Lesson 2.1: Broadcast News
Subjects: Journalism, Language Arts, Social Studies
Estimated Time: One 45-minute class period
Grade Level: Upper Elementary, Middle and High School
Materials: Worksheet 2.1, Student Reporting Labs Pitch Sheet
Overview: By generating news story ideas from their own life, students learn how news develops from people’s natural curiosity about the people, places, events and situations of daily life.
Warm Up Activity Newsworthy Review
Review with students: What is newsworthy? from Lesson 1.1:
· Timeliness
· Proximity
· Conflict and Controversy
· Human Interest
· Relevance
Main Activity 1 Story Ideas
Show students Debate, Over School Choices, a SRL produced piece that exhibits the qualities of a newsworthy story. After the piece is over ask students to give examples from each quality of newsworthiness.
Ask students and have them share in your groups:
· Is anything in your life newsworthy?
· Is there anything newsworthy in the stories you hear among your family, friends and in your community? Why or why not?
Ask each group to pick their most newsworthy story and share it with the class. Have students from each group explain why their story is the most newsworthy and take a class vote on whose story is the best/most newsworthy.
View and discuss these videos to build students’ knowledge of how news stories get created from the events of daily life. Being a good listener and considering the five news values is the key to finding and developing local stories.
Ira Glass on Storytelling, Part 1 Ira Glass explains how TV and radio broadcasts develop from real-life anecdotes in story form and how a series of questions and answers keeps people’s attention.
Associated Press: How to Pitch a Story AP editors Jon Resnick and Associated Press Editor Donna Cassata explain how to prepare your story idea and pitch it to a news editor.
Main Activity 2 Generate News Stories from Life
Students can work on this in class or as homework. Set a firm but short deadline so students can experience some of the pressure involved in journalism. This is an exercise to get students thinking, not a final project. Use the criteria on the worksheet to offer students feedback about their oral presentations. Have students fill out a SRL Pitch Sheet.
Time for Performance
Each individual student performs a pitch. Either you or the class should offer “warm” and “cool” feedback. Warm feedback is positive and acknowledges strengths. Cool feedback offers comments and suggestions to help the learner reflect and improve.
Estimated Time: One 45-minute class period
Grade Level: Upper Elementary, Middle and High School
Materials: Worksheet 2.1, Student Reporting Labs Pitch Sheet
Overview: By generating news story ideas from their own life, students learn how news develops from people’s natural curiosity about the people, places, events and situations of daily life.
Warm Up Activity Newsworthy Review
Review with students: What is newsworthy? from Lesson 1.1:
· Timeliness
· Proximity
· Conflict and Controversy
· Human Interest
· Relevance
Main Activity 1 Story Ideas
Show students Debate, Over School Choices, a SRL produced piece that exhibits the qualities of a newsworthy story. After the piece is over ask students to give examples from each quality of newsworthiness.
Ask students and have them share in your groups:
· Is anything in your life newsworthy?
· Is there anything newsworthy in the stories you hear among your family, friends and in your community? Why or why not?
Ask each group to pick their most newsworthy story and share it with the class. Have students from each group explain why their story is the most newsworthy and take a class vote on whose story is the best/most newsworthy.
View and discuss these videos to build students’ knowledge of how news stories get created from the events of daily life. Being a good listener and considering the five news values is the key to finding and developing local stories.
Ira Glass on Storytelling, Part 1 Ira Glass explains how TV and radio broadcasts develop from real-life anecdotes in story form and how a series of questions and answers keeps people’s attention.
Associated Press: How to Pitch a Story AP editors Jon Resnick and Associated Press Editor Donna Cassata explain how to prepare your story idea and pitch it to a news editor.
Main Activity 2 Generate News Stories from Life
Students can work on this in class or as homework. Set a firm but short deadline so students can experience some of the pressure involved in journalism. This is an exercise to get students thinking, not a final project. Use the criteria on the worksheet to offer students feedback about their oral presentations. Have students fill out a SRL Pitch Sheet.
Time for Performance
Each individual student performs a pitch. Either you or the class should offer “warm” and “cool” feedback. Warm feedback is positive and acknowledges strengths. Cool feedback offers comments and suggestions to help the learner reflect and improve.