NEWSROOM PROJECT

GUIDELINES FOR “NEWSROOM” PROJECT

PHASE 1 – RESEARCH (Put the following things in your on-line WRITING JOURNAL at classroom.google.com) (2 weeks)

1. Consider yourself a “reporter” who is trying to get the facts on a particular topic.  By now you have used your own curiosity to choose a topic.
2. Find at least 25 different facts about your topic (REMEMBER TO SAVE LINKS AND SOURCES because you’ll need to cite them on your FINAL-WRITE)
3. Gather and save graphics for your topic.  These would include:

1. photographs (which you can save from the internet)
2. charts, graphs, or diagrams (which you can save from the internet)

4. Find an interesting story/narrative which relates to your topic.
5. Think of question to ask an expert about your topic. Contact an EXPERT by email, direct-message, phone, getting from him/her the answer to your question(s).

PHASE 2 – PRE-WRITE DRAFTING (Put the following in your on-line WRITING JOURNAL after the gathering of facts) (1 week)

1. DEVELOP A THESIS STATEMENT FOR YOUR ARTICLE
2. Considering your thesis statement, write out the narrative that you plan to use to present the facts surrounding your thesis statement.  (Find a “hook” to lead your readers into your article/story.)
3. Select the most important facts you want to use and try (as best you can) to fit them naturally into your narrative/story.
4. Edit your work, ask Mr. Stephens and classmates to read and edit your work.

Phase 3 – FINAL-WRITE DRAFTING (which will be done a google-classroom form that Mr. Stephens will provide) (1 week)

1. Write your story as you want it to appear in magazine form
2. Make your citations at the end of the story

Bumpus Goes to Birmingham Project

Here is the rubric for the Bumpus Goes to Birmigham project.

Bumpus Goes to Birmingham

Writing Project

Once we return from our field trip to Birmingham, you will use your field trip experience to write about the events that took place in 1963.  Make sure your project includes the following elements:

Required elements (you must complete both)

_____        Personal photograph

_____        Photo analysis

Optional elements (choose three)

_____        Ballad (include two verses and a chorus)

_____        Creative nonfiction (memoir, diary)

_____        Fiction (short story, novel chapter)

_____        Persuasive text (letter, speech)

Product Format (choose one method to format your work)

_____        Power Point presentation

_____        Scrapbook (hard copy)

Photographs

—you will have the opportunity to take pictures while you visit downtown.  We will get a chance to view a variety of statues, monuments, buildings, and Civil Rights posts.   Take as many pictures of these as possible.  You will use your photos to embed as pictures in your project.

--you must choose one of your photos to analyze.  This picture needs to be something that evokes emotion or makes an argument.

Photo analysis

--your analysis must be at least one paragraph in length.  Make sure you choose at least two elements from your picture to describe within your paragraph

Ballad

--you may choose to write a ballad about the 16^th Street Baptist Church bombing or the Children’s Crusade.  You should include 2 verses (at least four lines long) and one chorus (at least one line long).  Remember that a ballad tells a story.  Your poem should tell a story about the  bombing or crusade.

Nonfiction

--In this piece, you will need to take on the persona of someone who participated in either the church bombing or children’s march.  The writing should be an accurate retelling of what happened to this person during the event.  Feel free to write this text as a diary entry.  This may require a bit of research for you, but your text should be written in your own words.

Fiction

--this piece needs to show that you understand the elements of historical fiction.  Although this text should be based on either the children’s march or church bombing, you need to include elements of fiction as well.  You may write this up as a short story or a chapter from a novel.  Perhaps you would like to rewrite Chapter 14 of The Watsons Go to Birmingham.

Persuasive text

--This text may be written as a letter to the editor or as if you are an historical character making a speech about the events of the Civil Rights Movement.  Make sure you include at least two persuasive strategies in your writing.  This text should include an introduction, body , and conclusion.