Scholastic News 3: 2022-2023 School Year

Moderation state
funded
Grant Applicant
Ingrid Bourke and Renee Lewis: 3rd Grade Team at Tahoe Lake Elementary
School Site
Tahoe Lake Elementary
Grant Category
Literacy
Grant Date
2022-06-18T12:00:00
Description

Scholastic News is a subscription to a high-interest current event periodical which is written at an appropriate reading level for third graders to support the Reading Informational Text standards. Each issue comes with teaching tools that support our ELA, science, social studies, and technology curriculum. Additionally there are numerous technological components of a subscription which support our technology standards and provide opportunities for differentiation to meet the needs of all learners.

Benefits of Program

Tahoe Truckee Reads has shared current research which identifies third grade reading proficiency as a marker for future success in life and career. In third grade, as requirements for reading begin to shift from "learning to read" to "reading to learn", students are expected to read and respond to a wide variety of text. This current events magazine supports standards in Reading Informational Text—from interpreting visual information to analyzing text structure (i.e.-headlines, subheadings, photos, captions, sidebars, boldfaced vocabulary words). It also provides digital teaching tools and online access to complement technology standards. Differentiation resources such as read-aloud audio and multiple reading levels are available to make the text accessible to all learners. In addition, we are able to print copies of each issue in Spanish to support parent involvement for students whose primary home language is Spanish. (Please see the 2 links below to view a 3rd grade issue in both English and Spanish.).

Success of Program

Using these magazines to augment our instruction of nonfiction texts will provide authentic current events for our third grade students to meet key standards in Reading Foundational Skills, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language. Ongoing formative assessments include, but are not limited to:

  • focus on essential nonfiction reading skills, including asking and answering text-based questions, citing text evidence, and close reading
  • determining the main idea and key details of a text
  • using context clues to determine word meaning
  • analyzing the author’s purpose to persuade, entertain, or inform
  • higher-order thinking questions and writing prompts
  • performance tasks focus on comparing and contrasting two texts on the same topic

*Additionally, this subscription proved invaluable during the Distance Learning situations.  Rich curriculum was delivered with issues that were accessible digitally in both English and Spanish. 

Implementation

The subscription will serve all students in our third grades with 20 issues delivered throughout the school year. Each issue includes teaching guides, videos, posters, differentiation features, online access, and assessment quizzes modeled on the rigor expected in future grade levels. Paired texts are often offered to complement an issue’s cover story. Questions are provided that require students to compare and contrast the key points in the texts. Entire issues, including follow-up activities can be posted to Google Classroom as a cross-curricular benefit. Every issue has the option to be read and listened to in both English and Spanish to support the home-to-school connection. 

 

Can you share this grant with your grade level or subject team?

This grant will be used by both third grade classrooms as consumables. Students will be able to take issues (English and/or Spanish) home for further reading and sharing when classroom related tasks are completed. Additionally, during time away from the classroom (i.e.- independent study, extended illness, Distance Learning) rich curriculum can be delivered in a user friendly format in both English and Spanish. 

 

Sustainability
As a consumable (periodical subscription) this grant is not sustainable.
Amount Funded
$328.00
Individual Budget Items(s)
$298 - 50 copies per issue @ $5.95 per student for the '22-'23 school year
Shipping
$30.00
Other funding sources

no

Supporting Links
Sample of Scholastic News 3: English
Sample of Scholastic News 3: Spanish
Notes

The first issues will ship in July/Aug. so we can start in September.