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WHY STUDY CURRENT EVENTS?:
Why bother studying current events? Research indicates that a regular dose
of current events has a multitude of benefits! Among the benefits often
cited, current events programs...
* cover a wide range of subjects and connect to all areas of the curriculum.
* build language, vocabulary, word recognition skills, reading
comprehension, critical thinking, problem solving, oral expression, and
listening skills.
* develop informed citizens and lifelong newsreaders. Studying current
events helps students understand the importance of people, events, cultures,
and issues in the news; it stimulates students to explore and learn more
about the news, and to pay attention to the news they see and hear outside
of school.
* provide a "writing model." Students can learn by imitating the clear,
concise style of news writing.
* help teachers teach media literacy skills.
* can open up communications between students and parents. Talking
about the news is one way for parents to engage students in adult
conversation.
* offer ideal opportunities for cooperative-group instructions, classroom
discussions and debates, purposeful follow-up writing, and much more.
* students who use newpapers tend to score higher on standardized
achievement tests- particularly in reading, math, and social studies- than
those who don't use them.
*newspapers are an effective tool for teaching many math concepts,
particularly fractions, decimals, currency, and averages.
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