Junior journalists: Paper trail leads to a good time

All the news that's fit to print ... and then some additional stuff.

That is the motto and modus operandi at The 5B Times, the fifth-grade newspaper that debuted last year at the Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School in Foster City and hit the newsstands every Friday.

Teacher Diana Black and her 12 budding journalists proved their versatility — tackling politics, movies, recipes, books, video games, school happenings, fashion, sports, interviews with Wornick staffers, crossword puzzles, contests, artwork, advice columns and jokes.

"The original idea for the newspaper was that as a teacher I was supposed to communicate with the parents," said Black, who begins her second year at Wornick this fall. "But I wanted the students to get experience writing for a specific audience and a specific purpose."

Certain features, such as classroom highlights and school news, were mandatory staples of each paper, said Black. The students always chose the remaining articles.

"Someone was always in charge of the cover," she said, "and the students voted in new areas. They chose fashion at one point, and that is something I wouldn't have included."

The students produced and laid out the paper in MicrosoftWord, rotating each of the 12 assignments, including the cover, over the course of the year. For the first newspaper, some of the articles were handwritten.

"Every Monday we had a reflection I called 'postmortem' ... and the students decided right away that everyone should type their articles.

"The growth came from them being their own critics and editors," added Black. "They came up with their own group norms. We talked about what was appropriate, but they pretty much self-censored" the content of the paper.

That growth and self-censorship also enabled the students to sharpen their skills as copy editors. During one reflection period, noted Black, "the students said, 'People are getting sloppy with their spelling. You need to use spell check.'"

One of the best parts of the newspaper, to one student at least, was that it allowed everyone's creativity to have a public airing.

Alexandra Idzal, 11, who will be going into the sixth grade at Wornick, said one of her favorite parts of the newspaper was the recipe section.

"I wrote about me and my mom's recipe for chocolate chip cookies," she said.

Daniel Judkiewicz's favorite article was one he wrote for "Invention Corner."

"You had to invent a fantasy thing that you wanted someone to make," said Judkiewicz, almost 11 and soon to be a sixth-grader at Wornick. "I invented a helmet connected to a computer where you don't have to type. You just think the words. I think it was called the Helmet Typer."

Judkiewicz also liked writing video-game reviews, and he proved to be a discerning

critic. "I reviewed PlayStation 2's 'Need for Speed,' and gave it a nine out of a possible 10 because it was impossible to learn."

The 5B Times didn't shy away from controversial topics either. During the presidential election, the paper ran political opinion pieces. But the most contentious pieces, said Black, were about wanting less homework.

The newspaper will return this fall with more classroom news, school highlights and whatever else the students decide to include.

Black figured the biggest buzz from the newspaper might also carry over from last year. "The students really got into having contests. We ended up having five or six per issue. It would be like the first person who could tell me the name of the person who won the Miss America title, things like that, would win a candy bar. Things became quite heated on Monday morning."

Sometimes even all the news that's fit to print requires an incentive.