newspaper article assignment rubric

Use This News Article Rubric for Grading Middle or High School Students

• Trent Lorcher
• Categories : High school english lesson plans grades 9 12
• Tags : High school lesson plans & tips

Show students how to write a news article. When they forget, remind them how to write an article again with the following well-organized rubric. Students may also find this article helpful in coming up with ideas and perfecting the news-writing style.

“A” Article

Components :

The article contains six components of a news story (who, what, when, where, why, and how).

Organization :

The article is written with the most important information first.

The story contains an interesting lead which hooks the reader.

All sentences are clear, concise, and well written. Many details are included. Many active words are used.

Paragraphs :

The article contains short paragraphs that flow together. The last paragraph ends with a quote or catchy phrase.

“B” Article

Components:

The article contains five components of a news story (who, what, when, where, why, and how).

Organization:

The article is written with the most important information contained within the article.

The story contains an interesting lead which hooks the reader but dies not capture the true meaning of the article.

Most sentences are clear, concise, and well written. Many details are included. Many active words are used.

Paragraphs:

The article mostly contains short paragraphs that flow together. The last paragraph ends with a quote or catchy phrase but does not capture the true meaning of the article.

“C” Article

The article contains three or four components of a news story (who, what, when, where, why, and how).

The information makes sense but the organization is somewhat confusing.

The lead does not hook the reader nor does it convey the true meaning of the article.

Many of the sentences are too long, run-ons, or fragments. Very few details are included. Very few active words are used.

The article contains paragraphs which are mostly too long and do not lead to the next paragraph. The last paragraph ends with a quote or catchy phrase that does not capture the true meaning of the article.

“D” Article

The article contains one or two components of a news story (who, what, when, where, why, and how).

The article is written in no logical order.

There is no lead to the story.

Most of the sentences are too long, run-ons, or fragments. Very few details are included. Very few active words are used.

The article contains no paragraphs or paragraphs which are mostly too long and do not lead to the next paragraph. The last paragraph does not end with a quote or catchy phrase that does not capture the true meaning of the article.

This post is part of the series: Rubrics

End arguments, raise standards, and improve instruction with rubrics.

• Using Rubrics for Student Notebook Checks
• Owning Your Very Own Persuasive Essay Rubric
• Making Grading Easier with this General Essay Rubric
• News Article Rubric for Middle or High School Students

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Teacher Comments :

This rubric is from www.TeacherJet.com

Creating a Classroom Newspaper

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

Students will enjoy this creative, exciting, and stimulating lesson in writing as they create authentic newspaper stories. As they are transformed into reporters and editors, they will become effective users of ICT in order to publish their own classroom newspaper. Various aspects of newspapers are covered, including parts of a newspaper, writing an article, online newspapers, newspaper reading habits, and layout and design techniques.

Featured Resources

• Printing Press : In this online interactive tool, your students can choose the "newspaper" option to help them complete their newspaper section.
• Newspaper Story Format : Your students will find completing their newspaper article a snap by first filling out this useful handout that helps them identify each key element of an authentic newspaper article.

From Theory to Practice

• Encouraging children to read and write in ways that allow them to make sense of real language in real contexts is more likely to help them develop the skills necessary to become fluent readers and writers. Creation of a class newspaper provides such a real context, and thus makes an excellent choice as the basis for a project designed with this goal in mind.
• Use of the computer motivates students to learn and students' attitudes toward the newspaper genre are affected by active participation in the production of an authentic and original newspaper of their own.
• Abilities in formal writing are best developed with a "process approach" that goes through five distinct phases: prewriting, composing or drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Using this approach helps students more fully understand the process of producing formal written documents, such as magazines and newspapers.

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
• 8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
• 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

Materials and Technology

• Computer lab with Internet access
• Multimedia software
• Access to a library of images/graphics
• Scanner (optional)
• Digital camera (optional)
• Deadline! From News to Newspaper by Gail Gibbons (HarperCollins, 1987)
• The Furry News: How to Make a Newspaper by Loreen Leedy (Holiday House, 1993)
• Freddy and the Bean Home News by Walter R. Brooks (Puffin, 2002)
• Inverted Pyramid Format
• Newspaper Story Format
• Story Feedback Form
• Newspaper Writing Assessment
• Reporting Tips
• Reporter's Guide

Preparation

*Prerequisite skills: Familiarization with an appropriate multimedia software program

Student Objectives

Students will

• Identify the parts of a newspaper
• Identify the format of a news article
• Write a newspaper story
• Edit newspaper articles
• Use ICT equipment and software
• Layout and publish a classroom newspaper

Hold up a sample front page from a selected newspaper. Ask students what they notice about the format that is different from other texts they read (e.g., black and white ink, graphics, headline, column format). Divide the students into groups of three to four members. Explain to the students that they will explore a newspaper, paying attention to the layout and format. Instruct students to study the front page first and discuss what different parts they notice. Ask each group to report back to the whole class what members noticed was contained on the front page. Make a list of parts on the board. (e.g., title, headlines, pictures or graphics, captions, date, subtitles, table of contents/index, etc.). Students should notice similarities between different newspapers. Discuss with the class how newspapers use a standard format. In their groups, have students continue to explore copies of newspapers. What kinds of things do they notice? Students should begin to identify sections and features that are specific to newspapers. Have the groups again report to the whole class what types of items they noticed in their paper. Continue keeping the list of items on the board. (Additional items may include: editorials, cartoons, horoscope, local news, weddings, classifieds, advertising, etc.) Explain to the class that people read newspapers differently than other types of texts. Discuss how people read newspapers. Reading a newspaper matches people's interests in certain things. They scan headlines, subtitles, and images to see if the story interests them or not. Read some sample headlines from newspapers. Ask, "How many of you would be interested in reading this story?" For homework, have students ask their family members what newspapers they read regularly and what sections they read most often. Give an example of your own newspaper reading habits. (For example, "First I check the weather to help me decide what to wear to school. Then I go to the local news to see what is happening in my town. Finally, I scan the headlines to see what is happening in the world. If I have time, I start the crossword puzzle.")

