Unit Title: Journalism: Write, Camera, Action
Group Members: Kari Eloranta, Amanda Rydberg, and Linnea Johnson
Context
Our
class will consist of 6th-8th graders, who are technically voluntarily
enrolled in intersession, although some may be enrolled by their
parents. Based on practicum observations, all students should have some
experience with or exposure to personal narrative genres of writing.
While we hope that students have developed some media literacy skills,
this is one area we expect to be scaffolding a lot of the work. We hope
to build on existing knowledge about media and communication arts to
help them understand the core ideas of journalism.
Focus and Rationale
One
of our main focuses is on the concept of bias in journalism. Students
will explore what biases are, where they are found in news, and what
biases they themselves might have.
We
intend to address the standards of audience and purpose through our
processing questions for the bias activities. We also plan to keep
building on and developing students’ ability to recognize bias in
writing with the aim of moving toward critical literacy and media
literacy. Our activities are intended to use students existing skills
with writing and reading to begin to identify and critique the
structures of journalism. Through discussion-based/interactive lesson
plans, guided analysis of media texts, and the process of the
performative summative assessment, students will use their own
experiences in creating “journalism” as a means of constructing their
knowledge about what journalism is. Teachers will model ways to
articulate the key terms and features of the journalistic genre
(“unbiased,” “telling the whole story,”) in such a way that students
will be able to discuss its limitations as a medium for transmitting
“accurate” information.
Standards alignment:
Writing Process: Production and Distribution of Writing
6.7.4.4.
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development,
organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
7.7.4.4.
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development,
organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
8.7.4.4.
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development,
organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
Enduring Understandings
Journalists
are meant to communicate news stories in a very specific way that is
intended to remain objective and detached. However, through the very
process of deciding what stories will be told, what words will be used
to tell them, and how much of each story will be told, there is a lot of
potential to purposefully or unintentionally insert our own bias into
the writing of news stories. Essentially, we hope to lead students to
the understanding that “bias”--or more accurately, our own identity and
perspective--is in everything we read and write and connect this idea to
a greater understanding of language and its impact on our lives.
Essential Questions
Is bias a form of power over the audience? To what extent is bias inevitable?
How does the way we tell news stories and read news stories influence how we view the world?
Activities and Projects: Daily Lesson Plans
Intersession:
Periods 1 &2
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Date:
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Monday 11/12
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Unit, Area of Int.:
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Journalism
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BIG ?s:
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Is bias a form of power over the audience? To what extent is bias inevitable?
How does the way we tell news stories and read news stories influence how we view the world?
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Learning
Goal(s):
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Students will understand how the 5 W’s relate to journalism and
start to explore how word choice affects their perspective of the
story.
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Agenda:
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1. Icebreaker
2. Writing Warm-up
3. 5 W’s
4. Take a Stand
5. Make a Stand
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Time:
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80 minutes
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Supplies
Needed:
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Need laptop and projector to show video clip, newspapers and highlighters, 5 W’s handout
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1. Icebreaker: 5-7 min.
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Report on yourself (in your best “reporter voice”):
I’m _______, reporting live from _ _hometown__.
Tell three things about yourself (ideas on the board)
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Agenda and transition
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So how many of you are looking forward to making a news show?
We
decided that that’s a good way for you all to show us you know your
stuff about journalism. That’s the big project we will be working
toward.
Today
and tomorrow we’re going to give you some of the tools you’ll need to
write and record your own news story. Then we’ll the writing process?
Who remembers the steps of the writing process?
(Use cards on the board to help review)
You
will be using the writing process to create your own news script. And
then, we will show you how to use a program called “VoiceThread” where
you can record yourself and add pictures to tell your story.
Here is our agenda for today. We begin with a writing game that will help you with pre-writing!
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2. Writing
Warm-up
Round 1: 1 minute
Round 2: 1 minute
Round 3: 1 minute
Round 4: 1 minute
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Choose
Your Words: Instructors a news story prompt to each person. Students
will have 1 minute to add a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 10 words.
Stories should be in the form of a news story, we will provide the
prompt. At the end they will share their story.
Circulating 9 different prompts (multiple copies of each) among 17 people (3 instructors, 14 students)
“The last ballots are being...”
“A fireworks rocket misfired and...”
“A 300-pound deer broke into...”
“A 41-year-old car washer from...”
“Police found a halloween zombie...”
“A 31-year-old amputee made history...”
“A shark attack closed the beaches in...”
“On Monday a hurricane swept through...”
“Policemen captured a crocodile that...”
Follow-up questions:
Why did you choose the words you did?
How would the story change if you used different words?
Did you choose certain words to make it sound more like a news story?
Are there words other people used in the story that bothered you?
