Teresa M. Kirk

The following unit plan focuses on journalism techniques involved in creating a newspaper. The intended audience for this unit is English Two, Tenth Grade, Pittsburgh Scholars Program (PSP) students. Topics addressed will be fact versus opinion, newspaper sections, newspaper article types, criteria for a newspaper article, journalism techniques, proper procedure for gathering news information, editorials versus news stories, distorted portrayals of history through the news, and the creation of a school newspaper.

A section of the unit entitled "Distorted Portrayals of History" will be of particular focus due to the vague impression of history and current issues that many students may have obtained through the following forms of media: television news, newspaper print news, and Internet news.

Through the study of newspaper journalism, students will not only become familiar with integral forms of media in today’s society, but they will practice their skills in becoming critical readers, writers and viewers. In addition, it is intended that students will come to understand the importance of keeping themselves up-to-date within current news issues in the public eye.

Furthermore, in order to develop this understanding, it is necessary for students to grasp many of the actual differences among newspapers, television news shows and Internet news in order to become selective and informed viewers and readers. Therefore, a more concentrated study of these comparisons using actual events from history shall prove to be worthwhile.

In order to understand the differences between various types of media, the students could focus on current or historical events. Therefore, this unit is flexible. One possibility, which will be demonstrated in great detail in this particular version, would be to focus on the Nazi atrocities during World War II and the way our perceptions of the Holocaust were created. Students seem to base their understandings of what actually occurred on the stories about popular figures such as Anne Frank. Other viewpoints and perspectives don’t seem to be real to the students since her story is so prominent.

The organization for the unit will be chronological according to how the event was covered. Specifically, the students will compare the way the events were reported during the actual time in history to the way the same events are portrayed today. A variety of resources will be utilized in order to give an impression of the event that is as realistic as possible.

Whether a historical event or a current event is studied, the topic to compare through the multiple forms of media should be something of interest to the students so they will be motivated to learn the way it was portrayed. Historical studies will provide a multi-disciplinary approach that could be supported in history classes. Also, there will be the opportunity to look at the event retrospectively so that more of a documented grasp of the events might be possible than if a current event is studied.

Consequently, the purpose of this unit would be to give the tenth grade scholars who are already learning and practicing aspects of journalism, an opportunity to experience first-hand the power that the written or recorded word can have in the course of history, and how it influences later perceptions as to what actually happened. Furthermore, based on this experience, they will appreciate quality journalism and the use of credible sources. This will come into effect when they approach their junior and senior years, during which they will have in-depth research projects that require proper citations and research backing in order to be acceptable, credible and successful. In addition, journalistic writing will teach the students composition techniques that are necessary in communications careers, as well as in almost every profession they choose to pursue.

Furthermore, since this particular unit focuses on World War II, it is vital that students listen to, talk to and read about real people who experienced the war. Students will make personal connections and discover that World War II did not happen very long ago. They also must realize that innocent people were injured and killed during the war. Therefore, since the media can distort the way history is perceived, the students will practice their research skills in order to create a clearer perception of the events for their own community today through the publication of a newspaper based on World War II.

The students will improve their skills within multiple New Standards Communication Standards in the areas of reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, public documents and functional documents as approved curriculum by the Pittsburgh Public School District.

First, students will develop reading skills through the reading of informational material such as published newspaper articles, radio transcripts, and Internet news sites. Second, they will learn writing skills in the form of reports, narrative procedure and reflective pieces will be developed throughout the unit. Third, the students will practice conventions standards they will develop through the process of revising their written pieces. Fourth, students will develop speaking skills through classroom discussions, peer conferences and one-to-one conferences with the teacher. Fifth, they will acquire viewing skills through television news reports in the case of current issues and radio shows in the case of historical accounts. Sixth, they will practice public document standards through reading published newspaper articles and writing their own public documents an example of which would be a newspaper article. Finally, they will achieve functional document standards by writing project proposals to request newspaper positions and by writing letters home to parents to notify them about procedures and discoveries completed in class. Consequently, the intention of this unit is to develop the students as communicators.

