Final+Project+Shoshana

Final Project Shoshana Cooper--4th Grade

My project is two-fold. One part concentrates on current events in the classroom and the other is a journalism unit including a video chat with an AP reporter.

I want to do a better job with my current events coverage so I thought a wikispace would allow me to do this. The Wikispace will provide the students a place to summarize their articles (briefly) from home so they are prepared to present the article to the class the next day. They will also place a link to the article if they got the article from an online source.

Each student will have their own page on

The wikispace address is:  []

In the late fall I am going to start a journalism unit. The goals of the unit will be: 1. Help students become critical evaluators when reading the news and researching a topic of study. 2. Provide students with the skills to research a new topic, develop meaningful questions and present information to others. 3. Give students the opportunity to read and study elements of multiple expository texts and then write and produce a newscast of their own. 4. Have students explore the area of journalism.

The students will be presenting articles to the class as well as reading Time for Kids in the classroom. I will also show them some news broadcasts. Lesson 1: K-W-L In groups the students will brainstorm what they think the job of a reporter is and how they do their job. I will give them some open-ended questions to generate discussion such as How do reporters decide what they report on? How do they find their information? Groups will record on poster paper. Then groups will share what they discussed. As a class we will then discuss what they want to know about reporters and journalism.

Lesson 2: Looking at multiple perspectives on the Iditarod. Children will examine a range of pieces about the Iditarod and discuss if they think the writer or producer is for or against the Iditarod. There is an evaluation sheet that they will fill out:



Some sources used:

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This Discovery Channel video does a good job of trying to show the different views about the Iditarod. http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/iditarod-a-tough-journey-for-dogs.html

As the children examine the sites they will hopefully notice whose site they are looking at. For example, the Iditarod.com site is the official site of the Itidarod so of course they are not going to include negative statements about the treatment of the dogs. Discuss with students what they think reporters do to try and not show their personal opinions and to show the different views of an issue. We can ask Ravi when we interview him how he tries not to show his own opinion. Bias is a difficult concept for children this age but they can begin to understand different perspectives of an issue.

Lesson 3: Introduce the students to Ravi Nessman. Show an article written by Ravi and a clip of him on Tavis Smiley.

http://8.12.42.31/2001/jan/29/business/fi-18489

http://srilankatoday.com/content/view/3184/52/

media type="youtube" key="a2ZqLlpuLBE" height="340" width="560"

Lesson 4: Explain that we will be video conferencing with Ravi. Discuss good questioning with the red light/green light questioning techniques. Have children ask me questions and write down the first word of the question such as How, Why, What, etc... If the question leads to a long answer give it a green light and if it produces a short answer it gets a red light. Discuss with students what type of questions produce a green light answer and what type produces a red light answer. Note which words the green light questions start with.

In pairs students develop questions for Ravi about his life as an international journalist.

Lesson 5: Video conference with Ravi.

Lesson 6: In pairs students chose a topic that they want to learn more about to develop a news story on. They can work in pairs and can choose whether they want to produce a written story for print journalism or a video story. They can write about school or community news and interview people who have information about their topic. The pairs will develop questions about their topic and brainstorm ideas about how to gather information on their subject.

Students will research their topic. We have been working all year to develop "healthy skeptics" and students will be reminded to use the skills they have learned to judge and evaluate websites that they are using. During our endangered species unit we expose the children to hoax sites so they begin to develop the skills to evaluate web sites as they use them. We also teach them to cross check information they find on the web. They will also be told to think about not inserting their own personal opinions in what they write. Take students through the editing process with their pieces.

Give students ample opportunity to develop their stories. Work with Mr. Yang on producing their stories. Post stories on my teacher home page to be shared with parents.