Creating a Classroom Newspaper

Overview

Featured Resources

From Theory to Practice

 

OVERVIEW

Students will enjoy this creative, exciting, and stimulating lesson in writing as they create authentic newspaper stories. As they are transformed into reporters and editors, they will become effective users of ICT in order to publish their own classroom newspaper. Various aspects of newspapers are covered, including parts of a newspaper, writing an article, online newspapers, newspaper reading habits, and layout and design techniques.

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FEATURED RESOURCES

• Printing Press: In this online interactive tool, your students can choose the "newspaper" option to help them complete their newspaper section.
  
  
• Newspaper Story Format: Your students will find completing their newspaper article a snap by first filling out this useful handout that helps them identify each key element of an authentic newspaper article.

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Lund, D.M., & Sanderson, D.A. (1999). From printed page to multimedia: Evolution of a second-grade class newspaper. Reading Online. Available: http://www.readingonline.org/articles/art_index.asp?HREF=lund/index.html.

• Encouraging children to read and write in ways that allow them to make sense of real language in real contexts is more likely to help them develop the skills necessary to become fluent readers and writers. Creation of a class newspaper provides such a real context, and thus makes an excellent choice as the basis for a project designed with this goal in mind.
  
  
• Use of the computer motivates students to learn and students' attitudes toward the newspaper genre are affected by active participation in the production of an authentic and original newspaper of their own.
  
  
• Abilities in formal writing are best developed with a "process approach" that goes through five distinct phases: prewriting, composing or drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Using this approach helps students more fully understand the process of producing formal written documents, such as magazines and newspapers.

 

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