Newspaper Report

 

 

During my practicum, I taught two grade 10 English (university prep.) classes where we read William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Since the practicum took place a month before the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT), I decided it would be beneficial for my students to include OSSLT teaching moments throughout the Shakespearean play.

Before my practicum began, the grade 10 students wrote a practise OSSLT and the results of the tests were determined two weeks after my practicum began. While many students performed well on the test, the results for the newspaper article were quite low across all those who wrote the test. It was clear to me that writing up a lesson plan that focused on newspaper writing was vital to the future success of my students. The first scene of act one of Romeo and Juliet takes the audience to the marketplace where a fight breaks out between the Montague and the Capulet men. This was the perfect place to start my lesson on newspaper articles. After exploring the scene with my grade 10s, I introduced them to their next assignment. Using a large model of the inverted pyramid, I explained the form and structure of a newspaper article. Next, each student was handed a copy of the day's newspaper and a question sheet. By answering the question, the class was able to explore and dissect the structure of that is included in a newspaper article. They also had a chance to differentiate between a good newspaper article and a bad one. This was a vital part of the lesson because it gave students a chance to look at a newspaper. I know, this sounds a little silly; however, with online journalism (which has its very own reporting rules and structures) and news feeds on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, students have less of a chance of picking up a print newspaper. This exposure to newspaper articles gave the students a base to model their own news articles.

Each student received a copy of the assignment guidelines and rubric. Students were encouraged to peer assess and self-assess their news articles before submission. I feel very confident in my students writing and I am glad to notice a significant difference between their OSSLT practice test and their Romeo and Juliet act 1, scene 1 fight scene articles.

While the assignment fulfilled its purpose and the students grasped newspaper article writing, I encountered many issues while marking the assignments. These issues revolved strictly around the rubric. Even thought I wrote the rubric twice before checking back with my associate teacher, I still had a very difficult time with grading and trying to match students' work with the rubric. I should take the time to clear up the fact that some assignments were very easy to mark because they followed the rubric exactly. Others, however, were very difficult to mark. The entire grading process revolved around trying to pinpoint where the students' work fit on the rubric. This is also where I started to question the difference between a 3- and a 2+. Because, really, the difference is so small, it might as well not exist at all. Checking back with my associate, the response consisted of a shoulder shrug and a "well that's rubrics for ya". For the sake of providing proper feedback to my students, I made sure to include lots of written feedback on their sheets and their assignments. The feedback consisted of what I thought was done well, what needed improvement, and what did not work at all. This and the "interviews" I held after the marked assignments were handed back out, really helped the students understand the assignment and their grade better.

While I am not dismissing rubrics all together, I'm simply saying that they work best alongside written feedback.