Frankly speaking, getting my students to read is not easy as they find English materials are quite boring since they do not understand some of the words in those printed materials. But I finally find a solution to this problem by introducing newspapers in my classrooms.

Since last month, my school has been provided with fifty copies of the New Straits Times courtesy of an anonymous company under the School Sponsorship Programme. Two bundles of newspapers arrived at my school’s guard post every Thursday. Then, I will ask a few students to distribute the newspapers to the good and average classes as the students in those class will get the benefits from reading these newspapers.


There are sections for everybody. The boys will like the sports section while the girls might find the entertainment and fashion sections interesting. Yes, the weak ones would only just look at the pictures first. But as times goes by, they would definitely read the short and easy articles which is quite a good move. 


To utilize newspapers in my classroom, I will use the  Education or Newspaper in Education pullout attached. There are notes, exercises and language games which I think will sustain my students’ interest during lessons. The newspapers can be used as teaching aids in the classroom as using the textbook is out of date and cannot attract my students’ attention anymore.


I fervently hope the students of my school will improve their four basic language skills especially reading and writing through the uses of newspapers in the classrooms.