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We want our kids to be news savvy but it’s difficult when not all the headlines, photos, and stories in the daily newspaper or on news sites are right for them. We’ve struggled to comprehend the news as adults, let alone teach kids about current events. Fortunately, The Juice Interactive News Digest can help teach kids in grades 5-12 about current events in an age-appropriate way that fosters media literacy skills.
The Juice provides fresh unbiased content about current events thanks to content written by credentialed journalists and educators. Their 200-word stories focus on the facts while interactive content strengthens learning through engagement. Multiple viewpoints are provided that require kids to use their critical thinking skills to understand the real issues.
Keep reading for a look at how The Juice aims to teach kids about current events by requiring them to think objectively about content designed for their reading level.
Using The Juice to Teach Kids About Current Events
The Juice can be used on any device, making screen time productive. Kids using The Juice on their phones can swipe and tap through content. Here’s a look at how The Juice works on laptops, Chromebooks, and desktop computers through a web browser.
The Juice features content leveled according to four different reading levels but regardless of what reading level is selected upon setting up an account, the home screen features the same headlines for all students.
The slider immediately draws kids in thanks to visuals that automatically change. Clicking on Open Daily Juice takes them to the day’s headlines.
Every day the content on The Juice changes to teach kids about current events. On any given day you can find stories about politics, economics, world news, arts and entertainment, health, humanities, and more.
Visuals are combined with compelling headlines and summaries that are just right to engage every learner.
Upon clicking on the individual pieces of content, students are taken to the article.
They can read or click on the listen button to listen while following along with the text. This supports visually impaired students or auditory learners who learn best by hearing.
At the end of each brief 200-word article, there’s a multiple choice question to assess understanding. These interactive quizzes are written at the student’s reading level to help them engage with the material. They’re also aligned with key learning standards.
While some questions have answers that can be found through the text, this particular article required kids to look at the map of the United States and use critical thinking skills to determine how many states do not have religious and philosophical vaccine exemptions for schools. The Juice features custom infographics that are interactive. Students can enlarge and zoom in and out to dive into data while building visual and numeric literacy skills.
This question requires students to understand the question being asked and use the map to determine the answer and adds to their understanding about the topic they read about.
Explore Additional Content to Extend Learning
In addition to the ever-changing selection of articles students can read each day, The Juice provides additional content that aims to inspire, improve vocabulary, and foster curiosity.
- Bright Side Stories aim to inspire. Kids love reading positive stories on the bright side of the news. One Bright Side Story is always contained in each day’s The Juice.
- STEAM Videos are produced by The Juice team who creates a new educational video daily. These cover science, technology, the arts, book reviews, and day in the life profiles. They’re great conversation starters or a way to get kids thinking about topics in different ways.
Content found on The Juice home screen provides an Explore section where kids can explore their interests through topics that matter to them. This material aims to teach students about current events through multimedia that extends learning.
Clicking on one of the colorful buttons under Extra Juice results in a single 200-word article about the topic appearing. Just like other content from The Juice, articles under the Explore tab are written for the child’s reading level and feature the listening option.
There’s also a wealth of video content that satisfies curiosity and fosters learning. Found under the Explore section, the Videos tab features life hacks, informational videos about different careers, book reviews, and other items that kids in grades 5-12 are interested in.
On the day I looked at the videos featured, there were videos about baseball, Susan B. Anthony, life hacks sharing how to turn a AAA battery into a AA one, understanding factorials with playing cards, and tacos. Yes, tacos! Who doesn’t want to learn about tacos!
Videos are well produced, informative, and keep kids’ attention thanks to the short format. Videos I watched ranged from 47 seconds to 2:15.
In addition to content kids see through The Juice home screen and The Daily Juice, families and teachers receive the daily set of news stories direct to their inbox. Each morning’s email contains a story highlighting moral character, infographic, and STEAM related video.
The Juice for Homeschool Use
The homeschool version of The Juice offers parents and guardians an engaging and enjoyable educational experience to teach kids about current events. It is available to homeschoolers in four different reading levels. Individual accounts can be set so each child receives a different level of The Juice.
Subscriptions for Homeschool and Classroom Use
The Juice is available as a monthly or annual subscription for home or school to teach kids about current events.
Juice for Home is great for homeschooling families. Monthly subscriptions ($6.99/month) offer flexibility, while yearly subscriptions ($50.99/year) are a great savings. Both subscriptions are recurring and include up to 5 Children Accounts.
Teacher subscriptions for classrooms are $150/year or $15/month for up to 100 student accounts.
Educational supplements, 6 standards-based quiz questions, and 10+ interactive vocabulary words also come with subscriptions to The Juice.
Summary
The Juice is a multi-faceted educational tool that provides unbiased content whose stories focus on the facts to teach kids about current events. Multiple viewpoints help broaden kids’ views of the world while teaching media literacy. The interactive content informs and strengthens learning through engagement.
By spending 10-20 minutes reading, watching, or listening to topics they’re interested in, students build critical thinking and visual and numeric literacy skills. The Juice is perfect for any family looking for unbiased news articles presented in an age-appropriate way.
Subscribe to The Juice and get 25% off with code JuiceTSMA
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