Subject: Media Literacy
1. Topic-
Understanding Sports Reporting and the Media Machine
 
2. Content-
New Reporting and the difference of content between local, mid-level, and national coverage.

Vocabulary:
1. Lead: the opening phrase of a story. Used to grab the attention of a reader/viewer for the rest of the report.
2. Inverted Pyramid: The organization of a news story in which information is arranged in descending order of importance.
3. Anecdote: An informative and entertaining story within a story.
4. Byline: A line identifying the author of a story.
5. Content: Words, images, video, audio or other material that is stored in a computer system, usually for display. For example, any news material entered into a content management system for display on a website.
6. Sports Reporter: An individual who reports on sports and sporting events.
7. Story: The term most journalists use for a newspaper article. Another synonym is piece, as in, "I saw your piece on the mayor."
8. Broadcast: Any form of news reporting done via a live or recorded video.
9. Online Newspaper: also known as a web newspaper, is a newspaper that exists on the World Wide Web or Internet, either separately or as an online version of a printed periodical.
10. Newspaper: a regularly scheduled publication containing news, information, and advertising
11. Quote: a statement that a person being interviewed gives after a question is asked. They are used within a story to give the reader/viewer an understanding of where the person is coming from.
12. Editing: To prepare for publication or presentation by changing, correcting or adapting.
 
3. Goals: Aims/Outcomes-
1. This will be done at the start of the year to see where the students stand in terms of media literacy.
2. Students pick a sports franchise to evaluate.
3. Evaluate the local, mid-level, and national reports/broadcasts for that team.
4. After reading and comparing them, they then see the difference in subject matter.
 
4. Objectives-
1. Students use vocabulary to find the keys points in every news cast.
2. How is the reporting different and similar with the different levels of coverage.
3. When the report/story is done, do they give way for a follow-up, end it, or use an anecdote.
4. Use a journal to write down their findings and write their evaluations.
 
5. Materials and Aids-
Newspapers
Internet
Broadcast News
Online Newspaper
Journal
 
6. Procedures/Methods-

A. Introduction-

1. Use the vocabulary to familiarize students with what is to come.
2. Use learned vocabulary to dissect a story/newscast
3. What are the contributing factors to each style of reporting.
 

B. Development-

1. Before they find stories, I will give them a non-graded quiz on the vocabulary and see where they stand.
2. after the quiz, I will go over the terms and give examples of how they are used in different media.
3. Lastly, to give a actual example, I will make up facts and organize them to show how a story is constructed from notes.
 

C. Practice-

1. In a open class discussion, students will communicate their findings and what they found interesting.
2. After the open discussion, I will ask whether there is a difference in the coverage based of the media used (i.e.: newspaper, newscast, web newspaper).
3. With their comments, I will ask them what are the contributing factors to each story and how are they organized, if there is usage of quotes, and how the story is ended.
 

D. Independent Practice-

1. Students will use journals to write down what they find and evaluate the way the story is presented.
2. After step 1, I will pull my own stories and present them to the students. Here, they will be required to identify where the byline and lead are, where and how quotes are used, and the content within the story or broadcast.
3. With their new found skills, I will have a school coach come to class for the students to ask questions. Here they will uses the information and quotes to write a story what they found.
 

E. Accommodations (Differentiated Instruction)-

1. I will tell students where to start finding information and where to stay away from finding information. Respectable newspapers, News casts, news networks, sports magazines, sports websites, sports networks, and team websites are acceptable media outlets. Fan blogs, fan videos, and fan created websites are not acceptable.
2. Each example they use must be approved by me to be accepted for a grade.
3. During discussion, I plan to ask students questions that challenge their findings. Questions like, "Why was the report done?", "Who is the article geared towards?", "Why would certain information be in the story and does it help the credibility of the person doing the reporting?".
 

F. Checking for understanding-

1.After interviewing the coach, I will have them write a story and I will have them edit each others papers and rewrite them.
2. After the peer rewrites, I will have them turn them in and edit them and and them correct the rewrites.
3. Once the rewrites are done, I will put a final grade on them and hopefully have them see the process of writing a story.
4. To end the lesson, I will give a graded test on the vocabulary listed(matching). Then I would write my own story and have the students identify the key elements within the story. Some parts of my report will be done poorly to see if students can identify them and edit them as well.
 
7. Evaluation-
1.Using their journal entries, their story, and the assessment test, I hope to have the students gain a better understanding of what the lesson tried to teach them.
2.Using their new skills, I will make lesson plans that use the interviewing and writing skills for different stories.
 

This Lesson Plan is available at (www.teacherjet.com)