Level(s): Grades 7 - 10

Overview

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This lesson is part of a unit that explores news journalism across the media. In this lesson, students explore the content and elements of the front pages of newspapers. They begin with a superficial look at typical content found on the front page, and learn the vocabulary associated with newspapers. Once this is done, students conduct more extensive analysis, comparing how front pages from different newspapers report the same day's news, and then analyze and deconstruct the stories and content from a particular front page. Students complete this section with a newspaper project where they design a front page for a special interest publication.

Outcomes

Students will demonstrate:

• an understanding of the terminology associated with newspapers
• an awareness of the importance of the front page of the newspaper
• an awareness of the types of stories and elements that typically appear on the front page of a newspaper
• an understanding of the importance of layout and content in attracting and engaging readers
• an understanding of the role played by audience in determining story selection and placement

Preparation and Materials

Photocopy student handouts:

• Newspaper Vocabulary
• News: The Front Page
• Looking At News
• Group Work Log
• Criteria Sheet

Procedure

Day One: The Front Page

Ask students to outline the content and elements to be found on a typical front page. Create a board list of elements which are most likely to be found (this should take approximately ten minutes):

Headline  Index  Photographs  Teasers  Masthead  Scores

Cartoon  Graphics  Use of Colour  Weather  Articles  Advertisements

• Distribute Newspaper Vocabulary and discuss it with the class.
• Distribute the front pages of various newspapers. (These may be provided by the students, collected by the teacher over the previous week or picked up from the library. It is not important that they be multiple copies of the same paper. Students should work in small groups of 2-3, so that only about a dozen front pages would be required.)
• Distribute News - The Front Page and instruct students to complete it, using the front pages available.
• Analyze the results of this chart exercise and pose the following questions:
  • Which items had the largest headlines? Why?
  • Which items had the smallest headlines? Why?
  • Which stories had photos? Why?
  • Does the position of a story affect the reader's response? (Above the masthead? Above the fold?)
  • Are particular viewpoints represented in the articles? Explain.
  • What proportion of the page is fact/opinion? (It is likely that 99% will be factual.)
  • Which of the papers do you find most accurate?
  • Which of the papers do you find most interesting?

Day Two: Analysis of the News

Using laminated or regular pages from a major newspaper, ask the students to discuss the following questions:

• What other information does the front page carry in addition to major news reports? (Index, joke or cartoon, "teasers" about stories inside the paper.)
  • How does the extra material affect the readers' attention?
• Do all five W's appear in each front page story? (Who, what, when, where, why.)
  • In what order do they appear? Why?
• What is the source of each story? (Staff writer, news agency.)
  • How impartial or unbiased does the reporter appear to be?
• How much of the story appears on the front page and how much is continued inside the paper?
  • What makes the reader pursue the story into another section?
  • Since any copy in a newspaper is designed to fit around the advertising, stories are written in a way that they can be "cut" virtually anywhere after the first few paragraphs. How much information can you drop from the end of the story without affecting the essential news content?
• Into what sections is the newspaper divided? What types of information are contained in each? (Hard news, soft news, fillers, human interest, business, sports, advertising.)
  • How does the editorial page differ from the front page? (Comment, political analysis, criticism, effects and implications evolving from hard news)
  • How do colour, photos and headlines affect a reader's response to the news? (Try comparing a tabloid with a more conservative paper.)
• Does the newspaper appear to support any political party or individual politician?
• How does the journalist's style differ from other writers' material? (Short sentences, front-end-load of information rather than building to a climax)

Make board notes or a handout from the answers provided by the students.

Activity

Assign two or three classes for the following assignment.

Looking at the News

• Divide the class into groups of 5-8 students
• Distribute Looking at News and Group Work Log, and review the assignment with the class.
• Review the assessment guidelines from the Criteria Sheet.
• Once assignments have been completed, groups will present finished projects to the class. (Group editors will explain editorial decisions made by their group.

Evaluation

• Groups will be evaluated according to the Looking at the News Criteria Sheet.