Teachers: Teacher Librarian / 5th Grade Language Arts Teacher
Subject Area: Language Arts, Writing
Grade Level: 5th
Unit Title: Writing
Lesson Title: Women’s History Month: News Article
Overview: Students will write a news style article about an event featuring a famous American woman during March, Women’s History Month, after reading a biography about a famous American woman.
Connection to the Curriculum: In fifth grade, students study the roles of American women during the American Revolution and come to understand the role that women have played in their history. Fifth graders also work on their writing skills. This lesson will allow students to extend their learning about the role of women during the American Revolution to other time periods and provide an opportunity to practice writing about an important event.
Connection to Standards: English Language Arts Content Standards for California, Grade Five, Standard 2.0 Writing Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics): Students write narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive texts of at least 500 to 700 words in each genre. Student writing demonstrates a command of standard American English and the research, organizational, and drafting strategies outlined in Writing Standard 1.0. Standard 2.3: Write research reports about important ideas, issues, or events by using the following guidelines:
Frame questions that direct the investigation.
Establish a controlling idea or topic.
Time: Approximately 4 hours.
Materials/Equipment Required: Students will need access to iWork Pages or Microsoft Word for word processing (both programs are available at school). Students will also need 1 bibliography about a famous American woman.
Objectives: Students will learn how read for information and how to structure a news article using their research data. Students will learn to identify the importance of a particular historical event.
Suggested Procedure: Students should spend about 2 hours reading a short biography, gathering information, and identifying a single event involving their subject. Students will then write a news style article about the event featuring the famous American woman of their choice using their research data.
Opening: Teacher will introduce the assignment by sharing the book The Daring Nellie Bly, America’s Star Reporter (book review available at http://picturebooksforbigkids.blogspot.com/2011/06/daring-nellie-bly-americas-star.html) by Bonnie Christensen.
Development: Teacher will lead a discussion about the most significant contributions of Bly, asking students to consider what they learned about Bly from this story that would be newsworthy for a reporter during Bly’s time. Which one of Bly’s achievements would make a good news story? Teacher will introduce assignment to write a news story about something newsworthy accomplished by a famous American woman. Other examples might include suggesting a story about Amelia Earhart’s solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, a story about Elizabeth Blackwell becoming the first female U.S. doctor, etc.
Closing: Students will write a news style article featuring a famous American woman and can use a template in Microsoft Word or Pages to create a newspaper style format.
Student Assessment: Students will submit drafts of their news articles to the teacher for editing, then make revisions and turn in a final “story” to the teacher for “publication.”
Extending the Lesson: Teacher arranges for a local career woman to visit the class and share how other women have influenced her career decisions.
