Sports Report Ideas

Excite to Write - Sports Report Activities

The ideas presented on the following pages were devised by teachers from the Chenderit Cluster Primary Schools at a planning meeting for the Excite to Write project at Silverstone Study Centre. The project is made up of three elements for each school that will take place in the 2008/2009 school year: • A visit to Silverstone Circuit • An interview with a sports personality • A visit to Wembley or to a local sports stadium. Student Consultants, representing each school, also met at Silverstone to comment on the teachers’ ideas and to come up with their own suggestions for activities. The ideas in green represent those teachersuggestions that the students felt were the most worthwhile. A list of the students’ own ‘Top Ideas’ follows each section to provide a flavour of the direction that they would like the project to take.

Stadium Visit Pre-visit Activities

Problem-solving Cost the actual trip to the stadium including bus and ticket pricing. Compare with alternative methods of transport and other venues. Planning Plan the route to the stadium using maps or online route planners. Does the bus follow the planned route? Does it keep to the planned journey timescale? Researching Find out what pupils already know and have experienced. Research the stadium via website and identify missing facts and questions that can be explored during the visit. Look at any virtual tours. Giving different groups responsibility for an aspect of the research e.g. stadium history, statistics, or events, will allow them to demonstrate expertise across a range of subjects during the actual visit. Estimating Explore stadium photos and events to estimate the seating capacity. Use Google Maps or Google Earth to view the stadium and estimate capacity and size. Analysing Use internet and traditional media to analyse the home and away records, results and league positions of teams. Read the team’s latest sports reports or headlines and analyse the language. Creating Find out about the rules of the games played at the stadium. Try out some of the games in PE. Pupils could create their own mini-games with the associated skills or highlighted rules. Thinking ahead Pupils storyboard or plan any specific video, soundrecording or photos that they might need to gather at the stadium for post-visit work. For example, an introductory or closing piece of video at the front gates, vox-pops etc. Stadium research should help throw up possible areas for a video or photo tour. Questioning Thinking about the people who might work at a the stadium and the types of questions that might be interesting or appropriate to ask them. Create a generic class question bank. Contrasting Show some footage of a match or event at the stadium to contrast with the probable emptiness during your visit. Collaborating Use the ExcitetoWrite.net website to read about the experiences of other schools’ experiences. Comment and ask questions on the website either as a class or as individuals.

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During the Visit

Gathering

Recording Recording Questioning

Comparing

Advertising

Take digital photos of the obvious areas of the stadium and encourage students to look for the backstory opportunities and less obvious subjects. Record sound/video footage for later editing back at school. Note-taking or sketching of relevant stimuli. Teacher could scribe or record ideas of younger pupils. Try and find the pupils opportunities to interview/ ask questions of people working at the stadium and to find the information to fill in the gaps in their previsit research. Get pupils to assess what the pros and cons are of watching an event live. Where is the best place in the stadium to watch the action? Compare these ideas with their experience of live television. Look at the advertising boards and sponsorship presence around the stadium. Take photos for review later.

Post-visit Activities

Creating a detailed plan of the stadium. Designing and making a new stadium. Editing video footage using Window MovieMaker (or similar) to produce a tour/diary of the day to present to other children. Editing photos to make a powerPoint presentation about their visit. Recording a sports commentary with a piece of sports footage with no sound. Writing a playscript - e.g. in the changing room before the World Cup Final. Writing about the the sensory experience - (sounds, smells, size , atmosphere) Producing a marketing plan for a stadium with adverts, programmes, tickets and posters. Comparing stadiums. Posting completed work to the excitetowrite.net website and checking for comments and response from other schools/stakeholders.

Student Top Ideas

Scripting and filming an advert/film/drama/music video. Creating and editing sporty music soundtracks and sound-effects. Creating a podcast of the stadium visit. Creating a virtual stadium tour. (The skills could also be used back in school to create a school tour for new pupils/visitors) Presenting the results of the visit as a comic.

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Sports Personality Interview Pre-visit Activities

Research personality and their sport. Create a factfile and character profile. Post to excitetowrite.net website. Write a formal invitation to the sportsperson, the local media or other attendees. Use hotseating to develop knowledge and questioning skills. Explore the language of questioning i.e. open/closed questions, obvious questions. Explore biographies to create a framework for questions. Create a question bank. Listen/watch Radio/TV interviews. Practice the skill of note-taking. Plan the interview thinking about setting, media & style and hospitality. Think about the final outcome of the visit - newspaper, biography or website. Give students responsibility for capturing the photos, video & audio on the day by letting them run sound- and production checks before the visit. Use a clues suitcase to build up profile of the personality. Create some artwork or design related to the sportsperson e.g. outfit, medal.

During the Interview/Visit

Give pupils the responsibility for recording/filming/ photgraphing the visit. Give pupils responsibility for introducing the personality to each group. Interview - recording on video/audio/notes.

Post Visit

Write a ‘thank you’ letter. Edit video/photos for PowerPoint presentation to an audience Create Podcast Post reports/photos to excitetowrite.net website page. Write a diary entry. Write a biography. Write a CV. Follow-up art work

Student Top Ideas

Take a photo of the celebrity with the whole school. Create a welcome banner and posters to welcome the personality to the school/village. Create a quiz - personality competes against students. Create a school book of drawing and poems about the personality to sell for charity. Give a copy of the book as a welcome or thank-you gift.

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Make the visit a theme day so the pupils dress up in line with the personality’s sport. Write a report for a real newspaper. Get personality to bring in items of interest related to the sport.

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