Digital Newspaper Archive as an Educational Tool
Newspaperarchive.com is one of the best tools to spice up a classroom. All subjects can be covered with this valuable resource. History, Social Studies, and Political Science are obvious subjects that would benefit greatly from this tool. However, newspaperarchive.com can be a great supplement to any class. For example, if your music class begins a unit on jazz, numerous articles from newspapers around the world are at your fingertips. Students will develop critical reading skills as they read through hundreds and sometimes thousands of articles. As students read, their topic becomes clear.
Students will revel in the fact that they are reading something that no one else has read for years, and it sure isn’t on Wikipedia.
I designed an entire unit based on newspaperarchive.com for an English class. The unit is on the Beat Generation. The public’s perception of the Beat writers and artists wasn’t all that positive. In order to understand the context of the Beats and how they were perceived by the general public, one has to understand the zeitgeist of the fifties. Reading newspaper articles about the Beats as they gained popularity gives the researcher a visceral initial reaction. I’ve seen some excellent, original research in my classes with newspaperarchive.com. In point of fact, students often forgo Wikipedia and search newspaperarchive.com first in order to understand the context of the topic.
I have a few questions:
1. How would you use newspaperarchive.com in your classroom?
2. What would be the first thing you would research? News on your birthday?
3. How would you connect current events to past events? For example, in light of H1N1 students could benefit from understanding epidemics of the past, such as SARS and West Nile Virus.
This review is also located on our TIC Recommends page.
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