High School Journalism

Group: Nick LoSardo, Brian England

Our group focuses on the interactivity of today’s news and the involvement of the reader. The goal of interactive news is to engage their audience by inviting readers into the editorial process. Readers can have input into what gets covered, what stories are deemed most newsworthy, or can become part of a community of sources. With interactive news, news stories become more relevant and also makes an effort to reach younger generations that are becoming more dependent on technology nowadays. Also, involvement of the reader allows journalists to better understand general opinions and interests within a community.

2. http://citytracking.org/about.html

http://www.chicagonow.com/about-chicago-now.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/16/AR2005071601359.html

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/113596-MSNBC_Making_News_Interactive.php

3. http://www.chicagonow.com/about-chicago-now.html Chicago Now is website where readers of The Chicago Tribune can communicate ideas and share local news through blogs. Users can post links to local news related blogs or just leave comments for others to read.

journalism and blogging- our topic focuses on  how blogs allow bloggers to comment on what is going on in the news. Bloggins is a way bloggers can communicate and share ideas and feelings on what is going on through hyperlinks and comments, they can also share personal stories that relate to  the news. They can also bring up different news stories that they feel is important, but is not being covered as much by the news organizations. This is also good for the readers, because they can better understand different people’s opinions and be more welcoming of different ideas.

article one

article two

Media convergence is a new form of online journalism that allows for the combining of video, audio, maps, and photos along with print. It is merging of mass communications outlets—print, television, radio, the Internet along with portable and interactive technologies. It allows for news articles to be more than just words. We can now add video, audio, and interactive elements into online journalism in order to make it more interesting.

Article about media convergence:

http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/100289/Looking-Past-the-Rush-Into-Convergence.asp

http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/100301/Enterprising-Journalism-in-a-Multimedia-World.aspx

Example of article using media convergence: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/world/asia/06japan.html?_r=1&ref=world

Group: Mike, Andrew, Jon

Our topic focuses on the future of news. Future of news will be coming to us in many different of ways. Soon there will be no more newspapers. Everything will be electronically or through the TV. We will be getting our news from internet sites and bloggers will become more as a source then an opinion.

Article:

1. Our topic is about how social networking interacts with the news. Through our research, we found that social networking greatly impacts it and is continuing to change the way news is reported and perceived.
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/nyregion/30about.html?_r=1&ref=facebookinc , http://twitter.com/BREAKINGNEWS , http://blog.twitter.com/2008/07/twitter-as-news-wire.html
3. twitter.com/#!/cnnbrk <- This shows how news sites have utilized twitter to get their news out.

Brian, Emily, Claudia

citizen j0urnalism is the idea of letting the public have a say on a specific news story through blogging. They use blogging to have their own opinions on different topics. Public forums can be created where everyone can say what is on their mind.

Example: iReport.cnn.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/16/AR2005071601359.html

http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/69328/the-11-layers-of-citizen-journalism/

We have three days before the end of the course. In this time we will complete our group project on changes in the new media, work on revisions to the one story you will submit as part of your writing portfolio, and prepare for the final exam.

Please get together and discuss the research you did on your topic. See yesterday’s post for sources, requirements, and details on how to bookmark them. Each of you should have two websites bookmarked by the end of the block. As a group, you should have a collection of online articles about your topic, examples of how your topic impacts the news, and articles about what this means for consumers of the news.

The rest of the block will be dedicated to getting ready for tomorrow’s panel discussion.

The next step, after reviewing the websites that your group saved, is to create a post on the class weblog.
The post should contain:
1. A brief description of your topic
2. Links to more extensive information (some of your best articles, video, etc)
3. A link to an example of how this works in the news media

The third step is to decide on what role each of you will play in the panel discussion and preparing for that. Each group must have one group member who will be part of the panel, one member who will be a moderator, and one or who will be part of the audience. The audience member will be active as well posting questions or comments in chat that will be projected onto the screen.
Moderators should develop ten questions based on the elements of journalism and post them to their weblogs while the audience and panel member work on the post for the class weblog.

Deadlines and Homework:

• Diigo topic posts (see step 3 above) are due by the time you come in tomorrow.
• The final writing for the group project must be posted to your weblog by the time you come to class on Friday. This grade is part of the project category which is 15% of your marking period grade. There are not many other grades in this category, so this will greatly impact your grade.
• Your writing portfolio (20% of your MP grade) must be posted by Sunday, April 10 at noon. Click here to see the rubric that will be used to evaluate your 1000+ word story. You must also complete one revision exercise for the story you are working on, and a reflection (see the rubric for details) to complete the portfolio.
• The Final Exam is on Friday, April 8 and will be 20% of your overall course grade. For a study guide, click here.

Tomorrow your netbooks will be collected, so make sure that you have either uploaded everything you need to your weblog, saved it ona thumb drive, or you have transfered it over to your P drive (I would recommend saving in more than one place). Anything saved to my documents will not be available to you after tomorrow.

Objectives: Students will be able to work in small groups to integrate information in presentation a topic about changes in the news media.

NJLALCCS   Speaking and Listening

Comprehension and Collaboration

1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas.

First, you will take your last news and reading quiz.

Next, we will move on to a short project examining changes in the news media.

Please begin exploring some of the online resources in your topic in the following way. Use diigo to bookmark sites that you find useful to the New Media Unit group. Many resources have been bookmarked to the New Media Unit group that you have been made a member of. If you didn’t get an e-mail, click on the link and the apply to join button.

Use the tags on the right side of the New Media diigo group page the to find the sites that relate to your topic. You can also do some searching on your own if you like. Just make sure you bookmark anything you find to this group.

For each site you bookmark please complete the following:

1. Highlight text that contains important points or quotes
2. Create a sticky note that relates this to one of the elements of journalism (write a question, statement or explanation) for a high school journalism version click here.
3. In the description box briefly explain what can be learned from this site about your topic.

For more details on how to do this, click here.

Each of you need to do this for at least two websites that are listed under your topic or that relate to it by the time you come in on tomorrow. If you are bookmarking sites that are not from the resource list, please make sure it relates directly to journalism. For example, you will get no credit for sites that focus solely on how blogging or media convergence work. It must focus on how these new technologies affect the way people get the news. Talk to your group members to ensure you aren’t bookmarking the same sites.

Here are the groups:

Personalization/Fragmentation of the News: Sam, Matt, Paul
The Growth of Grassroots or Citizen Journalism: Emily, Claudia, Brian H
Media Convergence (broadcast, print, online): Trevor,  Aurora, Peter
Making the News more Interactive:  Brian E, Nick, Tony
The Role of Blogging in Journalism: Erin, Kim, Jacqui
The Future of the News: Andrew, Mike, Jon
Social Networking and the News: Jillian, Sara, Joe

Objectives: Students will be able to research a chosen media topic in small groups.

NJLALCS Reading

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

7. Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

I left a comment on your 400 word feature story posts. Please read it, and the comments of your writers group members, before completing your story for Sunday. You should also put anything you change or add to your 400 word version in bold.

Up until this point, we have focused on the techniques and skills that writers use to report the news. While we will continue this, we will also begin to examine how the media has changed over the years, its responsibility to citizens in a democratic society, and whether it is fulfilling these responsibilities. As part of this unit, we will also look at where the news media might go in the future. Let’s start by watching a short spoof of the news media today. What points does the video make? Is this critique valid? In 1997 two journalists were concerned enough about the state of the news media to draft a statement that read in part:

This is a critical moment for journalism in America. While the craft in many respects has never been better – consider the supply of information or the skill of reporters – there is a paradox to our communications age. Revolutionary changes in technology, in our economic structure and in our relationship with the public, are pulling journalism from its traditional moorings. As audiences fragment and our companies diversify, there is a growing debate within news organizations about our responsibilities as businesses and our responsibilities as journalists. Many journalists feel a sense of lost purpose. There is even doubt about the meaning of news, doubt evident when serious journalistic organizations drift toward opinion, infotainment and sensation out of balance with the news.

Finally, we will watch a video that presents one scenario of where the news might go in the future. What are some of the problems with this proposed vision of the future? In a post on your weblog, react to the videos and the paragraph above. Do you believe the concerns expressed are justified? What role does the news and journalism play in people’s lives and a democratic society? In what ways has the news stopped fulfilling this? How do you see people getting their news in the future? The Elements of Journalism is a book that grew out of these reflections. We will use it as the basis for a project in which we examine this new media landscape.

We will examine this new media by researching, presenting, and discussing some of the ways that news is being delivered.

