The Media and You
Date: Week 1, Day 4
Period/Class Title: English
Name: Karin Van Orman
# of students: 30
OBJECTIVE:
Build a system of approach to news articles. Analyze media for main ideas. Summarize key points. Use personal experience to build on ideas presented in today’s article.
MATERIALS:
35 copies of article and one on transparency: “Bashing Youth: Media Myths About Teenagers” by Mike Males (from www.fair.org, to be accessed through Hip Hop Circuit Website), extra transparencies, overhead projector, transparency markers, markers, butcher paper, paper, pens
NOTES:
Students will work in groups assigned by the teacher to help break up cliques and encourage full class involvement and communication. Tomorrow, students will use information from analysis of two different news articles (discussed today and yesterday) to debate whether or not teens deserve the bad reputation they have in the media. Student desks are already arranged in groups of five.
STEPS:
Anticipatory Set: Do Now: (While teacher takes roll and students get settled) Get a copy of today’s article from the front of the room. Begin skimming the article noting transitions at the beginnings of paragraphs. Imagine what points might be included in this article based on the title and what we discussed in class yesterday. Think about how you approach reading an article like this. Jot down a few notes for yourself about this process. (5 minutes)
1. Teacher calls on students to read article aloud. Stop to review main ideas in each paragraph. Students note main ideas in outline form modeled by the teacher. (20 minutes)
2. Small group discussion of ideas in the article based on the following questions: What information in this article surprised you or is new to you? How does the information in today’s article compare with yesterday’s article? How does it compare with your own experience? How can you use this information to defend or attack a position in tomorrow’s debate? Discuss examples and strategy. Choose one reporter to share information with the class. (15 minutes)
3. Large group discussion. Hear from group reporters. Add to list of main points (started yesterday on butcher paper) to be used in tomorrow’s debate. (10 minutes)
4. Teacher and student volunteer model debate strategy, take questions from class. (5 minutes)
5. Clean up. (5 minutes)
FOLLOW UP ACTIVITY:
Students will prepare individually for debate in class tomorrow. Each student will have 2 minutes to defend his/her group’s position. This will allow the teacher to see how well the students were able to analyze the news sources provided and determine their level of oral presentation abilities.
LITERACY ASPECT:
Students will become aware of how they approach this type of reading material and will view the teacher’s reading process as a model. Students will develop oral literacy through the follow up activity and will activate critical thinking skills by relating both news articles to their own experiences and perceptions.
REFLECTIONS/RESPONSE:
Students will need to be engaged in the activity for this lesson to be successful. It will be important to distribute the more extroverted students evenly among the groups. As with all group work, teacher will need to circulate around the room listening to group conversations to ensure active participation by all students.