District Newspaper

I was recently approached by an assistant superintendent and asked if I was interested in tackling a project with my fifth grade writing classes. She asked me if I wanted to create a feature story for the district newspaper. She went on to tell me that I had a week to complete it if I were to take it on. As a new teacher, I figured all I could do was smile and say, "of course I will do that". As I scrambled to try and find ideas for the paper the week deadline seemed like it was rapidly approaching.

Here is what I came up with. (I teach writing to all three fifth grade classes).
1. Class number one-Research photography and learn how to write captions. Have the class walk around the school and snap photos they feel may fit well in a feature story. After taking the pictures, have the students create catchy captions to go along with them.
2. Class number two-Create a short story using the five senses about our school. Use the writing process to complete the story.
3. Class number three-Conduct an press conference with the school principal. After researching and learning about the lives of news reporters this class actually held a press conference with the principal.

It was a long week that took a lot of hard work to pull off but in the end the kids did a fantastic job with it. The feature story was a success! I received an email from the superintendent himself saying how great the story turned out. That was very nice to hear but in the end all of the credit goes to my students. After all, they were the ones that put in the work.