In order to achieve the aforementioned objectives, it will be necessary to keep tabs on student progress. This may be accomplished through one-on-one conferences between the teacher and the students as well as ongoing discussions reporting progress and recording self-evaluations. In order to further communicate clear expectations between the teacher and students, rubrics must be created, discussed and utilized by the teacher as well as the students. Furthermore, it is vital for clear expectations that classroom time be spent discussing the assessment procedures and that students learn to assess themselves and their peers according to the assessment tools.

Week One

Students will read the nonfiction story, "David Meets Goliath at City Hall" by Andrew Holleman on page 623 of the tenth grade blue level of the Literature and Language literature anthology. There are a few reasons why this short story is a useful opener to the unit. First, it is an example of creative nonfiction which gives the students a model to realize that journalism writing need not be bland or boring. Second, it was written by and about a young man with a quest to save the swamplands in his town, which will demonstrate to the students that their opinions are important. Even as young people, they can make a difference through the written word. The third reason why this story is important is that it teaches the students how much power is held within the written word. Finally, in the process of arranging the events in the story in chronological order, the students will practice their reasoning and decoding skills which they will need later when they do research for their own newspaper.

Students will complete a vocabulary worksheet to become familiar with some of the complex words in the story as well as to receive a mini-lesson on the decoding skills of understanding root words. Next, the students will complete a Reader’s Guidesheet, which asks them to map the chronology of events in the story. The ability to detect the actual order of events from an in-depth explanation will be necessary later in the unit when students are researching newspaper articles.

Today, students will need to complete a concept attainment activity for understanding the difference between fact and opinion, during which they will be given a list of statements. They will be informed that each of the statements fit into one of two categories but the actual categories won’t be revealed. They will need to group the statements with a plus (+) or minus(-) sign to designate which statements go together. They will then identify what the statements marked with a plus have in common as well as why the statements marked with a minus sign have been grouped together. An example would be:

The Okefenokee Swamp is located in Waycross, GA.

The Okefenokee Swamp should be drained.

The students would mark these statements with a plus or minus sign and then tell what all the sentences with plus signs have in common and what all the sentences with minus signs have in common.

They will complete this activity individually and then share their answers with a partner. Then, the class as a whole will discuss their answers and discover as a group the differences between fact and opinion. They will then take notes on sample value words such as good, better, best, worst, beautiful, lovely, and disgusting. These words typically indicate when opinion is utilized in a news story.

This class will begin with the students individually listing the answers to the following questions: "What makes the news?" and "Where can news be found?" Social construction of learning will be utilized in this activity. After students write answers individually, they will meet in small groups to collaborate answers.

On this day, the previous day’s activity will continue. However, today the class will meet as a large group and list findings as to what makes news and where news can be found on a dry erase sheet hanging on the wall. As the unit continues, the students will continue to add to these lists in their notebooks as well as on the published dry erase wall version in the classroom. Furthermore, the sheet will remain on the wall throughout the unit as a reminder and as a way to build a community of learners.

Week Two

This class period will be spent reading informational material on the following: "A Newspaper: How it Works, How You Read It" which can be found in the Pittsburgh Board of Education Syllabus Examination Project for Grade 10 entitled Non-fiction Unit: The Newspaper. The students will be introduced to newspaper positions, relationships with business advertisers and newspaper standards, including the necessity to report the news in a manner that is accurate, fair and balanced.

In addition, they will be introduced to the concept of propaganda or slanted news and discuss why propaganda is used such as whether it favors a particular advertiser’s opinion. Then, they will also be asked a series of questions to determine whether they are strong or weak readers, meaning whether they decide opinions for themselves and are always alert to inaccurate stories. Afterwards, they will complete a comprehension exercise to review the various newspaper concepts they learned. The answers to these questions will be discussed in a large group setting.

This class period will be spent taking notes on defining newspaper sections specifically, informational sections versus advertising sections. The informational sections include news, editorials, columns, features, sports, business articles, and entertainment articles, while the advertising section includes display ads and classified ads. First, the students will be given a list of information that might be found in the newspaper. Second, they will identify which section of the newspaper they might use to find specific information.

The third activity they will complete in order to become familiar with the sections of the newspaper will be a search for a newspaper article in each of the sections. Students will need to read each of the articles and summarize them in two to three sentences. This assignment will begin in class and will be completed as a homework assignment.

