Making the Headlines
Module 1, Activity 2.5 - Headlines
Teacher Page
(student page for this lesson)

Introduction:
Writing headlines is a high-stakes activity. With numerous pitfalls, the danger of double ententres and mistakes that can make a person look foolish, anyone would worry when trying to come up with the perfect headline. However, a great headline can interest the reader and sell newspapers. In this lesson, the students will have the opportunity to look at the characteristics of strong headlines, test the criteria on actual headlines and write their own headlines.

Resources:

- actual headlines handout in (.doc) or (.rtf)
- a series of current news stories from a national newspaper with headlines removed.

Activities:

Task One - Successful Headlines
While it may seem easy to create a headline for an already written article, there are many factors that the writer must keep in mind. The purpose of a headline is to catch the potential readers' attention and entice them to read the story. A headline must be informative, serious, and interesting. Give the students the basic dos and don'ts of headline writing from the student version of this page.

When they are done, have each group choose one headline to read and briefly discuss the mistakes made or the highlights in the headlines.

This would be a good time to discuss a few issues that can be problematic regarding the writing of headlines. Students need to remember that when writing anything they need to consider their target audience. Because the headline is what should grab a reader's attention, the word choice must reflect the audience.

Work through an example or a series of questions with the students. Make a short list of topics they are interested in: teen drug use, drinking and driving, etc. Use one and discuss what things they might know that their parents might not.

For example, teens often know that there are drugs easily accessible to them, but parents might not realize how easy it is for their child to access drugs. A headline like Drugs on Every Street Corner might not shock a teen the way it would shock a parent.

Task Two - Continued . . .
You may also want to talk to students about being direct and concise when writing headlines. Students often fall into the trap of believing that the use of bigger, more complicated words make people sound smart. Here is a fun website that proves that most of the time, simple is better.

Task Three - Writing Headlines
After reviewing and discussing several headlines, the students should attempt writing some headlines of their own.

Give the students, in their groups of 3, a group of articles cut out and copied from local/national newspapers. These are real articles should be given to students without the headlines.

As a group, the students must complete the following steps:
1. One group member should read the article aloud.
2. Another group members should write down key words or interesting ideas while listening to the article.
3. When the reading of the article is finished, the group must come up with a headline for the article.

They will complete this task for each of the articles and then they should have a chance to compare their headline to the actual headline used for the article.

Task Four - The Student's Work
Have the students take some time to look back at some of the work they have already done as an introduction to the concept of revising a portfolio of writing. They can look back at their press release, their sports story or other assignments. Have them try to come up with three or four possible headlines for each of their rough drafts. Ask students to hand in all of the possible headlines on a piece of paper, putting a star beside the ones they think are the best.