Students will visually map portrayals of their communities in the news media. The result will be a graphic organizer of unique perspectives and story ideas.

This is activity 1 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Collection to learn more before getting started.

Journalists often pitch story ideas inspired by events occurring in their communities or by issues they care about, but they also turn to the Internet and social media to find out what topics are engaging a large audience.

This lesson will challenge students to think about the term “newsworthy” and what makes a story worthy of being reported.

This is activity 2 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

Students will explore, engage and develop a thorough understanding of the components and ethics related to journalism.

This is activity 3 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

What makes a video story good isn’t just about the topic, it’s how you tell the story.

In this lesson, you will focus on key elements that make for great nonfiction stories like news packages, video profiles, explainers, and short documentaries.

This is activity 4 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

Students create short presentations to learn about copyright and fair use on the internet.

This is activity 5 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

How does news get from the front lines to your feed? Let’s take a look behind the curtain...

Students will gain an understanding of what constitutes broadcast news and how it’s produced. They will use this knowledge to work backwards, investigating and critically analyzing news stories they’ve recently encountered.

This is activity 6 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

Students explore new topics and people to develop a compelling news story.

This is activity 7 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

Students will identify what they know and don’t know about their story’s topic. Once students know what they don’t know, they will use curiosity to guide research that will result in better developed stories.

This is activity 8 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

Students will learn to turn their story ideas into fully developed pitches. A pitch enables students to explain their story succinctly and also keep their story focused during the production process.

This is activity 9 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

Preparation and practice are the keys to a successful interview and an amazing story. This lesson uses a famous art project, Humans of New York, to reverse-engineer good interview questions and techniques.

Before you write your own interview questions, understand your goal: to get soundbites that connect with your audience, illuminate the topic and move your story forward.

This is activity 10 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

Pre-interviews help you find the right voices (characters) for your story. In the Find Your Story Lesson, you identified potential people to interview and feature in your story.

Now you will talk to them to get a sense of whether they are indeed the right people and if they will move your story forward. The pre-interview will also help you create a list of interview questions so that you can make the best use of your time, and theirs.

This is activity 11 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

Preparation and practice are the keys to a successful interview and an amazing story. The goal of the interview is to get soundbites that connect with your audience, illuminate the topic and move your story forward.

This is activity 12 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

Students will learn the basics of fact-checking a news story, and the difference between primary and secondary sources.

This is activity 13 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

In this unique set of video tutorials produced by Gil Garcia of Austin High School, students learn about the different roles associated with video production, how to scout a location and set up, best practices for audio gathering, lighting basics, the importance of white-balancing, how to approach the interview process, and how to gather different forms of b-roll.

This is activity 14 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

Students learn how to become a better visual storyteller by analyzing and creating their own video sequences.

This is activity 15 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

Working in groups can be challenging for even the best students and so helping kids learn how to work well together can be an invaluable activity not only in journalism but in life.

This is activity 16 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.