Mini-Lesson

Objective: Students will write their own news story.

1. Start a discussion about the features of a news story. Pass out the Sample News Story and the latest timeforkids.com news story, "A Cyclone's Terrible Toll". Draw students' attention to the title, the lead, answers to the 5 W's and an H, the subhead and the quotes. Remind students that news stories are written from a third-person point of view, which means that the author provides information about what happened without mentioning himself or herself. For example, the author never writes, "I think" or "In my opinion..."

2. Have students brainstorm ideas for a news story about their class. Encourage them to think of something that has happened in the last two weeks. Examples include a class trip, a school assembly or a fundraiser. Once they have chosen a topic, show students how to plan their article by filling out the News Story Organizer. Then, use the plan to write a draft together that includes all of the news story features discussed above. Challenge students to revise the story with a partner. For example, they may choose to add sensory details, take away unnecessary information, insert similes or metaphors, combine short sentences or break up rambling sentences. Have students use the News Story Checklist to review their work.

3. Ask students to tell about how they changed the story. As an extension, challenge students to write a news story independently from start to finish. Encourage them to complete each step of the wtiting process for this piece as well. Once everyone's story is finished, hold a publishing party for students to share their work.