Sippican School student newspaper goes digital

Jan 31, 2012

Sippican School is back in the news business after three years of silence.

Enrichment teacher Stacey Soucy decided it was time to resurrect the school’s student-run newspaper, Sippican Scoop, but with a cutting-edge digital format.

This, Soucy said, has two benefits.

“Having the students create the content for Sippican Scoop is a way to get them involved in their school community by going out of the classroom and talking to their peers and teachers,” she said.  “By putting the paper online, more people can access it.”

Soucy started working on the newspaper with grades one through six in the beginning of January.

“The kids are loving it,” Soucy said. “From doing the interviews to writing their articles - they love it.”

As Editor, Soucy says her job is to help the students develop ideas and to walk them through the process of writing an article.

On Wednesdays, the junior reporters of Sippican Scoop meet with Soucy for enrichment class. Second grade students Bude Gelson and Bella Romick are working on a “Staff Spotlight” section for the newspaper.

“I’m a bit nervous,” Gelson said. “It’s my first time doing this.”

To help the students be more at ease, Soucy has created a system for them to follow when writing an article. First, each team must write down 16 questions to ask the person being interviewed.

After the questions are written, Soucy reviews and edits each team’s work. Next, the students are off to do their interviews. After that, Soucy works with each team on writing a first draft.

Soucy said she hopes to have enough content to publish the first edition of Sippican Scoop online in three weeks, but nothing is set in stone.

“There is no deadline with this,” she said. “We’re going to keep going as slow as we need to go, so that the kids don’t feel rushed.”

Working in pairs has been beneficial to the students, Soucy said.

“For them, never having the experience of doing this, they are picking this up quickly,” Soucy said. “That’s why we do this in pairs, so they can bounce ideas off one another.”

First grade student Maeve Egger says she hopes to work on the newspaper for a very long time.

“I like it, because when you go back every week there is always something new to do,” Egger said.