How does 'In the news' work?
For each story you will find the text, an audio reading of the
text and a ten question quiz.
The glossary comes into its own in this section. A selection of
words in each text is highlighted. When the student rolls their
mouse over those words an explanation of the word appears.
How are the stories chosen?
'In the news' stories are all sourced from BBC News.
Most of them have been shortened and edited to be more accessible
to a basic skills student (for curriculum level see below). They
are intended to be a tool to help students familiarise themselves
with the type of language that is used in everyday news reporting
and we expect that the tutor (and glossary) will help them through
it.
The quizzes are written by a practising
basic skills tutor. The same tutor also chooses which words
should be included in the glossary and writes the glossary
definitions.
Can I print out the stories with the
quiz?
Yes. If you would like to print out a version of the story that
has all the quiz questions with it for use in class, bring up the
quiz by clicking on 'Do the quiz' (you'll find this at the end
of the story) and hit the 'print this quiz' button within the quiz
window. (N.B: This functionality may not be available on your machine
- but if you don't see a link saying 'Print this quiz' you can
still print the page by using the normal print options in your
browser bar).
If you want to print one of the stories without the quiz, simply
hit the print key on your browser bar when you are on the right
page.
How is this section relevant to my students'
curriculum?
'In the news' has been designed as a resource
which tutors are able to adapt to meet the needs of their
classes.
Literacy:
- England - Level 1
 |
Rt/L1 -
Trace and understand the main events of a continuous
text. Recognise how language and other textual features
are used to achieve different purposes. Identify the
main points and specific detail and infer meaning from
images. |
|
Rs/L1 -
Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge to
predict meaning. |
|
Rw/L1 -
Use reference material (glossary) to find the meaning
of unfamiliar words.
It's hoped that tutors will also be able to use this material to stimulate class
discussion. |
- Wales
As England
- Northern Ireland
As England
- Scotland
Awaiting publication of Scottish Curriculum at time of going
to print.
Numeracy:
- England - Level 1
|
N1/L1 -
Read, write, order and compare numbers, including large
numbers. Recognise negative numbers in practical contexts
(e.g. temperatures). |
|
N2/L1 -
Read, write, order and compare common fractions and
mixed numbers. Read, write, order and compare decimals
up to three
decimal places. |
|
MSS1/L1 -
Read, measure and record time in common date formats
and in the 12- hour and 24-hour clock.
Read, estimate, measure and compare length, weight, capacity and temperature
using common units and instruments.
Read, estimate, measure and compare distance. |
|
HD1/L1 -
Extract and interpret information (e.g. in tables,
diagrams, charts and line graphs).
It's hoped that tutors will also be able to use this material to stimulate class
discussion. |
- Wales
As England
- Northern Ireland
As England
- Scotland
Awaiting publication of Scottish Curriculum at time of going
to print.
Online archive
On the Skillswise website there is a fantastic resource - a collection
of well over a hundred past 'In the news' stories and quizzes.
If you are online you can access the archive now.
Taking it further:
If you have ESOL students in your class, or if your students
would like to know more about World news, why not try this World
Service site that is specifically aimed at speakers of English
as a foreign language? In their 'Words in the news' section there
are news stories with difficult words highlighted and pronounced.
There's also a vast archive of news stories and a chance for
students to submit their own news story and to read the writings
of others.
A vast resource of stories updated every minute of everyday.
There are sections on World ,UK, education, health, politics,
business and entertainment news, plus an enormous audio and video
section. Stories tend to be quite long and often use difficult
language, but the stories are normally illustrated and offer
a wealth of other links to relevant stories and web sites.
A showcase archive of some of the most significant
as well as some of the quirkiest stories broadcast
by BBC News between 1950
and 2002. Nearly all of the stories contain audio or video and
all reports finish with an "In Context" box, which gives a brief
rundown on what happened next. As with the BBC News stories,
the language may be on the difficult side, but on the whole a
resource with wide appeal given the breadth of topics covered.
This is the site that's connected to the BBC Choice news programme.
The stories tend to be shorter and written in fairly accessible
language. The stories also tend to have a more tabloid focus.
There's also a weekly news quiz - with prizes! - where students
can test their knowledge of this week's news.
If your students are more interested in music and entertainment,
then this is the site for them. There's weekly quizzes, plus
daily video reports and all the latest gossip headlines.
An offering from CNN using their large archive of news stories
to teach adult literacy. For each story there are three different
levels of difficulty with audio, video and text. There is
also a tutor's area which guides you through their content.
CNN are no longer adding stories to this site, but there
is a large archive of stories. Obviously the English used
is American English.
This is the website associated with the famous news programme
for children and the stories therefore often approach the news
from a child's perspective - but the site does have plenty of
news / entertainment / sport material that's written in simpler
language. The stories are also a lot shorter. You could print
out the stories and remove the branding, or copy them into a
word document. There is also a news
quiz which is updated every day so is guaranteed to be topical.
Please note that the BBC is not responsible
for the content of other web sites.
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