Journalism Summary and Homework, 9/24/12

Sample tile

Today brought another action-packed and information-filled class. The real work is now beginning, so it's critical that your students be on top of their homework assignments, as all of it relates to the eventual distribution of our first issue on November 12th.

Today's topics were; headline creation, the inverted pyramid style of writing, the criteria for selecting a newsworthy story, what purposes do publications serve, and developing interviewing skills.

In one activity, the students were asked to pull a random item from their lunch boxes or backpacks and interview that item using only open-ended questions. Creating open-ended vs. close-ended questions proved to be more challenging than we thought, but in the end, the students came up with some really creative queries!

Next week, the students will be interviewing a special guest! We are honored to be hosting a visiting relative of one of our students whose resume includes; professional staff writer for a weekly community newspaper in California, time as the managing editor for a company that publishes community magazines, and independent freelance writer/editor. She also publishes a quarterly literary arts journal. Our guest will be speaking about her experiences in writing and publishing, after which, each student will ask an open-ended interview question. This interview may be published in our first issue of The Mosaic Monthly!

Here are the items your students need to be working on this week:

• We need EVERYONE to design a "tile" that represents the area they are covering for the paper. Above is a sample tile from our photography and arts editor. It can be designed on the computer, or hand-drawn, but if hand-drawn, it will need to be scanned and turned into a digital file. If you don't have a scanner, just turn the artwork in to me, and we will get it scanned for you. The tiles will make up the background of our newspaper "flag." Please email them to me this week.
• Using either the newspaper you purchased or an on-line publication, choose one article to see if it follows the inverted pyramid style of writing (students should have this in their notes, but it is illustrated below). List who, what, where, when, why, and how and tell in what order these facts occur. It would be acceptable to simply create a list numbered 1-6 and place the 5 W's and H in the order they appear in the article.
• Fill in the Reporter's Notebook worksheet (Writing News Stories). Use the worksheet as an outline or rough draft and please have your student type the final piece, if possible. The news story can be on any subject, but should be realistic, not fantasy, and follow the inverted pyramid style of writing. It should have a lead paragraph and two or more supporting paragraphs.

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The Why and How can be included under Important Details!