Possible topics for focus are:

Personalization/Fragmentation of the News - Customizing/selecting the way you get the news and the news you get.
The Growth of Grassroots or Citizen Journalism - Regular people operating as journalists or contributing original material to news outlets.
Media Convergence (broadcast, print, online) – Online stories that combine video, print, maps, slideshows, audio, etc to tell the story.
Making the News more Interactive – News outlets attempting to connect with viewers or readers to use as sources or to help make editorial decisions.
The Role of Blogging in Journalism - How bloggers shape the news through their commentary on news articles.
The Future of the News – Theories on how how we will get our news in the future. These theories need to go beyond what will be presented by the other groups.
Social Networking and the News - Getting and sharing the news through sites like Facebook and Twitter.

If you would like to have some say about which topic you will be assigned, then click on the comment link and state which of the topics listed above you are interested in working on. Briefly explain why you are interested in this topic. What do you want to learn about it? You should also list your second choice.

Deadlines and homework: A completed 750 word story, with at least 4 sources and 4 quotes, must be posted to your weblog by Sunday, April 3 at noon.

Read these pages of The Radical Write which will be included on Monday’s news and reading quiz: 37-39, 45-47, and 49-51.

Please prepare for the news questions by reviewing the bookmarked news articles in the J1Q2010 group in Diigo. Then post what you believe the most important news stories were to this forum. The news questions on the quiz will come from those mentioned in these forums. If you would like to see how smart you’ve become by following the news (compared to the general public) take this short quiz.

I will be grading out day logs over the weekend. To get full credit, you must have the following material posted to your weblog: feature story like yours, mission statement, notes from an interview/research, Power of Ledes.

Objectives: Students will be able to write a well-thought out critique of the media by responding to a video parody, video depiction of the future of news, and a book excerpt on the principles of journalism.

NJLALCCS Writing

Text Types and Purposes

2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

Assessment: Blog Post

Sorry I can’t be with you today. I’m on campus participating in a conference on school scheduling. I will be checking e-mail during the block if you have a question, and I will be in the IMC for tutorial. Please read the directions for peer reviewing carefully. You will not get full credit for just telling the author what you think.

Before you begin peer reviews, please read this document and complete the workbench at the end. This will be your mission statement for your feature. Put it in bold above the first 400 words of your feature story post.

Please use the mission statement in the peer review process. Each of you should complete two peer reviews (10 points in the writing category), so if one of your group members is absent or hasn’t posted his or her story, choose someone else in class to provide feedback to.

For this peer review I’d like you to help the writer achieve the vision he or she set for themselves in the mission statement. Tell them in what ways they have accomplished their goals and what else they still might do. In addition to this, your response must comment on at least two of the following (If they don’t have a mission statement complete three categories). Please choose two categories in which you can give detailed, constructive advice. If you have no constructive feedback to give then don’t choose that category.

The categories are:
Angle: What is the most compeling event, person, or information? What would you like to hear or see more of? How could it be handled more effectively? What additional sources might the author use?
Lead: Does the lead involve you in the story and illustrate the theme? How? Does it do more than just tell you what the story is about? Are there other types of leads that would be more effective?
Scene: Do the first 400 words contain a well defined scene? If so, what is it? Does the scene illustrate a conflict or an important aspect of the theme? Is it specific and detailed enough? What are other scenes that would help illustrate the theme? If there isn’t a scene, make a suggestion for one or two that might work.
Information: What questions would you like answered in the next 300-400 words? What do you still want to know more about?
And of course, include any other suggestions you have for improvement. Can you suggest other sources?

Deadlines and homework: Out Day logs are due at the end of the block tomorrow. These should include scene writing, mission statement, feature story like yours, Power of Ledes, and notes from interviews/research. This will be worth 30 points in the writing category.

Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school,  business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the J1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class tomorrow.

Read these pages of The Radical Write which will be included on the next news and reading quiz: 37-39, 45-47, and 49-51.  The quiz will be on Monday.

A completed 750 word story, with at least 4 sources and 4 quotes, must be posted to your weblog by Sunday, April 3 at noon.

Objectives: Students will provide feedback to two peers based on the first 400 words of their feature story.
Students will take into account peer and teacher feedback in making decisions on changes they will make in revising and completing the feature story.

LALCCS  Writing

Production and Distribution of Writing

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.

Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.

Assessment: Peer review comments

Yesterday we worked with scenes which are an important elements in any story. Please take the time to look at some of the best and choose the one you feel best caught the essence of the video and illustrated the theme. We will discuss  why you made the choices you did and what you can learn about scene writing from these examples.

Next, we will move on to developing leads. Scenes can sometimes make excellent leads. You just need to think about what you are trying to accomplish with your lead. You want to involve the reader in your story, introduce your angle (who or what you are telling it through), and connect nicely to your theme.

There is no one way to do this, but there are some that are more effective than others. Your textbook, The Radical Write, provides you with numerous tips and examples (from high school newspapers) for doing this, and I encourage you to go back to these pages as you work on developing your lead (see pages 12,13,15,20,33,55).

Next, let’s go to Poynter again for tips from the professionals.
Read the advice and then click on II. Award-winning leads in the Brown Bag box.

Next, review this handout and discuss with your writers group what might be the best type of lead to illustrate the theme of your feature story.

In a post (title it the Power of Ledes), please include the following:
1. The best piece of advice you read on writing leads along with the one you liked best from the award winners.
2. Describe the suggestions that each writers group member gave you. Then discuss what you think will work best (based on The Power of Ledes, The Radical Write, and the handout).
3. Write an effective lead and nutgraph for your feature story.

This will be worth 10 of your  Out Day points which are in the Writing category. The rest of the block is yours to work on your story.

Homework: For each out day (yesterday, Wednesday, and today) you should have a post that demonstrates what you accomplished. This must include the notes from an interview, internet research, and the completed out day assignments or activities (information & narrative features, feature story like yours, scene writing, and today’s post). These will be worth 30 points and are due by the time you come in on Friday.

You will need to post a 400 word feature story with two sources by the time you come in on tomorrow. Not all sources need to be people, but you do need at least two direct quotes from an interview. You should not be taking quotes from other news articles.

Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school,  business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the J1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class on Friday.

Read these pages of The Radical Write which will be included on the next news and reading quiz. 37-39,45-47, and 49-51.

A completed 750 word story, with at least 4 sources and 4 quotes, must be posted to your weblog by Sunday, April 3 at noon.

Objective: Students will be able to identify and write an effective lede (opening) for a feature story.

NLALCCS  WRITING

Text Types and Purposes

3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation and its significance, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.

Production and Distribution of Writing

5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.

Assessment: Power of Ledes Post

Scenes are the building blocks of stories, and therefore an important technique to use in feature writing. Remember, you are writing stories NOT essays. Today, we will spend some time discussing how to gather the details you need to write a scene and then practicing how to write one.

The scene we will write will illustrate the following theme: 

Like Mr. Eric Wasserman, some of the best teachers at Hunterdon Central use humor to engage their students.

Now if you were writing a feature story on this, you would want to observe one of his classes so that you could show your readers what this is about. If you weren’t able to do this, you would have to dig for details from someone who was there so that you could recreate it.

Luckily for us, there is a video of Mr. Wasserman on youtube.

In your post for the day (titled “showing and telling), begin with the theme (stated above) in bold at the top, and then work with the video in two ways: first tell what happened and then recreate it in a well crafted scene.

After you’ve written a very brief paragraph telling what happened, read this handout for help on how to create an effective scene. Use this information to write a scene that recreates at least a part of the video and that includes dialogue. Try to build suspense into your scene, and of course, illustrate the sense of humor of Mr. Wasserman.

Finally, discuss the topic you are covering for your feature story with your writers group members. Get suggestions on the potential scenes for your story. Then, in your post, briefly describe a scene you hope to be able to incorporate in your story. What do you plan to do in the reporting process to be able to get the details needed to develop this scene?

Homework and Deadlines: For each out day (today, tomorrow, and Friday) you should have a post that demonstrates what you accomplished. This might include the notes from an interview, internet research, or any of the completed out day assignments or activities ( feature story like yours, scene writing, mission statement, etc)

Continue to keep up on the news and do research for your topic.

The first 400 words of your feature story is due when you come in on Thursday (minimum of 2 sources and 2 quotes).

Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school,  business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the J1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class on Friday.

Read these pages of The Radical Write which will be included on Monday’s news and reading quiz: 37-39, 45-47, and 49-51.

A completed 750 word story, with at least 4 sources and 4 quotes, must be posted to your weblog by Sunday, April 3 at noon.

Objective: Students will be able to write an effective scene based on a short video.

NJLACCS Writing

3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.

Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.

