Mgres Key Lessons

▼ Introduction to Multigenre Research Project DAY #1 ***KEY LESSON a. Goals: The goals for this lesson are to get students thinking about the overall theme of this unit on historical news events and research. The discussions and activities are used in hopes of engaging the students in authentic activation of prior knowledge from previous lessons in the course as well as personal experiences. Students need to see the importance of historical events in order to do their own personal analysis of one specific event for their project and it is assumed this lesson will begin that process. b. Rationale: Throughout this course students have learned about different delivery methods in the media as well as news coverage. This lesson will introduce them to a unit where they will begin to hone their researching skills necessary to become a journalist, as well as understand the importance of how the past shapes the future in both history and journalism. The lesson will get them thinking about news coverage, important events in history and news angles. These are important themes for students in an introductory class to think about and hopefully carry on with them to a publications-based course. c. Assessments Students will be assessed on:  Participation in personal journal entry  Contributions and participation in full-class discussion  Participation and contributions to group-activity d. Objectives Students Will Be Able To:  Remember news events from their past and critically analyze how they were covered  Reflect and discuss on their thoughts and feelings regarding news events and their coverage  Look at news angles and the difference between news mediums e. Tasks:  Introduction ~ 5 minutes Show PowerPoint of Hindenburg, 9/11, Virginia Tech Shooting and “Internet Inauguration” (see “Historical News Events” PowerPoint)

 Journal ~ 5 minute Students respond to what they saw in the PowerPoint and are asked to answer:   

What memories/emotions did this PowerPoint spark? What do you remember about these events? About their news coverage? Many news stories are discussed for many weeks or longer by the news. List some examples of news items that have been covered for long periods of time. What do these stories have in common with the ones you saw?

 Class Discussion~ 15 minutes Come back to a whole-class discussion.      

What do they remember/have they learned about the events shown in the PowerPoint? What do they remember/have learned about how these events were covered journalistically? What sort of emotions do these evoke? Why do you think these are important? How do you think (if at all) these events would be covered if they happened at this moment? How do these translate to US!?

Students will share their responses and as a class. Explain that the news media often covers an event form many angles (a way of looking at something, perspective or point of view).  Explanation of Rationale ~ 10 minutes Before actual project is introduced, it is important to explain the rationale of the entire unit to the students so they understand the big goals and realize the significance of the final project as a whole. Key Points: 

Throughout the semester they’ve skimmed the surface of the history of journalism, the skills required of journalists, the different methods stories can be portrayed and evolution of journalism. They’ve essentially become “journalists in training” and are prime

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candidates for taking the publication-based journalism class in the future. BUT, they’ve only skimmed the top of journalism as a whole. They now need to dig deep into a specific journalistic example in order to: 1. Model the same sort of researching skills needed to properly research a specific story idea 2. Scratch a curious/investigative itch in something they’re interested in or think others would be interested in (just like a journalist covers a news story) 3. Cover a story thoroughly and in a journalistic fashion Journalism is an ever-changing field and it is crucial for journalists to be trained in as many multiple genres and intelligences as possible. Being a writer for the newspaper isn’t necessarily a realistic goal anymore. One must be able to publish that same story to the web, accompany it with a quality photo(s), podcast it, broadcast it, twitter about it, etc. Therefore, they need to be put in a situation where they explore and use multiple ways of expressing a story. Lastly, it is important for students to look at these news events in order to translate how they may have to cover tragedies or other important events at their own school in the future.

 Introduce Research Project ~ 15 minutes  Pass out handout of project explanation (see attached)  Read it over together  Discuss any questions, concerns, comments  Ask for any suggestions on how this assignment needs to be tweaked, changed or modified to fit this particular class and their needs.  Homework Students will be asked to keep thinking about important news events and their coverage and start thinking of an event they’d like to look into more. Project examples will be shown tomorrow. f. Materials  Powerpoint  Handouts  An open mind! g. To-Do List  Ensure PowerPoint works correctly  Bring handouts  Make sure to allow students to lead discussions and inquiries.

h. References  Jesse McLean  Jeremy Whiting i.

