The Daily News

Knowledge Constructor

Overview

In 5th grade, students can begin researching and interviewing others on topics for a weekly or monthly newsletter for the school. The students will learn interviewing techniques as well as become better writers.

Using either a Google Docs template or a Word template, the students can easily fill in the blanks with stories and images. Learning how to use the template should only be a 20-30 minutes activity, but the creation and writing of the newsletter will take several class periods each month.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

Be able to write stories for a weekly or monthly newsletter.
Be able to use a template to create the newsletter.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary Words:

Template: A template is a file that serves as a starting point for a new document.
Newsletter: Stories of interest written and printed for a narrow audience.

Pre-planning

To prepare for this lesson:

Decide which template will be most appropriate for the students.
- Crafty Teacher 5th Grade News template free for use
- Elementary School Newsletter by Office
- Google Docs - Go to Google Drive, New Document, Template
- Create your own template for the students for them to copy each month
Place the students into groups and assign them a month that they will be responsible for.
Teach the students interviewing techniques.
Use the How to Conduct a Journalistic Interview from Junior Scholastic.
If the students do not know how to add images in the newsletter, this will have to be an additional lesson. Teach them how to add the image and wrap/break text around the image. You may want to standardize on the margin.

Accommodations

See Accommodations Page and Charts on the 21things4students.net site in the Teacher Resources.

Steps

Directions for this activity:

The teacher will group the students and give them roles.
Each group will be assigned a month to be responsible for the newsletter.
The teacher will share the newsletter template with the students.
The students in their groups will be assigned different types of stories for the newsletter e.g. what is going on in the classroom, the school, the community, sporting events, music and art events.
The students will interview and write stories for the newsletter.
The students will add images/photos to the newsletter.
The students will share the newsletter with parents, students and the community.

Assessment Options

Different options for assessing the students:

Observations
Check for understanding
Rubistar has a rubric template for newspapers.

MITECS COMPETENCIES & ISTE STANDARDS

MITECS: Michigan adopted the "ISTE Standards for Students" called MITECS (Michigan Integrated Technology Competencies for Students) in 2018.

Knowledge Constructor
3a.Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.
3c. Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.
3d. Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.