Activities for using magazines in the classroom

Activities for using magazines in the classroom



Submitted by Anonymous on 2 December, 2011 - 08:58


Introduction
Magazines are a
rich source of authentic materials and can be very motivating and
inspire a wide range of activities. You can bring whole magazines to
class to stimulate interest in British culture, to introduce the topic
of media and language or just to help students get to grips with
handling a whole publication in English. If possible, it's good to use
copies of teen magazines or language magazines. Her are some ideas and
tips to help you get the best from them.

• The cover
  Use the cover image to brainstorm words associated with the picture (and probable topics to be found in the magazine).
  

• 
  Look at the headlines on the cover to predict the main topics featured
  inside. Ask: Which would you read first? For higher levels: What types
  of words are used to make you want to read?
  

• Choose
  the best cover from a selection of 4 magazines. Hold a class vote. Which
  cover do you like best? Why? For higher levels: What makes a good
  cover?
  

• Using a whole magazine
  Set a time limit for these tasks to encourage students to skim through the publications.
  

• 
  Ask students in pairs to skim through their magazine and list the types
  of topics covered. Encourage use of headlines and pictures to guess
  topic types. Compare their topic list with the contents page.
  

• 
  Write the key headlines from all main feature articles on the board and
  dictate a list of topics or themes. Ask students to match the topics to
  the headlines on the board. Then check using the magazine.
  

• Provide quiz questions set to a time limit:
  
  
  
  • Where can you read about dogs?
    Where can you find out about British schools?
    Where can you read about music?
    

• 
  For intermediate students or above, make questions and then get pairs
  or groups to make their own questions using your examples:
  
  
  
  • Which British pop singer is interviewed this week?
    What’s the most popular sport in schools?
    Which type of food is described in the eating section?
    Can you find a new type of clothing in the magazine?
    Can you find a flag on page 10?
    

• Choose what you like
  Ask students to skim through and quickly select the article/page which
  appeals to them most. They can tell their group or class why. This helps
  you see what types of topic they are interested in for future planning
  of conversation topics.
  

• Higher levels can choose a
  short feature and read in their group. Each group then makes an oral
  summary of the article to report back to the rest of the class.
  

• Comprehension
  The difficulty depends on the class level. Use graded language
  magazines to do this with lower levels and authentic magazines for
  intermediate level and up.
  

• Give them a list of
  headlines from the magazine and a sentence/sub headings or short text
  from each article. Can they match headlines to the extracts from
  articles? Do this in pairs.
  

• Select one article or
  give higher level students the choice. Students imagine they are the
  journalist who wrote the article. Pairs think of 4 or 5 main questions
  that the journalist asked to get his information. (works well with pop
  star interviews or descriptions of events or a news story of something
  that happened).
  

Pool all the questions or put 2 pairs
in a group of 4 to pool their questions. Then ask student to role play
the conversation between the journalist and his interviewee, using their
invented questions and what they have learned from the article. Use
short articles for this activity.

• Magazine pictures
  Even lower levels can do tasks describing pictures and finding pictures
  in a magazine even if they are not yet proficient enough to read a real
  English magazine.
  

• Students bring in a copy of
  their favourite magazine and describe it to the rest of the class next
  lesson, saying why they like it.