Teach Writing With The New York Times: A Free School-Year Curriculum in 7 Units

Creator: New York Times Learning Network | visit site

Grade Range: 6 - 11

Take advantage of prize-winning journalism published by the New York Times to teach writing to middle and high school students. The staff at the Learning Network of the New York Times shares a curriculum focused on seven different genres of writing. Each unit includes daily writing prompts, guided practice, mentor texts, opportunities for student work to be published on the New York Times site, and culminates in a monthly writing contest.

In the Classroom

This writing curriculum includes units for bi-monthly teaching activities, be sure to bookmark this website to view and take advantage of lessons throughout the school year. Begin your unit using a learning management system like Actively Learn, <a href="/single.cfm?id=14705">reviewed here</a>, to share articles with students. Actively Learn allows educators to integrate assignment directions, polls, companion videos, and more to create an in-depth learning experience. Enhance learning and help students identify writing techniques within the articles shared in each unit using Fiskkit, <a href="/single.cfm?id=18515">reviewed here</a>. Fiskkit allows groups to collaboratively examine and discuss online articles by highlighting sentences and sharing thoughts. For example, during the first unit focused on the Personal Narrative Essay, use Fiskkit for students to find and discuss details, including examples of writing with voice and use of specific examples instead of broad descriptions. As your unit moves into focusing on student-created work, use FlipGrid, <a href="/single.cfm?id=17677">reviewed here</a>, to amplify student’s voice and discuss topics for the culminating personal narrative writing project. Pose a question on Flipgrid for students to share portions of a personal narrative they have read, then discuss what makes that portion of the writing stand out. Help students collaborate on ideas for their narratives using a Flipgrid video question asking students to share two or three ideas they have for their narrative and asking peers to share their ideas on what they consider to be most interesting or sharing ideas for inclusion. As a final project, use Sway, <a href="/single.cfm?id=16373">reviewed here</a>, to publish and share student work. Create a class Sway with all student work, or ask students to create their own Sway to include their writing, a link to the New York Times article inspiration, images, and more.

At Home

Bookmark this site to use as a supporting resource for your student to use in writing class. For example, use the first unit on Personal Narratives to help your student find writing examples and take advantage of the mentor-text lessons to develop writing skills.

Tags

creative writing, Research, persuasive writing, descriptive writing, critical thinking, essays, journalism, writing,

Subjects

English, Language Arts, Writing,