For the past several months, a group of dedicated fourth grade writers has been working for an extra hour after school to write newspaper articles. Yesterday, we celebrated the publication of their hard work: the first issue of Rotary Reporters!

The writers kicked off the final session by silently going through their Writing Folders, Writing Notebooks, and resources they’d collected over their fifteen sessions. We discussed how we’d used these materials to become stronger writers. We also discussed the features of a news article that they’d incorporated in their final drafts.

During our sessions, we repeatedly told our reporters that writing isn’t a solitary activity. Writers share. Writers work together. To reinforce this sentiment, students read each other’s final drafts and wrote specific writing compliments on sticky notes to each reporter. To help them get started, we shared a list of options.

After writing a couple compliments, most of our reporters were asking if they HAD to use the options on the board because they had other ideas. They really are real writers!

After composing their compliments, students delivered them to each other. One student said, “It’s like valentines!” Another piped up and said, “But better!” 🙂

Students collected their compliments in their Writing Folders or Writing Notebooks as mementos of the Rotary Reporters. It was really powerful to see our writers transform into proud reporters over the past fifteen weeks! Be sure to ask me for your copy of Rotary Reporters today!