Lesson 3: We produce our wall newspaper

All the “do’s” and a few “don’ts”

The lesson

In groups of three or four, the students share their ideas about which sections of a newspaper provide relevant information on life in the school.

The teacher has prepared a small wall newspaper for every group by sticking three A4 sheets of paper together. The groups are then given the task of designing the general structure of the newspaper, including the name of the newspaper, the possible layout and the sections which the students have chosen. Their result might look like this:

Suggestions made by the groups are displayed on the wall in the classroom and the students are given time to read the posters and form their opinions. Then an “editors’ conference” makes the following important decisions:

• The name of the newspaper (exchange of views, discussion and final vote);
• Selection of the sections which are most important and meaningful for the school and the students.

The students now form small teams, with the number of teams corresponding to the number of sections that are to be produced, with an additional team that is put in charge of production.

In the beginning, the production team deals with practical matters such as the layout and presentation of the wall newspaper. Beforehand, the teacher has informed the head teacher about the newspaper project and has obtained his/her permission to display the school newspaper in the school building.

While the teams of editors are planning the first articles for the different sections, the teacher discusses technical aspects with the production team.

The students are given tasks that are to be completed by the following week. Each editing team submits an article and the production team produces the wall newspaper, complete with the heading design showing the logo and name of the paper, and the sections that have been chosen.

This task allows the students to experience their first success, but also immediately confronts them with the difficulties involved. The objective of this approach is to set up a standing team of editors who will regularly publish school news. The teams will be made up of particularly active and interested students, who are able to continue with the wall newspaper project over a longer period of time.