Your most important task today is to get some interviews or research completed. Please post notes from your interviews or research as you complete them. Your logs (blog posts) on these out days should document the work you are doing towards your feature stories. Part of this work is the activities that are assigned each day. These will be graded at the end of the week.

So, if you aren’t heading out on interviews, please complete the following now. If you are interviewing, complete this as soon as possible:
Please see what has been written on your topic already (you might have to generalize a bit). You can do this by searching GoogleNews, Topix, or the school newspapers linked to the right. 
Once you find a similar feature story, create a link to it in a post on your weblog, analyze and evaluate it:

• List the sources used.
• What was the most interesting information?
• What was the angle (person or event that the story focuses on or tells the story through)? Did you find this effective? Why or why not?
• Does it contain dramatic elements: scenes, anecdotes, dialog, characters in action or conflict? Did these elements help involve you in the topic? Explain how or why?
• In what ways will you do something similar in writing your story? How might you approach your article differently?

Please also include in your post, an update on your reporting process (Who have you e-mailed? What meetings do you have scheduled? Who have you interviewed? What written sources have you gathered?) Like Friday’s post, this will be graded at the end of next week, as part of your Out Day Logs.

Other Deadlines: Tomorrow and Wednesday are out days, so please schedule your interviews for these days time if possible. The first 400 words of your feature story is due when you come in on Thursday (minimum of 2 sources and 2 quotes).

Friday will also be an out days for additional interviews.  A completed 750 word story, with at least 4 sources and 4 quotes, must be posted to your weblog by Sunday, April 3 at noon.

Objectives: Students will be able to analyze and evaluate a published feature story on a similar topic to the one they are working on.

NJLALCCS Reading

Literature

Key Ideas and Details

2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

3. Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story.

Informational Text

2. Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.

3. Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

Make sure your 500 word profile story is posted to your weblog. It should be in a new post with anything you changed or added in bold.

As I’ve mentioned before, feature stories involve information and story telling. Although you can be more creative in the way you cover a topic in a feature (as opposed to hard news), there are still some basic elements that need to be covered.

First, it must have news value. What are you telling readers that they don’t already know? What are the major news questions (5W and H) your story answers for the reader?

Second, you must have an angle and theme and this must be presented early in your story – preferably in the lead and nutgraph. In it’s most basic form this addresses what your story is about and who (or what) you will tell it through. How can you humanize this statistic or fact? How can you put a face on it? How can you show the impact of this change or decision on people? Because in the end all feature stories are about people. Even informational or news features read very differently than research papers.

Within this basic framework, you have some freedom. Your feature story might be more of an informational feature like this one, or it might be more of a narrative feature like this. Please read both and examine the differences. Your story will probably fall somewhere in between.

After we finish our discussion of informational and narrative feature stories, please create a post on your weblog in which you discuss the following:

• What is the difference between an informational and narrative feature? Use examples from each story to illustrate your points.
• Which did you like better? Why? Which do you see your story being closer to? Why?
• What are some elements of narrative that you might include in your feature? Informational elements? How might you gather these elements.

Most importantly, set up interviews for next week. You may leave class on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to conduct interviews. Please copy me on e-mails you send out to staff members. The first 400 words of your feature story (with at least two sources and two direct quotes) will be due when you come in on Thursday.

Homework and Deadlines:

Read chapter 3 of The Radical Write by the time you come in on Monday. Material from this chapter and chapter 2 will be on the next quiz along with news posted to the J1Q32011 diigo group. Don’t ignore the Showcases and other student examples from the Radical Write. There will be at least one question that focuses on them.

Objectives: Students will be able to identify the elements and differences between an informational and narrative feature.

NJLALCCS Reading

Craft and Structure

2. Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.

5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.

Assessment: Blog Post

The first, and one of the most important steps, is choosing a topic. One that you are interested in, has news value, and that readers will be interested in as well. I will be collecting your story idea sheets. If the topic you want to report on is one of the four new ideas on the sheet please indicate that in some way. If it’s not, write the topic at the top of the sheet. Remember, you can’t write a story about a family member or a sport/ activity that you participate in.

If you are still struggling to find a topic, review this sheet from the beginning of the year, or check out more of what other school newspapers are covering by clicking on the links to the right. Studies like those published on this site, can also be a great source for feature story topics. And while features can’t contain the opinion of the reporter, sites like this one, which feature topics students care about might help you come up with a topic as well. Utilize your social network to find story ideas your friends and followers might want to read, and check out the HC Journalism 1 Facebook group. Finally, check out this post from the University of Vermont on 40 great news and feature ideas. And if all that fails, there is this list of used story ideas that have been compiled from your story idea sheets.

I will be calling each of you up to talk about your story idea, but before I do, please explore your story, by talking to the members of your writers group and then creating a post on your weblog.

1. Talk to each member of your writers group. Ask them what they already know about your topic and what they would like to learn. Ask for suggestions for sources and possible angles. Take notes on what they tell you.
2. Create a post on your weblog that includes the following:

• Describe the feedback you received from your writers group.
• Describe what your story is about in one sentence
• Explain why students in this school or teens would want to read about this. What will they learn that they didn’t already know? How might this topic engage readers on either an emotional or intellectual level?
• Who might you tell this story through. You don’t need to have a specific person in mind at this point, just the type of person.
• List the sources you plan on contacting for this story.

Once your topic has been approved, read these reporting guidelines throughly and send out e-mails to set up your interviews.

You should also work on one of the deadlines for tomorrow:

A complete profile story of at least 500 words (3 direct quotes) on either Mrs. Bousum or Ms. Braddee will be due by the time you come to class on Friday.

Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school,  business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the J1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class tomorrow

Read chapter 2 of The Radical Write by the time you come in tomorrow. Material from this chapter will be on the next quiz. Bring the book with you to class. The next news and reading quiz will be on Monday.

Students will be able to develop a topic for feature writing.

NJLALCCS Reading

Key Ideas and Details

3. Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

Assessment: Blog Post

This week you will begin working on a feature story. As you prepare to choose a feature story topic, it’s important to explore the question: What makes a good feature story?
To help with this, you will receive a textbook called The Radical Write which focuses primarily on scholastic feature writing. It is full of examples (both good and bad) from high school newspapers. We will read the first page together. Then read chapter 2 on your own and take some time to explore the links of feature stories displayed on the online high school newspaper sites to the right.
Make a list in a post on your weblog (title it “School Features”) that consists of at least five story topics covered in at least two of these papers and then create a hyperlink to the one story you found most interesting.
One of these newspapers can be a college newspaper if you prefer. To find a college newspaper click here, then click on the state of the school you are interested in or plan on attending, and see if there is a link to that school. If not, choose another school.

Once you have your list, briefly discuss the topics that you most want to read about and why?
What “qualities of news” do they contain?
What conclusions can you draw about what makes a good feature story idea?
How might you be able to localize any of these story ideas (apply them to the Hunterdon Central community)?
For the one story you linked to:
Read and summarize the story.
Briefly review it, describing what you liked or didn’t like.
How might you have covered this story differently?

Homework:complete story idea sheet will be due when you come in tomorrow. Here is the final list of topics that can no longer be used.

Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school,  business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the J1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class on Friday.

Please read chapter 2 of The Radical Write. There will be a news and reading quiz on Friday.

A complete profile story of at least 500 words (3 direct quotes) on either Mrs. Bousum or Ms. Braddee will be due by the time you come to class on Friday.

Objective: Students will analyze and evaluate feature stories from student publications to draw conclusions on what makes a quality news or feature article.

NJLALCCS 3.1 READING

H. Informational Text

9. Read and compare at least two works, including books, related to the same genre, topic, or subject and produce evidence of reading (e.g., compare central ideas, characters, themes, plots, settings) to determine how authors reach similar or different conclusions.

Assessment: Blog post

First, you will take a short news quiz.

Next, we will talk briefly about feature stories and feature story ideas.

A feature takes an in-depth look at what’s going on behind the news. (from Beth Ryan, SNN News)

• It gets into the lives of people. All feature stories focus on people. Profiles are a type of feature.
• It tries to explain why and how a trend developed.
• It explores the impact of events, changes, or trends on people.
• Unlike news, a feature does not have to be tied to a current event or a breaking story. But it can grow out of something that’s reported in the news.

Your last (and most extensive) story in here will be a feature. Start thinking about what you might want to cover. Check out the HC Journalism 1 Facebook page for ideas, listen to what your friends are talking about. We will explore this some more tomorrow, and you will need to choose a feature topic by the time you come in on Thursday.
The rest of the block is yours to work on your profile of Mrs. Braddee.

