3. The students need to learn to be comfortable around others and learn how to ask

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1 Michael Flax Reynolds Journalism Teachers Workshop Unit 1: Interviews 1. Jeanne Acton- Localizing News; Advising. 2. The Interview Challenge 3. The students need to learn to be comfortable around others and learn how to ask questions, whether they are an introvert or extrovert. This unit will help students understand the importance of quality quotes and how to ask questions to get the information in a usable fashion. They will learn how to write quickly so the information they receive can be the most accurate. 4. Students will locate information sources such as persons, databases, reports, and past interviews; gathers background information; and researches to prepare for an interview or investigate a topic: Journalism 2,A Plan and write relevant questions for an interview or in-depth research: Journalism 2,B Gather information through interviews (is person or telephone): Journalism 2,J a) Essential Questions: What is an interview? b) Critical Engagement Questions: What is the importance of good, open-ended questions? How do you conduct an interview that is comfortable for both the interviewer and interviewee? 5. Activities: a. Students will receive a small piece of paper with a word (ex: adjective), matching with someone else in the class. The students will locate their match and sit with

2 them finding out something they didn t know about each other. Then each student will state the other student s name to the class and tell the class what that one thing was. (Jeanne Acton) b. Students will write something interesting about themselves that no one in the class would know. The next day the students will receive a paper with a list of things about the classmates and the students will be given 10 to 15 minutes (depending on size of class) to talk to others in the room and find out which statement goes with what student. At the end the students will stand and state their own statement and at the end see how many students got the right answers. c. Students will watch broadcasted interviews from the evening news, 60 Minutes, or possibly an interview from Stephen Colbert. They will receive a transcript of the questions the interviewer asked and they will try to record as much of the information as possible. The student will then transfer the information they got, in whatever shorthand version they may have (without the use of a recorder) and turn it in for a progressive grade. (Idea inspired by the video features presented by Kevin Robbins.) d. Students will draw a fellow student s name from the Bugs Bunny hat and interview that student. It will then be up to that interviewer to talk to two others to get more information based on what the interviewee stated. 6. Assessment: The student will take the information gathered from the interviews to write a 500 to 600 word story. The student will turn in a printed copy of the story with the interview notes, with the recording of interviews turned in electronically.

3 7. Recommended readings and sources: Journalism Matters: Gathering the News, by James Schaffer, Randall McCutheon and Kathryn T. Stofer. 8. Contact: Michael Flax; This unit would coexist with the unit on the First Amendment and Journalism Ethics, hopefully allowing the students to be properly prepared to interview when the class makes it to the feature writing unit. Unit 2: Feature Writing 1. Jeanne Acton- Features. Cindy Todd- Feature Writing. Kevin Robbins 2. There Are Stories Under Every Rock. 3. The students need to take their interviewing skills to tell the story about an individual in an insightful and entertaining way. The student will interview multiple sources to make the story as authentic as possible. 4. Students will locate information sources such as persons, databases, reports, and past interviews; gathers background information; and researches to prepare for an interview or investigate a topic: Journalism 2,A. Students will evaluate and confirm the validity of background information from a variety of society such as other qualified persons, books, and reports: Journalism 2,C. Students will incorporate direct and indirect quotes and other research to write in copy: Journalism 2,D. a. Essential Questions: How does a person write a proper feature story?

4 b. Critical Engagement Questions: How do you come up with an angle to draw the reader into the story? How do you organize the quotes to make a sustainable flow throughout the story. 5. Activities: a. Students will draw the name of a fellow student in class Bugs Bunny hat. That student will interview the person picked, as well as at least two others on the subject of that person. The student will then write a paper no less than 300 words and no more than 500 words based on that person, using the responses received from the interviews. The paper will be reviewed, and then based on editing remarks the students will conduct follow-up interviews to complete the story that will then need to be 600 to 800 words. (Idea inspired by Jeanne Acton and Michael Reeves) b. The student will be blind-folded, spun around ten times, and then open the school master list notebook, flip to a page and point at a name. The student will do this three times. The student will then locate the first student chosen and request an interview. If there is an issue that the student does not wish to be interviewed (must give specific reason why) then the student will move onto the second name picked, and then the third if need be. The student will interview that person and at least two others that could contribute to the story. With the information gathered the student will then write a word story. Just like the other story, the paper would be edited and the student would do the follow-up interviews and complete the story that would need to be words. (Idea inspired by Cindy Todd.)

5 6. Assessment: The student will have the rough drafts reviewed by a peer and the teacher, and will receive a grade based on meeting the requirement of length and minimum sources. When the student turns in the final draft it will be graded by length, sources, grammar, and story quality. The story will also be judged by a different class as a competition between classmates for a prize, one of which being that the top stories will be used in the school newspaper. (Inspired by Cindy Todd, although she did not mention a contest, and she meant for it to be good primarily for the yearbook.) 7. Recommended readings and sources: Journalism Matters: Gathering the News, by James Schaffer, Randall McCutheon and Kathryn T. Stofer. Also Power points offered by Jeanne Acton help a lot, available at 8. Contact: Michael Flax; Michael.flax@ectorcountyisd.org