News-O-Matic is your distance / hybrid learning solution for engaging nonfiction reading, complete with valuable literacy tools for the K-8 classroom.
What Is News-O-Matic?
News-O-Matic is an educational resource for readers in grades K through 8. Every weekday, News-O-Matic publishes interactive daily news content that teaches children 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, media literacy, and global awareness. Thousands of schools incorporate News-O-Matic articles into their literacy, science, social studies, and social-emotional learning curricula. News-O-Matic is available across the web and all mobile devices, facilitating learning anywhere and anytime.
Why News-O-Matic?
New Stories Every Day
News-O-Matic publishes new editions every weekday, all year long. Each edition contains five articles with topics that appeal to readers of all interests — including animals, arts, fashion, football, and space science.
Child-Safe
Our original articles are written specifically for children. They are not aggregated news stories for grown-ups. Every text is reviewed by our on-staff child psychologist, Dr. Phyllis Ohr, to ensure the content is appropriate for readers of all ages. News-O-Matic is also FERPA-compliant.
10,000+ Archived Articles
Users can access the full archive of News-O-Matic articles published since 2013. That's more than 10,000 stories, available in three reading levels and multiple languages. The search bar feature also enables users to search for stories by category and keyword.
Multiple Reading Levels
Every article has multiple reading levels for students of all reading abilities. The text measures range from 400L to 1000L within the Lexile Framework.
Multiple Languages
Every article is translated by native speakers into Spanish, French, and Arabic. A team of global translators also records each story out loud, so students can listen along.
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Read-Alouds for Every Article
All articles, in all languages, are read out loud through the "Read to Me" feature.
Web & Mobile
News-O-Matic is available on all connected devices, including computers, tablets, and smartphones. Users can access our daily stories on the web, iOS, and Android.
Teacher Resources
News-O-Matic helps teachers prepare in advance by sharing a sneak peek at upcoming news stories. News-O-Matic also offers lesson plans, activity ideas, and other learning resources for teachers to use in conjunction with News-O-Matic content.
Literacy Tools for the Classroom
Teachers have access to a personalized dashboard that tracks students' reading progress throughout the school year. Teachers can change reading levels, create their own quizzes, and check quiz results to assess comprehension skills.
Student Engagement
Our users don't just READ the news. Students can REACT to our articles through News-O-Matic. They can ask questions, submit comments, vote, and even draw pictures through our online News Room. Most of News-O-Matic's interviews use questions generated by readers, too. In previous editions, we've used reader questions to interview scientists such as Dr. Jane Goodall and world leaders such as former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Readers can submit artwork or comments through the News-O-Matic platform. They may be featured in our News Room!
Readers can submit artwork or comments through the News-O-Matic platform. They may be featured in our News Room!