In late March, I expressed the idea of creating an English newspaper to my English teacher. With the support of my teacher, I made an attempt. On a weekend morning, I found an article about ChatGPT and Genshin Impact online, made some formatting adjustments, added Chinese annotations, and sent this rough first version to my English teacher.
After receiving approval from my English teacher, I became more confident. After arriving at school, I asked my English teacher about her expectations for this newspaper. Both of us wanted to turn this newspaper into a platform for year-level students to practice English writing. Having such a newspaper could provide solid English materials for year-level students to share and also help improve their English skills.
At the same time as this version, we organized a writing competition for the entire year-level, titled "Present and Future," mainly for students to express their subject preferences and reasons in English. Although only two students submitted their entries, it was still a good attempt at implementing a submission system.
After the initial version of this newspaper was released, my English teacher also explained the main content of this newspaper to the students during English class and mentioned that it would be printed for everyone once it was finalized.
On the second weekend, I included the revised articles based on the feedback and added a character story, filling a total of two A3-sized pages, and then handed it over to the English department.
After the newspaper was distributed among the year-level, it received some feedback. However, when I asked each class for their opinions about the newspaper, they mentioned that the content was too difficult, and the English department also provided feedback that it was not suitable for the current learning situation. When I read this newspaper myself, I also found that many words did not have Chinese annotations, and most of these words were not included in the dictionary provided by our school. (Some gamers wanted to read them but couldn't understand them at all)
Before and after the release of this newspaper, I discussed it with many people. The enthusiasm for this newspaper among the year-level was generally low, as everyone was busy with exams and homework and had no mood to read a newspaper, let alone an English newspaper. Even I had doubts before the second issue was released. In the end, a classmate in our class encouraged me, saying, "As long as one person is willing to read this newspaper, then it is useful, at least for them."
In line with the down-to-earth concept, we gathered some year-level students to compile the newspaper, and it was printed this week. This issue only consists of one two-page spread, but it includes four articles written by me and my classmates.
After the release of this issue, my English teacher and I discussed the idea of having students present the newspaper. On Thursday of this week, I presented and read aloud the first and second articles I wrote, pointing out any unfamiliar words, phrases, complex sentences, and non-finite clauses encountered during the reading process. On Saturday, another classmate presented the third article.
The practice of this English newspaper is not yet over. After the first issue was printed, some students actively approached me to inquire about the editing process and expressed their willingness to participate in the editing of this newspaper. After the second issue was printed, even more students had their own ideas and wanted to share and express their favorite things and thoughts with their year-level classmates through the newspaper.