Goals:

To facilitate an understanding of the importance of newspapers in today's world.

To facilitate an understanding of the components of a newspaper.

To use the steps of the writing process to publish a newspaper.

To facilitate an understanding between the different aspects of writing for a newspaper in comparison to other forms of writing.

To help students raise money (fundraising/advertising) to publish their newspaper and to have them understand some of the decisions that go into the length and distribution of a newspaper according to the amount of money invested in it.

To help the class publish a newspaper focusing on what it has learned about the explorers and their accomplishments.

Content Areas:

History - newspaper focus is on historical events

Language Arts - writing and editing involved in publishing a newspaper

Math - figure out the cost of each newspaper

Materials:

A variety of newspapers the students brought from home or that the school (or teacher) provides.

Procedure: (1 hour per day)

Day One
 
1) Divide the students into groups to discuss the different types of newspapers they have collected. Have each group list the different parts of a newspaper.

2) When the groups are finished, begin a class discussion where each group explains their list (Example: Why did they list a sports section? Why is that important to a newspaper?). Then come up with a master class list.

3) Once the class list is made, ask the class why they think a newspaper is important to our society? (or if they think it is important.)

4) Explain to the students that all week long they will be creating a (somewhat) historically accurate newspaper about the explorers. (Somewhat meaning that some aspects of time will be overlooked because not all the explorers sailed and "explored new worlds" during the same time period. All of the articles should be appropriate and accurate for the general time period we consider to be the "age of exploration.") The class as a whole has to decide on the sections they would like to include in the newspaper, in order to have a successful, profitable, and informative run. Every person in the group will pick a different section and will then have to draw from a hat for what day of the week they write for that section. (So that everyone in a particular group ends up writing for a different section and so that all of the sections contain different articles written on different days.) Each person will write an article having to do with something they learned in one of their classes that day as long as it fits under their assigned section of the newspaper.

5) Once explained, a rubric will be passed out for peer editing. The teacher will then explain how each student in the group will have to be an editor for everyone else in their group so the best quality article gets put in as an example of the student's and group's best work.

6) The teacher (or the groups themselves) will choose who writes for what section and then the people in each section will have to choose who writes an article about Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. (Depending on class size, there might be an overlap of days, but then it would be best to just have those students make sure they write on different topics.)

7) After the students have decided who is doing what and when, have the people who are writing articles for Monday start their articles and have the rest of the students make advertisements for the classified section so they can "sell" space in their newspaper to publish it. (Some ideas are parents, businesses, students from other classes, teachers, clubs and friends who can buy ad space or classified space in the newspaper.) The catch is: like the rest of the paper, the ad or classified section must have something to do with "the age of the explorers."

8) When students are finished writing their articles and advertisements, they will get back into groups and edit the article for the day.

9) The groups will then turn in their articles to the teacher who will help with extra ideas and editorial comments.

10) The student writing the article will take it home and make the changes there. However, the student must hand in every draft and every review for full credit.




Day 2
 

1) The students will get into their groups and while one person is writing his/her article for the day the others will be fixing the first article as a group, with the final editorial comments.

2) The students will then help edit/give ideas for the second article of the day and then have the teacher go over it for more ideas.

3) The student will bring it home to fix it up for the next day.

4) Any free time a group or student might have would be spent either drawing pictures for the articles, coming up with classifieds and advertisements, or working on the layout of the paper with the teacher. Hopefully, if the classroom allows, the progressing layout of the paper will be put on a table for all to see the work in progress and volunteer ideas for what should be put where. The teacher gets to write the cover story.




Day 3
 

1) The students will get into their groups. While one person is writing his/her article for the day, others will be fixing up the second article as a group with the final editorial comments.

2) The students will then help edit/give ideas for the third article of the day and have the teacher go over it for more ideas.

3) The student will bring it home to fix it up for the next day.


Day 4
 

1) The students will spend the day discussing how much money was raised and how profitable their venture was and could be in the future.

2) The students and teacher will also work on a layout and any final revisions to the layout that a group or student suggests.


Day 5
 

1) The students will present their final copy of the newspaper to another class.

2) Afterwards the students, as a class, will discuss what they learned about newspapers and what goes into making them.

3) They will then each do a peer review and group evaluation based on their groups effort.

Assessment:

To have students understand the importance of newspapers in today's world, they will be assessed by the quality of their presentation, their final copy, their participation in class discussions, and their individual and group effort.

See Peer Evaluation and Group Work Rubric

Newspaper Rubric:
 

All of the following criteria will be graded on a 5 point scale (5=excellent, 4=good, 3=fair, 2=poor, 1=no effort):
 
Is article well written?

Does the article reflect some of the knowledge they have retained throughout the week?

Did the students work well together?

Does the layout look professional?

Did everyone actively participate in the editorial process?

Extensions:

Each student could write one article for every section and then do a compare/contrast essay about the different styles of writing in each section.

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