ARGENTA - In Tom Saunches' current events class at Argenta-Oreana High School, newspapers are the textbooks.

The Herald & Review, USA Today and Chicago Tribune provide the material for the daily class.

"I give them the newspapers for the first 15 minutes (of class) and then, typically, start a conversation," he said. "We never lack for things to discuss."

Newspapers in Education is a nationwide program begun in 1955 to get newspapers into the hands of students and improve reading, spelling and writing skills. Schools generally receive the newspapers at no cost. Business sponsors and individual donors pay for the subscriptions.

Web sites provide teachers with a variety of ways to use a newspaper in class. Suggested lesson plans include geography quizzes, ways to use the daily editorial cartoon and front page "talking points," and of course, a lot of teachers come up with their own.

In Saunches' class, some students turn immediately to certain sections and favorite features. He has students who look forward to reading commentary by Leonard Pitts Jr., some who keep an eye out for certain writers of letters to the editor, and the Jumble fans who turn straight to the daily puzzle.

"It's gratifying, over the course of a year, to watch kids begin to look for trends in the news," Saunches said.

And thanks to the ongoing presidential race, students are learning to tell the difference between liberal and conservative columnists and a caucus and a primary, he said.

At Franklin School in Decatur, second-graders are learning to be "word detectives," said teacher Kay Green, who uses the newspaper in her classroom. She hands out magnifying glasses and highlighters and sends the students looking for words that begin with a specific letter or certain kinds of words, like adjectives or nouns.

Sometimes, they search for that week's spelling words. A bonus is that after class Green sends the newspapers home for the children's parents to read.

"I thought it would be a good way for us to familiarize them with the newspaper and acquaint them with what's in and the ads and things like that," she said.

On the Net:

http://nieonline.com

www.press-enterprise.com/nie

Valerie Wells can be reached at vwells@herald-review.com or 421-7982.