Ask the students to report about their family's newspaper reading habits. Make a list of newspapers that are read and determine which are the most common. List the words who, what, where, when, and why on the board, overhead, or chart paper. Answer each of the five W questions using the popular rhyme "Jack & Jill." Example:

• Who? Jack and Jill
• What? Fell down and broke crown
• Where? On the hill
• When? Sometime in the past
• Why? Trying to fetch water

Read "Bad Fall Injures Children" article from page 4 of the Grandview Newspaper lesson plan . Students clarify their previous responses to the five W s according to the article. Explain how these five questions help to summarize a news story. Put students in groups of three to four members. Ask the students to choose another famous rhyme or fairy tale and answer the five W questions. Have each group read just the answers to their questions, and then have the class try to guess what fairy tale or rhyme it is. Explain that these five W s help with the organization of a news story and that they make up the most important details of the story. Demonstrate to the class the organization of a good news story using the Inverted Pyramid Format overhead. Use a sample newspaper story to illustrate an example of this format For homework, ask students to select a newspaper article that they are interested in reading and bring it to school the next day.

Give students time to read the newspaper article they brought from home. Hand out the Newspaper Story Format sheet. Students should then complete the sheet using details from their particular article and share the summary of their newspaper article. Ask the students to rewrite the newspaper article in their own words as if they were a reporter for their local newspaper. What changes would they make and why? Have the students share their stories with a classmate using the following questions to guide their discussion:

• Were changes made to the lead? Why?
• Were changes made to the five W s? Why?
• Were changes made to the details? Why?

As a class, discuss fact versus opinion. Explain that news articles do not include the reporter's opinion. Have students go back and see if the changes that were made to their articles were strictly factual. Refer to original articles as needed for examples of fact-based stories.

Read-aloud to the class from one or more of the suggested titles:

• Deadline! From News to Newspaper by Gail Gibbons
• The Furry News: How to Make a Newspaper by Loreen Leedy
• Freddy and the Bean Home News by Walter R. Brooks

Have students brainstorm the types of articles they would like to write and list them on the board. Look at the list and ask students if the articles could be grouped into categories or "newspaper sections." Use the Reporting Tips overhead to present how to make newspaper articles more interesting. Go over each point and clarify any questions that students may raise. Group students based on interests to form an "editorial staff" for each newspaper section. Have the groups meet to decide who will write which stories. Students can use the Reporter's Guide handout as a guideline. When they have finished, students can begin collecting facts for their stories.

Session 5 and 6

Take students to the computer lab and have them write their first draft. They should not worry about font, size, or columns at this point. Be sure that they save their work and print a hard copy of their article for editing. Students' stories should then be self-edited and edited by two other members of their editorial staff (using the Story Feedback Form ). Students should make necessary revisions to their stories based on the comments from the Story Feedback Form.

In the computer lab, have students access the Internet Public Library website and explore newspapers from around the world. They should pay particular attention to the design and layout elements. For example, some articles may include graphics (e.g., photos, charts, graphs). Discuss what patterns of layout design the students noticed. As a whole class, discuss newspaper layout, addressing the following points:

• Headline News: Top priority articles are near the front (1-2 pages). These are typically of high interest to your entire audience of readers (e.g., town news such as a new park or community center). Long front-page articles can be continued on an inside page to provide room for other headline news.
• Feature Articles: Stories about topics or events that are of interest to a certain group of readers (e.g., sports, animal stories, academic topics, interviews with school staff, book reviews). These are typically grouped into sections.
• Pictures or graphics: The image should always appear with the story. A caption can be included. The size usually depends on how much space is available in the layout.

Give students the opportunity to explore these layout items in newspapers in the classroom and online. Students should look at the Junior Seahawk Newsletter to get ideas for their own layout.

Session 8 and 9

In the computer lab, students should complete final story revisions. They may then begin the newspaper layout using appropriate software. The ReadWriteThink Printing Press includes an option for creating a newspaper. Each editorial staff works together to complete their newspaper section. Note: 8 ½ X 11 size pages are optimal. They can be printed and copied back to back on 11 X 17 paper that can be folded like a real newspaper. The completed paper must have an even number of pages for this format. Pictures can be drawn or pasted into the layout. Depending on the available resources, pictures can also be scanned or downloaded from a digital camera. Tell students to play around with fonts and columns. They should experiment and be creative! Once pages are completed, they should be printed. The editorial staff should do a final reading for errors. Pages are then submitted to the teacher for publishing.

Distribute the class newspaper to the students and allow them time to read it. When they have finished, hand out the Newspaper Writing Assessment sheet and ask them to fill it out.

Student Assessment / Reflections

Assess students' comments from the Newspaper Writing Assessment sheet.

