Draft a letter to the editor of the on-line version of the newspaper worked on in class to offer specific suggestions on how it might be improved. If your town or city has several newspapers on line, try to get a different paper for each small group of students. You may also distribute the same newspaper to the groups. If your town or city does not have a newspaper on line, try to find a paper or papers from a nearby city that is published on the Internet to use for this exercise. If possible, provide newspapers published on the day that you are teaching the lesson.
Students then share their responses.
Thomas Nelson used the on-line version of his hometown newspaper to keep in touch with his community while he was abroad. Discuss the questions included in that paragraph. Then, let groups work independently with both the print and the on-line versions of their newspapers as you monitor their progress. In a future class, groups should share what they found to be similar and different between these two versions of the same paper and to assess how each type of paper serves as a link between readers and their community. Remind students of the importance of wording and tone in this type of letter.