How to Create an Article of the Week (AoW)
A Step-by-Step Guide
1. Choose a news article from a reputable site that will interest the majority of middle school readers NOT just you.
a. Examples of reputable sites: CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, AP, Washington Post, NY Times, etc.
b. Read this article at least twice before making the decision to use
c. By the time you are finished with this assignment, you should know this article well
2. Open a recent AoW on Mrs. Lattin’s webpage in MS Word
a. Choose one you have already completed
3. How to place news article in text box
a. Click to place cursor in the text box
b. Control A – highlights entire text box
c. Space bar or back space will delete the highlighted contents
d. Highlight text in the article you are using, copy (Control C) text from webpage
e. Paste (Control V) into document
f. Clean up document – remove underlining, colored text, pictures, etc.
i. Appropriate illustrations may be added so long as they are with the article at the time you locate it and are placed at the bottom of the text box
ii. Note: Save this for last when you know you have time as adding illustrations to this document isn’t always easy and can waste a huge amount of time
g. Font for text: Times New Roman, size 11 or 12
h. Add title (Hint: Copy from web); adjust to Times New Roman, size 20 or 22
i. Read last line of text and compare to article to be certain entire article is there
4. How to get a Lexile level – THIS MUST BE COMPLETED ON WEDNESDAY OR THURSDAY
a. Click to place cursor in text box
b. Copy text (Control C)
c. Open a new, blank Word document
d. Paste (Control V) into new document
e. Save document
i. File
ii. Save As
iii. Save as Type: Plain Text
iv. Save
v. Other Encoding
vi. US-ASCII
vii. OK
f. Email this document to Mrs. Lattin as an attachment using your Gmail
i.
ii. Your Gmail login: Password: Vale.Vikings
g. A Lexile level will be emailed back through your email from Mrs. L.
5. How to edit the header
a. Highlight the old title
b. Type in the new title name using capital letters on all but the articles: a, an, the
c. Insert the Lexile score provided by Mrs. Lattin
d. Copy (Control A) the title text
e. Paste into each heading
i. Click cursor
ii. Highlight (Control A)
iii. Paste (Control V)
6. How to write questions for BOX 1
a. Questions must be comprehension-based
i. Think higher-level AR questions from elementary school
b. Answer must be explicitly in article
c. Place questions in random order
d. One question should be based upon the definition of an uncommon word found in article
e. The standards are set for this box; be certain that the standards are still in the lower left-hand corner of the box. You may have to place the cursor at the bottom and click backspace in order to pull this back up.
7. How to write questions for BOX 2
a. Questions must be comprehension-based but require thought
b. Part or all of answer must be explicitly in article but may require prior knowledge or a small amount of research (or thinking)
c. Include three questions
d. Questions should be written so each may be answered in 1-2 complete sentences
e. Please refer to the directions in 6(e)
8. How to write questions for BOX 3 and BOX 4
a. Use the provided CCSS guideline for Informational Text standards
b. Determine a standard you want to focus on for each question
c. Write a higher-level thinking question based on this standard
d. Possible answers to these questions MUST require a sizeable amount of writing and thought.
i. DO NOT USE COMPREHENSION-BASED questions in this section.
e. Locate the standards in the lower, left-hand corner of the question box; you may need to place the cursor at the bottom of the box and click backspace to pull the standard back into view
f. Retain standard 10; all article use this standard
g. Remove the standards that do not apply and add in the standards you are using
i. Example: 7/8.RI.8,10 - if you used Standard 6, it would be: 7/8.RI.6,10
1. 7/8 refers to the grade level
2. RI refers to Reading Informational
3. 8,10 refers to Standards 8 and 10
h. You may refer to the reading work sample question guide for more question writing ideas; DO NOT copy directly from this handout. Use as a reference, and write in your own words.
9. Edit, edit again, and RE-EDIT
a. PLEASE NOTE: THIS MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT SECTION OF THIS ASSIGNMENT!
b. Read the article once more; fix any errors
i. Remember that regular people write these articles, and there may be errors. FIX THEM!
c. Spell-check the ENTIRE ARTICLE
i. You may need to spell-check more than once; it often takes Mrs. L up to three times to get an article as close to perfect as possible
d. Read each of your questions at least twice considering the answers as you do so
e. Read the article again
f. Ask a partner to peer-edit
g. ANY mistakes will lower the grade you earn on this assignment
10. How to hand in the AoW
a. Save document
i. Save As
ii. Title of Article.Your.Name
b. Email directly to Mrs. Lattin, using the Gmail directions provided in 4(f), no later than the end of class on Monday, March 18th
c. Print a copy for yourself and place in the assignments section of your binders