Title of Project: Focus on Education Newspaper

Grade Level: 9-12

Number of Students Participating:

Contributed by: Todd County High School; Todd County School District

Overview/Description of Project: Students wrote and edited a newspaper for the school system designed to promote positive home, school and community relations.

Goals:

1. to teach students how to write and edit a newspaper

2. to provide opportunities for the students to develop journalism skills

3. to provide an informative newspaper for both parents and teachers

Core Content Areas:

Communication and Math Skills 1.2, 1.11, 1.16: Students both wrote and edited stories for the newspaper. Students used computer skills to design their newspaper.

Arts and Humanities 2.22: Students used design and layout techniques to plan each of their newspapers.

Vocational Studies 2.36, 2.37: Students developed a better understanding of careers in journalism. They developed good work ethics to ensure that deadlines were met for each issue.

Self-Sufficiency 3.1, 3.3, 3.4, 3.7: Creating the newspaper provided many opportunities for the students to use resourcefulness, creativity and flexibility. They learned to work independently on their assigned tasks.

Responsible Group Membership 4.1, 4.2, 4.4, 4.6: The newspaper helped students learn to work cooperatively to meet deadlines and produce a quality product. They learned to accept alternative views from editorials or other articles submitted for publication. They learned to be responsible for completing their own tasks on time.

Thinking and Problem-Solving 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5: This project provided an excellent way for students to use critical, creative and conceptual thinking skills. It also allowed them to make decisions and solve problems relevant to the project.

Integration of Knowledge 6.1, 6.2, 6.3: Students used their existing knowledge to plan the project and developed new knowledge as the project progressed.

STEP BY STEP GUIDE

STEP 1: PREPARATION

1. The students saw the need to open up the lines of communication between students and teachers, as well as the school and community. They suggested developing and distributing a student-run newspaper to promote better community relations.

2. Requests for articles were sent to each of the schools to encourage teachers and staff members to write stories that would be of interest to others in the district. In addition, the students wrote their own articles.

3. A speaker from the local newspaper came into the classroom to discuss how to write effective news articles and the importance of including the Who, What, Why, Where, and How in each story. The speaker also discussed career opportunities in journalism and the different jobs held within each newspaper publication office.

4. Students broke into groups, with each assigned a different role based on the information provided to them from the speaker. For example, students held the positions of editor, writer, photographer, and distributor. Students rotated jobs so that they could gain a well-rounded experience in the production of the newspaper.

5. Students studied the layout and design of different newspapers and decided how they would like to structure their newspaper.

6. Students learned desktop publishing programs to produce their newspaper.

STEP 2: ACTION

1. Students generated the quarterly newspaper with both articles they had written and edited from submissions.

2. The newspaper was distributed to all schools in the district as well as the general community.

STEP 3: REFLECTION & CELEBRATION/DEMONSTRATION

1. Students encouraged people to send comments, suggestions and criticisms after each issue was distributed. They made appropriate changes based on this information. After each issue, students critiqued the newsletter and determined how they could continually make it better. They also critiqued their own and each others’ work ethics.