newspaper assignment middle school

Creating a Classroom Newspaper

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

Students will enjoy this creative, exciting, and stimulating lesson in writing as they create authentic newspaper stories. As they are transformed into reporters and editors, they will become effective users of ICT in order to publish their own classroom newspaper. Various aspects of newspapers are covered, including parts of a newspaper, writing an article, online newspapers, newspaper reading habits, and layout and design techniques.

Featured Resources

• Printing Press : In this online interactive tool, your students can choose the "newspaper" option to help them complete their newspaper section.
• Newspaper Story Format : Your students will find completing their newspaper article a snap by first filling out this useful handout that helps them identify each key element of an authentic newspaper article.

From Theory to Practice

• Encouraging children to read and write in ways that allow them to make sense of real language in real contexts is more likely to help them develop the skills necessary to become fluent readers and writers. Creation of a class newspaper provides such a real context, and thus makes an excellent choice as the basis for a project designed with this goal in mind.
• Use of the computer motivates students to learn and students' attitudes toward the newspaper genre are affected by active participation in the production of an authentic and original newspaper of their own.
• Abilities in formal writing are best developed with a "process approach" that goes through five distinct phases: prewriting, composing or drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Using this approach helps students more fully understand the process of producing formal written documents, such as magazines and newspapers.

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
• 8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
• 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

Materials and Technology

• Computer lab with Internet access
• Multimedia software
• Access to a library of images/graphics
• Scanner (optional)
• Digital camera (optional)
• Deadline! From News to Newspaper by Gail Gibbons (HarperCollins, 1987)
• The Furry News: How to Make a Newspaper by Loreen Leedy (Holiday House, 1993)
• Freddy and the Bean Home News by Walter R. Brooks (Puffin, 2002)
• Inverted Pyramid Format
• Newspaper Story Format
• Story Feedback Form
• Newspaper Writing Assessment
• Reporting Tips
• Reporter's Guide

Preparation

*Prerequisite skills: Familiarization with an appropriate multimedia software program

Student Objectives

Students will

• Identify the parts of a newspaper
• Identify the format of a news article
• Write a newspaper story
• Edit newspaper articles
• Use ICT equipment and software
• Layout and publish a classroom newspaper

Hold up a sample front page from a selected newspaper. Ask students what they notice about the format that is different from other texts they read (e.g., black and white ink, graphics, headline, column format). Divide the students into groups of three to four members. Explain to the students that they will explore a newspaper, paying attention to the layout and format. Instruct students to study the front page first and discuss what different parts they notice. Ask each group to report back to the whole class what members noticed was contained on the front page. Make a list of parts on the board. (e.g., title, headlines, pictures or graphics, captions, date, subtitles, table of contents/index, etc.). Students should notice similarities between different newspapers. Discuss with the class how newspapers use a standard format. In their groups, have students continue to explore copies of newspapers. What kinds of things do they notice? Students should begin to identify sections and features that are specific to newspapers. Have the groups again report to the whole class what types of items they noticed in their paper. Continue keeping the list of items on the board. (Additional items may include: editorials, cartoons, horoscope, local news, weddings, classifieds, advertising, etc.) Explain to the class that people read newspapers differently than other types of texts. Discuss how people read newspapers. Reading a newspaper matches people's interests in certain things. They scan headlines, subtitles, and images to see if the story interests them or not. Read some sample headlines from newspapers. Ask, "How many of you would be interested in reading this story?" For homework, have students ask their family members what newspapers they read regularly and what sections they read most often. Give an example of your own newspaper reading habits. (For example, "First I check the weather to help me decide what to wear to school. Then I go to the local news to see what is happening in my town. Finally, I scan the headlines to see what is happening in the world. If I have time, I start the crossword puzzle.")

Ask the students to report about their family's newspaper reading habits. Make a list of newspapers that are read and determine which are the most common. List the words who, what, where, when, and why on the board, overhead, or chart paper. Answer each of the five W questions using the popular rhyme "Jack & Jill." Example:

• Who? Jack and Jill
• What? Fell down and broke crown
• Where? On the hill
• When? Sometime in the past
• Why? Trying to fetch water

Read "Bad Fall Injures Children" article from page 4 of the Grandview Newspaper lesson plan . Students clarify their previous responses to the five W s according to the article. Explain how these five questions help to summarize a news story. Put students in groups of three to four members. Ask the students to choose another famous rhyme or fairy tale and answer the five W questions. Have each group read just the answers to their questions, and then have the class try to guess what fairy tale or rhyme it is. Explain that these five W s help with the organization of a news story and that they make up the most important details of the story. Demonstrate to the class the organization of a good news story using the Inverted Pyramid Format overhead. Use a sample newspaper story to illustrate an example of this format For homework, ask students to select a newspaper article that they are interested in reading and bring it to school the next day.

Give students time to read the newspaper article they brought from home. Hand out the Newspaper Story Format sheet. Students should then complete the sheet using details from their particular article and share the summary of their newspaper article. Ask the students to rewrite the newspaper article in their own words as if they were a reporter for their local newspaper. What changes would they make and why? Have the students share their stories with a classmate using the following questions to guide their discussion:

• Were changes made to the lead? Why?
• Were changes made to the five W s? Why?
• Were changes made to the details? Why?

As a class, discuss fact versus opinion. Explain that news articles do not include the reporter's opinion. Have students go back and see if the changes that were made to their articles were strictly factual. Refer to original articles as needed for examples of fact-based stories.

Read-aloud to the class from one or more of the suggested titles:

• Deadline! From News to Newspaper by Gail Gibbons
• The Furry News: How to Make a Newspaper by Loreen Leedy
• Freddy and the Bean Home News by Walter R. Brooks

Have students brainstorm the types of articles they would like to write and list them on the board. Look at the list and ask students if the articles could be grouped into categories or "newspaper sections." Use the Reporting Tips overhead to present how to make newspaper articles more interesting. Go over each point and clarify any questions that students may raise. Group students based on interests to form an "editorial staff" for each newspaper section. Have the groups meet to decide who will write which stories. Students can use the Reporter's Guide handout as a guideline. When they have finished, students can begin collecting facts for their stories.

Session 5 and 6

Take students to the computer lab and have them write their first draft. They should not worry about font, size, or columns at this point. Be sure that they save their work and print a hard copy of their article for editing. Students' stories should then be self-edited and edited by two other members of their editorial staff (using the Story Feedback Form ). Students should make necessary revisions to their stories based on the comments from the Story Feedback Form.

In the computer lab, have students access the Internet Public Library website and explore newspapers from around the world. They should pay particular attention to the design and layout elements. For example, some articles may include graphics (e.g., photos, charts, graphs). Discuss what patterns of layout design the students noticed. As a whole class, discuss newspaper layout, addressing the following points:

• Headline News: Top priority articles are near the front (1-2 pages). These are typically of high interest to your entire audience of readers (e.g., town news such as a new park or community center). Long front-page articles can be continued on an inside page to provide room for other headline news.
• Feature Articles: Stories about topics or events that are of interest to a certain group of readers (e.g., sports, animal stories, academic topics, interviews with school staff, book reviews). These are typically grouped into sections.
• Pictures or graphics: The image should always appear with the story. A caption can be included. The size usually depends on how much space is available in the layout.

Give students the opportunity to explore these layout items in newspapers in the classroom and online. Students should look at the Junior Seahawk Newsletter to get ideas for their own layout.

Session 8 and 9

In the computer lab, students should complete final story revisions. They may then begin the newspaper layout using appropriate software. The ReadWriteThink Printing Press includes an option for creating a newspaper. Each editorial staff works together to complete their newspaper section. Note: 8 ½ X 11 size pages are optimal. They can be printed and copied back to back on 11 X 17 paper that can be folded like a real newspaper. The completed paper must have an even number of pages for this format. Pictures can be drawn or pasted into the layout. Depending on the available resources, pictures can also be scanned or downloaded from a digital camera. Tell students to play around with fonts and columns. They should experiment and be creative! Once pages are completed, they should be printed. The editorial staff should do a final reading for errors. Pages are then submitted to the teacher for publishing.

Distribute the class newspaper to the students and allow them time to read it. When they have finished, hand out the Newspaper Writing Assessment sheet and ask them to fill it out.

Student Assessment / Reflections

Assess students' comments from the Newspaper Writing Assessment sheet.

• Calendar Activities
• Student Interactives
• Lesson Plans

The interactive Printing Press is designed to assist students in creating newspapers, brochures, and flyers.

