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Newspaper Reporters: An Introduction to Newspaper Writing

Newspaper Reporters: An Introduction to Newspaper Writing

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Students are usually much more interested in purposeful writing than in writing essays about what they did on their summer vacation. Writing articles for their own newspaper is a purposeful writing activity that most children greatly enjoy. This forty-eight-page book provides a framework for teaching about newspapers through activities then it has children create their own newspaper.

The first section introduces children to the parts of a newspaper through hands-on activities. Reproducible activity pages help them prepare before they start searching through the newspaper looking for articles, stories, and information. A variety of writing assignments are scattered throughout the lessons. The technical aspects of layout, typesetting, and printing are briefly covered with activities included.

Then students begin to work on creating their own newspaper articles. They learn how to write different types of articles and headlines. They work on organization, note taking, and other writing skills. They conduct interviews, do background research, compose advertisements, and prepare puzzles and comic strips.

Children can work through the activities individually, but I suspect it will be most successful when used with two or more children who can share ideas and encourage one another.

Teacher Created Resources also offers “blank” newspapers ($7.99) for children to use as they work. The newspaper forms come fifteen to a package with each paper having four 11” x 17” pages, folded tabloid style. Red and black outlines and some headings are preprinted on the forms. Lined sections are designed for students to fill in their articles. Boxes are set aside for advertisements, pictures, a puzzle, an editorial cartoon, and a comic strip.

I suggest allotting a month or two for each child to work on creating his or her own newspaper, working on all of the different types of writing and creating puzzles, cartoons, and advertisements. The publisher suggests using these materials with children in grades three through five.