Learning Plan

Reporter's Notebook
By Heather Ann F. Pulido and Melody C. Bao-in

Targeted Philippine Basic Education Curriculum Competencies

ENGLISH 8, Fourth Grading, Reporter's Notebook (Junior Edition), 12 days

Content Standard
The learner demonstrates an understanding of South and West Asian literature
as an expression of philosophical and religious beliefs; information flow in various text
types; reality, fantasy, and opinion in listening and viewing materials; world decoding
strategies; and use of information sources, active/passive constructions, direct/reported
speech, perfect tenses, and logical connectors in journalistic writing.

Performance Standard
The learner transfers learning by composing a variety of journalistic texts, the
contents of which may be used in composing and delivering a memorized oral speech
featuring the use of properly-acknowledged information sources, grammatical signals
for opinion-making, persuasion, and emphasis, and appropriate prosodic features,
stance, and behavior.

Learning Competencies
 Use active and passive construction in a journalistic context.
 Use past and perfect tenses in journalistic writing.
 Use direct and reported speech in journalistic writing.
 Use appropriate logical connectors for emphasis.

Unit Summary:
In this unit, the students will act like junior reporters as they learn the proper use
of logical connectors, active and passive voices, past and perfect tenses, as well as
direct and reported speech in journalistic writing. The teacher will utilize interactive
PowerPoint presentations, sample printed and online articles as well as related web
pages and videos in explaining the grammatical structure and journalistic content of
news, opinion, and feature stories. Based on the discussed concepts, the students will
create their own journalistic articles. The students will then collaborate and make a
newspaper spread through MS Publisher. They will be evaluated by their group
members, by other groups and by the teacher. This will be the students' final output for
English in the 4th quarter. It will be assessed using journalistic standards for content
and organization and related grammar rules. Ultimately, students will appreciate the role
of journalism in keeping the society informed and in forwarding significant changes.

Student Objectives/Learning Outcomes:

Week 1

Day 1:
Through an introductory PowerPoint lecture presentation on the concepts of
journalism, the students will be able to:
a. recognize the basic concepts of journalism and news, opinion, and feature
writing;
b. describe the personal significance of reading news, opinion, and feature
articles to their daily life by making a creative output (poem, essay, or
poster); and
c. determine, through enumeration, the distinct qualities of the given samples
of news, opinion, and feature articles.

Day 2:
By analyzing samples of journalistic articles, the students will be able to:
 a. recognize the essential journalistic content and proper grammatical
structure of news, opinion, and feature stories;
b. compare the content and structure of news articles with the two other
journalistic texts through a diagram; and
c. assemble given journalistic content into a properly structured news
spread that will serve as a model for their long-term project using MS
Publisher.

Day 3:
Through an interactive discussion about the past and the perfect tenses, the
students will be able to:
a. identify how to apply past and past perfect tenses in making clear and
meaningful sentences;
b. discuss the functions of past and past perfect tenses in writing a
journalistic article by a brainstorming session; and
c. conform to the rules of past and past perfect tenses in rewriting sentences
from news, opinion, or feature articles.

Day 4:
Through an interactive discussion about the active and the passive voices, the
students will be able to:
a. discern the use of active and passive voices in making clear and
meaningful sentences;
b. differentiate the function of active and passive voices through a creative
dialogue; and
c. revise sentences according to the rules of active and passive voice in
journalistic writing.

Day 5:
Through an interactive discussion about direct and reported speech, the students
will be able to:
a. determine the proper use of direct and reported speech in writing clear
and meaningful sentences;
b. explain the difference between direct and reported speech as used in
journalistic articles through a graded recitation; and
c. convert direct speech to indirect speech and vice versa through a writing
activity.

Week 2

Day 6:
Through a PowerPoint lecture presentation on logical connectors, the students
will be able to:
a. determine the proper use of logical connectors in writing clear and
meaningful paragraphs;
b. explain the different uses of each logical connector as used in journalistic
articles through a graded recitation; and
c. match the clauses with the correct logical connectors through an
interactive classroom activity.

