In March, students across the UK are being given the opportunity to become journalists for a day: Newsday 2008, (www.newsday.co.uk) in association with learnnewsdesk.co.uk, encourages students to write, edit and assemble their own newspapers. The project aims to engage pupils with the demands of working to a deadline, reporting with accuracy and representing the public interest. A lesson on the workings of a newsroom gives students the chance to engage with the issues of the day as well as the opportunity to create their own response to the society they live in.

How papers work

Introduce pupils to the role and function of the key members of a newsroom (http://tinyurl.com/yt9mhd). Encourage groups of students to write a job description for each of the roles outlined in the Guardian Newsroom's factsheet (http://tinyurl.com/ys66uk), stressing the skills and personal qualities that would be necessary in each case. Challenge students to design an ideal layout for a large-scale newsroom, taking into account the location of each department in relation to the other before reading about the Telegraph's state of the art "news hub" (http://tinyurl.com/ytkkky). Place the work of the newsroom in context by exploring the workings of a large-scale news organisation (http://tinyurl.com/2bsv9a). In the history classroom, explore the origins of the British newspaper (http://tinyurl.com/ysurbq). Younger pupils might prefer to browse a timeline detailing the history of the Guardian from its Manchester origins to its recent redesign (http://tinyurl.com/26wzbm).

Write your own paper

Challenge students to run their own newsroom. Newsday 2008 offers schools the chance to submit a newspaper of their own making to a national competition. Registration is free, and is supported by a comprehensive resource pack (http://tinyurl.com/2z8j2a). If students would prefer to write a single short report, these can be submitted to the Guardian's daily newsdesk for schools (www.learnnewsdesk.co.uk). See below for how to access it.

Introduce students to the anatomy of a front page (http://tinyurl.com/23zg6e). Ask students to examine front pages from newspapers published in 1821, 1959 and 1988 (http://tinyurl.com/2y4893). Ask them to look at how the way news is written, formatted and presented has changed over time. The key to good journalism is appreciating the difference between fact and opinion: ask students to do a quiz to find out how to avoid bias in their own writing (http://tinyurl.com/25nk72). Younger pupils might be encouraged to scrutinise how articles used on the CBBC Newsround site are written before, embarking upon their own Press Pack assignment (http://tinyurl.com/ypthf4).

New technologies

The BBC's School Report encourages students to take up their video cameras and to report on local issues as part of a nationwide project that will see news films linked to the BBC News site (http://tinyurl.com/25utur). Tips and ideas about finding and gathering news are provided online (http://tinyurl.com/284s4d) in a series of interactive lessons that encourage students to write topical stories with clarity and precision. Some commentators, however, have declared the death of newspapers to be imminent. Ask pupils to list the threats that traditional newspapers face to their circulation figures and readership levels (including the rise in free papers, the internet and the popularity of new technologies - http://tinyurl.com/2amodk). As part of Newsday 2008, pupils can submit their own blogs to the national competition. In the media studies classroom, explore the rise and rise of the blog (http://tinyurl.com/3bggw6). Challenge students to write and record their own podcast using an online guide to podcasting (http://tinyurl.com/4gczd). Students can send their podcasts to Be a Reporter at www.learnnewsdesk.co.uk - the best will be published on the site. Read about the spread of the podcast (http://tinyurl.com/37bjxj). Finally, ask students to research new technologies tipped for success (http://tinyurl.com/2uumy8). How might these technologies be used by news organisations to give people access to stories and information?