1. A description of the intended audience:

This lesson was created for a 2nd grade class at Mabel Elementary School. With this lesson, the second graders will be evaluating a newspaper and developing their own newspaper. Newspapers are a major source of information and it is critical that students learn to evaluate a newspaper.

2. A statement of objectives:

After completing this lesson, the students will have a better understanding of a newspaper. The students will also know what goes into  making a newspaper and how stories are chosen.

Language Arts Curriculum:

Grade 2:

Competency Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.

4.09 Use media and technology to enhance the presentation of information to an audience for a specific purpose.

Competency Goal 5: The learner will apply grammar and language convention to communicate effectively.

Information Skills Curriculum:

Competency Goal 5: The learner will COMMUNICATE reading, listening, and viewing experiences.

5.01 Respond to reading, listening, viewing experiences orally, artistically, dramatically, through various formats.
5.02 Produce media in various formats (e.g., pictorial, multimedia).
5.04 Collaborate with others, both in person and through technologies, to identify information problems and to design, develop, and evaluate information products and solutions.

3. A detailed description of the activity itself:

1. Divide the class into three groups with six students per group.
2. Give each group a copy of The Watauga Democrat. The groups will use this copy as a reference.
3. Have each of the groups look through the newspaper that they have.
4.After the students have had time to look over the newspaper, ask the students if they recognized anything special about the piece that they have. Have each of the groups to tell something that they notice about their newspaper.  Talk with the students about the different sections of a newspaper.
5. Once all of the sections are identified, talk with students about the arrangement of the newspaper. Once the students have identified where each piece of the newspaper is placed, ask the students why they feel that the newspaper is arranged this way. For example, why do you think that the headlines are before the comic section?  Also, ask the students why there are pictures in the newspaper. Ask if pictures are important in a newspaper. Why or why not? Discuss with students why there are sections in a newspaer. Also discuss the role of each section in the newspaper. Next, talk with the students about the advertisements that are found in the newspaper.  Ask the students why they think that advertisements are in the newspaper.
6.Next, the students will be producing their own newspaper.
7. Each group will produce one of the parts of the newspaper. There will be a comic section, a sports section, a headlines section, and advertisements.
8. After each group is assigned a topic to produce, the students will then decide what they want on their part of the newspaper. For example, the group that has the headline section will come up with something that is happening at the school and will write about this event. The group will work together as a team to develop their story. There will be one person who is designated the recorder for the group and they will write down what the group decides. The group will also have to make this interesting enough that the reader will want to read about it and will want to pick the newspaper up.
9. Once the students have an idea of what they would like to put into their section of the newspaper, they will be given a sheet of paper that they will put their final drafts on.
10. After all of the groups are finished producing their piece for the paper, the students will complete the newspaper by gluing their piece onto a larger sheet of paper that will come together as the newspaper.

Higher Order Thinking Skills Questions:

1. Why are there different sections of a newspaper?
2. If I had a new candy bar that I wanted to sell, where would I want to place it in the newspaper?
3. What would happen if I put the headlines at the end of our newspaper?
4. How would you select between two stories for headlines if you only had room for one?
5. What could be changed or added to our newspaper to improve it?

4. Links to media literacy materials on the web:

http://www.cenews.org - Children’s Express - Children’s Express is a news service produced by kids reporting on the issues that affect their lives.

http://www.pathfinder.com/TFK/ - TIME for kids – Online version of the venerable weekly news magazine written especially for kids.

http://www.4newspapers.com/?%3B002002a   - 4 Newspapers - this web site is a guide to help find different newspapers.

5. A reflection on how the activity went when you taught it:

My supervising teacher and I decided that the students would benefit more by doing a newscast. I started the lesson by reading The Furry News: How to Make a Newspaper. After reading this book, we brainstormed about other types of news sources. When a newscast was brought up, I ask the students for different things in a newscast like sports, headlines, and weather. Next, the students were asked to name some of the people involved in a newscast. Then, once all of the jobs were listed and described, we decided what we wanted in our newscast, the students went through and decided what they wanted to do. If there were more students wanting to do something than there was space, we had them pick a number and whoever was closest got the spots. There were about four students who did not want to be on camera, so they were given the job of News Directors. They assisted all of the other students with their scripts and held cue cards for the anchors and reporters. Once all of the scripts were written and edited, the taping began. Once finished each of the reporters wrote “Thank you” notes to the people they interviewed. I think that this lesson went very well. One thing that I learned from this lesson is how specific you have to be when giving children instructions for an assignment. This lesson requires a lot of time, so I would definitely have more time planned if I taught it again. I think that I met my objectives because the students learned what goes into making a newscast and they came out with an excellent final product.
 
 
 

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