Gauging Students' Voc. Level - by Ms. Rocha (John P. Ojeda MS, 6th grade Reading)

Actually sitting down and thinking about a lesson plan was not easy to do even though I have used the newspaper in my classroom for years!

One of the activities that helps me gauge the extent of my students' vocabulary involves a context clues lesson.

• Warm-Up: (select a paragraph from a lead story in the newspaper--I seat students in pairs for this activity and give each group two sticky notes) Students, draw a box around the words that you do not know and underline the words that you do know. If your partner has a box around a word that you underlined pair/share your definition for the word. If both you and your partner have the same words boxed, write the word/words on the sticky note.
• As a class we discuss the words on the sticky notes (sticky notes are placed on a bulletin board next to my door as students leave---I review the notes to see how many words written down were the same/different)
• Pass out newspapers--each pair picks a story and does the same thing. I then use the document viewer (ELMO) to show the class each group's story (they don't know what story belongs to each group). I then lead into our new vocabulary activity about context clues.
• When students have learned/practiced context clues strategies, we revisit the newspaper stories and see the difference of the students' understanding now that they have new strategies under their belt.

Grammar Lesson Plan by Bryce Pub

When we were prompted with the task to come up with a lesson plan incorporating the newspaper it took me a long time. I finally came up with something, and I hope it is useful to whoever wanted me to do this. When students are starting to learn the use and meaning of verbs, adjectives, and nouns it might be helpful to be able to locate them and visually see the use of them. So you could give a student a newspaper and then ask them to find a few examples of each in the newspaper. It would advance their understanding of these types of words (verbs, adjectives, nouns, etc.)

Print Media Lesson Idea...

My idea for a lesson plan is to teach about altering a newpaper layout to make it more attractive, to make it more interesting for younger target audiences. You could add more color, turn the texts at different angles and introduce different fonts and font styles, and add different color effects to pictures. It would make the articles more interesting to read, as well as bring in younger audiences.

Bill Minutaglio/Taylor High School/Magdalena Zavala

Magdalena Zavala at Taylor High School is doing wonderful work keeping the fires of journalism burning bright -- with her extensive background in news, her passion for the profession and the high energy she brings to the classroom. And the journalism students at Taylor should give great hope to anyone who wonders about the future of journalism -- they ask good questions, are smart and attentive, and many of them should help to keep the news business very alive and vibrant in years to come.

I'm reminded of this by my high school daughter - the technology is changing all the time. 

But, talking to the great students at Taylor reminded me of something else -- some time-honored things (like the responsibilities of journalists and pursuing the truth, fairness and justice . . . and, oh yeah, meeting deadlines) will never change. The future journalists from Taylor will be gathering and delivering the news in ways we can't imagine right now -- but I have a strong sense that they will do it with those everlasting ideals that still form the bedrock of journalism.

Some researchers have suggested, as we move more firmly into a world of "citizen journalists," that journalism become a required course in every high school. Seems like there are already some proactive students and educators at Taylor High who are getting ready to tell the stories, gather the news. -- Bill Minutaglio

UT Journalism Professor Bill Minutaglio visited Taylor High School

UT Journalism Professor Bill Minutaglio visited Taylor High School and talked with about 80 students in a period of 2 hours. Taylor High Journalism teacher Magdalena Zavala said the following about the visit to Taylor High:

“Mr. Minutaglio is so refreshing and easy to talk with. Students from other classes also joined our journalism and photojournalism students. We had plenty of questions prepared. Mr. Minutaglio shared about his 15 year-olddaughter, being a journalist, and being curious as a high school student. He described himself as having ants in his pants which led him to a very successful career as a journalist. His sharing caused students to wonder about what possibilities are out there for young graduates to follow.

Mr. Minutaglio’s words opened new windows of possibilities and opportunities. Thank you for sending such an inspirational speaker to our school. We appreciate your attention to our students’ life endeavors.”

Taylor High Finds First Amendment in News Stories

Students in Magdalena Zavala’s class at Taylor High explored how the First Amendment was reflected in the Statesman. Most students agreed that the First Amendment showed up in the story, "Seton may require staff to mute ink, piercing" and in John Kelso’s column “We could learn from inmate’s cell phone etiquette."

This is what students said:

“We feel that the Austin American-Statesman does a superb job of obeying the principles of journalism. This issue will reach a wide audience by providing a variety of community coverage. The story Seton may require staff to mute ink, piercing expressed the issue related to the First Amendment by making nurses and other staff cover their tattoos. It made us question and realize that tattoos represent self-expression and that the newspaper really addresses issues relating to the First Amendment every day.”

We all enjoyed the story, "We can learn from inmates cell phone etiquette." We thought the story was funny.

Tattoos do not change the person; they only decorate the body. It does not matter what you wear it doesn’t change who you are.

The story, "Texas basketball won the world vision title" showed that anyone can express themselves in the sport that they love and no one can stop them.

Reading the Newspaper

Name: Jordan Gardner
School: Ann Richards
I personally don't like to read the newspaper.
In yearbook we read the paper once a week.
When we read the paper, I usually read the front page first,
then, I look for the comics.
Today, I read the front page, then flipped to comics,
and then flipped to horoscopes,
and finally I read the advice column, before turning my paper into an airplane.
-Jordan