Katie Delohery with her 2012 ND Newspaper Association Newspapers in Education Teacher of the Year Award

Congratulations to Katie Delohery who was named ND Newspaper Association 2012 Newspapers in Education Teacher of the Year!

Katie is in her sixth year teaching in the Interventions Program at Grand Forks Herald Central High School. She participates in the Herald’s Newspapers in Education Program.

I nominated Katie for this award for her dedication and her creative ways of using newspapers in her classroom. Here are the judges’ comments:  “Delohery has used the newspaper in the classroom successfully– but this is a special situation. Delohery uses the newspaper in her Interventions Tutoring Program – a classroom for “at risk” high school students. It’s a program for students who with out it, might slip through the cracks. Using the Herald in Delohery’s classroom has benefited the students in their learning process.”

Interventions Tutoring is a program to assist students who have been determined to be at risk for school failure. The Interventions Tutoring Program addresses student needs in terms of academic supports, school participation/involvement, and support/related services. The program’s mission is to identify and remove obstacles that cause school failure and increase students’ resiliency, perseverance, connectedness to school, and hope for achievement. The Interventions Tutoring Program’s goals align with school district initiatives for literacy.

• To improve student attitude toward reading
• To improve student motivation to read both in and out of school
• To expose students to a variety of readings
• To engage in conversations about the purposes for reading
• To help students acquire reading skills and strategies
• To promote independent learning and student responsibility for their own learning

Katie shared with me some of the ways she uses the Herald in her classroom:

“The newspapers are on display in our classroom for our students to readily access. We choose an article of the week to display on our bulletin board where multiple copies are available for students to read. One student mentioned, “I enjoy the articles of the week because they are unique articles or articles I typically wouldn’t have read otherwise.” There isn’t an hour that goes by where the newspapers haven’t been used by students.

Since our program’s goals align with the district’s literacy initiatives we often times use articles for reading strategies to help with comprehension. We have used articles for students to practice their questioning, activating background knowledge, predicting, visualizing, connecting and summarizing skills. I asked a student why they enjoy having the newspapers available in the classroom she said, “I really enjoy having newspapers available in the classroom. It keeps me updated on current events and also allows us to do fun learning strategies that involve articles from the newspaper.

Other fun strategies we have done with the articles include: Newspaper scavenger hunts, locating our vocabulary words, learning vocabulary strategies, using context clues, using discussion protocols, examining writing styles, developing opinion pieces and many more. The great thing about getting the newspaper every day is there is a variety of ways we can use them for learning while keeping up with current events. I LOVE watching children learn; it is my passion and I am confident the Grand Forks Herald has helped many students learn!”