▼ Introduction to Multigenre Research Project

DAY #1
***KEY LESSON

a. Goals:
The goals for this lesson are to get students thinking about the overall theme
of this unit on historical news events and research. The discussions and
activities are used in hopes of engaging the students in authentic activation of
prior knowledge from previous lessons in the course as well as personal
experiences. Students need to see the importance of historical events in
order to do their own personal analysis of one specific event for their project
and it is assumed this lesson will begin that process.

b. Rationale:
Throughout this course students have learned about different delivery
methods in the media as well as news coverage. This lesson will introduce
them to a unit where they will begin to hone their researching skills necessary
to become a journalist, as well as understand the importance of how the past
shapes the future in both history and journalism. The lesson will get them
thinking about news coverage, important events in history and news angles.
These are important themes for students in an introductory class to think
about and hopefully carry on with them to a publications-based course.

c. Assessments
Students will be assessed on:
 Participation in personal journal entry
 Contributions and participation in full-class discussion
 Participation and contributions to group-activity

d. Objectives
Students Will Be Able To:

 Remember news events from their past and critically analyze how
they were covered
 Reflect and discuss on their thoughts and feelings regarding news
events and their coverage
 Look at news angles and the difference between news mediums

e. Tasks:

 Introduction ~ 5 minutes

Show PowerPoint of Hindenburg, 9/11, Virginia Tech Shooting and

“Internet Inauguration” (see “Historical News Events” PowerPoint)
 Journal ~ 5 minute

Students respond to what they saw in the PowerPoint and are asked to
answer:

 What memories/emotions did this PowerPoint spark?

 What do you remember about these events? About their news
coverage?
 Many news stories are discussed for many weeks or longer by the
news. List some examples of news items that have been covered
for long periods of time. What do these stories have in common
with the ones you saw?

 Class Discussion~ 15 minutes

Come back to a whole-class discussion.

 What do they remember/have they learned about the events shown

in the PowerPoint?
 What do they remember/have learned about how these events
were covered journalistically?
 What sort of emotions do these evoke?
 Why do you think these are important?
 How do you think (if at all) these events would be covered if they
happened at this moment?
 How do these translate to US!?

Students will share their responses and as a class.

Explain that the news media often covers an event form many angles (a
way of looking at something, perspective or point of view).

 Explanation of Rationale ~ 10 minutes

Before actual project is introduced, it is important to explain the rationale

of the entire unit to the students so they understand the big goals and
realize the significance of the final project as a whole.

Key Points:

 Throughout the semester they’ve skimmed the surface of the

history of journalism, the skills required of journalists, the different
methods stories can be portrayed and evolution of journalism.
They’ve essentially become “journalists in training” and are prime
 candidates for taking the publication-based journalism class in the
future. BUT, they’ve only skimmed the top of journalism as a whole.
They now need to dig deep into a specific journalistic example in
order to:
1. Model the same sort of researching skills needed to
properly research a specific story idea
2. Scratch a curious/investigative itch in something they’re
interested in or think others would be interested in (just
like a journalist covers a news story)
3. Cover a story thoroughly and in a journalistic fashion
 Journalism is an ever-changing field and it is crucial for journalists
to be trained in as many multiple genres and intelligences as
possible. Being a writer for the newspaper isn’t necessarily a
realistic goal anymore. One must be able to publish that same story
to the web, accompany it with a quality photo(s), podcast it,
broadcast it, twitter about it, etc. Therefore, they need to be put in a
situation where they explore and use multiple ways of expressing a
story.
 Lastly, it is important for students to look at these news events in
order to translate how they may have to cover tragedies or other
important events at their own school in the future.

 Introduce Research Project ~ 15 minutes

 Pass out handout of project explanation (see attached)
 Read it over together
 Discuss any questions, concerns, comments
 Ask for any suggestions on how this assignment needs to be
tweaked, changed or modified to fit this particular class and their
needs.

 Homework

Students will be asked to keep thinking about important news events and
their coverage and start thinking of an event they’d like to look into more.
Project examples will be shown tomorrow.

f. Materials
 Powerpoint
 Handouts
 An open mind!

g. To-Do List
 Ensure PowerPoint works correctly
 Bring handouts
 Make sure to allow students to lead discussions and inquiries.
h. References
 Jesse McLean
 Jeremy Whiting

i. Relevant handouts
 Project Description
▼ Straight from the Source: The Importance of Research
DAY #6
***KEY LESSON

a. Goals:
The goals of this lesson are for students to analyze the essential questions of:

 Why is research essential?

