Blog Layout

Everything You Need to Know

About Article of the Week

I started using an article of the week program several years ago, and I’ve always seen amazing results. I love how flexible the system is and how much the students gain from reading and responding to a weekly article. My system — which I put my personal spin on — is planned and structured unlike others I’ve seen, but I like knowing that this method provides my students with the best possible experience. In this blog post, I’m hoping to share everything you need to know about using an article of the week in your classroom.


WHAT IS ARTICLE OF THE WEEK?


An article of the week program is a system that presents students with one article per week that they unpack daily. The article may be controversial or just informational. The article may relate to current events, or it might cover more timeless topics. Each day students will revisit the same article with a different purpose for reading and responding: one day they use context clues with vocabulary words, while another day they answer text-based questions using textual evidence and citations. Giving students a new and meaningful purpose/task each day keeps the article fresh and sparks deeper critical thinking.


WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING AN ARTICLE OF THE WEEK PROGRAM?


  • Reading regularly each day improves reading comprehension. Studies show that reading as little as 5 minutes a day improves reading levels, and the more time spent reading, the higher the percentile students are likely to rank in on standardized tests. Reading speed is also greatly affected by regular reading habits.



  • It makes “real-world” connections. Students are often lost, uniformed, or partially informed when it comes to what’s going on in the world. These weekly articles, chosen carefully, help provide them with critical information.


  • It is flexible for different types of classrooms and learners. I’ve used this program with inclusion classes all the way to dual enrollment college classes. I’ve used it with face-to-face classrooms and remote learning classrooms as well. Everything I’ve provided in my program (linked at the bottom) is editable and easy to modify.


  • Reading builds background and content knowledge as well as vocabulary. Students who read regularly can learn 4,000 to 12,000 words per year. I believe that words live inside of texts, so rather than giving my students lists of words to memorize, I prefer having them encounter words organically and uncover their meanings in context. In my experience, students are able to retain and actually use the new words using this method.


  • It prepares for standardized testing. The more exposure students have to reading grade-level material, unpacking vocabulary with context clues, and formulating written responses the better their test-taking skills become.


WHAT SHOULD YOU AVOID WHEN IMPLEMENTING ARTICLE OF THE WEEK?


  • Articles that are too easy or hard for your grade level. While we need articles that have grade-level and above vocabulary and structure, we don’t want articles that students can’t even grasp. One size does not fit all.


  • Articles that are too long or too short. I like to use articles that print no longer than on the front and back of a sheet.


  • Articles with no relevance to students’ lives at all. You aren’t going to have 100% interest every week for every article, but if no one is ever interested, it might be that the selection of articles needs to be refreshed. Of course, we know students are going to complain, so while we do need to take most of that with a grain of salt, we do have to be open to the validity of those concerns.


  • Articles with no variety of topics/content. Selecting from all modes — argumentative, expository, and narrative — will ensure that you are providing a variety of reading material. Too many political articles or too many articles warning against the dangers of social media can get old quickly.


  • Not having clearly defined expectations for each article. I like giving students something new to do each day – a new task with purpose: summarizing, vocabulary, text-based responses, and real-world connections. I don’t like turning them loose 100% to figure things out. While some students are successful with that approach, most wouldn’t take it seriously enough, and that would defeat the purpose. If you like the idea of giving students “wiggle room,” a good time to do that is the first day when students first receive the article. Initially, they read highlight and annotate, and then throughout the week they can build on that work.


  • Not having a clear way to measure student response. The fastest way to ruin an article of the week program is for students to realize it’s busy work. If they are being told to “just go read this article and make notes” with no truly measurable standards, is that really accomplishing the list of benefits from above?


  • Articles that are too biased or always having biased articles. Teach students to read for and recognize bias, so that when you do encounter an article with author bias, they know how to process that. It’s not something to avoid entirely, but it is something that needs to be taught.



TIPS FOR HOW-TO IMPLEMENT THE PROGRAM


Step 1: Establish the format. What will students be doing each day? For my article of the week program daily layout, see below.


  • Monday: Read, annotate, and summarize
  • Tuesday: Vocabulary
  • Wednesday: Text-specific questions
  • Thursday: Figurative language scavenger hunt
  • Friday: Text-to-Self or Text-to-World connections and reflection


Step 2: Decide if students will be doing the work in class or out of class. This depends on your class schedule and students’ learning levels. If you have an honors class, consider assigning it as out-of-class work, and then carve out time on Friday to share and discuss. If your students will need more guidance, dedicate the last 15-20 minutes of class to work on their article of the week daily task. It’s super flexible.


