S2 Homework Task - September
Newspaper
Articles
S2 Homework Task - September
Checklist
Section A
Section B
Activity 1
Produce a summary
Activity 1
Produce a summary
Activity 2
Answer questions
Activity 2
Answer questions
Activity 3
Connotation
questions
Activity 3
Rhetorical devices
Learning Intentions:
Curriculum for Excellence
‘Experiences and Outcomes’
•I can summarise a piece of non-fiction
writing using my own words as far as
possible.
•I can recognise techniques used to
persuade the reader.
•I can comment on the writer’s use of
language, in particular denotation and
connotation.
•I can comment on the writer’s use of
figures of speech.
LIT 3-14a
LIT 3-18a
LIT 3-19a
LIT 3-19a
This month we are looking at newspaper
articles.
Newspapers contain two particular types of
writing:
1 Report - a factual account of persons
and/or places
2 Discursive - persuasive or argumentative
writing that has a point of view
Section A – Report
There are 3 activities to
complete in Section A.
Section A - Activity 1
Read the report on the following pages and answer all of the questions that
follow.
Sighthill pupils turn down
lavish school prom
The Scotsman newspaper, 17th June 2013
END of term used to mean the chance to take a board
game to school or, if you were lucky, the chance to wear
jeans and a T-shirt instead of your uniform.
Then came the Americanisation of “schools out” and a
proliferation of prom parties that have become
increasingly lavish and brash.
Stretch limos, diamanté studded prom gowns and even
helicopter ferry rides (for the grandest of grand
entrances) have all become part of prom season. The
heady mix, which is everywhere at this time of year, has
spawned a lucrative sub-culture.
But a group of primary seven pupils at one Edinburgh
school have brought their own refreshing slant to the
now ubiquitous grand prom, voting to reject a large bash
in exchange for a smaller affair simply enjoying pizza as
a gang of chums.
The Sighthill Primary pupils, who will soon make the
move to high school, voted decisively to spare their
parents the headache of shelling out a considerable
amount of cash and will instead settle for a day of
bowling (and that pizza) instead.
The 21-4 vote means mums and dads will pay only £2 per
child rather than the hundreds of pounds forked out by
increasing numbers of parents across Edinburgh, amid a
growing trend towards marking the passage from primary to
secondary school with a glitzy leaving dance. Sighthill parent
council chair Amanda Campbell, 42, whose daughter, Erin, is
in P7, said: “I know of parents at other schools who have paid
out for limos, kilts and fancy dresses for their kids – it can
cost up to £400. It’s one thing the school being able to
afford it and the parent council providing some of the funds.
“But if you’re talking about parents having to provide a limo
or a kilt just to keep up with everybody else, lots of them
just don’t have the finances for that, especially in this
economic climate.”
Ms Campbell said Erin and her 24 classmates were “really
excited” at the chance of Laserquest, bowling and Pizza Hut.
And she said many P7s at Sighthill had told their class
teacher they had no interest in an expensive prom because
they saw each other as equals and wanted to make sure
everyone could join in before saying goodbye to primary
school.
“They just want to go out together and do something that
they’ll really enjoy and remember,” she said.
Headteacher Eileen Littlewood said: “It’s all become very
Americanised and I don’t know if it’s come from programmes
that the children are watching.
“We don’t want parents or children to feel stressed, left out
or under pressure and that they have to comply with the
expectation and demands from other people.”
You shall go to the ball... in a helicopter
PARENTS today are going to extravagant lengths to
celebrate their child’s move to high school.
Limo reservations likely to set mums and dads back nearly
£300 have become increasingly commonplace – and that’s
before parents consider whether to spend £200 on hiring a
gown.
In one particularly extreme case, a parent in East
Renfrewshire asked the local council if they could send their
child to the prom in a helicopter. It is understood the parent
wanted their child to make a big entrance but the idea was
dismissed by education bosses.
One parent of a P7 pupil said: “We never had them in our day
but I can see how exciting it is. The kids love it.”
Section A Activity 1 - Questions
A.Examine the headline.
i. What information can you gain from it?
ii. Explain the meaning of ‘lavish’.
B. Find two places identified in the article.
C. Find and quote two examples of statistics
D. Find an example of an interview. Write down the first few words and
say who was interviewed.
E. Write down an example of two contrasting costs that have been given.
F. Write down two phrases which make the article sound critical of ‘lavish’
school proms?
G. Which famous fairy tale is being alluded to with the phrase “You shall
go to the ball…”?
Section A - Activity 2
You are to produce a summary of the previous newspaper report.
You must use your own words as far as possible.
