Teach with the Times - Innovative Ways to Use the Newspaper in High School Classrooms

Sep 14, 2026

Teach with the Times collects classroom-tested approaches from Tampa Bay Times Newspaper in Education teachers for using daily newspaper content in high school settings. Strategies include using articles for psychology projects tied to real-world issues, supporting AICE General Paper writing through article reading and structured reflections, and adapting word-sound and e-Edition activities for English Language Learners. It also covers instruction for students with severe cognitive disabilities and end-of-semester crime analysis projects, plus vocabulary, connotation, and positive-news discovery activities to deepen comprehension and engagement.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages46

Reading Time1 h 56 min

AccessFree to download

Teach with the Times

Ideas for high school classrooms

Classroom activities and student projects

Psychology and real-life issue connections

AICE General Paper reading and writing

English Language Learner vocabulary activities

Community-based activities for students with severe disabilities

Criminal justice article analysis and trends

Vocabulary connotation, denotation, and article rewriting

Positive news discovery and weekly reflection

Career class newspaper delivery for teamwork and math

Teach with the Times Learn from the pros – innovative ways to use the newspaper in the classroom from Tampa Bay Times Newspaper in Education teachers Teach with the Times Ideas for high school classrooms Teach with the Times – High I use the Tampa Bay Times in my psychology classes to correlate classroom lessons to real life issues. For example, we used materials related to the newly discovered degenerative brain disease, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and Aaron Hernandez. The students were assigned a project on the issue using the Times as a source. -Nicholas Altimari, Nature Coast Technical High School, Hernando County Teach with the Times – High The AICE General Paper requires students to have a broad knowledge of what’s going on in the world around them. The Tampa Bay Times is a wonderful resource for my students. I assign an incentive activity where students read nine articles and write two paragraphs: the first is a summary and comprehension, and the second is the connection to the AICE General Paper curriculum. I will also sometimes ask students to read five articles of their choice and then create three “Fact Cards.” This is a flash card system they can use to study before the exam in May. -Elizabeth Balcombe, Clearwater High School, Pinellas County Teach with the Times – High I teach two different levels of English Language Learners, and I use the Tampa Bay Times in my classroom for both levels. One of my classes uses the newspaper to find words with short and long vowel sounds. I instruct them to cut out the words and glue them on cards. Each person shares their words with the class and they keep them for review and practice. I also teach an intermediate level class and we use the Times to read the classified section for housing and jobs. I also demonstrate how to use the e-Edition. -JaVonda Bryant, Tomlinson Adult Learning Center, Pinellas County Teach with the Times – High My students are between 18-22 years of age and are non-readers with severe cognitive disabilities. The Tampa Bay Times is a great way to expose my students to current information connecting them to their community. We use the Times on a daily basis to locate letters to complete words or sentences related to an activity they can do outside of school. For example, if the activity is going to the movies, they would look up movie reviews, locations, prices and pictures. -Elda Cabrera, Riverview High School, Hillsborough County Teach with the Times – High My criminal justice students cut out crime-related articles from the Tampa Bay Times and complete an analysis form for each one. The articles are presented in afolder as an end-of-semester project called "Clues in the News. " The students then complete a worksheet outlining crime trends in our local area and suggest community programs to help keep the community safer. -Melanie Derbes, Pinellas Park High School, Pinellas County Teach with the Times – High Working in pairs, students choose an article to read and make a list of the words used to describe the event, person, etc. They discuss the connotation and denotation of these words and then examine how the author's choice of words conveys his/her meaning, and how words affect the reader's understanding of the incident/event. The pair generates antonyms and synonyms for the words they listed, and discusses how these words could alter the reader's understanding of the person or event. Together, they rewrite the article, replacing the author's descriptive words with their antonyms and/or synonyms to understand how the use of language and connotation construct meaning. Students then share their original article and their rewritten example with the class to show how writers affect/manipulate with vocabulary to inspire certain conclusions, emotions, etc. from their readers. -Pamela Eubanks, Osceola Fundamental High School, Pinellas County Teach with the Times – High Each week, I have my students use

FAQs

How do teachers use Tampa Bay Times articles in psychology classes?

Teachers assign projects where students use Times materials to connect classroom lessons to real-world issues, such as research topics tied to current events.

What classroom activity supports AICE General Paper curriculum using the newspaper?

Students read nine articles and write two paragraphs—one summary/comprehension and a second connecting the ideas to the AICE General Paper curriculum.

How is the newspaper used to build vocabulary and language understanding?

Teachers use activities such as cutting and gluing word cards by vowel sounds, creating antonyms and synonyms, discussing connotation/denotation, and rewriting articles to see how word choice changes meaning.

Sep 14, 2026

Uploaded by Lucas Martin