PSA Group Project
For this project, you and a group of your peers will have the opportunity to work together at an accelerated pace while examining issues of importance in the lives of teens today. You will complete an investigative journalism piece on your own, then work as a group to research a topic of your choice and produce a public service announcement that will be shared with your classmates in order to offer information and resources to them.
Day 1: Choosing Topics & Clarifying Your Point of View
Please work through the following sessions and follow the prompts to complete the assignments. See me for hard copies of any handouts you will need.
After you have worked through both session presentations, you should begin writing a rough draft of a longer newscast on a topic that is important to you. Please see the student examples for guidance.
Day 2: Using Mentor Texts & Narrative Techniques to Guide Your Writing
Please work through the following sessions and follow the prompts to complete the assignments. See me for hard copies of any handouts you will need.
By our next writing day, you should have chosen two articles about your topic so that you can expand your writing using reliable information. You should be beginning to write a longer news story that combines narrative and informative writing. If you have any questions, please ask me.
Day 3: Partnering Up to Give Constructive Feedback & Checking for Subject/Verb Agreement
After reading through the sessions for today, you will need to use the checklist provided to assess your writing. You may also decide to have a partner read through & offer you advice. If you need to use time to simply add more to your article, you should use this time to continue writing your rough draft.
Day 4: Digging in Deeper to Explore the Bigger Story
After you have read through sessions 12 and 13, you should begin gathering as much research as possible to add to your piece. If you would like to conduct a survey, create one using Google Forms and share it with me. You may also choose to interview someone else for your article. This could be a fellow student, a teacher, or a family/community member. You will have two sessions following today to finish writing your journalistic articles, so you should have all of your research gathered prior to the next writing day. Remember, your finished article should be about 1 1/2 to 2 pages in length.
Day 5: Creating a Powerful Conclusion & Final Editing
Day 6: Publishing & Sharing Journalistic Writing
Directions for Publishing Your Article
You will need a printed copy of your article by the beginning of class tomorrow.
Option 1: Visit www.smore.com and create a free account. Once you are logged in, you can begin creating a newsletter by selecting the "news bulletin" format and inserting the text from your article. Make sure that your article also includes at least one picture or graphic. There must also be a "Bibliography" or "Sources Cited" section at the end. When you are finished with the newsletter, click "Done Editing" to publish and print a copy of your newsletter to turn in to me.
Option 2: Go to your Google Docs page. At the top, it will prompt you to create a new document. Click on the format titled "Essay" or click on "More Options" and select a newsletter template. Then, copy and paste your information into the new document, inserting pictures or graphics to complement your article. When you are finished, you should print a copy and turn it in to me.
Option 1: Visit www.smore.com and create a free account. Once you are logged in, you can begin creating a newsletter by selecting the "news bulletin" format and inserting the text from your article. Make sure that your article also includes at least one picture or graphic. There must also be a "Bibliography" or "Sources Cited" section at the end. When you are finished with the newsletter, click "Done Editing" to publish and print a copy of your newsletter to turn in to me.
Option 2: Go to your Google Docs page. At the top, it will prompt you to create a new document. Click on the format titled "Essay" or click on "More Options" and select a newsletter template. Then, copy and paste your information into the new document, inserting pictures or graphics to complement your article. When you are finished, you should print a copy and turn it in to me.
Day 7: Introduction to PSA Project
Now that you have written and published a journalistic article, you will be working with the members of your group to create a public service announcement about the topic of your choice. Today you will need to view some examples (see below) and understand the structure of PSAs before you begin drafting your own.