NEWSPAPERS

LEVEL:                     Upper intermediate (4th level EOI)
                       
OBJECTIVES:        GRAMMAR:
                                    To review verb tenses, learn to understand newspaper headlines

 

VOCABULARY:
                                    Learn vocabulary related to newspapers.

 

                                    READING/WRITING:
Read a lot of information about newspapers and summarize it in a few lines.

 

SPEAKING/LISTENING:
Be able to express all the information learned and understand what is being presented by other groups.

 

                                    CROSS-CULTURAL:
To make students aware of the most important newspapers in the English speaking world, how they work and their function in present society.

 

TIMING:                    It is thought to last 5 sessions of one hour each:
-        first session: students search for information
-        second session: students organize the information
-        third session: students prepare the presentation
-        fourth session: students start presenting in groups
-        fifth session: students finish their presentations

 

ICT
REQUIREMENTS: Computers with Internet access and basic office software (word processor, PowerPoint…) and a projector.

 

PROCESS:              In groups of three students, the teacher assigns a number to each group and each group has to work on the newspapers assigned. Each group has three different newspapers.

 

STEP 1: Start searching for information of all the newspapers assigned to your group and complete one chart like the one below for each of them.

 

 

STEP 2: Decide which newspaper you are choosing according to your findings (most influential, most objective, most biased…). You decide! Write at least three reasons explaining your choice.

 

STEP 3: Prepare your PowerPoint presentation with 10 slides as a maximum and present all your findings, your choice and your reasons to your classmates.

 

LINKS:
-          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_newspapers
-          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_the_United_States
-          http://www.wrx.zen.co.uk/britnews.htm
-          http://www.world-newspapers.com/uk.html
-          http://www.britishpapers.co.uk/
-          http://dailynewspaper.co.uk/
-          http://www.bl.uk/collections/newspapers.html
-          http://www.globalcomputing.com/NewsContent.htm
-          http://www.thebigproject.co.uk/USNewspapers/index.htm
-          http://www.externalharddrive.com/usa/usalinks/usa-newspapers.html
-          http://www.newslink.org/nonuss.html
-          http://www.howstuffworks.com/newspaper.htm

 

 

EVALUATION:        The teacher will grade the students’ work according to two rubrics:

 

1.      PowerPoint presentation rubric, which will evaluate their work as a group (50%).

 

 

2.      Individual work rubric, in which each student will evaluate his/her partners according to the individual work in the group (50%).

 

 

Each student will be given a copy of this rubric at the end of the project.

 

CONCLUSION:       Apart from being an excellent tool to learn English in an entertaining way, this project has been designed to promote students’ awareness of important newspapers in the English speaking world and make them realise that they have an important function in our society.
                                    The project is also important because students work in groups and they develop their cooperative skills.