The students will share with a partner the articles they found representing each of the newspaper sections. Then, the students will discuss findings as a large group. Next, they will take notes on the newspaper front page format and terminology, including headline, caption, by-line, dateline, index and wire-service credit line.

Using a sample newspaper front page, students will then label the various sections. Then, in groups comprised of three to four students, the students will complete a newspaper discovery workshop to familiarize themselves with the newspaper, during which they will use a newspaper to answer various questions such as: "How many news stories on page one contain by-lines?" and "How many captions can you find on the front page?" One this day, they will also compare the format of the front page of a current newspaper to one from the WWII era.

Week Three

Class today will begin with a review of findings in the groups and a debriefing for the entire class. Next, students will take notes on types of news articles including local, state, national and international. Then, they will complete an exercise, given a list of sample newspaper article titles with a variety of news types, meaning that the articles are based in different locales and each must fall into one of the aforementioned categories. After reading the article titles, they will identify which news type applies to which article. We will then discuss the results with the entire group.

First, the class will discuss the results of the previous day’s newspaper article type activity. Now that the students are aware of newspaper sections and news types, they will apply their knowledge of fact versus opinion by comparing a news article to an editorial on the same topic.

As stated earlier, this unit could conceivably apply to current or historical events. If focusing on a historic event such as World War II, two articles on this topic would be read. Then similarities and differences would be listed and discussed afterwards.

Today, the students will take notes on and discuss the parts of a newspaper article lead including the headline and the five W’s (who, what, where, when, why and how). Afterwards, they will read two model news stories and properly identify the parts of a lead within the articles.

Week Four

Class time will be spent reviewing newspaper terminology and concepts that will be covered on the multiple choice, true/false and fill-in-the-blank exam. The students will be given class time to write down a list of concepts covered and organize their notes with or without a peer.

One class period will be necessary to take the Newspaper Unit Exam (appendices). This exam will cover news types, newspaper sections, fact versus opinion, front page terminology, newspaper positions, aspects on how to be a strong reader, issues with propaganda, and what is to be included in a lead.

Now that the students have a basic newspaper knowledge and background, they will begin the section of the unit that asks them to apply their knowledge as well as research and question the historical news that has been presented to them.

Today, will begin their study of print sources. They will read the Ernie Pyle columns in order to gain a perspective of war and begin a list of "What I learned about the Holocaust."

They will read first-hand accounts of the war such as passages from Alicia My Story by Alicia Appleman-Jurman and if attainable, actual letters written by those who experienced the event, such as soldiers or Jewish prisoners. Then will then list more reactions to what they learned about the event while adding a list of "What facts conflict with each other."

Afterwards, the students will share discoveries as a large group and make dry erase paper versions of their lists to hang on the classroom walls.

Week Five

Next, the students will listen to and then read a transcript of a radio broadcast. They will compare it to a newspaper account of a particular aspect of the event. They will then list more of what they learned from each source and what information conflicts.

In addition, they will read and listen to (if available) reactions from people who actually experienced World War II. There are various ways to explain the story of World War II. For example, the website: http://ibiscom.com consists of a description of the Nazi invasion of Poland and excerpts from the diaries of a Polish physician during the initial invasion and Marie Louise Osmont, who witnessed the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. In addition, a section of the website: http://www.pbs.org carries transcripts of various news reports in reaction to World War II.

Next, the students will complete a homework assignment in which they find a person to interview from their family, their neighbors or community groups such as their local chapter of the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars). Then, they will read printable instructions from the website www.teacher.scholastic.com/activities /wwii/memory/interview.htm, which explains how to locate a subject, how to prepare, conducting an interview, and how to write an oral history. This research will later be used in the publication of a class newspaper based on WWII.

The next section of the World World II study will utilize a study of video media. Since there were no news broadcasts during the time, we will watch video accounts of the event. First, we will watch The Devil’s Arithmetic with Kirsten Dunst which demonstrates the struggles of a young woman during the war, and then the students will record the knowledge gained.

Next, the students will watch Why the Holocaust Wasn’t Recorded in order to gain some perspective as to reasons why history is reported in different manners. The students add to their list of what they learned and then make a new list of propaganda techniques used in reporting the Holocaust.