A 200 word profile on Mrs. Braddee must be uploaded to your weblog by the time you come to class tomorrow. Please use the textbook handout on profiles, the rubric, and your feature leads handout as guides as you write. I’ll be circulating through the class if you want help or feedback. Do not start with your theme or nutgraph!

Other homework and deadlines: You will need to complete another story idea sheet by the time you come in on Thursday.

A complete profile story of at least 500 words (3 direct quotes) on either Mrs. Bousum or Ms. Braddee will be due by the time you come to class on Friday.

Objectives: Students will be able to develop a theme for a profile story from material gathered in the reporting process. Students will be able to write the beginning of a profile story.

NJLALCCS Writing

2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

Develop the topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic.

Assessment: short profile story

As you know, you will be interviewing Ms. Braddee today. She will be coming in around 1:00.
Prepare for the interview by writing your questions and topics in a notebook.
During the interview – ask good questions and take detailed notes. Keep in mind the material you need to emerge with (quotes, info, anecdotes, illustrative examples). Don’t be afraid to stray from your list of questions. I also encourage you to ask her to repeat anything you didn’t quite get or understand. When a theme begins to emerge for you, work to get details and anecdotes that might be important for telling the story.
After the interview - Look over your notes from the interview and develop a theme sentence. This sentence should express your focus for your article not just a topic. Post this to your weblog and follow it with notes, descriptions, anecdotes and quotes that relate to it. (7 points in writing category)

There will be a quiz tomorrow on the news from the last few days. To help determine what’s on the quiz, please review the bookmarked news articles in the Jour1Q32011 group in Diigo. Then post what you believe the most important news stories were to this forum. The news questions on the quiz will come from those mentioned in these forums (if enough of you do it).

Homework and Deadlines: Complete the profile theme and notes post by the time you come in tomorrow(above). A 200 word profile on Ms. Braddee will be due by the time you come in Wednesday. Please use the textbook handout on profiles, the rubric, and your feature leads handout as guides as you write.

You will need to complete another story idea sheet by the time you come in on Thursday.

A complete profile story of at least 500 words (3 direct quotes) on either Mrs. Bousum or Ms. Braddee will be due by the time you come to class on Friday.

Objectives: Students will employ interview questioning strategies to elicit material for a profile piece on the subject.

Students will listen attentively and actively
Students will take notes to gather material for writing.

NJLALCCS Speaking and Listening

Comprehension and Collaboration

Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence
Assessment: Blog post on theme and notes. Short profile story.

If you haven’t done so already, please post your 200 word profile on Mrs. Bousum.

Today, we will focus on interviewing by taking a short NewsU  course on the subject.  When we are finished, please address the following in a post on your weblog:

• What did you learn about interviewing in this course and how might you use it?
• If you could interview Mrs. Bousum again, what would you ask her or what other material would you want to get?
• How can you prepare for your interview with Ms. Nancy Braddee (formerly Pinner) to get better material for writing a profile story?
• Develop ten questions for Monday’s interview

Other Homework and Deadlines: Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school,  business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the J1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class on Monday.

Objectives: Students will be able to identify techniques and practices for more successful interviewing.

Students will listen attentively and actively
Students will take notes to gather material for writing.

NJLALCCS Speaking and Listening

Comprehension and Collaboration

Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence
Assessment: Blog post on theme and notes. Short profile story.

First, we will read through an essay by Chip Scanlan from the Poynter Institute about thinking about stories. We will apply his ideas and experiences to the profile stories you will be writing: Now that you have your theme, do you have the material you need to tell the story? What information, quotes, details, and anecdotes might you still need to answer the reader’s questions and make your story a memorable one that attempts to “transform information into an exceedingly more valuable commodity – knowledge?”

A 200 word profile on Mrs. Bousum must be uploaded to your weblog by 11:00 a.m. tomorrow. Please use the textbook handout on profiles, the rubric, and your feature leads handout as guides as you write. I’ll be circulating through the class if you want help or feedback. Do not start with your theme or nutgraph!  Here are my interview notes if you need them.

Other homework and deadlines: On Monday, Nancy Braddee (formerly Pinner) will be coming in to be interviewed. She is the school nurse and has spent time in Haiti and Guatemala working with various aid organizations. Please do some research on her and develop ten questions using the GOAL method. Post these to your weblog before you come to class on Monday.

Objective: Students will be able to develop a theme for a profile story from material gathered in the reporting process. Students will be able to write the beginning of a profile story.

NJLALCCS Writing

2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

Develop the topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic.

Assessment: short profile story

After the quiz, we will watch a short video about profile writing from a wonderful resource called the YouTube Reporters’ Center.

As you know, you will be interviewing Mrs. Bousum today. She will be coming in around 1:o0.
Prepare for the interview by writing your questions and topics in a notebook.
During the interview – ask good questions and take detailed notes. Keep in mind the material you need to emerge with (quotes, info, anecdotes, illustrative examples). Don’t be afraid to stray from your list of questions. I also encourage you to ask her to repeat anything you didn’t quite get or understand. Get names and details for information or anecdotes that might be important to your theme. Remember the advice from the video: look to gather material around areas of conflict, transformation, and urgency/relevancy.
After the interview - Look over your notes from the interview and develop a theme sentence. This sentence should express your focus for your article not just a topic. Post this to your weblog and follow it with notes, descriptions, anecdotes and quotes that relate to it. (7 points in writing category)

Homework and Deadlines: Complete the profile theme and notes post(above) by the time you come in tomorrow.

A 200 word profile on Mrs. Bousum will be due by the time you come in on Friday. We will work on this in class tomorrow. Please use the textbook handout on profiles, the rubric, and your feature leads handout as guides as you write.

Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school,  business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the J1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class on Monday.

Objectives: Students will employ interview questioning strategies to elicit material for a profile piece on the subject.

Students will listen attentively and actively
Students will take notes to gather material for writing.

NJLALCCS Speaking and Listening

Comprehension and Collaboration

Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence
Assessment: Blog post on theme and notes. Short profile story.

Now that you have read and analyzed profile stories, I would like you to get some practice writing a profile story in a group before you do it yourself this week. The brief story you write will be based on an excerpt from an NPR piece on two sisters – Assia and Iman Boundaoui - who grew up outside Chicago, “their lives straddling what it is to be Muslim and American.”

Take good notes and then make decisions on how to use your material in a focused way. Look over this handout, on writing the profile, the textbook handout from last week, and this one on feature leads. Try to include descriptions along with dialogue and quotes that work to illustrate the theme which is expressed in the bolded material above. One person in the group should post the story on his or her weblog listing all group member’s names in the title. It should be a minimum of 100 words in length, begin with an effective lead, include a nutgraph and theme, and contain at least one quote that is introduced and punctuated correctly.

Here again are the writers groups:

Erin, Kim, Andrew
Sara, Emily, Matt
Sam, Claudia, Aurora
Mike, Tony, Jon
Paul, Jacqui, Trevor
Joe, Brian H, Nick
Jillian, Peter, Brian E

Homework and Deadlines: Develop ten questions using the GOAL method for our interview with Mrs. Bousum tomorrow.

Please review the bookmarked news articles in the Jour1Q32011 group in Diigo. Then post what you believe the most important news stories were to this forum. The news questions on the quiz will come from those mentioned in these forums (if enough of you do it).

There will be a news quiz tomorrow that will include questions from your handout on Profile Stories.

Objective: Students will be able to write a short profile collaboratively by taking notes and making decisions based on the elements of a profile story.
NJLALCCS Writing

3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation and its significance, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.

Speaking and Listening

Comprehension and Collaboration

Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision-making, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed.

Now that we have finished working on hard news, we will begin to move on to what is known as soft news. Soft news isn’t necessarily less important, it just isn’t as timely. It doesn’t matter as much when soft news (or features) run, and often these stories contain an element of human interest. This week we will be focusing on a type of feature story known as the profile.
To begin this unit, I would like to have you study one of the best, Michael Vitez of the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who has interacted with the class before. Read some of his work, from from his 2006 book Rocky Stories (Choose from “Women Weaken Legs,” “Anchorwoman,” or “He Carried Her Purse”).
As you study Mr. Vitez’s work, identify some of the basic elements of a a profile (or any feature). These include:
Nutgraph - a paragraph that states why this person is newsworthy. It answers the question “so what?” and often includes the theme.
Theme – one line that sums the person up – what makes them tick. Obviously, one line can’t sum up a person’s life, but it can sum up the aspect that the author is presenting. This will determine the focus for the rest of the story. Most of the material in the article can be tied back to this. Often the themes in profile stories are similar to fiction: love conquers all, perserverance is the key to success, overcoming adveristy, the importance of family or values, successful relationships require sacrifice, etc.
Observation – Details the author observed that supports the theme.
Scene- A detailed re-creation of something that happened (think movie scene).
Showing them in action – description of an ordinary (or extraordinary) day for the subject at work, practice, home, activity that illustrates or supports the theme.
Next, read over this post he left in response to student questions in 2006. What did you learn about reporting, writing, and developing story ideas from the articles and his interaction with the class? Copy and paste two pieces of advice you liked or found helpful into a post on your weblog. Explain why you liked them and what you learned through reading the online discussion and the Rocky Stories article. Title your post Rocky Stories. This is worth 6 points in Reading category

Homework and Deadlines: A completed story of 450-600 words should be posted to your weblog. Please review the rubric to see the criteria you must meet. You will receive a rubric on your other hard news story today. If you need to make any changes based on this, please do so, by editing it tonight.

Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school, business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the Journ1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class on Tuesday. News articles you bookmark shouldn’t be older than March 10. I have set up a Facebook Fan page that you can use as a tool for finding news and story ideas. To find the page, search on “HC Journalism 1 News” in Facebook.  If 20 people “like” it, I can put a box on this weblog like I did with The Lamp Facebook page, so it will be easier to find.

On Thursday, there will be a quiz on the news and material from the profile stories handout.

Objectives: Students will be able to identify the elements of a profile story in published articles. Students will evaluate an author’s choices in his published pieces through an online discussion.

Please post the first five paragraphs of your original hard news story if you haven’t done so already. I will be handing completed rubrics on your mock hard news story to some of you, and I will be sending the rest to you through your school e-mail account. Please look at what you had trouble with last time and make sure you understand how to improve this time around. If you need help or want me to look at something, please e-mail me over the weekend.

Starting next week, we will be moving to a very different style of news writing. To begin, please read the handout which is a chapter from a journalism textbook on profile writing. Then read this profile about a high school principal or this one about a student who works three jobs. Both were from a series called Reality High. For this series a newspaper in California spent a year at a high school and wrote feature stories about the people and issues they encountered.

Once you’ve read one of these stories, please create a post on your site that analyzes it in the following way:

What type of lead does the author employ (use this handout for categories)? Is it effective? Why or why not?
Identify the nutgraph of the story. What paragraph does this appear in?
What is the theme of the story? What quotes, details or anecdotes support this theme? How many sources are used?
How is the story organized? Is it effective (does the author anticipate the reader’s needs)? Are all of your questions (that relate to the theme) answered as they occur to you? What questions do you still have?
Finally, discuss how you might use similar techniques in writing a profile story on a staff member. (What type of material will you try to gather and how will you use it?)

This assignment is worth 8 points in the reading category.

Deadlines: A completed story of 450-600 words with at least two sources  must be posted by the time you come in on Monday. Please review the rubric to see the criteria you must meet.

Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school, business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the Journ1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class on Tuesday. News articles you bookmark shouldn’t be older than Yesterday (March 10). If we set up a Facebook group or page, we might be doing this a little differently.

Objectives: Students will be able to identify the elements of a profile story in a published work. Students will be able to analyze an author’s choices in a profile story.

NJCCS Writing

Craft and Structure

2. Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.

3. Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

After you take a short news quiz, the rest of the block will be yours to work on your original hard news story which is due by the time you come in tomorrow. But first, please post a sampling of some of your best notes (info, observation, quotes) to your weblog before you begin. Make it clear who the source is for all of the notes you post.

Be sure to make use of the following resources, as you write:

• This organizer that we used when working on the mock hostage story
• The Elements of a Basic News Story Handout
• This Inverted Pyramid checklist
• This rubric that will be used to evaluate our story

I will be meeting with each one of you during the block to see how you’re doing, to answer any questions, or to provide feedback. If you feel you need more help, please stay for tutorial.

Tomorrow, we will be meeting in the IMC to get your netbooks updated.

Homework and Deadlines: Your completed hard news story (450+ words, 2 sources, 2 direct quotes) must be posted to your weblog by the time you come to class tomorrow.

Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school, business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the Journ1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class on Tuessday. News articles you bookmark shouldn’t be older than today (March 10).

Objective: Students will write a hard news story on a topic of their choosing in inverted pyramid style.

LALCCS Writing
Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole;

First, I would like to follow up on yesterday’s Facebook activity with an example I heard on NPR a few weeks ago.

In a post on your weblog, answer the following questions:

• How did NPR use this post on their Facebook page to report and develop this story?
• How might you do something similar?
• What are other ways you’ve thought of using social media in this class? Should we start a group to gather, share, and post the news that could possibly replace our Diigo group?

As you can see, NPR reaches out to their audience through social media a little more than many other news organizations. Recently they used questions posted on their Facebook page in their interview with the president, but their most dramatic use of social media has occurred through Senior Strategist, Andy Carvin’s use of Twitter to broadcast news of the protests in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.  He talks about some of his work on Twitter here. And he attempts to organize some of the information he is tweeting and re-tweeting through the use of Storify.

I would recommend that you “like” NPR’s their fan page as well.  And for a look at a really creative way to use Facebook as news, see this Washington Post story constructed out of Facebook updates.

After we conclude our discussion of Social Media, the rest of the block is yours to meet the deadlines for the week. Please use your time wisely.

Homework and Deadlines: Please review the bookmarked news articles in the Jour1Q32011 group in Diigo. Then post what you believe the most important news stories were to this forum. The news questions on the quiz will come from those mentioned in these forums.

There will be a quiz tomorrow on the top news stories from the last few days.

You will need to complete another story idea sheet by the time you come in tomorrow. Here is the list of topics that can no longer be used.

Notes from your reporting on a hard news story should be posted to your weblog by the time you come in tomorrow.

The completed original hard news story will be due on Friday. It must contain a minimum of 2 direct quotes and 2 sources and be 450-600 words in length. Please review this rubric.

Objective: Students will be able to identify the way news organization are utilizing  social media

Since all of you seem to have a Facebook page, and check it regularly in this class, I’m going to ask you to start using it for good instead of evil.

Social media has become a force in journalism in the last few years as newspapers look for new ways to connect with their readers. We will study this further in our final project in this course, but for now, I would like to get you thinking about how you can use Facebook to find story ideas, sources, and an audience for your work.

First, please read this post, by a former Journalism 1 student who is now studying communications at the University of Maryland.

Next, I would like all of you to start getting your news through Facebook. Use this list of Top Newspapers on Facebook.  Choose three of them to “like”. Make sure the Star Ledger is one of them. For your fourth feed, please “like” CNN which is not on this list (use the link). If you prefer Twitter, you can find a similar list here. For tech news, I would also recommend Mashable, but you can choose any one of the other Facebook news fan pages as your fifth feed.  At the very least, make sure you like five of these pages with one of them being CNN and one the Star Ledger.
In addition to these, I encourage you to like The Pew Research Center which can be a good source for story ideas,  The Lamp Fan Page, and the Garden State Scholastic Press Association Fan Page for connecting you with the editors of the school newspaper and students and advisers of New Jersey’s Student Press Association.

Alternately, we can create a group for our class that would have all of these resources in one place. We can talk tomorrow about whether you would want to do this.

Once you complete all of this, review some of the material on these fan pages, and then in a post on your weblog respond to the following:

• What value does Facebook and other social media have for the student journalist?
• How might you use it to better develop story ideas, find sources, report and gather feedback, and find an audience for your writing? Draw on what you’ve read and seen, and your own thoughts and observations to answer this question.

This post is worth 5 points in the reading category. To get full credit for this post, it should be obvious that you read the post by Anna (former Journalism 1 student, currently at Maryland) .

Homework and Deadlines: I will still be asking you to diigo five stories, but now you can find those stories in your Facebook news feed as well as in Bloglines. Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school,  business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the Journ1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to tomorrow. News articles you bookmark shouldn’t be older than Saturday.

You will need to complete another story idea sheet by the time you come in Thursday.

Notes from your reporting on a hard news story should be posted to your weblog by the time you come in on Thursday.

The completed original hard news story will be due on Friday. It must contain a minimum of 2 direct quotes and 2 sources and be 450-600 words in length. Please review this rubric.

Congratulations on completing your first news story!

Next, I’m going to ask you to complete a reflection on the writing and reporting process. This will count for 10 of the 50 points you will earn on your hard news story.
Please do this by leaving a comment on this post (login first). I will be reading these comments, but not publishing them, so I’m the only one who will be able to see them. Please address the following questions in your reflection:
What did you find the most difficult?
What did you learn through the feedback you were given and/or by reading the articles of your peers? Was the feedback helpful?
What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again?
What do you feel you need more practice/help with? How can you use what you learned from this process in reporting and writing the hard news story you will work on this week?

