Title: School journalists

Lesson plan elaborated by: Katarzyna Maciejak

Topic:

To be a journalist.

Target group:

7th‑grade students of an eight‑year elementary school.

Core curriculum

1. Literary and cultural education.

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

3. searches for the necessary information in the text and cites relevant parts of journalistic, popular or scientific texts;

4. organises information depending on their function in the message;

4. recognises the differences between the fine literature and scientific literature, popular science, journalism and determines the functions of these types of writing;

5. recognises journalistic genres: reportage, interview, article, column and defines their basic features.

1. Language education.

2. Differentiation of language. Student:

3. recognises the diversity of vocabulary, including recognizing national vocabulary and limited vocabulary (eg, scientific terms, archaisms, colloquialisms); recognizes native and borrowed words, knows types of abbreviations and abbreviations – defines their functions in the text;

7. understands the concept of style, recognizes colloquial, official, artistic, scientific and journalistic style.

III. Creating statements.

2. Speaking and writing. Student:

3. creates consistent statements in the following genre forms: review, essay, application, biography, CV, cover letter, speech, interview;

4. performs transformations on the text of someone else, including shortening, summarizing, expanding and paraphrasing.

1. Self‑education. Student:

1. reliably, with respect for copyrights, uses information;

2. develops his talents and interests;

6. develops skills of independent presentation of the results of his work;

7. develops the ability to think critically and formulate opinions.

The general aim of education

The students will get acquainted with the construction of the newspaper and the genres of journalistic expression.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• learning to learn;

• cultural awareness and expression.

Operational objectives

Student:

• indicates the differences between literature and journalism;

• recognises linguistic means characteristic for the style of the media;

• collects vocabulary for the interview;

• characterises press genres.

Teaching methods / techniques

• giving: talk;

• practical: exercises concerned;

• programmed: using a computer, using an e‑manual.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Before the lesson

At home students look through selected journals and magazines and analyse their structure: what parts are the newspapers built of, what graphic elements can we notice, etc.

Introduction

1. The teacher defines the purpose of the course: students will talk about traditional press and press genres. Together with the students, the teacher defines the criteria for success.

2. Talk:

• What are the main media functions? (giving information, attracting attention, advertising)

• Is traditional press a relic?

• Will the Internet displace traditional media?

3. The teacher asks the students about traditional newspapers they know, whether any of them reads and understands them, what information they can find there. The students share their observations.

Realization

1. Students do interactive exercise no. 1 – they choose the features of a media style and then talk about them to the class. If necessary, the teacher explains individual formulas and gives examples.

2. Students, on the basis of newspapers read at home (preparation for the lesson), write down the thematic sections that occur most frequently in them and wonder which one they are the most interested in (exercise 2).

3. The teacher divides the students into groups (preferably according to the interests defined in the previous exercise) and encourages them to develop individual sections – proposals of news, headlines:

Group I – policy

Group II – economy

Group III – society

Group IV – culture

Group V – sport

4. Students look at a scheme presenting the basic press genres (commentary, note, reportage, interview, column).

5. Students look for an extensive interview in any issue of a newspaper (it can be an on‑line issue), read it, and then indicate questions with the use of which the journalist establishes and sustains the discussion, wants to know the opinions of the interviewed person, intends to get additional important information, wants to introduce the interviewed person, and answers of the interviewed person, where the description of his/her experiences appears, where interesting information about his/her biography can be found, where his/her world of values appears. The interview can be found before the classes – the teacher asks students to bring a proper example to the classes.

6. Students choose any person they would like to interview (it can be a well‑known writer, musician, sportsman, etc.) and write down the questions they could ask him/her. The teacher encourages students to be creative and not to ask obvious questions.

7. Students do interactive task no. 7 checking their knowledge of press‑related vocabulary.

Summary

The teacher gives students short surveys with self‑evaluation.

Then he/she asks questions to sum up the lesson:

• What columns can we find in the newspaper?

• What's the difference between a comment and a press note?

• What are the main features of a column (a feuilleton)?

Homework

What does a normal school day look like? Write an article for the school magazine. It may have the form of an interview, commentary, reportage or feuilleton.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

School journalists

Browse through selected newspaper editions (traditional and online). See which topic sections are in each of them and how the hierarchy of topics looks like. Pay attention to the graphic design of the newspapers and the layout of the content.

The media speak to the audience by means of various forms of expression. All of them are supposed to reach the audience and attract their attention. Although many media texts contain facts and data, it is a feature of journalistic communications that they affect emotions, often using everyday language. What characterises the way of expressing opinions in contemporary media?

• Texts are characterised by creativity – in many cases descriptions and assessments are combined with an interesting play on words and associations; while serious topics are often accompanied by comments maintained in a humorous form.

• The media speak the language of the average reader. You can find there means similar as in advertisements (e.g. metaphors, commonly used idiomatic expressions, transformations of well‑known and frequently repeated statements).