NEWSDAY IN EDUCATION / MIDDLE COUNTRY TEACHER CENTER

Lesson #16

In-service Course

Ben Amato | Newfield High School Television brings the world into our lives in images that are wonderful, mesmerizing and haunting. Its power can be used in the classroom to allow students to realize that the lessons they are learning from their textbooks are directly related to the world they will inherit. One key in using television is having an archive of video resources readily available. The Newshour with Jim Lehrer is a PBS nightly national news program and their website features a searchable archive of news clips. This makes it a valuable resource to have in your favorites list on your classroom and home computer.

There are many ways to bring video news clips into your present curriculum to increase the impact of your lessons. The first step is to identify the relationship between your classroom activities with the news. In ELA classes, it is critical for students to be able to derive the theme of a piece of literature. The nightly news is filled with stories that teach lessons and send messages on how to survive in this world. Major advances in research, exploration and medicine will offer science teachers concrete video examples of their curriculum topics. Social Studies teachers could use video lessons to connect the great social and historical movements of the past with the conflicts of today. The economic pulse of our nation can be used to provide real-life examples of the mathematical principles kids need to master.

Different people learn best differently. This is one of the major tenets of Differentiated Instruction. Some learn by listening, others by reading and many need to see things to believe them. However we learn best, multimedia lessons appeal to those with varying learning styles. The Internet can help us to learn better because of Web Sites like The Newshour with Jim Lehrer. Newsday and other online news sources can provide the articles, editorials, charts and photographs. NPR's audio archives can give listeners radio broadcasts that complete the multimedia package.

The truly amazing feature of the Internet is that these resources of text, video and audio treasures are out there on the Net, everyday.

The assignment for this lesson is to go on a "fishing trip." I want you to wade into the vast waters of the Internet and "catch" a big one, a complete multimedia lesson. And I don't want any "fishing stories" about the one that got away. The point is that after you have tried digital "fishing" a few times, you can get really, really good at it. Head over to the Assignment page and have a nice day trolling the net.