Working Together To Outrun Cancer
Lesson: Elements of a Newspaper Article (Part One)
Curriculum Connection: Language Arts
Grade Level: Intermediate
Time: Approximately 100 minutes
Throughout the Marathon of Hope, Terry relied heavily on newspapers and media to promote the run and his cause. The following lesson will teach students the different elements that come together to effectively create a newspaper article and help them plan out a newspaper article to promote the upcoming Terry Fox Run/Walk in your school or your community.
Students;
• are able to identify different elements of expository writing and explain how these elements affect the reader’s reaction to the text.
• have a greater knowledge of Terry Fox, the Marathon of Hope and the upcoming Terry Fox
Events in their community.
Reading 1.7
• A nalyse a variety of texts, including complex or difficult texts, and explain how the various elements in them contribute to meaning and influence the reader’s reaction.
• BLM I-13: “Terry Fox Prediction Activity”
• BLM I-14: “Word Jot Activity”
• BLM I-15: “A Shining Legacy of Hope”
• BLM I-16: “With a Hop and a Hope, a Brave Lad became a Nation’s Hero”
• BLM I-17: “Elements of Newspaper Articles”
• BLM I-18: “Exit Card”
• Chart paper
• Markers
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Setting the Stage- Tea Party
• Handout one piece of paper from BLM I-13 to each student with words and sentences taken directly from the article, “A Shining Legacy of Hope” (BLM I-15).
• Give students 3 minutes to move around the classroom, saying only the words on their piece of paper to as many students as possible.
• Have students return to their desk and write down as much information as possible from their interaction with other students on ‘Word Jot Activity’ sheet (BLM I-14).
• On the same sheet (BLM I-14) have students make predictions on what they think this article is about based on the information collected in the word jot box.
• Once they have made their predictions, ask students to guess what type of text that they think these words/phrases were found in and explain their answer..
Core Learning Activity
• Read the article titled, “A Shining Legacy of Hope” (BLM I-15) together and discuss the contents of the article.
• Discuss with students how different types of text have different elements. Give an example (ie.
Narrative: Rising action, characters, beginning/middle/end, etc)
• In groups, have students look over another newspaper article titled, “With a Hop and a Hope, a
Brave Lad became a Nation’s Hero” (BLM I-16) about Terry Fox and make a list of the different elements they see that are unique to newspaper articles
• Create an anchor chart of the elements that they found. Prompt students to discover elements that they did not mention. See BLM I-17 for a list of additional elements. Post this anchor chart at the front of the classroom for quick reference.
• Choose one element from the anchor chart and discuss how this element would affect the readers’ reaction to the text. For instance, using the element ‘Most important information first’, discuss how readers of newspapers generally are looking for a short, quick read. By giving them the most important information first, they will be more content as they might be in a hurry and do not want to invest the time to read the entire article. Hence, they may continue to buy this newspaper.
• Use the Terry Fox articles to help support the answers given above.
Application of Information
• Give each group a different element from the anchor chart.
• Have them answer the question, “How does this element change the reader’s reaction
to the text?” Encourage them to support their answer using evidence from both of the Terry
Fox Articles.
• Allow each group to present their answers to the class and discuss.
• Have students complete an exit card (BLM I-18) at the end of class stating, “What element of a newspaper article most affects the reader’s reaction to the text and why?”
Use student responses and information from exit cards to assess their understanding of the basic concepts discussed in the lesson. Use this information to determine if additional teaching is required before moving onto the next lesson.
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Ask students to do a short survey regarding the popularity of newspapers in today’s society.
Challenge students to find out why people like reading this type of text and why people prefer other types of text. Have students present their survey and results to the class.
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BLM I-13

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BLM I-14

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BLM I-15

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BLM I-16

Typo in the word element below. There’s an extra L
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BLM-17

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BLM I-18