Headline news

Activity type: this activity encourages students to read / watch / listen to the news outside class

Level: Upper intermediate and above

Teacher's notes:
1) At the beginning of a lesson, dictate a few recent news headlines to the students. Tell them to write the headlines down and then to discuss what the headlines are about with their partners.
2) Monitor and correct when possible. After a few minutes obtain group feedback.
3) See how near the students are to the real stories and then tell them the correct versions.
4) Ask them to watch / listen / read the news when they are at home – tell them to try to bring into class a headline such as the ones that you dictated.
5) At the beginning of class, tell the students to write their headlines on the board, this will take a few minutes. Make sure that you have a few board markers so that a few students can write at the same time. Once they have done this, tell them to look at the board. Correct any headlines if necessary.
6) Tell the students to get into pairs to discuss what they think the stories are about.
7) After a few minutes, ask for feedback about the stories. Ask the person that brought in the headline to clarify the story.
8) You can do this repeatedly over the course of your lessons.

Note that the students can read / listen / watch the news in English or in their own language. Obviously English is preferable but this may not always be possible. If the students do this in their own language, developing their ability to translate into English is the main aim of the activity.

Also note that you can develop this into a full vocabulary lesson by supplementing it with the activity under vocabulary regarding language form the news or language for situations.

Source: http://eslsite.com