Sites for news lessons
Seven news sites for teachers to use in class
1. Breaking news English
Probably the best known of all the news
web sites for English language learners. This site is very popular with many teaches as it has a vast
collection of ready to use lesson materials designed around current news stories. These stories can be used as reading or listening activities. Some stories have been simplified
to make them more accessible for lower level English language learners. As well
as the stories and multiple activities that accompany each news lesson, there
are audio recordings of the stories that students can listen to. Multiple audio
files are provided for each story so that students can listen to the story at
different speeds. This is a great source of classroom materials for teachers.
For a taste of the way the site works
(all the activities are the same) try this story from Germany;
The home page can be found at;
2. News in levels
This site has news stories that
students can read according to their level. Each news story is offered at three
different levels. The accompanying activity consists of the text with difficult
words in bold and definitions below the text. Below the text is a YouTube style
video player from where the audio file can be played. There are no ready-made
quizzes or activities that accompany the news stories.
The home page can be found at;
3. Listenwise
This is a USA based news site for learners of English that has audio listening
activities covering a range of news stories. Users have to register
to get access to the teaching and learning resources which are limited to the
audio file and some on-screen comprehension questions along with some tags /
key words that link to similar topics. After registration a confirmation
email with a link will be sent to the email account you provided when
registering. To activate your account follow the link in the email. This must
be done within 7 days of registering.
Users can also pay for a premium membership service which provides some LMS learner tracking and class creation tools and allows users to customise, adapt and assign the content to specific students or classes. Audio scripts are also provided. I haven’t paid so I can’t tell you a great deal about what happens beyond the pay wall. There are some examples of the type of activity offered to paying customers here: https://listenwise.com/current_events
Listenwise receives its news stories from National Public
Radio (NPR). NPR is an
American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media
organization. They have a 24 hour radio station which is also available online.
They also provide news to non-commercial member and educational radio stations across the USA.
The NRP home page can be found at;
The home page for Listenwise can be found by
following the link below;
4. Newsela
Another useful resource
for teachers interested in using news stories with their students. The site has a comprehensive library of news stories from the USA. Students can read
the news stories but there no audio files to listen to which limits the site to
a reading resource. There are accompanying quizzes and space for learners to
write about the article. However, this site may actually best used as a place
for teachers to create their own library of texts (it is easy to save texts to
your own library) and then print or copy and paste the texts for use in class
with activities added by the teacher. All users have to register to gain access
to the materials which is another reason for thinking of the site as a place
for teachers to source lesson ideas.
The home page can be found at;
5. News Literacy Project
In the era of fake news this is a very interesting site indeed. The News Literacy Project is an
innovative national (USA) educational programme that gets experienced journalists
to work with educators to teach students how to sort fact from fiction. The
site aims to promote literacy and understanding of the importance of the First
Amendment and democracy and to help learners deal with real world issues. This site is text based and is best used for
developing reading skills. The Learn section has some videos
The home page can be found at;
6. Factitious
A very topical take on the news. This
is an interactive reading quiz site that has a collection of short news stories
chosen to help students identify 'fake news'. Students have to read news stories and
decide which stories are genuine and which are fake. This is done by simply
clicking a green tick if they think the news report is true or a red cross if they think it
is fake. After they have answered the next screen automatically reveals
the answer and information about the source with an explanation as to why it is fake or true.
The information provided about fake news is useful as it helps students to
develop a number of techniques for identifying fake news. Learners can play
through three levels of the quiz. The idea is to get students reading and to
make them question the authenticity of what they read. It could be a useful to
lead into any work about fake news and how to check the authenticity of news
stories. It could also be used to look at features of academic vs
non-academic texts.
Factitious can be found at;
Fractious links to another web site concerned with journalism and gaming called JoLT. JoLT is a collaboration between the American University of Washington GameLab group and the university's School of Communication. The site aims to explore the intersection of journalism and game design.
JoLT
There are three main area to look at;
I.
Search for stories by theme using the
Resources link
II.
Resources
- It is possible to use a number of news based games from a library of activities called Newsgames. These games are more like
group work or project work and often contain resources that can be downloaded.
This means that the resources can be used in class without the need for
computers although there are also some are interactive on-screen games.
III.
Projects
- There are also a number of other activities that can be accessed via
the Projects link on the home page. Some of the links are to external sites.
You might like to try the following
game which is linked to by Factitious.
Cutthroat Capitalism: The Game
You are a pirate
commander staked with $50,000 from local tribal leaders and other investors.
Your job is to guide your pirate crew through raids in and around the Gulf of
Aden, attack and capture a ship, and successfully negotiate a ransom.
The game can be found at;
7. Facing History
Facing history’s mission is to engage students of
diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and anti-Semitism in
order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry. There
are a lot of resources available with accompanying suggestions as to how to use
them. The materials can be accessed from a searchable collection of reading and
audio resources. Teachers can also look for lesson ideas by topic or try searching
the database. Whilst there are resources that support the texts there are no
ready-made activities and plans as such but suggestions as to how to use the materials
are offered and additional resources are also available.
The home page can be found at:
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