A New Vision For Newspapers In Class
Oct 13, 2002
IT is lunchtime and the staff-room is cluttered, not with plates and food but with newspapers, scissors and glue.
Newspapers Are More Than A Medium For News, They Are Also An Invaluable Resource As A Teaching And Learning Aid
By Jovita Ajuna
and Sidney Miria
IT is lunchtime and the staff-room is cluttered, not with plates and food but with newspapers, scissors and glue. With child-like excitement the teachers eagerly cut out pictures from newspapers. This is during a Newspapers in Education (NiE) workshop.
Ugandan educationists have for long worried about the lack of a reading culture. In response to this, The New Vision has started a programme through which newspaper will be used as a teaching-aid in primary and secondary schools.
NiE is a world-wide effort towards creating a reading culture in partnership with newspapers. Children find newspapers fascinating because they are current, and they simulate the adult world.
The New Vision last week held teachers’ workshops at Nakasero Primary School, Kitante Primary School, Buganda Road Primary school, GreenHill Academy and St Lawrence Citizen’s High School.
The pilot project codenamed ‘Readers are Leaders’ will run for six weeks. It will not cost the students any valuable time but will be an opportunity for them to learn with lots of fun and challenge.
The team which will be headed by the Children’s Editor, Juliet Nabwire, will initially visit 30 schools in Kampala. However, the pilot project, which is starting October 21, will run in 10 schools.
The schools, which have already been notified will be chosen on first- come first-served basis. The programme will later be replicated throughout the country.
The recommended classes for this pilot project are four, five and six for the primary section and one and two for secondary schools. Participating students will be given certificates at the end of the project.
The New Vision is funding the bulk of the pilot project and the workshops. Twice a week, for the duration of the pilot project, the newspaper will be sold at half price to the participating schools.
“The New Vision is happy to serve Uganda by pioneering Newspapers in Education which is a world-wide trend and the on-going teacher workshops will be a continuous process,†said Barbara Kaija, the Features Editor.
Kaija told the excited teachers that newspapers have the best material a teacher can use to conduct a successful lesson.
“This is because newspapers are current, an adult medium, which children are happy to be seen reading. It contains something of interest to everyone and is a cheap resource that can be cut, drawn upon, coloured and when used up, can be thrown away,†she said.
“A variety of skills are developed as one uses the newspaper as a teaching aid and this broadens the students’ capacity to acquire different skills in one lesson,†she added.
However, newspapers are not supposed to substitute textbooks or the conventional teaching methods but to supplement them. Neither are they meant to make teachers’ work difficult.
Over 120 teachers who attended the workshops discussed different ideas, which they will use as they conduct their lessons in the classrooms.
The teachers were very eager to learn and pick up the idea but their major complaint was lack of newspapers and the big number of students in a class.
“I have been using newspapers in my composition lessons but the biggest problem I have found is lack of enough papers because the classes are big,†said Nalongo Okia, a teacher at Nakasero Primary School.
Nnalongo Okia is one of the few teachers that have tried the newspaper method in her P6 and P7 composition writing lessons. It worked but resources limit her.
“When I ask my students to cut out pictures of their own choice and write a composition, it is usually done best because their imagination and appreciation skills are highly developed alongside the reading and writing skills,†she said.
“Since newspaper activities can easily be done in groups the problem of large classes can be solved to the student’s advantage,†Kaija advised
She also noted: “Newspapers increase students’ interest and motivation by providing study materials relevant to their lives and in addition, it heightens teachers’ interest in new teaching techniques and gives teachers and parents an opportunity to work together for the benefit of the students.â€
Teachers at Kitante Primary School were excited by the concept of using NiE. The Deputy headmistress, Rose Opio said the approach would make teaching and learning more interesting. “We practically enjoyed the lesson and have benefited so much, we hope to implement these ideas,†she promised.
At Buganda Road Primary School, Kaija told the teachers that although the concept of using NiE was relatively new in Uganda, it has been used for several decades in America, Britain and South Africa.
“Children who are exposed to newspapers learn to read much faster than their peers who are not. It is a method that will make teaching very easy.
“Although teachers have been giving pupils newspapers to read, they have not been creating activities for them to do,†she observed.
“We need support from the teachers, because we will expect them to do follow up in the classrooms, Kaija added.