• Calendar Activities
• Student Interactives
• Lesson Plans

The interactive Printing Press is designed to assist students in creating newspapers, brochures, and flyers.

Students analyze rhetorical strategies in online editorials, building knowledge of strategies and awareness of local and national issues. This lesson teaches students connections between subject, writer, and audience and how rhetorical strategies are used in everyday writing.

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Rubric Best Practices, Examples, and Templates

A rubric is a scoring tool that identifies the different criteria relevant to an assignment, assessment, or learning outcome and states the possible levels of achievement in a specific, clear, and objective way. Use rubrics to assess project-based student work including essays, group projects, creative endeavors, and oral presentations.

Rubrics can help instructors communicate expectations to students and assess student work fairly, consistently and efficiently. Rubrics can provide students with informative feedback on their strengths and weaknesses so that they can reflect on their performance and work on areas that need improvement.

How to Get Started

Best practices, moodle how-to guides.

• Workshop Recording (Fall 2022)
• Workshop Registration

Step 1: Analyze the assignment

The first step in the rubric creation process is to analyze the assignment or assessment for which you are creating a rubric. To do this, consider the following questions:

• What is the purpose of the assignment and your feedback? What do you want students to demonstrate through the completion of this assignment (i.e. what are the learning objectives measured by it)? Is it a summative assessment, or will students use the feedback to create an improved product?
• Does the assignment break down into different or smaller tasks? Are these tasks equally important as the main assignment?
• What would an “excellent” assignment look like? An “acceptable” assignment? One that still needs major work?
• How detailed do you want the feedback you give students to be? Do you want/need to give them a grade?

Step 2: Decide what kind of rubric you will use

Types of rubrics: holistic, analytic/descriptive, single-point

Holistic Rubric. A holistic rubric includes all the criteria (such as clarity, organization, mechanics, etc.) to be considered together and included in a single evaluation. With a holistic rubric, the rater or grader assigns a single score based on an overall judgment of the student’s work, using descriptions of each performance level to assign the score.

Advantages of holistic rubrics:

• Can p lace an emphasis on what learners can demonstrate rather than what they cannot
• Save grader time by minimizing the number of evaluations to be made for each student
• Can be used consistently across raters, provided they have all been trained

Disadvantages of holistic rubrics:

• Provide less specific feedback than analytic/descriptive rubrics
• Can be difficult to choose a score when a student’s work is at varying levels across the criteria
• Any weighting of c riteria cannot be indicated in the rubric

Analytic/Descriptive Rubric . An analytic or descriptive rubric often takes the form of a table with the criteria listed in the left column and with levels of performance listed across the top row. Each cell contains a description of what the specified criterion looks like at a given level of performance. Each of the criteria is scored individually.

Advantages of analytic rubrics:

• Provide detailed feedback on areas of strength or weakness
• Each criterion can be weighted to reflect its relative importance

Disadvantages of analytic rubrics:

• More time-consuming to create and use than a holistic rubric
• May not be used consistently across raters unless the cells are well defined
• May result in giving less personalized feedback

Single-Point Rubric . A single-point rubric is breaks down the components of an assignment into different criteria, but instead of describing different levels of performance, only the “proficient” level is described. Feedback space is provided for instructors to give individualized comments to help students improve and/or show where they excelled beyond the proficiency descriptors.

Advantages of single-point rubrics:

• Easier to create than an analytic/descriptive rubric
• Perhaps more likely that students will read the descriptors
• Areas of concern and excellence are open-ended
• May removes a focus on the grade/points
• May increase student creativity in project-based assignments

Disadvantage of analytic rubrics: Requires more work for instructors writing feedback

Step 3 (Optional): Look for templates and examples.

You might Google, “Rubric for persuasive essay at the college level” and see if there are any publicly available examples to start from. Ask your colleagues if they have used a rubric for a similar assignment. Some examples are also available at the end of this article. These rubrics can be a great starting point for you, but consider steps 3, 4, and 5 below to ensure that the rubric matches your assignment description, learning objectives and expectations.

Step 4: Define the assignment criteria

Make a list of the knowledge and skills are you measuring with the assignment/assessment Refer to your stated learning objectives, the assignment instructions, past examples of student work, etc. for help.

  Helpful strategies for defining grading criteria:

• Collaborate with co-instructors, teaching assistants, and other colleagues
• Brainstorm and discuss with students
• Can they be observed and measured?
• Are they important and essential?
• Are they distinct from other criteria?
• Are they phrased in precise, unambiguous language?
• Revise the criteria as needed
• Consider whether some are more important than others, and how you will weight them.

Step 5: Design the rating scale

Most ratings scales include between 3 and 5 levels. Consider the following questions when designing your rating scale:

• Given what students are able to demonstrate in this assignment/assessment, what are the possible levels of achievement?
• How many levels would you like to include (more levels means more detailed descriptions)
• Will you use numbers and/or descriptive labels for each level of performance? (for example 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and/or Exceeds expectations, Accomplished, Proficient, Developing, Beginning, etc.)
• Don’t use too many columns, and recognize that some criteria can have more columns that others . The rubric needs to be comprehensible and organized. Pick the right amount of columns so that the criteria flow logically and naturally across levels.

Step 6: Write descriptions for each level of the rating scale

Artificial Intelligence tools like Chat GPT have proven to be useful tools for creating a rubric. You will want to engineer your prompt that you provide the AI assistant to ensure you get what you want. For example, you might provide the assignment description, the criteria you feel are important, and the number of levels of performance you want in your prompt. Use the results as a starting point, and adjust the descriptions as needed.

Building a rubric from scratch

For a single-point rubric , describe what would be considered “proficient,” i.e. B-level work, and provide that description. You might also include suggestions for students outside of the actual rubric about how they might surpass proficient-level work.

For analytic and holistic rubrics , c reate statements of expected performance at each level of the rubric.

• Consider what descriptor is appropriate for each criteria, e.g., presence vs absence, complete vs incomplete, many vs none, major vs minor, consistent vs inconsistent, always vs never. If you have an indicator described in one level, it will need to be described in each level.
• You might start with the top/exemplary level. What does it look like when a student has achieved excellence for each/every criterion? Then, look at the “bottom” level. What does it look like when a student has not achieved the learning goals in any way? Then, complete the in-between levels.
• For an analytic rubric , do this for each particular criterion of the rubric so that every cell in the table is filled. These descriptions help students understand your expectations and their performance in regard to those expectations.

Well-written descriptions:

• Describe observable and measurable behavior
• Use parallel language across the scale
• Indicate the degree to which the standards are met

Step 7: Create your rubric

Create your rubric in a table or spreadsheet in Word, Google Docs, Sheets, etc., and then transfer it by typing it into Moodle. You can also use online tools to create the rubric, but you will still have to type the criteria, indicators, levels, etc., into Moodle. Rubric creators: Rubistar , iRubric

Step 8: Pilot-test your rubric

Prior to implementing your rubric on a live course, obtain feedback from:

• Teacher assistants

Try out your new rubric on a sample of student work. After you pilot-test your rubric, analyze the results to consider its effectiveness and revise accordingly.

• Limit the rubric to a single page for reading and grading ease
• Use parallel language . Use similar language and syntax/wording from column to column. Make sure that the rubric can be easily read from left to right or vice versa.
• Use student-friendly language . Make sure the language is learning-level appropriate. If you use academic language or concepts, you will need to teach those concepts.
• Share and discuss the rubric with your students . Students should understand that the rubric is there to help them learn, reflect, and self-assess. If students use a rubric, they will understand the expectations and their relevance to learning.
• Consider scalability and reusability of rubrics. Create rubric templates that you can alter as needed for multiple assignments.
• Maximize the descriptiveness of your language. Avoid words like “good” and “excellent.” For example, instead of saying, “uses excellent sources,” you might describe what makes a resource excellent so that students will know. You might also consider reducing the reliance on quantity, such as a number of allowable misspelled words. Focus instead, for example, on how distracting any spelling errors are.

Example of an analytic rubric for a final paper

Example of a holistic rubric for a final paper, single-point rubric, more examples:.

• Single Point Rubric Template ( variation )
• Analytic Rubric Template make a copy to edit
• A Rubric for Rubrics
• Bank of Online Discussion Rubrics in different formats
• Mathematical Presentations Descriptive Rubric
• Math Proof Assessment Rubric
• Kansas State Sample Rubrics
• Design Single Point Rubric

Technology Tools: Rubrics in Moodle

• Moodle Docs: Rubrics
• Moodle Docs: Grading Guide (use for single-point rubrics)

Tools with rubrics (other than Moodle)

• Google Assignments
• Turnitin Assignments: Rubric or Grading Form

Other resources

• DePaul University (n.d.). Rubrics .
• Gonzalez, J. (2014). Know your terms: Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics . Cult of Pedagogy.
• Goodrich, H. (1996). Understanding rubrics . Teaching for Authentic Student Performance, 54 (4), 14-17. Retrieved from   
• Miller, A. (2012). Tame the beast: tips for designing and using rubrics.
• Ragupathi, K., Lee, A. (2020). Beyond Fairness and Consistency in Grading: The Role of Rubrics in Higher Education. In: Sanger, C., Gleason, N. (eds) Diversity and Inclusion in Global Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.

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The Outsiders Newspaper Article Assignment with Rubric.

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Description

This is a great writing assignment to help students use reading comprehension and inference to create a newspaper article the covers the events of the novel The Outsiders. In writing a newspaper article, they are required to use a professional tone and practice concise writing. For my class, I showed them my example article after they wrote theirs, however, depending on the level of writers it might be beneficial to read them the example and let them use it as a model. If you purchase, but would like an editable copy, please contact me directly.

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EPCC Computer Science students attend global symposium for their winning assignment

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Two EPCC Computer Science students, Ivan Alonso and Emilian Garcia, took their winning assignment, "The Fingerprint Assignment: An Interdisciplinary Assessment for CS I Education" at the Technical Symposium of the Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education in Portland, Oregon.

Alonso and Garcia, with the help of their professor, Dr. Christian Servin, presented their work on March 20th through the 23rd at the symposium.

The team's work was considered among the top six assignments globally for the current year. This is also the first time the session has accepted an assignment from a community college.

Alonso said the work he and Garcia did was challenging, but allowed him to have a deeper understanding of computer science. “Through participation in this research, I discovered knowledge beyond the classroom,” Alonso, said. “Engaging in research exposed me to real world applications and challenges, which fostered a deeper appreciation for the complexities of the field.”

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Valeria Medina

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What Students Are Saying About Why School Absences Have ‘Exploded’

Chronic absenteeism has increased in American schools since the Covid-19 pandemic. We asked teenagers what they make of the trend.

By The Learning Network

Nationally, an estimated 26 percent of public school students were considered chronically absent last school year, up from 15 percent before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the most recent data, from 40 states and Washington, D.C., compiled by the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

The increases have occurred in districts big and small, and across income and race.

In “​ Why School Absences Have ‘Exploded’ Almost Everywhere ,” Sarah Mervosh and Francesca Paris explain:

The trends suggest that something fundamental has shifted in American childhood and the culture of school, in ways that may be long lasting. What was once a deeply ingrained habit — wake up, catch the bus, report to class — is now something far more tenuous. “Our relationship with school became optional,” said Katie Rosanbalm, a psychologist and associate research professor with the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University.

In a related Student Opinion question , we asked teenagers if that explanation resonated with them. Had their relationship to school — and school attendance — changed since the pandemic? And if so, what did they make of this shift?

Many students said, yes, school feels different now. Why? They pointed to remote learning changing their routines, an increase in anxiety and a decrease in motivation, the ease of making up schoolwork online and much more. Read their responses in full below.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the conversation on our writing prompts this week, including students from Central Bucks South High School in Warrington, Pa .; Norwood High School in Norwood, Mass.; and West Salem High School in Salem, Ore.

Please note: Student comments have been lightly edited for length, but otherwise appear as they were originally submitted.

Remote learning made students comfortable with missing school.

I believe that there are two main contributors to missing school too much. The first is online school. Myself included. It was very easy to simply leave the call after taking attendance and the teacher wouldn’t realize. Skipping class was easy and you could still get high grades. Transitioning back to real school, kids still held that true. They knew that they could miss school and still do well because covid taught that to them. The second reason is punishment. When you miss school, nothing happens. Class goes on and you have a little extra homework the next day but that’s it. What is the issue with missing class is a very common thought and it’s true. There is very minimal downside to missing school. When I had surgery, I missed a full week of school and within a day and a half, I was fully caught up again. Missing school has just become all too easy.

— Xavier, Pennsylvania

2020 was when our lives completely changed for the worst. We all had to stay inside and stay separate from each other. It was terrible, not being able to talk to my friends, and seeing the death toll on news constantly rise. However, after a year into the pandemic, I believe students realized the power they now had, including me. Now that I am a highschooler, I am going to admit that sometimes I would just mute my class and do whatever I wanted. School became shorter and easier to pass than ever before. That’s why when we all transitioned back into school, it was weird. We all still wanted to get through class the “easy way,” yet now that we were back, it wasn’t possible. This is why we started increasing our absences. The threat of absence has become weak, students are not as afraid to stay out of school. Furthermore the threat of being infected gave just one more reason to be out of school, for the sake of “preventing others from getting sick,” when in reality you feel fine. That is most likely why the absences in school had an exponential increase.

— Joshua, Pennsylvania

Students feel like expectations are lower than they were before the pandemic.

As a student in high school, I’ve come to realize the horrible state our attendance has been in since the pandemic. The reason can be simplified into one idea: laziness. We are lazy, willing to do only enough to get by, no more, no less. If a student doesn’t need to come to a class to obtain the grade they wish to achieve, then they won’t show up. Classes are not challenging enough to make students feel that they are worth going to. My mom is used to getting texts from me during the school day, begging to be excused from a class where “we’re doing nothing” or, “I already finished the work,” which is true, yet I abuse the opportunity to miss class because I know there will be no greater coincidence, I will still be getting an A. Due to my laziness, I would rather be at home taking a nap than sitting in a class with no greater impact on my life.

— Clara, Salem, Oregon

Since the pandemic, schooling has been focused on getting students caught up to where we’re supposed to be. Consequently, more allowances are made for students who don’t do assignments or don’t even show up. And with the switch to all online because of the pandemic, things have never shifted back. If a student misses a day or even a week, they can easily see what they missed and do it and submit it from home. With this option giving them the exact same grade as it would if they actually went to school, it’s no wonder why students are choosing to stay at home or skipping class. Additionally, the pandemic had heightened anxiety levels in students, specifically social anxiety, making them less likely to show up. The allowances made by the school district for students has created a space for students to be lazy and get away with it. This is fostering a negative impact on student work ethic not only now, but also in the future when this generation will be entering the work force.

— Emma, West Salem High School

The period of school shutdowns got students out of their school routines.

When I think back to virtual learning, my brain automatically goes to how stress free it was. I was in sixth grade when Covid first hit and going through a period of my life where I was extremely anxious at school. I believe that this break is exactly what I needed at the time. However, I do believe that in the long run, this online learning time period got a lot of people into the routine of not having a routine. A lot of people at my school would turn their camera off and fall asleep or go on their phones during online learning. I believe that there were times that I did this as well. I also think that this mindset carried through into the grades where I did not have an online/hybrid option. In eighth and ninth grade, I happened to stay home sick, go into school late, or leave early a lot. I think this is due to me not taking school as seriously due to the grading methods that were being used and how some of my teachers were not grading harshly. Now that I am a sophomore in high school, I think I have finally gotten back into the routine of actual schooling and not staying home sick unless I actually feel extremely sick.

— Madison, Pennsylvania

Before the pandemic and as I was growing up, I was the kind of student that wanted perfect attendance. For some odd reason, it made me feel like a better student if I never missed a day. This included turning my parents down when they offered me to go on trips, even though I was only in fourth grade and the work that I would have missed wouldn’t have made an impact in my academic career. However, after the pandemic school began to feel optional. We felt what it was like to fall out of the routine that going to school was and were never able to fully recover from it. I think that having experienced attending school from your bed, in your pajamas has played a major role in the current trend of students receiving more absences. For me, it made me realize that the “0” next to your number of absences didn’t matter as much as I had once thought. As a now highschooler, the school days are long and every class requires an abundance of work and undivided attention that whenever there is a substitute or not much going on, it is easy to decide to leave school. With senior year approaching, everything’s purpose is college and the fact that colleges aren’t able to see how many absences a student has when they apply, does play a role in the increasing number of absences.

— Ava, Miami Country Day School

Because assignments and other materials are online, students find they can keep up with their classes even if they don’t attend school.

Schools have adjusted rules so much that it makes school feel optional. Don’t want to attend class publicly? Take online classes. Don’t want to take “required” state testing? Opt out. Before, school seemed strict, we didn’t have the option to opt out of tests, we didn’t think of taking online school. Yet now, schools make it so easy to skip because everything is simply online. Our assignments, lectures, and teachers are all online. There are no longer requirements in school. What’s the point of attending if we can graduate without taking state testing or attending advisory — also a requirement, yet I no longer have an advisory because my counselors said I don’t need to take it to graduate. It’s confusing. Students have been enabled for over 4 years now since quarantine started. School doesn’t feel mandatory, it’s optional. I’m currently enrolled into 2 AP classes, so I try my best not to miss school. But it’s inevitable, I get sick, I have family situations or maybe I simply don’t feel like attending school. But I see people skip school like nothing. “I didn’t feel like going” is a constant statement I hear. Not many students have the motivation to attend, and simply don’t go because they have a comfort in their head that they can graduate while missing multiple days of school nearly everyday.

— Olivia, Salem, OR

Current absenteeism rates have significantly impacted my learning experience for the past few years. Since the pandemic, there has been a noticeable shift in the perception of the value of education and whether or not attendance is an important factor in a student’s academic success. In the years following 2020, I found myself struggling to make it to class everyday due to my new found efficiency of working at home with my computer. I felt that even if I was not in class personally, I would be able to keep up with my work easily as it was all online regardless. Due to this I would go on trips or skip class purely because I was under the impression that I would be able to continue achieving virtually.

— Ruby, RFHS

Before the pandemic, my attendance was stable but after the pandemic, my absences were piling on. It was difficult to get back in the rhythm of in person school when I had already done a whole year online, but now my attendance in school is definitely getting better. On the other hand, students in my school tend to miss school and it is a rare sight to see a full class. Some students go as far as showing up to class once a week and just do the classwork online. After the pandemic, schools went from paperwork to all online, which is a big reason why students miss all the time, knowing that school work can just be done at home. It has definitely affected students’ grades and goals in life, but hopefully in the future, absences can lower back down.

— Emily, Atrisco Heritage Academy High School

Going to school, and finding the motivation to have as good an attendance record as possible, now feels like more of a struggle.

As students, we’ve developed a comfort in staying in bed during school without having to get ourselves ready to go outside. We had the ability to wake up five minutes before “school” started to get on our zoom calls. Now, we must wake up an hour and a half prior, and make breakfast and pack lunch, before driving to school. The process is tenuous as the article states, but because we’ve accustomed to a different lifestyle, it just makes this one seem like so much more work. I, myself have noticed my difference in attendance after COVID-19. I used to be very obsessed with perfect attendance, but I had 11 absences in my sophomore year, right after coming back from online school. Nowadays, I’m more lenient on myself when it comes to taking a mental health day, because the process can be overwhelming. School is very important, so of course I try to always come in, but sometimes it can be hard. I have not noticed this trend in the world, as well as with myself until this article. It’s enlightening to know that this had not only an effect on me, but all over the country. Hopefully the rates of absenteeism will decrease as time goes on, because we are the future.

— Anisha, New Jersey

Before virtual learning, I never made much of a habit of not turning in work or showing up for class. It was so much easier then but since virtual learning, it had become incredibly difficult for me to focus as well as keep up motivation to continue school. It was easy to skip and nobody really said much about it so it easily became a bad habit. That bad habit eventually leaked into normal school as well and it always sounds so much easier to break out of than it actually is.

— Tayy, NRHS

As the average high school class skipper (only sometimes), in my personal experience, missing out on classes hasn’t really been because of mental health concerns, but more of just lasting laziness from the pandemic. I feel as though I was relatively hard working in middle school/elementary but after a few years off with only half effort assignments, I have grown to become more sluggish and reluctant when it comes to more advanced work while in school. And it makes the option of missing out on classes because of my own reluctance a lot more appealing.

— Luke, Bali, Indonesia

My schedule during the week is get up, get ready for school, go to school, go home, do homework, go to sleep and then I repeat that everyday for 5 days. As much as I don’t want to dread going to school, it’s exhausting having the same schedule repeated everyday of the week. While in school, you have assignments assigned nearly everyday. I feel as though school has had a change in its meaning because of the COVID-19 pandemic. While in quarantine, we were looking at a screen for the whole day and lacked motivation to get assignments done. When we shifted to in person school again, it didn’t change. I now look at school as a task that I need to complete to shape my future. I need to have all my assignments perfect and turned in on time. The meaning of school has turned into a draining task rather than a place that you look forward to going to.

— Jamisan, Salem, Oregon

Some students face challenges in attending class that may have nothing to do with the pandemic.

I don’t believe that students are skipping because it is so easy to catch up and pass, despite their absences. In fact, I know that a lot of people who skip aren’t passing most of their classes. They do this because their parents don’t hold them accountable, and there is always something deeper going on in that student’s life that makes it that much harder for them to find the motivation to go to class. I don’t think making the classes harder will hold students more accountable, but in fact deter them from going to class at all. If a student is aware that they are failing and doesn’t understand the concept of the class, and the class proceeds to become harder, they are going to quickly become unmotivated to go to class in the first place, feeling out of place compared to the other — passing — students in the class. While I don’t have a solution for this problem, myself, I feel that the problem is much broader than we suspect, and the answer will be a much deeper journey to find.

— Kylie, West Salem HS

Schools can do more to get students back in class.

I attend a French school in London and attendance is closely monitored. Absences have to be justified by your parents or you could get into trouble. I think it’s important to attend school as we did before Covid - because as well as learning the curriculum, it is crucial to socialise with your friends and classmates, which is good for your mental health … I wonder if social media could be a factor? If students did not have access to social media or the internet, would they prefer to be in school with their friends? This increase in absenteeism could affect students’ chances of getting into University when they come to finish school or even their opportunities later in life. Students need to be reminded of this more and more perhaps. School helps you to learn not just about facts but also helps to build your emotional quotient & social intelligence — which are all valuable for life.

— Alexandre 14, London

As a current high school junior, my experiences with skipping have been minimal at best, however, I feel strongly that the reason behind skipping is pretty simple. Students don’t care as much about school and the system encourages it. When faced with the choice of sitting in a class and learning about the Patagorian theorem or hanging out with friends, many students are now choosing the latter. The lack of care or effort being put forth in school doesn’t even affect their grades! This is due to certain classes having minimal grades set at 50%, which is 10% away from a pass. This system is actively encouraging people to put minimal effort into a class just to get a pass and graduate. Removing courses like this would certainly raise the importance of getting the work done. Another solution to this problem would be having attendance as a grade, if your grade depends on you being in classes then most would show up. If you have to show up to class to pass then more students would be inclined to do so. The emphasis is on not bending the knee to people who don’t want to show up to class, not giving them a minimal 50%, we should mark attendance for a passing grade, and letting them fail. If we keep letting students skip with minimal consequences then their attitudes won’t change and thus hinder our students’ growth.

— Henry, Salem, OR

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ESPN Offers Insight into What Giants Might Do in First Round of Draft

People agree that the New York Giants need a quarterback, but there are different opinions about where and how the Giants should get one.

• Author: Patricia Traina
• Publish date: Apr 11, 2024

In this story:

The New York Giants wouldn't dare skip drafting a quarterback in the first round,  would they ?

That could very well be the case if  ESPN draft analyst Matt Miller's reporting  is accurate. Miller claims that "a high-ranking official with the team told me their draft plans are unlikely to include a first-round passer."

But fear not, Giants fans, because this news doesn't mean that the Giants will punt on the opportunity to add a quarterback. It's long been thought that for the Giants to get one of the top quarterbacks in this draft class--Caleb Wiliams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, and J.J. McCarthy--they would have to find a willing trade partner to move up, thereby potentially blocking the quarterback-needy teams like the Minnesota Vikings from dangling their two first-round picks this year as part of the compensation package to move up.

The Giants? They have just six picks in this draft class, and quite frankly, given the state of their roster, they need as many picks as possible to turn into quality starters and/or depth players if they want to continue improving their roster.

This is probably why Miller points out that although they won't admit it, the Giants have concerns about incumbent Daniel Jones's injury history. They could instead be looking to select a quarterback in the second round with the 47th pick. 

Or they could be aggressive and look to move up, as Miller notes, as the cost to move back into the bottom of the first round to get one of Michael Oenix Jr or Bo Nix or even a Spencer Rattler would be a lot more reasonable than having to give up draft capital this year and potentially next year to move up from six. 

Notes Miller, "A small trade up on Day 2—similar to what the Titans did last year to land Will Levis at pick No. 33—is possible."

ESPN also noted that, "If the right quarterback is there, the Giants wouldn't hesitate to make the move." But again, it's not as easy as it sounds if they can't find a trade partner or if the cost becomes so prohibitive that the team won't be able to address other needs.

In a couple of weeks, we'll find out how the draft board falls and how much Schoen is willing to give up to move up if the guy he wants is there. But if the board falls, as many mock drafts have predicted as far as the top quarterbacks being off the board by the time the fourth and fifth picks (realistic trade spots for the Giants if they move up) roll around, the Giants' best option at that point is likely to take a receiver at six or consider trading down.

And, as Miller said, look to trade back into the bottom of the first round where, in that instance, they would have both their franchise receiver and quarterback on rookie deals, which afford them the fifth-year option should they want to have one or both of those players sit.

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Julio Teheran designated for assignment 1 day after poor results in debut with Mets

New York Mets pitcher Julio Teheran delivers to an Atlanta Braves batter in the first inning of a baseball game Monday, April 8, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

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ATLANTA (AP) — New York Mets right-hander Julio Teheran was designated for assignment on Tuesday, one day after he lasted only 2 2/3 innings in his debut with the team.

