This page is designed to share the advertisements pieces we have written in class as a result of our feature articles unit of study.  Our course text, Units of Study is based on the underlying framework that what we write should be inspired by what we read. From immersing ourselves in a variety of well-written feature article textx and spending time in close study noticing author's craft, we have each tried our hands at writing our own feature article pieces.  Please post yours here and specifically address "What have you read that is like what you are trying to write?"  In other words, let us know your mentor text(s) and any author's craft you were intentional about implementing.   *Please add your first and last name and the title and author of your text with your post. 

Feature Article on Madrid

By: Heather Yordy

Here is the assignment and rubric:

Feature Article Assignment Handout.docx

Feature Article Rubric.docx

Below is my sample feature article in Microsoft Publisher

madrid.pub

Here it is as a .pdf

madrid.pdf

Student samples are in progress....

Yordy student work 1.pdf

Yordy student work 2.pdf

Yordy student work 3.pdf

Yordy student work 4.pdf

Written Reflection

The unit of study went really well!  The close study helped tremendously.  I truly believe that the immersion and close study helped them to understand the differences between a brochure and a feature article.  It also helped them to see the varying types of feature articles, yet notice the main components.  Through the student’s samples, one can clearly see that the immersion helped the students gain understanding of the format.  The students really enjoyed this project and said that the immersion and close study helped them understand more clearly what was expected of them. 

Feature Article Unit of Study by Sarah Stephanoff

Excerpts from my students' feature articles as well as my feature article are saved in this word document. I did not include students' whole feature articles because they were often multiple pages and I wanted to show a variety so I picked a page from each.

  feature articles - student excerpts.doc

Reflection

Our study of feature article was my favorite one of this year. Feature articles as a genre were unfamiliar to my students and I. However, we jumped in both feet first and I was amazed at what they noticed and then incorporated into their own feature articles. I think during this study more than any other my students truly had a vision for their own version of a feature article instead of just imitating the mentor texts. My students also continue to voluntarily write in this genre throughout the year as part of their back-up work.

All of my students’ pieces reflect their learning from this study. However, two pieces that I feel highlight it especially well are Carson’s piece on tigers and John’s article about Arctic penguins. Carson did the most beautiful, creative background of any of my students. His idea to make his whole background be tiger stripes blew me away. I thought he really internalized the attractiveness of feature articles and his subsequent articles have only capitalized further on this idea. John, on the other hand, chose not to use any color in his article and it is written on notebook paper which does not attract the reader at first glance but belies his terrifically funny writing. He captured the humor of feature articles more than any other students. His lines about how baby penguin food is “ABC food or already been chewed food….ugh!” and how “Penguins can’t fly like an eagle into the future. Well….they can’t fly at all!” show an incredible sophistication.

My students taught me more through this study I think than I taught them! They were truly the ones doing the work and reaping the learning.