30 SEP 2024
Year 7,8 & 9 Academic Scholars Extension Lesson - Journalism and the Media
Engaging sessions to stretch our more able students with extension activities.
Emma Low, English Teacher and Cambridge graduate has started her new role as Academic Scholars and Oxbridge Co-ordinator to lead the Scholars Programme. John Green, Headmaster said: “Emma will have a tremendous impact in stretching our more able students with extension activities, I’m looking forward to seeing the topics that they’ll discuss and debate.”
Emma had her first session last week with our Year 7,8 & 9 Scholars. She explained that she will hold extension lessons fortnightly for the first half of the year. For the second half of the year students will then carry out independent projects where they will research a topic they’re interested in and produce something (an essay, presentation, video etc.) to share with the rest of the group.
Emma presented her extension lesson taking a look at journalism and how journalists and the media shape our opinions of what is going on in the world. She said: “Something can be reported very differently depending on which paper is reporting it.”
Emma showed front pages from two publications covering Brexit to show how images, the tone of language and punctuation used can communicate different meanings. The headline from the The Economist said, ‘A tragic split’ whereas The Daily Mail used, ‘We're Out!’.
Students worked in pairs to discuss the meaning behind each front page. Following a discussion Emma set the students their own writing task. She said: “Imagine you are a journalist, and you have just discovered that private schools are going to be banned. Write a headline and a 50-word article reporting the news.” Students wrote very engaging pieces that they then read out to the class.
The session ended with students comparing two news stories in the Daily Mail about Kate Middleton and Megan Markle’s pregnancies.
Reflecting on the session Emma said: “I’m really impressed with the group’s writing skills, the level of vocabulary and the grammar and punctuation used. They very quickly put together very persuasive pieces of writing about the topic and the headlines were very eye catching. They did a fantastic job comparing the news articles that we looked at. Well done everyone!”
Thank you, Emma, for organising an engaging and interactive session that has got us all thinking about journalism and how journalists and the media shape our opinions of what is going on in the world.