Tutor Notes:

'In the news' is now on an extended break. In the meantime, there are 157 stories & quizzes in the archive of previously published articles to choose from, including:

• 27 entertainment stories
• 45 news stories
• 54 numbers stories
• 15 audio/video stories
• 16 sports stories

Competition!
In October 2002 we held a news writing competition. Steven Harvey's winning story entitled 'To pay or not to pay' is still up on the site along with an audio read through. Also included are judges' comments and the names of the two runners up.
The standard of entries was high and the decision was not easy but the judges felt that Stephen's winning story best fitted the competition criteria.

How does 'In the news' work?
For each story you will find the text, an audio reading of the text and a ten question quiz.

The glossary comes into its own in this section. A selection of words in each text is highlighted. When the student rolls their mouse over those words an explanation of the word appears. If the student would like to know more about that word, they can click on it and they will be taken to the relevant glossary page.

How are the stories chosen?
‘In the news’ stories are all sourced from BBC News.
Most of them have been shortened and edited to be more accessible to a basic skills student (for curriculum level see below). We are working on the principle, however, that this is a tool to help students familiarise themselves with the type of language that is used in everyday news reporting and that the tutor (and glossary) will help them through it. Does this work? Let us know.

The quizzes are written by a practising basic skills tutor. That tutor also chooses which words should be included in the glossary and writes the glossary definitions.

As we only update once a week, we have to choose stories with a certain longevity. We choose the stories that we think will be of broadest interest to a mainstream UK audience and which we hope will generate discussion in the classroom. If you think we’ve got it wrong [or right!], tell us.

Can I print out the stories with the quiz?
Yes. If you would like to print out a version of the story that has all the quiz questions with it for use in class, bring up the quiz by clicking on ‘Do the quiz’ (you’ll find this at the end of the story) and hit the ‘print this quiz’ button within the quiz window. (N.B: This functionality may not be available on your machine - but if you don't see a link saying 'Print this quiz' you can still print the page by using the normal print options in your browser bar).
If you want to print one of the stories without the quiz, simply hit the print key on your browser bar when you are on the right page.

How is this section relevant to my students' curriculum?

‘In the news’ has been designed as an ‘extra’ global resource. It’s hoped that tutors will be able to adapt the quizzes / texts offered to meet the needs of their classes.

Literacy:

• England - Level 1
  Rt/L1 - Trace and understand the main events of a continuous text. Recognise how language and other textual features are used to achieve different purposes. Identify the main points and specific detail and infer meaning from images.
  Rs/L1 - Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge to predict meaning.
  Rw/L1 - Use reference material (glossary) to find the meaning of unfamiliar words.
  It’s hoped that tutors will also be able to use this material to stimulate writing (on the Messageboard) and to stimulate class discussion.
• Wales
  As England
• Northern Ireland
  As England
• Scotland
  Awaiting publication of Scottish Curriculum.

Numeracy:

• England - Level 1
  N1/L1 Read, write, order and compare numbers, including large numbers. Recognise negative numbers in practical contexts (e.g. temperatures).
  N2/L1 Read, write, order and compare common fractions and mixed numbers. Read, write, order and compare decimals up to three decimal places.
  Read, write, order and compare simple percentages, and understand simple percentage increase and decrease.
  MSS1/L1 Read, measure and record time in common date formats and in the 12- hour and 24-hour clock.
  Read, estimate, measure and compare length, weight, capacity and temperature using common units and instruments.
  Read, estimate, measure and compare distance.
  HD1/L1 Extract and interpret information (e.g. in tables, diagrams, charts and line graphs).
  It’s hoped that tutors will also be able to use this material to stimulate writing (on the Messageboard) and class discussion.
• Wales
  As England
• Northern Ireland
  As England
• Scotland
  Awaiting publication of Scottish Curriculum.

Technical help:

To get the most out of this topic area you need the following 'plug-in':

• Realplayer
  The audio and video in this section use Realplayer. Realplayer is free to download and should only take a few minutes. You can follow the BBC WebWise instructions to download it to your machine. Find out more.
  Realplayer is now part of the minimum learner specification for the FE sector from the National Learning Network.
  Visit the Becta website to find out more.

If you are new to the web, why not try the BBC WebWise online course, 'Becoming WebWise'? It's free, you can do it in your own time from any computer and it will take you through everything you need to know to use the web successfully in your teaching.
Find out more about 'Becoming WebWise'.

NEW! There is now a whole section of Skillswise that aims to help you get more from the site, including answers to your technical questions. Find out more.

Taking it further:

• World Service Learning English
  If you have ESOL students in your class, or if your students would like to know more about World news, why not try this World Service site that is specifically aimed at speakers of English as a foreign language? In their ‘Words in the news’ section there are new news stories every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with difficult words highlighted and pronounced. There’s also a vast archive of news stories and a chance for students to submit their own news story and to read the writings of others.
• BBC News
  A vast resource of stories updated every minute of everyday. There are sections on World ,UK, education, health, politics, business and entertainment news, plus an enormous audio and video section. Stories tend to be quite long and often use difficult language, but the stories are normally illustrated and offer a wealth of other links to relevant stories and web sites.
• BBC News On This Day
  A showcase archive of some of the most significant as well as some of the quirkiest stories broadcast by BBC News between 1950 and 2002. Nearly all of the stories contain audio or video and all reports finish with an "In Context" box, which gives a brief rundown on what happened next. As with the BBC News stories, the language may be on the difficult side, but on the whole a resource with wide appeal given the breadth of topics covered.
• 60 Seconds
  This is the site that’s connected to the BBC Choice news programme. The stories tend to be shorter and written in fairly accessible language. The stories also tend to have a more tabloid focus. There’s also a weekly news quiz - with prizes! - where students can test their knowledge of this week’s news.
• Liquid News
  If your students are more interested in music and entertainment, then this is the site for them. There’s weekly quizzes, plus daily video reports and all the latest gossip headlines.
• CNN
  An offering from CNN using their large archive of news stories to teach adult literacy. For each story there are three different levels of difficulty with audio, video and text. There is also a tutor’s area which guides you through their content. CNN are no longer adding stories to this site, but there is a large archive of stories. Obviously the English used is American English.
• BBC Newsround
  This is the website associated with the famous news programme for children and the stories therefore often approach the news from a child's perspective - but the site does have plenty of news / entertainment / sport material that's written in simpler language. The stories are also a lot shorter. You could print out the stories and remove the branding, or copy them into a word document. There is also a news quiz which is updated every day so is guaranteed to be topical.

Please note that the BBC is not responsible for the content of other web sites.