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3. 5 W’s
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Who
What
When
Where
Why
Follow-up Questions:
Is it important to have all five W’s in every story?
How would it be different if an article left out, for example, the place where a storm hit?
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4. Take a Stand
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Transition
question: What kinds of words can you use to tell the five w’s? Do
some words feel different even if they mean the same thing?
Circle up for directions
We
will read sentences and project them on screen one at a time. Each
sentence has the same central idea, but we will change some words to
show how word choice can create a different perspective. After we read
one sentence, students will line up between each wall depending on
whether they relate positively or negatively to each statement.
Processing questions:
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5. Make a Stand
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Now,
using the computers or newspapers that we have, find some headlines
that you think sound neutral or biased. Try to change some of the words
and phrases to make it sound more “biased” Students will fill out exit
slip questions and if time, share with the class.
Handout slip Questions
1. List 3 headlines you found
2. Circle words that can be replaced with a word that means the same thing.
3. Use the thesaurus to find replacement words to create new headlines
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Intersession:
Periods 1 &2
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Date:
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Tuesday 11/13
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Unit, Area of Int.:
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Journalism
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BIG ?s:
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Is bias a form of power over the audience? To what extent is bias inevitable?
How does the way we tell news stories and read news stories influence how we view the world?
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Learning Goal(s):
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● Be able to explain what bias is
● Be able to recognize bias in mass media communication
and in your own writing
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Agenda:
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Time:
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80 minutes
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Supplies Needed:
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1. Icebreaker:
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“Good Morning” chant
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2. Writing
Warm-up
(15-20 min.)
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If you look at the agenda, you’ll see that we have another writing warm-up game: Messing with Modifiers
So
as middle-schoolers, I bet you guys know a lot of awesome words that
you can use in your writing. This activity will help you think of a lot
of the cool words you know.
You
always want to use interesting words in your writing because it makes
people want to read more, and it can help you express yourself better.
Who
knows what a “modifier” is? Have you heard the word adjective before?
These are words that describe what kinds of words? (nouns) So first,
to play this game, we need to find some nouns.
Directions:
Hand out sheet with a-z and blank lines. Using the dictionary, choose a
random word for each letter (Linnea A-H, Kari I-Q, Amanda R-Z).
Now
your goal is to go back and add an adjective in front of each noun. But
you want to be unique! You want to add adjectives (make sure they know
what that is, ask for examples) that you think no one else would think
of.
We
will give points if you choose a word that no one else has chosen. You
get an extra point for alliteration (using the same letter of the
alphabet for both the noun and the adjective).
A, B and C are 30 second practice rounds. Then students will try D-Z and the real competition begins! (5 min.)
Example
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3. Bias Prezi ~25-30 min.
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and do activities (Write four rules for spotting bias. Group brainstorm of NPR article & synonyms)
It
is important to have students delve into digital news as well as
newspaper. The bias in this story is not as readily apparent as in some
examples. As co-teachers we will adjust with scaffolding or modifying
the activity if it seems too difficult, however, having the analysis be
presented step by step should help.
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4. Spotting bias ~15 min
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Students will bring in newspapers and examine stories found in the
newspaper and try to identify biases found in articles and headlines. We will pass out a handout asking:
-What article/headline you found?
-List some words that make the story biased.
-Do the “bias” words automatically change how you feel about the story?
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5. Script Writing ~10-15min
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So
when you’re writing your scripts, you’ll have to decide how much you
want your point of view in the story. How would you make that happen?
What are some rules (hint hint) that you could follow to look for how
much bias is in your writing?
Who’s ready?
Brainstorm possible topics for their own script & begin writing
Possible topics: Something important that happened to me, to my school, or my community
Questions to get students started:
What do you think is important in your life to share with your peers?
How will you make your audience think it is important?
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Intersession:
Periods 1 &2
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Date:
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Wednesday 11/14
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Unit, Area of Int.:
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Journalism
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BIG ?s:
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Is bias a form of power over the audience? To what extent is bias inevitable?
How does the way we tell news stories and read news stories influence how we view the world?
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Learning Goal(s):
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Students will finish their script and work on the editing process.
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Agenda:
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Time:
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80 minutes
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Supplies Needed:
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laptop, projector
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1. Warm-up:
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Who
knows what Sandy is? Who has seen pictures of New York City? Did you
know there is a big race every year (called a marathon) around this
time? Do you think they should still have this race? Why? Why would
they want to cancel it?
As
we are talking about this, you can see that there are multiple ways of
looking at this issue, and there is more than one logical answer.
Let’s
watch a news clip: Your task is to figure out if the news reporters
are on one side or the other. And look for specific words or phrases
that might show this bias.
