This presentation provides an overview of an upcoming month-long project for students to create a school newspaper. The project aims to allow students to collaborate with peers and community members. Students will be responsible for planning, designing, editing, and publishing the newspaper which will include latest school and community news, weekly lunch schedules, and announcements. At the end of the month, the completed newspaper will be published and sent to parents. The project aligns with grade 5 English/language arts standards around writing mechanics and composing expository texts.

1. What’s Happening Now?This presentation provides an overview for our upcoming class activities. If you have any questions related to these activities or any or class-related item feel free to contact me using the following:Skype: CAT250onlineEmail: CAT250online@gmail.com

2. Overview for Upcoming Unit PlanThis presentation will inform you about the project we are starting in a few weeks. Our project is entitled “What’s Happening Now” and will progress for approximately one month. The purpose of the action plan is allow students to collaborate with peers and community members to create a create a school newspaper. The activities will be guided by the following questions:Essential Question: What’s Happening Now?Unit Questions: What are the components of a newspaper?Why do I need to be aware of the things that are going on around me?Content Questions:What news events are taking place in our school and community?What can be done to impact the local economy?How can we all contribute to saving our environment?

3. Benefits of Project-based LearningProvides authentic learning opportunities for studentsAllow student to build 21st century skillsProvides instruction that meets students needsPromotes critical thinking and problem-solving skills through project based learning.

4. Expected Roles of Students and ParentsStudents will be responsible for planning, designing, editing and publishing a newspaper that includes but is not limited to the following areas of interest: latest news for the school and community, the weekly lunch schedule, a cartoon section, the upcoming forecast, any special holidays coming up, birthdays of the week, extracurricular announcements, and technology. Each student will have a job to incorporate in the newspaper. At the end of the month the paper will be published and sent out to all parents. Volunteers are always welcome in our classroom. Please consider helping in any number of ways (guest speaker, gathering resources, photography, and etc.).

5. Instructional Standards for the UnitEnglish/language Arts Grade 5:Apply mechanics in writing, including capitalization of first word in a direct quotation and use of punctuation, including quotation marks and comma with direct quotations, colon to introduce a list, and commas after introductory words, with a noun of direct address, and in a compound sentence such as using quotation marks with titles of short stories and poems, capitalizing proper adjectives, titles of books, and works of art, and using apostrophes with possessivesCompose expository texts using an introductory paragraph that includes a main idea; supporting paragraphs with a minimum of three reasons, explanations, or steps in a process; and a conclusion such as determining purpose and audience prior to writing.