Students analyze rhetorical strategies in online editorials, building knowledge of strategies and awareness of local and national issues. This lesson teaches students connections between subject, writer, and audience and how rhetorical strategies are used in everyday writing.

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• Kindergarten K

• My Storyboards

Newspaper Project

In this activity, activity overview, template and class instructions, more storyboard that activities.

• This Activity is Part of Many Teacher Guides

Perfect for fictional summaries or school newspapers, a newspaper project lets students get creative while recounting events. They're easily adapted to fit any subject, from Science to Social Studies to ELA!

Using one of the newspaper templates, students will create the front page of a newspaper . This example uses events from the popular novel, Elijah of Buxton but this project could be used for any book or topic! Like this example, students could recount a particular event in a book for ELA, but they could also create a newspaper project about a current or historical event for Social Studies or a new discovery or innovation for Science class. Students could even create a front page news story from their own imagination!

To pre-plan, the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why) are helpful to think about as a guide. Students can write the answers to those questions using a graphic organizer as they gather facts and information.

For additional templates to include in this assignment, check out our Newspaper Poster and Newspaper Worksheet templates!

(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)

Objective: Create the front page of a newspaper to recount an event.

Student Instructions:

• Click "Start Assignment".
• Identify an important event from the topic or make one up!
• Write a captivating headline.
• Add appropriate characters, items, and scenes to create at least one appealing picture on the front page that helps illustrate your event.
• Write a description of the story in the text boxes.
• Save and exit when you're done.

Requirements:

• Minimum one paragraph to describe the event

Lesson Plan Reference

Grade Level 6-8

Difficulty Level 3 (Developing to Mastery)

Type of Assignment Individual or Partner

Type of Activity: Newspapers

• [ELA-Literacy/RL/7/2] Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text
• [ELA-Literacy/RL/7/3] Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot)
• [ELA-Literacy/RI/7/1] Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• [ELA-LITERACY/CCRA/R/1] Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
• [ELA-LITERACY/CCRA/R/7] Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
• [ELA-LITERACY/CCRA/W/6] Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
• [ELA-LITERACY/WHST/6-8/2/B] Develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples.

(You can also create your own on Quick Rubric .)

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Teaching Journalism: 5 Journalism Lessons and Activities

You and your students will absolutely love these journalism lessons! The beginning of a new school year can be hectic for journalism teachers who are tasked with simultaneously teaching new journalism students who don’t have any journalism experience while also planning and publishing content for the school newspaper.

If your class is anything like mine, it is a mix of returning and new students. This year, I only have three returning students, so it is almost like I am starting entirely from scratch.

Here are 5 journalism lessons to teach at the beginning of the year

1. staff interview activity.

One of the very first assignments I have my students do is partner up with a fellow staff member that they don’t know and interview them. This activity works on two things: first, it helps the class get to know one another. Secondly, it helps students proactive their interviewing skills in a low-stakes environment.

For this activity, I have students come up with 10 interview questions, interview one another and do a quick write-up so that students can have practice recording their interviews.

Before this activity, I go over interviewing skills with my students. We discuss the dos and don’ts of interviewing, we brainstorm good interviewing questions, and we talk about the need to go beyond simple answer questions.

2. Staff Bio

Another great activity for the beginning of the year is to have students write their staff bio. This provides students with an opportunity to write in the third person while also providing the most important information.

For my staff bios, I give students 80-100 words. I have them write their bios in the third person and in the present tense.

3. Collaborative News Story

For our first news story of the school year, I like to write one collaboratively as a staff. We go over the basics of journalism writing and then write together in one Google Doc. I do this as a learning activity so that new staff can see how we write journalistically. First, I have students work together in small groups to write the lead. Then, as a class, we craft one together. From there, we move on to building the story.

As we write the story, as a staff, we can then see what kind of information we need. I assign small groups of students to interview people and find quotes. Those groups then add that information to the story.

Once it is written, we edit and review the story together before it is published. This activity is particularly helpful because students get to see how we format quotes in our stories, how we refer to students and teachers in our stories, and how we go about the news-gathering process.

Once our collaborative story is done, new staff then have the green light to begin writing their own stories.

4. The News Determinants

You can also read more in-depth about the news determinants with this blog post about teaching the five news determinants .

5. AP Style Writing

As students are writing their first stories, I like to teach students about AP Style . I use this instructional presentation, and students assemble their AP Style mini flip books that they use as a reference all year long.

The news determinants and AP Style lessons are included in my journalism curriculum with many other resources that will make teaching and advising the middle school or high school newspaper much easier.

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Helpful Customizable Newspaper Templates For Students In Your Classroom School Newspaper

Newspaper Format template Layout

Newspaper templates for schools, templates for school newspapers – google docs and word, these templates are great for a school newspaper, all the news for school newspapers, use these school newspaper templates for inspiration for engaging kids, free newspaper templates – change the layout as you want, format your newspaper article depending on your newspaper design, students really love a vintage newspaper, old newspaper template that is an editable newspaper, planning the school newspaper template for children, create page content for the student newspaper template, editable newspaper design and newspaper layout for sharing, preview, download, and manage the kids newspaper template you want, fractus learning’s newspaper template for ms word: inspiration for classroom newspapers.

• School Newspaper Template: Adobe Indesign Free Newspaper Template
• Sports Newspaper Template: Free Template Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Word Newspaper Templates: Magazine, Newsletter, Tabloid Templates

How To Download Editable Newspaper Templates In Google: Free Google Docs Newspaper Template

• The Changing Times Template: Free Google Docs Template
• Elementary Student Newspaper Template: Free Google Docs Template
• Weekly News Vintage Newspaper Template: Free Google Docs Template
• Newspaper For Kids Template: Free Google Docs Template
• Customizable Book Club Newsletter: Free Google Docs Template
• Middle School Newspaper: Free Google Doc Template
• Editable Newspaper For Teachers: Free Google Docs Template

Free Student Newspaper Templates You Can Use for PowerPoint

The secret about a newspaper is the articles are current and of interest to the reader. Some adults will read a newspaper from the front page to the back page. Others will go directly to a specific section in the paper, for example, the sports or financial section. And some like reading obituaries.

A classroom newspaper has the same function as the daily paper. It provides current news that students want to read. Also, creating a school newspaper article develops the students’ reading, writing, and creative skill.

Teachers can use these free newspaper templates in Google docs, Microsoft Word, and PowerPoint for any student project or workshop.

Read the latest student news!

Overview On How To Use Student Newspaper Templates, Themes, And Designs

There are a variety of free newspaper templates to download from various platforms. Most templates are pre-designed for ease of use. The free, customizable templates allow students to focus on the newspaper content without worrying about designing the template.

Although some writers with experience prefer using a blank newspaper template, many kids prefer a template they can fill in each page with illustrations, details, and even an ad or two.

Before the students can insert the articles into the editable newspaper template, they need to go through the process of creating a newspaper.

To plan the school newspaper, students need to study an actual newspaper and its various sections. During the planning session, they must decide several things, including

• The name of the newspaper. Use the title to tell readers what to expect, for example, Elementary School Newspaper, Wedding News, Birthday Newsletter, Classroom Tabloid, or Social Media News.
• The number of pages the newspaper, magazine, newsletter, or brochure will have.
• Who is the editor, and what are the editor’s responsibilities?
• Who are reporters, and what are their responsibilities?
• Assigning writers for the various sections of the newspaper: sports, obituaries, comics, ads, local news, opinion page, financial, and photographer.
• The date each newspaper article is due for editing.
• The date the newspaper will go to the printer (if printed) and the date of publishing the paper.
• Is it a daily newspaper, weekly tabloid, or a once-a-month magazine?

Each student has an assignment that contributes to the student newspaper. They must decide what newsworthy stories to publish, gather the information, and write the articles.

Stories are submitted to the editor. After editing the articles, each newspaper page is prepared for print. The page layout, artwork, ads, and interactive content like puzzles, activities, and surveys, are finalized and readied for print.

Ready-to-use templates don’t require designing the newspaper from scratch. Inserting all the content into the newspaper, however, does require a certain layout and design.

• Use standard fonts and sizes throughout the newspaper. For example, body text fonts are usually 11 or 12, and titles, headings, and subheadings are larger font sizes.
• Whitespaces are the margins and gaps between the content that gives the newspaper a clean look.
• All other spaces should contain content, infographics, pictures, or graphic illustrations.
• Add the written text first before the drawings and photographs. It is easier to adjust images than to change the length of an article or the number of columns.