Relevant handouts  Project Description

▼ Straight from the Source: The Importance of Research DAY #6 ***KEY LESSON a. Goals: The goals of this lesson are for students to analyze the essential questions of:  Why is research essential?  Where can credible information be found?  How do you ask the right questions? b. Rationale: Although students often learn from papers they’ve done in previous years and/or subjects that doing extensive research and crediting sources are a must in order to show learning and avoid plagiarism, there is an added importance to both of these things for journalism students. Students must understand that journalists do research in order to better understand and supply a “why should we care?” to readers/viewers. Journalists must essentially become mini-experts on every topic they cover so they can find the best and most factual way to portray it to the public. They give credit to sources not just to avoid plagiarism but to gain credibility and respect from their viewers. This particular lesson helps students to explore how research enhances and illustrates a story while also answering the question, “Why?” It also gives a strong concentration to constantly inquiring things of a topic over and over. This particular lesson will serve as an introduction to a three day lesson where students will be given training in finding and evaluating sources’ credibility as well as learning the importance of giving credit to anyone/anything that they attain information from. c. Assessments Students will be assessed on:  Individual completion of handouts while still working in a group context  Contributions to class discussion d. Objectives Students Will Be Able To:  Read and Analyze news stories  Find value in research as a basic necessity for story writing  Think critically about appropriate questions and inquiries for researching topics  Understand the initial ideas behind sources and their credibility

e. Tasks:  Activity ~ 20 minutes   

Divide class into small groups to read and examine various news stories. Each group answers questions about assigned article. Groups share findings with class as part of discussion about the value of research in journalistic writing. (See: “Analyzing News” handout)

 Activity 2 ~ 20 minutes  Each student (or small group of students) is given a “scenario” to brainstorm about.  Provide questions to prompt research for each scenario (#3)  Students brainstorm ideas for research and research-based secondary coverage, i.e. bio boxes, timelines, graphs and charts.

 Discussion ~ 10 minutes  What do you think are the best resources?  Where can you find the most information? Credible information? Specific information?  Give a brief introduction to some of the issues that will be discussed within the next few days including:  Primary sources like INTERVIEWS as a wonderful source of information  How to find credible, trusted information on the web  How to incorporate sources and attributions within story  Homework: Continue research and in-depth work on project with partner f. Materials  News stories  List of scenarios  Handouts g. To-Do List  Ensure all handouts and any other information the students will need is on hand  Encourage dialogic discussion throughout activities and discussion h. References  Jesse McLean  Jeremy Whiting

 Jennifer Ford of Gravette High School in Gravette, Ark. i. Relevant handouts  Analyzing News  Research Scenarios

▼ Looking at Content Trends and Delivery Methods DAY #9 ***KEY LESSON a. Goals: This lesson will explore how specific types of content have adapted over time and how their delivery has changed for the consumer. For example, breaking news used to be delivered via horseback, then print, then telegraph, then radio, then television, then Internet. Along the way, the form of the content changed to best fit how the audience consumed it. Students will get a broad sense of how these changes took place and why. b. Rationale: In order to decide how to best deliver their content, students should have a full understanding of the possibilities that have existed over time and the reasoning behind those delivery methods. Understanding past guidelines can lead to new innovations and a possibly lessons from the past. c. Assessments Students will participate in discussions that will encourage critical thinking on the topics of content trends and delivery methods. This particular lesson will not have a formal assessment, but will be crucial as a building block for their final assessment project at the end of the unit. d. Objectives Students Will Be Able To:  Discuss specific changes in how content has been delivered to audiences over time  Understand why certain techniques were appropriate for different audiences and delivery methods  Choose an appropriate content form and delivery method for their audience and defend why that choice makes sense for their broadcasting goals e. Tasks:  Ask the class if there are questions from the previous days’ lessons on proper research.  Introduce the idea of form = audience + purpose. Ask students to think about and share how they would be cover certain stories for specific audiences. The jigsaw method will be used to share their thoughts. The handout from the day 6 lesson will be used for this discussion.

 Discuss trends for reporting specific content and delivery methods for them. Show examples from current older print publications and broadcasts, as well as newer examples. Some clips will be shown from YouTube to illustrate the differences.  Ask the students to identify some older content trends that may be used today. What ones are currently being used that might not make as much sense anymore?  Discuss how this relates to the final assessment. What do students see as the key factors when choosing what form to use when delivering information? f. Materials The teacher will provide all of the materials, except for pen and paper for writing notes. Students will use the handout of example stories to cover for specific audiences from the Day 6 lesson. g. To-Do List  Narrow down clips from YouTube of some major events in history that pertain to journalism.  Decides which examples of more recent turning points in journalism to use. These are mostly newspapers and magazines that I’ve kept over the last five to ten years. Some online content will be used. h. References  Hagemeister, Margaret. “How Does the Medium Affect the Message: Comparing print to electronic media.” Highschooljournalism.org. American Society of News Editors. 28 April 2009 .  Harrington, Janet. “Check It Out on the Web.” Highschooljournalism.org. American Society of News Editors. 28 April 2009 . i.

Relevant handouts  Project Description  Research Scenarios