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Grade 7s study composition of the newspaper

 Last term, students in my Grade 7 class expressed excitement when they heard about their first assignment for the year: to learn how to read a newspaper.  Many students admitted that besides looking at the pictures and simply skimming the paper, they really didn’t read in depth or recognise how a newspaper was organised.  

In our Social Studies and Language Arts classes, students learned about the history of Fort Nelson News.  Leah Edmunds from the news office put a diagram on the board describing various components of the front page and an article. Students were amazed to learn that their school, R.L. Angus, is named after Robert Lyle Angus, the Editor of Fort Nelson News from 1960 to 1973.  He took over from Ma Murray who ran the paper from 1959 until 1960.  The current Editor and owner of Fort Nelson News is Judith Kenyon.  She has been running the paper since 1974.  From learning the history, to the different parts of the newspaper, students quickly became enthused with this educational experience.

The news office’s reporter, Kathy Smith, brought bound copies of archival newspapers to the classroom, which corresponded to everyone’s year of birth. She interviewed some of the students, and photographed their progress leading up to the completion of their final project. Students carefully leafed through the archives to find their ‘birthday week’ newspapers.  My students and I were delighted to see their baby pictures with birth announcements, and photos of their relatives.  Additionally, they loved comparing the cost of groceries and dinner specials dating back to 2000 compared to today. Jordan Streeper, for example, could not believe that a turkey dinner was only $6.49!  Students shared many ‘oh my’ moments during this process.

Students began the process by learning about the different features of the newspaper and gained a better understanding of which section to look at when interested in particular information and news.  They went on to identify different elements of the newspaper which tied into their Language Arts curriculum.

Articles were read as a class and they learned how to make predictions based on reading the titles and looking at the photos, as well as how to write a summary based on the most important details presented in the articles.  Students were able to compare and contrast the difference between an effective and ineffective title and introductory paragraph, and focussed on their writing skills through writing detailed summaries.

Lastly, literary terms and parts of speech were studied and reviewed; students searched for nouns, verbs, adjectives, synonyms, catchy headlines, and advertising strategies. I would have to say that my students had the most fun reading the ‘Police Beat’; this section definitely aided in our conversation about reading for entertainment!

After the research and newspaper search was completed, students created pennants and placed them on their posters, which they presented to the class.  Their posters showed their birthday newspaper, baby photos, and current photos. Students researched their birth year, and collected interesting information including popular trends in clothing and music, as well as important public figures during this time. Students wrote biography poems about their own personal characteristics, which allowed them to educate themselves on their qualities as a community member in Fort Nelson. It was a great introductory assignment, and gave students the opportunity to learn more about themselves and each other.

One of their favourite parts of this newspaper project was completing their creative writing assignments and displaying their very own personal ‘Front Page’ news stories.  Through their writing, I could really recognise the popular genres and trends right now, as a lot of students wrote about vampires and zombies!  This creative writing proved to be so valuable, and it really allowed my students to display their various reading, writing, and communication skills on so many levels.

Some students talked about their favourite parts of this learning experience; Hailey Graham enjoyed creating her poster, while Danielle Lomen says, “My favourite part was noticing how the style of the layout has changed over the years.” Shreya Kandola says, “Finding my birth announcement was my favourite part, and researching everything that happened in 2001.”

The best part for Mahlia Partridge was, “Looking through the newspaper and colouring because I love to colour.  My birth announcement was in the paper a couple of months after I was born because my mom was trying different ways to spell my name.  I work for the news office delivering papers, so it’s cooler now because I can see how the newspaper works!”

Carter Saunders, also a paper carrier, says his favourite part of the project was, “Saying what I love in the bio poem that describes my life.  I learned that things are placed differently in the paper now than then, and the movies advertised before were really old.  What sticks out in the newspaper now is that it’s so colourful, and back then it was quite plain.  Working for the paper gives me a sneak peak at what’s in the news before anyone else gets to see it, and also my birthday was the same day the paper came out, which was February 28th, 2001.”

It is so important to keep up with our local news and this was a great way for students to gain the confidence and knowledge they need to really dig into our community activities, involvement, and the news that affects them.  It was great to see them so interested in reading, looking at the photos, and as a whole, completing this lengthy and very in-depth project.   All of the elements of this assignment assisted in the student’s ‘Guided Reading and Writing’ programs; recognising the importance of writing with colour and detail, and learning and utilising strategies of reading with purpose and meaning.

Overall, my students had a wonderful time with this assignment and worked very diligently on all elements of it.  I feel these skills are all transferable, and are really going to assist in their up-coming research project on the Winter Olympic Games.  When researching online and through newspapers, students will be able to use their acquired skills to learn about the history of the Olympics, and follow individual sports, marketing, and media strategies for advertising and news coverage.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Fort Nelson News staff for assisting us with this amazing experience!

Submitted by Deidre Sittler

Grade 7 Teacher

R. L. Angus Elementary School

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