Sara Storm, a sixth-grade math teacher at WIS, has taken up the management of “The WIS Times.” “The WIS Times” is a student-run newspaper written by 23 sixth-grade students.
“It’s been an option here at WIS, and it depends on whether there’s a teacher here to run it,” Storm said. “We’ve had a smaller version of the paper at different times, but this year, Mr. Cobb was looking for someone who might be interested, and I thought it would be fun.”
Students meet on Tuesdays during lunch and recess each week to write stories and discuss their newspaper. They cover topics such as around-town events, school clubs and sports teams.
All writing and layout design is created by students, edited by Storm, and combined into a single large document. This document is shared with all students via email and printed for students and staff to read throughout the school.
Writers practice formal news reporting and layout each time they meet. For the next issues, they are focusing on interviewing and editing techniques.
“The kids interviewed Mr. Ockunzzi [for their story], but they emailed him their questions,” Storm said. “That would probably be our next step of getting the kids to practice that one-to-one conversation in interviews, and teaching them some interviewing skills.”
Storm expressed happiness that students were interested in writing for the WIS paper.
“I hope that they [students] improve their writing skills, but they just have an interest in learning about their community and their school, and being a part of that process,” Storm said.
One of the staff writers for “The WIS Times,” Mikaela Throener, shared what she enjoys about being a staff writer for the paper.
“I like doing the WIS newspaper because all the other people doing different parts of the newspaper get to have fun writing their part of the paper, while we all talk and think about different stuff to do in the future for the newspaper,” Throener said.
Storm hopes that “The WIS Times” will keep students interested in journalism as they get older and enter high school.
