Variety at its best – CNN

03Feb09

I guess that everyone, who reads this blog has some kind of connection to the English language. And maybe you’re even interested in education.

So just let me take a wild guess: When you read the headline to this article, some clear associations came to your mind:

CNN the Cable News Network TV NEWS 24-hour news coverage newscaster in well-fitted suits

You might have thought alot of things. But I am almost sure that the main thing was NEWS.

And that is exactly what my dreamproject is about: CNN – Classroom News Network.

It will all be about reporting, structuring, writing, and presenting news. During a variable period of time (1 week up to several years) students of grade 10 and higher will create their own news channel.

One main goal of this project (besides teaching new media, of course), is to confer as much responsibility and as many decisions as possible to the students themselves. In order to get them interested in the topic, it needs to fit into their lives and give them the possibility to shape their own learning experience.

CNN – students choices

What kind of media will we present in (“ordinary” newspaper, webpage, blog, video/audio podcast, mixture)?

What kind of news do we want to cover (politics, economics, science, sports, arts, etc.)?

Which styles do we want to use/include (interview, documentary etc.)?

Design?

Concrete Lesson Plan(s)

grade: 10

english: 2*2 lessons/week

room: computer lab (fully equipped)

Lesson 1+2

• introduction of topic “News”
• Brainstorming

• students are divided into 4 groups. Each group takes a closer look at one of the following pages

1. nytimes.com
2. thesun.co.uk
3. guardian.co.uk/news/blog
4. perezhilton.com

• While looking at the different news pages, the students create a short power point presentation about their page, taking the following aspects into account:

1. name
2. layout

1. topics
2. language (formal, colloquial)
3. etc.
4. what we liked
5. what we disliked

• homework: finish short presentations

Lesson 3+4

• students present their results
• decide on/discuss about which type of news page/blog they want to create
• make a list of topics they want to cover (e.g. sports, politics (local/international), music, movies/DVD releases, science)
• form groups of 2-4, who will concentrate on one topic (less extensive topics, such as DVD releases require less students than more complicated topics, such as science)
• Internet research (teacher helps groups to find results – how to use google etc.)
• Groups decide on one specific topic, they want to write about

Lesson 5+6

• teacher informs students about plagiarism + quoting (simple rules)

• research and writing articles

• homework: finish articles, send them to teacher via email (correction)

Lesson 7+8

• creating an account on wordpress.com
• decinding on a layout (accordinh to which style was chosen in lessons 3+4)
• students edit and upload their articles

Further lessons

• include other types of texts, e.g. commercials, interviews etc.
• include self-made videos
• write articles about a certain topic, related to the regular English curriculum
• long-term-project: each week another student has to write an article about a certain topic (related to the topic currently discussed in class; self-chosen topic; current school-events; etc.)

Advantages of this project

• students are motivated, since their work is published online
• are able to work quite independently
• chose own topic according to personal interest
• quite variable, can be changed depending on available time and students’ interests
• students get to read, write, and be creative
• The whole curriculum might get included/taught
• new media is usually fun for students

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Tags: blog, Internet, lesson plan, news, students, tasks