Reading with your middle-grades elementary child

A guide to what kids should know and how newspapers can help in teaching it

For a grade-by-grade list of what to expect in high school, go to www.ncpublicschools.org or ask your child's teacher for a list of course goals and objectives.

In general, you can expect your high schooler to ...

• Read and understand complex text, drawing conclusions and making connections to personal experiences and other readings.

• Read, understand and analyze texts that have the following purposes:

• Exploring personal insights and experiences (memoirs, narratives, reflections).

• Giving information (news articles, historical documents, research).

• Persuading (speeches, letters to the editor, debates, editorials).

• Interpreting and evaluating ideas or information (media or book reviews, essays).

• Read, interpret and analyze a wide range of international, American and British literature.

• Analyze the characteristics of literary genres (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama).

• Interpret literary devices such as symbolism, dramatic irony and imagery.

• Understand the importance of cultural and historical impact on literature.

• Understand the significance of literary movements.

• Make thematic connections among literary texts and media and contemporary issues.

Newspaper Activities For Students in Ninth through 12th Grade

- Encourage your teenagers to read the newspaper each week. Ask them what articles they found interesting and read and discuss those articles with them.

- Read newspaper coverage of a major news story and watch the same story presented on television. Talk about the differences between reading newspapers and watching television news.

- Read the newspaper for issues that have some direct effect on your family. Locate news stories and opinions in editorials, letters to the editor and editorial columns. Ask your teens which facts are most important and which opinions are closest to theirs.

- Ask your teenagers to find persuasive letters to the editor. Identify and discuss the author's style and tone. Encourage your teenagers to respond with their own letters to the editor when they encounter ideas with which they disagree.

- With your teenager, compare new plays you've seen and books you've read with newspaper reviews.

- In conversations, point out decisions made by government. Talk about decisions that have affected you. Identify public officials and the things that they do. Develop your teenagers' interests in current events. Encourage them to stay informed. As they approach voting age, encourage them to register to vote.

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