Why a school newspaper???

I am interested in how struggling writers in fifth grade will respond to the implementation of a school newspaper where the content will be determined by the students involved.  Therefore, I recruited participants from the fifth grade classrooms at Made-up Elementary who scored within the Apprentice to Proficient range on the KPREP testing in May 2013. Specifically, I will select participants based on my prior experiences with the fifth grade class, students who have scored in the Apprentice and Proficient range on the KPREP writing test, and recommendations from fifth grade teachers in the school.  There was a small selection of students to help support the determination of how effective the project will have been for the students, or vice versa.  Although, according to the 2012-2013 School Report Card, over half of Made-up Elementary’s students scored in the Apprentice/ Proficient scoring range; selecting a small focus group will help to study student writing closely to see if a newspaper writing approach is a beneficial writing project for a larger scale in the future.  This study will provide my colleagues and teachers that serve similar populations to have a more creative tool that has the potential to positively affect their students’ writing.