There are a variety of free newspaper templates to use in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and PDF format.

Irrespective of the platform, the process is the same.

• Preview and choose the free newspaper template you like.
• Download the free template.
• After downloading it, open the file in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or PDF (for MS Word or Mac users).
• If the free template is downloaded as a zip file, click on it and select “extract all.” Then open the folder and pick the template document inside the folder.
• Customize the free template.
• Insert headings, titles, images, colors, and text.
• Change the fonts if the template allows you to.

Free Newspaper Templates For Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word Templates are created in boxes, lines, and tables. Therefore, it is not as easy to edit as other templates. In addition, changing the format, for example, decreasing or increasing font size or image, can cause the content to move out of the boxes and lines. Then you must adjust the alignment by bringing the article and illustrations back within the borders.

It is time-consuming and may frustrate kids to the extent that they lose interest in the project. Therefore, be careful when changing anything in the design. However, replacing text, headings, or images of the same size won’t affect the alignment.

Most free Word newspaper templates available on the web are pretty old – many were created over ten years ago. We’ve slowly designed and developed our updated newspaper templates for more modern MS Word versions. We will add them here as we finish more.

The Fractus Learning children’s newspaper template is created for Microsoft Word versions newer than 2003 – though it may also work with older versions. This MS Word template (.dotx) has:

• Banner with editable title and icon.
• Featured story with an editable image.
• Five smaller article sections.

Each newspaper section is in its own box. Click inside the box and replace the content with your text. Change background colors by right-clicking inside the specific box. Give the newspaper article template its unique look by changing the background color of the Newspaper Title box to match your school’s colors.

School Newspaper Template : Adobe Indesign Free Newspaper Template

The School Newspaper Template for kids has allocated space for various pictures and advertising space. Another easy-to-edit newspaper template from newspapertemplate.net; will work great for an elementary school newspaper.

Sports Newspaper Template : Free Template Microsoft Word

The template is ideal for a newspaper about the school’s different sports activities or creating a newspaper about one specific sport. The template is a Word document that looks like a newspaper. The newspaper name “Sports” can be changed.

Microsoft Word Newspaper Templates : Magazine, Newsletter, Tabloid Templates

• Template #1 is a simple template that is fully editable and easy to use. It’s possible to rearrange the articles and items to change the newspaper’s layout.
• Template #2 has a blue theme; the colors are changeable. Duplicate the text boxes for more pages.
• Template #3 is fully editable, including the colors. Replace the images in the template or paste pictures on the page.
• Template #4 has a glitzy newspaper look. Edit the colors, add new pages, or change the layout by moving articles around.
• Template #5 is an excellent template for a magazine project. Customize the newspaper according to your needs without worrying about designing it from scratch.
• Template #6 requires a little effort to edit. First, replace the dummy text with your text. Next, add pictures in the place of the blue boxes.

Free Newspaper Template Google Docs: No Font Or Software Installation

Go to Google Docs on your computer to download free printable Google templates compatible with Google Slides, Google Sheets, and Google documents. Then, at the top right, click on Google Docs Template Gallery.

You will see multiple free Google templates students can use for school newspapers. Some kids will customize these free Google docs templates for social media, a magazine, tabloid, or birthday newspaper, or use them as a newsletter template.

Preview and find the free Google Docs template in Google you want and click on it. A copy of the Google Docs template opens on your screen, ready for a child to write, edit, manage, and publish their unique newspaper.

Students don’t have to start with a blank newspaper template; here are a few templates in Google documents that are ideal for creating children’s newspapers in educational institutions.

The Changing Times Template : Free Google Docs Template

The newspaper template in Google docs has an old-fashioned look that can give a history assignment a nice touch. The free template looks like a daily newspaper, including the fonts and columns, and is excellent to use for sharing student activities.

Elementary Student Newspaper Template : Free Google Docs Template

The Elementary school newspaper template instructs the student on how to create the newspaper. The free Google template indicates where to add images and captions and insert text. Fun fonts create eye-catching headlines; there is enough space to write about summer camp, a special birthday, upcoming events like the biology class field trip, and prize winners in the latest classroom competition.

Weekly News Vintage Newspaper Template : Free Google Docs Template

The Vintage Newspaper Template is excellent for a school project where you want to customize the style of any article; you can place almost anything on this free Google Doc template and customize it in Google Slides or other editors.

The vintage newspaper template supports Google Sheets, macOS, and Windows. You can also use the vintage newspaper for a social media post or blog about upcoming events.

Newspaper For Kids Template : Free Google Docs Template

The Google Docs newspaper template for kids features colorful designs children like. In addition, the newspaper will attract a younger audience with a large photograph on the front page and ample space for images in the Google docs template.

More Google Templates In Google Docs For School Newspaper Activities

Customizable book club newsletter : free google docs template.

The book club newsletter template is perfect for social sharing of the latest fiction or information on educational books. Learning and becoming interested in subjects like a review of Romeo and Juliet in English or pictures about the American revolution is fun when reading the “news” in the newspaper. In Google documents, there are ready-to-use images related to books for students to publish in the article.

Middle School Newspaper : Free Google Doc Template

The middle school newspaper template in Google docs feature colorful footnotes, catchy subheading, and big titles to draw attention and create interest in approaching events and activities.

Editable Newspaper For Teachers : Free Google Docs Template

Students can create an interesting free newspaper for their teachers. The ready-made Bright Teacher Newspaper Google docs template is ideal for bringing the news to teachers from children’s perspectives. Use Google Slides to add illustrations and details related to school, but also interesting personal news like an upcoming wedding, birthday, and plans kids have for the school and their future.

The free PowerPoint newspaper templates are easy to customize. After downloading the newspaper template, replace the text and pictures with your text and images. Students easily edit these newspapers before publishing them.

Free PowerPoint Templates . Template.net provides various free links to 21 Powerpoint templates for students to use.

Newspaper PowerPoint Template  has a postal box with an old newspaper inside at the bottom right of the slide. The background is white with a thin border line on the left.

Retha Groenewald is a professional writer working for FractusLearning. When not working with Fractus, she is web copywriter for the Christian market. Her writing is featured at Christian Web Copywriter and at Writing That Breathes Life.

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28 Middle School Current Events Assignments

September 9, 2023 //  by  Michelle Mandel

The world has turned upside down and middle schoolers’ brains have been invaded by false news, Instagram, and social media mayhem. Fragments of news about unemployment, war, or pandemics can cause anxiety. Parents, family, and educators have to put the news and current events into perspective. Here are some great current event activities to get started.

1. Time Magazine for Tweens 

Time magazine has current issues for kids and articles to dive into. Great for reading comprehension skills, how to look for information, fact check, and write in a journalistic way.

Learn More: Time for Kids

2.  Study Current Events to impress your teachers 

News surrounds kids 24/7, but they don’t know how to study it or learn about it. Kids can read articles and summarize what they have read, do PowerPoint presentations, and interview others about what is happening in the world.

Learn More: Social Studies for Kids

3. Current Event Worksheet Guideline

This worksheet will help middle schoolers organize their facts about news stories. You can use it with any source and it is great to do in class or give as homework. Also, a fun twist is to get them to find “Fake News “and see if they can write it well so it’s believable.

Learn More: SVSD 10

4. Newspapers are not for “Grown ups”

Teachers shy away from current events curriculum, they prefer not to touch “hot topics”. There are expert strategies for teaching and we have to look at the how-to’s so that it’s not boring and we capture their attention. Exploiting the entire newspaper is possible and fun!

Learn More: Make My Newspaper

5.  Which class journalist is going to win the article of the week?

Competition and competitive activities are necessary for middle school children and this is a great way to have them work in teams and compete for the article of the week. Teachers can make this a part of their weekly routine and change the theme.  Teams will get together to be placed in a 1-4th place on the board.

Learn More: Musings from the Middle School

6. Crime in the news 

Unfortunately, part of current events is crime and violence. This is something in the daily news every day. We must expose children to crime in the news so they will be more aware of what is going on in the future.  In this crime scene activity, they can collect information and answer comprehension questions to solve the case.

Learn More: Busy Teacher

7. Prove that history repeats itself

Riots, discrimination, political corruption, and more.  What goes around comes around and history does repeat itself over and over again.  In this current events assignment, the students will find 2 news articles but demonstrating the past and the present. Excellent resources for middle school.

Learn More: Tuttle Schools

8.  Current News Lesson Plans

This site is packed with 10 Current event news lessons for middle school. so children can read them and learn how to tell the class about what’s happening in their state or country. Middle schoolers can read about presidential decisions, democracy, education and teachers, environmental issues, and much more.

