news_report_project

News Report Project

Students will develop a 5 story news program for the following genres or a
mixture of the genres:

 Sports
 Entertainment
 Weather
 World News
 Current Local Events

New Report must include 1 interview

 You may use your cell phones to record.
 Pay attention to the sound file extensions compatible with your phone

Day One:

Watch a clip from a news program. Discuss details and facts stated in the clip.
Discuss what the reporter does. Discuss different parts of the news program and
different roles of reporters.

TTW Introduce vocabulary: 5W’s and the H, Caption, Editor, Ethics, Facts,
Feature, Headline, Interview, Lead, news, opinion, Reporter, Review, story,
Transition and Flow

Day Two:

Students will work in groups of 3 to work as a reporting team. Discuss the
importance of school and community topics. Topics can range from things such as new
principals, teachers, sports, the weather, new community leaders, upcoming events,
new restaurants in town ect. Anything that is of interest to the students and they agree
would be of interest to the school and community. (This works best if they choose
someone who is in the school, or you can call the community leaders and set up an
appointment for them to come to the school) Allow students to choose a topic and a
person to interview. For example, if the student chooses sports and it is football season
they would interview the coach about how the season is going so far or about the last
game.

Students will choose topics to write their stories.

Day Three:
Students will develop one interview and prepare questions. The interview can
be 1-2 minutes in length.

Day Four:
Students will select the tools and software needed for the news program and
identify how sound play an important role in their production.

Day Five:
Students review their interviews and begin writing their reports. Have students
go to the website of your local TV station watch news reports from the archives to get
ideas about how to write a story. They can also read articles from the local newspaper.
Have students begin an outline of what they want to say in their report. Students can
work in their groups to help give ideas and work through problems. Guide the students
in this process. Remind the students to use the 5 Ws and H in their report. Also remind
students their report should follow the 3 Cs as well. Students will begin writing a rough
draft once the teacher has approved their outline. This process may take a couple of
days to complete. You can adjust your time based on how quickly your students work.

Day Six:
Continue from day 5. Students will peer edit rough drafts in groups. They may
want to ask questions or point out anything that is not clear in the report.

Day Seven:
Students will complete their final copy to turn in to the teacher.

Day Eight:
Students practice reading their reports orally to other members of their group.
Begin videotaping students giving their reports. Set up a mock news desk in front
of a green paper background. Green bulletin board paper works well. Many students
like to use props such as coffee cups, globes, ect. when reporting. Students may also
wish to wear nice clothing on that day. Be sure to have them wear dark colored clothes
that are not green.

Day Nine:
Students begin editing their video. The easiest way is to use imovie on a mac.
This can also be done using movie maker as well.

Mac directions: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Greenscreen-on-a-Mac-using-
iMovie<br>PC

PC directions: http://www.wikihow.com/Chroma-Key-in-Windows-Movie-Maker
Have the students work in their groups to complete this process. This may take several
days.