Tween Tribune

A fourth grade teacher told me about this site.  This is an excellent web site for students to practice reading, comprehension, critical thinking, and interaction with their peers.  The site contains news articles about many current event topics.  The articles are broken down by grade level, so the reading will be appropriate for your students.  Students can read articles and post responses.  Teachers have the option of setting up a class and assigning specific articles to read, and can also preview students' posts before they go live.  This is a great way to work on critical thinking exercises.

 This tool meets the following elements of the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Framework for 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment:

Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology

• Do students use technology as a tool for communication, research, and creation of new works?
• Do students evaluate and use digital tools and resources that match the work they are doing?


• Do students find relevant and reliable sources that meet their needs?

 Design and share information for global communities that have a variety of purposes

• Do students use inquiry to ask questions and solve problems?


• Do students critically analyze a variety of information from a variety of sources?


• Do students solve real problems and share results with real audiences?


• Do students publish in ways that meet the needs of a particular, authentic audience?


• Do students consciously make connections between their work and that of the greater community?

 Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts

• Do students use tools to communicate original perspectives and to make new thinking visible?


• Do students communicate information and ideas in a variety of forms and for various purposes?


• Do students communicate information and ideas to different audiences?


• Do students articulate thoughts and ideas so that others can understand and act on them?

Check out the quick video overview of Tween Tribune below.  You can also check Youtube for lots more tutorials on using this website.