The students will then list the observations that they made from print, audio and video forms of media, and then they will write an analysis of the similarities and differences among the three.

Week Five

The unit will be two-fold. After the students compare print to audio and video media, they will go to the computer lab to explore the Internet for accounts of World War II. First, they will assess the credibility of the sources. This will be possible by conducting an open search to find out what comes up. They will examine various sites and check for sources. Many of the sites will not document their information and this will clue them in that the site’s contents cannot be trusted. Afterwards, they will be given particular, reputable websites on World War II in order to take notes on how our perceptions can be extraordinarily tainted by disreputable websites. They will conduct searches to read sites maintained by ex-soldiers.

To record observations about the Internet, the students will first complete a form on which they list observations and findings from the Internet as a form of media. Second, they will record the similarities and differences among the newspapers, audio/video news, and Internet news.

Based on the knowledge the students have gained on the Holocaust through their classroom research, they will each write a newspaper article on the Holocaust using the proper format, including the necessary parts of a lead. They will read and discuss the rubric, "Scoring Guide for a News Story" which will used to assess their stories. Today, they will brainstorm ideas for their article and then write a rough draft.

Today students will finish their rough drafts and then give and receive peer responses for feedback.

Week Six

This class period will be spent completing second drafts and showing these drafts to the teacher in one-to-one conferences for feedback. They will then complete a third draft.

This class period will be used for finalizing revisions and completing teacher-student writing conferences that weren’t completed during the previous day’s class.

Days 33 and 34

These two periods will be spent using Microsoft Word in the computer lab to type the articles that the students wrote. After completing typing and printing out articles, the students will need to complete a Writing Project Cover Sheet and score themselves with explanations on "Scoring Guide for a News Story."

Day 35

Now that the students have practiced writing newspaper articles, they will have the skills necessary to do a journalism applied learning project. Today, the students will take notes on what should be included in a project proposal such as a description of the intended project and position desired, specific steps they plan to follow in order to complete the project, and the time frame which will be necessary to allot for completion. They will then write their own project proposal explaining their first and second choice for a class newspaper position. This newspaper will give the rest of the school and community a more accurate perception of World War II and Nazi Germany than they have previously received.

Some possible positions that will need to be filled will be editor-in-chief, editors for each section, and staff writers for news, columns, editorials, entertainment, business, and features. In addition, it will be necessary to employ students in the areas of promotion and advertisement, photography, and layout/design.

Furthermore, this class project will differ from the normal school newspaper because every section will focus on the historical event that has been studied, in this case, World War II. For example, the business section will cover the economic status of the world during WWII, the features section will include first-hand human interest stories of WWII that have an emotional appeal, and the entertainment section will highlight the types of shows and films people went to see during the 20s and the 30s.

Also, some students may opt in their project proposals to apply for a job that does not necessary entail a position on the classroom newspaper. Based on their individual skills and expertise, they may decide to choose another form of media to display the knowledge they have gained through the unit. For example, they may choose to script a television news report on WWII and perform it on video, or they may chose to set up an Internet web-page design on either the events of WWII or the project we have completed as a class. This may be difficult because access to create actual web pages may be limited or costly. However, if the student is interested in web-design, he or she could still set up a plan for what a page would look like in order to demonstrate their understanding of that form of media.

Week Seven

Once project proposals have been approved and positions have been assigned by the teacher, students will begin brainstorming and writing rough drafts for their section of the newspaper.

Once the students finish their rough drafts, they will give and receive a peer response and write a second draft.

Today, the students will complete their second drafts and show their pieces to the teacher for written feedback. Depending on whether they have a position on the newspaper, role for a script or responsibility on the web-page, they will have different tasks to complete at this time. For example, if a student’s job is photographer for the newspaper, he or she would have to not only take photos, but research published photographs on the topic of World War II.

The students will continue to complete a writing workshop for the production of the class newspaper. Some students may need to conduct research, practice interviewing techniques, or revise written sections of the newspaper, script or web-page (dependent on which role they have been assigned).

By this last day of the week, the students will have compiled and saved their evidence of the writing process, including brainstorming or any written notes such those jotted down during an interview, a rough draft, a peer response sheet/revision plan, a second draft, editor-written comments, teacher written feedback, and a third draft. Ultimately, the entire writing process will be necessary for their showcase portfolio which they will compile at the end of the year.

