Riva Sharples | Editor
With Reporting & Photography by Juliet Josko, Josie Steeneck, Kaitlyn Neumayr, Tommy Walth, Darin Dykstra, Wayne Overhulser, Keagan Klemme, Jackson Steeneck & Danica Edgecomb-Albaugh.
Area high school students visited elementary classrooms last week as part of National Newspaper Week. The students spoke with elementary students about journalism and shared various journalism activities with them that they had designed. Here’s a closer look at what they did.
Beresford Journalism Club visits Mrs. Goar’s First Grade
On Tuesday, Oct. 7, members of the Beresford Journalism Club visited Mrs. Goar’s First Grade classroom. The students – BHS junior Juliet Josko and freshmen Josie Steeneck and Katilyn Neumayr – talked with the students about journalism, teaching them about the parts of the newspaper and about their student publication, The Beresonian.
The students led the first graders in an activity they designed – making their own newspaper!
“The students had a great time and the 1st graders loved the activity,” said BHS English Teacher Amber Block, who advises the BHS Journalism Club along with Republic Editor Riva Sharples.
Alcester-Hudson high schoolers visit elementary classrooms
After visiting the 2nd grade classroom at Alcester-Hudson on October 2, the ten members of the A-H high school Publication Production class last week visited the rest of the elementary classrooms, grades 1st through 6th.
On Monday, Oct. 6, the entire class visited the 4th grade classroom along with Dr. Sharples, Publication Production teacher and Editor of The Republic. Dr. Sharples spoke with the students about her job as editor, and then students in the class took turns talking with the 4th graders about various elements of the newspaper. Student Jeremiah Vermeersch spoke about headlines. Devin Vermeersch taught about photographs and cutlines. Wayne Overhulser shared about the different sections of the paper, and Tommy Walth explained what advertisements are. Torry Serck and Darin Dykstra took photographs, and Jackson Steeneck took notes and interviewed students.
The high schoolers played a trivia game with the students led by high schoolers Danica Edgecomb-Albaugh, Emily Hoffman, and Keagan Klemme. The 4th graders’ favorite none-journalism answer was “6/7.”
On Wednesday, students in the Publication Production Class at Alcester-Hudson split into groups to visit several elementary classrooms at the same time.
Publication Productions students Jeremiah Vermeersch and Keagan Klemme spoke with the 6th grade class. After an introduction about journalism by Dr. Sharples, the high school students played a Kahoot game they had made to test the sixth graders’ knowledge of the newspaper.
The 6th grade students had decent newspaper knowledge.
Meanwhile, Publication Production class members Tommy Walth, Wayne Overhulser, and Darin Dykstra went to the 5th grade classroom to teach kids about the newspaper. After teaching the main lesson, the students put together a kahoot for the kids to better understand what the lesson was about.
Students learned about all different parts of the paper and were tested on their knowledge.
“They were well behaved and respectful,” said Dykstra.
There were about 25 students in the 5th grade class, and all students participated. With a little help from teacher Molly Homandberg, the Publication Production class was able to get across a very good lesson and hopefully help the kids understand what the newspaper really is.
Happening in a nearby classroom was a presentation by Emily Hoffman, Jackson Steeneck, and Danica Edgecomb-Albaugh to the third grade. The students helped the kids understand about various elements of journalism. Then, they gave each student their own “newspaper” to design. Using a polaroid camera, they took a photo of each student to put on their newspaper page. The students really liked this.
Finally, Dr. Sharples and Darin Vermeersch visited the first grade classroom. They gave each student a newspaper and had the students conduct a scavenger hunt in the paper, finding various elements, including headlines, cutlines, photographs, and advertisements. Students were particularly excited to learn that their photo will be published in the newspaper this week!