How to Teach Writing: Newspaper Articles
Training students to write newspaper articles is an effective method of teaching economy in writing. By learning to get the facts down in the fewest possible words, students will be practicing an important writing skill. Also, news writing can challenge students to check online, print and first-person information sources for factual accuracy. For many, a unit on writing newspaper articles will provide them with their first experiences in actually reading the newspaper.
Instructions
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How to Teach Writing: Newspaper Articles
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1
Prepare students for writing their first articles by providing them with a collection of short articles you've clipped from the newspaper. Give students highlighters and pens and instruct them to highlight the first sentence in the article and to circle in pen the traditional "5 Ws": who the story is about, what happened, when and where it happened, and why it happened. Explain that normally the most important facts in a newspaper article are included in the first sentence.
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2
Ask students to write, for each clipped article they use in Step 1, what they believe to be the source for each piece of information in the article. Ask them to look for phrases such as "according to" or "Sources close to the president report that . . . " Challenge students to find anything in the article they consider questionable in terms of an appropriate source.
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3
Give students a series of facts, which you have garnered from a short news article. Explain that they are to accept the authenticity of the facts. Then ask students to construct a lead sentence made up of the major facts you have provided to them. Once they have composed their sentences, hand them copies of the original articles and ask them to compare the two leads. Explain that the rest of the article should be written with the information given in descending order of importance.
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4
Come up with a news event for students to cover. For example, you might ask them to write about an upcoming school event. Ask students to brainstorm a list of possible sources for information along with some questions they would need to ask. Facilitate an opportunity for students to question one source. For example, if the school librarian is in charge of an upcoming book fair, perhaps the librarian could come to the classroom both before and after the event and answer questions.
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5
Give students an opportunity to write articles based on the one news event. Divide students into small groups and ask them to compare their articles, looking for any differences in factual information and strengths and weaknesses in the writing. Explain that newspaper writers adhere to a particular style. Give them a few rules from the Associated Press stylebook and ask them to check the articles against those rules.
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