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Student News Daily

Here's an amazing resource I just discovered the other day.  It's one of those rare resources that come up that you know if you would have just stumbled upon it earlier, it could have had a massive positive effect on my students.

Anyways, check out Student News Daily.  This website provides a daily article that covers world news, comprehension questions for said article and a plethora of other resources you can use to provide authentic reading experiences for your students.

Word of caution:  The younger your students are, the more you are going to have to filter what articles they read.  Some of the content is meant for a more mature audience than the 5th graders that I serve.

How I do it:  If you are curious as to how to implement this in your classroom, this is how I do it.  In no way do I think this is the best way and I think how I implement it will evolve over the coming month and next school year.

  • My classroom is set up in a collaborative way.  In other words, my students sit in groups of 4-5.  Each morning I give each group a copy of the article.  They can take turns reading the article, read it all together, however they wish to do it.  
  • I have the questions on the digital projector projecting from my computer.  
  • They read, they answer questions, they ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS which is exactly what I want them to do.  They think.  
I hope, through the implementation of this resource in my classroom, I can A) provide authentic reading experiences for my students, B) broaden my student's worldview and C) keep them up to date with current events.  

So, as our friend LeVar Burton from Reading Rainbow  says...

Go check it out for yourself!  

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