Goals:

To connect knowledge about hurricanes and other large storms to a creative writing assignment.

To write a newspaper article that is creative, well organized, and based on factual background information.

Content Areas:

Language Arts - writing newspaper articles

Science - weather and storms

Materials:

Journals

Pencils

Computers for publishing (if available)

Sample newspaper articles for reference

Procedure: (1 hour)

1) Introduce students to several newspaper articles that you have collected, or that they have been collecting throughout the past week. Discuss the elements of a newspaper article, the format used, the number of details covered, etc.

2) Pose this situation: A devastating storm (of your choice) hits your home town. Tell what happened before the storm hit, what it was like when it hit, and what you will do afterwards.

3) Students independently make a plan for a creative newspaper article in their journals.

4) Students write their newspaper articles.

5) Depending on how much time you allow for this activity, students could publish a class newspaper which include each student's article.

Assessment:

Students will be evaluated based on completion of this writing assignment. Criteria for success: The newspaper article must be creative, well-organized, and must be based on some principles of fact regarding storms, discussed earlier, to show evidence that factual learning took place.

The following rubric may be used as a tool for evaluation:


4 Newspaper article incorporated several creative ideas.
3 Newspaper article incorporated some creative ideas.
2 Newspaper article incorporated few creative ideas.
1 Newspaper article incorporated no creative ideas.


4 Newspaper article was very well organized, following the example of sample articles discussed in   class.
3 Newspaper article was mostly well organized and was similar to the sample articles.
2 Newspaper article was somewhat organized and followed the format of the sample articles minimally.
1 Newspaper article was not well organized and did not follow the sample format discussed in class.


4 Newspaper article included several factual references regarding storms.
3 Newspaper article included some factual references regarding storms.
2 Newspaper article included a few factual references regarding storms.
1 Newspaper article included no factual references regarding storms.

This lesson could be extended to publishing an actual newspaper about the devastating storms. The paper could be “sent” to other classrooms around the school and could also be sent home to parents.

Making Waves - written by Jennifer Cannistra, Jamie Hanna, Michael LeRoy, & Kim Mongoven

Back to Week 1 - Day 4

This page was submitted by St. Norbert College Ocean Voyagers Program