Franki Sibberson's fourth- and fifth-grade students use binders to organize their weekly news magazines in a compilation for use throughout the year. In this classroom vignette, the students use these magazines collected and organized over many weeks as part of their social studies curriculum considering the legal system. After the classroom sequence, Franki and Karen Szymusiak, an elementary principal, discuss the many natural curriculum extensions that come from having an assortment of current short text at every student's fingertips for skimming, sorting, and classifying throughout the year.

About the Authors

Franki Sibberson has been teaching elementary children in the Dublin City Schools in Dublin, Ohio, since 1987.

Karen Szymusiak is currently the principal of Olde Sawmill Elementary School in Dublin, Ohio.