News-o-matic makes learning about current events exciting.

How I Use It

Since I only have it installed on one device, we use it as a group on the projector. I've also used it with my five year old son. If individual students had full access on a daily basis, the application options would be endless! The stories could be used in a "jigsaw" activity where children in small groups become the experts about a single article. The articles are also a great resource for practicing finding the main idea and supporting details using the BIG FOX technique or others. I might also use the articles to point out techniques that reporters use in this type of writing and have students use them as a model to write their own news stories. Some of the stories contain further application, encouraging children to "do" something related to a topic. It would be fun to try some of those too!