Sighthill pupils turn down
lavish school prom
Newspaper report
The Scotsman newspaper, 17th June 2013
Your summary
What we have just learned…
Newspaper article checklist







Writing is set out in columns
A headline is used, sub-heading too
The article is about real people and places
Statistics often appear in parenthesis ( )
Interviews with people are presented using “ ”
Dramatic language may be used
Paragraphs are quite short
Section A - Activity 3
Denotation and Connotation
Denotation
The basic
meaning of a
word
Connotation
The additional
meaning(s)
associated
with a word.
A. What connotations are created by the word ‘chums’ ?
B. Find a more basic word or phrase for ‘shelling out’.
End of Section A
Section B –
Persuasive Writing
There are 3 activities to
complete in Section B
Section B - Activity 1
Read the article which follows. It expresses an opinion on ‘reality television’.
A Curse of cruelty T.V.!
The Daily Mail, April 2008
Back in 1968, when I started out, there were only three
channels, no satellites or downloads, no YouTube, no daytime television, no naked bodies, no chat shows.
Since then I've had huge fun working in front of and
behind the cameras. My job has taken me behind the
scenes of great and glorious events, into hidden places
and remote hide-outs, and I've met heroes, villains and
the funny, compassionate "ordinary" people of Britain.
How radically television has changed. Rude, brusque
interviewers, humiliating formats and unfair editing
often reveal a contempt for programme-makers'
subjects and for their viewers.
Take Britain's Got Talent. Here we saw wannabe
performers ranging from the brilliant to the absurd.
Some are
treated with compassion; other were booted off
ignominiously. While I find myself horribly mesmerised
by the most grotesque - and least talented - acts, I
wonder why it has to have this edge of cruelty.
Is it just coincidence that bullying is the biggest single
problem children bring to ChildLine, with 37,000 calls
from deeply distressed victims last year alone? Bullying
flourishes not just in schools but on our screens, and it's
glorified. Once it would not have been tolerated.
Shows such as The Weakest Link have all garnered huge
success by creating a modern theatre of cruelty in
which contestants are humiliated - and coarsened
audiences laugh at their expense. Some programmes,
such as The Jerry Springer Show, seem deliberately to
dehumanise them. The schedules are dotted with films
about men and women with diseases or disabilities, who
are treated like freaks. We are living in the era of
"Mean TV". These are forums sustained by the
overweening modern obsession with celebrity, in which
people of little talent make fools of themselves chasing
a hopeless dream.
The best programmes - and there are many - prove that
the skills which informed programme making in the
Sixties are still there. The brilliance of The Apprentice
turns each Wednesday night into an event. The glitz and
glamour of Strictly Come Dancing warms our winter
Saturday nights and has been sold around the world,
topping the ratings everywhere. Yes, these are reality
shows, but they are also beautifully produced. So the
good news for my daughter and her young
contemporaries is that great programmes are still being
made.
All the medium needs to do for its survival is to restore
respect. Respect for the people who take part in
programmes, respect for the standards of honesty and
integrity and, above all, respect for the audiences. Only
then will the television industry regain our respect, and
the pride of place in our lives it had, back in the dawn of
television time 40 years ago.
Ignominiously – shameful, embarrassing
ChildLine – free and confidential telephone service for
young people in distress
Section B - Activity 1
A Write a short summary (2 or 3 sentences) of the writer’s
argument.
B Look at paragraphs 1 and 2. How is the writer’s argument
introduced?
Section B - Activity 2
A Identify the key points, where they are
made:
Paragraph
Key Point(s)
Position in paragraph (e.g.
start, middle, end)
B For each point, what evidence has been used by the
writer?
C Is every point made by the writer negative?
D Does this strengthen his/her argument? Explain.
Section B - Activity 3
Rhetorical devices are features of language that aim to be persuasive.
A Match the examples to the devices, and then write a definition explaining
the meaning of each one.
Alliteration
To stop the
cruelty, we have
to stop
watching
Emotional
Appeal
Television can
be terrific – or
just trash.
Pattern of 3
How would you
feel in that
situation?
First Person
The audience
howl at the
judges’ brutal
comments.
Emotive
Language
If we continue
to watch these
programmes…
Rhetorical
Question
…(1) sometimes
entertaining,
(2) exciting or
(3) simply
embarrassing…
Repetition
Imagine this
happening to a
member of your
family.
B For each rhetorical device, refer back to the article and find one example
of each device.
C Write a sentence or two explaining the effect that the writer wants to have
on the reader.
End of Section B
S2 Homework Task - September
Checklist
Section A
Section B
Activity 1
Produce a summary
Activity 1
Produce a summary
Activity 2
Answer questions
Activity 2
Key points
Activity 3
Connotation
questions
Activity 3
Rhetorical
devices
End of homework!