Class: Writing for Publications

Instructor: Lindsey Walcott Class: Writing for Publications Unit: Personality Profile Lesson: Quotable quotes, repeating patterns and other reinforcements

RESEARCH Rob Melton’s News Writer’s Handbook

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE The previous day, the students learned about open and close-ended questions. They also read the chapter on interviewing techniques.

RATIONALE To focus the students’ attention, I project several questions. Students are asked to read each question and to determine what the pattern is. They are given no further directions. The purpose of this activity is to focus the students’ attention. Second, this activity is also meant to reinforce the difference between open and close-ended questions. It is important to reinforce this concept because some students may not have gleaned the distinction before. However, unless students need more time, it is not necessary to spend more than a focus activity reinforcing this concept because there is today’s content to get to as well.

Today, students will also examine several examples of good and bad quotes. It is important for student journalists to learn the difference between a good and a bad quote. To interest students in this lesson, I pulled quotes from various South and North yearbooks on the same topic: homecoming. The purpose of using both schools is to bring bragging rights as motivation to read all the quotes. In other words, which school owns the bragging rights for best quotes in a yearbook.

The rationale behind sorting the interview tips is simple. There are several interview tips. By having students sort them by order of importance, they are judging the terms and personally connected with them. In addition, the graphic organizer reinforces the inverted pyramid organization pattern: an important concept that is also being taught during this unit.

Toward the end of the unit, students must complete a close model paragraph. The purpose of this activity is to reinforce the terms in chapter five. Since the test is a couple days away, students need to review the terms and have their teach model effective study habits for them. Reading a summary of the chapter as well as pulling specific terms will help the big picture and detail-minded students.

OBJECTIVE To understand the difference between open and close-ended questions. To understand what makes a quote quotable. To understand how an inverted pyramid organizes information. To understand how to hand quotes correctly. DPI ACADEMIC STANDARDS English Language Arts, Standard B: Writing Performance Standards - Grade 12

B.12.1 Create or produce writing to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

 Write for a variety of readers, including peers, teachers, and other adults, adapting content, style, and structure to audience and situation

PROCEDURES Introduction statement: I’m not going to lie. Today we are going to look at a lot of information. Lots of lists. In order to get through this information, we are going to undergo several sorting activities to better retain the information. 1. Teacher projects the “What’s the pattern?” transparency. Students determine that the pattern is for every three open-ended questions there is one close-ended question.

2. Teacher distributes interviewing packet and inverted pyramid quarter sheets.

3. Teacher asks students to read the interview techniques silently.

4. Afterward, students, with partners, sort interviewing techniques in the inverted pyramid from most important to least important. Students raise hands and share answers with the class.

5. As a class, the students read the types of questions. Teacher asks students to determine which type of questions could be classified as close or open-ended questions. Teacher writes the students answer on the board.

6. Afterward, teacher erases the board and writes “Preparing for the story.”

7. After you have conducted your interviews, you must then begin the process of sorting the good quotes from the bad. But how do you know what makes a quote good?

8. Teacher writers four quotes on the board, all of which are from the same movie. The teacher asks the students to determine which quote is the most effective, most quotable. Afterward, teacher asks students to justify their answer.

9. Students and teacher generate a list of requirements for quotable quotes. Provide new information Express emotions Reflect the source’s personality Use specifics like proper pronouns 10. Teacher distributes “Homecoming Quotes” sheet. She tells the class that there is a pattern. You could argue that one school did a better job of getting quotes than the other. Your job is to first determine which quotes are good and which are bad. Good being quotable and bad being unquotable. Afterward, guess which school has a pattern of quotable quotes and which school displays a pattern of unquotable quotes. With your column partners, you have five to seven minutes to complete this assignment.

11. After five minutes pass, the teacher announces that students should pick the three best quotes and the three worst quotes. Last, teacher asks column groups to share their favorites and their least favorites. Students must justify their answers.

12. Clearly, South High School is way better at getting the quotable quotes. We have a quotable reputation. Now, look at all of these quotes. What’s missing from them? The students respond by saying, “Attribution.”

13. At that moment, the teacher distributes a handout on how to handle quotes fairly and accurately.

14. The teacher projects the handout and she goes over each rules.

15. So not only do we have a quotable reputation, but we also have an attribution reputation that we need to uphold as well. We will go over these rules more. For now, I’d like us to concentrate, for the reminder of class, on our chapter five vocabulary words.

16. Last, the teacher distributes the cloze activity and asks students to fill in the blank. After a few minutes, teacher asks a student to write the answers of the cloze activity on the overhead transparency.

Closing statement: You did an excellent job today sorting all that information. We covered a lot of information. Tonight, use any of these sorting activities we’ve used in class to study your quiz tomorrow.

KEY QUESTIONS Which question types are close-ended and which are open-ended?

What is the difference between a good quote and a bad quote?

LESSON ASSESSMENTS Students will be assessed on their knowledge of open and close-ended questions at the start of class. By having students determine what the pattern is, they are revealing that they can easily pick out open and close ended questions if given a list of questions.

Next, students read about other types of questions. From that list of question types, students convert that list into two groups: open and close-ended questions. Students’ ability to identify which question types sound factual and which emotional tells me that they are understand the difference between the two question types.

Later, students are assessed on their understanding of what makes a quote quotable by identifying the good and the bad homecoming quotes.

Also, students’ knowledge will be assessed on vocabulary using a focus activity. I will assess the students’ knowledge as a class by having students complete a cloze activity based on the material in chapter five. Later in the week, students will take a quiz on chapter five.

Last, students will tell me what they learned in class using an exit pass.

What’s the pattern?

Do you know the answer? Why do we have weekends off?

Why do teachers give so much homework?

How will I know what to wear?

What’s your name?

How do I do this exercise?

Why won’t you listen to me?

Why is it that every time I go the place is always empty?

What time does the game start?

Why do birds suddenly appear every time you’re near?

Why are we here?

Why is anyone here?

What kind of shoes are those?

Why now?

How do I fix what you’ve broken?

Why wouldn’t you want to see that movie?

Do you want the rest of my pizza?

Why can’t we all just get along?

How can you say it that it wouldn’t work?

Why don’t we eat out?

When is Transformers 3 coming out?