Week Eight

Next, the students will go on a field trip to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The actual day within the unit that the students will be able to go on their tour of the Pittsburgh paper will be dependent upon availability by the company. The Post-Gazette offers free tours for school students during which the students will have the opportunity to experience how an actual newspaper is run. They will have the opportunity to ask questions and see various departments within the company such as advertising, layout, news, sports, entertainment, art, business, columns, features, and printing press.

Ideally, by touring the newspaper, the students will also experience first-hand the awe-inspiring quality work that can be performed in a short period of time by a properly operating group. This important skill of cooperation with a diverse group of peers is an area of communication that the students constantly concentrate on improving in English class.

Today the students will spend time typing their sections of the newspaper in the computer lab. After typing and printing out their sections, they will need to give the articles to their respective editors for review and revision. They will need to make revisions and then give their disks to the person responsible for layout and design of the newspaper on Microsoft Publisher.

Furthermore, the editor-in-chief will be responsible for writing, posting and explaining newsroom guidelines on the classroom wall in order to be pro-active in solving problems. If disagreements among staff members or editors do arise, it will be the responsibility of the editor-in-chief to settle the disputes.

These days will be spent on group revision workshops, during which the entire class reads through the newspaper printouts in order to make editing suggestions.

Day 45

The students will make any necessary final adjustments to the newspaper in the computer lab. They will also self-assess their own work on the newspaper, script or web-page through a letter to a person who would be concerned about their work in the class. This might be a parent, teacher or principal. This letter will be a reflective piece of writing as well as a narrative procedure within which they explain the steps they went through to complete the project. Finally, they will be required to identify areas of the project where they could improve and how they plan to do so in future classroom projects or group work.

Boas, Jacob. We Are Witnesses: Five Diaries of Teenagers Who Died in the Holocaust. New York: Scholastic, 1995.

This book contains stories of young people who died in the Holocaust in a manner easy for young people to understand. The five people are David Rubinowicz, Yitzhak Rudashevski, Moshe Flinker, Eva Heyman and Anne Frank. These stories are intended to shock the students and give them a chance to relate personally to the historical events of the Holocaust since the stories come from young people like themselves.

"Create a World War II Memory Book." Online. Internet. http:// teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwii/memory/interview.htm. Available 25 May 2001.

This website walks students through the processes necessary in order to find a subject from World War II, prepare for an interview, conduct an interview, and write an oral history. This site is important in the students discovery of how to research the topic they will report.

Deitch, Donna, dir. The Devil’s Arithmetic. Starring Kirsten Dunst and Mimi Rogers. 1998.

This is a drama video version of Jane Yolen’s novel within which a rebellious Jewish teen who learn a powerful lesson about her family's faith and the Holocaust when she's sent back in time to a Polish concentration camp in 1941.

"Eyewitness to World War II." Online. Internet. http://ibiscom.com/w2frm.htm. Available 28 May 2001.

This website provides diaries and actual documents from World War II. In addition, when clicking on the icon, "Voices of the 20th Century" on the homepage: www.ibiscom.com, Real-Audio recordings of politicians and news reporters are available from various historical events.

"Journalism Unit." Syllabus Examination Project. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Public Schools, 1993.

Even though I intended for my unit to contain applied learning skills rather than rote learning, I was able to find newspaper terminology, definitions, sample newspaper front pages, overhead transparencies and sample worksheets to use in the SEP unit. I took this information and expanded or adapted it to my needs in hopes that the students would experience advanced levels of learning on the cognitive scale such as transfer of knowledge, analysis, and application.

Holleman, Andrew. "David Meets Goliath at City Hall." Literature and Language 10. McDougal-Littell, 1994.

This is the tenth grade English anthology. This short story is used at the beginning of the unit as a means of creative non-fiction through which the students may practice their knowledge of mapping out the chronology of events.

McClendon, Michele. "What and Where is the News?" Pittsburgh Teacher’s Institute. Pittsburgh, 1999.

With Michele’s permission, I used her unit plan on journalism as a guide to get an idea of the progression of events that must take place in order to socially construct learning of newspaper skills. Her unit focuses on integrating technology into the previously-existing SEP Journalism unit that was written before many of our current programs such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Publisher became widely used.

