Research process

As part of the literacy programme we were learning to write newspaper articles.

We first had a look at the features of a newspaper and identified things such as the headlines, captions, bylines, adverts, and the different sections of the paper. Local and NZ news is in the first section, followed by World News, Business and Sports News. We even had some old newspapers from 1936 that we could look at to compare. There were lots of articles but not many photos, and the advertising was for things like toothpaste and soap!

We decided that our newspaper would be about things that have happened at school and we brainstormed everything we could remember. We got into pairs and discussed which two events we wanted to write about. Names went up on the board next to the events, so we made sure we would cover everything.

Because some of the experiences were had by the middle and junior syndicates, we had to create questions, and interview the students.

Next we used the answers to our questions to write the articles, remembering to include the 5W's and just a few quotes.

After completing the writing we wanted to enhance our articles with photographs; some were already on the computer and some we had to take ourselves. Looking at the photos, we decided what the best captions would be, so that our readers would get the full picture.

We gave our work to Ms Dee who rearranged it into columns, like in a real newspaper, and added the photos.

We decided to put some of our stories online, just like the newspapers do. We wanted to allow more readers to enjoy and experience the life at St Anne's. We think our newspaper is great and is the most popular read on our bookshelf!