newspaper activity.pdf

8/14/2019 Newspaper activity.pdf

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Dear Parent/Teacher:

A Bite of Writing is a series of units intended to serve as supplements to aLanguage Arts curriculum. Writing, in its various forms, is core to education,work, and all of life. At Little Darlings Press , we strive to provide parents andteachers with quality units that will encourage good writing skills in a way that is

both engaging and fun. As homeschoolers and educators, we know that writing isintertwined with so many other subjects, but it doesnt need to be all grammar andessays. Bring a little variety into writing with units by Little Darlings Press .

Journalism: Newspaper Writing is ideal for students in middle school and highschool. Included is information about news articles and feature articles as well as

photojournalism. Also included are fun, creative assignments, writing opportunitiesand a suggested field trip. We hope you and your student(s) enjoy this unit!

Please direct your questions or comments to:[email protected] our blog at:www.bitesizewriting.blogspot.comFree weekly writing assignments are published on our blog throughout the schoolyear!

All written work in this unit was created by Little Darlings Press. We grant permission to the purchaser of these materials to use one unit per single family,single co-op, or single student in a classroom. Questions related to these terms can

be directed to the email address listed above.

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IN THIS UNIT

Introduction

Journalism: Newspaper Writing

Newspapers Yesterday

Newspapers Today and Tomorrow

Rules of Journalism

From Local to Global News

Sections of a Newspaper

Elements of a Good Article

News Articles

Feature Articles

The Style Guide

News Photography and Photojournalism

Editing and Proofreading

Make Your Own Newspaper

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Introduction

Newspaper writing is bothinteresting and fun. With anendless supply of news andfeature articles in the world,in schools, in the home everywhere the stories willnever end!

This unit will allow studentsto learn a little bit about thehistory of newspapers,

different types of journalism,how to write great articles,and much, much more!

An optional field trip to alocal newspaper is a greataddition to this unit. Simply

phone a local paper and inquire about a tour. Most newspapers are happy toaccommodate school groups.

For assignments in this unit students will need access to newspapers, both printedand online. Again, utilize your local newspaper. It should have stacks of backcopies for the taking. Or, if your family subscribes to any newspapers, use themafter they have been read.

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Journalism: Newspaper Writing

Needs for this section: One copy of a printed newspaper for each student andaccess to the Internet.

Journalism is the act of gathering and writing news for radio, television,magazines, and newspapers. Broadcast journalists work with radio and television.Print media includes magazines, newspapers, brochures and other forms ofmaterial printed on paper. The most recent and fastest growing form of journalismis found in the form of online newspapers, blogs, magazines, and other materialson the Internet.

Writing for newspapers is very different from otherforms of writing (magazines, books, blogs, etc.).Unlike creative writing, newspaper writing follows astandard set of rules and has its own style. While thatstyle may vary some from newspaper to newspaper,there are some core elements within the industry, asyou will see through this course.

As we study newspaper journalismthere will be discussion, researchand examples from both printedand online newspapers.

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Teachers note: Do the following assignment together or assign them yourstudent(s) homework.

Assignment:

1. Look through a copy of a printed newspaper. Write down or discuss the natureof the articles you see. What are they about?

2. On the Internet, visit the site for the Minneapolis StarTribune atwww.startribune.com. Notice that online access is limited unless you have a digitalsubscription. One of the fun aspects to an online subscription is that the newspaperis interactive with opportunities to watch video footage.

Discussion: Do you prefer to read a printed newspaper or online news? Why?

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Newspapers Yesterday

Printed newspapers werent a possibility until the invention of themovable type printing press.

Do you know who invented thisdevice?

It was Johannes Guttenberg in the 15 th century. It wasnt until the 17 th century,however, that the first newspapers werecirculated in Europe. Bibles wereamong the first books produced by the printing press.

In the American colonies, the first newspaper was called Publick Occurrences both Foreighn and Domestick . It was created by Benjamin Harris in 1690. It was soonshut down, however, as there was no license to sell it.

By the 1800s there were several hundred U.S. newspapers, mostly written with a political and partisan tone. Cheap newspapers, like the New York Sun , a penny press founded by Benjamin Day in 1833, were marketed for the working class. Thedemand for printed news was so popular with this growing population that theindustry boomed.

With growth in the newspaper industry, journalistic standards were developed andare still followed today. The demand for good, truthful and fair reporting becameessential.

Eventually stories arrived at newspaper offices via telegraph lines. As a result,stories were shortened to save on words. Journalistic writing became tight, brief,and to the point. This style of journalism is still practiced today.

The Associ ated Press i s born

During the time of developing industry standards, t he worlds oldest and largestagency was born: The Associated Press (AP). The AP began as a cooperative ofseveral large newspapers wanting to share news from across the seas as storiesarrived from Europe.

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Today, the AP style of writing is largely used within the industry and accepted asthe correct guide and reference book when writing newspaper articles.

Have students search for copies of old news pages on the Internet from the 1800sand 1900s and report their findings.

Ol d Newspaper Sample

Jan. 2, 1750 issue of The Pennsylvania Gazette published by Benjamin Franklin:

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Newspapers Today and Tomorrow

The 20th Centur y and Beyond

The newspaper industry began to slowly decline in the mid-20 th century with theintroduction of radio, followed by television.

More recently, popularity of Internet use has caused a further decline in the sale of printed newspapers. In an era of news available inmany forms and at any hour of the day, waiting forthe morning or evening edition of the newspaper isa thing of the past. News from all around the globeis received with a touch of a button.

Nevertheless, many folks still like to hold onto a printed newspaper and read it.Research indicates, however, it is mostly older generations subscribing to printedcopies of the news. Younger people often rely on the convenience and instantavailability of news online.

Whether news is produced in printed or digital format, the fact remains thatsomeone must do the work of researching, reporting and writing the news. Thatsomeone is a journalist.

Assignment:

Have your student(s) brainstorm a title for a family or school newspaper. For thistask, write down several words (see list below for ideas) and craft the headlinetogether. A good title will have at least one newsy word and one more personalword in it. For example, a local paper for a town named Dustin might be called the Dustin Daily .

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newspaper activity.pdf

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