Microsoft Encarta. Microsoft, 1997.

This is a computer software program that functions as an encyclopedia and provides information on journalism with links to the Internet. This program could be used in the computer lab when the students research the differences among print, audio, video and Internet sources.

New Standards Performance Standards Handbook. National Center on Education and the Economy, 1997.

This handbook helps teachers to familiarize themselves with New Standards in English, mathematics, applied learning and science. It explains the standards, gives classroom activities to achieve them and provides sample student work that meets the standards.

The New York Times. Online. Internet. http://www.nytimes.com.

This site provides access to previously published and current print articles from The New York Times newspaper.

"PBS Newsroom." Online. Internet. http://www.pbs.org.

This is a searchable website than can be used to find written transcripts of previously recorded news reports and interviews. It also uses Real-Audio recordings of radio shows. These will be utilized in the section of the unit when the students write down how much information is actually reported in a radio news report in comparison to print news.

This morning newspaper covers the local, national and international news. Its print articles may be used for examples as well as familiarizing the students with various sections of the newspaper. In addition, the articles may be accessed on the Internet at www.post-gazette.com

Directions: Answer each item below on the answer sheet provided. Read the directions for each section carefully.

A—if it deals with local news.
B—if it deals with state news.
C—if it deals with national news, or
D—if it deals with international news.

1.  Governor vetoes bills passed by the legislature

2.  Committee announces winners in Pittsburgh high school essay contest

 

3.  South American earthquake leaves thousands homeless

 

 

A—if you would find the information on the front page,
B—if you would find the information in the editorial section.
C—if you would find the information in the entertainment section, or
D—if you would find the information in the classified ads.

4.  A young man’s feelings about animals being used in medical research

5.  A story about a shooting on Grant Street

6.  Information about the new movie contract signed by Tom Cruise

7.  People’s reactions to a new tax increase

8.  Information about the apartments that are available for rent in Oakland

9.  News stories and short stories are written in the same style and reach a climax at the end.

10. In addition to answering Who? What? When? Where? and Why?, a lead paragraph may also reveal how a reporter feels about the event.

11. A news story may contain direct quotations from witnesses to an event.

12. Reporters are primarily writers of nonfiction.

Part Four: Items 13 through 19 identify various parts of a front page. Examine the front page on the following page. Notice that the various parts are labeled A through AC. Match the correct letter to the part of the front page listed in items 13 through 19 and mark your answer on your answer sheet.

13. By-line

14. Caption

15.  Dateline

16.  Headline

17.  Index

18.  Lead

19.  Wire Service

20.  the business person who sells the newspaper
21.  to readers and sells advertisements
22.  to businesses
23.  one who oversees all the newspapers’ journalists
24.  a term publishers use to mean that they will try to get the               Vocabulary Words                     most complete facts available in their stories                                         A.   Accurate
25. one who decides whether the newspaper has lived up                     B.   Reader                                         to its promises                                                                                     C.   Editor-in Chief        
26.  rules about what stories will be published and how those                D. Publisher                                      stories will be reported                                                                         E.   Newsroom policies   
27.  slanted news and information                                                         AB. Propaganda
28.  a publisher’s promise that their stories will include                          AC. Fair & Balanced                    information and points of view from all sides of a story,                                                                              not just the views of government leaders, business owners,                                                                          or political activists

6A. Match the definition on the left with the newspaper section on the right.

29.  Stories that are factual reports of actual events.                                                                                  These may be local, state, national, or international.

30.  Regular articles that are written by local or                                   Newspaper Sections                        syndicated, well-known authors.                                                           A.   Display Ads
                                                                                                           B.   News
31.  Ads placed by citizens who want to buy or                                     C.   Columns                                   sell a product, hire an employee, or seek a job.                                      D.   Classified Ads
                                                                                                    E.   Editorials
32.  Unsigned articles that express the opinions                                                                                             of the owners or editors.

33.  Ads with illustrations placed by businesses                                                                                      throughout the newspaper.

6B. Identify the section of the newspaper where the following information is found.