Learn More: Share My Lesson

9.  Did you catch all the details?

One of the biggest issues with tweens and teens is attention and listening skills. This activity is great. Read the news article from the daily paper to your students and depending on the age and level of students, the length and difficulty will vary.

Learn More: CNN 10

10.  Who, Where, What, When, Why & How 

When teaching children reading comprehension, we must take into consideration the 5W’s. They have to be able to answer these questions to really report back the information like a news chronicle.

Learn More: News Moor

11. The News Rap

Music and Chants are something that allows us to have rhythm and flow with Flocabulary and the interactive resources.  Listen to the songs, the chants, and the raps. It’s all about the news and facts. Keep up with the beat and you can try to sing along but the message of the raps is really strong. Don’t be a fool and try to play it cool, if you learn from music, it’s one of the best ways to learn about current events and you’ll have success.

Learn More: Flocabulary by Nearpod

12.  Bigotry & hatred is a current event topic

Well, taboo issues have been talked about and pushed under the rug or behind closed doors when it comes to discussion in the classroom. Now that the whole world has been hit with COVID 10 and the war, abortion issues, and more, we have to address them in a special way but not beat around the bush either.

Learn More: Facing History

13. “Get your news!” “Daily News is here!”

Keep your kiddos in the loop by having them engage with interesting current events. Invite them to browse a bunch of articles from trusted sites before challenging them to read through an article of their choice and then summarize it into a printable current events journal.

Learn More: Homeschool Helper Online

14.  Where in the World is Wally?

Wally is going to be our journalist traveling around the world. To learn more about current events you have to know where you live, local, national, and world geography to understand the location of places and the site has additional activities too.

Learn More: Geography Education

15.  Arts teachers, art is news too!

Sometimes art seems to take second place in the world of current events, but it’s important to teach your budding Picassos that art can make the front page too! So why not task them with exploring art through media by having them research unconventional tools that can be used to produce art?

Learn More: Davis Art

16.  Money makes the world go round

Inflation, taxes, rise in costs, wages, stock market, world bank..all this unknown vocabulary children and teens hear weekly but it goes in one ear and out the other. They don’t really understand how money works, only if they want to buy something and they are told “No. Let’s challenge students to be savvy about cash in a fun way through the news.

Learn More: The Curious Economist

17.  Creatures in the news 

We all love animals big and small and we hear stories locally about crocodiles in the swimming pool or snakes being found in your toilet. Animal welfare is important and they have rights too and their “voice ” needs to be heard. What better way than animal news to read and write reports on?

Learn More: NBC News

18.  What’s your source?

When we teach kids about the news, we need to teach them about the different sources and where the info came from. You can’t believe everything you read. This activity is to teach them about primary sources and secondary sources.  Before we write learn about the facts.

Learn More: The Library Collection

19.  Civics Education 101

Global Issues, Economy, Government, and much more. All of these topics should not be “taboo” for kids. This site is filled with lots of material and info to get children into reading and studying current events.

Learn More: Academy 4SC

20.  Legality versus Mora

What happens when you read that your favorite sports star has been arrested for bringing into the country a vape pipe not knowing that it was illegal they end up going to jail for 3 years in a foreign country. Is this legally right or should we think about morals and true intention? This happens a lot in current events and news.

21.  Jeopardy Time 

Newsbrain is “teacher’s best friend” and it will help you create some fun exciting jeopardy-style games using any content of your choice and in this case current events. Fun and fast pace the kids will beg to play.

Learn More: Newz Brain

22. Segregation in the Society

Unfortunately, segregation still exists, even in clubs, schools, and the community. Kids need to hear current news and events about racism and discrimination that we see daily and find ways how to stop it.

Learn More: The New York Times

23.  Tween Tribune

This site has a good focus on issues that can be used for classroom activities. It has different activities per grade from 7th-12th. Lots of great material for middle school students and it’s a great online learning resource.

Learn More: Smithsonian Tween Tribune

24.  Why should we care about plastic?

Sea smart Sustainable News is trendy, and we hear about plastic. We know we have to reduce using it, but our sea creatures are eating it and dying every day. Not to mention the fish you eat has traces of plastic in it. Read about these topics and learn about habits and change.

Learn More: Sea Smart

25.  100 things to talk about in current events

Sometimes kids get bored when you bring up issues like global warming, traffic, pandemics, or unemployment.  These are issues that they have heard over and over again and they are tired. So let’s give them new topics that they can research and investigate.

Learn More: Owlcation

26.  Sports in the News

It’s not just about the scores and the champions. There are other news sports related such as tax evasion, fraud, money laundering, illegal betting, and more. So if we invest in scandals that come up in the news, we will be one step ahead of the game.

27.  I Dare you!

Middle schoolers are influenced by everything and in the news we hear about vaping, smoking, drinking, and the legalization of marijuana. So why wouldn’t these kids be tempted to do something dangerous? This site will help educators teach about current events with drugs, alcohol, and violence.

Learn More: Dare

28. TikTok News 

Many tweens and teens are Tik Tok crazy and it’s growing and trendy. TikTok is now a pastime, occupation, and even a way to learn new things. Let’s check out the Tik Tok news to keep up with the latest trends.

Learn More: TikTok

• Our Mission

How to Set Up an Online School Newspaper

When this fifth-grade teacher shifted his school newspaper online, he found that students were motivated to produce high-quality work for an authentic audience—and felt more connected as a community.

Like teachers around the country, I enjoy setting up those special events and activities that make kids want to come to school, and I’ve found that it’s hard to run clubs, conduct sports tournaments, and host talent shows out of my den–turned–virtual classroom. It hasn’t been easy telling the students over Zoom that many of these won’t happen. But how could I tell my amazing fifth-grade journalists that the Dolphin Splash Newspaper Club had to take a break too?

Fortunately, I discovered that I could keep my school newspaper running safely and easily, and the results have been awesome.

An Adaptable Medium—With Many Benefits

Our virtual newspaper became an accessible online location for students to publish their writing—and read work by their peers. It gave them a chance to have their voices heard on topics they really wanted to discuss in a way that felt very much like our physical school newspaper. It also allowed students with various passions and learning styles a chance to shine.

For example, one student wanted to continue her commitment to others, so she began an advice column . Liliana needed an outlet to share her feelings about quarantine , so she wrote op-eds about wearing masks and staying safe. Mauricio, from my colleague’s class, updated a popular column called “ Random Facts .”

The virtual newspaper helped me teach my students literacy in a more practical way, too. I was able to change settings to approve comments, teach the concept of audience, and even create a how-to guide for readers and writers. And because the students were engaging authentically with their friends, they were motivated to learn editing skills.

Important Dos and Don’ts for a Virtual Newspaper

Nothing on a computer these days feels entirely without risk, especially for teachers and students. However, I learned a few things that helped me feel comfortable with the process.

• Meet weekly with your student writers and editors. Our club usually meets for 30 minutes to discuss ideas. I have found that the more agency kids feel over their choice of content, the more it was read. Most contributions to the newspaper begin as class writing projects, so there is minimal extra editing on my part. You can also extend invitations to students and teachers outside your grade. This helps make the newspaper feel like a part of the school community.
• Check the site’s controls to make sure your filters are working in regard to unwelcome comments, etc. This may seem off-putting at first, but remember to get a little help from your friends. I have a group of four trustworthy student editors with eyesight better than an eagle’s. Once our tailored digital literacy guide made the expectations clear, I noticed that student comments were very encouraging.
• Make certain that you have administrator approval and that your school has a universal permission form for internet usage and content. If not, make certain that all submissions have been vetted by the student’s teacher for permission.
• Allow comments without approval or keep the platform public. Remember that if you publish the newspaper on a website, it will be accessible as a URL, and that may feel a bit scary at first. Keep in mind, though, that you control the site and who can comment.
• Use students’ last names or profile pictures in case the site is found through a secondary link by someone you are not familiar with.

For me, the biggest safety issue was resolved by allowing students to discuss and access the paper through links I made available only to their teachers.

How to Get Your Newspaper Up and Running

I’m sure there are a lot of ways you could tailor a virtual newspaper to your virtual class. Many colleagues I know use platforms like Padlet . I wanted something a bit more suited to our ongoing themes, so I started with a blog-based platform. I recommend WordPress and Wix for their ease and safety controls.

All in all, I found these platforms about as easy to use as Google Classroom. If you aren’t sure how to get started, there are many tutorial videos on YouTube (such as this one for WordPress ). You may be surprised by how much fun it can be—and how quickly you’ll learn.

