Project Description
Are fourth grade students able to successfully use the Internet to conduct research, take notes, organize the information and then publish it? From my own experience in the classroom, the answer is no, at least not proficiently. Although one might think that nine and ten year olds grew up with technology by their side, do they actually know how to use the Internet to research information that is important to the community? Through this project, fourth grade students will collaborate with one another to gather relevant information from both print and digital sources to create their own newspaper in the form of an infographic.
This project will begin with a newspaper project kick-off, where students will have the opportunity to meet with an editor from a local newspaper. Next, a series of lessons will take place on how to research possible topics that students may want to include in the newspapers that they create. Working in small groups, students will then skim and scan new sources to find information that they want to share with the local community. Group meetings will be held and students will be assigned specific jobs, such as a writer, editor or publisher. Students will then create their own news stories and publish them by using the online website, easelly, which will allow them to create a digital newspaper that will be shared with the community. In order for students to be successful, they will use Chromebooks to conduct the research, write the stories, and publish the newspaper.
The success of this project will be based on a variety of different formative and summative assessments, including teacher observations, conferences with students, student self-assessments and rubrics.
This project will begin with a newspaper project kick-off, where students will have the opportunity to meet with an editor from a local newspaper. Next, a series of lessons will take place on how to research possible topics that students may want to include in the newspapers that they create. Working in small groups, students will then skim and scan new sources to find information that they want to share with the local community. Group meetings will be held and students will be assigned specific jobs, such as a writer, editor or publisher. Students will then create their own news stories and publish them by using the online website, easelly, which will allow them to create a digital newspaper that will be shared with the community. In order for students to be successful, they will use Chromebooks to conduct the research, write the stories, and publish the newspaper.
The success of this project will be based on a variety of different formative and summative assessments, including teacher observations, conferences with students, student self-assessments and rubrics.