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Using Newspapers in the Classroom
From: "Shieh, Shawn"
<JZ7L@MARISTB.MARIST.EDU>
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 1997 11:44:51 +0800
Patrick,
I often require students to read newspapers in some of my classes, i.e.
International Politics, 3rd world politics, etc. I ask for examples
at the beginning of class as a way to stimulate discussion, and
try whenever possible to get students to articulate how a current
event relates to themes or issues we've been discussing in class, i.e.
the colonial legacy, imperialism, development, democratization. I have
tried to integrate newspapers into the course more formally. For ex.,
in my Int'l Politics class, I quizzed them regularly. In my 3rd world,
I ask them to keep a journal in which they are required to discuss
2 articles a week. I've tried requiring clippings, but find it doesn't
ensure that students will read the paper regularly since some just wait
til the end of the semester and get articles off of Lexis-Nexis (which
we have available on-line here), or some other source.
I think bringing newspapers into the classroom can be a good pedagogical
tool. Students always want more current events (which some equate
with politics, as opposed to history which is about anything that
happened before the semester started), and it does give them a chance
to see how those events are linked to the abstractions we go over in
class. The danger of using newspappers, I think, is that one can
spend a good chunk of the class discussing current events, to the
exclusion of other material, i.e. the assigned readings. I try to limit
discussions of current events to no more than 10-15 min.
Aside from day-to-day discussions of the news, I also use longer, more
substantial articles from papers such as the NY Times to stimulate
discussion. For ex., I use a in-depth report from the Times of Shell
Oil's involvement in Nigeria last year to stimulate discussion of
the relationship b/t development, democracy and multinationals in the
3rd world. I have students take the perspective of different sides in
the conflict -- i.e. the Nigerian govt, Shell Oil, environmental
activists -- and examine the causes of the conflict from their
different perspectives. What emerges is a lively debate b/t all 3
sides, after which we discuss the larger issues involved. This
activity always seems to work well, and the students always cite it
as one of the best things about the class.
hope this helps.
Shawn Shieh
Political Science
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY
shawn.shieh@marist.edu
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