Once you pick the platform you wish to use:

1. Choose a template or design, and set your controls.

2. Work with students to design it. (Trust me, this is the fun part) Most templates will allow you to create pages for different types of posts or categories of articles.

3. Post work and share links with other classes.

4. Send invitations to the weekly meeting, and solicit work from writers and teachers in different classrooms. You’ll be able to give multiple editor permissions if other educators want to help.

The ultimate guide for your school newspaper

Schools newspapers are a great way to inform and entertain highschool and college communities, but they are often not taken seriously. Perhaps the reason for that is the fact that some school newspapers are indeed amateurish. But they shouldn’t be. With the right team and with the right tools, it’s possible to produce a highly professional school paper.

It can be a daunting task, at first. There are so many things that you need to do, from team management and training to article writing , photojournalism, design, production and online student publishing. You might need a little help. We are here to provide that. This article is named “the ultimate guide for your school newspaper” because we have covered all the aspects of producing a student newspaper and managing the editorial team.

We simply want you to be a little less stressed, while producing a quality student paper.

This article is for everybody who is involved in the newspaper production, regardless of the role. You’ll find some valuable tips for running and contributing to your school newspaper.

Here’s a quick overview:

Staff management for school newspapers

Types of articles, news writing, newspaper design, school newspaper templates.

• Online student publishing and production  

Organizing a newspaper dream team (even if you’re not an expert)

Let’s talk about the structure of the student newspaper team. What roles must be present in your team? How should you structure it? How many people should be part of the team?

There are many different ways to organize the staff, but you’ll likely end up with a team that is more or less similar to traditional newspaper team structure, with the addition of the faculty advisor.

Let’s take a look at the typical roles in a newspaper team:

• Faculty advisor – gives the final approval to the school paper, is responsible for reading all articles and notifying the staff if a piece is not yet ready for press or if it doesn’t meet the newspaper’s standards
• Reporters (news, sports, photo, opinion, tech) – responsible for staying up to date with the latest and upcoming events happening in school. They should also stay informed on politics, sports, technology or culture according to the department they are in
• Editor / Department editors – editors plan and cover articles, proofread and edit reporter submissions. Department editors are responsible for all the articles that belong in their section and they work closely with the editors and reporters that are in their sections. They should be more experienced than editors, so the department editor role shouldn’t be assigned to a junior student
• Designers + Art director – The design/ art team is in charge of the visual aspect of the newspaper, including layouts, illustrations and everything that is related with the visual aspects. The art director oversees the entire design process, so he works closely with the designers
• Photo reporters + photo editor – in smaller teams the role of the photo editor is not necessarily required, because his responsibilities can be covered by the art director
• Production manager – responsible of setting the production schedule and making sure the all departments are meeting deadlines for copy, design, editing, proofreading and so on. He communicates directly with the printing house and with the technical department
• Technical staff – the technical department publishes the newspaper on the website. The online version of your newspaper can be an identical copy of the printed one, or you can decide to publish the articles on your website in a different format
• Business / Advertising – if you run ads in your school paper, you will need someone to mediate your relationship with advertisers and establish new business connections to grow the advertiser network

If there’s currently no structure in place or you have a very small team, you can start small. Baby steps.

You don’t necessarily need an entire department to cover a role. Sometimes a single student is enough, especially if your school newspaper isn’t long (eg. hire just one designer instead of an entire team + art director). You can also have students take on multiple roles (eg: a student can be both editor and production manager). In some cases the faculty advisor becomes so involved in the production that he acts as a production manager.

Make sure each one of these roles is covered, and start from there. As your team grows you will need more structure and clearly defined roles.

Write clear job descriptions for each role

This way each student will understand his place and purpose in the team, will know exactly who he has to report to, what is expected, duties and responsibilities.

Even though job descriptions are not a standard practice in school newsrooms, writing them will be very rewarding. Yes, it will take some time, but it will not be wasted time, for sure. These job descriptions will help students perform better, and it will make the manager’s role so much easier.

Hiring for school newspapers

Some colleges offer paid positions for the newspaper staff, but most high schools and colleges do not. However, there should still be a “hiring” or selection process in place.

Many students are interested in becoming involved in the production of the school newspaper, for various reasons: it’s fun, it’s a great learning experience, it looks good on college or job applications. That’s what it’s like to work on a college newspaper!

These are all valid reasons to join the school newspaper crew, but not everybody gets to be a part of it, if there are too many people interested in a position.

The best way to figure out if a student is a great candidate for a job is by interviewing him. These interviews usually take place in the first months of the first semester. After you finish all the interviews select the best candidates and let them know they’ve been selected.

When you’re a part of a student newspaper team, you know that you’ll be there for limited amount of time. The team will change every single year: the most experienced student journalists will graduate and leave the school, and a new of inexperienced juniors will need onboarding. This is why training and onboarding is a never ending process in the school newsroom. It’s a fact of life, and it’s definitely a challenge, but it can be dealt with.

Encourage the more experienced team members to train and coach the new hires. But oftentime, that won’t be enough, because not everyone is willing to take on this responsibility. Sometimes, they might need a little push. You might need to assign a trainer for each new person that joins the team.

You can also invest time in creating a coaching manual for trainers and guideline manuals for trainees. It will simplify the onboarding process and reduce the hours spent coaching new colleagues.

Ground rules

College newspapers function under the protection of the First Amendment, so students can truly express themselves and their opinions, even when their views are contradictory to those of the school. Yet, that doesn’t mean that the school has no control whatsoever over what gets to be published. The faculty advisor has the legal right to impose certain rules and standards, if the purpose is educating students.

If the faculty advisor isn’t happy with the quality of an article he may suggest edits or reject it altogether. This doesn’t mean that he’s censoring free speech.

There should also be some ground rules regarding copyrights, plagiarism, subjectivism and other sensitive issues such as violence and profanity.

School newspapers and regular newspapers are structured in a similar manner, even though the topics are tailored to the audience. If you need some ideas for articles, take a look at the article types below. It will help you get organized and produce a well rounded newspaper.

School news

News articles should cover various events, policies and other school news that are interesting for students. These news don’t have to be limited to your high school or college. You can write about national and even worldwide news, but only if they provide useful information.

For example, a worldwide student art competition could be the subject of a newspaper article. National laws and legislation regarding schools and education should also be covered in news articles, because they concern all students and will impact their lives. School news should be presented in an objective manner, presenting facts, not rumors or assumptions. They should be based on research and present different points of views.

Feature story

(over 1000 words) Each newspaper edition is likely to have a feature story. It’s the longest article in the paper, and the most in-depth. Feature stories revolve around facts, but they take a story to the next level by presenting context, quotes, reasons why it happened, ramifications of the story and implications. The article shouldn’t involve personal bias. It should be based on an elaborate investigation made by the journalist, interviewing multiple accounts. However, the feature isn’t limited to facts, it gives the journalist a little room for interpretation and embedding his opinion in the piece, in a subtle way.

The topic varies. It could be some big news, an in-depth analysis of a social school phenomenon, a new policy or something else.

(under 500 words)

Unlike the previous 2 types of articles, the editorial is an opinion piece. Still, the writer shouldn’t express his own views, but the opinion of the entire editorial staff.

For that reason, the editorial is usually not signed. It’s a piece of commentary that appears to be written by an entire team. That’s why the writer/ editor shouldn’t talk about himself using the singular form of the first person: I, me, myself.

The editorial should be entertaining or argumentative. In order to achieve that you can start by making a claim that could be controversial, then proceed by explaining your reasons and clarifying your claim. This flow will keep readers engaged. Some of them will agree with your point of view. Others won’t, but that’s alright. The purpose is to challenge readers.

Topics: school rules, policies, teaching methods, advice, announcements, school news

Just like editorials, columns are opinion-based articles. The content and topics are very much like an editorial. But the main difference between an editorial piece and a column is the signature. The editorial goes unsigned because it represents the collective views of editorial staff, but the columnist will publish his piece under his name. That’s why columnists can write about their opinions using the singular form of the first person. Sometimes an editor will publish a series of articles on the same topic/ similar topics, through several issues.

All of the big newspapers publish reviews because they help the general public make decisions. There’s no reason why school newspaper shouldn’t publish review articles on various topics: school textbooks, movies, books, or even classes.

Start by writing a short description of the thing that you are reviewing. Then add details about your personal experience. Include details about pros, cons, value for the money, performance mentions of other reviews, comparison to similar products. Try to be as objective and unbiased as possible.

