STUDENT NOTES: gen zed! COMPETITION

Transcription

1 STUDENT NOTES: gen zed! COMPETITION Terms 2-3,

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3 CONTENTS CONTENTS... 3 Tips for writing for ED! columns... 4 Keep Watch an interview with a rising star... 5 Spot On five different answers to the same question... 6 The Buzz a news story about or of interest to children... 7 Make It a crafty procedure for others to follow... 8 The Word a book review to interest others... 9 Who? Where? What? a research article on a person, place or thing Mind Games a selection of puzzles to challenge the brain Sample articles from ED! Magazine Keep Watch an interview with a rising star Keep Watch an interview with a rising star Spot on five different answers to the same question The Buzz a news story about or of interest to children The Buzz a news story about or of interest to children The Buzz a news story about or of interest to children Make It a crafty procedure for others to follow Make It a crafty procedure for others to follow Make It a crafty procedure for others to follow The Word a book review to interest others What? a research article on a thing What? a research article on a thing Who? a research article on a person Who? a research article on a person Where? a research article on a place Where? a research article on a place Mind Games a selection of puzzles to challenge the brain Mind Games a selection of puzzles to challenge the brain Mind Games a selection of puzzles to challenge the brain Media Education / The West Australian

4 Tips for writing for ED! columns 4 4

5 Keep Watch an interview with a rising star Thousands of kids take part in activities outside school and many are achieving great things in state, national and even international events. How do they cope with the demands of such high level performance? What motivates them? Who inspires them? What are their dreams for the future? Here s your chance to find out what it feels like to be a reporter interviewing a celebrity! Find a local hero and spend a while finding out what makes him/her tick. The word count for the interview is between 250 and 350 words. Finding a subject You may already know of someone but if not, ask your parents or teacher to suggest clubs where you may find a willing candidate. Let him/her know that if you win this competition, he/she will be featured in the special gen zed! edition of ED! Magazine. Who could refuse such great publicity? Preparing interview questions A great interviewer is one that asks great questions. Readers will want to know how he/she arrived at their current level, who helped him/her and what he/she hopes to achieve in the future. They will also be interested in the person behind the activity. Phrase your questions so your subject gives you this information. You will also need some basic information including name, age and achievement to date. Conducting the interview It is best to conduct the interview where you can also take photographs of the subject performing. Will you record the interview manually or electronically? If electronically, make sure that all your equipment works and is fully charged. Bring all leads with you, just in case! Taking the photograph You need permission for any photographs taken and, if someone takes the photos for you, you must include his/her name. All photographs submitted to the competition must be in focus so make sure your camera and photography skills are capable of taking moving shots. If in doubt, take a still shot. Reviewing the responses Review the responses as soon as possible while the interview is still fresh in your mind. Type all answers just as they were given. Edit them for spelling and grammar. Write any abbreviations in full. Writing the article Write the lead paragraph introducing the subject and stating his/her current achievements. Order the questions/answers from the most to least informative and select which ones to keep or discard. Write a catchy title to draw the reader s eyes to the article. Keep Watch checklist Please make sure you include everything that is required: Your name Your school year words Photograph of subject 5

6 Spot On five different answers to the same question Here s an opportunity to give five of your friends the chance to have their say and either offer their opinion about a world event or give a response to a specific survey question. It s up to you to choose the question but each response must be between 30 and 60 words. Choosing the question Think of a topic that your friends and fellow students would be interested in. It could be a current hot topic in the news, an exciting event occurring locally, nationally or internationally or something related to the entertainment industry. Ask a question that requires thought and will give lots of different answers and explanations for them. Asking the question You can only include five people in your entry, but you need to ask several people the question so you can choose the five best responses. What would be the best way to record their answers? Reviewing the responses Read through each response. Put aside any you are sure you won t use. Look at the rest carefully and choose the best five. Taking the photographs When the five responses have been selected, take a head and shoulders shot of each person. Spot On checklist Please make sure you include everything that is required: Your name Your school year words each 5 head and shoulders photographs 6

7 The Buzz a news story about or of interest to children You ll need to keep your eyes and ears open to enter this competition. Like a regular reporter, you ll need to sniff out a story that s happening somewhere near you and be an at the scene reporter. The story must be about or of interest to readers of your age, and one that you would enjoy reading. The word count is between 300 and 400 words. Reporting on the story Reporting electronically allows you to talk as you go, describing the scene. It also makes it easier to conduct interviews. Remember to take the name of anyone you interview and get his/her permission to quote him/her in your article. Find out the 5 Ws of the event; Who? What? Where? When? Why? You may be able to answer some questions yourself but for others you will need to interview people. Try to interview people from as many different groups as possible; e.g. performers, audience, volunteers, security. You may receive different answers to the same questions. That could make a very interesting article! Taking photographs Take photos of the scene and of all individuals interviewed. Ask permission for photographs to be taken and used. Transcribing the report Listen to your report a few times and then start to type it. Listen. Pause. Write. Repeat this until the whole report has been transcribed. Listen to the report again, at the same time reading your transcript. The two should be identical. Writing the report Decide how you want to present the information and which quotes to use. If you have used someone s quote, include his/her photograph. Write the first draft. Edit for layout, spelling and punctuation. From all the information you have acquired about the event, write a lead paragraph to introduce the story. This is a general statement about the subject that draws the reader in to read the whole article. Finally, conjure up a creative title that will cry out to the reader! The Buzz checklist Please make sure you include everything that is required: Your name Your school year words Photograph of subject Additional photographs (max. of 2) 7

