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 children will need to work in editorial teams of 2 or
3 on one computer per group.
Prior to the Newsroom Day, the teacher needs to copy and paste each of
the newsroom messages from the file provided, Barnardo
Newsroom.doc - into separate e-mail messages. Each message needs to
be sent to each editorial team. If children do not have individual e-mail
addresses the messages can be sent to a class address and read out, printed
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 Photographs
of Dr Barnardo.doc for each group so that children 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
Barnado before the lesson.
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The Lesson
Whole Class Teaching
Divide children into groups of 2 or 3 and appoint an editor to each group.
Explain the task - children are going to produce a front page of a newspaper
with the breaking news of Dr Barnardo's death, to inform other children
in a parallel class. Messages are going to arrive from reference librarians/researchers
who have been set the task of providing information about Dr Barnardo's
life and achievements. Children need to assimilate the information and
produce a contemporary account illustrating the work of Dr Barnardo and
the way that he changed some children's lives.
Show the children some 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 encapsulates the main
points of the article, columns, images, legibility and number of fonts
used (draw the children's attention to serif and sans serif fonts and
introduce this vocabulary) and use of the spellchecker. These criteria
will be used in the plenary to evaluate the success of the children's
attempts. If you have some examples of obituaries share these with the
children and discuss the general structure of an obituary. (Note the Barnardo's
Obituary.doc is not intended for children's use, this is for the teacher's
information.)
The teacher needs to emphasise to children 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. Children 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 children 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 circulate. During
this period the following questions might be used:
Questions relating to content:
Q Why have you included/excluded this particular information?
For example, children may or may not include the information that Barnardo
was apprenticed to a wine merchant. They should be able to justify their
decisions.
Q Why have you chosen this piece of information to be included in your
introductory paragraph?
The introductory paragraph should summarise the life of Dr Barnardo
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 how Barnardo changed
aspects of society?
Q Have you interviewed a child about their experiences or feelings?
Children might include a personal account or some quotes, invented from
their imagination, having read all the messages.
Q Does your article describe the significant activities of Barnardo?
Questions relating to presentation:
Q How many changes of font are there in the Daily Telegraph?
Note with the children 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 children 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 children 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 or original source,
the web site address (URL).
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Plenary
Use a good example of a children's newspaper, if available project it
so that the whole class can see. Encourage the children to refer back
to the criteria created in the introduction and comment on its strengths
and areas where it could be improved.
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