Big news isn't necessarily newsworthy everywhere! How do journalists decide what to cover with so much happening around them? A instructional activity on media literacy examines the factors that affect the media's choice of stories to...

Just how free is the press? After examining the advertising and propaganda techniques used by advertisers, class members consider the influence advertisers may exert over newspaper content. 

Poetry is everywhere you look! Create found poems using headlines from newspapers and magazines. Young poetry focus on creating alliterative phrases with words they find in headlines, tying their poems to a central theme.

Frontpage photographs are the focus of four activities that ask young journalists to consider what the images reveal about a newspaper and its community. To begin, groups compare what images different papers from across the country use...

What is news? What is newsworthy? Who decides and what criteria do they use? Introduce young journalists to the basics of reporting with this media literacy lesson.

Young journalists search for two examples of news stories, either published or online, that use anonymous or unnamed sources. They then consider the possible motives for why the sources remain unidentified, the types of stories that use...

Mistakes happen. When they happen in news reporting, be it in print or on the internet, journalism ethics requires that the errors be corrected. Young journalists use an Accuracy Checklist to track how news organizations post corrections...

The Boston Massacre may be an iconic event in American history, but perhaps the British soldiers had another point of view. Using primary sources, including reports from Boston newspapers and secondary sources from the British...

Two activities ask high schoolers to consider the role of alcohol culture in their lives. First, groups analyze the types of appeals used in newspaper ads for alcoholic drinks and compare those images with what they have observed....

How can you tell the difference between fact and opinion? Using newspapers, learners determine which articles contain statements of fact, and which articles reflect the writer's opinion. The lesson plan includes a discussion format and a...

The 11 lessons in this educators' guide focus on using newspapers to develop critical reading skills in the content areas.

Explore the newspaper as a unique entity with a detailed and extended unit. The unit requires learners to consider the newspaper's role in democracy, think about ethics, practice writing and interviewing, and examine advertising and news...

Make a structure too sturdy to fail. Scholars first watch a video and consider the reasons for the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse. They take part in two engineering challenges, one using newspapers and the other using spaghetti sticks...

As part of a study of World War I, class members read newspaper articles from the time that urge American involvement, non-involvement, or neutrality. Using the provided worksheet, groups analyze the articles noting the central argument...

Scholars find out how the government used propaganda to mobilize children to help in the war effort. Lesson exercises include analyzing a quote from Franklin Roosevelt, viewing propaganda images and posters, and participating in a lively...

You may not be able to take a field trip to the moon, but that doesn't mean your class can't study moon rocks. Using graham crackers as the moon's bedrock and powdered donuts as micrometeorites, young scientists simulate...

Readers reflect on enjoyable stories they know, brainstorm criteria that make a story "good," analyze a New York Times article about innovative children's performances, re-envision classics on their own, and peer edit drafts. Use this as...

Fifth graders produce Civil War newspapers.

Students look in newspapers and magazines and discuss gender role development and stereotypes. In this gender lesson plan, students bring in their favorite objects that have no gender stereotype linked to it.

Students complete a variety of activities (using the Washington Post Newspaper) that reinforce concepts involved in sports writing.

Learners discover how land use in their community has changed. In this community and ecology lesson plan, students scan old newspapers to find articles about the development of community land. Learners discuss and predict how land use...

Extra! Extra! Read all about past and present energy use in a classroom-made historical newspaper. Useful as a cross-curricular assignment between science, history, and language arts, the project is sure to get young journalists...

Read all about it! Challenge your class to build taller and stronger. Newspapers provide the means to build towers in a simple activity. Scholars try to build as tall a tower as possible with just two sheets of newspaper.

What is black and white and re(a)d all over? Class members build a table out of rolled newspapers. Pupils follow the design process to design, build, and test their paper tables in the second challenge in a series of five.