It's All Happening at the zoo

Ninety students from P.S.373R will create a virtual school newspaper featuring web-quests that chronicle the students’ field trip experiences and internet research. Students will research the zoo’s animal population and their indigenous habitats through field trips, books, online resources, and film. Collaboratively they will plan and produce multimedia projects featuring, student writing, student created web-quests, digital slide shows, simple I-Movies, and create a website that showcases the wildlife of the Staten Island Zoo. Students will gain knowledge and understanding of animal habitat conservation and protecting endangered species. Each Class will choose an individual animal or animal habitat and will be immersed in their chosen topic using cross-curricular thematic learning.
The creation of a school newspaper will connect students to New York State English Language Arts Standards, in reading, writing and listening. The project will introduce them to using the writing-editing process utilizing the latest computer technologies in the classroom. In accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) our project will focus on early literacy, the writing process, and providing students with direct access to technology in the classroom.
Students from the upper grades will be trained in the writing process, how to utilize technology to produce the newspaper, and how to create a virtual web-quest. They will turnkey this information to their younger counterparts acting as peer tutors. The publication of a school newspaper featuring will foster improved reading, writing and technology skills. .

The culminating activity will be the development of a virtual newspaper that catalogues the best articles using a four point scoring rubric aligned with the New York Standards to determine what will be included.).