Literacy Development
Reading is an asset to second language development, but for the potential of this asset to be activated, students must understand the majority of what they are reading. In fact, it is said that when a reader reaches the point of not being able to understand five words on a page s/he will abandon the text. Thus in order to promote the practice of literacy it is important to offer learners interesting reading material at their language level.
Creating a class, department or school newspaper with three language levels is one way to reach out to all students in a second language class or program. It not only encourages reading but provides the students with an opportunity to improve their language skills outside of class time. A newspaper also offers a forum for a variety of short texts; thus students who process material slowly will be motivated by the feeling of success in being able to comprehend some of the contents of the newspaper (and perhaps become curious about higher level texts) while stronger students will be able to read all of the contents.
A teacher-created newspaper not only provides the students with an opportunity to USE their language skills outside of class time (and become aware of their skill levels) but also develop a positive identity toward the subject area and language.
Ideally the newspaper could be created monthly, and distributed by hand or online; it should:
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report on interesting, relevant and familiar topics or events in the class or school (present or upcoming).
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attract readers with pictures, captions, titles, uncluttered layout.
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Appeal to a wide readership by including a variety of text types (e.g. recipes, local, national and international news, biographies of famous people, interviews, puzzles, horoscopes, pictures and captions…).
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include an icon to indicate the language level of the section, so students can direct their attention more easily to their own language level.
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include, self-contained components so that a student can start or end anywhere, s in a local newspaper.
Examples of junior and senior high level newspapers created by teachers in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Punjabi and Spanish can be found below.
After students have been exposed to several teacher-composed newspapers, they may volunteer to be “reporters” for some sections of a future newspaper. Eventually students may work in groups to create their own 1-4 page double-sided newspaper and give it its own name. A variety of computer applications may also be considered.
Class Newspapers: Follow this link for specific details on how to incorporate a Class Newspaper into your own program.
Home Reading & Retell: Follow this link for specific details on how to incorporate Home Reading & Retell into your own program.
ABC Book: Follow this link for specific details on how to create an ABC book to help develop literacy in the SL classroom.
