Journalism Lesson - “Analyzing Front Page Stories”

Before Middle and High School journalism students write their first news, feature, sports story or editorial...
Before Middle and High School journalism students even write a lead...
Before Middle and High School journalism students compose that mind-catching headline, they need to understand what they need to know to compose an effective news story.

The 6 Primary Points of Journalism Stories form the foundation of any journalism piece and are the bait that hooks readers.  They are

Location –where the story takes place

Timeliness - the relevance of the story to its publication date

Notable People/Places – the people/place(s) that make the story newsworthy

Conflict - the issues that make the story newsworthy

Extraordinary Elements – the details that make the story Front Page worthy

Arouses Emotions - the details that hook people into reading the story

No matter how powerful, how evocative a story might be, though, readers will ignore it if the newspaper editorial staff didn't pay attention to what their readers want. The how and why newspaper editors choose the stories that they print along with the 6 Primary Points of Journalism Stories create a winning newspaper that keeps people reading and asking, "More, please".

This 6-page activity for Middle and High School journalism students, Journalism - Analyzing Front Page Stories speaks to both of these concerns.An essential for beginning journalism students, it also makes an excellent reinforcement tool for advanced journalism students.

These budding journalists will use the Front Pages section found on the Newseum site http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/ to choose front pages of newspapers from around the United States to analyze.

Here are the directions for the students

Activity Directions

1. To begin this activity, go to http://www.newseum.org/ and then scroll down the main page to Today's Front Pages and click on VIEW ALL. You should be on http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/.
2. Under Gallery – go to Sort by Region, and then click on USA.
3. Choose five Front Pages from newspaper around the country.  Select newspapers from a variety of states and from places of different sizes. 
4. Complete one numbered Analyzing Front Page Stories Outline for each Front Page headlined story.
5. For the Notes section under each Headline, just include the Basic: Who, What, Where and When information.  Because only the Front Page for each newspaper is shown and not complete stories, these notes will be brief.
6. NOTE- space for 5 Headlines is included. Depending on the newspaper, anywhere from 3 to 5 headlines will be present.
7. Each of you will share your headlines with the class.
8. Closure, analyze your findings and summarize them in the What Does This Mean? space.

This activity encourages students to explore what stories newspapers choose for the Front Page and why. Also, students will develop their analytic and critical thinking skills which are essential in both print and broadcast journalism.

Download this 6-page activity that includes detailed Teacher Notes and the necessaryhandouts for the students from https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Journalism-Analyzing-Front-Page-Stories-1663001.

Happy Teaching,

English Language Arts: "Martin Luther King Day Activity - 'Dare to Dream'"

Teaching across the curriculum has always been a focus of mine. After all, reading comprehension, writing and higher-level thinking skills are not exclusive to English classrooms. Having students examine why a piece is endemic to the time period when it was written is crucial. When they study the social, political and spiritual mores as well as the traditions of a period they can understand the characters, their choices and the events that occurred more readily.

This pairing can be just as effective when starting with an event from a previous period and showing it through the eyes and minds of a literary or narrative non-fiction person.  With this Martin Luther King Day Activity- Dare to Dream, students use Mr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech as the podium for a character of their choice to voice his/her thoughts, beliefs and feelings.

To complete this activity, the students are to:

• Read and or view and listen to Rev. King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Two URLs are included-one to read and the other to listen and view.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm(Read)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs(View and Listen)

• Explain what aspects of his speech have come true in the 40+ years since it was delivered
  
• Choose a character from the story that they are currently reading and summarize what he/she would say about the speech.
• Write an "I Have a Dream" speech from the point of view of that character. This speech must show the societal values and beliefs of the time period in which the story takes place.

With this lesson, students will exhibit their range of thinking skills from knowledge through evaluation. These activities allow them to show their understanding of their reading from various texts as well as  to reveal their analytic and critical-thinking skills in their writing and speaking.

The speech writing aspect of this lesson helps students to understand Voice because the thoughts, beliefs and feelings that they express are not theirs, but are owned by the character they have chosen to speak. In order to compose this speech, the students show how clearly they can analyze this literary person.

On the due date, students have the opportunity to share a portion of their writing with their peers.

Download this highly-rated activity that continues to develop students' reading, writing, speaking and listening and language skills from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Martin-Luther-King-Day-Activity-Dare-to-Dream-193708. Complete with detailed Teacher Notes, it's a $1.25 bargain.

Happy Teaching,