Students will learn how to write a news article and practice working in a virtual newsroom. Each week, we will discuss different aspects of journalism, and then put that into practice by writing articles for a classroom printable newspaper.

Students will submit the article to me for editing and then the newspaper will be posted in the classroom.  We will use Google Forms for some homework assignments as well as the messaging system in the Outschool classroom. We will also use Google Jamboard for budget meetings.


Class 1:
- Introduce the format of the class and how the newspaper will work 
- Qualities and elements of a news story
- Class activity: Students will look at different news articles and determine what makes them newsworthy.
- Look at the parts of a news story.
- Class activity: Students will look at different articles and find the different elements
- For homework, students will find news articles and identify what makes them newsworthy.


Class 2:
- Look at current events on the AP wire
- Dissection of various news article
- What is the inverted pyramid
- Different kinds of news leads
- Class activity: Practice writing news lead
- HOMEWORK: Write news leads

Class 3:
- Look at current events
- Review news leads
- Discuss AP style
- Review frequently mixed up words
- Class activity: Practice writing news articles and searching the AP Style Guide
- HOMEWORK: Practice writing news leads and review mixed up words


Class 4:
- How to come up with story ideas
- How to find sources
- Budget meeting - A budget meeting is when journalists brainstorm ideas and fill the newspaper with stories.
- Students will be assigned articles and we will start working on writing articles in class.
HOMEWORK: Write an article and submit it to the teacher.

Class 5:
- Media Ethics
- Freedom of Information Act
- Discuss articles from the previous week
- Work on news articles
HOMEWORK: Write an article and submit it to the teacher.


Class 6:
- Look over the first published newspaper
- Interview techniques
- Turning interviews into articles
- Write questions for an interview
- Budget meeting
HOMEWORK: Write an article and submit it to the teacher.

Class 7:
- Class activity - Interview the teacher
- Turning press releases into news articles
- Class activity: Practice turning press releases into news articles
HOMEWORK: Write an article and submit it to the teacher.

Class 8:
- Writing articles based on meetings, speeches, and news conferences
- Tips for taking notes
- Watch a portion of a meeting and practice note-taking
- Budget meeting
HOMEWORK: Write an article and submit it to the teacher.

Class 9
- Math in newspaper writing
- Editing newspaper articles 
- Class activity: Practice editing news articles and checking math in articles
HOMEWORK: Write an article and submit it to the teacher.

Class 10
- Pictures for newspaper articles
- Newspaper design
- Writing headlines
- Finish putting together the last newspaper


No prior experience is necessary, but students need to have the desire to write newspaper articles. This class is not for practicing essay writing skills. Writing news articles is different than writing anything else.