Newspaper Reading Assignment

In the News

1. Go to blogger.com and create a blog with an interesting layout.
2. Read on-line sources for news and newspapers to locate currently reported stories of interest.
3. On your blog, post responses reflecting your thoughts about stories presently in the news.
4. Compose a total of ten responses of at least 200 words for each response.
5. Word process your responses and then post them to your blog.
6. You are not simply writing summaries, but there is a need to include the Five W's of journalism (Who? What? Where? When? and Why?). Otherwise, your responses will seem uninformed.
7. Include direct and indirect quotes.
8. You must include the title, date, page number, and author. Also include a link to the story on your blog.
9. Include images from on-line sources.
10. You could respond to news story addressing an issue you care about.
11. You could respond to a news story that is strange but true …or not true?
12. You could respond to a news story related to something addressed in class.
13. You could respond to a tabloid news story or sports story.
14. You could respond to an editorial or letter to the editor.
15. Respond to local, national or international news stories.
16. You must respond to various sorts of news, not just one type such as sports.
17. What is fact? What is fiction? What is opinion? What is ridiculously funny?
18. Consult the scoring rubric to understand how this assignment will be evaluated. You must submit your self-evaluation in class to receive a mark.  
19. As soon as possible, email your blog address to Mr. Hallam (thallam@sd44.ca).
20. Complete the self-evaluation provided (see over) and return it to Mr. Hallam.
21. Blogs that cannot be found or opened will receive a score of zero.
22. Blogs containing plagiarizer material will receive a score of zero.  

Note: To avoid potential loss of work, students are asked to save all parts of this assignment elsewhere. For example, students could easily save their work using the space provided on the school's network. In any event, students are entirely responsible for properly saving all work.