Summary
Carolyn Russ
Deep Run High School
Grades 9 – 12
How do you help 60+ students get ‘real world experience’ writing for a school newspaper that publishes six times a year? You take the newspaper online and create myriad opportunities for students to publish their work online!
In Journalism I and II classes, a dormant online version of the student newspaper was revived to serve as a showcase for timely student reporting. In order to make the online student newspaper project manageable and sustainable, the teacher encouraged and supported students assuming roles and responsibilities in posting approved articles in a timely manner.
Students followed class processes in which articles were assigned, written, submitted to peer editors and finally submitted to the journalism teacher / newspaper sponsor for review prior to being posted on the blog. A Google Doc was set up to coordinate and expedite the review and post approval process. The completely student run blog site can be viewed here: http://deeprunwildcats.org/sentinel.
TIPC Ratings
Not Applicable
Ideal (5)
Students were challenged to identify and assume roles relating to the reporting of news online. Once roles were established, a process was set up to ensure that stories would be edited and vetted by both their peers and the newspaper sponsor. That process consisted of a shared Google Sheet containing story assignments, links to the original digital stories, sign off cells for the peer editors, and a space for the sponsor to give final approval before the story was put online. Once the sponsor approved the story, students uploaded their work as a blog post and included an ‘eye catching’ image. Periodically, the journalism classes reflected on their work in terms of quality
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collaborative processes and changes were made in workflow and communication when deemed necessary.
Approaching (4)
Students utilized their writing skills and critical thinking processes to report on stories that were relevant to their peers in the school community. They typically created their stories using Google Docs thereby readily sharing their work with peer editors and the newspaper sponsor. They frequently edited their stories in response to feedback, suggestions and questions posed by the editors and their teacher. The students continually used higher order thinking skills to improve the quality of their writing and the overall content of the online newspaper.
Not Applicable
Student Artifact
