But the activity also interests students because they go to stores with their parents and enjoy an opportunity to operate in what they perceive is a grown-up environment. Children in poor communities don't have access to computers, especially in the earlier grades. When children lag behind in some skills, they may feel left out of their classroom's activity, and they work hard to catch up to be a valued member of the team, Professor Walker explained. Fifth-grade teacher Linda Colon saw her class blossom as they worked hard to put out a newspaper. The newspaper staff reports stories from all over the school and writes them on the computer.
Students edit the stories with the help of their teacher.
They format the newspaper and paste it up for production. When they're working together, there's a lot of good noise in the classroom. The next step for Professors Walker and Yekovich is adding more District of Columbia schools. The two educators also plan to produce a CD-ROM detailing the program to complement a training manual they have developed for teachers. All contents copyright 2000.