Hello everyone! Today, we’re going to explore an exciting educational tool called Journalism in Action. This tool is a collaboration between PBS NewsHour and the Library of Congress, designed to help students learn about journalism through history. It’s a fantastic resource for anyone interested in journalism, social studies, or English Language Arts (ELA).
Journalism in Action is a free online resource that offers a unique way to learn about journalism. It uses primary sources, which are original documents or evidence from the past, to teach students about the role of journalists throughout history. This tool is perfect for students who want to understand journalistic ethics, history, and the impact of journalism on society.
The site is organized into ten different investigations, each focusing on a specific topic or time period. These investigations are like mini-lessons that dive deep into various aspects of journalism. For example, you can learn about journalism during the Civil War, the work of investigative journalist Nellie Bly, or the contributions of female journalists during World War II. Each investigation provides a fascinating look at how journalism has shaped our world.
Each investigation is divided into three main sections:
At the end of each investigation, there are creative activities where you can make a newspaper masthead, design a magazine cover, or create social media posts. These activities let you express what you’ve learned in a fun and engaging way. If you’re someone who loves creativity, like Tanner’s daughter, you’ll enjoy these tasks!
To use Journalism in Action, you just need to create a simple account with a username and password. There’s no need to provide personal information, making it a safe and easy-to-use resource.
Journalism in Action is a fantastic tool for exploring the world of journalism. It offers a rich learning experience through historical investigations and creative projects. Whether you’re interested in history, journalism, or improving your reading and writing skills, this resource has something for you. Check it out and see what exciting stories you can uncover!
Thanks for joining us today! We hope you enjoy using Journalism in Action and discovering the fascinating world of journalism. Don’t forget to visit Common Sense Education for more amazing resources. See you next time!
Imagine you are a journalist during a historical event. Choose one of the investigations from Journalism in Action and create a news report about it. Write a script, and then record a video or audio report. Share your report with the class and discuss the challenges journalists might have faced during that time.
Using the information from one of the investigations, design a front page of a newspaper from that era. Include headlines, images, and articles. Use online tools or paper and markers to create your design. Present your newspaper to the class and explain your design choices.
Select a primary source from one of the investigations and analyze it in detail. Use the magnifying glass tool to examine the document closely. Write a short essay about what you learned from the source and how it contributes to understanding the historical context of journalism.
In groups, choose a historical period from the investigations and role-play as journalists from that time. Conduct interviews with classmates acting as historical figures. Prepare questions and record the interviews. Share your findings with the class and discuss the role of journalism in that era.
Based on one of the investigations, create a social media campaign to raise awareness about an issue journalists covered during that time. Design posts, hashtags, and a campaign strategy. Present your campaign to the class and explain how it reflects the historical significance of journalism.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the YouTube transcript:
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Hello everyone, it’s Christy and Tanner from Common Sense Education. We are here again to tell you about a cool tool that you might be able to use in your classroom. Today, it’s Tanner’s turn, and Tanner, if you could go ahead and tell us all about what you discovered.
So the site I’m going to show you today was a neat little find via PBS and their NewsHour program, in partnership with the Library of Congress, which has been funding a variety of learning resources for classrooms that make use of the extensive research materials and primary sources in the Library of Congress. This site, called Journalism in Action, is one of those projects they helped to create along with PBS NewsHour. It scored very well for us; it is completely free, as a PBS product should be. It is for grades 8 to 12, although the site itself covers six standards in grades 6 through 12, but we found it more suitable for grades 8 through 12.
So let’s take a look. It’s called Journalism in Action. It is a fusion of civics learning through the lens of primary research, studying the contributions of journalists throughout history, which is a cool concept. This can work for students and curriculum focused on learning about journalism, journalistic ethics, and journalistic history, but it can also work for social studies classrooms. It also provides great exposure to textual analysis that would work for ELA classrooms as well.
The content is broken down into ten investigations, which are like case studies or mini-units. Each investigation is structured similarly and touches on journalism. For example, there’s journalism during the Civil War, the story of Nellie Bly, who was an investigative journalist focused on mental health, and Ida B. Wells. One investigation I found particularly interesting was about female journalists in World War II. You can see that in these ten investigations, there is a nice spread of time periods, so no matter what time period you’re working on, you’ll find something relevant.
I love the simple elegance of this site. It’s organized into three tabs, and each tab has a lot of content. The introduction tab contains background information, essential questions, and discussion questions that would work best in a whole class scenario or small groups. There’s a lot of reading material here, which is why we didn’t recommend it for middle school, although it could certainly be adapted. We felt the reading level and intensity of the work are better suited for upper middle or high school.
Once you go through the introductory section, you get into your investigation. The investigations are broken down into a set of primary sources that you’ll look at. Each investigation focuses on individuals or specific moments in history that are quite interesting. One of the coolest features is that you have a primary source and a magnifying glass tool that allows you to look into the details of the source. This is good for accessibility, as sometimes when you look at these sources on a website, they can be difficult to read. With these, you can really dig into the sources, even those from as far back as the 18th century.
After studying a source, there are follow-up questions. They also have an annotation mode where you can look at an image, click and drag, and enter annotations to answer questions, helping students gain literacy skills. Notably, you can download and save your annotations, and there’s an option to email your work to yourself and your teacher at the end of each case study. The registration process is simple; you just input a username and password, and there’s no personal information required, making it a low-risk site.
However, it’s worth noting that there is no privacy policy available, which could be a concern for some educators. The final outcome section provides contextual information, more discussion questions, and media creation activities where students can create a newspaper masthead, magazine cover, or social media posts. While these activities are neat, they can become repetitive, so it might be beneficial to design your own to keep things fresh.
I appreciate that they offer creative options at the end, allowing students to demonstrate what they’ve learned in a way that resonates with them. For example, I was just talking to my daughter, who is 12, and she loves anything creative. If there’s no component that allows her to express that creativity, it can be challenging for her to engage.
Educators might find even more creative ways to follow up on these in-depth investigations and create a unique final summary activity. Students can get really excited about what they uncover, and there are many options for DIY assessments at the end.
Thank you, Tanner! We hope you all will come back next Tuesday to see another new video and tool that we introduce. In the meantime, you can visit us at Common Sense Education to see all of the fantastic resources we offer. We hope to see you soon!
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This version removes any informal language, laughter, and personal anecdotes while maintaining the informative content.
Journalism – The activity of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information to the public. – In our civics class, we learned how journalism plays a crucial role in keeping citizens informed about government actions.
History – The study of past events, particularly in human affairs. – Understanding history helps us learn from past mistakes and make better decisions for the future.
Society – A community of people living together and interacting under a shared set of laws and traditions. – In social studies, we discussed how society changes over time and the factors that influence these changes.
Investigations – The process of inquiring into a matter through research, examination, and analysis to uncover facts or information. – The class conducted investigations into how local government policies affect our community.
Ethics – A set of moral principles that govern a person’s or group’s behavior. – We debated the ethics of different political systems and how they impact citizens’ rights.
Sources – People, documents, or objects from which information is obtained. – When writing our reports, we were reminded to use reliable sources to support our arguments.
Activities – Tasks or actions that are done for a particular purpose, often to learn or achieve something. – Our teacher organized activities that helped us understand the importance of civic engagement.
Projects – Planned work or tasks that require effort and are designed to achieve a particular goal. – For our social studies projects, we researched different cultures and presented our findings to the class.
Literacy – The ability to read and write, as well as understand and use information effectively. – Civic literacy is important because it enables citizens to participate fully in democratic processes.
Education – The process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially in a school or university. – Education in civics helps students become informed and responsible citizens.
