A classroom newspaper activity promotes student creativity and cooperation while meeting national learning standards and No Child Left Behind mandates.
One of the primary grievances educators have with the No Child Left Behind mandate is the focus on assessment. Does extreme focus on National Standards stand in the way of creative lesson plans that also encourage imagination? Sometimes. Can a committed English or language arts teachers promote imagination and critical thinking while ensuring that students also make adequate yearly progress in literacy? Absolutely! However, in order to ensure that students have every opportunity to meet content standards, lesson plans must grow out of state and national benchmarks for reading and writing. Likewise, assessment rubrics must be an absolute extension of the National Standards.
A classroom newspaper is a perfect opportunity for students to reflect on reading, engage in process writing across the curriculum, practice grammatical skills, share learning with a student and parent audience, and learn cooperative and leadership skills within the context of the classroom. Best of all, students and teacher will have the hands-on satisfaction of documenting a year’s worth of learning.
First, get students excited about the idea of a newspaper by allowing them to brainstorm on a newspaper name and motto. Teachers may even want to make the name and motto selection into a classroom competition. Next assign editorial committees for each individual publication (determine committees and due dates in advance). With the help of the teacher, each editorial committee should have the job of choosing which class authors are published, organizing content, determining fillers, and ultimately publishing an issue using computer software. Depending on the length of the paper, a different editorial committee might produce a paper each month, every two months, or perhaps only once a quarter.
Writing assignments can vary according to curriculum and standards being covered. For instance, students might study and write book reviews in lieu of traditional book reports. Expository assignments might include an explanation of trends in popular culture, theatre reviews of movies or school performances, descriptions of hot new games or technology, a biography of an author or famous local hero, or an interview with a teacher, community member, student, or guest speaker. Students could likewise practice persuasive writing by posting letters to the editor or op-ed pieces regarding school, community, or national events and narrative writing by submitting personal experiences or family traditions. After reading humorous or satiric essays modeled by authors such as James Thurber or Mark Twain, students might try their own hand at writing humor. Creative pieces or assignedpoetry should likewise be given a spotlight.
In addition to articles, editorial committees might decide to use software to create crossword puzzles or word searches using assigned vocabulary. For fillers, elementary and middle school students would enjoy riddles while high school students would benefit from SAT analogies. Students at any level might include cartoons, famous literary quotations, artwork, recipes, and a schedule of upcoming school events.
With specific assessment rubrics for each assignment, teachers can guide students to integrate textbook lessons on writing structure, grammar and mechanics into polished writing assignments fit for publication. Most importantly, all students should be included in the process and product so that no child really will be left behind.
