How and why to write a magazine in any content area

We are starting the month  of May and I know that all of you are very busy developing your assessment tasks  for the end of the course. I would like to highlight that  assessment tasks can take many forms. Some of the most common assessment tasks are exams, tests and essays. Therefore, why not ask our students to include their essays/articles on different topics related to our content areas in a magazine?  In this way, they would profit  from the positive outcomes  of both essay writing and group work:

• Essays help students  to learn academic writing skills, including formulating an argument; presenting evidence; integrating material from sources; and referencing appropriately. Students  will synthesize and evaluate theoretical ideas and concepts and develop their research skills. 
• Group work emphasises collaborative learning, problem-solving and critical evaluation, and is a valuable preparation for the workplace since students  will develop team skills and learn to work with a range of people.

Let me facilitate your work by providing you with everything you need to help students design their own magazine:

•        “How to design and write our own magazine”: this is an article I have written for students so that they can follow these guidelines when they are designing their magazine.

•            A   sample of a magazine on Migrants and refugees.  This magazine was the final product of an e-Twinning Project which won the award 2017 for the category 12-15 year olds. I would like to congratulate  the participants in this  Project for its high quality and its  meaningfulness in our current  society.
•     A sample of a Science magazine  from Science in School, the  European journal for Science teachers. 

•          A couple of ICT tools that can be used to create digital magazines:

     https://www.joomag.com/


       https://madmagz.com/

      The second one is very easy to use and you can follow a simple tutorial here:

  

If you choose the digital format, you will be able to embed the magazines   into the school/class website or blog.

I hope that you will like my proposal and encourage your students to create their own magazine. You will have an opportunity to assess their knowledge of some topics and their writing skills while  they will develop their critical thinking skills  and enjoy a very positive teamwork experience.