#4490. Make a magazine

Reading/Writing, level: Middle
Posted Mon Jan 17 22:38:44 PST 2011 by Mark (Mark).
magazine cover templates
Materials Required: magazines
Activity Time: 2-3 lesson periods
Concepts Taught: journalism, creative writing, writing headlines, editorial tasks

It's fun for students to make a magazine. Using some teen magazines as templates, you can have a fun creative writing lesson, work on attention grabbing headlines and article titles.

1. Have students bring in some magazine samples. Examine the cover for contents. Guess what the articles might say. (Students can read one of the articles if you have time.)

2. Have students compile a list of topics they might be able to write about. Create a list on the board and hopefully you'll have a range of possibilities like school sports team news, top 10 lists, movie reviews, product reviews, etc.

3. In small groups have the students choose an article and work on a draft. Once they have a good draft together, they can try to come up with a title.

4. Now work on the cover. You can use a magazine cover template that's online and add a photo to make it look great when you're all done. some of the headlines might need to be truncated. Some of the articles might not make the cover. Again in groups have students discuss what articles would be the most interesting, what headlines would be best.

5. When it's all done, put all of the articles together with the cover. Make an index page and maybe throw in a few local advertisements (you could even have the students make advertisements for local businesses, but that might be better done in another context.)

I hope the students enjoy the project.