The Titanic - Newspaper Report

A great way to cover Reports and Persuasive writing. I’d spend the whole week on this, including History time as the topic of The Titanic is so engaging. Introducing bias and objectivity is also a good way to stimulate writers as you can set up ‘reporters’ to state a point of view contrary to someone else.
Children who needed additional support worked with an adult on a guided piece.
The example is the first one we produced (Y5) but I’ve expanded it since. The back page stories are worth a look – some of these adverts are genuine ads from the 1910s.
I always encourage creativity – even with non-fictional writing – and there is so much scope available on a topic/subject like this.
The black and white film ‘A Night To Remember’ is a superb resource as they had people who had survived the Titanic disaster consulting on the movie. The BBC also has a fabulous archive of eyewitness accounts.
I would have children in pairs or threes working on one story: conducting research and interviews ( I/TA would hotseat whoever they wanted to interview). All the work was put into Word document (I used to use Publisher when it was free) which an editor can manage but there are now many other options available. We would print the four pages then photocopy onto one sheet of A3 paper, back and front, which we folded into a Newspaper we could then print and sell to parents. Children also made posters advertising the sale of the newspapers.
I have included a few things to help you get started:
• an example of a completed newspaper
• a story I found on-line about an Egyptian curse
• photographs
• quotes from survivors
• the Jerome Bourke story
• The Francatelli letter
• Joseph Boxall – surviving officer