How to use Newspapers to Teach Reading

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Newspapers can be utilized to teach reading to students of all different ages and skill levels. There are a number of techniques that you can utilize with this useful tool.
Letter recognition
Even the youngest of children can start the learning-to-read process with newspapers. Newspapers can help provide letter recognition. Children need to get accustomed to seeing letters in different sizes, fonts and prints. Between the articles and the print ads, a newspaper can provide this variation. The teacher can give children newspapers or use a projector to make it big and ask that students recognize the letters that they see.
Students can also be asked to pick out certain letters in a newspaper. They may be assigned to find an article themselves (or be given one) and to use a highlighter or crayon to mark instances of certain letters. With a lot of print, they should find many instances of all of the different letters.
Reading words
Of course newspapers can be utilized when teaching students to read and recognize words. You will need to find a newspaper that matches the skill level of the student, thus in this case, it may be more for an older child learning larger words. Students can be asked to read portions of the newspaper out loud. Words that are difficult or new can be explained by the teacher as they are being read. If the teacher is using a particular article to teach, then he or she can make a guide to accompany it that includes some of the words as vocabulary words, has their definition and provides hints for pronunciation.
Reading comprehension
It is important that students not only read the words in a written piece, but be able to correctly understand what they are reading. Newspapers can help with this reading comprehension. A teacher can assign a particular newspaper article for students to read or they can allow the student to pick out an article for themselves. The teacher can then ask questions that help the student learn how to read in a way to pick up the knowledge. Questions they may ask include “What is the subject of the article?” and “Does the article pose any additional questions?”
Newspapers can be valuable tools when teaching a student to read, no matter whether it is a young kindergartener learning his letters or an older student learning more complicated words. Try a variety of techniques with your students.