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Pairing Current Events Articles to Support Novel Studies

Pairing longer books (novels, memoirs, biographies) with informational texts and current events articles is a great instructional strategy for ELA or English educators to not only support reading comprehension, but also to help students develop empathy, boost critical thinking and drive engagement.

Build Background and Deepen Understanding

Assigning students current events articles prior to reading a novel can support students in building background on a topic. Further, it provides students with important historical, cultural, social or political context that may influence a character or conflict in a book.

Broaden Perspective

Reading about an issue from both a fiction and nonfiction lens helps students learn about a topic or issue from multiple angles, broadening their perspective and creating a more well-rounded understanding of an issue or topic. Students may learn about a historical event through the eyes of a fictional character and develop a broader perspective after learning about the historical event through nonfiction.

Drive Engagement

It is often easier to engage students in novels where they are invested in the character or storyline. This engagement can extend to current events articles where students can start to make the connections between what they are reading in the text and how these issues are affecting real people in our society. 

Support Critical Thinking

Current events articles are great for helping students develop their critical thinking skills when making comparisons to the novels or fiction texts they are reading. By pairing the two, educators can help students analyze how an author incorporated elements of the truth, developed a theme across the story or decipher between fact and fiction.

Explore how our current event articles can be paired with popular middle grade and YA novels. With 5 articles published each day, our database contains thousands of articles and is growing each day. Teachers can easily search by topic to find additional articles to pair with novels that may not be included in this list. This list along with other content bundles can be found under Teacher Resources.

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Refugee Stories (Fiction and Nonfiction)

Articles in The Juice that pair with Refugee

Find a list of current event articles and Extra Juices  that cover refugees over the past few years and pair them with a novel or refugee memoir. 

Examples of books to pair with articles:

  • Refugee by Alan Gratz
  • Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga
  • The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
  • When Scars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson
  • Shooting Kabul by N. H Senzai
  • Escape from Aleppo  by H. H Senzai
  • A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Parks

Articles:

Additional Articles that Provide Historical Background for the following books:

Refugee by Alan Gratz

Articles that cover Cuba: 

Articles that cover Syria:

Articles that cover Germany:

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga, Escape from Aleppo by H. H Senzai

Articles that Cover Syria:

The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani

Articles that Cover the Partition of India:

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Parks

Articles that Cover Sudan and The Water Crisis:

Historical Fiction/ Memoirs- WWII/ Holocaust

Articles in The Juice that pair with Historical Fiction

Pair the following articles with books that are set during WWII to engage students in discussion or provide additional historical context on the Holocaust. 

Examples of Books to Pair: 

  • Book Thief by Markus Zusak
  • Night by Ellie Wiesel
  • Number The Stars by Lois Lowery
  • Diary of Anne Frank

Articles:

Social Justice: Racism and Police Violence

Articles in The Juice that pair with novels about racism

The following articles focus on racism and police shootings in recent years and can be paired with the following fiction texts that highlight similar themes. 

Examples of Books to Pair: 

  • Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
  • All American Boys by Jason Reynolds
  • The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas

Articles:

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