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.

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. Click on the Activities Tab to complete the lesson.

Writing Commons aspires to be a community for writers, a creative learning space for students in courses that require college-level writing, a creative, interactive space for teachers to share resources and pedagogy. Our primary goal is to provide the resources and community students need to improve their writing, particularly students enrolled in courses that require college-level writing. As mentioned in 'About Us', we believe learning materials should be free for all students and teachers‰ part of the cultural commons. Hence, we provide free access to an award-winning, college textbook that was published by a major publisher and awarded the Distinguished Book Award by Computers and Composition: an International Journal.

PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs, in partnership with the Poynter Institute's MediaWise, hosted “Face the Facts: Election 2020 Youth Town Hall.” The virtual event engaged students and first-time voters to be prepared and better informed ahead of the November elections. In this resource, Hari Sreenivasan presents highlights from this town hall meeting. This resource includes a video and teaching resources.