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Lesson | 50 Minutes

Research and Understanding

Overview

Students will identify what they know and don’t know about their story’s topic. Once students know what they don’t know, they will use curiosity to guide research that will result in better developed stories.

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Central Questions

  • What do I know and not know about my story’s topic?
  • What is research and why is it an important part of journalism?
  • How does research and understanding help us make informed decisions?

Learning Outcomes

  • Students will learn how to get really curious about any given topic.
  • Students will learn how to initiate research.
  • Students will understand how to use a variety of research tools and methods to find facts and information for their stories

When Would You Use This Lesson?

  • As part of the pre-production phase of a journalism story
  • After students have completed Pitch Your Story
  • When students are trying to grow their understanding of specific topics

Media Literacy Connection

Good journalism starts with curiosity, a desire to learn more about the world and to ask questions. A successful news story not only educates its audience, but also the producers, reporters, and journalists who have made the piece, which is why student journalism is a powerful way to learn.

Civics Connection

It’s important to recognize that no matter how much you know, there is ALWAYS more to learn. In fact, the more you learn about something, the more questions you may have. Cultivating curiosity about the world, other people, and our society leads to better understanding of complex issues.

Resources

Relevance

People are attracted to information that helps them make good decisions. If you like music, you find musician interviews relevant. If you’re looking for a job, the business news is relevant. We need to depend on relevant information that helps us make decisions.

Fact

Something that is known or proved to be true.

Assumption

Something that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof.

Research

An investigation into and study of sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions.

Source

A source is an individual, company, document or more that can provide information to fuel a new story. In order for a story to be considered verified and to maintain a reputation as a news outlet, it is important to have a credible source.

Fact-check

The process of verifying the accuracy of a piece of information.

Curiosity

A desire to learn and know about something or anything.

Empowered Learner

Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences. (ISTE)

Knowledge Constructor

Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others. (ISTE)

Demonstrate writing processes used in journalism and broadcasting media.

  • CCTC AR-JB 2.1: Demonstrate how to cultivate sources for stories.
  • CCTC AR-JB 2.2: Demonstrate how to obtain information to use in writing a story.
  • CCTC AR-JB 2.3: Develop written stories for print and broadcast.
  • CCTC AR-JB 2.4: Demonstrate how photographs support the development of stories.
  • CCTC AR-JB 2.5: Employ knowledge of the similarities and differences among editorial, feature, and news writing styles.
  • CCTC AR-JB 2.6: Define the terminology associated with journalism and broadcasting.
  • CCTC AR-JB 2.7: Develop a complete radio project.
  • CCTC AR-JB 2.8: Develop a complete television project.

Reading - Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.7: Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment (e.g., Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts” and Breughel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus).
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10. 8 (Not applicable to literature)
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.9: Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare).

Speaking and Listening - Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.5: Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.6: Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Reading - Craft and Structure

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.5: Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.6: Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
Topics

Journalism

Media Literacy

Digital Literacy/Citizenship

Lessons

Levels

Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced

Materials

White board, chalkboard or other visual board

Internet

Notebook

Estimated Time

50 Minutes