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Needles for Haystacks
Module 1, Activity 1.6 - Central Idea
Teacher
(student page for this lesson)

Introduction:

The old saying "It's like finding a needle in a haystack" most aptly describes how students struggle to find a central idea or concept among all of the research and interviews they do for an article. This lesson is designed to help them view that haystack and find the key idea that they will use as a needle to thread each story together.
Resources:

- the statement sentences (.rtf) or (.doc) handout
- a pair of scissors.
- review the questions and answers about the research process (.rtf) or (.doc).

Activities:

Task One - Review
Help students review the key elements of the research process by either direct question and discussion, or by reviewing the questions from the research process group project.

Task Two - Simulating preparing the story
Copy the grid of statements and have students cut them out to prepare to work through all the facts and focus on what they want a story to be. Students should work step by step through the stages listed on the student version of this lesson.

When students struggle to do this task they have usually failed to refine their main point to the stage where it is narrow enough, or failed to discard irrelevant information. Students may need explicit teaching and additional practice at this point.

 
Objectives:

Students will be able to
- understand effective (news gathering and) editing techniques
- demonstrate fact-gathering, research, and writing skills necessary for in-depth reporting
connection cable View other lessons
for this objective
Instructional Strategies:
Task 1 - Review
Task 2 - Peer Practice (Interactive) and Simulation (Experiential)

Assessment and Evaluation:

Students will have the opportunity to speak their stories to other students. It is important to start students composing orally, because it takes less time and revisions can be immediate. However, one of the key issues with both oral and written communication is organizing one's thoughts. Before your students tell their stories you may wish to remind the class to focus in this area. By using examples and non-examples, you can highlight what stories with and without organization might sound like.

Through examples and non-examples, students will be able to assess their formation of the concept. Summative evaluation at this point is inappropriate.

Extending the Learning:

If you know your students will struggle to refine, try adding humor through a motivational set. After cutting up the sentences, pretend to be a television news anchor and read the sentence slips in random order. As nonsense and confusion spill out of your mouth, the students will both enjoy laughing with you and see the need for the day's activities.
 

Last Updated
May 30, 2005

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