As you know, today and tomorrow you may leave class during this block if your sources are free. If you have set something up for this block, please forward the e-mail to me. If you already have completed your interviews, please provide a sampling of your notes that include info, observations, and quotes. This post counts as 10 of the 50 points on the rubric.

Homework and Deadlines: Notes from your reporting on a hard news story should be posted to your weblog by the time you come in on Thursday. The completed original hard news story will be due on Friday. It must contain a minimum of 2 direct quotes and 2 sources and be 450-600 words in length. Please review this rubric.

Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school, business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the Journ1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class on Wednesday. News articles you bookmark shouldn’t be older than Saturday.

Complete another story idea sheet by the time you come in on Thursday.

Objectives: Students will be able to reflect on the reporting and writing process and set goals for improvement.

NJ LCCS Writing

Production and Distribution of Writing

4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.

6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.

After today’s quiz, I would like you to work with this hard news story. I’ve taken the paragraphs and rearranged them. Please arrange them in what you feel is the proper order following Inverted Pyramid style. Do this by copying and pasting them into a post on your weblog. The objective is to get you more familiar with inverted pyramid structure and to focus on what the reader wants to know next.  Hopefully this will help you as you make decisions as you write your mock hostage story and your original hard news story after that.

After we discuss the Bear Hunt story you rearranged and the best order for the mock hostage story, the rest of the block is yours to work on one of the following:

Work on completing 450-600 word hard news story on the mock hostage situation. Please click here to see the criteria you will be graded on. Please post this to your weblog by the time you come to class on Monday. We will do the reflection (10 points) in class.

Setting up interviews for Monday or Tuesday for your original hard news story. Please copy me on any e-mail you send out that will involve you leaving class. The story will be due next Friday.

Finally, 48 Hours Mystery ran a story on Adam Leroy Lane, part of which was the Bloomsbury murder story I wrote in 2007 and that you analyzed last week. You can watch it by clicking here.

Due to testing, we don’t have much time today.

• Please review the bookmarked news articles in the Jour1Q32011 group in Diigo. Then post what you believe the most important news stories were to this forum. The news questions on tomorrow’s  quiz will come from those mentioned in these forums.
• Send out e-mails to any sources you’ll need to interview for your original hard news story. You may leave this class tomorrow, Monday, or Tuesday to complete these interviews. You are responsible to complete any work you missed while you were out. Please copy me on any e-mails you send. I will be confirming your hard news topic and sources today.
• If Jacqui and Brian have an ice breaker/name game for us, we can use that to get to know one another a little better.

Homework and Deadlines: Complete your hard news story to 450-600 words by the time you come in on Monday. I will be leaving a comment on each of your stories. Read my comment and those of your peers and address them by making changes or additions necessary. Put anything you add or change from the 250 word version in bold. Create a new post, don’t just change the old one.  Be sure to review this rubric. The last 10 points of the rubric is a reflection that will be completed in class on Monday.

Your original hard news story will be due next Friday. It must contain a minimum of 2 direct quotes and 2 sources and be 450-600 words in length. Please review this rubric.

There will be a quiz tomorrow on the top news stories.

A new story idea sheet is due tomorrow. These are the topics that can no longer be used.

I would like you to complete peer reviews on the hard news stories of two of the members of your writers group I have just set up. Please do this through the comment link at the top of the hard news post you are reviewing.
Read the hard news story of one of the members of your group and provide feedback in each of the following categories. Use the questions associated with each as a guide, but you must answer the ones in bold. Please work hard to provide specific, detailed and useful feedback. You will be graded on the quality of your feedback.
LEAD AND BACKUP: Does the story begin with one long sentence that answers most of the 5Ws and H without going into detail? What questions are left unanswered? Are they answered in the second paragraph? Are more details provided (names, more specific places, times)? What questions do you still have after the first two paragraphs or what do you most want to know? How could this section be improved?
LEAD QUOTE: Does the author present a good quote by the fifth paragraph? Does it help answer one of the questions you have as a reader or does it address one of the major concerns many readers might have (safety, effectiveness of school security, teen violence). Are full quotes used and are they introduced, punctuated, and attributed correctly? How might this section be improved?
ORGANIZATION: Does the story answer questions as they occur to the reader? Are all of the important questions answered in the first five paragraphs? As a reader, what do you most want to know next (after first five paragraphs)? Answer first as a student in the school and next as a parent. What material would you suggest be moved higher in the story?
BACKGROUND/IMPACT: Is background and/or impact provided somewhere in the story? Where might this be added or improved upon?
ATTRIBUTION and ACCURACY: Is all of the information, that is not common knowledge or observed by the reporter, properly attributed? Is it correct and are the names spelled correctly? Where should attribution be added or corrections be made? Are there any instances where the writer’s opinion is present?

Once you have finished this process and posted your comment, please peer review another writers group member’s hard news story. Do a good job on this. Completing two peer reviews fully is worth 12 points in the writing category. These are your first grades in this category which is worth 35% of your marking period grade.
The writers groups (for now) are:
Erin, Kim, Andrew
Sara, Emily, Matt
Sam, Claudia, Aurora
Mike, Tony, Jon
Paul, Jacqui, Trevor
Joe, Brian H, Nick
Jillian, Peter, Brian E

Homework: Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school, business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the Journ1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class on Thursday. News articles you bookmark shouldn’t be older than Saturday.

Complete another story idea sheet by the time you come in on Friday. Please indicate on this sheet what you are covering for your hard news story.

You will be required to post some of the notes from your reporting by this Friday. Possibilities for hard news material include tonight’s Board of Education meeting,  sporting events, township meetings in Raritan, Readington, Delaware, charity events, and clubs (if they are doing something).  If you have other ideas, please clear them with me. There has to be newsworthy information you will be able to report through your story (something is happening, will happen, or is being announced). The morning announcements, Central’s Facebook Page, and  local news can also be a good source of potential hard news story ideas. I will be meeting with each one of you to find out what you are covering.

Objectives: Students will be able to provide one another with effective feedback based on criteria outlined in the “Elements of a Basic News Story”

LALCCS  Writing

Production and Distribution of Writing

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.

Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.

Today we will begin writing the mock hostage hard news story. Use the “Elements of the Basic News Story” handout to apply the structure you learned through your analysis exercise. This organizer and this checklist may help you get started. Complete the first five paragraphs of the story by tomorrow. Remember, paragraphs in a hard news story are short. Your first paragraph should only be one sentence and subsequent paragraphs are usually three sentences or less.  These paragraphs must contain at least one direct quote, so you can (and probably should) copy and paste an intro and quote from yesterday’s assignment into your story. That will count as one of the paragraphs too!

Other Deadlines and Homework:Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school, business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the Journ1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class on Thursday. News articles you bookmark shouldn’t be older than Saturday.

Complete another story idea sheet by the time you come in on Friday. Please indicate on this sheet what you are covering for your hard news story.

You will be required to post some of the notes from your reporting by this Friday. Possibilities for hard news material include tonight’s Board of Education meeting,  sporting events, township meetings in Raritan, Readington, Delaware, charity events, and clubs (if they are doing something).  If you have other ideas, please clear them with me. There has to be newsworthy information you will be able to report through your story (something is happening, will happen, or is being announced). The morning announcements, Central’s Facebook Page, and  local news can also be a good source of potential hard news story ideas.

Objectives: Students will be able to write a hard news story in inverted pyramid style.

Students will be able to recognize and evaluate appropriate topics for news writing that will be of interest to a school community audience.
LALCCS Writing
Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole;

Assessments: Hard News Story, Peer Review, Revision and Reflection.

After the quiz, we will work on handling quotes and writing the mock news story.
One important difference in writing in journalistic style is the way you handle quotes. Learning to do this now, will help you throughout this course. You will be expected to demonstrate mastery of this skill in every story you write and will be tested on it on the final exam.
Completing this exercise, will help you practice how to apply the guidelines in the handout.
Once you learn this skill, please post five quotes from the news conference to your weblog. Use the techniques you learned from the exercise and the handling quotes handout, to properly introduce, punctuate, and attribute each one. Click here for the statement that the vice principal read at the beginning of the news conference, and here for some quotes that your classmates shared. Whatever you don’t complete in the time allotted will be homework. This is worth 10 points in the writing category.

If time permits, we will begin writing the story. This organizer will help you get started.

Homework: By next Friday (a week from today), you should have posted the notes from an event you are covering for your hard news story. See yesterday’s post for some ideas and options. You should also check the morning announcements.

