Analysis of a Newspaper Article Writing Lesson Grades 6 - 9

Take your students on a visit to the library or bring some newspaper articles to your class. Read aloud an article which contains facts or statistics. Ask students if the facts support the article. Solicit ideas about where the reporter got his facts. Explain what kinds of sources of information are acceptable. Have them choose a topic and then write about it, supporting their article with two reputable sources of facts or statistics to support the topic.

The Five W's

Learn how to recognize the most important parts of a newspaper article - who, where, why, when, and why. Hand out a copy of a newspaper story to each student. Ask the class to identify the sentences that answer the five questions. Ask them what they think is the most important piece of information and what facts may not have been addressed. As a homework assignment, have the students choose a newspaper article and then identify the "five questions."

Newspaper Savenger Hunt

As a class assignment, have the students look through newspapers specifically for the items on a scavenger list. The list should include items such as an article which expressed an opinion, an international dateline, a strange story, leisure activities, an outstanding photograph, and a story that would interest their age group. Other items on the list can include a local restaurant review, a weather item and a human interest story. Have the students choose one or two identified articles from their scavenger list and write a brief description of the articles. Have them describe what was interesting about the article and how it could be improved.

School Newspaper

Take your class through the process of developing its own school newspaper once you have taught how to support articles with facts and how to identify the most important parts of an article. Assign the students to interview other students or teachers. This lesson can be adapted for grades three through to grade six. You could also do a class newspaper instead of a school newspaper. Ask students to write up articles on the people they interviewed, about school sports activities, about the school mascot, field trips, science project fairs, and teacher/student recognition articles.