Roving Reporters
By Elizabeth Swartz

For the reproducible click here. PDF 35KB

Reports and reporting require comparable skills. However, reporting appears exciting and challenging while reports are often viewed as boring papers that need to get done. Why the difference? Is there a way to convey some of the excitement of one to the enjoyment of the other? Let's try.

Getting the facts. No matter the age of our students, we can start by brainstorming a list of events on which kids can report for a class newspaper or a "What's New?" bulletin board. The list could include: sports games, assemblies, dances, movies, parades, mall sales, family gatherings and much more. Have each student select one event to cover and send them off with their list of questions and a disposable camera.

When they return, provide free-writing time during which they can spill onto the paper what they saw and felt. Then, in the rewrite, check that all the questions from the pre-write have been answered and that the sequence of events is correct. In the next rewrite, help students include dialogue and photos in the report and check grammar. Have a peer editor check the report against the reproducible on the next page before the piece is published.

A world of information. You can use the same steps with a research report. It's a challenge to convince students that we're doing a research project so we can find out something we didn't know before. The real key to making research exciting is to know what interests your students. That interest will give the initiative necessary to help writing skills flourish.

Again, brainstorm a list of topics. If you're working on a particular unit of study in science, for example, look for different angles of study. While one student will be interested in researching a shark's habitat, another would rather research the types of vessels used to research sharks and yet another would like to research shark attacks. Plan research so that when all the students have finished their projects a new facet of the unit is completed.

You can use the reproducible before, during and after research. Ask students to focus on one or two items from the grid during each rewrite until the piece is completed.

When the reports are finished and published, there are many ways you can share them. You can have a large group discussion, display the reports for students to read or have students present oral reports and make a list of new questions that arise as a result of the information found. Repeat the reporting and report writing processes throughout the year and watch as students include more information in earlier drafts as their minds begin to do the work the grid used to do.

For the reproducible click here. PDF 35KB

Elizabeth Swartz is librarian at Watsontown Elementary School and Turbotville Elementary School in PA.