Dear Teacher:

 

 I want to take just a few minutes to share with you what is new this fall. The most obvious change is Inside USA TODAY (iUSAT). For many years, we offered a daily lesson plan, via print, online or e-mail. However, beginning this fall, you will be receiving the new weekly Inside USA TODAY e-newsletter. It will contain:

  1. A news-based cross-curricular activity.
  2. During this fall, an "Extreme Election" cross-curricular activity.
  3. Information about grant opportunities.
  4. Links to new sponsored lessons.
  5. Highlights on what news will be covered in USA TODAY during the coming week.

If you want additional resources at your fingertips, I encourage you to purchase the Inside USA TODAY booklet for $10. The iUSAT booklet contains:

  • 30 skill-based graphic organizers, which can be used with any issue of USA TODAY (These graphic organizers are alphabetically organized by skill. For example, all graphic organizers that help students identify cause and effect relationships will be grouped together, and all graphic organizers that help students identify the main message of an article will be grouped together, etc.)
  • 32 cross-curricular activities, which can be used with any issue of USA TODAY. These activities will be similar to the activities found in the old iUSAT teaching guides.

The booklet also contains a table of contents that will act as a cross-reference chart, identifying graphic organizers based on the disciplines they would work well in. For example, all graphic organizers that would work well in a social studies classroom will be identified. Let me answer some of your frequently asked questions.

 

Why don’t you do a daily teaching guide anymore?

 

With a daily teaching guide, we needed to publish by 6 p.m. the evening before, but most articles have not been paged for tomorrow’s issue by then. This meant that we had to select from only a handful of articles that were ready to go, and oftentimes, we missed out on selecting a much better or higher interest article that gets paged late at night. So, for example, we would be forced to focus student attention on an article about gas prices (which they probably don’t care about at all) when a great story about the new iPod also ran in that same issue but wasn’t available for our use at 6 p.m. A booklet that can be used with any issue of USA TODAY paper eliminates this weakness.

 

Why is this booklet better than the free Inside USA TODAY teaching guide I was receiving last year?

 

Teachers have complained that they do not have enough time to plan their lesson when they receive the teaching guide the night before. A booklet at the beginning of the year that works with any issue of USA TODAY will eliminate this time limitation. In addition, this format is more versatile for you. Instead of going to a "buffet" with one new item on it each day, you get to select from 62 different items. You don’t have to wait for the "right one" to show up.

 

Does the booklet contain any of the features from the daily teaching guide?

 

The booklet contains the two most popular features, the cross-curricular activities and the graphic organizers. We’ve enhanced the graphic organizer offering because they are now skill-based (rather than thematic), and they are cross-referenced by discipline.

 

I’m a science (English, math, social studies, language arts, etc.) teacher, what does this new format offer me?

 

All 30 skill-based graphic organizers and 32 cross-curricular activities are cross-referenced by discipline. So you can easily select organizers or activities that will best meet the needs of your content area. These are "grab-and-go" and can be easily used as independent student work.

 

What other programs do you have available to help me leverage my classroom subscription of USA TODAY?

  1. Our Elections program (free with each classroom subscription), a project-based learning program that has students explore 14 different election issues while creating an elections portfolio, free with a fall semester classroom subscription. 
  2. In addition to our existing intensive reading program, this year we are offering a new Reading program for English language learners. 
  3. We have partnered with NASA again this year to provide you with a free project-based learning unit called No Boundaries. Through the project, students explore STEM careers at NASA. 
  4. We have also partnered with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to bring you a free inquiry-based project called Sight/INSIGHT that allows students to design and develop a solution to an actual Hubble Telescope engineering problem. Available September 15th. More information to come.
  5. We have partnered with the National Cyber Security Alliance to bring you complimentary lessons on Cyber security, safety and ethics. They will be available on October 1st, the first day of National Cyber Security Awareness Month. Past lessons.
  6. Finally, we have partnered with Great American Financial Resources, Inc. to provide you with Independent Living 101, a collection of 14 free financial literacy lessons. They will be available on October 14th. Past lessons.

I hope that our new iUSAT e-newsletter and iUSAT booklet, as well as these additional resources, will help you capitalize on your classroom subscription of USA TODAY. If you have any concerns or questions, feel free to e-mail me at education@usatoday.com.

 

Sincerely,

 

Sara K. Davis

Manager

Education Resource Development

USA TODAY Education