Grades
4-8
2001 NTTI Master Teacher
Marian R. Carlson, writing workshop teacher, Cambridge, MA
Nellie Bly's Newspaper Club: Introducing the Science of Writing
Subject Matter: Language Arts, Journalism, Interdisciplinary Connections
Time Allotment: Two or three 1-hour periods
Overview: This lesson engages students in the science of writing using a historic role model, newspapers, research on the Web, and practical reporting methods. Students become "investigative reporters" and "editors" in a fast-paced newsroom. They analyze
and evaluate a video about the first female investigative reporter, Nellie Bly (1864-1922), focusing on what makes a high interest news article. Students work in pairs to brainstorm, write, and revise a solid essay of their choice and present their finished copy at a Family Literary Tea. Finally, the investigative reporters research and write about other outstanding journalists, learn to work with primary documents, maps, math charts, and share their knowledge with others.
Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to:
Standards:
State Standards
From the English Language Arts Curriculum Frameworks, Massachusetts
Media Components
Video
Around the World in 72 Days (PBS VIDEO)
Web sites
Internet Public Library, Collections, Newspapers
The IPL Online Newspaper Collection lists online versions of print-based newspapers. In addition to traditional local and national newspapers, it also lists official and student-run newspapers.
Maps
This Web site, a tie-in to the PBS video, Around the World in 72 Days, provides a map tracing Bly's 1890 adventure. Accompanying this are part of her journal entries, an excellent primary source.
My Hero, Directory - Writers
This Web site features information, quotes, and book lists on great writers.
Authors on the Web
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown
This is a childrens’ literature Web guide which Yahoo magazine called "One of the most amazingly helpful sites."
Materials
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
For each student:
Name "tent"
Local newspaper story
Pencil and small notebook
Handouts - world map, Nellie's Newspaper Notes, sample illustrated journal entry
Prep for Teachers:
Prior to teaching, bookmark the Web sites used in the lesson.
Photocopy the handouts. Cue the video tape to the appropriate starting point.
Prepare the name "tents" by cutting paper 6"x 9", fold in half long ways.
Ask the first student who arrives to act as "editor" and ask the other students to print their names on the "tents" in black marker, then place on their "office" desks.
Write on the board the quote by Charles Dickens. "Of all the inventions, of all discoveries in science and art; of all the great results in the wonderful progress of mechanical energy and skill; the _______is the only product of civilization necessary to the existence of free man." Charles Dickens
Introductory Activity: Setting the Stage
The following activities will prepare your students for a lesson on the science of writing and introduce the first female investigative reporter, Nellie Bly, as a historic role model.
Step 1: Establishing a Personal Connection to History
Ask your students if they can supply the missing word to the quote written on the board.
Dickens, an English author loved by the world, was referring to the printer.
Ask your students how people accessed to information hundreds and thousands of years before the printing press.
Show your students that "word of mouth" is often incorrect, always slow. Play a quick game of "Telephone". Whisper a message to one student, let it pass along through the class to the last student. That student says it aloud, comparing it with the original message. Mistakes, often humorous, illustrate the value of the written word.
Show students the expense of a handwritten book in the Middle Ages. One fine book was traded for 200 sheep, 5 measures (a quantity) of wheat, and 5 measures of barley.
Ask your students what famous German developed the first printing press. Explain that Gutenberg's great project began with printing the Bible in 1452. There were more than 1000 printers active in Europe by 1500. Access to information was no longer rare and costly. (Breaking into Print, Before and After the Invention of the Printing Press, Stephen Krensky)
Ask your students what Dickens meant about the printing press, "…necessary to the existence of free man." Explain that in France in 1799 there were sixteen newspapers.
After Napoleon became Emperor, there were four. About the same time in the United States, Congress wrote a law protecting the freedom of the press. Ask your students to identify this magnificent law, 1st Amendment to the Constitution.
Explain to your students that today there are 1,483 daily newspapers in the United States, (World Almanac). Newspapers help quench people's thirst for knowledge and understanding of the world around them.
Step 2: Establishing a Personal Connection to Newspapers
Ask your students what newspapers they receive at home. Ask them if they read one section on a regular basis. Is it one of the three major features of a newspaper?