Finish editing your quotes from the mock hostage story so that each one is introduced (a complete sentence that introduces the speaker and idea in the quote that will follow), punctuated, and attributed correctly.

Objectives: Students will be able to gather material through the interview process for a hard news story.
Students will be able to listen attentively and critically and take thorough notes.
Students will be able to differentiate between essential and non-essential information and identify material that should be directly quoted.

NJLALCCS – Speaking & Listening

Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives.

Assessments: Discussion, Blog post, Hard News Story

We will complete the news conference from yesterday. Before we get started again, please take a look at your notes. Do you have what you need to write the story and answer all the questions your readers might have?

• Can you answer the 5 W and H in very specific detail?
• Do you have the material you need to fulfill the elements of a basic news story (lead & backup, lead quote, background, impact, attribution)

You will also need at least five direct quotes. After we finish, I will be asking you to post five direct quotes to your weblog. These should be full sentence quotes with attribution (who said them along with his or her position or job title). Learning how to handle quotes is an important skill that you will be expected to master. News stories are built on good quotes, so it’s important that you learn to work with them correctly. We will do this tomorrow.

Homework: Please review the bookmarked news articles in the Jour1Q32011 group in Diigo. Then post what you believe the most important news stories were to this forum. The news questions on the quiz will come from those mentioned in these forums.

There will be a quiz tomorrow on the terms in the handout “Elements of a Basic News Story” and the news stories posted to the diigo group.

Your post responding to the Student Press Rights Forum video must be posted to your weblog by the time you come in tomorrow. Remember, this will be the only grade in a category that counts as 15% of your marking period grade. See Tuesday’s post for details.

Objectives: Students will be able to gather material through the interview process for a hard news story.
Students will be able to listen attentively and critically and take thorough notes.
Students will be able to differentiate between essential and non-essential information and identify material that should be directly quoted.
NJLALCCS – Speaking & Listening

Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives.

Assessments: Discussion, Blog post, Hard News Story

Today we will watch the Student Press Rights Forum video. Please respond by creating a post on your weblog. If you do it in Word, I can show you how to upload it. Remember, this will count for 15% of your marking period grade, until we have more assignments in the Project category, so do a good job on this. See yesterday’s post for directions.

After this, we will conduct the mock news conference. Be prepared to ask questions and take notes. This post will be due by the time you come in on Friday.

Homework: Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school, business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the Journ1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class tomorrow. News articles you bookmark shouldn’t be older than Saturday.

Grade sheets were handed out today. If there is something that you have a zero for that you did, please post it, e-mail it, or bring it with you tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day to take care of missing work, unless you were absent and need to work with me in tutorial.

First we will take the news and press rights quiz that you were supposed to take on Friday.
Next, to conclude our unit on press rights, we will watch a video from that last year’s class created. Create a post on your weblog after viewing it that reacts to, or questions what you saw. What do you agree or disagree with? Please enter this discussion on what you think your rights should be.  Draw on what you’ve learned through the SPLC and our class discussions. Please do not just review the video!  Focus on one or two things that were said and respond to them demonstrating what you learned.  This comment is part of the assessment for this unit and is worth 10 points in the Project Category. This will be the only grade in this category which is worth 15%, so this one assignment will have a significant impact on your grade. Make sure you are demonstrating what you learned!

Next we will discuss your analysis of the hard news story I wrote back in the summer of 2007. I’ll talk about some of the obstacles I ran into in covering this story and how the murder was eventually solved. Covering this helped me to realize the importance the news plays in situations like this. And it looks like a documentary about the murder is being made for a TV series called Nightmare Next Door.

Starting tomorrow, you will also get a chance to write in this style.  We will be holding a news conference on a mock hostage crisis here at the school. Please read this scenario and develop ten questions for the news conference that we will conduct tomorrow.

You will also be reporting on and writing a hard news story on a topic of your own choosing in the next week. You can get started on the reporting process as soon as you like. One excellent opportunity for getting the material you need is next Monday’s Board of Education meeting (7:00 p.m. in the IMC) or the press conference on school’s new solar panels taking place in the IMC today at 2:30. We’ll discuss some other options if you can’t make these meetings.

Homework: Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school, business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the Journ1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class on Thursday. News articles you bookmark shouldn’t be older than Saturday.

Now that we’ve reviewed what you are permitted to say and write about (according to the First Amendment), I’d like you to consider what purpose student media serves in a school. Should school newspapers even be challenging the administration, school policies, or covering controversial topics?
To help answer this question, please review these common roles for student media. In a post on your weblog, list what you believe are the three most important purposes and explain why.

After this, we will move on to a brief  look at journalistic ethics. To do this we will examine some ethical guidelines and scenarios. We’ve studied what you legally can do, now we’ll look at what you should do (or at least consider). We will examine 10 ethical questions to think about before pursuing a story, and apply these guidelines to this story. We will also discuss these 7 common ethical problems student journalists face.

Finally, we will prepare for tomorrow’s quiz by having you review the bookmarked news articles in the Jour1Q32011 group in Diigo. Then post what you believe the most important news stories were to this forum. The news questions on the quiz will come from those mentioned in these forums.

Homework: There will be a quiz tomorrow on the news from the last few days and student press rights. Use the packet and PowerPoint to prepare for the student press right portion and the J1Q32011 diigo group to prepare for the news questions. You can also play the CNN News Challenge Game by clicking here and The First Amendment Game in the “First Amendment for the High School Journalist” course on NewsU.

There will be a new set of story ideas will be due on Monday, so keep your ears and eyes open. Here is a list of topics that can no longer be used.

Objective: Students will be able to identify the role the student press plays in a school community.

Objective: Students will be able to apply ethical guidelines to common situations encountered by student journalists.

NJLALCCS – Speaking & Listening

Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives.

Assessments: Blog Post, class discussion, quiz

After we finish the Press Rights Quiz Presentations, we will review using an interactive online training site for journalists called News U. This is the site that had the Be an Editor Game.

First, please register for NewsU. After registering, enroll in the course “First Amendment for the High School Journalist.”

As a review, complete one activity in each section:

(Section: Activity)

• The Amendment: Five Freedoms
• Scholastic Law: New Media
• In Your School: You Be the Judge
• The First Amendment Game (we’ll do this together)

If time permits, we will begin to look at Journalistic Ethics. Press rights focuses on what you can legally write or say; ethics focuses on what you should do, or need to think about, before and during writing.

Homework: Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school, business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the Journ1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class tomorrow. News articles you bookmark shouldn’t be older than Saturday.

There will be a quiz on Press Rights and the news from the last week on Friday.

Objective: Students will study information from landmark Supreme Court decisions on student first amendment rights.

LALCCS Reading Informational Texts

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning (e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions and dissents) and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy.

Assessments: Student Press and Ethics Unit Test, Blog Comments

We will review the SPLC Quiz in the following way. Each group will be responsible for presenting and conducting a brief discussion on their assigned  question. See yesterday’s post for your group members and assigned question.

1. Read the question and answers,
2. Ask the class what answer they would choose and why
3. Discuss what your group thought was the best answer
4. Read the answer given by the SPLC  (I will provide you with it) and summarize their reasoning.

It is important for you to take notes on the quiz and packet since this will be the basis for the Press Rights final assessments.

Homework: Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school, business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the Journ1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class on Thursday. News articles you bookmark shouldn’t be older than Saturday.

Objective: Students will study information from landmark Supreme Court decisions on student first amendment rights.

LALCCS Reading Informational Texts

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning (e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions and dissents) and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy

Assessments: Discussion, Unit test

We will begin by discussing some court cases that could decide what schools can discipline students for.  Some court cases currently in the news involve a challenge to a school ban on I Love Boobies bracelets, cases involving students being disciplined for  criticizing teachers or administrators on Facebook, and cases in which administrators are not only taking cell phones, but reading and viewing what is on them. Take the time to click on the links and read them, and then we will discuss them.

After a brief discussion, we will begin a project on press rights and ethics.

The first step is for everyone to take this quiz.

Next, please review the material in this PowerPoint from the Student Press Law Center and answer the questions you are assigned from the quiz.
The groups for today’s activities are listed below. In parenthesis is the quiz question you are assigned:
Emily, Kim, Sam (4)
Erin, Trevor, Jillian (5)
Claudia, Jacqui, Mike (6)
Sara, Brian H, Paul (7)
Jon, Matt, Tony (8)
Joe, Aurora, Peter (10)
Brian E, Nick, Andrew (11)
Once your group has reviewed the PowerPoint and discussed the question(s), you will be responsible for leading a brief discussion. You should have reasons for your answers based on the PowerPoint, your beliefs, and the official Student Press Law Center answers that I will give you.

