Crucial to Success
Our NIE workshop includes a PowerPoint Presentation, Hands-On Activities using the newspaper, and Free Materials and Resources to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom at all grades levels and all levels of ability across the curriculum.
The Telegram is always pleased to invite teachers, including substitute teachers and Memorial University Education Teacher Interns to share in our goal to promote in students of all ages the continuing desire to read critically and reflectively, using the most up-to-date and relevant resources available – the newspaper.
Why an NIE Workshop?
A study in 2002 conducted in 24 states and 22 newspapers whose coverage area included 2,900 schools across the United States by Dan Sullivan, a professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, measured the impact of Newspaper in Education programs. Among the findings: Students in schools with at least some NIE programs did 10 percent better (on standardized reading tests) than students in schools that had no NIE program, and as high as 29% where literacy skills were significantly below average. The results of the research are published by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation in, “Measuring Success! The Positive Impact of Newspaper In Education Programs on Student Achievement”.
Newspaper In Education (NIE) is a program sponsored by The Telegram. Our aim is to introduce and expand educator’s use of the newspaper as a direct application or extension of the learning process and to include newspapers as an integral part of the school curriculum.
Newspaper In Education Workshops and Curriculum Guides are crucial to valid, reliable and sustainable success of our program. Without them, it’s like a bus, regularly going all over the place on a scheduled run, but without passengers. It's everywhere and quite visible, but nobody's onboard.
These reasons provide a solid basic foundation for a Newspaper In Education workshop. The NIE program is devoted to enhancing the skills and content learned in the classroom, through using the newspaper as part of the school’s instructional program.
We will provide participants with a package of activities that will encourage the use of informational text, the newspaper, to teach concepts in a variety of subject areas. The activities will guide students to complete tasks as they simultaneously learn about the value of the newspaper for informing them about their world.
Many schools that are participating in our program have at least one teacher who has attended an NIE in-service. This can be a starting point since that teacher can serve as a resource or lead-teacher for using the NIE program in the classroom in their respective school. In the beginning, we held open workshops at a local hotel on Saturday mornings. As many 23 to 40 teachers showed up. Some of these teachers came a considerable distance and stayed at the hotel on Friday night before the workshop. This approach reached its potential.
Our workshops have now evolved in a new direction. We have been invited to some schools to facilitate an NIE workshop for various departments. We have also been invited by various School Districts to be part of a close-out Professional Development session for a respective grade level or for all grade levels, where teachers sign up for the various sessions that are offered. All of these are quite beneficial to improving the effectiveness of a school’s NIE program, in meeting established curriculum objectives and outcomes. The ideal however is when the whole staff of one or more schools participates in an NIE In-service together. Following such workshops, the NIE program becomes more extensive and more effective as a resource throughout the school. We have held several of these, and the positive response from teachers has been tremendous.
The introduction to the in-service is designed to present and display how the NIE program fits into the curriculum framework. We feel this component is essential to create a comfort level for Administrators, Departments Heads, Professional Development Teams, Curriculum Committees and Curriculum Lead Teachers in the respective schools. They need to clearly understand that the NIE program is an enjoyable but serious approach to assist teachers with teaching and learning in the classroom, that the newspaper literally becomes a textbook in the hands of students and teachers. Teachers are then provided the opportunity to participate in hands-on practical activities on how to use the NIE program in the classroom for all grade levels, all subject areas and all levels of ability.
Another important and recently added component to our workshop is evaluating it, to determine its success. At the end of the in-service, we have asked teachers to anonymously complete an evaluation form. The feedback has been invaluable to improving the in-service effectiveness. We have moved from overheads to power point. This makes the workshop material clearer and enables the session to move along smoothly and at an increased pace. In a short time, we get right into the hands-on activities. We have shortened the introduction and increased the number of hands-on activities, depending on the time provided to deliver the in-service. We make deliberate efforts to secure sufficient space for teachers to work in groups. And, our marketing department has provided more fun prizes for participating teachers. The most recent evaluation forms show the positive results of our efforts to improve the delivery and effectiveness of our NIE in-service.