TESTIMONIALS
"Newspapers in Education programs are great for encouraging critical thinking, writing and civic responsibility. I teach English as a Second Language to fifth and sixth graders and have found that reading the newspaper is a fantastic way for my students to learn more about the world around them."
Mimi Krsak, Seahurst Elementary,
Highline School District, Burien
"I use News Break along with The Seattle Times to teach my students current events and make them more aware of what's happening in the world. My students say having their own newspapers is the coolest!"
Heather Ziese, Dick Scobee Elementary,
Auburn School District
"My journalism class publishes their own student newspaper — "The Helm" — and having professional journalists from The Seattle Times talk to them about writing, photography and design is a wonderful way to motivate them and give them firsthand experience with how a newspaper works."
Cheryl Smith, Highline High School,
Highline School District, Burien
"Newspapers In Education programs are wonderful ways of introducing students to current events and the world around them. Newspapers are great tools for teaching because they are ready-resources. They're tangible, accessible and provide teachers with an up-to-date textbook with a variety of subjects for great teaching ideas."
Kathy Edlund, Curriculum Facilitator,
Tacoma School District
"Learning about art and music enhances life and can add so much to my students' personalities. As an educator, it's my responsibility to promote education and nurture my students' love of learning. Newspapers In Education programs offer wonderful opportunities for my students to learn real-life lessons about the world around them."
Violet Ewing, Graham Hill Elementary,
Seattle School District
"My fifth graders love reading the serialized story 'The Secret of Smith Hill.' Each week my students ask to read it aloud as a radio play. Since Tuesday's paper contains the Science Section, we take time to read and discuss what is new in science. We check the weather forecast and the phases of the moon to plan our 'Star Parties.' Sometimes we use the comic strips as story starters for writing. There are numerous ways to use the newspaper in the classroom."
Dayle Ishii, Fifth-Grade Teacher,
Carl Sandburg Elementary,
Lake Washington School District
"Several years ago, The Seattle Times had a contest where they asked their readers to write about their 'Date from Hell.' The reader stories were wonderful, so I have saved them. My students read these stories and then write their own fictionalized 'Date from Hell.' There have been some terrifically creative stories that have resulted from this assignment."
Gladys Fox, Language Arts Teacher,
West Auburn High School,
Auburn School District
"This year I am not doing anything formal with newspapers in the classroom. I do, however, ask students in my Bridges Global Issue class to find articles that reflect 'change' as a part of the Change Unit. I also use articles that I have seen and cut out to enhance some concept being studied."
Kathy Franz, Global Issues Teacher,
West Auburn High School,
Auburn School District
"I use the newspaper mainly during my stock market unit. I teach the students how to read the business charts along with looking over articles about personal finance."
Larry Laush, Math Teacher,
West Auburn High School,
Auburn School District
"I have in the past used newspapers for stock information and for reading graphs and tables. Some students choose to use the newspaper for 'current events' assignments."
Sally Vance, Math Teacher,
West Auburn High School,
Auburn School District
"Our students have difficulty making inferences, so I was especially interested in the book provided to me by The Seattle Times titled Making Inferences. I explained how to make inferences to the students, quizzed them with a few exercises, then I had the students use The Seattle Times to find their own articles and look for facts as well as ideas they could 'dig out' using inferences.
I was able to glean ideas from all of the books provided by the newspaper, including Understanding New Words and Reading and Thinking. I had the students find unfamiliar words in the newspaper and do their best to figure out the meanings by the context. I assigned different articles to different students: an editorial to some, entertainment reviews to others, a scientific article to still others. I used both group and individual assignments. Students also practiced finding main ideas of the articles and learned to differentiate between a summary and a main idea. Additionally, we discussed subjective and objective writing as we worked to become discriminating readers. We compared articles we read in The Seattle Times with articles we read in the National Enquirer. We also thought about evaluating the source as we read the novel 'Nothing but the Truth.'"
Bonnie Begalka, Reading Teacher,
West Auburn High School,
Auburn School District
"My journalism class has a permanent assignment to read the newspaper at least every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Those are the days that we receive the paper in class. I ask students to select articles that interest them, cut them out and react to the content and writing style in each article. Our goal is to become more informed as journalists about current events, to model our writing after the best journalists by discussing style and method, and to become critical readers. Students come up with many ideas and topics that they would like to explore, as well, in our publication the Highline Helm. It has proved to be a valuable part of our curriculum."
Cherrie Smith, Journalism Teacher,
Highline High School
"My neighbor is a naturalized citizen. She has been in this county thirteen years. She hadn't learned the English alphabet.
She was very well educated in her native country. She had been busy raising two sons, being a housewife and working Mother. She couldn't read English although she can speak it fluently. I knew it would mean a lot to her if she could read English, so I asked if she would like to have me help her learn to read English.
After a couple of weeks trying to determine where to start, you began publishing the serial 'Luke in a Really Big Pickle.'
This was perfect for our needs. She was familiar with most of the words, she just hadn't seen them in print. She could relate to the story because she has two sons in high school and many of the antics of the two boys were similar to the experiences she had with her sons. There were just enough words new to her to keep her interest.
Thank you for this timely gift; I'll bet you didn't have this in mind when you decided to publish this."
Wanda M. Peterson
"I loved your story about the little boy and his dog — I looked forward to reading the next installment each week. It was such a sweet story — can we have more of this kind of writing?"
Marjorie Kummerfeldt
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