Project+Statement

Project Statement

1. Students will create a newspaper by writing articles and posting information in the newspaper from the area in which they live. Once students have designed their newspaper, they will post it to the internet for everyone involved in the project to read. Students then have to read newspapers posted by others involved in the project and choose articles written by other students to include in their own newspapers.

2. The students will be incorporating real life news articles and items of interest in their areas. They will also be utilizing their knowledge of reading, writing, and technology use for this project.

3. The students will be writing their own news stories and will comment on the articles written by students at other schools.

4. According to Mayer the students will be using multimedia materials to write their articles, illustrate if needed, and/or link to the internet if necessary.

5. Students will utilize word processing applications to create their news articles. They will utilize a Wiki or some similar site to post their newspaper. They will also need to use the internet for research purposes to help them find information needed to complete their news articles.

6. The students will be creating their articles through the computer labs or ipad labs, which are located at each school. If applicable they can work from home as allowed if they have computer access.

7. We will make sure that the students understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. We will also make sure that students know how to respectfully comment on each other's articles in order to create a collaborative learning environment.

8. The students will understand the writing mechanics, the correct use of grammar, and the proper technology mean to implement the information correctly. The resources used will be as stated before, the Internet, computer use, word processing program, and website/ wiki/ blogger for the newspaper.

9. The audience for this project will be the students in Sara Becker's 3rd grade class, Lou Ann Morris' 6th grade class and Kimberly Dean's 6th grade class as well as the teachers. The students involved will be 25 3rd graders from Baltimore, MD; 23 6th graders from Gilbert, WV; and 26 6th graders from Morristown, TN. Students will have basic computer use skills (i.e using the internet, some word processing fluency).


 * The 3rd graders are from a public charter school in Baltimore, MD. The school is in a suburban setting and is made up of predominantly African American students.
 * The 6th graders from Morristown, TN are in a public school setting which is one of four middle schools. The school is 85-89% free and reduced lunch. We have a large influx of Hispanic students with a mixture of caucasian and African American students.
 * The 6th grade students from Gilbert are in a school setting of predominately caucasian students from average American lower middle class families.

The students will be supported in this project by their parents when working at home, members of the community when locating information, and the school staff as a whole in completing this project.