Just One Day: Using a Newspaper Front Page as a Window to Inquiry and Research – Library of Congress

Just One Day: Using a Newspaper Front Page as a Window to Inquiry and Research
June 10, 2025

Posted by: Cheryl Lederle

This post is by Diana Laufenberg, Executive Director and Lead Teacher for Inquiry Schoo
Students might be accustomed to reading pages from significant dates in history, but one day of news from a random day can provide many avenues for questioning and research. I would love to give this page to students and see what they could figure out in 30 minutes.

If I were still in the classroom I might use a randomizer to generate a date and a year between 1890-1960 and send the students into Chronicling America to see what the country was talking about that day.

Students could look through local, regional, or more nationally focused papers. They might nominate articles for most random story, biggest national impact, strangest reporting, a story about something still relevant today, a story about something completely irrelevant today, something connected to a topic studied, something or someone they’ve never heard about before, or most striking advertisement.

Students might choose one article and see what they could discover about the people or events featured in it.

One could also choose a day before or after something historic happened, ask students to see what else made the news that day, and discuss how newspapers (or any media) decide what to give space to.

The Chronicling America homepage features a “100 years ago today” carousel from which students might select a paper.

Read more: Just One Day: Using a Newspaper Front Page as a Window to Inquiry and Research – Library of CongressSource Links: Just One Day: Using a Newspaper Front Page as a Window to Inquiry and Research | Teaching with the Library