I think it would be valuable to use these resources in my English classroom. However, it turns out that news companies have reeponsibities to make money. In addition, many news companies are attached to larger companies. Therefore, even with the news, you have to have a pinch of skepticism about anythin that another person tells you.

A Great Idea - "Students could also study how writers may metaphors or hyperbolic language to describe an event in a manner that represents a particular attitude toward that event. For example, in writing about the Palestinian / Isreali conflict, a writer might describe one side's bombing or attack as an "incursion", "Deadly Destruction" or "Massacre". How and why writers choose these words would be a great discussion to lead off a journalism activity.