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A WebQuest for 11th Grade
Journalism
Designed by:
Diana Squillace, 2002
English
Language Arts Content Standards For California Public Schools
Email: [email protected]
The WebQuest
Page
Introduction
Congratulations! You have decided to be a news writer. The principal of
your school wants school related stories written by students of his/her
school to be published in the local community news paper. However,
before you can write for the newspaper you must first learn the "tricks of
the trade." Get ready to cover your first news story.
Go reporters!
The
Task
First, you will need to understand the important elements of journalism
including the Associated Press Writing Style, laws, and code of
ethics. To accomplish the task, each group member will research two
of the questions using the resources provided to you.
Next, after gathering the information, you will share your discoveries
with your group members. Group members will collaborate on their
findings.
Finally, each group member will have the opportunity to cover and write
a news story. Your stories must be grammatically correct and must
also comply with the Associated Press code of ethics, laws, and writing
style. The stories must be written objectively, with accuracy and
fairness. All of the journalistic elements must be incorporated in your
stories appropriately.
Meet that deadline!
The
Process
First Day
In groups of three, each group member will
research two of these questions. Use the resources
provided.
What is the Inverted Pyramid?
What is the Lead?
What questions should be answered in a news
story?
What constitutes an effective
interview?
How should a news writer use quotes and
attributions?
What is the difference between a news story
and a feature story?
Second Day
Group members will collaborate their findings
from the previous meeting day.
Each member will read a news or feature story
and identify the journalistic elements Collaborate your findings with
group members.
Third Day
Based on your findings, each group member
will choose to cover a school event and write a story about it using all
of the elements of news paper writing that has been discovered. One
member will write a feature story and the other members will write news
stories. Each story will include a photo with a short
caption.
Fourth Day
After your stories are completed, group
members will read and critique each other’s story (get used to it, it
happens every day in the news room).
Fifth Day
Your stories will be delivered to the
principal of your school. He/she will read and edit your stories.
Your stories will be entered into the community pages of your local news
paper.
Resources
Internet Resources
Associated Press Code
of Ethics
Write
All About It: Newspapers
Inverted
Pyramid
Lets
Write a Newspaper Story
Newspaper
Writing 101
News Paper Writing
Workshop
Newsroom for
Students
On The
Inside
Grammar
Tips
Books
The Associated Press Guide to News
Writing
Third Edition, 2000
By: Rene J. Cappon, Associated
Press
The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing
on Media Law May, 2000
By: Norm Goldstein (Editor), Associated
Press, Foreword by: Louis D. Boccard
News and Feature
Stories
A
Red Sox Fan Would Prefer a Pox on Both Their Houses
Jeff Rense
Program
Kidon
NewsMax.com
News from the
Associated Press
Materials and
Tools
Computers
Digital Camera
CDs
Access to the Internet
Resources (books and
links)
News writing notebooks
Pens
Evaluation
Each group will be evaluated on their
organization, cooperation, and participation.
Each group member will evaluated on the
stories they write. This includes the use of all the
journalistic elements, style, laws, ethics, sentence structure, grammar
and punctuation. For extra credit (5 points), take a photo and
write a caption that describes the photo in just a few words.
Evaluation sheets
| Group # |
Points Possible =
30 |
| Organization |
1-10 |
| Cooperation |
1-10 |
| Participation |
1-10 |
| Student's
name: |
Points Possible =
70 |
| Headline (Does it tell the
story?) |
1-10
|
| The Pyramid (Were the most
important parts of the news story written at the beginning of the
story?) |
1-10
|
| Byline (Does it give the
writer credit?) |
1-10
|
| The Lead (Is it
provocative? Does it tell the reader what is most
important?) |
1-10
|
| Quotes and Attributions
(Are they used properly?) |
1-10
|
| Body (Does it answer the 5
Ws and H?) |
1-10
|
| Ending (Does it give the
reader something to ponder?) |
1-10
|
Conclusion
Now that you have written your
first successful news story, and it has been published, keep your eyes
open, because news is happening everywhere and every minute of the day
and night. Think about the events that are happening around
you. You'll find that many of the events are news worthy and
you may just want to report on some of the events. Every time one
of your stories is published, save it and start building your portfolio
because you may just find yourself chasing stories for a living some
day.
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