Kids don’t listen to the news or read newspapers in middle school very often. It’s all video games, so, I asked them to create a game using USA TODAY articles. They have to develop a game board and use questions and answers for the articles they choose. Sort of a USA TODAY Trivial Pursuit. I [...]

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Have students (in groups of 2-4) select an article and go on a scavenger hunt for "interesting" vocabulary words. Ask them to examine the article for author’s purpose and tone. Reexamine the words in context and note the denotative/connotative meaning of the words and how the use of those words reveal the author’s tone. Examine [...]

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I utilized the financial literacy lessons as a research supplement to both economics and various math classes. The students enjoyed getting away from the "books" and participating in small groups to complete these lessons. Material was current information relating to what is happening in the world today and drew the students in more than the [...]

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I team teach with a special educator, and we use the USA TODAY frequently to increase reading comprehension and to boost independent reading.  Recently, we used the paper as a means of teaching main and supporting ideas to students in our developmental English class.  We use the ELMO (overhead projector) and have students guess what [...]

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Right now, we are creating newscasts.  Students are practicing their summarization skills to put together a newscast that will be televised in our class. If the newscasts really pan out, they will be broadcast to people in our school who are interested in watching them. The students build the sets, gather current information from USA [...]

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I teach secondary business education. I have found that USA TODAY’s education portal has not only articles/case studies that directly affect and reflect my subject area, but also curriculum in other core subjects I can apply in my lesson plans.For example, when we began a lesson regarding saving and budgeting, I directed my students’ attention to the article/activity "Scoring Points [...]

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WOW! We receive the USA TODAY each Thursday. We always begin with the major headline on the front page and I ask why USA TODAY editors picked it. I have my middle school students read in depth one article of my choice and one of their selection. I also pick an article from each of [...]

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I teach data analysis and probability to high school students, so I often use the newspaper. I have students cut out graphs and analyze data, finding measures of central tendencies, variations or position. Students also compile statistical reports on the data represented graphically — citing trends and drawing conclusions.  

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In my classroom, the students are in class for 100 minutes at a time. We rotate to three groups during the class period. They are in the small group with the teacher for approx. 30 minutes, where they are taught a lesson that focuses on FCAT skills; then they are at the computer for approx. [...]

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After a unit on the consequences of war where students learned about the atrocities of war, they were asked to look at the titles of different articles. Then they needed to determine whether the titles could double as an appropriate title for a war story/report. They were encouraged to use portions of multiple articles if [...]

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