News Flash
By Caroline Wyman
Objective: The students will be able to read a newspaper article and give a brief summary of it. Grades 2-4
Initiation: Have a recent newspaper article in hand and give a brief summary of to the class. Make sure it is an article that is of interest to the class, and discuss it.
Development: After talking about the article let the class know that they are going to become newspaper journalists and that they have to read the newspaper and come up with the best article that they can find, which they will present to their assigned groups. The article has to be recent and it has to be something that your students think their classmates will enjoy learning about. Once they have chosen their article, they will give a brief summary to their group and the group will pick which article they enjoyed the best. Once the group has done this they will then present the article to the other groups and will narrow it down to one article. That article should be chosen as the best and most interesting article of all the articles presented to the class. That article will become the front page news. Using large roll out construction paper the class will create a huge newspaper of their own. On the first page the chosen article will be summarized and written out in large print along with a personal illustration. The Inside of the paper will be filled with each student's individual summarized article and an illustration. Once everyone has completed the summary and illustration the large newspaper can be used in a center as the reading material that each student can enjoy and learn about. Leave a "Your Favorite and Why" sheet next to the newspaper so that each student can write about which article they found most interesting and why. Put the sheets in a shoebox and share them once a week.
Closure: After everyone has read the newspaper hang it on a bulletin board in the hallway so that other teachers and students can enjoy the information.
Materials: Interesting article to share, large construction paper, and markers/crayons.
Time: Will vary.
Caroline Wyman has a degree in Sociology and a Masters in Elementary Education and is the administrator for TeacherNet.com.