This qualitative study investigated how third-grade students from low-income families talked about target vocabulary words when asked to create a "VoiceThread" publication. "VoiceThread" is a web-based publication tool that allows students to post pictures and attach voice-recordings to each picture. There were three student…

If the organisms in a prairie ecosystem created a newspaper, what would it look like? What important news topics of the ecosystem would the organisms want to discuss? Imaginative and enthusiastic third-grade students were busy pondering these questions as they tried their hands at "ecosystem journalism." The class had recently completed…

This is the description of a teacher using the creation of a class newspaper as a vehicle to improve the writing ability of Grade 3 students. In this instance, there was the added benefit of creating a community of learners who worked and supported each other in their classroom. Notes from parents, comments from students and teacher observations…