Writing can be a subject in which both students and teachers have a difficult time enjoying. Students struggle with finding ideas, fleshing out stories, and being confident within writing. Teachers struggle with how to best reach numerous students at various writing levels while keeping their interest. In an advanced technological age, it can be hard to teach writing using just a pencil and paper and expect students to be highly engaged. It can happen of course, but if you need some help in this area, allow Canva to be your guide. Canva can help students gain ideas and keep them motivated and interested in writing in new and exciting ways. Join us as we explore Teach Writing with Canva: Tips for Student Newspaper Projects.
First, check out Canva and Narrative Writing in which Tami writes about using Canva and visually rendered picture books to inspire students. Then, by using the thousands of pictures available on Canva, students craft their own visually rendered picture books before diving into writing its matching dialogue and paragraphs. Illustrating before writing is the key here to help struggling writers flesh out a storyline.
Today, let’s take it a step further and capture students’ interests by using Canva in another type of writing, such as newspaper articles.
Teach Writing with Canva: Newspapers
I have used paper newspaper templates for years with students. Students pretend they are journalists or writers for a newspaper. Using this angle, there is an air of mystery as students slip into a “role” of correspondent, all while donning an imaginary taupe hat and a brown trench coat, interviewing famous people, asking questions, piecing together parts of a puzzle, and solving mysteries all while turning their writing into a simple article.
Before assigning a newspaper article to students, review the attributes of a newspaper journalist and the articles they write. A newspaper writer is someone who tells stories about what’s happening in the world around them. They ask questions, take notes, and write articles to share important news and interesting events. Newspaper articles turn facts into stories that are easy to understand and fun to read. Articles tell the who, what, when, where, and why of a story. Articles don’t give an opinion. It is written from a third person point of view. (Unless, you’re assigning an editorial piece.)
What’s great about using a newspaper template is that students can write about a variety of topics using this form of writing.
Teach Writing with Canva: Newspaper Writing Ideas
Here are some ideas within reading instruction:
- Write an article summarizing the events of the novel. “Interview” the main character and a minor character. Use dialogue and quotation marks to capture quotes from the interview. Use inference skills and context clues to draw conclusions about what the interviewees might say. Make sure to discuss the main points of who, what, when, where, and why of the novel.
- Pick an important event from the story and write a short article describing the who, what, when, where, and why.
- Write an article pretending the antagonist of the story is wanted by the police. Describe the various inner and outer character traits of the antagonist, interview other book characters, and write an in-depth descriptive article about this particular character.
- For historical fiction books, research a real event from the story. Write an article all about what happened. Pretend you are informing readers about this event based solely on this newspaper article.
Here are some ideas that do not involve a particular story or novel:
- Think about your favorite day ever. Pretend a journalist is interviewing you about it. Describe this day in third person, using quotation marks and dialogue to express your real thoughts on it.
- Your favorite superhero just took down his arch nemesis! You’re a newspaper writer for the Superhero Gazette. Tell all about how your favorite superhero saved the day in an article.
- Pick an event in our school, whether that is our Fall Carnival or Christmas pageant. Write an article all about this event and interview 2-3 people about it as well.
The sky’s the limit when assigning newspaper articles within writing instruction. There are a variety of prompts that can be used within reading instruction as well as within basic story writing.
For a free list, download here.
Using Canva
When I first discovered Canva a couple of years ago, the first assignment I utilized was the Newspaper Template. Using Canva instead of a paper newspaper template opened up a whole new world for my students. With access to various newspaper article templates, fonts, images, layouts, and more, students had the tools to make their newspaper look real and official. It motivated them. It made their article look like something they’d seen in real life. Utilizing Canva for newspaper articles introduced my students to a new realm of possibilities and options.
I first assigned my seventh graders to write an article about Malala Yousafzai and the terrible incident of her shooting. Students had to use quotes from I Am Malala, research about the Taliban and political strife that took place at the time, and input real pictures from the event.
I walked students through how to write the newspaper article on Canva and insert various uploaded pictures. The great thing about Canva is that it is so user friendly. Students in this age are so tech savvy that many of them had it figured out before I could finish my lesson on it. As an adult, I didn’t take a class in Canva when I first started using it. I just dove right in. The platform is simple and easy to follow.
I allowed students to choose their own newspaper template on Canva. Giving students autonomy and choice helped motivate them to get into the role of journalist. The templates also made their articles look official and important. They were able to choose the name of their newspaper, the title of their article, and the various fonts. We did discuss how the font in a newspaper is supposed to be simple and easy to read, but they were able to choose different fonts for titles and captions of pictures. Students saw easily how their writing was transformed into an authentic looking article.
Teach Writing with Canva: Think Like a Photojournalist
For some of my students that struggled with ideas, I had them think like a photojournalist first. We discussed how photojournalists are photographers that capture a story within pictures. I had students look up various real pictures online from the Malala Yousafzai incident. (I did take precautions with them on the various pics they would have access to.) By first choosing the pictures and uploading them into the template, students gained ideas on where to begin and what story they wanted their article to tell. Much like Tami said in Canva and Narrative Writing, starting with pictures first helps to get the writing to flow.
Teach Writing with Canva: Articles Tell a Story
One of the biggest pieces of advice I told my students is that newspaper articles tell a story. Every student has the same topic they had to write about but it was up to the individual student to tell the story from a particular angle. Perhaps, one student wanted to focus more on Malala’s health, whereas another student focused on her spirit of resilience. Another student focused more on the Taliban and the person who did the shooting. The whole class had a list of requirements, but based on how they wrote and what they focused on determined the story they were telling.
There are some keys to make newspaper writing work for your classroom.
Key 1:
Detailed writing requirements. We want students to have freedom and flexibility, but I noticed that the less requirements I gave, the more lost students were. Students had a list of requirements that had to be included in their articles, but had flexibility on how much to focus on each item and where to place it in the structure of the article.
Key 2:
Model the article for them first. Either write a sample article in front of them on the projector or collaborate with your students on an article to use as an example to guide them.
Key 3:
Read newspaper articles together. Utilize half a class period to read various articles that relate to their assignment. I pulled various articles from The NY Times and The Washington Post about Malala’s shooting to help students understand what they’re trying to do. If real articles aren’t available, find related articles such as an article about a school event so they can see how to go about writing a similar article.
Display
Even though our world has turned printed newspapers to online sources these days, there is satisfaction in reading an article you’ve written printed on paper. Print out students’ articles. Just click the share button and students can email you their articles for you to print out. Display them in the classroom so other students can read their peers’ articles. You can even combine them into a newspaper book to keep on your shelf for students to peruse. Seeing your work in print helps students feel like real journalists and in turn, authentic writers.
Conclusion
Newspaper articles are a different and wonderful form of writing that can capture students’ interests. With various topics that can be utilized in a newspaper template, students can write articles about a plethora of ideas. Canva is the tool that will help make newspaper article writing accessible, simple, and authentic for students. Students will make headlines in your classroom for their wonderful writing pieces.
