Promoting news readership in the classroom

E&P Quick Reads

VOLUME 155 FOR THE MONTH OF APRIL 2022 ISSUE 4

Kid scoop

Promoting news readership in the classroom

Vicki Whiting taught her third-grade class during the 1990 school year and realized there was no social studies curriculum to teach children about their local community. When she asked her students how to learn about their community, they answered, “Newspapers.”

“I met with the publisher of the local newspaper and offered to provide social studies content for kids,” said Whiting. “My students were very, very excited when the newspaper arrived. When children read newspapers, their reading levels improve, and they understand how to be active participants in their community. That was the motivation to create Kid Scoop.”

More than 30 years later, Kid Scoop’s content is published weekly in more than 300 newspapers as an ROP full-page or half-page. They can also serve as another revenue stream as there is space to sell to local businesses that want to show their support for local schools. Whiting writes all the content herself, and Jeff Schinkel creates the pages appropriate to second through sixth-grade students.

“The value of Kid Scoop for newspapers is they can deliver their papers to schools and create an interest

} Vicki Whiting,

founder, publisher and editor of Kid Scoop

} The 3rd and 4th grade class at Keya Paha County Schools, Springview, Nebraska

with Mrs. Aimee Schrader, teacher, back row left, and Amy Johnson, publisher of the Springview Herald, back row right.

} Cover of February 2022 issue

of Kid Scoop News

among students to read newspapers,” said Whiting. “Newspapers also help to promote literacy and demonstrate their community leadership.”

Kid Scoop is also available as a monthly, 28-page package called Kid Scoop News. It’s filled with fun and games to develop literacy and many other skills. Currently, 60,000 donorsupported copies are distributed in California, Louisiana and Nebraska.

The Nebraska Press Association is one of the pilot programs Whiting and the nonprofit arm of Kid Scoop initiated at the beginning of the 20212022 school year.

Dennis DeRossett, executive director of the association was familiar with the ROP version of Kid Scoop. The association decided it would be a valuable member benefit. DeRossett worked with Whiting and Dan Dalton, sales director, to develop a program for the association. The board and executive committee responded