What the NYNPA NIE Program has to support your NIE Program:

• New for Spring 2012! - "Freehand" - NYNPA's 7th Annual Statewide Serial Story - written by Mike Peterson and illustrated by Christopher Baldwin. This new original story is an historical fiction set in northern New York state along the St. Lawrence River. Sharing this story with young readers throughout the state is great way to celebrate the Bicentennial of the War of 1812.

• UPDATED! First Things First: Using the Newspaper to Teach the Five Freedoms of the First Amendment - a newspaper activity guide that teaches the freedoms of the First Amendment.  (56 pages, NAA Foundation, Updated from the 2001 version with the Common Core State Standards and uniform lesson plan structure.)

• "Re-Thinking Thanksgiving: The Complete Story of an American Holiday"- a project created to help celebrate Native American Heritage Month (November). This 3-part series and graphic organizers was developed to help educate young and old alike about the differences between our Thanksgiving traditions and the historical reality, particularly from the Native American perspective. Written by Perry Ground.

• Famous New Yorkers X - the newest edition of features, graphic organizers and audio pod casts highlight the lives and achivements of the following individuals: Roscoe Conkling, Millard Fillmore, Kate Gleason, Jupiter Hammon, Lena Horne, Charlotte Pruyn Hyde, Michael “King” Kelly, Madeleine L’Engle, The Statue of Liberty, Julius Sterling Morton, Elmer A. Sperry, William Steig, and Harriet Tubman.

• Baseball Across New York - 10 features developed in partnership with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Although created for newspapers to use over the summer to keep young readers engaged, this series will appeal to old and young alike. There is a complete set of student worksheets/graphic organizers to make these materials easy to use in summer school or just for fun.

• 2011 Summer Read - 18 features with the heading One World, Many Stories and eight features with the heading YOU ARE HERE have been developed by North Carolina Newspapers In Education (NIE). A description and a link to available materials are now available. Certainly, you'll see "tried and true" NIE activities, but you will see also references to new technology and approaches in features such as: Get the News, Tell Stories in New Ways! and Writing with a Storyboard... and others. A "Big Apple" thank you to Sandra Cook at the NC Press Foundation for making these materials available.

• Understanding News Media - a 9-part series of features and corresponding graphic organizers, developed in partnership with Stony Brook University's Center for Media Literacy are complete. The New York State Reading Association has sponsored these materials making them free for all NYNPA member newspapers.

• Sunshine Week - To help celebrate the principles of open government and freedom of information Pulitzer prize winning editorial writer, Mark Mahoney from The Post-Star in Glens Falls has written a short brief. Newspapers are welcome to run it to help educate students or the general public about their right to know. There is also a set ofgraphic organizers and links to other web resources. For more about Sunshine Week go to http://www.sunshineweek.org

• New York Agricultural Awareness Week - A 5-part series created to entertain and educate younger students (grades K-4) about New York State Agriculture in general and, in keeping with this year's theme, about Poultry specifically. The resources also include five graphic organizers and nine SmartBoard panels in either notebook or PDF formats. For more about NYS Agriculture in the Classroom go to http://www.nyaged.org/aitc/

• Law Day 2011 - (May 1) - The theme for Law Day 2011 has been announced by the American Bar Association - "The Legacy of John Adams, from Boston to Guantanamo." John Adams believed that everyone deserved a proper legal defense.  Just five years before the American Revolutionary War began, he represented the British officer and soldiers charged with firing into a crowd of protestors and killing five civilians in the "Boston Massacre."  In keeping with the spirit of Adams and this year's theme, the NYNPA NIE program in partnership with the Law, Youth and Citizenship program of the NYS Bar Association will develop a 5-part series highlighting significant cases throughout American history.

Available from the Newspaper Association of America Foundation:

• NIE Week 2011: Power Pack: Lessons in Civics, Math and Fine Arts - a teacher's guide, an in-paper ad and a website banner ad. New this year are two flip-book lessons on fine arts and civics that can be used with interactive whiteboards, computers or other digital technology. Everything can be downloaded right here, right now, free of charge.

  This curriculum celebrates the power of newspapers to provide fast, flexible ways for teachers to address topics that need support. The guide targets three areas vital to developing well-rounded, successful students and citizens — civics, math and fine arts.

  An understanding of civics is central to students’ growing up to understand and participate in government, elections and community life.

  Math is the underpinning of technology, science and financial literacy.

  Fine arts inspire the creativity that finds expression in everything from entertainment to architecture to new and dynamic forms of communication.

  In each subject area, the NIE Week “Power Pack” provides standards-based activities to enhance student learning in elementary school, middle school and high school. Its goal is not only to help students achieve more accomplished lives, but richer ones as well.

In the early planning stages...

Famous New Yorkers XI - We've started work on the next edition of Famous New Yorkers. The 2012-2013 edition will include the following outstanding individuals:

• George Crum - (1822-1914) African-American "accidentally" invented the potato chip - Saratoga Springs
• James Baldwin - (1924-1987) - African-American author - Harlem
• Ernie Davis - (1939-1963) First African-American Heisman Trophy winner - born in New Salem, PA but was raised in Elmira and played for Syracuse University
• Bob Denver - (1935-2005) - actor, Gilligan from Gilligan's Island - New Rochelle
• Matilda Joslyn Gage - (1826-1898) suffragist, abolitionist, Native American rights advocate - Cicero
• Sybil Ludington - (1761-1839) a young, female "Paul Revere" of the American Revolution - Carmel
• J. Robert Oppenheimer - (1904-1967) "Father of the atomic bomb"  - NYC 
• Milton Rogovin - (1909 - 2011) - documentary photographer - Born NYC - largely associated with Buffalo
• JD Salinger - (1919-2010) Catcher in the Rye author - NYC
• Blanch Stuart Scott - (1885-1970) first female to drive an automobile cross-country. Also a pioneer in women's aviation - Rochester
• Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau - (1848-1915) doctor who established the first sanatorium for TB in the UnitedState in Saranac Lake
• William Van Allen - (1883-1954) architect - Chrysler Building - Brooklyn
• Almanzo James Wilder - (1857-1949) farmer and husband to Laura Ingalls Wilder - Malone

Please click on the EPIC logo to view or download the 35 parent tips (PDF format). These features were created to give Moms, Dads, Grandparents and other adults short and easy ideas to be more involved in a young child's educational development.

Sponsored by:

• EPIC: Every Person Influences Children, Parent Information and Resource Center (PIRC)
• New York State PTA
• WNED, ThinkBright

2009 marked the 400th anniversary of Hudson and Champlain's voyages along the river and lake that bear their names -- and the 200th anniversary of Fulton's successful steamboat voyage and establishment of steam commerce on the Hudson River.

In cooperation with the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Cultural Education Center, the NYNPA Newspaper In Education Program created a 10-part NIE educational series with extensive links to other educational materials and a teachers' guide. These materials will remain on our Web site as a continued resource for those interested in Hudson River and Champlain Valley History. More