News Reproduction

• Have students create a school newscast reproduction of international stories as reported by professional news organizations. Divide students into groups and let each group choose a current event they're interested in covering. Students can research their subject by reading articles and viewing newscasts provided by major news companies. Students can then create their own newscast incorporating the most important facts learned through their research.
  
  

School Events

• Newscasts covering school events allow students to be involved in journalism firsthand. Create a mock news program featuring subsections for upcoming events, school developments and other newsworthy happenings at your school. Divide students into groups and assign a subsection to each group. Students can then create a newscast for their special subsection. Allow students to conduct interviews with school staff members and peers so that their research mimics real-world journalism.
  
  

Fictional Reporting

• Students can create fictional newscasts to incorporate texts read in other school subjects such as English and history. For example, assign character roles to students based on a fictional story read in class. Students can then do a newscast interview based on their character roles while incorporating information from the text. For a history class, have students create a fictional newscast about a major historical event. To make the project more involving and fun, let students assume the roles of reporters from the time period of their historical event.
  
  

Community Involvement

• School newscasts are a way to get students involved with the community. As an out-of-class project, have students choose a local story to cover in their newscast. Students can then research and report on the event just like real-life field journalists. Encourage students to incorporate photos and video footage relevant to their stories, in addition to interviews with community members. For example, students can report on a business that is new to the community, including an interview with the business owner. Other examples include interviews with community workers such as local firefighters and police officers.