"The Goal is Reading"

The World Young Reader Passport is defined as much by what it isn’t as by what it is.

It isn’t a school exercise to be graded, so there is not way for students to fail.

There is no mention of age group, so it can be used by anyone.

It isn’t tied to any one newspaper, and can be used by all.

"The goal is reading," says Mr van der Weijden. "It should be a positive experience. Receiving this booklet is fun for them."

Mr van der Weijden, who is the creator of the reading passport, described its use.

It looks like a real passport and students get "stamps" for completing exercises involving newspapers. For example, "find something interesting in the newspaper for someone at home." Or, "find something interesting in the newspaper for your future."

The passport is a global project of the World Association of Newspapers, funded by its NIE Development project. The passport is now in use in about 30 countries.

For more information on the World Young Reader Passport, contact Aralynn McMane, WAN Director of Education and Development, amcmane@wan.asso.fr.

Newspaper, Literacy and Families

The Newspaper Association of America has developed two programs designed to engage parents with their children’s education using the newspaper as a teaching tool.

The first is a literacy day tabloid prepared in celebration of International Literacy Day on September 8. More than 520 newspapers with a combined circulation of 35 million ordered the tabloid for insertion this year.

Mr Abbot describe the tabloid’s content, which not only includes activities for children but also a page to help parents prepare their children to learn to read.

The second project is called "Learning Together -- Newspaper Activities for Children in the Primary Grades", which contains everything an NIE professional needs to run workshops for parents of children 6 to 8 years old.

Both projects are available from the NAA web site, www.naa.org.

"I think both programs can easily be replicated at your newspaper," says Mr Abbot.

Learning for Life

By definition, most NIE projects focus on children in schools. But the Hindustan Times "Learning for Life" project targets marginal students who rarely attend classes.

Ms Naidu described a project in which the Times provides free copies to 4th, 5th and 6th year students in Delhi who, because they must work, do not attend school on a regular basis. The students get exercises in which they use the newspapers, and there are workshops on subjects such as letter writing and practical skills like budgeting.

Parents are a secondary target for the literacy project and the students are encouraged to take the work home with them and do them with their parents.

The project was a success for both the paper and for the students. For the paper, circulation increased by 37,500 in five weeks and "it opened up readership possibilities in a sector that has not yet been explored." For the students, reading, writing and spelling abilities improved.

Planning & Pitfalls For a Science Supplement

The genesis of The Irish Independent’s award-winning science supplement, Eureka, is the concern that young people don’t want to become scientists.

So one would think that a quality science supplment, offered weekly to primary level students exclusively through their schools, would be welcome with open arms. But there are some pitfall for such a project, says Mr Walsh. Schools are swamped by outside materials and teachers are wary of commercial interests. You’ve got to prove yourself.

Eureka, the co-winner of the 2005 World Young Reader Prize from WAN, overcome these problems by consulting extensively with teachers, by selecting good science writers and by testing samples with teachers and pupils before launch, says Mr Walsh.

The Independent’s science project, Eureka, is for students in the 8- to 12-year age group. It was published 24 times during the school year, circulated with the newspaper to 720 primary schools, and provided a substantial net increase in circulation for the Independent on the Wednesdays that it was published -- over 22,000 additional copies on those days.

More on the World Young Reader prize here

Small Paper Is Big on the Internet

The Limpopo Mirror, the other co-winner of the 2005 World Young Reader Prize, is an 8,000 circulation weekly in a poor region of South Africa where half the population is children. Schools are so crowded it isn’t unusual to hold classes under the trees, with three or four students to a desk.

It is a region where teaching materials are in short supply, so the Mirror’s science supplement, "Science of Life," was very welcome indeed.

Unlike the Independent’s supplement, it wasn’t designed to teach science as much as basic literacy skills. Though it was aimed for grades 1 through 3, it was used through grade 7 by students for whom English is a second language.

Mr Jooste described the practical issues for a small newspaper to produce such materials and how the Mirror succeeded in finding sponsorship, distributed the paper etc. He said he hoped his experience would encourage other small papers to do something similar. In fact, the Mirror put all the supplements on the internet and invites anyone who wants to use them to download them without cost.

The materials can be found here.

A Portable on Every Pillow

Everyone knows European kids are growing up in a high-tech environment. But how, exactly, do they use new media?

To find out, the European Commission asked the French education research agency CLEMI to measure the new media behaviour of 12- to 18-year-olds in 10 countries -- nine in the EU and in Canada.

The project has just begun, and CLEMI is in the process of sending questionnaires to 9,000 teen-agers. But it has already conducted focus groups and has come up with some enlightening, although preliminary, conclusions.

Teen-agers use mobile telephones, internet and other devices primarily to communicate with their friends. They are less interested in communicating with the wider world -- mostly their communications are limited to a small group of friends.

"They are tribal," says Ms Bévort, describing a closed communication loop using internet, SMS messaging, blogs and other media -- but only to stay connected with a small group.

"What is important is that these new tools allow the teen-agers to communicate. They want to be connected as much as possible, day or night. They leave the cellphone on their pillows when they go to sleep in case someone wants to contact them."

Partnerships to Reach the Young

What did Bremen’s largest daily newspaper Weser Kurier, the town’s largest saving bank and the most popular broadcasting company have in common?

They were missing out on young people, be they readers, listeners or clients.

So the three companies came together in 2002 to create "Bremen 4u", a cross media project consisting of a web site, TV, free newspaper, radio -- even a "Bremen 4u" café and a private "club" that has 15,000 paying members.

The cross-media platforms make sense, since young people are "media agnostic" and they allow the company to take advantage of the strengths of each one. But the key to success is the content, says Mr Brunsen and Ms Portillo.

"First and foremost, you have to decide on the topics you will choose before you can reach out to people," says Mr Brunsen. The company primarily provides local entertainment and jobs information.

"Credibility, the right sort of language, good design and a cross-media approach," says Ms Portillo of the Bremen 4u strategy.

NIE and New Technology in Latin America

When Newspapers in Education programs were first introduced in Latin America only 20 years ago, personal computers and portable telephones were a dream. The Internet was the future and NIE programs involved only the printed newspaper.

With the rapid adoption of electronic media, particularly among young people, the challenge for Latin American NIE programmes is to keep pace, says Ms Della Giustina.

"Electronic editions, weblogs, photologs, SMS, MMS, personal pages all represent information platforms that reach young people," she says. "NIE programmes do not understand this reality."

While NIE programs have gradually moved onto the internet, these other technologies need further exploration. "It is where we will find our young readers," she said.

She cited several examples of what Latin American newspapers are doing on the web, from a web "diary" from ABC Color in Paraguay where 13- to 18-year olds can post to their opinions to a dedicated youth web section from La Vanguardia de Saltillo in Mexico to a wide variety of weblogs.

The challenge, she says, is to adopt new portable technologies to capture young readers not only in the classrooms but outside as well