Welcome to the Northwest Heralds’s Newspapers in Education program. Newspapers in Education (NIE) is an international program that has worked since 1955 to bring newspapers into classrooms to improve students’ reading and writing abilities.

Schools participating in the program receive free daily copies of the Northwest Herald, as well as specialized curriculum, lesson plans and serial stories that comply with current teaching standards. Non-traditional resources such as these are important for teachers, who try to incorporate mediums other than textbooks into their lesson plans. Students enjoy learning because lessons that use the newspaper are current and thought-provoking. The newspaper provides valuable content about a variety of subjects, including geography, climate, home economics, politics, math, history, science, language arts and career education. For many children, this is the only exposure they have to a newspaper.

Classrooms are also invited to participate in educational contests, including the popular Stock Market Challenge, which takes place during March and October of every year. Students work in teams to create a mock portfolio of stocks, while tracking their progress over a 10-week period. The top three teams each receive Best Buy gift certificates and their photos in the newspaper.

The Northwest Herald provides weekly activity pages for young students in Kid Scoop. Written by a former teacher, Kid Scoop includes colorful and timely features to help children learn about the newspaper and world around them.

Pigskin Geography is a 17 week program that follows the NFL teams as they travel across the United States to play football in the opposing team cities No knowledge of football is needed to participate. Research skills are developed that will help students master the standards of state mandated tests in any subject area, not just geography!

Many area elementary and middle schools participate in the McHenry County Spelling Bee, hosted by the Northwest Herald and Regional Office of Education. The winner of this annual event moves on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C.

The Northwest Herald is committed to providing excellent resources and programs to local schools. For more information, call our circulation department at 815-459-8118 and a customer service representative can assist you or you can visit our website http://ssm.nwherald.com/nie

A great vocabulary builder, terrific for SAT practice.	An inspirational quote and writing prompt.	Headlines from around the world with an interactive globe. Speech tool can read the story aloud.	A brief news story and a writing lesson, updated daily.
Ten+ lesson plans in Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies, timed to this week's events.	Can be printed and distributed to students.	A video and news activity for students in grades K-3.	A video and news poll activity for grades 4 and higher. Updated weekly.
A weekly in-depth writing assignment with instructions and news connection.	Informational text with a self-assessment comprehension quiz. Updated weekly.	An in-depth look at a story making news this week.