The Early Toronto Newspapers and Communication sections or Language Arts category present the opportunity to include this historical data in a lesson on writing skills. The following assignment can be further developed or re-written to suit any grade level.

Lesson Plan

You have been assigned to start your own local newspaper. Go back in time and choose a year to start this newspaper taking into consideration the political and economical times.

What year have you chosen? What significant event took place during this time?

Choose a name for your paper and explain why you selected it.

What would be some of the hardships you would endure in producing a weekly newspaper that may not be a problem today?

Design a logo or graphics of the name of your newspaper. The date of issue and the place where it is published should be incorporated in your design.

As editor of your newspaper, you must write an article that would be suitable for the front page of your newspaper. Keep in mind that in the early days of newspapers, editors' articles reflected their opinions only.

Take that same article and re-write it to be reflective of today's writing style.

(If you would like to display any of your students projects on the Internet or "Closed Area Network", please let us know. E-mail (Internet): edunet@baxter.net)