9th Grade Journalism Project Summative Assessment

We're in the middle of a 2-part unit on journalism. We've covered the elements of journalism and analyzing news, marking that with a first summative test. Now students will work toward a second summative by producing an original piece of journalism.

The Task

The essential question for this project is how can I best communicate a news item of interest to HIS students? To do this job, students will need to: 

• organize their thinking logically, using common structural elements appropriate to their chosen medium (radio/podcasts, photojournalism, text-based news articles, or videos)
• make choices in their report (word choices, use of literary devices, use of visual elements) that are designed with the target audience in mind. 
• communicate non-verbally by being purposeful about the use of images, sound, and layout

They should consider the following when planning, researching/interviewing, drafting, and revising: 

• topics/ideas/events that are of interest to HIS students 
• typical structural elements of the chosen medium
• how to attract an audience of HIS students 
• non-verbal communication techniques

The Rubric

(based on the IB rubric with slight adjustments)

	0	1-2	3-4	5-6	7-8
Criterion B:  Organizing ii. - organize opinions and ideas in a sustained, coherent and logical manner	The student does not reach a standard described by any of the descriptors below.	The student organizes opinions and ideas with a minimal degree of coherence and logic	The student organizes opinions and ideas with some degree of coherence and logic	The student organizes opinions and ideas in a coherent and logical manner with ideas building on each other	The student effectively organizes opinions and ideas in a sustained, coherent and logical manner with ideas building on each other in a sophisticated way
Criterion C:  Producing Text ii. - make stylistic choices in terms of linguistic, literary and visual devices, demonstrating awareness of impact on an audience	The student does not reach a standard described by any of the descriptors below.	The student makes minimal stylistic choices in terms of linguistic, literary and visual devices, demonstrating limited awareness of impact on an audience	The student makes some stylistic choices in terms of linguistic, literary and visual devices, demonstrating adequate awareness of impact on an audience	The student makes thoughtful stylistic choices in terms of linguistic, literary and visual devices, demonstrating good awareness of impact on an audience	The student makes perceptive stylistic choices in terms of linguistic, literary and visual devices, demonstrating good awareness of impact on an audience
Criterion D:  Using Language v. - use appropriate non-verbal communication techniques.	The student does not reach a standard described by any of the descriptors below.	The student makes limited and/or inappropriate use of non-verbal communication techniques.	The student makes some use of appropriate non-verbal communication techniques.	The student makes sufficient use of appropriate non-verbal communication techniques.	The student makes effective use of appropriate non-verbal communication techniques.

The Monitoring Plan

This is a 4-week (12 hours in class) project that will be broken into stages with corresponding supportive formative assessments. Deadlines for the completion of each stage is flexible, to a point, depending on student need. In the first week, students will be responsible for selecting a topic and a medium, as well as setting their own work plan schedule, deadlines and reminders. This is not a breakdown by class or week - research, writing, recording, and editing will require the most time.

Stage Objective	Instruction / Modeling / Analysis	Formative Assessment
Review of project timeline, objectives and standards	task sheet and rubric voice ethics	Bump in the Road is there anything I don’t understand? is there anything I expect to be challenging for me?
Choose a topic	types of stories elements in different types audience	Think-Pair-Share Think - Consider your audience. List 10 news subjects that you think students at HIS would be interested in. Narrow that down to the top 3 that especially interest you, too.  Pair - Discuss your top 3 ideas with your peer. Get feedback, and pick one. Share - Share your ideas (one per person) with the class. Exit Ticket your news story idea anticipated challenges in covering this story
Choose a medium	elements of different media considerations in choosing  strategies to reach your audience	Questionnaire - know yourself as a consumer of media and as a communicator to pick the best medium for your project.
Research / Interviews	planning for “field work”:  desk research interviews photos / video capture	Project Planning Graphic Organizer with objective, time, resources needed (technologies, transport, people, etc.) Research Questions + sources Reflection on data collection
Critical Thinking	analizing your own thinking multiple perspectives	Outline  Reflection - Has you research challenged your initial assumptions? Have you learned anything surprising? If there are questions you’d still like to get answered, where will you look?
First draft review	review of key elements nonverbal communication setting a tone getting the audience’s attention	Google Docs - Peer & teacher feedback on first draft of article, images with captions, or script for video or podcast; this includes a comparison of progress to rubric
Final Product	tightening up communication fine-tuning language	1:1 conference with teacher for feedback Book Creator Presentation - Student News Week at HIS, rolling out the stories in all forms in a Book Creator link that is put in the school newsletter for parents, and shared at assembly with students

Final Rubric Review and Reflection -
- In the first week of the project, students reviewed the rubric. When their first draft was reviewed, the rubric was revisited for feedback on meeting expectations. In the final week, reflecting on their final story will include revisiting the rubric.
- The whole class will discuss "lessons learned" from the unit project.
- Students will identify examples of excellent work choices of their peers to recognize together.
- Students will write a reflection on their own work.

Student collaboration happens at every stage of the project when students share, reflect on, and provide feedback to each other on their progress; however, students who choose the medium of film or podcasting may get additional support from peers for recording. Every student is responsible for a different news story upon which their grade is dependent. Their work will be shared with the school and parents, so the real world impact stakes are high. Students will be internally motivated in story choice, research and quality of presentation, knowing that the whole school should be captivated!