The New Vision gave each of the teachers who attended the workshop a booklet entitled, ‘Fifty great ideas for using The New Vision in the Primary and Secondary Classroom’. The teachers were also given flyers on 12 good reasons for using a newspaper in the classroom and a copy of the latest edition of The New Vision.Ends
By Jovita Ajuna
and Sidney Miria
IT is lunchtime and the staff-room is cluttered, not with plates and food but with newspapers, scissors and glue. With child-like excitement the teachers eagerly cut out pictures from newspapers. This is during a Newspapers in Education (NiE) workshop.
Ugandan educationists have for long worried about the lack of a reading culture. In response to this, The New Vision has started a programme through which newspaper will be used as a teaching-aid in primary and secondary schools.
NiE is a world-wide effort towards creating a reading culture in partnership with newspapers. Children find newspapers fascinating because they are current, and they simulate the adult world.
The New Vision last week held teachers’ workshops at Nakasero Primary School, Kitante Primary School, Buganda Road Primary school, GreenHill Academy and St Lawrence Citizen’s High School.
The pilot project codenamed ‘Readers are Leaders’ will run for six weeks. It will not cost the students any valuable time but will be an opportunity for them to learn with lots of fun and challenge.
The team which will be headed by the Children’s Editor, Juliet Nabwire, will initially visit 30 schools in Kampala. However, the pilot project, which is starting October 21, will run in 10 schools.
The schools, which have already been notified will be chosen on first- come first-served basis. The programme will later be replicated throughout the country.
The recommended classes for this pilot project are four, five and six for the primary section and one and two for secondary schools. Participating students will be given certificates at the end of the project.
The New Vision is funding the bulk of the pilot project and the workshops. Twice a week, for the duration of the pilot project, the newspaper will be sold at half price to the participating schools.
“The New Vision is happy to serve Uganda by pioneering Newspapers in Education which is a world-wide trend and the on-going teacher workshops will be a continuous process,†said Barbara Kaija, the Features Editor.
Kaija told the excited teachers that newspapers have the best material a teacher can use to conduct a successful lesson.
“This is because newspapers are current, an adult medium, which children are happy to be seen reading. It contains something of interest to everyone and is a cheap resource that can be cut, drawn upon, coloured and when used up, can be thrown away,†she said.
“A variety of skills are developed as one uses the newspaper as a teaching aid and this broadens the students’ capacity to acquire different skills in one lesson,†she added.
However, newspapers are not supposed to substitute textbooks or the conventional teaching methods but to supplement them. Neither are they meant to make teachers’ work difficult.
Over 120 teachers who attended the workshops discussed different ideas, which they will use as they conduct their lessons in the classrooms.
The teachers were very eager to learn and pick up the idea but their major complaint was lack of newspapers and the big number of students in a class.
“I have been using newspapers in my composition lessons but the biggest problem I have found is lack of enough papers because the classes are big,†said Nalongo Okia, a teacher at Nakasero Primary School.
Nnalongo Okia is one of the few teachers that have tried the newspaper method in her P6 and P7 composition writing lessons. It worked but resources limit her.
“When I ask my students to cut out pictures of their own choice and write a composition, it is usually done best because their imagination and appreciation skills are highly developed alongside the reading and writing skills,†she said.
“Since newspaper activities can easily be done in groups the problem of large classes can be solved to the student’s advantage,†Kaija advised
She also noted: “Newspapers increase students’ interest and motivation by providing study materials relevant to their lives and in addition, it heightens teachers’ interest in new teaching techniques and gives teachers and parents an opportunity to work together for the benefit of the students.â€
Teachers at Kitante Primary School were excited by the concept of using NiE. The Deputy headmistress, Rose Opio said the approach would make teaching and learning more interesting. “We practically enjoyed the lesson and have benefited so much, we hope to implement these ideas,†she promised.
At Buganda Road Primary School, Kaija told the teachers that although the concept of using NiE was relatively new in Uganda, it has been used for several decades in America, Britain and South Africa.
“Children who are exposed to newspapers learn to read much faster than their peers who are not. It is a method that will make teaching very easy.
“Although teachers have been giving pupils newspapers to read, they have not been creating activities for them to do,†she observed.
“We need support from the teachers, because we will expect them to do follow up in the classrooms, Kaija added.
The New Vision gave each of the teachers who attended the workshop a booklet entitled, ‘Fifty great ideas for using The New Vision in the Primary and Secondary Classroom’. The teachers were also given flyers on 12 good reasons for using a newspaper in the classroom and a copy of the latest edition of The New Vision.Ends