Step 3: Select articles with the criteria above and prepare text-specific questions.


Step 4: Design a rubric and/or grading expectations. A rubric can be as in depth or as simple as you would like. It is just super important to have a clear and consistent grading plan in place and let students know that up front. I do grade for content and format on the questions and accuracy on the vocabulary. Everything else is a bit subjective. Since there are only five questions per article, it helps with the grading load. It does take some time, but it is also a really good time to give feedback on writing. As an English teacher, I tend to mark grammar and style here, as well, because that helps me meet more standards.


Step 5: Model with students the first couple of weeks. How should they read and annotate? How should they use context clues? What are their written responses supposed to look like? Check out this post on using the RACE format for responding to constructed response questions. Grab my FREE sampler for teaching the RACE format.


Step 6: Carve out time at the end of the week to discuss and share. Reading and writing are only enhanced by discussion!



GET GOING WITH SOME NO-PREP SOLUTIONS


My article of the week program is a bit different than others you might have seen. Following the suggestions above, each article is selected for reading and interest level and comes with specific text-based questions. It is also provided in printable and digital for Google format. The articles are on hot topics, often current events, but also with timeless content, so you aren’t sharing “dated news” with students. The best “news”? My program is entirely no prep for you!



Other news outlet and websites such as Newsela, The New York Times, Time for Kids, DOGO News, The Smithsonian Tween Tribune, and News for Kids also have articles you can grab. Some, but not all, of these have questions or prompts you could assign with no prep.


I discuss my Article of the Week Program a bit more here, too, on Instagram.


You know your students best; if you are looking to give an article of the week program a try, select one that works best for everyone — you included!

Making the choice to include more reading is always a good choice!


Love this content?

Sign up for my email newsletter with more tips, ideas, success stories, and freebies!


Mastering Academic Feedback on Writing

Mastering Academic Feedback on Writing: Strategies for Teachers and Students

By Julie Faulkner • January 2, 2025
Providing effective academic feedback on writing is one of the most impactful ways educators can support student growth. Research and experience consistently show that timely, meaningful feedback clarifies expectations and helps students develop critical skills for success in writing and beyond. Whether you’re following evaluation rubrics like TEAM or preparing students for AP Language standards or EOC writing tests, creating a system for giving and receiving feedback is essential. In this post, I’ll summarize five key strategies to make academic feedback a game-changer in your classroom.
Student-Centered Teaching Strategies: Engage Your Class Without the Stress

Student-Centered Teaching Strategies: Engage Your Class Without the Stress

By Julie Faulkner • November 27, 2024
There are those times when "teachering" just isn’t optimal. What do I mean by that? "Teachering," as defined by me, involves delivering new material, expecting students to produce immediate results, or spending the entire class in direct instruction when students are already overloaded or overstimulated. These times include—but are not limited to—the days before a break, the holiday season, the week of a full moon, half days, or even the day after Halloween. During these moments, the best approach is to shift the focus away from you and onto your students. Let them lead, apply what they’ve already learned, reflect on their progress, and take ownership of their work. This hands-off teaching strategy creates a structured yet low-stress classroom environment where students stay calm, focused, and productive.
Insights from a Student Teacher of High School English

Insights from a Student Teacher of High School English

July 25, 2024
It’s a unique situation for both parties of a student-teaching experience: on the one hand from the point of view of the student teacher, you are entering someone else’s classroom and you may be teaching solo for the first time, and on the other hand, you may be the classroom teacher who is welcoming someone else into your classroom to take the lead. To say the least, this is a tricky space to navigate. That’s why I thought it would be interesting to speak directly to a student teacher – to hear her thoughts and experiences. Whether you are a cooperating/mentoring teacher of a student teacher or you are a student teacher heading into the classroom, this interview with a student teacher of high school English (Miss M), who just completed her placement, is very enlightening.
Everything You Need to Know About How to Sell the Yearbook

Everything You Need to Know About How to Sell the Yearbook

July 25, 2024
You’ve worked hard for half a year or longer to create this beautiful time capsule — the yearbook. You’ve sold advertisements, taken pictures, written headlines and captions, and included as many students as possible. BUT — what if no one sees what you and your staffers have created? That may be a little hyperbolic, but it is super important to have a strategy in place not just for creating the yearbook but for selling it as well. Here’s everything you need to know about how to sell the yearbook!
Make Your Yearbook More Diverse & Inlcusive with These Easy Tips

