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CNN Student News FYI


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That was such a big hit last year! We're looking forward to using it again.

 

Pen: We watch and then do the questions orally. We do a lot of discussing, and eventually we end up spending some time googling various topics that we would like more information on. I keep it informal with no written output expected. Stories related to the conflict in the Middle East usually raise the most questions with ds. I'm trying to find a good book at the middle school level that will explain the history behind the conflict. He has started keeping up with the news outside of the student news since we started using it.

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I drive my 12yo daughter nuts.  I am constantly pausing the video to ask her questions or quickly give her background information so she'll actually understand why something is newsworthy.  She often has questions of her own which I can't answer.  We go off on a lot of rabbit trails because of CNN Student News.

 

For example, when they did reports before the Winter Olympics we realized we didn't know where Sochi, Russia was.  We pulled up Google Maps and "found" ourselves in downtown Sochi  traffic looking at all of the buildings being constructed.  We were surprised to see palm trees! 

 

Our family doesn't watch the news or subscribe to a newspaper so this is opening up the world to 12yo.

 

Oh, consider yourself warned.  Puns!  Every day Carl Azuz wraps up the news program with puns.  DD moans and groans every time but I know she really enjoys them. ;)

 

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Perfect!  August 11 is our first official day.

 

We watch this program every single day - it is a big hit here.  Mostly, we just watch it. But I do like the media literacy questions - sometimes we do those orally.  Sometimes I will jot down vocab words on the lap-whiteboard as I hear them.  Often, these are the specialized vocabulary of politics and economics.  I try to minimize pausing the video, unless it is between segments. DS, on the other hand, pauses it quite a bit to ask questions.

 

We also have a subscription to Newsademic.  It comes every two weeks.  I print it out, bind it with the pro-click and give it to DS.  It has become his "morning newpaper." I find it to be a nice complement to CNN: (1) it is not American-centric (2) more science than CNN (3) the cover story is in depth.

 

 

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What ages do you recommend this for?

I think it's meant for high school, and perhaps middle school. We started watching when my kids were 8 and 11.

 

We watch, I write down the topics sort of like a headline, and afterwards they copy the highlights I wrote in a notebook. The only reason is to be able to go back later to remember what happened in the news that year. I didn't realize there were discussion questions. We'll probably take a look at those from now on.

 

I only write down the topics that are really newsworthy. If it's a fluff piece I let it go.

 

We started watching when we studied modern history and I found myself saying things like, "Pop pop was your age when X happened," or, "I remember watching the wall come down on tv."

 

I wanted them to be able to grow up and say, "I remember seeing X on the news when I was a boy."

 

Regular news is too depressing. I like CNN Student News because they give the bare facts of a topic and it doesn't scare or depress the kids. At their young ages they get very upset at bad news about people hurting each other, etc.

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The target audience for CNN Student News is students in traditional high schools and middle schools.

However, we started watching CNN Student News this past school year when the kids were 8 and 10.

I just played the podcast. We didn't discuss or do any followup work.

 

We also have a subscription to the News-O-Matic app, which is geared towards elementary aged kids.

That app has 5 new stories daily (even in the summer). It is a good fit for my younger kid, but I'm

looking for something in between the two for my older kid as she enters middle school, so

I am going to try the Student News Daily app which will start on August 25th.

 

I hated current events as a kid; my kids don't thanks to the no-pressure use of these resources.

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We start every school day watching CNN Student news during breakfast. The kids love it, and so do I. We often have great discussions about events afterward, but we don't do anything formal with it otherwise. It is my favorite tv news source, and I think it is better done than anything geared to adults. I think it is fine for late elementary, middle and high school.

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.... Stories related to the conflict in the Middle East usually raise the most questions with ds. I'm trying to find a good book at the middle school level that will explain the history behind the conflict. 

 

If you find something, or anyone else reading this knows of something, I'd like something at that level for that subject too.

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Yay! DS really enjoys watching CNN Student News. We do the questions from their website orally afterward. He's a little younger than the target audience so I usually watch the video ahead of time (it's posted the night before) so I can be prepared if there's anything that I think will require more explanation. 

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We also have a subscription to Newsademic.  It comes every two weeks.  I print it out, bind it with the pro-click and give it to DS.  It has become his "morning newpaper." I find it to be a nice complement to CNN: (1) it is not American-centric (2) more science than CNN (3) the cover story is in depth.

