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Reporting from the newsdesk

The students are looking at writing and how man has used it to express his feelings. In the "PYP Making it Happen" it falls under the theme How We Express Ourselves:

"An inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express our ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs, and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic."

In order to create internationally-minded students, we need to look at content through the lens of carefully selected "Attitudes", in this case:  empathy and tolerance, two vital ingredients that promote open minded and pluralistic denizens of the world.
OBL
The death of Osama Bin Laden opened old wounds for many. People were excited and curious about many aspects of the sitiuation. Was it justifiable to kill a human being who was unarmed? He harmed many innocent citizens of the world, so was it okay to take his life? Bury him at sea?

These questions were discussed in class by my very vocal students. It was great fun watching them argue and ponder over what had happened.

"How would you like to make others in school aware of what has happened and how you feel about it?" I asked them.

So they came up with the idea of creating newpaper reports.What do we look out for in these pieces of work then?

Content - have all the features of a newspaper report been addressed? The why, how, where, what  and when?Colums, pictures, captions?

Skills- have they created catchy headlines and chosen appropriate words to capture the audience's attention?

Knowledge- do they have enough knowledge about what has happened?

Attitudes- As reporters, is their work unbiased? Does it recognize the fact that people may have different reactions to the situation and that their job is to inform people as objectively as possible?

The work attached in the blogpost is group work done in 2 lessons on 40 minutes each.

NPR2
http://www.scribd.com/doc/54616875


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Comments

  1. David WarrMay 9, 2011 at 5:31 AM

    I think world events like this should be dealt with in class, if that's what the students want, as you have done very well.

    ReplyDelete

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