Make Your Yearbook More Diverse & Inlcusive with These Easy Tips

July 25, 2024
Our yearbook staff’s motto is “Everybody’s Story. Everybody’s Book.” That means everyone! Not just the seniors, the athletes, the staffers and their friends, certain cliques – everybody. Why does that matter? For one, if we are creating a book for people to purchase, they need to be reflected in it; or they won’t purchase it. But the bigger, more important reason is simply that we are telling the story of a year, and without every person represented, considered, and included in the yearbook design, we haven’t done our job: We haven’t told the true story of the year at all if we let bias or favoritism creep in or if we get lazy with coverage and choices. The yearbook must be an accurate time capsule with reflections of each person’s interests, styles, talents, abilities, and backgrounds. Therefore, you can make your yearbook more diverse and inclusive with these easy steps! Tips for your yearbook pages and beyond.
Planning the First Week of Yearbook Class

Planning the First Week of Yearbook Class

July 25, 2024
You’ve just been assigned the yearbook, or last year didn’t go so well, and you want your first days plans to be solid, effective, and fun! Does this sound like you? I’ve been there. The first week of school is a whirlwind, but in yearbook class, the first week back to school is even more topsy turvy, to say the least. You might have looked through my Tips for New Advisers post or How to Have a Picture-Perfect Start to the Year posts for adviser-facing suggestions, and you feel good-to-go from that side of things. However, now it’s time to decide what to do when students are walking through the door — AKA planning the first week of yearbook class! When I think about what to do the first week of school in my yearbook class, I try to think of it like one my English classes in some ways, and in other ways, it is completely different! In this blog post, I’ll share my student-facing plans for the first week of yearbook class.
What the COVID-19 Pandemic Did Not Change About My Classroom

What the COVID-19 Pandemic Did Not Change About My Classroom

July 25, 2024
The 2020-2021 school year was the year of the unexpected, the year of changes, the year of disappointments, the year of frustrations, and certainly the year of loss. It goes down in my book as the hardest year of my teaching career — that includes the first year I taught in middle school, the first year I was a lead in an inclusion classroom, the year I taught while building a house, the first year I was the new yearbook adviser, and the year I taught while having multiple surgeries for some serious medical issues. And let’s not forget that I actually contracted COVID-19 THE. FIRST. DAY. BACK of teacher in-service. However, I didn’t quit. I did survive, and I’m going back. That said, I am choosing to look at the positive — shall we say, “COVID Positive” — Bad pun. Anyway, despite all change that occurred this year — schedules, classrooms, assignments, students, and more, there were a few things that I’m thankful that the COVID-19 pandemic did not change about my classroom.
5 Ways to Use Class Time After the Yearbook is Complete

5 Ways to Use Class Time After the Yearbook is Complete

July 25, 2024
The yearbook is complete, submitted, done. Now what? You have several months of school left, and you aren’t sure how to keep your students on task for the remaining days. Does this sound familiar? With spring delivery or even summer delivery books where students take yearbook/journalism as a class, it’s often difficult — and even daunting — to come up with creative and constructive ways to use that time. As we all know, doing nothing is not an option! In this blog post, I’ll share 5 ways to use class time after the yearbook is complete.
How to Re-Purpose Lesson Plans & Materials for Digital Classrooms

How to Re-Purpose Lesson Plans & Materials for Digital Classrooms

July 25, 2024
Whether you are teaching via full remote learning, on a hybrid schedule, or blending your in-person classes with virtual classrooms, you’ll need your lesson plans and materials ready for digital classrooms. The good news is — you can re-purpose lesson plans and materials for digital classrooms without reinventing the wheel or making all new activities, worksheets, files, etc. In this blog post, I hope to share some hacks you can use to easily convert, edit, and share what you have from your traditional classroom right into your digital classroom.
How to Select & Use Paired Texts for Teaching Reading

How to Select & Use Paired Texts for Teaching Reading

July 25, 2024
In my previous post on the Benefits of Using Paired Texts to Teach Reading, I discuss the advantages of this brain-based teaching method. It’s no secret that offering ways for students to making connections — text to text, text to self, and text to world — is an opportunity to exercise higher order thinking skills. Teaching shouldn’t happen in a vacuum, even though sometimes it does as we stress to move units along the conveyor belt, more acceptably known as pacing guides. Often and unfortunately, we teach one skill and move quickly onto the next. Confession: I don’t teach that way. Everything must build and connect from unit to unit, text to text, and skill to skill. That’s why paring texts is so important, and in this final post in the series, I want to share the practical, actionable ways that I select and use paired texts for teaching reading.
More Posts
Share by: