TweenTribune for the classroom
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Hear what 100 teachers are saying 
Step-by-step instructions for using TweenTribune and TeenTribune
- Fill in the form on this page, at left. We will notify you via email with your account information.
- After you receive your confirmation email, invite your students to join, by clicking the "Student sign up" link at the top of the homepage.
- To sign up, each student creates a unique username. No last names or spaces. Add letters or numbers if the username requested is taken.
- Students must select your classroom from a series of dropdown menus, beginning with your country. Finally, students provide the answer to a security question so they can reset their password if they forget it.
- After your students have signed up, ask them to select a story from the homepage or Topics menu and create a comment about the story. Comments do not appear until you publish them.
- Now you can log in to publish your students' comments using the "For teacher links" that appear on the right side of the page after you log in. If you have more than one classroom, choose the classroom you want using the "Change classroom" pulldown.
- Click the "Comments awaiting approval" link to review, then publish, your students' comments.
Here’s how TweenTribune and TeenTribune work. Each weekday, we scour the Web for age-appropriate news stories that will interest tweens and teens and invite them to comment. All comments are moderated by their teachers before they are published. Find out more about safety features, below.
Customize TweenTribune and TeenTribune for your classroom. Once your class starts using TweenTribune, the site will automatically generate custom pages showing:
- The stories your class has commented upon
- Individual comments by each student, on his or her own page
- All comments by your students, in one report that can be sorted by students’ names, comments, or dates
- And don't worry – you can moderate, edit, or delete your students’ comments before they’re published.
You can access all these features using a group of links that appear on the right side of every page at TweenTribune and TeenTribune. These links are labeled with a headline that reads "For teachers links."
Then click – you’ve just printed individual reports for every student in your class. Click the Print reports link, and you will print out individual reports for each of your students, showing the comments he or she has made on various stories. And each report contains space for you to critique the writing, analysis, or critical thinking reflected in your students’ comments. To download a sample report, click here.
Now what? That’s up to you. The stories at TweenTribune and TeenTribune can be relevant to almost any school subject – from social studies, to language arts, to science, to art. One German teacher asked her students to comment on the stories in German. Download this lesson plan developed by an art teacher in Virginia Beach, Va. Click to see the Top 10 Lesson Plans
Stay safe. TweenTribune and TeenTribune are in full compliance with COPPA - the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act – as outlined by the Federal Trade Commission. This means that:
- Students may not use their last names.
- Students may not use their email address anywhere on the site.
- We do not gather or store student email addresses.
- Teachers moderate students' comments before they are published.
- We only uses news stories from reputable news organizations, such as the Associated Press, and local newspapers and TV stations.
- Teachers' identities are independently verified before they are granted administrative privileges.
No classrooms to set up. No students to sign up. You may be tempted to register all your students yourself, but it makes more sense to let them do it themselves. Here's why:
- You can't sign up students if you are logged in. You must log out first.
- Your entire class can sign up themselves in less time than you can.
- If you create the student sign ups, then you'll need to manage their passwords. However, if they create their own usernames and passwords, they can reset their passwords without bothering you by providing the answer to the security question they submitted when they signed up.
Please note: Teachers are not permitted to share usernames/passwords with students. You must comply to maintain access to TweenTribune and TeenTribune.