Don’t forget to write a conclusion in which you summarize the review and give a verdict: whether you would recommend the product or not.

Promotional pieces

Companies pay money to have advertorials inserted in newspapers. The school context is different, but you will still need to include some promotional articles every once in a while. It may be for the school’s art or sports club, for a conference organized by the school or for a different event.

Your article should offer useful details about the event/ club that is promoted and it should also present the benefits it offers for students in order to encourage them to participate / join a program / buy a ticket.

Educational articles

This category includes tutorials and how-to articles with useful tips. Topics vary, but they should be school related, at least slightly. Here are a few examples: how to deal with stress, mnemonic learning techniques, tips for integrated digital learning, utilizing school resources, etc. These types of articles will help students deal with certain issues that almost everybody encounters.

If you have a talented illustrator in your crew, you should make the most of his skills. Assign a space in your newspaper’s layout specifically for the cartoon. The topic should be something school related, something that students can relate to. The cartoon will put a smile on the reader’s face.

Producing a professional school newspaper requires many skills and great teamwork. But building a team of talented journalists takes time and training. If you’re working with inexperienced student reporters and editors, you should start by teaching them the most basic news writings principles. Every journalist should know these.

The inverted pyramid style

The inverted pyramid refers to a very specific structure of a news article, which places the most important information at the beginning of the story. The information that is less vital to the reader’s understanding comes later in the story. This is how you should present school news.

The first paragraph which contains the most important details is “the lead”. The lead contains a very short and concise summary of the story. They should make sure that the first paragraph provides answers to the “5 Ws”:

Continue with a few paragraphs that contain other important details of the story.

Writers should also integrate relevant quotes from their interviews with witnesses, sources or other people involved in the event. The next paragraphs should include other general or background information.

Students decide what articles interest them from the school newspaper by simply scanning the newspaper and reading headlines. Every great writer understands the importance of a good, attention-grabbing headline, and young journalists should know it too.

A well written headline is acts as a hook that makes readers want to read the entire piece. There are different types of headlines: humourous, mysterious, informative. The headline’s style should match the article. There are many other things to consider, but you can start by reading these tips for writing great headlines .

There’s a lot of work that goes into an article. Sometimes the journalist has to gather all the information himself. In other cases, it involves interviewing witnesses or experts. There’s also that scenario in which the student will do research and find useful information in books, websites or other publications.

Regardless of how you collect data, you should always cite your source. It will add credibility to your story. It goes without saying that all journalists, including students, should check the reliability of their sources. Don’t just pick up information from dubious online sites.

In some cases your sources will ask you to protect their identity. It will probably not happen very often in the school context, but if they do, you must respect their wish.

Editing and proofreading

Make sure that the most experienced editors are reviewing and editing every article before publication. Obviously, the writer should be the first person to edit and check for spelling & grammar mistakes. But that’s not enough, not if you have high standards for your school’s paper (which… you should).

Submit each piece for peer review. The reviewer should analyze grammar, spelling, tone and voice, as well as other standards imposed by the production manager. Encourage students to provide useful, objective feedback. Don’t get offended if they make a lot of comments and suggestions. Writing for a school newspaper is a learning experience. You can’t get better if you don’t learn from your mistakes.

Obviously, the reviews should always be made by an experienced editor.

We recommend the art director and production manager to make a style manual because it will help students get familiar with the design guidelines and learn to respect them. The manual might change over time. You don’t have to provide extremely detailed guidelines to make it useful for newspaper design.

The newspaper style guide should cover the general layout, number of pages, font types and sizes, guidelines for photos and cropping. These rules will guarantee some visual consistency for your future newspaper editions. Ask all designers to get familiar with the rules, before they start working on their first assignment. It will help save a lot of time and headaches for the art director/ production manager.

The newsroom is a very busy and exciting place. Everybody works on something, and the production manager has to coordinate everything, making sure the design and the copy complement each other. Communication between designers, art director, editors and production manager is key. It’s challenging, but rewarding at the same time. Designers will work with dummy texts at the beginning, until editors finish their part. It also means that they will have to make edits to the design and make small adjustments so that everything looks great.

If you are a designer working for a school paper, learn about grids, composition and editorial design principles. Your design should look great and provide a great reading experience.

Perfect for online publishing and ready for print

We made a few school newspaper templates that are free to edit online and to publish them digitally. These templates are the perfect solution for very small or inexperienced teams, because they will save you a LOT of time.

Take a look the images below to see some of our school paper templates.

You won’t even need a designer or art director if you know how to edit and adapt these newspaper templates to your needs.

Start editing your favorite newspaper template very easily. Just click on images and register for an account. Then you can customize these layouts in the editor with a simple click on these images.

You can add more pages, duplicate pages, delete pages and do extensive customization.

There’s also another option for advanced designers. They can create their own layouts from scratch in our online editor, starting with blank pages.

Or, you can even upload a ready-made PDF to Flipsnack and we will turn it into a beautiful page-flip document that’s highly shareable.

When you’re done editing, proofreading and you get the final approval from the production manager, you can go ahead and download a PDF copy of the newspaper design on your computer. It requires a premium subscription, but it’s worthed. The downloaded PDF is printable, so you can take it to print right away.

Online student publishing and production

Nowadays many newspapers are digital-only, for various reasons. It completely removes printing costs and it’s eco-friendly. No more paper, no more trees being cut! We think this is a great solution for schools, especially because the young generations of students are digital natives.

If you decide to try online student publishing, you have 2 options: publish the newspaper as a website/ blog or publish it digitally as an online newspaper with turning pages. The second option is probably easier to produce, because it doesn’t require constant updating. The stylish look is an added bonus. And let’s not forget about the fact that you can start from a school newspaper template.

The digital version of your student newspaper is free with Flipsnack. We will host it online on our most secure servers, so you don’t have to worry about hosting (or anything else, for that matter). All you will have to do is share the link with students, or integrate the newspaper in your school’s website (very easily) with the help of the embed code. Anyone can do it, it doesn’t require tech skills.

— Hope you found this useful. What are your biggest challenges in writing for / designing or producing your school’s newspaper?

17 Comments

Thanks for this. As a newly appointed editor in chief (my 1st time), I have to re-access my knowledge about student paper and the ways so I’m glad I found this site!

[…] for the school newspaper is a blessing in disguise. As a kid, you may be scared at the beginning, but after you have written […]

As a newly appointed EIC, I think that being part of the editorial board is an indicator that we are indeed the cream of the crop, a thing that we must really be grateful for. But before proceeding to the complexes, it is vital to know first the basics, thanks to this! :-)

So glad that you found this useful!

This was very helpful!

I really appreciate your tip to have someone be in charge of the layout when you publish your newspaper so it looks natural. My wife and I have been thinking of getting our daughter into the school newspaper so she can make friends. I will be sure to tell her to ask about a layout specialist.

Hello. I find this article useful to my study. I would like to ask for the complete name of the author and the date of its publication so I can have the citation.

Hi Zacharia, here are the requested details: Author name: Janina Moza Date of publication: Feb 8, 2018

What I am looking for for my middle school journalism class is the ability for the students to have access to designing and writing directly on the program and then I complete the final editing before publication. Is this possible with Flipsnack? Can the students have their own individual access to the paper? The last online newspaper we did only allowed for me to do everything.

Hi Shannon! We highly recommend getting a classroom plan for your class: Classroom plan It includes up to 30 connected student accounts, fully controlled by the teacher, so you would be able to do the final editing on their designs. With this plan students can work on projects at the same time in Flipsnack (but the program might not save all their edits properly if they all work on the same project). If you’re looking for a free option, you can use Flipsnack to create projects that are up to 30 pages long, but it will only allow one user account. So you would have to use the same account as the student to log in and make the final edits.

This article is very useful? Thank you so much?

Hello.. thank you so much for sharing you expertise on these matter. I’m so thankful i found this site. I’ve been looking for this kind, a comprehensive guide for a school paper publication. It was so helpful especially for us neophytes.

Thank you very much for your kind words! We also have another article on the same subject. Check it here . Happy reading! :)

Hi. Your blog is easy to comprehend yet substancial. I can’t specifically find a direct answer to this. Can a published newspaper have multilingual articles in one issue? Like the news sections have an article written in full english while other news are in a foreign language. It’s a high school paper by the way. Thanks

Hello, Nory! Yes, you have the total freedom to insert multilingual articles in one issue if you want. Create your high school paper however you want! Have a nice day! :)

Hello, thank you so much for this article. I am about to start a college newspaper and I find the information here helpful

This is good information. It helps to build my confidence in my knowledge about the process of producing a newsletter. Thank you,

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Fishburne opening new all-boys middle school in fall of 2024

WAYNESBORO — Fishburne Military School is opening a new all-boys middle school this coming fall.

