Seaford Manor Elementary School students are taking their writing to the next level while informing their classmates. Recent nonfiction writing projects have immersed students in fact-based reporting.
Third graders recently completed their expert books. Each student selected a topic he or she knows a lot about and wrote a nonfiction book with at least five chapters. Subjects ranged from animals to sports to toys.
The young authors used different writing techniques, such as cause and effect and comparing and contrasting. Their nonfiction books were topped off with colorfully illustrated cover pages. Teachers noted that the project was a way for students to share their personal passions.
A fifth-grade journalism unit required more than just first-hand knowledge. Students had to do interviews and research to gather information for their stories.
The budding reporters wrote about happenings in their school or community and also learned what it means to cover a beat by writing different stories on the same topic. After filing their news stories that reported on the who, what, where, when and why, they dipped their toes into feature writing. Students explored topics of personal interest, conducting research to find out information that would be useful to their readers.
Topics included fashion, holidays, movies, nutrition and sports. Some reporters even conducted polls or surveys to gather feedback on the topics from classmates.
Fifth graders explored one more aspect of journalism – layout and design – by putting their stories into Canva and adding pictures, illustrations and headlines to resemble a real newspaper page.
for their feature stories. Photo provided by Seaford School District
