The lessons in this document are designed to assist Language Arts teachers in covering curriculum expectations for Intermediate students in Grades 7 through 9.

Lessons are written in a teacher-friendly format, complete with suggested time lines and materials list. Resources, such as handouts for students, and assessment tools are provided. Samples of news stories, editorials and reviews that appeal to students have also been included. Cross-curricular links are identified to help teachers make the most of their time in a crowded curriculum.

This unit has been designed to allow teachers flexibility in how much content they want to cover. Lessons One (Becoming a Reader) to Eight (The Breaking Story) give a good overview of how a newspaper is put together. Students will learn how a news story is organized and get tips on how to be a reporter.

Lesson Nine (Where Does News Come From?) explores the sources of news, and the issue of bias by using real news releases from Canadian companies and organizations.

Lesson Ten (Writing a Review) provides tips on writing reviews for films, CDs and other products.

Lesson Eleven (Bugs & Beefs, Editorial Writing) looks at how opinion and fact are blended in an editorial, a good example of persuasive writing.

Finally, the culminating activity explores the graphic design that goes into the layout of a newspaper. Students get a hands-on lesson in how to put their stories on a newspage.