Enriching Core Curriculum With Relevant and Engaging Non-fiction Text
News-O-Matic for Schools and Districts
News-O-Matic is a digital learning resource that provides daily news articles for students in grades K–8. Designed to captivate even the most reluctant reader, our engaging non-fiction texts give students access to real-world events. Every weekday we publish original multimedia articles in three different Lexile® levels, on a range of topics. Teacher and student guides are also included with every article, making News-O-Matic easy to use. To learn more about how News-O-Matic can support student instruction, request a quote today!
News-O-Matic in the Curriculum
Teachers use News-O-Matic daily as part of their ELA, Social Studies, Science, SEL, and current events curricula. With more than 12,000 articles available in our archives — plus five new stories every day — there's a story for every type of lesson. News-O-Matic is extremely user-friendly and can be used at home or in the classroom, making this resource versatile enough to fit the needs of all educators. See testimonials from Educators >
How to Use News-O-Matic
News-O-Matic makes current topics fun, appropriate and safe for kids. We deliver new, original content every day, so you can bring a wide range of topics to your classroom and meet the needs of all your learners with just one daily literacy resource.
Teacher Benefits
Support for Differentiated Instruction
Every student has different learning needs. That's why News-O-Matic articles offer multiple reading levels, a "Read to Me" feature, and translations from English into Spanish, French, Arabic, and Mandarin. News-O-Matic is accessible for all students, including those with special needs or multilingual learners.
Teaching the World in Real Time
News-O-Matic lets students safely learn how their world is evolving. At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, our articles guided them with tips and techniques to develop social-emotional well-being.
Aligned to State and National Standards
News-O-Matic articles are correlated to state and national standards in the subject areas of ELA, Science, Social Studies, and SEL (where applicable). Standard alignments include those states using Common Core, NGSS, NCSS, TEKS, and state specific standards as well.
Teacher Dashboard
Teachers have access to a special dashboard to track students' reading progress, change reading levels, and check student scores on quizzes that assess comprehension for each article. Beginning August 2022, teachers can also create their own assignments within News-O-Matic.
Teacher and Student Guides
News-O-Matic provides support for teachers with Teacher and Student Guides for every article. These printable worksheets include key vocabulary terms, comprehension questions, the exact Lexile® level, discussion prompts, and graphic organizers for students.
Distance Learning
News-O-Matic is available on the web and across mobile devices. Teachers can set up individual logins for their students to ensure the entire class has access for distance learning.
We know it can be hard to inspire a love of reading in your students. That's why we created News-O-Matic! We provide students a simple, engaging way to learn about new topics all while increasing background knowledge, developing literacy skills, and expanding vocabulary .
Testimonials
Grace Njoroge, K-5 Educator, Nevada
News-O-Matic has been such a wonderful resource in my classroom, it's essential to how we work. Our students are able to learn about current events at their Lexile level. I'm able to track how much they're reading, what they're reading and how much they're growing. Students are not only building their literacy skills, but also their scientific knowledge, their critical-thinking skills, and they have thousands of options for nonfiction texts, right there at their fingertips...
Academics' Choice Award Review
This app also has a teachers' guide that offers comprehension questions, writing prompts and discussion points. And to top it off (for all of you teachers out there) it is all aligned to the Common Core Standards. This has got to be one of the best, if not the best app for anyone who wants their child to learn more about what's going on in the world today. Needless to say, it is a social studies teacher's dream!
Jennifer Yeager, Educator at Black River Middle School
As a special educator, I am constantly looking for sites that will meet the diverse needs of my students as well as the entire school. THIS IS THAT SITE! You can assign different reading levels to your students within the same article, the option to have the article read, and translation in four languages. Students have the option to write or draw their responses to the articles. AND this is finally a website where I can differentiate for my students while still giving them age-appropriate visuals. I AM OBSESSED!
Shelly Fryer, Educator at Casady School
Today I talked to my students about misinformation, and finding news sources that we can trust. I explained that News-O-Matic is a news source that we can trust. Students need to know what is going on in the world, in a way that doesn’t frighten them.
Robin, Student
I first got News-O-Matic about a year ago because my school suggested that we use it. I thought it was just going to be some boring, cheesy app like some of the other apps I got because the school told us to get them. I thought I would delete it at the end of the school year, but then I started to enjoy it, and now I read it every day! I think I will keep reading these articles for a long time. Thank you for making this amazing app!
Lily, Student
Today my school got cancelled for the rest of the year and I was really sad. All the things I had been looking forward to and things I worked really hard on got cancelled too. But, these awesome articles have given me something to look forward to! And it makes me really happy that you keep sending out articles even through the pandemic. I even got my sister interested in the articles! Thank you!
Lorelai, Student
Lorelai here! I really think at this app is one of the few that I've fallen in love with (not literally, L0L). 💍 I love how active it is, like, how many apps post EVERY WEEKDAY?! That's what I'd like to know! And there's soooo much you can do! I mean, write to you, draw, read, watch stuff, AND MORE! 😁😁😁 You guys had a killer idea when you came up with this, and I mean that. Love NOM!