Improving Grade 7 students' news writing skills using worksheets assessed through online interviews

Abstract

This paper aimed to improve the news writing skills of grade 7 SPJ students by using the News Writing Worksheet as an instrument to correctly write the lead and the transition paragraphs of news story. The paper opted for a quasi-experimental one-group pre-test—post-test design. Data gathered were analyzed using paired samples t-test. Analysis of the data using paired-sample t-test indicates that there is a significant increase of post-test scores of 50 SPJ students. This indicates that the use of News Writing Worksheet is effective in improving the scores of SPJ students in writing the lead and transition paragraphs of a news story. This positive outcome was affirmed by the results of the of the interview of ten (10) participants who validated the use of the instrument. Results from the thematic analysis, showed that the News Writing Worksheet facilitated the acquiring of imaginative, self-directed, and informed comprehension by the SPJ students. In addition, it was revealed that pupils utilized technology to overcome problems encountered while completing the worksheet. These results were consistent with previous similar research.