Could you give me some advice on creating a school newspaper in English?

Question

I'm teaching English to mentally disturbed teenagers and i wanted to work on a project with them on releasing a school newspaper... any suggestions on how to drive the project aare welcomed.

Answer 1

Have you considered doing the newspaper online?  Your students could pick up some technical / computer skills plus the English skills.

Disclosure: I'm the owner of a small business that offers a web-based / online student newspaper service - details at the link below.

Answer 2

Get them to write short stories in Word without corrections, maybe about something that they did on holiday or a weekend. What about some activity in school?

Then get other to act as editor and correct the work using  Word correction functions (spelling and grammar) and explain to you why!

Add pictures, if possible, about the school activities.

You can either chose to print hard copies (for them to take home, this always helps enthuse the weaker student) and / or publish on the schools website.

Answer 3

Great idea! Creativity is the limit here. Other wise follow the same rules you would for any school paper.

Define what kind of news paper it is going to be: To whom is it directed? What issues will it deal whit?  What section should it have?,  What are the goals or reasons that guide this project? etc.

Start small, it will make it easy for everyone to understand and get into it. Make it every two weeks, then you can move to a weekly, etc. No problem, it can grow and develop with time in every sense; length, pages, frequency, etc.

Mostly make it fun to do, and to read. Not necessary humorous, but entertaining and interesting, your aim is to involve as many people as you can; both as producers and as readers.

Luck to you with this nice project-