Anchors Away
Module 2, Activity 3.6 - Anchoring the News
Teacher Page
(student page for this lesson)

Introduction:

A television anchor's job is among the most the challenging in television. An anchor is the focal point of every broadcast and can set the tone. Whether it is a regular day in the newsroom or one of intense terror, the anchor must remain calm and project an air of professionalism for her viewers. In this lesson, the students will look at the various difficulties in an anchor's job through research, role play, and reflective writing.

Resources:

- news scripts
- access to the internet

Activities:

Task One - Breaking News
On a regular day, an anchor must be well-informed, organized and thorough. On a day when important news is breaking, an anchor must be all of these things and more. Viewers need anchors who are composed in the face of tragedy and who can give them up to the minute information.

Have students read these articles regarding the job of an anchor. Students should begin to consider the underlying question for this lesson -
What is difficult about anchoring the news?

An Anchor's Work
Skills Without Script


Task Two - Do It Yourself
Having read the articles, students should have an idea about what it is that anchors must be able to do. However, it may still seem like an easy job. To help students to see how difficult being an anchor can be, they should participate in a role play.

1. Have students get into partners.
2. Distribute two scripts to each partnership, but ask them not to show their scripts to each other.
3. Each person within the partnership must role play the part of an anchor with the other person's script.
4. Students are not allowed to look at each other's scripts until you say so.
5. Once they are looking at the script, they are responsible for giving the news report just as an anchor would (with composure while making eye contact)
6. Their partners job will be to count the number of times that the anchors look up at the "viewers".
7. The partners should then switch roles, so that each has a turn as the anchor with an unseen script.

Need news scripts? Many stations, such as CBC News, post the previous day's scripts online.

This activity should help students to see that anchors are often in a difficult position and give them another chance to consider the underlying question -
What is difficult about anchoring the news?

Task Two - Continued . . .
Anchors are seeing the information they are giving to the public only seconds before they are on the air. Yet, they are expected to be professional and collected at all times.

Task Three - The Pros
After students have tried to give a report for themselves, they should watch some video clips of anchors reporting during the chaos of a major tragedy. Students can choose to watch videos from one of the following events:

1. Attack on the World Trade Center
2. Deadly Asian Tsunami

For the purpose of this assignment, be sure that students choose to watch clips that were broadcast live rather than memorial clips. Ask students to keep in mind the question -
What is difficult about anchoring the news?

After watching the videos, discuss briefly what the anchors in the videos did well. This will give the students the chance to reflect on what qualities it takes to be a strong anchor.

Task Four - What's the Answer?
Now that students have had several opportunities to consider the challenges of anchoring the news, they will complete a reflective writing piece in their notebooks.

This is the students' chance to answer the questions they have been pondering throughout this lesson -
What is difficult about anchoring the news?

Assessment and Evaluation:
Each Task within this lesson is a piece of the overall puzzle. By the end, the students should be able to discuss the difficulties of anchoring the news. For this reason, there is no place for summative evaluation in Tasks One-Three. Task Four may be used to assess student understanding of the key concept, but should not formally be graded.