The Mets selected the contract of right-hander Dedniel Núñez from Triple-A Syracuse before Tuesday night’s game against the Atlanta Braves.

Teheran, 33, gave up four runs in Monday night’s 8-7 win over the Braves. Teheran signed with New York on Friday. He began his career with Atlanta in 2011 and was an All-Star with the Braves in 2014 and 2016.

Teheran earns $2.5 million while in the majors and $150,000 while in the minors in his contract with the Mets . The deal also includes the possibility of $400,000 in performance bonuses.

Teheran spent spring training with the Baltimore Orioles but opted out of his minor league deal in late March when he didn’t make their opening-day roster. He was 3-5 with a 4.40 ERA in 11 starts and three relief appearances last year for NL Central champion Milwaukee.

Núñez, 27, pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings in relief for Syracuse this season. He has not pitched in the majors.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

This AI Tool Cut One Teacher’s Grading Time in Half. How It Works

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It usually takes Aimee Knaus, who has been teaching computer science for more than two decades, upwards of two hours to grade a classful of coding projects.

This school year, she cut that time roughly in half, with the help of an AI teaching assistant developed by Code.org, a nonprofit organization that aims to expand access to computer science courses, and the Piech Lab at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.

Knaus, who teaches middle school in Kimberly, Wis., was one of twenty teachers nationwide who tested the computer science grading tool’s capability on about a dozen coding projects also designed by Code.org, as part of a limited pilot project.

Beginning today, Code.org is inviting an additional 300 teachers to give the tool a try.

In early testing by Knaus and other teachers, the tool’s assessment of student work closely tracked those of experienced computer science teachers, said Karim Meghji, the chief product officer at Code.org. If that trend holds through this larger trial, the nonprofit hopes to make the tool widely available to computer science teachers around the country, he said.

Meghji would ideally like the tool to become widely available by the end of the calendar year, but the timeline will depend on the results of the broader testing.

‘I worry AI couldn’t push my students to the next level’

Many educators see helping teachers tackle time-consuming but relatively rote tasks— like grading —as a huge potential upside of AI. Curriculum company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Writable tool, Essaygrader, Gradescope, and others have already been released . And some teachers have experimented with using ChatGPT, an AI-powered writing and research tool, to grade papers.

But others are wary of outsourcing grading—especially on assignments that call for making subjective decisions about students’ writing or ideas.

“After all these years, I’ve worked to perfect my feedback and my process,” said Carly Ghantous, a humanities instructor at Davidson Academy Online, a private virtual school. “I worry that the AI wouldn’t be able to push my students to the next level of writing” as well as an experienced teacher could.

By contrast, the criteria for grading the coding projects that the computer science tool examined are cut and dry, Meghji explained.

The AI tool must determine whether a student’s coding project contains certain requirements—for instance, whether there are at least two changeable elements. That’s something the technology figures out quickly and accurately.

Megjhi predicts that, down the road, AI tools could frequently be tapped to help grade student work. Given the technical nature of computer science, it makes sense that the subject would be among the first out of the gate, he added.

“I think we have a unique situation with computer science and coding,” he said. “I do think that assessment will become an AI-assisted task for teachers across multiple subjects. I can’t say what that’s gonna look like for English or for social studies or other subjects. But I can tell you that I do think based on what I’ve seen in computer science that there is there’s definitely an opportunity for broader application.”

‘I had the answer key, but I didn’t know what I was doing’

Grading computer science tasks can be particularly tricky —and time consuming, Meghji said, which is why Code.org was interested in exploring possible AI solutions.

Many teachers who lead computer science courses don’t have a degree in the subject—or even much training on how to teach it—and might be the only educator in their school leading a computer science course.

Kevin Barry, a former social studies teacher, was tapped to teach computer science at his southern Maryland high school by a principal who noticed Barry’s facility with technology. Barry, who is one of a hundred educators who gave Code.org information to inform the development of its tool, hasn’t yet tested the product for himself.

Still, he already wishes that something like it had existed when he first stepped into the computer science teaching role nearly ten years ago.

Back then, “it took me even longer to grade because I didn’t know what I was grading,” said Barry, who teaches at La Plata High School. “I was learning it as I was doing it with the students. I had the answer key, but I didn’t know what I was doing.”

These days, the tool could help him challenge his highest flyers—giving Barry extra time to help those who may be struggling.

In his classes, “I’ve had the captain of the robotics team [and a] kid who lives on a farm and barely knows what the power buttons are,” along with 28 other students whose abilities are somewhere in between those extremes, Barry said.

“I have more advanced students that want to go on” to trickier projects, Barry said. If the tool was able to examine their work, “they can be working three assignments down the road.”

‘We should still always be the ones in control’

Knaus agrees that the tool could be a huge time-saver for teachers. She’s interested in seeing it go beyond grading, offering real-time feedback or assistance to students as they work on coding assignments.

Knaus was surprised by how in sync the tool’s assessment of student work seemed to be with her own. But if she disagreed with the tool’s estimation of an assignment, she wouldn’t hesitate to ignore the AI tool’s recommendation.

“I don’t know that it necessarily is going to always be completely accurate,” Knaus said. “When we think about AI, I think it’s really important for humans to understand that we should still always be the ones in control.

“I don’t think we want to get to the point where we trust AI” over our own knowledge, she concluded.

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