Non-Fiction Media Unit Plan:
Creating a “Breaking News” Website on Cassie Brown’s
Death on the Ice
Lesson 4: Preparing a Website
Layout, and Writing Mock News Stories
Total Time: 50 minutes
5 minutes – Administration
– Settle class down, take attendance, check homework, etc.
5 minutes – Divide Students for Group Work
– Divide students into groups of three or four.
– Give students instructions for exercise.
30 minutes – Group Work
– Have one group work on ideas for website design / layout.
– Have remaining groups write news stories based on their knowledge of
Death
on
the Ice, and the mock media releases prepared the previous day.
Use different
groups from the previous day, and hand out the media releases randomly.
– Groups should consider what should go into the story, as well as what
would be
needed to accompany the story (ie – pictures or graphics).
– Collect completed mock news stories.
5 minutes – Prepare Class for Work in the Computer Lab or Learning
Resources Centre.
– provide rules / behavioural instructions.
– explain what students will be doing in the computer lab.
5 minutes – Administration
– Assign homework, tidy-up classroom, prepare for dismissal, etc.
(Note – A
good homework assignment here is to have students collect any pictures
or
graphics they think might be useful for the website, taking care to accurately
record sources.) |