| CIVICS EDUCATION CORNER |
Civics in Literature  The National Constitution Center is pleased to introduce our new Civics in Literature initiative, a brand new program designed to enhance and build upon current civic education curriculum through children's literature and other famous historical texts. Help your students build their basic civic knowledge and understand their role as active citizens. Each month, we will share a list of recommended reading and suggested lesson plans and activities that correspond with a specific civic holiday.
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FAMILY ENGAGEMENT IN EDUCATION
- TIP OF THE MONTH - |
Six Areas of Family Involvement  Below are six areas of family involvement from Dr. Joyce Epstein, a nationally recognized leader on parent involvement, with Center on School, Family and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University. Parenting - Assist families with parenting and child-rearing skills, understanding child and adolescent development, and setting home conditions that support children as students at each age and grade level. Assist schools in understanding families. Communicating - Communicate with families about school programs and student progress through effective school-to-home and home-to-school communications.
Volunteering - Improve recruitment, training, work and schedules to involve families as volunteers and audiences at the school or in other locations to support students and school programs. Learning at Home - Involve families with their children in learning activities at home, including homework and other curriculum-linked activities and decisions. Making Decisions - Include families as participants in school decisions, governance, and advocacy through PTA/PTO, school councils, committees, and other parent organizations. Collaborating with Community - Coordinate resources and services for families, students, and the school with businesses, agencies, and other groups, and provide services to the community.
For more information about Family Engagement in Education go to New York State Family Engagement Coalition
Click on the logo below for information about how to join.
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 | Celebrate Law Day throughout the month of May
FREE NIE 8-part series and graphic organizers online
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 The NYNPA NIE Program has finished creating an 8-part series based on this year's American Bar Association theme, Magna Carta 800: Symbol of Freedom Under Law.
The series features measure 2 columns x 8 1/2 inches and briefly highlight key principles from this historic document that have been incorporated into the U.S. Constitution.
All components of this project are free to NYNPA members because of financial support from the Law, Youth and Citizenship Program of the NYS Bar Association. To review and download this content go to www.nynpa.com/nie/lawday.html
The American Bar Association hosts Law Day Activity Awards. These awards highlight the best programs that promote public understanding of law and integrate the 2015 theme "Magna Carta: Symbol of Freedom Under Law" into innovative activities that serve the community. More
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| Cartoons for the Classroom
One component of a newspaper that is an excellent resource for teaching Common Core State Standards
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The CCSS emphasize the use of informational text. Primary
sources offer a range of types of informational texts that will engage
students: books and articles, of course, but also newspapers,
manuscripts, speeches, letters, diaries and formats with visual
elements to "read" such as maps, photographs, cartoons, film, etc.
Editorial cartoons in every newspaper can be used as a resource for teachers but the Association of America Editorial Cartoonist's website, Cartoons for the Classroom is a good place to direct teachers to help develop their student's skill in analyzing cartoons. 
Cartoons for the Classroom is a joint effort between the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and NIEonline to provide lesson plans based on political cartoons. Every other week a new set of pdf files is posted for teachers to download and print out for their classes. One page is a lesson on a specific topic, the other is a blank cartoon on that topic that students can use to test out their own captions before reading the lesson and answering the questions.
A popular feature of Cartoons for the Classroom is the Cartoon Analysis Worksheet -- used by students to dissect and analyze political cartoons from their own newspaper. The worksheet is a two-page pdf file that guides students through the process of analyzing any political cartoon.
An archive of more than 100 lessons back to Sept. 1, 2003 are also made available, giving your teachers access to a deep resource right from the start. New lessons are posted every other week. And the next two installments are previewed on the site.
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"From Seneca Falls to the Polling Booth" Contest Deadline is Friday, May 8!
Voting Poster Contest - Cash award for winning students paid for by NYNPA NIE Program
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"From Seneca Falls to the Polling Booth" is an eight-part history of the women's suffrage movement, beginning with the landmark convention in Seneca Falls and leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment and the first national elections in which women were permitted to vote.
Participating newspapers are encouraged to promote the contest to their teachers.
The contest asks students to address the theme: "The Importance of Voting, Leadership and Civic Participation in a Democratic Society".
The Deadline for Entries is Friday, May 8!Contest rules and judging rubric are available on the disc sent to participating newspapers and online at http://www.nynpa.com/nie/nieserial.html Contact Mary Miller at mmiller@nynpa.com with any questions.
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Free Teaching Resources for Spring
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Sunday May 10 is Mother's Day - Here are a few ideas to help teachers connect newspapers with this event:
Honor Mom by publishing your own Mother's Day newspaper. See template at right.
Kid Reporters Conduct a Mother's Day Interview:
Ask your Mother for an interview.* Arrange a time and date, and let her know about how many questions you plan to ask. (Teacher's note:The older the student, the longer the interview should/could be.)
Ask Questions like:
- How old was she when she had/adopted you?
- What did she think when she first saw you?
- What were her first thoughts about you after she brought you home?
- What did she think about during your first birthday celebration?
- What did she think about during your last birthday celebration?
- What would she love for you to do for her on Mother's Day?
- What does she enjoy most about being a Mom?
*Source: Lessonplanspage.com by Pamela Powell
All About Mom Newspaper Collages: take paper plates (but you could use posters,construction paper, etc) and in the middle I write, "What I Like Best About Mom"
Instruct each student to go through the newspaper and cut out words and pictures that make them think about their Mom. (For instance cut out the word April because Mom's birthday is then,cut out a picture of plants because Mom likes to garden, cut our letters to make any words you'd like but can't find).
Then they can paste the pictures and words on the paper plates (or paper) and have a collage all MOM. (Idea modified from a lesson by Karen Schulz, The Greenville News)
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This year Memorial Day is celebrated on Monday, May 25. Here are some resources to educate others about the history of Memorial Day/Decoration Day. Library of Congress, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers: Topic - Memorial Day/Decoration Day (1868-1920) Curriculum Resources that Reinforce the Meaning Behind Memorial Day Observances by National Education Association Here are some of the best lesson plan resources for Memorial Day, along with some engaging multimedia resources collected and presented by Edutopia. ________________________________________ Current word lists and puzzles from MyVocabulary.com:
All MyVocabulary.com content is printable for NIE programs without a charge. Please honor trademarks and copyright, giving MyVocabulary.com attribution.
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"NYNPA niE-News" is an electronic newsletter of the New York News Publishers Association, NIE Program. It is sent to provide you with news of your colleagues, money-saving and money-generating ideas, and educational trends, all in one place - in a format you can quickly scroll through. Feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you think would benefit from it. If you have an item you'd like to share - a success story, a warning so others don't make the same mistake, or a something you'd like advice on, simply hit the "reply" button on your e-mail service. Remember, you can always send news by emailing Mary Miller at mmiller@nynpa.com. |
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For more NYNPA NIE news and materials be sure to visit our website at www.nynpa.com.
Sincerely,
Mary Miller
Education Services Director New York News Publishers Association
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