The Friday afternoon scene inside Katherine Kochakji’s Wrightsville Beach School classroom could be any newsroom on deadline. Journalists sit clustered at small round tables strewn with paper, asking one another for help finding sources, preparing interview questions, or simply talking to avoid the tough work of writing.
A school-wide software upgrade rendered the classroom computers out of order less than one week before the December 2014 edition of Dolphin Tales, an online student newspaper created by the school journalism club, is scheduled for publication. The show must go on, Kochakji reminded about 15 third, fourth and fifth graders as they trickled into the room from lunch or reading time Dec. 12.
“So plan B, let’s be proactive. Pencil and paper,” Kochakji said, asking students about their assignments and helping them develop ideas.
Green ice cream from a hastily eaten lunch still smeared around the corners of her mouth, fourth grader Bella Ellison anxiously explained her idea for one of this month’s lead stories. She planned to ask what Wrightsville Beach students requested for Christmas and write about the most interesting responses.
“I don’t know,” she said to Kochakji, flipping through blank pages in her notebook. “The publish day is so close.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Kochakji said. “Do you know what they call it in the real world? You have a deadline.”
“I call it stress,” Ellison said with a sigh.
Each student in the journalism club is tasked with completing at least one story for publication each month. They pick a category — ranging from common newspaper offerings like lead stories and a funnies section, to sections suggested by students, like a how-to column — and develop ideas with help from Kochakji and other students. Kochakji offers advice when requested, steering students toward timely stories or helping them tease out an idea, but she said she tries to let the students work together and guide one another. For a few of the fifth graders, the opportunity to mentor other writers is a source of pride and purpose.
“There are a couple girls who want to come in and skip recess and just keep writing and coming up with questions,” Kochakji said. “It gives them a sense of leadership that maybe they don’t experience on a daily basis. They have another way to show some of their strengths.”
Fifth graders Chloe Rose Ratcliff and Elliott Wilt both said they would like to become journalists one day, but in the meantime, they are honing their skills by writing for Dolphin Tales.
“I’m learning a lot more stuff about what people want in a news report, or in a story, and more about punctuation and stuff like that, how to catch people’s eyes,” Wilt said. She tries to attract readers to her stories with interesting titles.
“One of my favorite things about writing is coming up with a catchy title,” Wilt said.
Ratcliff said she tries to include plenty of details and use words to paint a picture for her readers.
“I make sure I use words that make it pop, good adjectives and describing words that make things sound more real,” Ratcliff said.
Even though third grader Olivia D’Anci enjoys writing, she said finding the right words to create a compelling story can be difficult.
“It gets a little hard, and sometimes you have to express yourself and you don’t know what to say,” D’Anci said. She plans to be a professional athlete, she said, but she might also pursue writing as a career.
Kochakji started the journalism club during the 2013-14 school year as an outlet for students interested in writing. Kochakji, who has no experience in journalism under her belt, saw journalistic writing as a different genre for students to explore. She said one of her goals as the school’s gifted specialist is helping students develop their interests.
“I’m just a teacher trying to get some kids to love writing,” Kochakji said. “Writing is good for kids. It doesn’t have to be your personal narrative story or your poetry.”
The club is open to all third, fourth and fifth graders, drawing a group of about 30 kids this year.
Dolphin Tales can be read online at http://dolphintales.weebly.com
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