Fishburne is a private, all-male, military boarding school in Waynesboro. It currently has students from seventh to 12th grade.

The school said that it will add sixth-grade students in the fall and begin transitioning students in sixth- through eighth-grade to Fishburne Middle School over the next two years. The Fishburne Middle School will be a separate division and a non-boarding school, per a press release. It will not be a part of the Corps of Cadets.

The middle school will feature a classical-style education foundation for boys, the release said, and will be located at Waynesboro's First Presbyterian Church adjacent to Fishburne. The middle school will have a required uniform of a Fishburne polo shirt and khaki pants. Lunch will be served in Fishburne Military School's Sonneborn Mess Hall.

Christianna Herrera, currently an English teacher at FMS, will be the director of the middle school. Herrera’s previous assignments included chief educational officer, principal, and teacher with over 19 years of experience.

“I have a strong passion for the philosophy of classical education," Herrera said. "I look forward to taking an active leadership role in designing all aspects of our middle school educational program.”

The 2024-2025 tuition for middle school students is $12,000 with some additional fees. The school said that tuition assistance is available.

“There is a distinct difference in development and mentality in middle school boys versus high school boys," said Col. Randal E. Brown, the president of Fishburne Military School. "The middle school will serve as a stepping stone to high school life with the Corps of Cadets.”

For more information about the middle school or how to apply, please contact our admissions department at [email protected].

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—  Patrick Hite is The News Leader's education reporter. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at  [email protected]  and follow him on Twitter  @Patrick_Hite . Subscribe to us at  newsleader.com .

Watch CBS News

Algebra to return to San Francisco middle school curriculum

By Devin Fehely

March 22, 2024 / 9:42 PM PDT / CBS San Francisco

After a decade of debate and division, the San Francisco Unified School District is adding algebra back into its eighth grade curriculum at a third of its middle schools starting next year.

"For fun, you definitely don't do math. At all. But as a subject in school, you probably would have to push through that, right?" says Carlos Quintanilla, a seventh grader at Presidio Middle School. Carlos is a part of the first class at the school who will be given a chance to opt in to algebra next year.

Carlos and his family have done the math and believe that taking algebra next year as an eighth grader will increase his odds of getting into a good college and, perhaps someday, help fulfill his dream of becoming a doctor.

"Maybe, medical stuff. I don't know -- being a surgeon seems fun. Tiring, but you know, fun," he said outside the school.

The decision to offer algebra to eighth grader reverses a long-standing district policy in which the course was not made available to students until they entered high school -- regardless of interest or aptitude. Critics say delaying algebra until the ninth grade hamstrung students who wanted to take calculus by the time they were seniors or needed advanced math when they were applying to college.

"Why are you holding our kids back?" says Rex Ridgeway, an outspoken critic of the district's previous policy.

Ridgeway's granddaughter Josie took who took two math courses - algebra and geometry - in a single year as a freshman to accelerate her education and allow her to take calculus by the time she was a graduating senior.

"Definitely, taking two math courses wasn't the way I wanted to do it," Josie Marroquin said.

Rex even campaigned in favor of Prop G -- a non-binding ballot measure -- that allowed San Francisco voters to weigh in on the issue.

Prop G passed with overwhelming support from voters -- nearly 82 percent -- in favor of the school system offering algebra to eighth graders like Carlos whose mother Angelica says it would be a welcome addition to the school's curriculum.

"It's important that they learn Algebra at a younger age. For me, it's important," Angelica Quintanilla.

Carlos says his family is likely to opt in to the Algebra program next year but he still has some nagging doubts about whether he's ready for the challenge.

"If I were to really want to enter Algebra, I feel like the conversation would go, 'Are you going to study? Are you going to be prepared?" he said.

• San Francisco Unified School District
• San Francisco

Devin Fehely is an Emmy award winning general assignment reporter/MMJ for KPIX 5.

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Athens Middle School students pick up trash in Limestone County

ATHENS, Ala. ( WAFF ) - Students from Athens Middle School put their cleaning skills to the test Thursday.

As part of a class assignment, the middle school students competed on who can pick up the most trash.

Executive Director of Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful Claire Tribble said the students did not disappoint.

“With the middle school kids, the first clean up we did, we got 13 bags, 3 tires and some random pieces of furniture. The second group we got 15 bags, a conveyer belt and lots of ductwork.”

Tribble further added on the amount of litter she has recently seen in Limestone County.

“Its actually getting really bad in Athens. There’s a lot of trash flying out of garbage trucks people aren’t bagging trash, it’s coming out of dumpsters and flying and travelling and some of it is just people throwing it out,” Tribble said.

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Boy faces charges after allegedly bringing loaded gun to Dunlap Valley Middle School

The Peoria County State's Attorney's Office has charged a 13-year-old boy with unlawful possession of a weapon and a stolen firearm and burglary after he allegedly brought a loaded gun to a middle school in Dunlap.

Anna Perales, spokesperson for State's Attorney Jodi Hoos, said that a school resource officer at Dunlap Valley Middle School was informed Tuesday morning that a student may have had a gun inside the school. When the officer searched the boy's locker, he found the gun, with later investigation revealing that the gun had been stolen from a vehicle in Peoria along with a loaded magazine.

More: New WTVP CEO vows 'season of transparency' will start for the Peoria public station

Detectives from the Peoria County Sheriff's Office learned from the boy that he had indeed stolen the gun in question and had brought it to school on three separate occasions to show it off to students. He had also sent pictures of both the gun and the stolen magazine to a fellow student.

A search of his home revealed no other weapons. Further investigation showed that the boy had no plans for a school shooting and merely was showing off the gun to fellow students.

Perales said that the boy is currently being held in the Peoria County Juvenile Detention Center .

Those with further information on the case are asked to contact Detective Garen Demery at the sheriff's office at (309) 216-4775.

More: At least 2 Family Dollar locations are closing in Peoria. Here's what we know

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A Middle School Crush Becomes More, Thanks to Mom’s Nudge

Colton Elliott went to great lengths — including a same-day trip from Memphis to New York — to make Allie Hill his wife.

By Julia Carmel

The first time Colton Dakota Elliott asked out Allie Londyn Hill, it didn’t go particularly well.

“In seventh grade he asked me to be his girlfriend for the first time,” Ms. Hill said. “And I was like, ‘No, I’d really like to be friends.’”

He tried again in eighth grade, making an unsubtle post about his crush on Facebook, but Ms. Hill still wasn’t interested.

Ms. Hill, 27, and Mr. Elliott, 26, both lived in Lexington, Tenn., at the time, but they fell out of touch when Ms. Hill’s family moved to Jackson, Tenn., just before she began high school.

They always remained friendly on social media, liking each other’s Instagram stories and occasionally messaging. She moved to Memphis to get a bachelor’s degree in biology at Rhodes College, and he went to N.Y.U. and received a bachelor’s degree in politics, rights and development.

But when Bernie Sanders dropped out of the presidential race in April 2020, Ms. Hill replied to some of Mr. Elliott’s Instagram stories about the news. Mr. Elliott had plenty of time to post on social media since he lost his bartending job to the pandemic, and Ms. Hill messaged him that they were probably the only Sanders supporters to ever live in the small conservative town of Lexington.

“It turned into ‘How have you been? What are you doing?’” Ms. Hill said.

“And then it became much more personal very quickly,” Mr. Elliott added.

Their direct messages turned into texts and FaceTime calls, with Mr. Elliott in New York and Ms. Hill in Memphis studying dentistry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

With no job and no idea when the pandemic would end, Mr. Elliott didn’t have a reason to continue paying rent in New York City, but he was holding out hope that Ms. Hill might visit. After a few weeks of talking, Mr. Elliott took his mother’s advice and asked Ms. Hill to help him move to San Diego, where his brother and fiancée lived.

“She was like, ‘Don’t stay there waiting around for someone to be able to make a trip. Why don’t you just move to your brother’s house, and she can go with you on the road trip?’” he recalled. “We both liked that idea enough that we turned it into a 12-day camping adventure.”

[Click here to binge read this week’s featured couples.]

Mr. Elliott packed up and drove to Memphis in May 2020 for their first date. They spent a weekend together, which affirmed that both of them wanted to go on this cross-country road trip.

