Before and After Viewing

Before the program:

* Videotape NewsDepth, preview it, then use it with your students.

* Get a list of the stories for each week’s show, special vocabulary words and NewsQuiz questions at http://www.wviz.org/newsdepth/ on Thursday mornings.

* Give the children background information on stories that will be new to them.

* Encourage students to read the daily newspaper and watch the evening news.

* Before any NewsDepth program, ask your students to predict the main news story and other stories which might be covered in the program.

During the program:

* Pause the NewsDepth program as needed to discuss the stories or to clarify names, locations, and story context.

* Replay videotaped segments that require further discussion.

* Listen for the NewsQuiz questions with your students. If you have given them the questions ahead of time, have them watch for the answers.

After the program:

* Discuss the program in order to review the news stories, to emphasize vocabulary and to locate areas on a world map.

* Have the children write a paragraph on their opinion about the issue in one of the stories in the program and send it to NewsDepth either by letter or email. Our address: NewsDepth, WVIZ/PBS, 1375 Euclid Ave. Cleveland, OH 44115 or http://www.wviz.org.

Other follow-up or news activities:

* Watch a TV newscast or read a newspaper. Then list three examples of hard news stories. Does your TV station editorialize or give its station’s opinion on different subjects? Are viewers invited to respond?

* Watch a TV newscast or read a newspaper and list three examples of soft, or feature, news stories. Discuss the difference between hard and soft news.

* Compare the TV coverage of several news items with the coverage given by a local newspaper or national news magazine. Compare the different media for detail, comprehension and ease in remembering.

* Have an oral news exercise every day, or every week. Ask each student to name one current event. Vary this exercise by asking your students to write down three or four fast facts on national and international news.

* After watching a NewsDepth program, ask your students to collect newspaper or magazine articles about an issue, person or place featured in the program. Have students rewrite the articles in their own words. Write personal opinions about the topic.

* Create a timeline based on an issue in the program.

* At the beginning of the week, provide students with a world map. As the week progresses, locate and write down the names of the countries which are in the news. Use newspapers, magazines and TV as sources of information. Which of those countries do they think will be in the NewsDepth program that week?

* Assume you are a television news reporter who has gone back in time to interview a famous inventor. Write a script or make a videotape of your interview. Include important facts as well as personal feelings of the celebrity.

* Select and read a newspaper article. Discuss time limitations involved in a news program. Rewrite the article as a TV news story, making sure all of the important facts are covered. Set a timer for two minutes. Can all important information be covered in that amount of time?

* Produce your own class newspaper or news program. Stories can be written about school and community events. If the school has videotape equipment, a news program could be taped and viewed by the class.

* Write letters to legislators about issues important to the students or the community. Most legislators respond to correspondence and will reward the children’s efforts.

* Draw a line down the middle of the board. On one side write FOR and on the other side, AGAINST. Select an issue for discussion and debate. On the FOR side, have students write all of the positive aspects and benefits of the issue. On the AGAINST side, have them write all of the reasons against this issue. Take a poll of the students’ opinions after they have discussed the issue to see which side wins.

* Collect and keep a file of names and places in the news. Use this information for bulletin boards, charts or quizzes. Students can also use the file to help them connect current names and places in the news with past developments.

* Ask for five student volunteers to listen for and list new vocabulary words in the news program. Ask other students to look up the words in the dictionary, then use the words in context. Keep a file of new vocabulary words.

* Which news story would you drop? After viewing an entire NewsDepth program, discuss which stories were more important than others. Why? If time was limited and it was necessary to cut one of the news stories, which story should be dropped? Why?

* To help children organize their thoughts and learn how to support them with details you might want to use webbing on a main topic covered in the news. Webbing is also called mapping or clustering and helps students organize their ideas in concrete form. A web starts out with a main idea and then branches out with supporting ideas. Learning to web takes lots of practice for children and should be done many times as a large group before you let teams of students do it on their own. It is clearly a graphic way for children as writers to organize their thoughts before they begin to write.

* Here’s an idea for a NewsDepth follow-up activity from Mrs. Hamilton’s fifth grade class at Main Street School in Blanchester. Divide your sheet of plain white paper into six equal sections. Write or print NewsDepth in the upper left section. At the top of the five remaining sections, write the questions, Who?, What? Where? When? And Why?. Write a short response to each question, and then illustrate your answer. This makes a clear and colorful way to organize the information that is learned from a news story.

Contact Us!

NewsDepth | WVIZ/PBS ideastream®
Idea Center™ at PlayhouseSquare | 1375 Euclid Avenue | Cleveland, OH 44115
newsdepth@wviz.org | 216-916-6352

NewsDepth is a production of WVIZ/PBS ideastream and Kent State University School of Journalism and Mass Communications. NewsDepth is made possible in part by a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, with support also provided by Alcoa Foundation.