News Lesson Plans

Students work together to research hazardous waste in the news. They discover how large the hazardous waste issue is. They complete an experiment and discuss how the issues affect their community.

Young scholars explore the current trends in news coverage as a springboard for creating their own news broadcasts and analyzing American news media.

What is considered news vs. propaganda? Learners will discuss objectivity and press responsibility while exploring these two concepts. They work in small groups to explore the article in-depth, guided by reading comprehension and critical thinking questions, then jigsaw to share what they have learned with each other. Finally, they will write letters to the press to express their opinions. Questions and resources are included.

Students examine news sources and ways of gathering the news. They gather facts, by asking the five W questions (what, who, where, when and why) and learn to balance opinions. They focus on interviewing while considering other ways of news gathering.

Learners design and publish a newsletter with articles that demonstrate knowledge of mathematical concepts.  In this mathematical concepts writing lesson, students explain mathematical procedures and basic operations in a news article format.  They compile several articles to make a newsletter.

Students practice news reading at three words per second. They produce a news program working as a team of reporters. They watch news clips of current reporters making a list of news reading tips. They play an online game that involves using a telepromter.

Students watch news video that explains writing clearly, concisely, and correctly, examine importance of writing news properly to avoid breaking the law, and write their own weekend news stories.

Fourth graders inquire about communications by creating a news program. In this broadcasting lesson plan, 4th graders identify the different elements required for a television broadcast including talent, writing, camera and sound production. Students collaborate in groups to create their own television broadcast which they present to their school when complete.

Students compare the news angle, information sources and construction of different news reports about the death of Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. They analyze how various media outlets report on a different news story.

Motivate your class with this art instructional activity relating to the Lyme Art Colony. Learners create a television news report based on five topics; the American art colony at Lyme, daily life in a boardinghouse in 1910, making the most of limited choices, the life and times of Florence Griswold, and American Impressionism. They use the Florence Griswold Museum's online resources to conduct research.