 

Thank you for recommending Newsademic.  We are going to give it a try. 

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This is a great resource for current events for kids, but I do like to skim the transcript ahead of time just to make sure it's appropriate. There have been a few stories that were just too "heavy" that I didn't want my younger kids to even know about yet. I have my older kids keep a news notebook where they take notes on the headlines. I think it's great practice for note taking! They each have a world map and US map where they put a little check mark beside the places where news events from that day occur. The website even gives you a heads up as to the countries/cities talked about that day if you want them to find them ahead of time. There are many teacher resources available each day for their program!

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We also have a subscription to Newsademic.  It comes every two weeks.  I print it out, bind it with the pro-click and give it to DS.  It has become his "morning newpaper." I find it to be a nice complement to CNN: (1) it is not American-centric (2) more science than CNN (3) the cover story is in depth.

 

Thanks for mentioning this subscription!  I was on the fence about trying it and I signed up for the free cover story option.

 

Today I got an email with a password to access both the entire newspaper AND the activities.  According to the email they are going to offer this to people when they sign up for the free cover story email.  This free subscription will be available through Sept 16th so I think that will be four issues total.  The email explained that they  will send a password each time a new issue is available. 

 

We started school this week so this morning the new issue of Newsademic will be added to our day.  I'm interested to see what my kids think of it.

 

Here's the website.

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Can someone help me find the link to printout daily questions?

 

I thought there was a pdf that reviewed the program?  Am I missing it?  I have searched today's site but can't see it.

 

Thanks.

 

Huh.  I don't see one for today's show.  I hope they have not dropped the feature.  Maybe they just didn't make one for today.  It is called the Daily Curriculum.

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Thanks for mentioning this subscription! I was on the fence about trying it and I signed up for the free cover story option.

 

Today I got an email with a password to access both the entire newspaper AND the activities. According to the email they are going to offer this to people when they sign up for the free cover story email. This free subscription will be available through Sept 16th so I think that will be four issues total. The email explained that they will send a password each time a new issue is available.

 

We started school this week so this morning the new issue of Newsademic will be added to our day. I'm interested to see what my kids think of it.

 

Here's the website.

Thanks for the link. We just signed up for the free trial, too. I like that it's print rather than video. We'll likely toggle back and forth between CNN and newsademic.
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Yes! It starts today! I've been checking for a few weeks now that we've started fourth grade and over the weekend received an email saying it started up once again. We started watching last year in 3rd grade as a family over dinner. My husband and her love to try to "Shout it Out" the quiz answer, and cheer anytime they cover Colorado in a roll call, lol. Yes, it's designed for middle and high school ages, but we haven't had an issue yet with the content they've shown.

 

I'd end this post with some clever puns if I had the time. ;)

 

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Could you tell me more about Newsademic? How in depth and at what level are the articles?

 

I think the best way to find out if this would be a good fit for your student  is to download a free copy

 

The website says, "written and edited as an easy to read introduction to world news."  One of the target audiences is English as a foreign language students.  The language is not overwhelming and there can be up to four vocabulary words per article used to solve a crossword puzzle at the end of the newspaper.  So far the newspapers we've used have had 19-20 articles which average about a page.   There is more of an introduction feel, but the coverage is more in depth than CNN Student News in my opinion.  

 

Hopefully other users will chime in since our experience is limited.

 

edit: Also, there are editions from 2009 archived if you want to view those.

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  • 7 months later...

Thanks for the CNN & Newsademic sources!  I'd heard of neither before, and they are a nice step up in sophistication from our Scholastic News (which I think is nice for the elementary/early logic set -- probably subscribed a year above "grade" for kids in a WTM-ish or reading-intensive homeschool)

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I signed up for a free copy of Newsademic, printing it out now for the kids and I to peruse.  Thanks for the recommendation.

 

Updated:  I printed off our free copy, and it looks pretty interesting.  I had my husband scan through it for appropriateness while I milked cows last night, and he approved and handed it off to my DS8.  He thinks it's fantastic!  I don't think my DD12 has been able to pry it away from him, I may have to print off another copy :glare: .  I went ahead and signed up for a year.  

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