Standards and Frameworks

Technology Standards

1T-F1  Communicate about internal technological operations using developmentally appropriate and accurate terminology.
1T-F2 Demonstrate functional operations of technology components.
1T-F3  Use developmentally appropriate technology resources to access information and communicate
electronically

W-F1  Use the writing process, including generating topics, drafting, revising ideas and editing, to complete
effectively a variety of writing tasks.
W-F3  Write a personal experience narrative in a creative story that has a beginning, middle and end and uses descriptive words or phrases to develop ideas   and advance the characters, plot and setting.
W-F5  Locate, acknowledge and use several sources to write an informational report in their own words.

Academic

• Students will create a classroom newsletter using original, creative stories as well factual, research based articles.
• Students will compose unique pieces of writing for the newsletter.
• Students will choose images for the newsletter that are related to the content.

• Students will communicate electronically with experts to get answers to questions.
• Students will design, plan and create a newsletter using MS Publisher
• Students will compose articles using a word processing program.
• Students will insert graphics and text into a newsletter.

Materials
Computer with Internet connection
Microsoft Office with Publisher and Word
Projection device

Accommodations for Special Needs
To address the special needs of students in your class, students are placed in small groups.  The teacher should group students according to individual needs.

Procedures

1. The students will be divided into groups of four.  Each group will have responsibility to write a different part of the newsletter.
2. The parts of the newsletter are a creative story, an Ask an Expert section, an article about a classroom project and a current events article.
3. Each group will work with the teacher to decide the topic of their article.
4. The creative article should be related to a topic that the students are working on in class, but should be a fictional piece.  The group members will work together to develop the characters, plot and setting.  The group will revise and edit together, ensuring the story has a beginning, middle and an end. They will type their story into a word processing program.
5. The group with the Ask an Expert article will develop a set of questions based on what they are studying in class.  For example, if the students are studying the desert in science, they will devise several questions, maximum of 5, they want to share with the rest of the class.  The students will use the Pitsco’s Ask an Expert website (http://www.askanexpert.com). The students will submit their questions online.  When they receive their answers, they will type up the questions and answers in a short article.
6. The third group will work on the classroom project article.  They will interview the teacher and the students about a project the class is working on.  The students will create their own questions for the interviews.  The questions and answers will be typed into a word processing program.
7. The fourth group will create an article about the current events in the classroom.  The group will decide what important events are occurring in the classroom and/or school that should be put into their newsletter.  The students will be responsible for finding out all of the relevant information about each event.  The events and the details of each will be typed into a word processor.
8. After each group has typed their article into a word processing program, all of the articles will be moved into MS Publisher.
9. Using a projection device, the teacher will demonstrate how to import an article into Publisher.
10. The teacher will have the class decide what graphics should be added to the newsletter.  The teacher will direct the class to choose graphics that relate to the topics of the articles.
11. The teacher will show the class how to insert clipart into the newsletter.  After demonstrating to the class, the teacher will ask for a volunteer to come up and insert the next image.  The student can call on other members of the class for assistance.
12. After all of the images and articles are inserted into the newsletter, it should be saved.  Then, the newsletter can be printed out and copied for distribution to the class.
13. The class will evaluate the newsletter as a whole using the rubric provided.  Each group will be evaluated based on their individual article and the completed newsletter.

Teacher Name: Karen Gutierrez
Site: University of Arizona
Date Submitted: November 4, 2001