Show a news clip and have students pair & share if they were able to spot any biases, then share as large group.
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2. Script Writing
~30 min.
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So, now that your brains are working, who remembers what the 5 W’s are? And why do we include them in a news story?
Keep this in mind as you are working on your scripts. Our goal today is to finish the first draft.
When
you have a draft, find someone else who is done. Read through each
other’s scripts and write down the 5 W’s if you can find them. If you
can’t find them, suggest that they keep drafting.
Now,
when you record, you have two options. You can record your story all
by yourself. This means that you will be the only person on camera
presenting your news story. If that freaks you out, you can find a
partner and record both of your stories as a team. We’ll show some
examples of what these look like.
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3. Intro to VoiceThread
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Show our example of Voice Thread to prepare students for Thursday.
So
a couple of things you can do on VoiceThread- you can record yourself
with the WebCam and just read the script. You can add pictures and just
narrate (talk over) them. Or you can do a combination of both.
We
will show you how to use VoiceThread tomorrow. If you are done with
everything else, ask us to help you set it up and you can start playing
around.
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4. Wrap ↑
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Get into news groups and share your scripts (just the topic)
Plan what order your stories will be presented in
Plan some transitions to tie your pieces together.
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Intersession:
Periods 1 &2
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Back up differentiation activities: http://www.umich.edu/~newsbias/activities.html
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Date:
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Thursday 11/15
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Unit, Area of Int.:
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Journalism
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BIG ?s:
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Is bias a form of power over the audience? To what extent is bias inevitable?
How does the way we tell news stories and read news stories influence how we view the world?
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Learning Goal(s):
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The goal is for students to complete their Voicethread
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Agenda:
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1. Writing time
2. VoiceThread tutorial
3. Recording on VoiceThread
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Time:
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80 minutes
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Supplies Needed:
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computer lab, hand out scripts
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1. Writing
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Finish writing (if needed).
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2. Recording on
Voice Thread
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Voice Thread Tutorial.
Each group will create one account and take turns recording.
Students who aren’t recording can be practicing their own script and transitions.
Once
students have completed their VoiceThread they will have the choice of
journalism topics to explore through mini-lessons facilitated by
co-teachers at each table:
Photojournalism
History of Yellow Journalism
Interviewing
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Intersession:
Periods 1 &2
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Date:
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Friday 11/16
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Unit, Area of Int.:
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Journalism
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BIG ?s:
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Is bias a form of power over the audience? To what extent is bias inevitable?
How does the way we tell news stories and read news stories influence how we view the world?
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Learning Goal(s):
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Viewing Voice Thread
Looking for own bias (Are there parts of the news where it is okay to
have bias?)
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Agenda:
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Time:
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80 minutes
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Supplies Needed:
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BEACH BALL! with processing/follow-up questions
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1. View Voice
Threads
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Students will get a chance to share their news story with the class.
While viewing VoiceThreads, students will be given a worksheet to take notes on each other’s stories:
What kinds of words do you hear?
Is the tone formal? Silly? Emotional?
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2. Follow-up
questions
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Reflection questions for each group- what went well? Spot any
biases? Was the tone appropriate for the type of story? (purpose) Was it clear to you (audience) why the story was important?
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Unit Assessments
Formative:
After students complete the spotting bias activity they will fill out a
worksheet asking questions about bias in their article. Students will
turn this into us as they leave on Tuesday so we can gauge if they
understood the concept of bias in news stories. This formative
assessment is important because students (hopefully) will begin to
recognize how language, word choice, tone, etc. can create or reflect
ones bias. How will this awareness influence/change the way students
write their own scripts? Students will also be informally assessed
during class discussions, small group work, and on individual work (i.e.
the writing process for their script).
Summative:
Students will write and revise a news script. Students will then
record themselves using their scripts and create a virtual news show as a
class. This performance-based assessment will allow students to
construct their own knowledge about what journalism is. After the
presentation students will reflect what went well in their stories and
if they were able to spot their own biases they have. Audience members
will also be able to reflect what went well for each group and why each
group’s news presentation was important.
Differentiation
Students
are able to choose the topic they want to write about. They will be
writing a script and reading it aloud as a news story. Students will
know we are assessing them on different skills- writing and presenting
skills-and we hope this allows for students with different learning
styles to feel successful. Our activities are interactive (moving,
sharing, bringing their own texts).
We
are providing a range of multimodal texts: print newspaper, ComicLife
handout, photographs, using videos as part of instruction, providing
VoiceThread examples as well as handouts, and a wide variety of
activities: some are more discussion-based, some writing based, etc.
This should also allow for different abilities to shine!
The mini-lessons on Thursday also provide students with some choice for engaging around more specific topics in journalism.
