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By Katy Bauml & Adam Scachette, Chief Editors
Welcome the Lakeview Ledger!
The Lakeview Ledger is an entirely kid-created newspaper facilitated by Peoria Public Library and paid for by Friends of Peoria Public Library. Due to the library taking unprecedented action of closing as a result of COVID-19, the kids have not finished the first issue quite yet, but they are working hard on it. Once complete and printed, this newspaper will be available for free at all of our library locations.
In the meantime, we decided to share some of the work the kids have done as well as new mini at-home lessons. These mini lessons can be completed by regular club members or those interested in joining.
This all started with the kids. They asked for a newspaper where they had creative license. Creating content, coming up with a name for the newspaper, editing, and working together on the layout were all done by the kids involved in the Newspaper Club at the Lakeview Branch. This newspaper is the summation of all their hard work since September 2019. The program continues to serve as an excellent opportunity to teach our junior journalists about information literacy and ethical journalism.
This club is open to kids ages 8 to 17. If you would like more information about the club, you can email us at kidnewspaper@gmail.com.
by Cecelia Rose Davis
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
What is the coronavirus? Named for its crown-like spikes, the coronavirus is normally like a cold or flu for healthy and young people. However, the coronavirus is a respiratory disease that can be deadly for older people. The coronavirus was spreading around and that’s how my story starts.
What happened because of the coronavirus? Events began getting postponed. My mom was sure that school would eventually be cancelled, and she was right. It was cancelled for one week, with only one e-learning day, on Wednesday.
What is an e-learning day? During e-learning, which is what my school does instead of snow days or it’s-too-cold-to-go-to-school-days so that we don’t have to make up days at the end of the school year, we get on our computers and use websites and paper and pencil and our textbooks and workbooks and more to complete assignments.
Was school cancelled for any longer than a week? Yes. The school had originally planned to do e-learning for the rest of the lockdown, but then when another week was cancelled, they decided that they would make the next week our Spring Break.
Why was the next week of the school-being-cancelled thing your Spring Break? That was because the school found out that any work we would do didn’t count for a grade until after March 30th. The extra week was our Virtual Spring Break.
What is a Virtual Spring Break? Our school’s Virtual Spring Break is a fun week at home where we dress up at home and post our pictures on Facebook or Instagram.
What do you dress up like? We dress up in our pajamas, like we were at the beach, in fun costumes, like our favorite animals, and in Saint Thomas Spirit Wear. I think the Virtual Spring Break is pretty fun.
How are you handling the lockdown? Just like any other days off school, except it’s a little better because my dad is working from home as well, due to the coronavirus.
Do you have any type of schedule for the days during this lockdown? Yes, actually. My mom made a schedule with fun things on it (like our dance party and calm art time) and some boring things on it that still need to be done (like proprioception and cleaning).
How do you feel about the lockdown? It’s pretty crowded in our house, but having a schedule is helpful, because even though it’s pretty loose, I like knowing what we’re going to do next.
What’s going to happen? Nobody knows just exactly what’s going to happen. School might be cancelled for only two more weeks. The lockdown could stretch into the summer. Nobody knows! I guess we just have to trust that this thing will work out.
Did you use any websites for information about the coronavirus? Yes, actually. I used a really great website. Type it into your computer and learn about the coronavirus: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/types.html . Once you learn about it, it may not seem as scary anymore.
Are there any other random or miscellaneous things you want to say? No, not really, except thank you for reading my story!
This lesson covers evaluating web sources.
We all use the internet pretty much daily. There is a lot of information out there, but not all information is good. Some of it is factually incorrect by accident and sometimes it's because the author wants to mislead the audience. In order to provide the best articles to the readers of the Lakeview Ledger, we need to ensure that our articles contain accurate information. How do you do that?
1. Watch this video here by clicking on the link. https://youtu.be/q1k8rcYUmbQ
Additionally, we have included a really handy infographic. This graphic includes a checklist which can be used in evaluating your sources. Librarians use these same tactics every day as we work to help our patrons. The more you use it, the better and faster you become at evaluating your sources.
2. Have you learned anything? We hope so! Now to try out your new knowledge. Examine the list of online sources below and determine if they are trustworthy or not. Be careful! We’ve intentionally added some tricky ones.
https://www.allaboutexplorers.com/explorers/ (Have a look at the various explorers. See if this website provides accurate information)
https://youtu.be/tVo_wkxH9dU (Yes, a video to watch!)
http://www.dhmo.org/ (A science website. See if the research is accurate or not)
http://www.thedogisland.com/index.html (An island just for dogs!)
https://www.cdc.gov/ (A website dedicated to disease control and prevention)
The lesson for this week is about the Inverted Pyramid.
Many professors in college teach the inverted pyramid to students of journalism, mass communication, and broadcasting since it helps you structure your news story in an order that keeps your reader (or listener since radio broadcasters also follow this model) interested and learning details in an order that makes sense.
Provided is an image of the inverted pyramid. You'll see it looks like an upside-down triangle. The top is the most important section and the "meatiest." This portion covers the basic questions your audience is asking themselves as they read your article. Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? While answering these questions be sure to give these details in an order that makes sense. If I'm writing about a dog that ran away, I wouldn't start with the day and time and end with the what.
The middle portion of the pyramid is for extra details that answer more questions about your story. These details are interesting, but not essential to the story. If you only have a small section of space, you can leave these details out, but the story will still make sense and have all the information that is needed. If you have room for a longer story, this is where you put in the facts and information that go beyond the basic questions listed above in the top portion of the pyramid. If I'm still writing a story about a dog who ran away, this is where I may include that the dog has a fondness for peanut butter or was wearing a red collar. These details could help someone spot the dog. If the dog is a known biter, that's an important detail I would include up above since that's something you want to be aware of if you're trying to approach the dog to catch it.
The bottom of the pyramid can be left out for a short story. This is where all the "extra" information goes for readers who still want to know more, but readers who just want the basics or the "meat" of the story can stop reading. An example of this would be that the runaway dog is 4 years old or was given to the family as a birthday present.
Using what you've just learned about the inverted pyramid, think of a made-up story and think of details that would go in each section of the pyramid. Feel free to share your work with us if you like.
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