Day 7:
By outlining the basic structure of a news article using a PowerPoint
presentation, the students will be able to:
a. distinguish the steps in writing a primary lead, secondary lead and
background in a news article;
b. discuss with others after reviewing online news articles to identify the
qualities of a good news lead and background; and
c. create a news story about a significant current event using a variety of
print and non-print resources.
Day 8:
Through watching videos detailing the basics of opinion and feature writing
articles, the students will be able to:
a. identify the essential content and basic structure of opinion and feature
articles;
b. illustrate how feature and opinion articles help forward changes in society
through a creative output (poem or comic strip); and
c. review the content and structure of sample opinion and feature articles.

Day 9:
By choosing a video about the pros and cons of an issue posted on a relevant
YouTube channel, the students will be able to:
a. recognize the structure and content of opinion articles;
b. relate the issue tackled in the video to their personal lives through a short
essay:
c. compose their own opinion articles by reacting to the video they watched.

Day 10:
By browsing web pages that post "human interest" writing (e.g. Humans of New
York), the students will be able to:
a. point out different angles of human interest that are essential to feature
writing;
b. share their favorite anecdotes from the web pages that they browsed and
explain why they chose them; and
c. use a human interest angle to write a feature article about a person inside
the classroom that they find interesting.
Day 11:
By compiling their individual outputs (news, opinion, feature articles), the
students will be able to:
a. explain the importance of journalism to keeping citizens informed about
the changes happening in society by making a creative and informative
news spread;
b. join others in exploring the effective use of MS Publisher to create news
spreads out of their journalistic works; and
c. construct a news spread that contains the group's compiled journalistic
work using MS Publisher while following standards of lay-outing,
journalistic content and grammar.
Day 12:
After collaborating with others in creating and showcasing a news spread that
contains their news, opinion, and feature articles, the students will be able to:
a. apply the comments from other groups that are helpful in improving the
journalistic content and grammatical structure of their group's news
spread;
b. share relevant insights with their group members in objectively evaluating
the news spread of other groups; and
c. apply concepts of grammar (direct and indirect speech, logical connectors,
past and past perfect tenses, active and passive voice), journalistic
writing, and proper citation of sources in critiquing the news spreads of
other groups.

Daily Procedures

Day 1
1. Start the class with a short prayer.
2. Let students do the "Make What You Know" activity.
3. Start with the introductory lecture on journalism and news, feature, and opinion
articles.
a. Ask the students what is journalism is.
 b. Ask the students, "What is the purpose of journalism?"(List the answers of
the students on the board.)
c. Supplement the students' answers with this insight: "The principles and
purpose of journalism are defined by something more basic: the function
news plays in the lives of people."- Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel
d. Let the students write the different types of articles. Ask the students to
bring out their newspaper.
e. Present the different types of newspaper.
f. Ask the students for insights about why we need to read the news.
4. Introduce the activity "There's a Difference Among the Three."
a. The students will create a table about the three types of articles.
b. Using the sample articles, the student will enumerate the distinct qualities
of the given samples of news, opinion, and feature articles.
c. The students will list the qualities in the said table.
d. Five minutes before the time, ask the students to pass their paper.

Day 2
1. Start the class with a short prayer.
2. Introduce the game "Put it Back Together."
a. Let the students be grouped into seven members each.
b. Give each group one set of articles containing the three types (news,
feature, editorial/opinion). The cutouts of the given articles must be
jumbled but separated according to type.
c. Instruct the class to rearrange the disorganized articles in two minutes.
d. Ask some of the students to read their output in front of the class.
3. Proceed to the basic discussion about the journalistic content of news, opinion,
and feature articles.
4. Let students remain in their groups as they explore the functions and features of
MS Publisher in relation to assembling articles.
a. Ask the groups to open their laptops. Click to MS Publisher.
b. Choose a layout of newspaper template. (If the Internet is available,the
students are allowed to pick a template from the web).
c. Ask the students to search for sample articles from the internet (2 news
articles, 1 opinion article and 1 feature article).
d. Instruct the students to paste the content of the given articles in the layout
of their newspaper spread (8.5 inches x 14 inches). This newspaper
spread will serve as a model for their long-term project.
e. Five minutes before the time, ask the students to save their output.
Instruct them to send their work in your account in Google docs or
Schoology before the class ends. (If the internet is unavailable, tell the
students to send the file before 9 pm through e-mail).

