Creator: NewseumED | visit site
Grade Range: 5 - 11
From love to war, life to death, and romance to hate, this video presents significant events of our time to demonstrate how the news touches every facet of our day. In addition to the video, find an Acitivity (lesson plans) with before and after viewing questions, a list of historical figures and their relation to the issue from the period, a viewing guide worksheet for students to fill in, and extension activities. All of these are downloads in PDF or Word formats. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find additional activities.
In the Classroom
Using the Activity lesson plan/viewing guide, share the before viewing discussion with the class. Consider giving all students a chance to voice their opinions (even the shyest ones) by using a tool like Backchannel Chat, reviewed here. Then, show the video to the whole class, or "flip" the class and have students watch it at home. Either way, the viewing guide questions could be inserted into the video using a tool such as EDpuzzle, reviewed here. After the video, use the discussion questions and Backchannel Chat again. Next, have students (or small groups) choose one of the extension activities to complete and share with classmates. Lastly, have students (or small groups) choose one of the extension activities to complete and share with classmates. rn
rnThe reviewers at TeachersFirst have some suggestions for online tools to use for those final (extension) projects: Items 1 and 2 suggest creating a video newscast or newspaper. Consider starting with Be An Editor Game, reviewed here, to give students practice in the basics of newspaper editing. Possibly follow these up with Pulitzer Center Lesson Plans, reviewed here, that shows students how to identify global issues. rn
rn If you don’t feel comfortable showing student faces on the Internet via video, you may want to have them create a radio show instead; for that use either Youth Radio, reviewed here, or Radionomy, reviewed here.rn
rnItem 3 includes a timeline. Have students create an interactive timeline (it can include text, images and collaboration) using Sutori, reviewed here. Items 4, 6, and 7 suggest making a collage. An easy online tool such as Fotojet, reviewed here, will make beautiful collages for your student projects. Item 5 suggests you use Facebook. If your district blocks Facebook, use Fakebook, reviewed here. For managing projects like #8-10 use a tool like Google Keep, reviewed here, and an animated, multimeda presentation tool like Animatron Studio’s Presentation Maker, reviewed here.
At Home
Share this video with your son or daughter anytime they are studying Freedom of the Press, Current Events, or the First Amendment. After viewing the video ask him/her make a list of categories/themes from the ’What’s News’ video. Then talk about issues and events in the world today, and place them on the list under the proper theme/category.
Tags
Subjects
Current Events, English, Language Arts, Social Studies, Social Studies,