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Duration
More than 90 minutes
Topic(s)
  • Current Events
  • Journalism
Grade(s)
  • 7-12
  • College/University

  1. Tell students it’s time to take what they’ve learned about news and apply it to their own lives, not as news consumers, but as news creators.
  2. As a class, begin brainstorming topics that students are interested in exploring further to write a news story. Encourage them to think about the things that really matter to them, whether that’s events or issues that affect their daily lives at school or at home, or issues they wish they saw more coverage of in the mainstream media. Remind students that they are creating a news article. They can refer to the Is It News? poster to make sure their work meets the criteria.
  3. Distribute the worksheet and give students time to work individually to select and refine a topic to report on. They will also brainstorm possible sources of information for their topic. (Note: You may wish to omit pages four and five, which provide a suggested research and content outline for a news article, if your students are already advanced writers.) Give students a deadline of one or two days for turning in their reports, just as real reporters must complete their work in a set amount of time to keep up with the news cycle.
  4. When students have completed their articles, create a “publication” (students can brainstorm a name for it) to showcase their work. This could be done using a blog or simple Google site or as a printed collection. Give students time to read their peers’ work.
  5. As a class, discuss the articles they’ve produced, using the questions below to guide the conversation.
  6. If desired, have students revise their work based on your class discussion and then share the collection of revised articles beyond your classroom, with fellow students or in the community.

 

  • Do all of the articles qualify as news? Apply questions from the Is It News? poster to double-check.
  • What sources were used to create each article? Do they seem reliable? Ask the questions from the Getting to the Source tipsheet.
  • Which articles stand out to you, and why?
  • What have you learned from reading these articles?
  • With whom (other than your peers in this class) would you like to share this content? Why?

 

 

 

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