PBS NewsHour Extra Student Reporting Labs

Lesson 3.1 Teamwork, Planning, Scripting and Editing

Developed by D. Michael Cheers

Standards

• McRel: Working with Others, 1 Students will learn how to contribute to the overall effort of a group.
• ISTE: Media Concepts, 6.0 Students will demonstrate leadership, citizenship, and teamwork skills required for success in the school, community, and workplace.

Overview

Students learn the art of collaboration.  All egos are checked at the door and students learn to listen and respect the input from other members of the news team. While some news organizations have APJs (All Platform Journalists) who work in field alone producing news packages, it is still common practice to collaborate in teams of 2 to 5 production members.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

·         Understand how news/feature stories are planned and executed

·         Have some level of competency in all areas of news/feature production

·         Assemble a field production team

·         Assemble a post-production team

·         Deliver the news package on deadline

Advance Preparation

Everyone must be on the same page before heading into the field. That means the research is solid. Facts are checked before leaving the newsroom. That said, never go out on an assignment with blinders on. Situations change. Be flexible.

Engage Interest

Get as much input from your team as possible. The producer of the news package should be inviting and engaging with his/her team. Everyone should feel invested in the project regardless of whether it is a three-minute news story or a longer feature story.

Gain Knowledge

View the student reporting labs link to see what your high school around the country peers are producing, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/speakout/srlabs/climatechange1.html

Advanced students who are seriously interested in pursuing a career in journalism can check out Soul of Athens at http://2010.soulofathens.com/experience by students at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication and E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. 

Also the winning multimedia stories from http://www.cpoy.org/index.php?s=WinningImages The College Photographer of the Year competition.

Activity:

The PBS Student Reporting Lab topics are hot off the press! The themes include the economy, immigration and the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Divide your class into groups and pass out copies of Worksheet A-Mind Mapping. Students should choose a topic and begin brainstorming with their group possible story ideas.

Pass out copies of Worksheet B-Planning. Working in their groups allow students adequate time to fill out the worksheet answering each question thoroughly.

Pass out copies of the blank Worksheet C-Scripting. Pass out copies of the completed Worksheet C-Scripting. Let students use the completed table as a point of reference while they fill in the scripts for their projects.

See Appendix A-Editing. Pass out copies as needed.

Time for Performance

Set deadlines for story idea submissions. A week should be long enough to develop story ideas.

Reflect

Take at least one class period per story to allow the students to reflect on what they learned. Rather than pepper them with a lot of questions, you may want to start the discussion, then ease out of the conversation and let the student’s dialogue on what they learned. The teacher may want to take notes to help guide the next wave of students on their journey to producing engaging and compelling content.