Promote news as learning medium

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The Indiana Newspaper in Education Foundation and the Indiana State Reading Association partnered to offer weekly lesson plans for teachers and parents using the newspaper with young readers.

Each Monday new lesson plans created by Hot Topics Hot Serials will appear on the HSPA Foundation website for use in the classroom or at home. They include several activities in language arts, math, science literacy, and social studies – plus a writing lesson.

Using news in classrooms

Promote lesson plans using the newspaper to teachers in your area.

They’re free and new each week (bi-weekly during the summer) on the HSPA Foundation website.

Direct area teachers to http://www.hspafoundation.org/usethenews.

“The funding from the Indiana NIE Foundation and ISRA provide new content based on the news, events and anniversaries of a particular week,” said Karen T. Braeckel, director of the HSPA Foundation. “It gives teachers and parents a reason to visit our site often for updated material.”

Teachers also can find an activity sheet of the week, Braeckel said.

During the summer months, the lesson plans will change biweekly.

“We hope our member newspapers will run reminders about the material periodically,” Braeckel said. “They can publish the link on their websites to help teachers and parents find the lesson plans.”

The HSPA Foundation will send 2x2s and other small ads to newspapers to help publicize the availability of the new feature.

To view the new activities, visit http://www.hspafoundation.org/usethenews.

New serial story available

Also provided by a grant from the Indiana NIE Foundation and the ISRA, Indiana newspapers can run a free serial story through August 2014.

The North Carolina Press Foundation offers “Howling for Home” by Joan Carris, a 10-chapter, elementary-reading-level story about adopting a dog and all it means to the animal and family.

The author tries to create a story that a dog would tell, if only he could.

Carris also promotes taking proper care of pets. Her story reminds dog owners to consider the needs of their companion animals and, specifically, their animals’ need for work, exercise and training.

David Green, director of Communications and Media Relations for the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, provides six sidebars with additional information about animals and their care.

Other materials come with the story, including word counts, sidebars with each chapter, a news connection for each chapter, promotions, graphic organizers for teachers, a teaching guide (both teacher and student versions prepared by North Carolina NIE representative Sandra Cook), creative activities and multiple-choice questions for each chapter.

To run the story in your newspaper, email Braeckel at kbraeckel@hspa.com or watch for more information in The Publisher.

Newspapers also may use Artie Knapp stories posted on the North Carolina Press Foundation site free of charge. Visit http://ncpress foundation.org/serial-stories.

Summer Reading Programs

The North Carolina Press Foundation also offers 23 features free of charge for newspapers to publish in their newspapers, in print and online.

Of these, 17 use the Collaborative Summer Library Program logo for the Dig Into Reading program, and six use it for the Beneath the Surface program.

Newspapers should work with their public libraries to determine the most effective ways to use the features.

Advertising departments also may find sponsors to help support your public libraries and summer reading through these features.

The following link lists the features by title: http://ncpressfoundation.org/summer-reading-program-2013-2.