Day 3
1. Start the class with a short prayer.
2. Introduce the activity "What's Wrong with the Sentence?"
a. Prepare the PowerPoint Presentation of the activity.
b. Show the slides.
c. Ask the students to compare the pictures to the sentences by asking
"What's wrong with the sentences?"
d. Ask the students how they will convert the sentences.
e. Present the answers.
3. Proceed to the discussion about past and past perfect sentences and their
importance in journalistic writing.
a. Ask the class why verb tenses are important in writing sentences and why
it is also important in news writing.
b. Use the hand out to review verb tenses.
c. Inform the class that the most common tenses used in news writing are
past tense and past perfect tense. Explain these through the given
examples.
d. Through the handout, ask the class to give their own examples.
 e. Why are reporters fond of using past and past perfect tenses? (Let the
students share their answer in front of the class).
4. Let students answer an exercise about tenses.
a. Prepare a hard copy of an exercise from [Link].
b. Instruct the students to read the instructions. Remind them to write their
names and the date on the paper.
c. Ask the students to pass their paper a few minutes before the bell rings.

Day 4
1. Start the class with a short prayer.
2. Introduce the students to the activity "The Suspicious Suitcase"
a. Give the students a handout about passive and active voices.
b. Present the given paragraph.
c. Ask the students to convert the sentences in the paragraph to an active
voice. Their answers should be written in a ½ crosswise piece of paper.
d. Request one of the students to read his/her output in front of the class.
e. Ask the class what happened to the tone of the story. Did it become more
engaging? interesting? Why?
3. Let students collaborate in order to create dialogues incorporating the active and
the passive voices.
a. The students will group themselves into five groups.
b. Using their handouts, the two students will create a two-person dialogue
(for two minutes) using active and passive voices.
c. They will present their output in front of the class.
4. Present the lesson about active and passive voices and their relation to
journalistic writing.
a. Show the PowerPoint presentation. Give a review on voices.
b. Explain the functions of active and passive voices. Give examples.
c. Explain how to apply active and passive voices in writing a news article.
Give examples.
d. Explain how to change a sentence from the active voice to the passive
voice. Give examples.
e. Let the students explain how active voice gives an interesting news story
and how the passive voice is applied.
5. Let students answer the activity "Modified Active or Passive Voice".
a. Prepare the following headlines in a Manila paper:
 Toronto named 'most youthful' city in the world
 Two baby baboons on display at Brooklyn zoo
 Taylor Swift had just won top prize at American Music Awards
 Scottish government revealed their independence plan
 World's first solar power plane takes flight in Hawaii
 Obama was elected president for the second term
 Mothers ask nearly 300 questions a day
b. Instruct the students to write the sentences in a one whole sheet of paper.
Leave three spaces after each sentence.
c. Explain to the students that one of the headlines presented are in the
active voice and some are in the passive voice. Some of the headlines
will stay the same while other headlines will remain the same. If they will
rewrite a sentence, they should write (in one sentence) why they should
convert the headline to active or passive voice.
d. Instruct the students to pass their paper a few minutes before the bell
rings.