8 Make It a crafty procedure for others to follow Do you have any crafty ideas you would like to share with other ED! readers? Well, here s your chance. The secret to writing a good procedure is to actually do the task as you write. The maximum word count is 300 words. Materials First of all, gather all the materials and tools you ll need. Arrange items in the order they are first used. Record the materials in this order as dot points. Instructions Starting with a command verb, record and number each step as you complete it. You may wish to take some photographs along the way that may help to explain an instruction. Take a photograph of the finished item. Testing the procedure Ask someone to follow your instructions to make the item. Watch them carefully. You may realise that you have missed some small steps. Edit your procedure to include any missing steps. Title The title can be simply the name of the item being made. Introductory sentence Explain how, when, why and by whom the item could be used. Make It checklist Please make sure you include everything that is required: Your name Your school year Maximum of 300 words Photograph of finished product Additional photographs (max. of 2) 8

9 The Word a book review to interest others You must surely have read a really great book that you d like others to try; or maybe, you ve read a really terrible one that you d want them to avoid! You can choose which type of book to review but remember, you need to justify your opinions. A book review has three main parts: facts about the books, an outline of the story, taking care not to spoil any surprises, and a personal recommendation. In a non-fiction book review, the outline of the story is replaced by an outline of the book s contents and layout. The book review must be between 150 and 200 words and you must include an image of the book s cover. Facts about the book This is where you record the title, the author, and illustrator if appropriate, and the publisher. Do you know where to find details of the publisher? It s somewhere at the front of the book! You may also wish to include the genre; e.g. fantasy, science-fiction, historical and style; e.g. prose, poetry, graphic novel. Outline of the story You want to give a suggestion of the plot without giving away any secrets. Outline a little of the plot and name the role of the main characters. Make it sound exciting so the readers want to find out more. Use descriptive phrases to whet their literary appetites! End this part of the review with a question that can only be answered by reading the book. Outline of contents and layout There are many genres of non-fiction book, organised to suit the purpose, from dictionaries and telephone directories to atlases and encyclopaedia. How the information is organised affects how easily a person can access the information its user-friendliness. Non-fiction books generally include a contents page which can be used to suggest examples of subjects to be included in the review. Personal recommendation Because we all love to read different genres, any book review with justified opinions will help someone decide whether or not to read a book, so take this part of the review seriously. You may have given reasons against a book, but for someone who enjoys that genre, those reasons may be what makes it the perfect book for him/her. The Word checklist Please make sure you include everything that is required: Your name Your school year words The book s cover image 9

10 Who? Where? What? a research article on a person, place or thing John Logie Baird, Iguazu Falls, the Large Hadron Collider who, where, what are these things? You may or may not know the answers. You may not even be interested to find out, but if someone researched each one and wrote three interesting articles, you may change your mind! Writing the article Read the notes under each heading and rewrite as a number of cohesive sentences to form one or two paragraphs. Decide which sub-headings are the most important and re-order as necessary. Write a lead paragraph that draws the reader into the article, encouraging him/her to find out more. Use interesting language to create a short and snappy title. Your challenge in Who is? / Where is? / What is? is to research and write an article of between 300 and 400 words on something your friends and fellow students would find interesting and enjoy reading. Choosing a topic Choose a topic that you are interested in. Your enthusiasm will shine through and help you write a better article. Brainstorm to create a chart of headings to give you a focus for your research. Who? Where? What? checklist Please make sure you include everything that is required: Your name Your school year words Photographs (max. 3) Researching Make notes under each heading which can be the subheadings of the final article. Choose photographs and images to include in the article. 10

11 Mind Games a selection of puzzles to challenge the brain Everyone enjoys spending a little time testing their powers of logic and lateral thinking to solve a few puzzles. Your challenge is to write three of them! One must be a crossword but the other two can be of your choice. Remember to include the puzzle solutions with your entry. Crossword puzzle The crossword can have a maximum of eight clues. Make sure your answers are spelt correctly. Aim to create a compact puzzle in which many letters of each word are shared. Start with the longest words and work through to the shortest ones. Examine puzzles in ED! Magazine to discover how the Across and Down clues are determined and the answer squares numbered. Ask someone to test your puzzle and edit it if necessary. Other puzzles The other two puzzles must fit within a maximum area of 10 x 12 cm. Each of the puzzles should have a unique set of clues / answers. Look at past copies of ED! Magazine for puzzle ideas or find puzzles of your own to include. All questions and examples used must be your own suggestions and not copied from anywhere else. Mind games Please make sure that your students include everything that is required: Your name Your school year 1 crossword 2 other puzzles Solutions to all puzzles 11

12 Sample articles from ED! Magazine 12

13 Keep Watch an interview with a rising star 13