*News Story - a purely factual account of a newsworthy event, described in an objective way (free from personal feelings or prejudice).
*Feature Story - a special type of story designed to entertain as well as inform.
*Editorial - an article that comments on an important event or issue, expressing the opinions of the writer and/or management.
Explain that your classroom is now a fast-paced newsroom. Ask your students to place their name "tents" on their news desks. They'll be looking at one News Story from the point of view of an editor, the supervising director or boss.
Distribute a copy of a current news story to each student printed from the Web site: Internet Public Library, Collection - Newspapers, www.ipl.org
Perhaps choose a story of general interest from your local paper, see sample.
Ask your editors to identify these key parts:
*Banner: the name of the paper stretching across the top of the page.
*Byline: the name of the reporter. (some reporters have a "beat", a specific area) Ask your editors what five key questions the reporter must answer in this article.
Explain and identify by reading aloud the Five W's…
*Who? - first and last names, spelled right, use quotes when appropriate.
*What? - the action or "meat" of the story.
*When? and Where? - very important in upcoming events.
*Why? - "the news behind the news" adds more interest and meaning.
Examine this article to see how many of the Five W's the reporter used in the headlines and "lead", the opening sentences. Explain the lead is like a "hook", pulling readers into the story. Unless the reporter catches their attention up front, they may not continue.
Finally, ask your editors to answer one more question -
*How? - how includes those vivid details that make a story stand out in the reader's mind.
Ask your editors to judge the "news value" of these potential stories…
*Timeliness - "The soccer team practices" or "The soccer team wins the title"
*Human interest - "A man bites a dog" or "A dog bites a man"
*Impact - "Movie tickets for sale" or "Movie tickets double in cost"
Explain a newspaper term, "a good reporter has a nose for news, an ear for dialogue,
and an eye for detail."
Explain to your editors that you will now be examining one of the most newsworthy events in history. In 1889 Joseph Pulitzer was the publisher of The New York World.
It dominated New York's newspapers with a daily circulation of 200,000. Its best reporter was a young woman, Nellie Bly. She came up with a brilliant idea to boost sales.
Ask them to grab their pencils and notebooks. They will view this story as reporters through the magic of video, recording the answers to the Five W's.
(Since reporters have to listen and write at the same time, younger students may only answer two or three W's.)
Insert video Around the World in 72 Days in your VCR.
Step 1. Give your reporters a Focus for Media Interaction, by asking them to write down the answers to as many of the Five W's as they can find as they view the video. Start the tape where sketches of people on the street near the New York World building fill the screen and the narrator says, "In the fall of 1889…" Play the tape until the screen fills with a picture of the book, "Around the World in 80 Days," and the narrator says, "No one had even tried to beat Fogg's record." Pause the tape. Ask your reporters if they discovered the first three W's…
*Who? Nellie Bly (describe her as a reporter so far)
*What? race around the world to beat the fictional record of Phineas Fogg
*When? Fall 1889 (a time when women didn't travel alone)
Ask your reporters if this has news value or is it foolishness?
Do they know the book, Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne?
Step 2. Provide your reporters with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking them to record Where her journey took her and Why did she attempt it? Continue the tape until the screen fills with newspaper headlines, and the narrator says, "If the goal was selling newspapers, this was the perfect stunt." Pause the tape and read the headlines.
Step 3. Provide your reporters with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking them to record How Bly will reach her goal and How she will report it without a fax or phone? Resume play and stop at the end of the tape.
Discuss the journey and ask a volunteer reporter to write responses on the board:
*Who?: Nellie Bly
*What?: raced around the world to beat the fictional record of Phineas Fogg
*When?: November 14, 1889 - January 25, 1890, exactly 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes
*Where?: New Jersey to Europe to Asia to California to New Jersey
*Why?: to boost circulation of The New York World and celebrate the new building
*How? steamship, train, carriage, donkey, rickshaw, sampan, catamaran.
Now we have the facts! Remind your reporters that part of the story was Nellie herself. She put her heart and soul into reporting. Using her "nose for news" and her eyes and ears, her stories had "voice."
