Government Module

Unit 1: Taking a Closer Look at our Community

Notes This unit is designed to familiarize learners with the concept of local news and help them identify and use sources of local news information.

Lesson 2:  Accessing the news about my community.

Materials Needed:          

 Word Bank

headlines
articles
caption
least
author
benefit
main idea

Introductory Activity:  Whole Group Discussion

  • What is your local news?  How do you find out about things that are happening in your county or community?  Is this news interesting or important  for you and your family?

Activity 1:  Looking for the local news

Bring in copies of a local newspaper.  If there is a free local newspaper in your school's neighborhood, perhaps the publisher will give you enough copies for your students. 

  • Let's look at the headlines in the paper.  What are headlines?  What are the headlines in this newspaper?

Notes If you have difficulty obtaining enough copies of a local paper, you could focus on the parts of the newspaper with another ESOL-appropriate paper like News for You.

Elicit and discuss the headlines.

Choose one headline that seems to be of interest for the group and ask them to say what they think that article is about.  Clarify the meaning of headline as necessary.

  • If you had to write your own headline for what is important to you today, what would that headline be?

Activity 2:  Reading the news online

  • Now look at the newspaper and try to find a website address, or URL.  Usually the URL is written at the top of the newspaper on the front page.  If you want to look for local news in the future, you can use this address to find it on the Internet.

  • Today we are going to look at a different local news website.  It is: www.timescommunity.com  (write on board). 

  • Work with a partner and go to this website.  It will automatically put you on a northern Virginia site.  Click on the “Northern Virginia Scene”at the left of the screen.

Notes The site it puts you on automatically will be www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=1908.

  • Decide what community’s newspaper you  would like to look at. Click on the community.  You will be linked automatically to that community's newspaper.

Look through the headlines to find out what is happening in your community.

Notes The learners should be encouraged to read and review their own particular community's newspaper.

  • Now complete Handout 1 using ONLY the headlines.  Share your answers with your partner when you finish.

  • (when all pairs are finished)  What interesting headlines did you find?  What headlines were the least interesting?  Were there any interesting pictures?  Describe them.

Activity 3:  Taking a closer look

Notes Depending on your learners’ abilities, you may want to pre-select an article and have the entire class use the same article.  The article’s more difficult vocabulary may be pre-taught before reading.

  • Now choose one article you and your partner would like to read more about.  Choose something that affects you, your family or your friends.  Complete Handout 2 and prepare to tell the rest of the class about the article you chose, based on your answers for Handout 2. 

Instruct the learners that they can present their news article in any way that they wish.  They should explain to the large group any important new vocabulary that they learned.

  • Part of what we will be doing is listening to what others are saying regarding their article.  Let’s put together a set of things that we will be looking for when others are giving their news story.

You can have students make a chart with ideas such as name of students presenting, headline, author, important vocabulary, and main idea.

This news presentation could be taped so that it could be used for listening activities in future classes.

Instruct the entire group to take notes on the headline and important information in other students' presentations. 

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