Cat Claws Some of the staff members of Cat Claws enjoy looking over the issue of the fifth grade newspaper after its arrival and distribution on Friday, Dec. 21. (Photo Joe Orchulli II)

Boothbay Region Elementary School began publishing a school newspaper in 1994 when fifth grade English teacher Rita Arnold came to Boothbay.

"I had worked in Surry, Maine, and had published a newspaper with the kids there. When I interviewed, I brought copies of the Surry School paper and Eileen King, who was principal then, wondered if I'd want to do a similar project here," Rita said.

Rita had originally taught high school in Ohio when she was a beginning teacher and had supervised the Normandy High School newspaper there.

Her current fifth class has published a newspaper called Cat Claws. "We started the actual work on this issue in October. We had several lessons with all fifth graders first about newswriting versus fiction; how to write a lead and then how to interview," Rita said.

Then, the class staged a fake news event. Sixth graders claimed a mouse was loose from their science experiment and had wriggled under the fifth grade class door and the fifth graders wrote about it.

The students also practiced interviewing each other, one half the class role-playing a new student, and the other half asking him or her questions. Other years, students practiced by interviewing a new staff member as a group and writing about that.

Rita, Hildy Johnson and Michelle Miclette, also fifth grade teachers, team-teach these lessons. Students talked to staff and faculty to come up with a list of story ideas. A copy of the list was then sent to each of the fifth grade classes and students signed up for a story they wanted to do.

Meanwhile, Rita's class picked the staff for the issue including two co-editors, two photo editors, two art editors, and a page editor for each page (sometimes two if there are enough students).

"Anyone interested in a position puts their name on the board. Each person chooses a number between one and 30; we roll a 30-sided dice and the closest number gets the job.

"We switch positions each issue so kids have a chance to try out different roles. All fifth graders are reporters and can sign up if they want to contribute artwork or help take photos," Rita said.

The co-editors then go through the sign-up sheets from each class and make story assignments (again assigning numbers and rolling the dice if more than one student wants to write something). Then students have a few weeks until the stories are due. During this time they write questions in class and brainstorm as to whom to interview. Students interview whenever they can meet with the people they need to interview.

Once the stories were handed in, there's a lesson about copyediting, and students are reminded about the `who, what, where, when, why, and how.' Then they read over stories together (usually a group of three or four kids), stopping at places that are unclear or untrue.

"We make suggestions to the writer, who heads off to make repairs to the story. Sometimes the reporter needs to do a second interview or has an idea about someone else to interview to help the story. Sometimes a second reporter helps rewrite a story. Other writers join the group and we continue to read aloud new stories and make changes," Rita said.

When that's done the stories are typed and the staff gets a second look at everything, this time to proofread. Now, they aren't looking for substantive changes, just checking for errors. They read each story three times, with a buddy, looking for spelling errors, anything that doesn't make sense, and mechanical errors (punctuation and capitalization). Each person is encouraged to reread his or her own story to check for problems.

"Because it is actually published, the students have a real-life reason to copyedit and proofread. They also have a chance to interview someone about something they are interested in and want to know more about," Rita said.

Then the co-editors go through all the stories and assign them to pages. Page editors read the stories again to catch errors and write headlines. They also try to decide where the stories will actually go on the page. Rita takes their layouts and, using QuarkXPress, makes the initial layout. Then they look at it and make final changes. The final copy, on disk, goes to Rockland to be printed.

The newspaper arrived at the school and was distributed to students on Friday, December 21.

The students were very excited to see their hard work, writing and photographs in an actual printed newspaper as they smiled and pointed out their accomplishments to each other.

Individual copies of the newspaper went to all fifth and sixth graders and a handful of copies to each class, the library, faculty and staff. Sometimes students give an issue to an interview subject outside of school. Some are sent to family and friends.

About 300 copies are printed in all. Newspapers from one year were included in a time capsule created and buried by the Boothbay Region Historical Society.

"I'm continually amazed at the story ideas they come up with and the variety of things I learn as I read their stories. It's also great to see their enthusiasm for the project," Rita said.

"When I was in junior high school we published a school newspaper and I still remember wandering the halls in search of my interview subjects, talking to people I would never have approached because I was doing a story, and really enjoying the whole process.

"Each year we re-name the paper to give the class a sense of ownership. It's been the Pawprint Press, the Cats Meow, the Wildcat Chat, the Boothbay Buzz, Cool Cats, the Wildcats Roar, and even Yo, Wildcats.

The very first edition was What's Up Wildcats?

The 1999-2000 staff of the Wild Cat Nip entered the Young Reporters Student Newspaper Front Pages Competition, sponsored by the Portland Press Herald and was one of four winners.

The 1996-1997 staff (Yo, Wildcats) sent the paper to be rated by the National Elementary School Press Association and received a superior award (the best)!