Teaching Through The News -- In Just 15 Minutes A Day

My Take

The Juice, a daily newsletter produced by veteran journalists and educators, brings today’s news into the classroom — and delivers richly textured education to students in grades 5-12 in just 15 minutes a day. Through the prism of the morning’s headlines, The Juice teaches critical thinking, builds reading comprehension, instills media literacy, and fires students' imaginations, preparing them to be active citizens in our democracy.

Each issue brings a unique mix of original, engaging and important news articles, deep-dive educational supplements putting the news in context, vocabulary builders, standards-based quizzes, and educational videos. Teachers can easily track students’ progress, enabling them to build on students’ strengths and help them overcome challenges.

The Juice is a decidedly 21st-Century learning tool that brings unbiased, balanced, well-researched content to kids bombarded by bias, fake news, and bile on social media. In short, The Juice teaches students not what to think, but how to think. It’s a welcome addition when we need innovations like this!

I take issue with Common Sense Education’s assertion that The Juice’s staff-written articles don’t promote media literacy and that comprehension questions are sparse. The articles are, in fact, closely vetted by not only the writers but the educators at The Juice, and they scrupulously avoid any semblance of bias. Similarly, The Juice makes a point of dispelling myths and fake news through careful research and writing, including in the educational supplements that refute commonly held but inaccurate perceptions. The comprehension questions, in fact, have been proven to significantly improve students' reading skills, as studies have demonstrated.