From everywhere in the cafeteria the distinct sound of giggling, lively debate and the clicking of computer keys can be heard. Scattered across a lunch table are colorful pages, Chromebooks and many, many markers.
These sights and sounds are not simply those of an afterschool hangout but of a budding newsroom.
Every Wednesday after school, during the extended day program for third to fifth graders, a group of lower school students bands together to create The Late Day News, an entirely student-curated newspaper. Founded three years ago, the paper has grown to include sections for games, news stories, illustrations and more.
Maya Shalev, a fifth grader, was a part of the founding group for The Late Day News when she was in the third grade. Upon returning to Lab in fifth grade, Maya has seen improvement.
“It’s a lot better now. We don’t just do interviews, we actually do important stuff,” Maya said. “When we were in third grade some of the kids would just reuse articles.”
Similarly, fifth grader Meera Malik has been writing for the paper since third grade and is an unofficial editor. Writing for The Late Day News helped Meera improve her writing and learn skills of negotiation.
“It’s definitely made me write more, so like it’s taught me writing,” Meera said. “Also, it’s taught me to negotiate because we have to negotiate with [staff] to give us Chromebooks and stuff like that.”
Both Meera and Maya say they want to continue with journalism in the future, both in high school and beyond.
To create an issue of The Late Day News, members collaborate to decide on a theme, then use a combination of art supplies and school-supplied Chromebooks to create their pages, with hardly any intervention from the extended day staff.
“They’ve organized it. They put it together. They make sure that it gets printed. They follow through with it. They do everything,” extended day supervisor Spencer Bibbs said. “As a matter of fact, they don’t want a lot of teacher intervention.”
The number of students who work on the paper is never consistent and changes on a week-to-week basis. Any student can contribute to the newspaper, and while some participate weekly, others choose to more sporadically.
“It really depends on the week who works on it,” Meera said.
Although the staff is constantly changing, the activity of creating The Late Day News has become consistent and something its student and adult readers can depend on.
“It’s now a well-run machine,” Mr. Bibbs said. “They know exactly what they’re gonna do on Wednesday.”
As the extended day program comes to an end, reporters begin to pass out the finished paper, each one with a cover illustration and stapled into a thick packet. Despite the chaos of creating the paper, every student is eager to return next Wednesday, ready to tackle another edition of The Late Day News.
