Preparatory
work
This exercise should ideally be carried out over a day in an ICT Suite.
Although it can be done over a number of lessons, there is much greater,
excitement, enthusiasm and motivation if it can be carried out in a continuous
period with a deadline at the end of the day.
For this exercise pupils will need to work in editorial teams of 3 or
4 on one computer per group.
Prior to the Newsroom Day, the teacher needs to copy and paste each of
the fifteen newsroom messages from the file provided, Newsroom
- Drakes Voyage.doc - into separate e-mail messages. Each message
needs to be sent to each editorial team. If pupils do not have individual
e-mail addresses the messages can be sent to a class address and printed,
read out and pinned up for reference.
In addition, teachers should copy the graphic images into a shared area
on the network or onto CDs or disks so that children can access the images
easily. It will also be helpful to photocopy the document Images
to use.doc for each group so that pupils can decide which image to
use in their newspaper report.
For this exercise we used Microsoft Outlook. (Outlook Express does not
have the ability to schedule the delivery of messages.) To access this
feature in Outlook, when the message is on the screen i.e. before you
have clicked send, select View> Options > Do not deliver before
then enter a date and time. Alternatively Eudora, freely downloadable
from www.eudora.com also has the ability to do this task with ease.
The messages need to be scheduled to arrive at 5 to 10 minute intervals
on the newsroom day. The first message should arrive approximately fifteen
minutes after the start of the exercise.
The teacher may wish to bookmark a number of the websites relating to
Drake before the lesson
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The
Lesson
Whole Class Teaching
Divide pupils into groups of 2 or 3 and appoint an editor to each group.
Explain the task - pupils are going to produce a newspaper account of
Drake's voyage around the world, to inform other pupils in a parallel
class. Messages are going to arrive from "reporters" embedded
with the expedition. Pupils need to assimilate the information and produce
a contemporary account of the main events of Drake's voyage.
Show the pupils the newspapers and draw from them the key features of
a front page of a newspaper such as: name of the newspaper, headlines,
date, cost, an introductory first paragraph which encapsulate the main
points of the article, columns, images, legibility and number of fonts
used (draw the pupils' attention to serif and sans serif fonts and introduce
this vocabulary) and use of spellchecker. These criteria will be used
in the plenary to evaluate the success of the pupils' attempts.
The teacher needs to emphasise to pupils not to copy the messages, but
to ensure they use their own language to describe the events.
The editor for each group needs to open his/her e-mail account so that
the previously scheduled e-mail messages can be received. Pupils should
also carry out related research either from classroom resources or the
Internet. They may find additional graphics to supplement those provided.
Depending on the previous experience and ability of the pupils there may
be a need for some incidental ICT skill development e.g. use of columns
and text wrapping.
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Main Activity
Whilst the exercise is taking place the teacher will interact with pupils,
during this interaction the following questions might be used:
Questions relating to content:
Q Why have you included/excluded this particular information?
For example: one may choose to omit the fact that the fleet was becalmed
for three weeks simply because it is not a crucial feature of the main
events of Drake's voyage and there will be insufficient room to include
everything.
Q Why have you chosen this piece of information to be included in your
introductory paragraph?
The introductory paragraph should summarise the success of Drake's circumnavigation,
subsequent paragraphs will elaborate and contain the detail.
Q Does the introductory paragraph of each article grab the reader's
attention? Does it include: who, what, when, why and where?
Q Does your newspaper help the readers understand why Drake circumnavigated
the world?
Q How did Drake manage the fleet's supplies?
Reference could be made to landing at various intervals to re-supply the
ships.
Q Have you interviewed a member of the crew about their experiences
or feelings?
Pupils might include an eye witness account or some quotes, invented from
their imagination, having read all the messages.
Q Does your article include the main events of Drake's voyage?
Questions relating to presentation:
Q How many changes of font are there in the Daily Telegraph?
Note with the pupils that there are very few changes of font. Generally
there will simply be two fonts.
Q Why do you think the font you have chosen is the most appropriate?
Is it easy to read? Do the headlines stand out? How have you decided where
to use serif and sans serif fonts?
Q What is the first thing that strikes you when you glance at your
newspaper? Was this intentional?
At various stages it might be beneficial to have pupils move to a computer
two places to their right and examine the newspaper on the screen and
leave a note including at least one positive comment and two suggestions
for improvements.
The teacher should remind pupils of the importance of acknowledging all
information extracted from the Internet.
Q Why do we need to record the source of this information?
The teacher should introduce the terms: copyright and intellectual property,
explaining that these images or information belong to someone else and
when we use them we need to give credit to the owner.
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Plenary
Use a good example of a pupil's newspaper, if available project it so
that the whole class can see. Encourage the pupils to refer back to the
criteria created in the introduction and comment on its strengths and
areas where it could be improved.
Why use ICT
Demonstrating: Using ICT the teacher can draw on a number of electronic
newspapers for examples of features that encapsulate effective front pages.
Using a data projector, clear demonstrations can be provided to show pupils
how to search the Internet and select appropriate graphics and additional
text. Electronic newspapers can easily be modified in the light of interactions
and discussions. The teacher can demonstrate the ease with which articles
can be modified in the light of more up to date newsflashes arriving.
Accessing and analysing: The use of email in this vignette to provide
the key historical information increases the variety of teaching approaches.
The use of ICT to exchange information provides the teacher with opportunities
to engage with children at a higher level as time is not wasted with large
amounts of text entry.
Presenting, re-presenting and communicating: ICT opens up many
new opportunities for presentation and communication of information. The
use of electronic messages adds an exciting element of reality to the
newsroom, which can be highly motivating for many pupils and creates an
element of reality in the newsroom that could not otherwise be achieved.
The use of ICT makes drafting, redrafting and organising the finished
newspaper a more efficient process. The Internet provides opportunities
for additional research which is accessible to all pupils at the same
time. It also provides access to images which can be easily incorporated
into pupils' newspapers. ICT provides the pupils with a finished, "polished"
product, complete with appropriate graphics that can be imported from
the Internet. The quality of the finished newspaper will be superior to
a paper and pencil model.
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