CLASSROOM LESSON 3:
Local and World Newspapers
BOOK TITLE: The Never War
AUTHOR: D.J. MacHale
LESSON PLAN AUTHOR : Kathleen Robbins
GRADE
LEVEL: 6-8
LESSON DURATION: 60 Minutes
OBJECTIVE
- Students will develop an understanding of the local and world events, their significance, and how they relate to the story.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of these local and world events by creating newspapers.
MATERIALS
- Computer (Internet for Research)
MOTIVATION
- Have students look at several examples of different school, local, state, and national newspapers. Have students point out some things they notice that make newspapers different? (Black and white, has a title, headlines, articles, columns, pictures, etc.)
NEW INFORMATION
- Review the following newspaper terms:
- Newspaper: A form of printed media that informs the reader of news, events, advertisements, and other interesting information pertaining to who the newspaper is written for.
- Headline: A heading that describes the most important news in the newspaper.
- Article: A piece of writing that reports facts and tells who, what, when where, and why about a certain event or topic.
- Captions: The writing under a picture that may tell who is in the picture or what is going on.
- Byline: Where the author’s name is inserted before an article they have written
MODELING/GUIDED PRACTICE
- Explain that articles tell the 5 W’s about a certain topic. (Who, What, When, Where, and Why)
- Answer each of the five W questions using the popular rhyme "Jack & Jill."
- Who? Jack and Jill
- What? Fell down and broke crown
- Where? On the hill
- When? Sometime in the past
- Why? Trying to fetch wate
- Now, put these facts into sentence form and tell students a short story related to the terrible fall of these children using the information above. Explain how these five questions help to summarize a news story.
PRACTICE/APPLICATION
- Divide students into groups of about three. Assign each group a different type of newspaper to create. Before creating their newspapers, allow students to look at several example student newspapers.
- Also show students these tools and resources to help them set up and create their newspaper.
- The three types of newspapers for this assignment are described below:
- Classroom Newspaper
Students will be creating a newspaper that focuses on their classroom. The focus will be the event that the class is currently reading the third Pendragon book. Some things to include are: peers interviews about the book, personal book reviews, favorite or standout parts of the book, favorite or standout characters, and other insights into the story. An example headline might be “Teacher Leads Students Through an Unbelievable Adventure Story!” There must be a newspaper title, headline, pictures, and at least three articles.
*Encourage students to be creative make the newspaper their own. After including required parts, feel free to add jokes, horoscopes, weather, comics, puzzles, etc.
- Local Newspaper
Students will be creating a newspaper that focuses on local events in the time period of 1937 in New York City. These events will be pulled from the story. Some possible stories to include from the book might be: gangster stories, the burn down of the warehouse, how the local bellhops saved Max Rose’s life, etc. An example headline might be “Local Bellhops Save Millionaire’s Life!” There must be a newspaper title, headline, pictures, and at least three articles.
*Encourage students to be creative make the newspaper their own. After including required
parts, feel free to add color, jokes, horoscopes, weather, comics, puzzles, etc.
- World Newspaper
Students will be creating a newspaper that focuses on world events in the time period of 1937. These events can be pulled from the story or researched from history. Some possible stories to include might be: Amelia Earhart, Hindenburg flight news or crash news, brewing war, etc. An example headline might be “Hindenburg Set to Land in New Jersey on May 6th!” There must be a newspaper title, headline, pictures, and at least three articles.
*Encourage students to be creative make the paper their own. After including required parts, feel free to add jokes, horoscopes, weather, comics, puzzles, etc.
CLOSURE
- Have students share each of their finished newspapers with the class. Also set out all the newspapers and give students time to look at them either during a silent reading time or free time.
EVALUATION
- Students will be evaluated and scored on whether they have the required components for each lesson newspaper using the News Rubric.
NCTE STANDARD 2
Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
NCTE STANDARD 3
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
NCTE STANDARD 4
Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
NCTE STANDARD 5
Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
NCTE STANDARD 7
Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
SOURCES
Rubric generator
Newspaper Examples
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