The road to California was filled with challenges and detours: they were mostly camping to adhere to social distancing, but that meant they spent a few sleepless nights listening to howling coyotes and trying to reinforce their tent against windy rainstorms. They told each other they were falling in love on the second night of the trip, as they camped under the stars in Estes Park, Colo.

“We were just happy to be together,” Ms. Hill said. “And we were laughing the whole time.”

By the time they made it to San Francisco — where Ms. Hill would fly back to Memphis — they were official.

Mr. Elliott spent less than three weeks living with one of his older brothers, Cory Elliott, in San Diego before moving back to Tennessee.

Ms. Hill and Mr. Elliott moved in with each other in Memphis during August 2021 and soon adopted two cats named Leo and Victor. Since Ms. Hill is doing her dental school through a special Army program, they decided to get married before she graduates in 2024.

Mr. Elliott, a bartender at a craft cocktail bar called Cameo, still wanted a surprise marriage proposal. He flew to New York and back in one day to get her engagement ring, and planned another trip to Estes Park during Ms. Hill’s fall break in September 2023. He made a decoy itinerary for a fake camping trip and brought four bags of camping gear that they wouldn’t need to keep his proposal a secret.

They started their trip with a sunrise hike on Kruger Rock Trail, and Ms. Hill jokingly proposed to Mr. Elliott as they looked out over Estes Park. As she stood up, a photographer emerged from the bushes and Mr. Elliott dropped to one knee. They spent the rest of the trip celebrating with 16 friends, who had flown to Colorado to surprise Ms. Hill.

Ms. Hill and Mr. Elliott celebrated their engagement with 60 friends and family members at a Memphis brewery in October, and planned an intimate wedding during Ms. Hill’s spring break. After she graduates, they’ll move to her first station: Oahu, Hawaii.

The couple had a self-uniting ceremony on March 5 at Sawmill Reservoir in Breckenridge, Colo. (Self-uniting ceremonies are legal in Colorado, along with a handful of other states.)

Guests included Ms. Hill’s parents, Matt and Shelley Hill, and Mr. Elliott’s parents, Jeff and Stacey Elliott, and two siblings: Ms. Hill’s younger brother, Hayden Hill, symbolically led the ceremony and Mr. Elliott’s brother, Cory Elliott, led the ring exchange.

“The only people that were required, legally, to bind us, were just us,” Mr. Elliott said. “We did it the way that we wanted to do it and it felt very ceremonious and official and lovely.”

Julia Carmel is a native New Yorker who reports on nightlife, culture and queer communities. More about Julia Carmel

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Something Thrifted: Focused on recycled clothing , some brides are finding their wedding attire on vintage sites and at resale stores.

Brand Your Love Story: Some couples are going above and beyond to personalize their weddings, with bespoke party favors and custom experiences for guests .

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Student taken into custody after threat to 'shoot up' Mansfield Middle School, police say

A student was taken into custody Thursday night by Mansfield police after being accused of sending two email messages to school administrators threatening to "shoot up" Mansfield Middle School, according to a news release from Mansfield police Chief Jason Bammann.

Officers and detectives when notified Thursday immediately initiated an investigation to identify a suspect. Collaboration between school staff, administration and law enforcement resulted in the suspect's apprehension, Bammann said in the news release.

Anyone who hears or sees threats or potentially violent activity is asked to call their local aw enforcement agency immediately, Bammann said.

[email protected]

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Loudoun Co. students battling to get medical sciences club at their middle school

Scott Gelman | [email protected]

March 22, 2024, 9:00 PM

Farmwell Station Middle School student Liam Gandhi and his peers were considering ways to pursue their interest in the medical sciences beyond the classroom.

So with the support of the Loudoun County school’s principal, the group launched a Future Health Professionals club. It meets monthly on Wednesdays and is currently at capacity with 25 students.

The club has heard from various doctors and experts in the field, including Dr. David Goodfriend, director of the county’s health department. But, it ultimately decided to apply to become an official chapter of the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) organization, which would give the students the chance to participate in competitions and access curriculum materials.

But in mid-October, the group’s application to Virginia’s Department of Education for HOSA membership was denied because the school didn’t offer a corresponding health and medical sciences course.

The students took matters into their own hands, working with state Sen. Suhas Subramanyam, who put together a bill to address what he called a technicality. Senate Bill 707 would allow Virginia’s middle and high schools to create career and technical education student organizations, regardless of whether schools offer corresponding courses.

It has been approved by the General Assembly and is awaiting Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s signature.

“We didn’t have to go and try so hard to get all of this to happen,” student Anvi Allada said. “But we knew that there are a ton of kids out there who are going to miss out on these opportunities just because of some (policy) that won’t allow us to do it.”

The legislation was submitted about a week before the deadline to introduce new bills, Subramanyam said. Some groups pushed back on the proposed changes, which Subramanyam said is likely a result of them not wanting to change the status quo.

The Farmwell students played a role in the legislative process, too. A group of them testified before the House of Delegates Subcommittee on K-12 Education, and Gandhi testified in front of the state Senate.

“We could even revolutionize middle schools everywhere,” student Ethan Mills said. “If we advocate for ourselves, we could teach other middle schoolers that if you want something, you can make it happen.”

At Farmwell, Gandhi said the group is hoping to have an official HOSA chapter starting next year.

“There’s not just speakers, there’s also competitions,” Gandhi said. “Those competitions help us get more out of it.”

Subramanyam’s bill is awaiting Youngkin’s signature, and while a spokeswoman said he’s reviewing the legislation, he “remains committed to helping Virginians and students acquire in-demand skills and workforce training.”

If the bill becomes law, the benefits would extend beyond students interested in the medical sciences. In other states, middle schoolers have the chance to participate in HOSA and the business organization Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA), too.

The Farmwell group is hoping that soon, they’ll have the same opportunity.

“The fact is: we are actually changing laws in Virginia,” Gandhi said.

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© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Scott Gelman is a digital editor and writer for WTOP. A South Florida native, Scott graduated from the University of Maryland in 2019. During his time in College Park, he worked for The Diamondback, the school’s student newspaper.

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Whittier Middle School teacher arrested for solicitation of a minor

A letter sent to parents of Whittier Middle School parents Thursday morning said a teacher was arrested at their home Thursday for a charge of solicitation of a minor. 

The message, which several parents posted online, did not name the teacher but said that "at this time, there is no reason to believe the charges are related to a school incident.”

The communication also mentioned that the teacher is currently in custody and waiting for a court appearance.

Asked about the incident, DeeAnn Konrad, community relations coordinator for the Sioux Falls School District, issued the following statement:

“The safety of students and staff is always the highest priority of the Sioux Falls School District. Rigorous background checks are completed for all applicants before employment is finalized. When allegations like these are presented, the District immediately places the person on leave, pending further legal proceedings. At this time, there is no information that indicates the arrest in question is related to the person’s workplace. We value our partnership with law enforcement, and our schools remain focused on providing the best education to our students.”

The Argus Leader spoke with one Whittier parent about the incident. Trinity Wetrich, mother to a seventh grade student, stated she received both the message regarding the arrest via text and email at 3:07 p.m. Thursday.

Wetrich went on to say that she felt the communication from the school was “watered down” and kept quite vague. 

“We’ve been here for three years, and our son has been a part of this school district for two years," Wetrich said. "And they really don't send out much...so it was kind of a big deal to get both of these."

Wetrich also stated her son did not know anything about the incident until she asked him about it. 

Wetrich then took to social media to find more information and converse with other parents. She stated that some parents on social media didn’t know anything about the incident until the end of the school day when their child told them about it.

“The school is supposed to be a safe place … And I just feel like the school doesn’t really care," Wetrich said. "We have to hear this from our kids … Then I’m having to be a detective as the parent, which I think is kind of a big deal."

After asking her child how the school handled the incident, Wetrich said he relayed there was no announcement made. She also said he didn’t know of anyone who was directing them Thursday in case they needed to talk to somebody, such as counselors. 

Wetrich said her emotional response to the incident ranges from anger to anxiety to feeling let down by the school, especially given that she and her family took a chance and moved to Sioux Falls from a small town in Iowa.

“I feel like the communication could be a lot better and is lacking big time between the students, staff and parents. We’re not given the platform to communicate and it’s made out to be not a big deal. There are all these issues with the school and no one’s taking them seriously,” Wetrich said.

“And now we’ve got this with the teacher where I don’t feel safe. I’m angry and actually really disappointed.”