The Newsy App

blog-thumb-newsyAre you boggled at the fact that many of your students are unaware of what is going on in the news? Do they complain to you that they, “don’t have the time to read the paper” or just simply get too overwhelmed by all of the text? Well, now you can tell them about the free app called Newsy. It runs on Android phones and iOS devices 5.0 or later.

Newsy is the only video news service that allows users to compare news sources from around the world to see how a story unfolds.  Through short, engaging videos, Newsy accelerates your student’s understanding of a news story and delivers it when and how you want it.  Newsy provides context with convenience—it’s a broader view, in a concise format, which is perfect for your more visual and auditory learners.

The Common Core encourages your students to support their writing using informational text. Here are a couple of ways to incorporate the Newsy app into your classroom while meeting this Common Core requirement:

  • Choose several stories from Newsy videos and have students watch and pull facts from the app that lend themselves to graphing (e.g., the cost of a postage stamp, the population of your community, the number of barrels of oil imported).  Invite them to create a bar, line, or picture graph to depict that information.
  • Provide each student with a Newsy story link and have them access the video on their mobile device. The student lists on a separate sheet of paper the who, where, when, what, and why of the story. Then the students’ papers are collected and redistributed so no student has his or her own sheet. Each student takes a look at their five “Ws” list and writes the opening paragraph of a news story based on that information. At the end of the activity, students share their stories and the original Newsy video story to see how they compare. How accurate were the students’ stories?
  • Select a news story from Newsy that includes a clear sequence of events. Write each of the facts of the story on a separate strip of paper. Invite students to order the sentence strips to tell the story in its correct sequence. (Option: Once you’ve done this activity, you might invite students to do the same thing. They can retell the events of a story in five simple sentences, each written on a separate strip of paper. Then each student shares the activity he/she created and a link to the original Newsy story with another student, who gets to try the activity.)

How will you use the Newsy app?

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4 Responses to The Newsy App

    • Blake says:

      Thank you Monica! We are always looking for helpful apps to support teachers and student learning.
      Keep ‘em coming : )

  1. Steve Poppe says:

    Great post Blake. Not just curatation, but analysis and practice. Do you have any public, private or charter school teacher friends? Send them emails pointing to this post and ask them to comment. Bill Keller writing Sunday in the NYT on Common Core generated 439 comments. Comments are oxygen.

    • Blake Waldman says:

      Thank you Steve! I truly appreciate the feedback. I’ll be sure to pass this on to my educator friends and hope for the best.