A way to get students connected to the real world is to have them read news. However, some students could have a feeling of fear if the teacher just says, "Now let's read a piece of news," because they always take news as something far above their English level, with many words or phrases unfamiliar to them and some complex sentences for them to dissect.
Here's an approach I once used in senior classes in high school. I made reading news a game. This activity was not only easy but also exciting. Best of all, it saved paper.
First, I picked a piece of news from an online news website, for example, The Taipei Times, The China Post, BBC, or CNN. Most of the time, I chose the topic related to students' life and important. If the news is too long, I deleted the last half or the unimportant details.
Then I copied and pasted the passage to Word, with some words taken out, thus leaving some blanks. I numbered the blanks, which would make the discussion easier and time-saving.
Right after greeting the class, I showed them the news on the big screen via the overhead projector. The whole class, divided into several groups, read the news together silently as I scrolled down. At the same time, they competed by guessing the missing words.
If there were new words, I either challenged the students to guess or told them the meanings while they were reading the news, depending on the context the words are used in.
Teaching news this way related the students to the real world in a relaxed atmosphere. Both students and I found it fun.
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