34.  Some ideas on the newspaper owner’s views                              Newspaper Sections                        and opinions                                                                                         A.   Features
35.  Dear Abby or Ann Landers                                                            B.   News
36.  A story about the progress of a little girl who                                  C. Column                                     has had a recent kidney transplant                                                         D.   Classified
37.  An account of what happened in the 2000                                      E.   Editorial                                presidential election
38.  Information about what summer jobs are                                                                                          available for teenagers

Using the options in the word bank, complete the following sentences.

39.  If you find a newspaper article that seems to                                                                                         tell you about just one point of view on a story,                                                                                          you might suspect that the article is ________.

40.  A ________ reader must be very critical of                                                                                      what he or she reads in a newspaper or magazine,                                                    Word Bank                 watches on TV or listens to on the radio.                                                             A.   weak
                                                                                                                  B.   strong
41.  A ________ reader accepts what they are                                                    C. biased                        told without using common sense or their own                                                      D.   readers                     knowledge about their community.                                                                       E.   advertisers

42.  The Post Gazette makes almost all of its                                                                                              money from ___________.

43.  When _________ suspect a newspaper                                                                                        doesn’t tell the whole story, or tries to make each                                                                                  day’s report agree with the publisher’s opinions,                                                                                      they will be less likely to stay loyal to the newspaper.

 

Read the following statements and bubble A if is a Fact and B if it is an opinion.

44.  The suspect in the Scott Drake case is Joseph Cornelius.
45.  Homeless people are evil.
46.  George Bush is an idiot.|
47.  Al Gore and George Bush were close in the voting polls.
48.  Ralph Nader has the best presidential campaign of them all.

 

49.  A lead develops the story saving the most important details for last.
50.  A lead begins with the 5Ws in the first paragraph.
51.  A good news story includes some opinions and judgments of the author.
52.  This is the last question on this Newspaper Test.

 

 

http://dir.lycos.com/News/
http://prodigy-news.excite.com/
http://www.msnbc.com/m/lv/default.asp
http://www.msnbc.com/msn/spcrpt.asp
http://australiannews.net/
http://www.discoveryhealth.com
http://dir.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/
http://www.newsindex.com/
http://www.post-gazette.com/
Choose five articles to read and write a summary of each. Find a wide variety of articles on numerous topics. Then, make some observations about how the article is presented on the web page as opposed to if it was found in the newspaper or on television.

Title of article_____________________________ Name of Author____________

Source of article______________________________

Summary:

 

 

 

Observations of Article:

 

 

 

 

Title of article_____________________________ Name of Author____________

Source of article______________________________

Summary:

 

 

 

 

 

Observations of Article:

Title of article_____________________________ Name of Author____________

Source of article______________________________

Summary:

 

 

 

Observations of Article:

 

 

 

Title of article_____________________________ Name of Author____________

Source of article______________________________

Summary:

 

 

 

Observations of Article:

 

 

 

Title of article_____________________________ Name of Author____________

Source of article______________________________

Summary:

 

 

 

Observations of Article:

 

 

Now that you are experts in radio and print media, you will be comparing them to internet news.

Standards Addressed: 
Standard E6a:  Public Document-Student critiques a public document. 

Recorder___________________________

Discussion Leader____________________

Speaker____________________________

Timekeeper_________________________

1.  List main points discussed within the group. All students should contribute input.

 

 

 

 

2.  What problems or disagreements did you encounter in the discussion? How did you handle them?

 

 

 

3.  What could your group improve upon if you were to work together again?

 

Standard Addressed: 
Standard E3b:  Student participates in group meetings.

Reading Standards
E1a: Student reads 25 books or book equivalents.
E1c: Student reads and comprehends informational material.

Writing Standards
E2a: Student produces a report.
E2d: Student produces a narrative procedure.
E2f: Student produces a reflective essay.

Speaking, Listening and Viewing Standards
E3a: Student participates in one-to-one conferences.
E3b: Student participates in group meetings.
E3d: Student makes an informed judgment about television, radio and film.

Conventions
E4a: Student demonstrates an understanding of the rules of English.
E4b: Student revises written work to clarify and make more effective.

Literature
E5a: Student responds to literature using interpretive, critical and evaluative processes.

Public Document Standards
E5a: Student critiques a public document.
E5b: Student produces a public document.

Functional Document Standards
E6b: Student produces a functional document.