Objective: Students will study information from landmark Supreme Court decisions on student first amendment rights.

LALCCS Reading Informational Texts

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning (e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions and dissents) and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy

After you finish the quiz, we will begin a brief unit on student press rights.

Let’s start with some questions and a little online discussion.

1. Is it legal for you to wear this?

2.   What limits are there for what you can write about in the school                newspaper or for this class? What if what you write is controversial or someone is offended by it?

3.  Can you get disciplined for what you post on Facebook?

Ask Adam: Punishment for Facebook Posts from Student Press Law Center on Vimeo.

After we explore some of these questions, please respond by clicking on the comment link and posting in the box that appears at the bottom of the page. What do you want to learn more about? What questions or opinions do you have on the topic of student expression rights? What do you think you and your peers should be able to do, say, and write?

As I mentioned yesterday, good reporters are constantly in search of their next story. They do this by reading a great deal and by constantly keeping their eyes and ears open for a great story.
Which is why I ask you to keep up with what’s happening in the world around you, but to also use what you know to develop story ideas.

Each week, you will be responsible for coming up with four story ideas. For each of these ideas, you need to list five sources, and five questions the story will answer for the reader. The first set of these will be due tomorrow.

Each week you will also be responsible for bookmarking five news stories (no opinion articles or reviews please) to the diigo group. Your first five were due today, but there is one more step before tomorrow’s quiz (see #2 below).
We will work on both of these assignments in class today.

1. Story Idea Sheet – Since this is your first time completing one of these, I would like you to work in pairs or groups of three. Discuss your best ideas from our brief walk around campus. Then work on completing the story idea sheet.

• Two ideas should be based on our walk around campus.
• One idea should be based on this document.
• The last story idea can come from any source, but it can NOT be the same as your other group members.

2.  Top News - To prepare for tomorrow’s quiz, I would like you to review              what has been posted in the J1Q32011 diigo group, and decide what                      you believe is the top story in each of the following categories:

• International
• National
• Local/Regional
• Technology/Business/Science/Health
• Sport/Entertainment

Post the top story in each category to this topic in the diigo group. I will be using the lists you come up with to develop questions for tomorrow’s quiz. Remember, the quiz will also include questions on the Qualities of News(worthiness).

Homework: A completed story idea sheet with four original ideas, and five sources and five questions for each is due when you come in tomorrow.

There will be a quiz tomorrow (see #2 above for details).

Objectives: Students will be able to respond to the needs of an audience by applying news qualities in their choice of story topics.

LALCCS  Writing

Research to Build and Present Knowledge

Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

Assessments: Story idea sheet, quiz

We will try one more time to play the Be an Editor Game applying the Qualities of Newsworthiness to the online simulation.

Next I would like you to examine the question of “what news is” in a different way by focusing on you and your generation.
Earlier this year, I received an e-mail from a former journalism student. She has continued writing, and publishes a blog for College Magazine about her experiences at NYU. For her first journalism class, the instructor asked students to write about whether the news matters to the young. Read her response here.

Using Amanda’s response as a model, respond to this prompt in a post on your new blog. Be sure to include your consumption of the news and the importance of news in your life and for your generation.

Homework: A completed story idea sheet with four original ideas, and five sources and five questions for each is due when you come in on Friday.

Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school, business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the Journ1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class tomorrow.

There will be a quiz on the news and the Qualities of Newsworthiness on Friday.

Objectives: Students will be able to respond to the needs of an audience by applying news qualities in their choice of story topics.

LALCCS  Writing

Research to Build and Present Knowledge

Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

Assessments: Class discussion, story idea sheet

First, we discuss some of the news stories you chose for your first assignment and talk a little more about what makes something newsworthy.  Why do different publications have different top stories? We will also discuss how this applies to scholastic newspapers like The Lamp.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, good reporters are constantly in search of their next story. They do this by reading a great deal and by constantly keeping their eyes and ears open for a great story.
One way to keep up with news reading is through an internet tool called a news aggregator. We will spend part of the block today getting you set up with one called Bloglines. Aggregators gather news articles for you from a particular site, section, or even on a chosen topic. They will be particular useful for generating story ideas, but also for following top stories posted to sites like CNN, MSNBC, and The Hunterdon County Democrat and theStar Ledger for news quizzes.

Because you are expected to act as journalists in this class, you will be expected to constantly be developing story ideas as well. Each week, you will be responsible for coming up with four story ideas. For each of these ideas, you need to list five sources, and five questions the story will answer for the reader. The first set of these will be due on Friday.

To demonstrate how you can find stories all around you, we will take a brief tour of the campus and complete a story idea scavenger hunt.

Homework:
A completed story idea sheet with four original ideas, and five sources and five questions for each is due when you come in on Friday.

Objectives: Students will be able to respond to the needs of an audience by applying news qualities in their choice of story topics.

LALCCS  Writing

Research to Build and Present Knowledge

Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

Assessments: Class discussion, story idea sheet

We will not be meeting in room 649 today (or ever again actually). Today we will meet in the IMC, so that you can receive your new netbooks. After today, we will be meeting in room 301.
After you receive your netbooks, I will introduce you to a new resource called diigo. I’ve created a new group for our class which you can visit by clicking here. Most of you have been made members. A few of you that already have diigo accounts (Emily, Eric, Kim, Nick, and Peter) should go to the group and click on the blue button that says, “Apply to join this group.”

One way we will use this group, is to gather news articles for weekly quizzes. Keeping track of what is going on locally, nationally, and in the world, will help you in a number of ways in this course.

Tomorrow, we will spend some time getting you signed up to feeds from the some of the most useful online news organizations.

Homework: Five news articles, in a variety of areas (national/international,sport/entertainment,local/school, business/technology,health/science), must be bookmarked to the Journ1Q32011 Group on diigo by the time you come to class on Wednesday.

Yesterday, we watched a video and discussed what news is. Today we will explore this a little further.
For your first assignment, please complete the following:

Find a newspaper article online that you find newsworthy.

Next, click here to see a list of Qualities of News.

1. Briefly summarize the article you chose and copy and paste the web address into a Word document.

2. Discuss (in writing) why you thought it was newsworthy and which qualities of news it contains. List as many as you can along with brief explanations of support.

3. Go through the same process with an article from one of the School Newspapers that are linked on this website (upper right).

After this, we will review some of the stories that you chose. We’ll talk about what makes some stories “bigger” or more newsworthy than others. Why did you chose the story that you did?
How does all of this apply to our school newspaper? How would you determine what would be the top stories for The Lamp ?
If we have time, we will complete an online simulation that requires you to use the qualites of news as a guideline to make the decisions editors make everyday.

Homework: On Monday we will be meeting in the IMC for netbook distribution. Please look over the Acceptable Use Policy and Student Network/Internet Agreement. These are the guidelines that you are expected to follow with your new netbook. You should also take the Home Technology Survey by the time you come to class on Monday.
Finally, Keep up with the news. There will be a quiz soon!

Objectives: Students will be able to identify the editorial process that determines what is newsworthy.

NJLALCCS:3.5 VIEWING AND MEDIA LITERACY,

B. Visual and Verbal Messages

2. Compare and contrast three or more media sources

C. Living with Media

2. Determine influences on news media based on existing political, historical, economical, and social contexts (e.g., importance of audience feedback).

3. Recognize that creators of media and performances use a number of forms, techniques, and technologies to convey their messages.

Assessment: Quiz on news and qualities of news. Discussion of the Be an Editor Game.

“The universe is made up of stories not atoms.” – Muriel Rukeyser

“Journalism is the first rough draft of history” - unknown

“The smarter the journalists are the better off society is. [For] to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves – and the better the teacher, the better the student body.” – Warren Buffett

Today, we will get to know one another and go over the course syllabus. We’ll also review the differences between your typical English class and this one.

I hope that by the end of this block you have a clear idea about what to expect, and what will be expected of you, in this class.

If time permits, we will begin a discussion about what news is. To kick off this discussion, we will watch a short video from the Pulitzer Center.

Can what you tell your friends at lunch be news? What about status updates on Facebook? Text messages? Tweets from a twitter account? Does it have to appear in a newspaper, on a news show, or on a news outlet’s website to qualify as news? If not, then how do you define it?

Homework: Get the last page of the syllabus signed. Finish the assignment if you didn’t complete it in class.

Objectives: Students will be able to identify the editorial process that determines what is newsworthy.

NJLALCCS   Reading

Key Ideas and Details

1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

Assessment: Class discussion. Qualities of news HW.