Title – Using A Newspaper Index

By – Cori

Subject – Language Arts, Social Studies

Grade Level – 2-4

Aim: To teach the students how to use an index to find out what’s in a newspaper.

Pupil’s Aim: What is an index? How is it used in a newspaper?

Motivation: Does anyone read newspapers (reading comics/Kidsday counts)? Does anyone watch their parents or siblings read the newspaper?

Materials: Newsday, scissors, glue/tape, and worksheet

Procedure: Why do you think it is important to know how to read a newspaper?

· Today we are going to learn how to read a newspaper through using its index. The index is in the front of the newspaper and it shows where everything is located in the newspaper. Many other things we read also have indexes. Can anyone think of any (magazines, non-fiction books)? Make sure you pay careful attention because when we are finished learning the parts of the newspaper we are going to work in groups to do a scavenger hunt.

· Everyone please take out your Newsday and open it to the first page. As you can see, there is an index, which lists all of the parts of the newspaper (point to my index). Can everyone find the index in their Newsday? As you can see, it shows the movie listings, horoscopes, weather.

· Whenever you are looking for something specific, you can use the index instead of flipping through all of the pages because it saves a lot of time.

· Explain the 2 parts of Newsday – Part I is the news and sports section – Part II has horoscopes, movies, TV listings, comics.

· Have the students locate page numbers in index and then turn to that page to assure they understand how the pages are numbered.

Medial Summary: What have we learned so far?

Activity: The students will work in pairs and will complete the scavenger hunt by using the index of the newspaper.

Final Summary: What have we learned today?

Evaluation: Students will have an in class/homework assignment (depending on time), and will have to use an index to find various pages and locate the titles of certain articles. They will complete this individually on the worksheet provided.

Follow- up Lesson: Students will learn what is written in a newspaper article (who, what, where, why, how). We will then read a book together, the students will be reporters and write a newspaper article on the story we read. They must include a creative headline and answer who, what, where, when, why, and how.

Outcomes: The students will be able to use the index of a newspaper and will understand why we use it.

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Cori

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