Nebraska Career Information System

Arts, Communication and Information Systems Career Field

News Story Learning Activity

Overview

News Story is a hands-on activity to help students learn about some of the work related to the Arts, Communication, and Information Systems career field. One of the objectives of the activity is to provide the opportunity for students to do work tasks and then to reflect upon those tasks. The exploration activity is set up to be completed in one class period. The activity could used to introduce the career field.

Standards

School Counseling
K-12.3.1 Identify values, attitudes, and beliefs.
K-12.1.1 Develop an awareness of personal abilities, skills, interests, and motivations.
K-12.1.2 Identify personal skills, interests, and abilities and relate them to current career choices.
K-12.1.3 Identify personal preferences and interests which influence career choices and success.
K-12.1.3 Demonstrate how interests, abilities, and achievement relate to achieving career goals.

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Reading and Writing

8.2.1 Write using Standard English for sentence structure, usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.
8.2.2 Write compositions with focus, related ideas, and supporting details.
8.2.3 Revise and edit compositions.

Materials and Supplies

Work with educators or a theatre class to create an “event” for the students to observe. The students will be observing in the role of news reporters and will be asked to write a report for the evening news.

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Instructions for Educators

1. Talk with the students/clients about the tasks of a news reporter and writing news stories. Focus on who, what, when, where, why, and how.
2. Stage the “event”.
3. Have the students write a news story that will be read on TV by a news reporter.
4. Have them share the story with an editor (another student/client) for suggestions for revisions and edits.
5. Hand in the story to be evaluated by a careers or English teacher.
6. Once the news story is written, have them complete “Thinking about News Story”.
7. Discuss how interest, abilities, and skills are related to career options and choices.
8. Have the students/clients save the “News Story” activity in the career portfolios.
9. An optional activity is to have the students/clients, who are interested in this career field, explore occupations related to this activity or the Arts, Communication, and Information Systems field.

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Writing the News Story Instructions

1. After you have observed the “event”, make written notes about the details of what happened. Focus on who, what, when, where, why, and how.
2. Write a brief news story that will be read at 6:00 pm by one of the station’s news reporters.
3. Have another student act as an editor and review your story and suggest improvements and changes.
4. Submit the news story to your publisher/instructor.
5. Once the news story is written, respond to the questions and statements below.

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Thinking about News Story

Yes

1. This was a challenging activity.

_____

2. This was an enjoyable activity.

_____

3. This activity helped me understand what I am good at and not so good at.

_____

4. This activity helped me think about reporting or writing.

_____

5. What did you specifically like or dislike about this activity?

6. Would you be interested in writing news stories for newspapers, television, or radio? Reviewing and correcting stories written by others? Photographing news events? Reporting news on television or radio?

_____

Explain why you are interested or not interested in these options.

Save these thoughts in your career portfolio. In the future, review your responses and consider if your interests and preferences have changed. Do you still have the same attitude about the news reporting project? What has stayed the same or changed and why?

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