CROSS-PHASE LITERACY DAY
Case study of a newspaper project involving KS2 and KS3 students.
Aims of the day: To develop closer links between Bullion Lane Primary School and The Hermitage School, Chester-le-Street. To enhance the literacy skills of both the KS2 and KS3 students.
To develop the students' understanding of how newspapers are produced: from basic story-writing, through proofing to layout and editorial decisions.
To produce a completed newspaper within a one-day deadline.
Preparation
About 3 - 4 weeks before the cross-phase day, 7SH, a tutor group of 23 students, were 'paired up' with a Year 4 group from Bullion Lane. The Year 7 students were encouraged to make initial contact with their partners by sending them an e-mail about themselves. Once the e-mail link had been established, the Year 7 students began to suggest topics for news stories, which the Year 4 students were to research.
At Bullion Lane, the class teacher did some further work with the Year 4 students, teaching them note-making skills, research skills and the basic ingredients required for a newspaper report (who, what, where, when, why). Once topics had been chosen, the Year 4 students carried out research and conducted interviews, with adult supervision where necessary. They made detailed notes, ready to write up.
Prior to Bullion Lane's visit, the Hermitage Teacher-in-Charge prepared some master documents for the school network. These were:
a) A master page in Microsoft Word, set out two columns, using a set font (e.g. Comic Sans MS 14). This was to be used for typing up the news stories.
b) A master page, also in Word, which contained sample headlines in different sized fonts, named 'Tiny', 'Small', 'Medium' and 'Large'. These were to be used by the Year 7 editors.
The Year 7 students were also briefed about how to write a news story, the editing process and page layout - e.g. the use of by-lines and emboldened first paragraphs as part of a consistent 'house style'.
On the day, the first important task was to set up the newsroom. This was done by:
a) Allocating the Year 7 students to a given section of the newspaper - e.g. Sports, Entertainment, Out and About in Chester-le-Street, Bullion Lane News, Hermitage News.
b) Putting up A3 coloured sheets which listed all of the stories for each section. Editors would then be responsible for following up any missing stories later in the day. Stories would be crossed off as they were completed.
c) Setting up a 'proofing system' - i.e. three wire baskets labelled: 'to be proofed' , 'to be edited', 'finished articles'.
d) Making particular students responsible for a digital camera, a scanner and a Dictaphone (for a last minute interview with the Head of the Hermitage).
e) Ensuring that the Master Documents were available for use on all the computers available (30 machines in all), spread over two rooms.
f) Providing a lay-out area, with scissors, glue and large sheets of paper for cutting and pasting.
g) Posting up two morning deadlines for two news articles per Year 4 student.
When the Year 4 students arrived at The Hermitage they attended a briefing, where the format for the day was explained. Students were put with their partners and work began almost simultaneously.
The three Chief Editors worked 'flat-out' to proof read/correct articles as they came through. They were given a framework for correction, which included font-size, emboldening and paragraph styles, as well as spelling and grammar.
By lunchtime most stories had been completed. After lunch, the Year 4 students worked on some advertising copy (led by their class teacher) whilst the Year 7 students completed the editing, composed headlines and began the layout.
A photocopier was used to change the size of photos and ads to fit gaps on pages. Students were shown how to edit photos and provide relevant captions.
The newspaper was cut and pasted by 5.00pm. Unfortunately there was no time to transfer all of the Word files into Microsoft Publisher, as had previously been planned. This would have been another half day's work.
End Product
Every student received a copy of the newspaper by the following morning.
Conclusions
Overall, all of the students really enjoyed the day:
The Year 4 students particularly liked working alongside their Year 7 partners. They were keen to pay close attention to literacy skills in order to produce some excellent stories.
The Year 7 students rose to the challenge of being editors for a day. The level of support that they offered their younger partners was impressive. They also showed how responsibly they could co-ordinate the activities and work together as a team.
The Chief Editors commented on how real the newsroom simulation had seemed; they had felt the pressure of working to deadlines and having to come up with suitable headlines for stories that they had not written themselves.
The students, collectively, made really good use of the technology available to draft and redraft stories, scan in images and produce headlines. It proved to be a highly motivating factor for the less able students too. However, the end product would have been more impressive still if there had been time to transfer the stories into Microsoft Publisher.
The day also proved invaluable as a non-threatening way of introducing the younger students to a secondary school environment. They even ate a specially provided, packed lunch in the school canteen!
Sarah Hay, Hermitage School