Introduction:
In previous lessons students have had the chance to look at the format of editorial pages, read a variety of editorials, and recognize the characteristics of an editorial. In this lesson, the students will use the writing process to create their own editorial.
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Resources:
- internet access
- editorial pre-writing: ideas and brainstorming
- sample editorial evaluation (.doc) or (.rtf)
- list of links for possible concepts to review
- quality editorials handout (.doc) or (.rtf)
- mastery benchmarks (.doc) or (.rtf)
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Activities: Task One - Pre-writing/Research
At this point, students should have chosen a topic and done some brainstorming around that topic. Now they will need to research. You will want to review effective researching skills as well as interviewing techniques. Task Two - Drafting
Once students have done some research, they are ready to draft their editorial. Review the characteristics of an editorial and discuss the guidelines for writing an editorial that are on the student version of this page.
Now is an important time to remind students that an editorial is an informed opinion.
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| Students will need to consider both sides of the issue in order to be successful, persuasive writers. |
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Task Three - Revising
In the revising stage, students should:
1. Evaluate their own editorial, using the sample evaluation.
2. Have a partner read and evaluate their editorial using the same evaluation.
As the students use the sample evaluation tool for editorials more frequently, it will reinforce the important things to consider while continuing to work on their own editorial.
Students often have trouble distinguishing between revision of ideas and polishing the language in their writing. Give them time to revise before they move on to the proofreading stage. This will encourage students to focus on large scale items such as format and development of ideas, rather than on spelling and sentence structure. Students may have difficulty with the concept of writing with a strong voice. Giving specific examples can help. Ask the students which of the following sentences sounds stronger:
1. The investment of town funds towards the addition of a new street light will help to avoid the number of accidents in our town each year.
2. If the town put some money towards a street light, then we would have less accidents. |
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Objectives:
Students will be able to
- write effective editorials
- demonstrate fact-gathering, research, and writing skills necessary for in-depth reporting
- present their point of view in a written work |
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View other lessons for the main objective. |
Instructional Strategies:
Task 1-2 - Research Project (Independent)
Task 3, 4, 5 - Peer Editing (Interactive), Self Editing (Independent)
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Look at each sentence to determine how word choice and tone effect the author's ability to persuade. Then discuss how the sentences could be stronger.Once you have had the discussion, students can look through their own writing and decide what changes they might make to sound more definitive.
Task Four - Editing/Polishing
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| After students have edited their writing for ideas and format, they must also edit for usage, sentence structure, punctuation,and spelling, |
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Task Five - Publishing
Once the editorial has been polished, students will hand it in.
Assessment and Evaluation:
As the students have a great deal of experience with and understanding of the sample editorial evaluation, having used it to evaluate their own and others editorials, this would be an ideal tool for evaluating their editorials. The sample does not require a numerical grade, but rather allows the students to determine areas where they need improvement. As one of the options on the evaluation is "needs revision" this gives you the opportunity to have the students rewrite and revise until they have achieved a level of mastery.
You need to decide what mastery will look like. You can do this in one of two ways.
1. You can discuss as a class, before the students use the evaluation to edit their own work, what a mastery level of editorial writing should look like. What needs to exist for a mark between 80-100%? This gives the students the opportunity to decide what quality work should look like.
2. You can pre-determine what mastery would include in each of the marking categories. Having a handout for students to look at will help them to see what they are striving for and what comments they will be able to make to help their peers.
Within the mastery range, it is necessary to have an idea of what the difference between an 82% and a 92% might be. Try to set benchmarks within the 80-100% range that will help you to decide. |
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