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Reading an interactive graphics "book" to learn the fundamentals.

START HERE 1) What is the news? 2) Who tells us the news? 3) Why is the news important? 4) How is the news made? 5) Where can I find the news? 6) How do I tell if information is real? 7) What is media bias?

The go-to, realistic guide for navigating social media as a tween in 2022!

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Find your local paper in this interactive map and searchable database of newspapers!

Fun, in-person activities to make you think, report, and write like a journalist!

Fascinating news sources and articles that are kid-friendly!

About the toolkit and its creator.

ACTIVITIES

Fun, engaging, in-person activities to help better understand the news.

Click a divider to explore a new activity.

Activity 1: Research a topic!

1) Research a topic and have them find three credible news articles from the last two years on said topic. Then, report, write, and present a summary about the most important, or “news worthy”, things that have happened within that topic in the past two years. Make sure every piece of information is attributed to a source and cited. This helps teach how to find and digest topics in an understandable, factual way.

Activity 2: Conduct an interview!

2) Interview someone and write a 200 word summary about what you found out about the other person. Make sure to write out your questions for the other person. Examples of questions are: What is your first and last name? How old are you? Where were you born? What is your favorite subject in school? What would you like to be when you grow up? Do you have any pets?

Activity 3: Report and write a news article!

3) Write a news article about an event or topic occurring within the classroom or at school. Stories can be a profile on a teacher, an event coming up on school grounds, how the school partook in a holiday like Earth Day, initiatives going on at the school, and more. Make sure each story has at least two people, or "sources", interviewed and quoted. This will teach you how to find stories, talk to sources, attribute information, and put it all together in a written piece. You can also choose to create a audio or video piece instead of writing!

Activity 4: Create a classroom newspaper!

4) Design a classroom newspaper! This can work in conjunction with other activities. You can work together with other people, or work alone, to design a small “paper” that consists of photos and news articles. You can also put together a “news cast” that compiles various videos of them presenting news segments about the classroom. This helps teach how journalists put together content, decide what is “news worthy”, and distribute it for audiences.