The Scoop on Current Events!

Making it Real

Have students work in pairs or small groups to design a page for a class newspaper.  This printing press interactive from ReadWriteThink.org is engaging and walks students through the writing/publishing process step by step.  It does require some familiarity with technology, so be sure to test it out yourself and determine whether your students have the necessary experience or will require some direct instruction or support.

Or

As you prepare the next edition of whatever you use for classroom news, invite the students into your process and ask for their help.

  • Kindergarteners can help with lots of drawings to represent their ideas in the early part of the year.  For help with these youngest students, here’s a lesson plan from Scholastic.
  • Assign specific roles such as reporters, editors, and photographers and have them help gather material for the next edition.  (What’s happening in specific curriculum areas, specials, field trips, class pet news, etc.)
  • Compose short articles together or in small groups, remembering to address the 5W’s and H.
  • Once you have enough raw material, you can have a whole-group discussion to prioritize what items to include. (determining importance) (“We only have so much space.  What will be most interesting and useful to our readers?” 
  • In small groups students can practice summarizing by generating headlines for stories and captions for images.

 


IntroductionBig IdeasStructure & FormatAnalysis & Practice
Making it RealDigging DeeperKid-friendly News