Junior Lesson Plan #12
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And the News is...
GRADE LEVEL
Grades 3 to 5
CURRICULUM
Social Studies, Language Arts, Journalism, Writing
OVERVIEW OF LESSON PLAN
The students learn about the five Ws of news and will create a news collage of 3 to 5 articles along a common theme.
MATERIALS AND PREPARATION
- Copies of various local newspapers and magazines
- Scissors, glue, crayons, markers, etc
ACTIVITIES/PROCEDURES
1. The teacher relates several news stories he/she has heard on the morning news. As a class, students discuss the ideas all the news stories share. For example, the teacher may state she heard that stamps have been issued depicting Princess Diana, or the city is building a new hockey rink.
2. Through classroom discussions the students might suggest common themes such as people, women, women most people know, movies, sports, etc. The teacher writes all the common themes suggested by the students on the board.
3. Students then work in small groups (3-4), examining articles in newspapers and magazines. Each group will select 3 stories.
A) Each group analyzes the stories it has chosen and write down on a sheet of paper the five Ws for each story: Who, What, When, Why, Where (and sometimes How).
- Who? - Who is involved? Who did what? To who? Who is affected?
- What? - What happened?
- When? - When did it happen? In what order did events take place?
- Where? - Where did this happen? Did the location change?
- Why? - Why did it happen? What caused it?
B) The students decide upon a common theme for all three of their selections. Each student group will then create a collage of their selections and write their names and the central theme on the back of the poster. Posters will be displayed in the room.
4. WRAP UP/HOMEWORK: In the next class, each group will talk about their poster and the articles on it. The groups will mention the five Ws of each story. Afterwards, students will move about the room, studying posters and deciding on their own idea of a central theme for each poster. Students will then record their thoughts in a journal.
EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT:
Each group will be assessed on analysis of articles and each student on their interpretations of collages. The evaluation is based on the following structure:
- Themes: Each student receives one point for each common theme indicated (maximum 3 points)
- Cooperation: Fro 0 to 5 points for working in groups to create a collage
- Interpretation: Fro 0 to 10 points for individual interpretations of the collage
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