Commentary
Critical
literacy allows students to think deeper and question popular culture,
norms, and those in power. Our essential questions are based on
questioning the world. How does the way we tell stories and read news
stories influence how we view the world? This question allows students
to explore who gets to tell what the “truth” is. We also want students
to explore what biases are and what biases they may personally have and
how biases have an influence in the portrayal of news stories.
Not
only will students be able to look at the world’s stories, or news
stories, but they will also be able to understand their own identities.
Students will be able to report on whatever they deem is newsworthy.
This gives students autonomy and will hopefully engage students to
discover what they think their classmates should hear from them. This
also allows them to discover their own biases they may have and
recognize what type of news stories need biases (editorials) vs. when
news stories should simply be reporting the facts, or the 5 W’s (who,
what, when, where, and why), which is one of lessons for the week.
Becoming
critically literate means that students have mastered the ability to
read and critique messages in texts in order to better understand whose
knowledge is being privileged. Essentially, teachers using critical
pedagogy demonstrate how to evaluate the function language plays in the
social construction of the self. (pg. 2, Coffey)
This
is exactly what we are trying to do by allowing students to understand
whose knowledge is being privileged in the news. We want students to
recognize “truth” is not always found in the news, and biases often
misinform people. We hope through our activities of spotting biased
words students will be able to start to question and think critically
about each story before taking everything at face value.
This
is why a large part of our intercession unit, as previously discussed,
focuses on biases. Through our activities we will address questions
like: What are biases? How do biases influence, shape, or transform the
way we interpret an event, article, etc.? Although it is important that
students understand bias in the context of journalism, it is also
important that students be able to reflect on how their own experiences
and/or attitudes influence their writing. In Britzman’s “Practice Makes
Practice”, the importance of individual experience is greatly
emphasized. Britzman discusses Dewey and Greene’s views toward
experience, stating that, “Without an awareness of potential and given
meanings, and our own capacity to extend experiences through
interpretation and risk, without this active side, our capacity to
participate in the shaping of experience is diminished” (34). When
creating our lesson plans we took this idea into consideration. For
example, in our “Take a Stand” activity students experience firsthand
how an author’s choice of language or bias can influence their
interpretation of the text. By allowing students to become aware of how
biases can change the meaning of a given text first, before allowing
students to actually begin the writing process, could in effect
influence how students choose to write their script.
Although
many theories of education have been incorporated into our unit, the
strong emphasis on exploring the implications of individual voice
reflects a more democratic pedagogy. Britzman states that, “Multiple
realities, voices, and discourses conjoin and clash in the process of
coming to know” (33). This quote is exceptionally important in the
context of journalism, because students may not necessarily agree with
another author’s view. We hope to create a learning environment where
students are able to be reflective, take action, and realize the power
of their own voice through writing.
Although
Sumara’s focus is on fiction, his ideas have helped us prepare students
for reading and interpreting the world, which as journalists is what
they are asked to do. Sumara argues that “interpreting requires that
memory be interrupted and reorganized” (pg. 203). By accessing existing
knowledge about media and news in our writing and discussion
activities, we hope to “interrupt” and “reorganize” student’s memories
around media toward a more critically literate frame of reading. In
focusing so much on bias and recognizing it, we hope to lead students to
understand the reader identity they bring to the world and how this
identity is shaped by the world they are reading.
1st hr Tuesday Modifications
-Good morning Chant
-Stand in circle- reflect on what we learned yesterday & give instructions for Take a Stand Shortened version
-Bias Prezi- watch video & answer questions on board- break into 3 groups & discuss
-Dismiss groups to get computers- Read NPR story on computers & discuss
-pick 10 words important & find 10 synonyms (individually)
-write 4 rules for spotting bias (group)
-come back to large group & share rules
-Make a stand
-brainstorm topics & script writing
2nd Hour Tuesday Modifications:
- Good morning chant
- Recap of Take a Stand (show a few last examples)
-Bias Prezi- watch video & answer questions on board- break into 3 groups & discuss
-Dismiss groups to get computers- Read NPR story on computers & discuss
-pick 10 words important & find 10 synonyms
-write 4 rules for spotting bias
-come back to large group & share rules
-Make a stand
-brainstorm topics & begin script writing
Wed. Modifications
Show Voice Thread and Tutorials
Everyone needs to get a script written down and edit before we can do Voice Thread
Hand out blank sheets of paper- everyone gets 5 min. to brainstorm ideas
5W Game
Pass out Writing-Prompt
Students have to come to a station and get a sticker before they can move on
Once they have made it to every station and got their sticker they can go back to their desk and work on writing their script
Play pandora station
Students that have finished script can start recording on Voice Thread
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