The Newspapers In Education program, a partnership between The Vicksburg Post and area schools, significantly increased the number of students exposed to newspapers this year.

Last year less than 600 newspapers were delivered to schools each week, and this year schools are receiving a total of 3,537 newspapers each Wednesday.

Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent Chad Shealy called the program incredible.

“We are so thankful for the support of The Vicksburg Post,” he said. “Not only has the paper been a huge voice of support for education, but it has also immersed our students in written text.”

Shealy said students having access to a local newspaper gives additional benefits in the classroom.

“All reading is good, but it’s even better for our students to come to understand their community by having access to a paper that is truly committed to the Red Carpet City and the surrounding county,” he said. “We greatly appreciate this partnership.”

Vicksburg Post Publisher Tim Reeves said The Vicksburg Post is happy to continue its partnership with area schools.

“This program is nothing new for The Vicksburg Post, but this level of support, this number of students reached is astounding,” he said. “Over the years, we have been blessed with the support of our readers, who have helped fund this program, and it is a joy to see this many students impacted.”

Community involvement is a prime focus at The Vicksburg Post, Reeves said.

“The Vicksburg Post has been part of the Vicksburg and Warren County community since 1883, and it is important to us that we do more than just write about our community,” he said. “It is important that we participate in our community. The huge development and investment in this NIE is just part of our overall effort to be involved and to have a positive, long-term impact on Vicksburg and Warren County.”

Vicksburg Intermediate School sixth-grade English language arts teacher Cassandra Ringo said she’s been using newspapers in her classroom since she started teaching eight years ago.

“I started teaching social studies, so automatically I used it for current events,” she said. “We use it to pull different skills such as text features, central ideas and parts of speech now.”

Ringo said she has also used newspapers to teach her students about tools of persuasion.

“They pick an article and use a tool of persuasion to go with it like bandwagon, association or testimonial,” she said. “We’ve also used pictures to come up with writing prompts.”

Ringo said her classes have even used every part of the newspaper from classifieds to comics.

“The kids love it,” she said. “It gives them an opportunity to work together in groups to find different things we’re teaching in the classroom, and it shows them ownership.”

One of Ringo’s students Ariah Pendleton, 11, said one of her favorite activities finding the gist of what an article says or summarizing it.

“It’s really fun,” she said. “Using the newspaper you get to find out what other people are doing instead of just doing your everyday routine.”

Schools participating in NIE include all VWSD schools, Vicksburg Catholic School, Porters Chapel Academy, Jacob’s Ladder Learning Center, Blessing Learning Center and Agape Montessori Christian Academy.