Parents are a great source. This is a year-long weekly activity. I start with having students clip complete articles from current newspapers. Students take question answers and rewrite the article from another viewpoint. I record television and radio broadcasts for classroom use.
Students create a cartoon on a current news topic.
Students can write editorials and letters to the editor. Also, encourage students to write letters to elected officials. This is a great homework activity. Evaluation criteria can be varied according to assignment difficulty.