Culminating Activity
In order to review with your students that good news writing is needed today, not only to sell papers, but to quench people's thirst for knowledge, have them write their own essay.
Step 1. Reporters of the New Millennium.
Review the importance of reporters opening their eyes, and ears, and heart to think of newsworthy stories. Although Nellie Bly is most famous for her race around the world, she was an investigative reporter. She told the public what it was really like in a sweatshop (a shop employing workers with low wages, long hours, and bad conditions), a mad house, a prison, and exposed the injustices. The readers would get angry and call for investigations based on her eyewitness accounts. Many changes in the law and business practices sprang from her honest reports.
Ask your reporters what "beat" sparks their interest - politics, sports, travel?
Perhaps they want to write about a trip that they've taken. Have they visited any of the countries that Bly visited or have they traveled across town to a museum or park?
What did they see on the way there? Think of the Five W's and H.
Hand out Nellie's Newspaper Notes. Discuss the Graphic Organizer as a structure to think in as they plan. Hand out the student writing sample, discuss.
Students may read and interview to add background information, details, and quotes to their own story. Begin the outline and finish a first draft at home.
(End of second class)
Step 2. First Draft
Reporters take a fresh look at their stories. Self-editing includes reading it slowly, checking for: a strong lead (hook), content (Five W's and H), paragraph strength (one topic), tone (news style), clarity (specific details), spelling (computer spell check), and grammar (Write Source Student Handbook, Houghton Mifflin Company).
Divide your students into pairs. Ask one to assume the role of reporter and read aloud the first draft to the editor. The editor listens and gives suggestions for a clearer story and comments on the strengths. The students then switch roles. Both make revisions.
Step 3. Final Essay
After self-editing and peer-editing, reporters have an adult approve the final copy. Push reporters along on "deadline", check facts and spelling one last time, and polish it up for publication. Decide on a presentation for the final news stories, either hand written or computer typed. Collect, copy, display, distribute the news so other students may read and be inspired.
Cross-Curricular Extensions
Geography: World Travel, Then and Now
Maps Web site www.pbs.org/amex/world
Print this map and the corresponding journal entries as found on the Web site.
Bly carried only a small "grip sack" and the bare essentials - money, watch, etc.
Students should think about their imaginary trip, the weather, climate, and length, and write a paragraph about the trip and their belongings in a "grip sack."
Visual Arts/Language Arts:
Discuss the value of primary documents as authentic resources for writers. Divide Bly's
journal entries among the students and enjoy reading aloud the locations of their choice. Students illustrate a location after discussing how the pictures go along with the text. Hand out the student illustration example.
Social Studies:
My Hero, Directory – Writers Web site (http://myhero.com/hme.asp)
Authors on the Web http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown
Ask your reporter to research and write a short essay about a writer of their choice - past or present. Find out what sparked their interest in writing. What writers were newspaper journalists before they became famous authors? The Web is a good beginning.
Encourage reporters to read a biography on their writer and compare the information.
Suggestions: Nellie Bly, Jules Verne, Joseph Pulitzer, Ida Tarbell, Dorothy Thompson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rudyard Kipling, Washington Irving.
Math
Miles to Go - Measuring a Journey
It's approximately 28,000 miles for a global round-the-world trip.
Complete this chart, or make another, to illustrate three different journeys:
YEAR TRAVELER TIME MILES per DAY
Community Connections:
Primary Partners:
Arrange with the K-3 teachers for your students to adopt a Primary Partner for reading aloud, perhaps during snack time.
Suggestions related to this curriculum: Student's own news stories.
ARTHUR Writes a Story, Marc Brown. A charming story about finding your "voice".
Deadline! From News to Newspaper, Gail Gibbons. Overview of the newspaper industry.
Nellie Bly's Monkey, Joan W. Blos. The global race from the pet monkey's viewpoint.
Henry Hikes to Fitchburg, D. B. Johnson. A delightful race between two friends.
Family Literary Tea
Hosting a real-life author's tea celebrates the hard work of young writers. Plan the tea together and divide up the responsibilities…
Student Materials
Worksheets:
"Nellie's Newspaper Notes"
The World Map