The lead and title that were given to the students on the handout are actually part of the drafting process.

Each student should have a catchy title and captivating lead written.

Then they will need to take their first page that is labeled General Facts and highlight the 10 most interesting facts that they found about their planet or other celestial body.

Next, they are to take their second page titled, Why is this planet not conducive to human life?, and change it from a list to an actual flowing set of paragraphs.  They will need probably 3-4 paragraphs on this topic.

Last, they will need to take their third page titled, What can we do to this planet so that we can live on it?,  and change it from a list into 3-4 flowing paragraphs.

MAKE SURE THAT THEY RELABEL THEIR NEW PAGES THE SAME WAY.  This cuts down on confusion.

At this point I like to take the students to the computer lab and let them begin typing their piece.  This will help them see that they have too much information, or most likely, not enough.

When typing this piece you must do it in a certain order or it will not fold into a coherent brochure.  You need to format their computers, it causes less confusion if you do it, to 3 same width columns with the lines hid.  You will also need to go into page set up and change the paper to landscape.  I used the Microsoft Word program in my class room. The lay out is as follows.

Please keep in mind that you have not inserted any pictures, so the text will not fill up all of the necessary room.  Just have them type in this order and then when they insert pictures, you may go back in and revise the piece.  I usually let them have 2-3 pictures and then 1 on the title page.  My district will not let us use pictures from the internet that have a copyright on the picture itself.  If you have a student that is adamant about using one with the name on it, you may check with your district.

The students can waste hours searching for pictures, so what I do is when the first several students finish, I have them begin searching the internet for pictures.  I save them to a file with my name on it so that the other students in other classes with the same animal will not have to search because there are already several choices available.  This keeps the faster students occupied and lets the slower ones catch up.

Please note that the samples on this site are done on a Netscape Composer that did not allow me to landscape the pages and even out my columns.  My apologies.