Family & Community Students & Families Student and Secondary Support
21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) Grant Program
(Federally funded through NCLB Title IVB - Fund Code 647)

Promising Practices - Hampshire Educational Collaborative

I. Program Info

II. Learning Outcomes

SAYO Academic Outcomes

Verbal Communication

Written Communication

 

Other Objectives

Students will create and produce a Newsletter to keep parents, teachers, staff, and students up to date on the program.

III. Narrative

1. Project Description:

   The Newsletter Club empowers and engages youth because they are in control of the process and the final product. They choose topics for stories and interviews, and they create the layout and design of the newsletter. That also makes them responsible for doing the work to get there. Students provide the newsletter to the school at regular intervals and have been known to add them to the registration packets that go home with students before the start of a new session.

   The outcomes Verbal and Written communication were selected for this activity. In order to write their articles students must gather relevant information through the interview process. The interviewing process connects the Newsletter students with their schoolmates and teachers thus promoting a feeling of community. The actual newsletter usually contains polls and surveys conducted by the Newsletter students on the school body. The polls and surveys often require Newsletter students to conduct their business during the school day. Thus the school body learns a little about what the after school is doing and the after school Newsletter students learn more about the school body. The polls and surveys also promote some math, though not a chosen outcome this year, it is still beneficial. The interviews teach the Newsletter students about the interviewing process. Newsletter students brainstorm questions and discuss the most effective ways to obtain the needed information. They also brainstorm topics and evaluate which ones are most relevant to their audience to make for a good story. Once rough drafts of stories and interviews are done, students revise and edit their own and others writing, before getting the work approved by the instructor.

2. Needed materials and costs:

   • Computer Lab or a few computers with Microsoft Word or similar products
   • Printing costs if the school will not assume these expenses
   • Notepads, pencils, pens
     
     

3. How do you know this practice is having a positive impact on students?

   Last year's SAYO surveys showed a positive gain of .342 in Verbal Communication.

4. Describe any strategies that were used to help overcome barriers you may have faced: Using a template developed by the National Institute of Out-of-School Time, "Links to Learning: A Curriculum Planning Guide for After-School Programs," steers the curriculum towards the focus areas. This template is instrumental in planning any enrichment activity, especially ones with many layers, in a way that the focus areas remain primary.

5. What factors do you think have contributed most to the success of this practice?

   Youth empowerment is the main ingredient that makes this activity successful. Students enjoy sharing the responsibility and the leadership provided by the Newsletter Club. Youth spend much of their school day feeling far from empowered and this activity can be a refreshing change. This is a busy curriculum. There are many roles to be filled whether each member is their own reporter, survey conductor, and editor, or each student is designated just one of those roles. Students also enjoy a productive field trip to their local newspaper's headquarters. They witness first hand the many duties and expectations of a successfully run newspaper.

6. What suggestions do you have for others regarding potential improvements?

   A field trip to the local newspaper's headquarters should never be overlooked or forgotten. It provides connections to the community and a real life example that reinforces what students are doing in the club. Staff can take the extra step and have a reporter come visit their class to answer questions about the field.

   Post the newspaper online as part of the school website or as a blog.