Notes for Instructors

The content and style of newspapers has changed quite a bit in the past 100 years, but the basic form of the newspaper is pretty much the same. Today's newspapers contain local, national and international news stories, editorials, letters to the editor, ads and classified ads, just as older newspapers did. Students could be encouraged to go through any daily newspaper and identify which articles fall under these headings. They may also notice other areas (such as the "Lifestyle" section, and book and movie reviews) not covered in this piece.

Old newspapers make the past seem very immediate, especially if they were published in the community where your students live. Senior citizens in your area may have scrapbooks or collections of old newspaper clippings. It may be possible to arrange a field trip to a local public reference library, public archive, or university library, where students may look at actual copies of old newspapers, or microfilms. If this is not practical, these places usually have microfilm photocopiers that will allow you to make readable copies of some pages of old newspapers. These machines are often very busy and sometimes need to be booked in advance.

To make the most of your time with old newspapers, it helps to have a goal. Students could find out what was happening on the days they were born, for example, or you could pick a date that has special significance for your community. Changes in prices over time are pretty amazing. Students could be asked to estimate how much money they would have needed to live on in any given year. If this is done, each student or group could be responsible for collecting the information on one topic such as food, housing, clothing, entertainment, or wages. Making up the actual budget could be a group project.

The differences in language use and vocabulary is one of the most striking features of old primary source materials like newspapers. I often wonder if the people who read these papers were as confused as I sometimes feel. It may be useful to have students "translate" the passage "An Outrage" into plain English. Depending on the level students are working at, this could be a group or individual project, with or without aids such as dictionaries.