Lesson Plan

Finding Story Ideas

Curated and Reviewed by Lesson Planet

Pitch your best news story to your news team, or the peers in your journalism class, with a lesson plan about finding, reporting, and presenting a story. After watching clips of different examples, as well as strategies for finding the best stories to report, scholars draft their pitches complete with background information, multiple perspectives, and the perfect opening shot.

 

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CCSS: Designed
Instructional Ideas
  • Helpful for a journalism class or another lesson about presenting informational text, either in language arts or social studies
Classroom Considerations
  • Contains some words and phrases that are specific to journalism and broadcast news (b-roll)
  • Instructions encourage pupils to submit their pitches to PBS, but this part is easily removed from instruction if you'd rather they keep their stories in your class
  • Although the title on the lesson reads, "Broadcast News," it is actually an error and should read, "Finding Story Ideas"; this does not effect the content in the lesson
Pros
  • Provides links to videos that feature reporting tips and examples of newsworthy stories 
  • Prompts kids to collaborate when working on their stories, creating a community of teamwork in your journalism class
Cons
  • None