MOUNT VERNON — Schools are back in session and the Mount Vernon News’ Newspaper In Education Program is in full swing.
Launched in 1999, NIE was established to provide an educational service arm for the News, and provides classrooms — from preschool through adult — with free newspapers and related curricular materials.
An expanded electronic version of NIE gives teachers and parents more options and a wider range of learning activities for all ages. For example, instructors can access the “Editorial Cartoons for the Classroom” link, and find downloadable lesson plans to supplement their lessons.
Also available online is “Newsworthy,” a three-page worksheet for grades three and up that accompanies the Mount Vernon News once a week. Parents as well as teaches can download the worksheet, which includes questions about the Monday edition of the News. Answers to the questions are provided in a teacher’s edition, for which a password is required.
Michelle Hartman, NIE coordinator, said the Mount Vernon News e-Edition, an exact replica of the print edition, is an electronic version of the paper that is a flexible instructional resource. It is an interactive tool that helps meet technology and core curriculum learning objectives. Students can work independently with the e-Edition in computer labs, mobile computer labs or from home computers. Teachers can use a projector or digital whiteboard to engage the entire class.
Some of the 90 teachers who are currently using NIE resources have daily newspapers delivered to their classrooms, and others order only editions which contain the special activity pages, Kidding Around or GEAR. Kidding Around appears in the Saturday edition of the News, and is especially for elementary students. This fall, Kidding Around features a special 10-week series on bullying. Produced in a graphic novel format, the series encourages readers to make good choices and to think about strategies for dealing with a bully.
GEAR is for readers in grades three and up. Appearing in each Monday edition of the News, GEAR includes weekly chapter stories. Premiering this fall, “All in Good Time” tells the story of a lad who is not interested in learning history until he takes a magical subway ride to the past. A special series called “Where in Ohio are Gus and Gertie?” also kicks off on Monday. It is an Ohio geography scavenger hunt and takes readers on a tour through 30 of Ohio’s 88 counties.
A number of teachers’ guides related to using newspapers in the classroom are available through the NIE office, and Hartman said teachers can request guides or sign up for the NIE program at any time in the school year. “We’re doing different things all the time,” she said. “For instance, GEAR will have a special series on famous Americans starting in November and launches a real life math series in January.”
Teachers can sign up for NIE by calling Hartman at 397-5333, ext. 241; or go online at www.mountvernonnews.com and download an order form or conveniently complete the form online.
Newspapers provided to schools through the NIE program are made possible by the Mount Vernon News and individual and business sponsors.
