Third grade students at Fernandina Beach Christian Academy (FBCA) have been working through the process of opinion writing. Last week, three classes from FBCA took a field trip to the News-Leader office. There, they had the opportunity to meet the dedicated staff and gain insights into the process of newspaper production and the significance of opinions in journalism. Led by regional publisher Foy Maloy, the students gleaned firsthand knowledge on the value of expressing viewpoints in media.
“Free speech is under attack,” said Maloy. “I worry about your generation having the ability to continue to express your views openly, publicly and without risk or retaliation. You’re going to have to fight for that. I’ve fought for the First Amendment for 49 years in the State of Florida.”
Under the guidance of teachers Jan Roberts, Kaitlin Steen, and Kaysley Thorton, three classrooms collaborated on the opinion project.
“They began this process by choosing a topic they wished to express their opinion about. They spent time brainstorming different reasons that they could express to defend their opinion,” said Roberts. “This step was followed by organizing their thoughts into paragraphs while giving reasons and examples for each. The students put this into a rough draft paragraph, then edited this paragraph before writing their final copy.”
To the delight and astonishment of the students, the News-Leader featured their opinions in the edition released on Wednesday, April 17. Every student was thrilled to receive a personal copy of the newspaper.
“They learned so much about the opinion writing process,” said Roberts.
tdishman@fbnewsleader.com