 Where can credible information be found?
 How do you ask the right questions?

b. Rationale:
Although students often learn from papers they’ve done in previous years
and/or subjects that doing extensive research and crediting sources are a
must in order to show learning and avoid plagiarism, there is an added
importance to both of these things for journalism students. Students must
understand that journalists do research in order to better understand and
supply a “why should we care?” to readers/viewers. Journalists must
essentially become mini-experts on every topic they cover so they can find
the best and most factual way to portray it to the public. They give credit to
sources not just to avoid plagiarism but to gain credibility and respect from
their viewers. This particular lesson helps students to explore how research
enhances and illustrates a story while also answering the question, “Why?” It
also gives a strong concentration to constantly inquiring things of a topic over
and over.

This particular lesson will serve as an introduction to a three day lesson

where students will be given training in finding and evaluating sources’
credibility as well as learning the importance of giving credit to
anyone/anything that they attain information from.

c. Assessments
Students will be assessed on:
 Individual completion of handouts while still working in a group
context
 Contributions to class discussion

d. Objectives
Students Will Be Able To:

 Read and Analyze news stories

 Find value in research as a basic necessity for story writing
 Think critically about appropriate questions and inquiries for
researching topics
 Understand the initial ideas behind sources and their credibility
e. Tasks:

 Activity ~ 20 minutes

 Divide class into small groups to read and examine various news
stories.
 Each group answers questions about assigned article.
 Groups share findings with class as part of discussion about the value
of research in journalistic writing. (See: “Analyzing News” handout)

 Activity 2 ~ 20 minutes
 Each student (or small group of students) is given a “scenario” to
brainstorm about.
 Provide questions to prompt research for each scenario (#3)
 Students brainstorm ideas for research and research-based
secondary coverage, i.e. bio boxes, timelines, graphs and charts.

 Discussion ~ 10 minutes
 What do you think are the best resources?
 Where can you find the most information? Credible information?
Specific information?
 Give a brief introduction to some of the issues that will be
discussed within the next few days including:
 Primary sources like INTERVIEWS as a wonderful source
of information
 How to find credible, trusted information on the web
 How to incorporate sources and attributions within story

 Homework: Continue research and in-depth work on project with partner

f. Materials
 News stories
 List of scenarios
 Handouts

g. To-Do List
 Ensure all handouts and any other information the students will need is on
hand
 Encourage dialogic discussion throughout activities and discussion

h. References
 Jesse McLean
 Jeremy Whiting
  Jennifer Ford of Gravette High School in Gravette, Ark.

i. Relevant handouts
 Analyzing News
 Research Scenarios
▼ Looking at Content Trends and Delivery Methods
DAY #9
***KEY LESSON

a. Goals:
This lesson will explore how specific types of content have adapted over time
and how their delivery has changed for the consumer. For example, breaking
news used to be delivered via horseback, then print, then telegraph, then
radio, then television, then Internet. Along the way, the form of the content
changed to best fit how the audience consumed it. Students will get a broad
sense of how these changes took place and why.

b. Rationale:
In order to decide how to best deliver their content, students should have a
full understanding of the possibilities that have existed over time and the
reasoning behind those delivery methods. Understanding past guidelines can
lead to new innovations and a possibly lessons from the past.

c. Assessments
Students will participate in discussions that will encourage critical thinking on
the topics of content trends and delivery methods. This particular lesson will
not have a formal assessment, but will be crucial as a building block for their
final assessment project at the end of the unit.

d. Objectives
Students Will Be Able To:

 Discuss specific changes in how content has been delivered to

audiences over time
 Understand why certain techniques were appropriate for different
audiences and delivery methods
 Choose an appropriate content form and delivery method for their
audience and defend why that choice makes sense for their
broadcasting goals

e. Tasks:

 Ask the class if there are questions from the previous days’ lessons
on proper research.
 Introduce the idea of form = audience + purpose. Ask students to
think about and share how they would be cover certain stories for
specific audiences. The jigsaw method will be used to share their
thoughts. The handout from the day 6 lesson will be used for this
discussion.
  Discuss trends for reporting specific content and delivery methods
for them. Show examples from current older print publications and
broadcasts, as well as newer examples. Some clips will be shown
from YouTube to illustrate the differences.
 Ask the students to identify some older content trends that may be
used today. What ones are currently being used that might not
make as much sense anymore?
 Discuss how this relates to the final assessment. What do students
see as the key factors when choosing what form to use when
delivering information?

f. Materials
The teacher will provide all of the materials, except for pen and paper for
writing notes. Students will use the handout of example stories to cover for
specific audiences from the Day 6 lesson.

g. To-Do List
 Narrow down clips from YouTube of some major events in history
that pertain to journalism.
 Decides which examples of more recent turning points in journalism
to use. These are mostly newspapers and magazines that I’ve kept
over the last five to ten years. Some online content will be used.

h. References
 Hagemeister, Margaret. “How Does the Medium Affect the
Message: Comparing print to electronic media.”
[Link]. American Society of News Editors. 28
April 2009 <[Link]
 Harrington, Janet. “Check It Out on the Web.”
[Link]. American Society of News Editors. 28
April 2009 <[Link]

i. Relevant handouts
 Project Description
 Research Scenarios