Day 5
1. Start the class with a short prayer.
2. Introduce the activity "What Did They Just Say?"
a. Show the video clip: Kurbaan Classroom Debate Scene Vivek Oberoi (2
minutes and 47 seconds long).
b. Repeat the video. Ask the students to take down the important lines on a
scrap paper.
 c. Instruct the students to rewrite their chosen lines and compile each in a
paragraph ask them to present their output in a ½ crosswise piece of
paper.
d. Ask the students to pass their papers after 10 minutes.
3. Proceed to the discussion about direct and indirect speech and their relation to
journalistic writing.
a. Ask the class why they converted the lines in the video.
b. Start the PowerPoint presentation. Ask what is direct and reported speech.
These are two ways to report what someone says or thinks.
c. Give the functions of direct and reported speech. Give examples.
d. Explain how to apply direct and reported speech in writing a news article. Ask
the students to convert the given examples.
e. Do you think knowing direct and reported speech will help you in news
writing? How?
4. Introduce the activity "Tell Me About Yourself."
a. The class will group themselves in pairs.
b. One interviews the other. The content of their interview should focus on one
trait about the person. (Crushes, Hobbies, Talents, Family). The interview
consists of only five questions. They will write their answers on the upper half
of the one whole sheet of paper.
c. After five minutes, the two students will exchange places. The first person
who was interviewed will now interview his/her partner.
d. After five minutes, the two students will now paraphrase the answers into a
sentence, thus converting direct speech to indirect speech (or vice versa)
whenever necessary. The students will compile it into a paragraph. e. Ask the
students to pass their paper a minute before the bell rings.

Day 6
1. Start the class with a short prayer.
2. Let students engage in the activity "Add What is Missing"
a. Present copies of the article.
b. Instruct the class to fill in the blanks to complete the article.
c. After 10 minutes, ask the class to paste their papers. Ask what words are
missing in the article. Let them discuss.
3. Use an interactive PowerPoint presentation called "The Missing Link."
a. Explain that a particular journalist needs their help to finish his news article.
Introduce the character of the PowerPoint presentation. Then give the
definition of the lesson.
b. As you fill in the blanks in the article, give the different types of logical
connectors. Show examples.
c. After the class has helped the character finish the article, ask them the
importance of logical connectors.
4. Introduce the activity "Can You Help His Friends?"
a. The PowerPoint presentation will provide an exercise for the students to apply
logical connectors in opinion and feature articles.
b. The students will fill in the blanks with the appropriate logical connector.
c. The students will then use their answers to rewrite the given article in an
intermediate paper.
d. Ask the students to pass their paper a few minutes before the bell rings.
5. Introduce to the class their assignment. Instruct them to gather information about
a newsworthy recent event in their school. For example, a student who won an
award in an inter-school competition or a program in school that will be held next
week. The information can be gathered by interviewing knowledgeable
authorities or consulting other reliable sources (e.g. the school website).
6. Give the instructions for the class' online quiz.
a. Instruct the students to log in to Edmodo after classes.
b. Ask the students to download the file: Logical Connectors Quiz. doc.
c. The students will then answer the questions of the given quiz.
d. Instruct the class to submit their outputs to the teacher's Edmodo account
before 9 p.m. on Day 7.
Day 7-8
1. Start with a prayer to be led by one of the students.
2. Use a PowerPoint presentation to discuss the lesson about news writing. The
first slides will flash a few headlines. Ask the students what they know or what
they can assume about these headlines.
a. AlDub' rice paddy art hopes to attract millennials to farming
b. Duterte ties Poe in latest Pulse Asia poll
c. Talk about the basic structure of a news article. Include samples of
newspaper articles from print publications and online news sites in the
presentation. The discussion will take 15 minutes.
d. At the end of the lecture presentation, instruct the students to make
personalized diagrams that outline the basic structure of a news article in their
notebooks.
e. After five minutes, flash samples of diagrams that describe the structure of
news articles for students to compare and refine their outputs, if needed.
f. Ask the students what kind of news lead makes them want to read the entire
article and what they think are the qualities of a good news article
background. Allow students to discuss their answers with their seatmates.
After a few minutes, ask some of them to share their responses briefly.
g. Using their homework from Day six, instruct the students to work individually
on a news article about a significant issue within their school through
Microsoft Word.
h. Tell students to properly cite their sources in the news article (e.g. printed
materials or knowledgeable authorities).
i. Remind students of their final project, a newspaper spread comprised of four
pages. Inform the students of their groups, composed of 5 members each. All
writing outputs will be uploaded to Google Drive through a folder that will be
accessed by the teacher and the groups.
j. Distribute the rubrics for the newspaper spread for students' reference in
conceptualizing and designing their newspaper spreads as well as for future
evaluation of other groups' works. Groups can start compiling their works and
designing their newspaper spread starting today.
3. Look for lecture videos on YouTube detailing the basics of opinion and feature
articles. Show these videos to the class. The videos will take about 5 minutes
each.
 Opinion writing: [Link] watch?v=V8Gu3Md5r-M
 Feature writing: [Link]
4. Give a skeletal structure of an outline for the two videos in which the basic
content and structure of opinion and feature articles are identified.
a. Type of Article
b. Essential Content of the Article
c. Parts of the Article and Description
d. Additional Tips
5. Tell students to fill in the outlines on their notebooks.
6. Distribute samples of opinion and feature articles. Each student will have one
sample of each.
7. From these articles and the videos they previously watched, ask students to
review the content and structure of opinion and feature articles by creating
mnemonic devices.
8. According to their individual preferences, the students can make a short poem or
comic strip that illustrates how feature and opinion articles help forward changes
in society. They will be given the rest of the hour to complete this on a short
coupon bond.

