What do you do with all those great classroom magazines? Here is one idea that turned out great for us!
Most teachers subscribe to at least one classroom magazine, like Weekly Reader, Scholastic News, national Geographic Explorer, etc. These magazines always contain interesting topics that are engaging and fun to read, but did you know they also provide a great opportunity to practice some close reading skills?
We recently read the article, “Great White Comeback”, and made these posters that showed our thinking as we read the article. We did six separate steps on post-it notes in this lesson and each step had to be included in the poster design. I think they turned out amazing!
Here are the steps:
1. Before you read the article, write at least three questions about it.
2. Read it! Read the article and write 3-5 interesting facts.
3. Skim it! Write at least 3 vocabulary words.
4. Find it! What is the main idea of the article?
5. Dig Deeper! Write a summary of one section of the article.
6. For Future Research, ask 2-3 questions about this topic you would like to find out more about.
Each poster had its own unique style! Here is a close-up of one! If you have any of those classroom magazines, you may want to give this activity a try!
Smart Chick Teacher's Blog 
Love this! I love when we can let our students be creative! There are some really great ideas on this site. I’m in my first year of teaching, so I am always looking for great ideas. My mentor recommended the book, “Creating Hate: How It Is Done, How To Destroy It: A Practical Handbook,” by author Nancy Omeara. http://www.authornancyomeara.com/ After you read it, you’ll look at the news, blogs, any information campaign quite differently. Thanks for the great ideas on using magazines in an artistic way.