Graveraet student newspaper earns honor

By MIRIAM MOELLER, Journal Staff Writer
MARQUETTE —  Graveraet Intermediate School’s student newspaper The Blazing Comet has been voted the best elementary school newspaper in the United States.


The Association of Educational Publishers and The Weekly Reader magazine — a national weekly educational classroom magazine designed for children — announced the $500 award to the fourth- and fifth-grade students earlier this week.


“It’s amazing that we won out of the whole United States,” said an excited Cassidy Calderwood, 10.


“It’s an honor,” added Kelsey Johnson, 10.


Under the direction of parent and local author Matt Williams, about 40 students have been putting together a monthly six-page to eight-page publication since fall. The newspaper features interviews with school board members and famous authors, school news, comics, columns, recipes and more.


Ira Wolfman, senior vice president-editorial with The Weekly Reader, who was one of the judges in the contest, said The Blazing Comet is engaging, fun and well-edited.


“Overall we think it was an impressive elementary school newspaper,” Wolfman said.


The judges also admired the contents of the December 2007 issues that the students submitted to them. For instance, a front page interview with Superintendent Jon Hartwig about how he decides whether school is closed on snow days impressed the judges. They also liked a piece about the crossing guard who wears goofy hats to entertain kids and the science article on a teacher’s trip to the Galapagos Islands. Photos and headlines were also praised.


“We worked really hard,” said Elyza Larson, 9.


Although Williams and other parents help edit and lay out the newspaper, he said the students do most of the work.


“They come up with their questions themselves,” he said. “Sometimes I have to send them back with follow-up questions.”


Students schedule and conduct their own interviews and put together the article. They also suggest their own headlines and some even learned how to do layout.


“Most of the fifth-graders by the end of the year could do basic layout,” Williams said. “They could make text boxes, import photos and resize them.”


Besides the monetary award, the students are invited to an award ceremony in Washington, D.C., in June, but Williams said they need to provide their own transportation, and he does not know if they can raise the funds needed to go on the trip. Next school year, The Weekly Reader magazine will also send an editor to Graveraet to talk to students about writing.