Day 9
1. Start with a prayer to be led by one of the students.
2. Ask students if they are on social media and ask which sites they frequently use.
 3. Pose the question, "Do you think social media is good or bad for you as an
adolescent?" Ask students to raise their hands to present their opinion. Count
votes for Good and Bad.
4. Let students watch a video about the Pros and the Cons of social media. The
Pros and the Cons of Social Networking and Adolescents: https://
[Link]/watch?v= SAYWQM7OaA
5. Once again, ask the question, "Do you think social media is good or bad for you
as an adolescent?" Ask students to raise their hands to present their opinion.
Note the difference in the number of students who voted for Good and for Bad
before and after watching the video. Ask them how watching the video affected
their opinions.
6. Ask the students to work by pairs and briefly answer the following questions on
an intermediate pad:
a. What was the video about? Answer in 1-2 sentences.
b. How was the video structured in terms of:
 the introduction?
 presenting the Pros?
 presenting the Cons?
 conclusion?
c. How does the structure of the video compare with the structure of an
opinion article, as discussed previously?
d. How is the topic of the video related to your personal life and
experiences? Answer in 4 to 6 sentences
7. Let students explore YouTube for videos that talk about the pros and the cons of
one of the following topics:
a. Technology in the lesson
b. School Uniforms
c. K to 12 Curriculum in the Philippines
8. Tell students to write an opinion article reacting to the video they watched.
Through the article, they will make a stand on the issue they chose and justify it
by logical analysis and citing reliable sources. Allow them to use the internet to
search for credible sources. They will be given the rest of the hour to complete
this on Microsoft Word.
9. For their assignment, ask students to conduct a short interview with a person in
the classroom they find interesting. Encourage them to choose someone they are
not really close to but would like to know better. The interview will be used to
make a basic personality sketch (e.g. personal details such as the interviewee's
birthdate, educational background, information about parents and siblings).
Day 10
1. Start with a prayer to be led by one of the students.
2. Compile and flash literary pieces from the website [Link] in a
PowerPoint presentation. Ask students how they felt after reading the passages.
3. Ask the students, "How were those passages able to appeal to you?"
4. Recommend some websites and pages that post "human interest writing" (e.g.
Humans of New York) and let students explore the internet for 10 minutes to read
through more samples.
5. Ask the students which anecdotes they liked the most. Let them explain why they
chose them as their favorite.
6. Present a blank sample of a word web about the different human interest angles
in feature writing.
7. Let students complete their own word web on Microsoft Word. Afterwards, tell
them to briefly answer the question, "Why are human interest angles important in
feature writing?"
8. Tell students to bring out their homework (basic personality sketch). They will use
an appropriate human interest angle to write a feature article about the person
they interviewed.
9. Allow students to approach the person they chose as subject in order to ask
follow-up questions for their article.
10. After completing the necessary information, the students will be tasked to finish
their feature articles on Microsoft Word.
 11. Assign the completion and the revision of all the students' journalistic articles as
their homework. Another assignment is to bring soft copies of all the articles
(news, opinion, and feature) that they made.

