Spotlight on Intensives: Newspaper

This year in Middle School, we launched Intensives, an elective-like class that meets once or twice weekly. Periodically throughout the year, Middle School students are invited to choose from a variety of class offerings.

According to the National Middle School Association, leading Middle Schools should offer exploratory classes for students so that they may investigate a variety of disciplines as they grow and learn about who they are. With Intensive classes ranging from Creative Writing to Plyometrics to Chorus, St. Anne's School Middle School students certainly have a wide variety to choose from.

One popular Intensive last trimester was Newspaper. The class, led by Mrs. Musa and Mrs. Reddy, created a full fledged school newspaper, complete with news, opinions, weather and even horoscopes! The group of ten students issued the first edition of the newspaper before Christmas break and has just released their second edition. Read the Star Gazette - St. Anne's School Student Newspaper >>

Most students who elected to participate in the Newspaper Intensive did so because they thought it would be fun, but also a way to share current events that were happening at school. It also gave students a chance to try writing in a new way.

Students were tasked with everything from narrowing down potential story ideas to editing the final product.The brainstorming process took on many different forms; one student even made an idea web to display his topics. After the group settled on story ideas, they interviewed students, staff and parents, researched background information and then gathered photos for the paper. Before publishing, they peer edited their articles.

This authentic newspaper experience, while fun, was also challenging. One student noted, "The newspaper was fun to work on, but we had to get serious when it came to deadlines." They enjoyed writing articles on topics they cared about, but like the real world, one student reflected "it was a long process - you couldn't miss one detail."

While they took different routes in developing their articles, most students agreed that the best part was "seeing the finished product" and "being able to say they contributed to the newspaper."