The Scoop
Module 1, Activity 2.9 - On Assignment in a Newspaper
Student Page
(teacher lesson for this page)

Activities:

Task One - Getting Started
Get into groups of approximately 4. In each group, the you must decide who will be in charge of the following story areas:

Once your group has had the opportunity to assign a beat to each student, your group will need to do two things:

1. Review ideas generated in the lesson, Elements of a News Story, and determine if you would like to use any of these ideas.
2. All students with the same beat will meet with the teacher.

To avoid story overlap, each group of students with the same beat will go through a process with the teacher, who will act as the assignment editor. As a group, you will pitch/generate story ideas for your beat. Once you have a sufficient list of ideas, each of you will choose one ideas as the focus of your story, or you will be assigned one by your teacher.

Task Two - Beginning the Process
Once you have an idea for your story you will go through the following steps:

Once every group has met with the teacher, you will need to work individually with your story idea. You should start by doing some prewriting. A good way to do this might be to fill in a K-W-L chart to organize what you know about your topic, what you want to know about your topic, and, eventually what you have learned about your topic.

Task Three - Background and Research
With the idea for your story in hand, you will begin your research. You must:

1. Familiarize yourself with the topic/person
2. Prepare for and conduct an interview

Although you are working on a story individually, it will still be necessary for you to meet with your group to keep updating the members of your group and your teacher.

You will be given research periods to find relevant background information, set up the interview, create interview questions and conduct the interview. Before you begin, watch this video, dealing with the importance of researching all sides of a story before you draft.

This might also be a good time to review:
Effective Searching Techniques
How to Conduct a Successful Interview

Objectives:

You will be able to
- prepare a school or community newspaper targeted at a particular audience
- demonstrate responsible journalism
- recognize the importance for journalists of interviewing, researching, and reporting
- demonstrate fact-gathering, research, and writing skills necessary for in-depth reporting
- conduct an interview skillfully
- recognize writing as a process of constructing meaning for themselves and others
- analyze and evaluate their own and others' writing

Task Four - Writing and Editing
After your research you will be given time in class to sift through your information, choose what you would like to use and draft your stories. You should go back to your KWL chart and fill in what you have learned and begin organizing and prioritizing from there. Review the news writing technique and elements of a news story, then you will be ready to draft your story.

Once you have finished a draft, you will need to take on the role of copy editor for another student in your group.

A copy editor is responsible for:
1. making suggestions regarding effective communication (is the story accurate, clear, concise, consistent?)
2. checking stories for proper style, usage, spelling, and sentence structure
3. ensuring that a story is well-organized and not libelous
4. writing the headline for the story

Task Five - Putting together the Paper
Once you have all your stories finished your group will create a 2-3 page community newspaper.

Your teacher will discuss the method of evaluation with you before you start this project. Be sure to use this as a guideline and checklist as you are working.

Not sure what the newspaper should look like?
Checkout the newspaper template or the pages provided by the Meadow Lake Progress. You might also consider reviewing information on the parts of a newspaper.

Approximate Timeline for Activities

Day 1 - Choose groups and beats, meet with teacher to determine story ideas.
Day 2 - Prewriting (KWL chart) and begin researching
Day 3 - Continue researching
Day 4 - Organize and prioritize research, prepare interview questions, call to set up interview
Day 5 - After having conducted interview, fill in KWL chart and begin drafting story
Day 6 - Finish drafting story and edit for another group member
Day 7 - As a group review parts of a newspaper and begin laying out your pages
Day 8 - Continue/Finish laying out newspaper