Day 11
1. Start with a prayer to be led by one of the students.
2. Instruct students to imagine a world where there are no journalists and media
(radio, TV, etc).
3. Using colored chalk, students will write their ideas (words or phrases) on the
blackboard in the form of graffiti.
4. Present a short lecture about news spreads as a form of journalistic publication
including a sample layout of a news spread. This lesson serves as a refresher of
what was learned from the previous week (Day 2).
5. Instruct students to sit with their group members as they finish compiling the soft
copies of their articles. Remind them to participate actively because they will be
evaluated by their peers using the given rubric.
6. Allow groups to explore the effective use of Microsoft Publisher in making a
newspaper spread. Students will submit their final output via Google Drive before
12 midnight of that day.
7. Before leaving the room, tell students to submit their peer evaluations by group.

Day 12
1. Start with a prayer to be led by one student.
2. Make a slideshow preview of all the outputs submitted yesterday.
3. Review the rubrics given for evaluating newspaper spreads. Assign groups to
exchange their newspaper spreads for checking (e.g. Group 1 and 2, 3 and 4,
and so on).
4. Let students within each group sit together as they rate the newspaper spreads
of the group assigned to them. They must write comments when they rate the
outputs of the other group. They will do this for 30 minutes.
5. Groups will exchange their written comments with each other. Each group will
decide which comments to accept in order to improve their output.
6. Instruct students to make final revisions of their output using MS Publisher.
7. At the end of the period, ask students to upload their finalized output using the
appropriate folder in Google Drive. These will be rated by the teacher. The final
project will be worth 100 points, 50 points from the Peer Evaluation, and 50
points from the teacher (using the same rubric).

Pre-requisite Skills
 Basic research skills
 Basic knowledge in formal grammar
 Exposure to journalism (specifically news, feature and opinion articles)
 Basic knowledge in using MS Publisher

Materials and Resources Required for the Unit

Technology-Hardware Required for the Unit

 Desktop or laptops
 Smartphones Iphones
 Internet connection
 Digital Camera
 Printer

Technology-Software Required for the Unit

 Database/Spreadsheet
 Web browser
 Word processing
 Desktop publisher
 Web page Development
 Presentation
Printed Materials
 Newspaper, Opinion, and Feature Articles
 Dictionary/Thesaurus
 Grammar guidebook or printed grammar guidelines
 Textbook about Journalistic Writing
 A Hand-out of the Lesson

Supplies
 Intermediate paper
 Coupon bond
 Writing materials
*Most activities are done using computers and the internet

Internet Resources
 [Link]
 [Link]
 [Link] MMC
%202100/News%20Writing%[Link]
 [Link]
 [Link]
d=1&ved=0ahUKEwi5yLPxtfTKAhVF6aYKHbwkA5QQFg- gdMAA&url=http%3A
%2F%[Link]%2Fdownload. php
%3Dstudnewsfile257C1254&usg=AFQjCNH9kKAZIBL7Jz2Ghs7jy.
0Wwok0TMA&cad=rja
 [Link]
d=1&ved=0ahUKEwi5yLPxtfTKAhVF6aYKHbwkA5QQFg- gdMAA&url=http%3A
%2F%[Link]%2Fdownload. php%3FdownloadParams%3Dstudnewsfile
%257C1254&usg=AFQjCN- H9kkAZ1BL7Jz2Ghs7jy0Wwok0TMA&cad=rja
 [Link] and
%20Passive%20Voice%20-%[Link]
 [Link]
 [Link] Resources/Academic_Resources/Writing
Resources/Grammar Handouts/reported_speech.pdf
 [Link]
[Link]
 Online news sites such as [Link], [Link], among others