Overview

The Learning Network is the educational arm of The New York Times. It provides free classroom resources for teachers, students (grades 6-12), and parents, using daily NYT reporting to teach media literacy and critical thinking. Its core offerings include lesson plans, student opinion prompts, news quizzes, visual thinking challenges (like “What’s Going on in This Picture?”), and a “Word of the Day,” drawn from Times articles, videos, and graphics across subjects such as social studies, English, science, and math. The platform operates as an editorial-side project run by editors and freelance educators, not tied to the newspaper’s business side. Content is accessible without a NYT subscription and is designed to foster student engagement through moderated comments and opportunities to interact with journalists. The goal is to connect journalism with classroom learning, promote critical thinking, and support media literacy while broadening the Times’ educational reach.