Class Magazine - Part 1

Objectives

- Cooperative learning;

- Subject research;

- Create 3 magazine articles;

- Team work;

- Peer editing.

I wanted to do a project with the class that had co-operative learning (students work on individual pieces of work and add them to one project - e.g. magazine) and collaborative learning (Students working collaboratvely on one piece of work - e.g. one article).

I was reading the news online and thought... that's it. We'll make a class magazine which will be created in a Wiki. Below you'll be able to find out how I did it with my class. I hope you find it useful.

Part 1 - Co-operative learning: Magazine articles.

Step 1

Brainstorm what kind of topics are interesting to read in magazines or online. You can do this with the whole class. Make a list of all the topics, such as fashion, music, food etc. Then, write them on the board. Finally, ask the students to vote which topics they want in the magazine. For my class we chose 6 topics: Entertainment, fashion, food & drink, travel, sport and health & fitness.

Step 2

Put the students into groups of three. The aim of this is to use the group as a support network for ideas and writing tips. Each group member will contribute 3 stories to the magazine. They can't choose the same topic twice. So student A could choose to write about, sport, fashion and travel. 

Step 3

I gathered each group together for regular meetings. It gave each group member a chance to seek support from the other members and it also gave me a chance to check on their progress and offer any guidance.

The end result was better that I had expected. Each student worked hard on the magazine and I was impressed with their commitment to it. Watch the video below for examples of student work. 

Part 2 of class magazine will look at the collaborative side of the project.