Special Features

Printable Version for your convenience!

Donna Lewis 



Title: And the News Is...

       [A lesson plan for incorporating Social Studies 

(current events) and Language Arts (main theme of a story)]



Grade Level: 3-4



Length: 45 minutes



Performance Expectation:  The students will create a news 

collage of 3-5 articles and decide what is the common theme.  

Each group will then display their collage.



Materials:  several issues of newspapers and magazines;

            glue          scissors             markers or crayons

            posterboard or large sheets of construction paper



Procedures: (Introduction)

   The teacher will relate several news stories he/she heard 

on the morning news.  Students will then discuss, as a class, 

ideas all the news stories share. (Example: The teacher may 

state she heard on the radio that morning that stamps have been 

issued depicting Princess Diana, she also heard Whoopi Goldberg 

has made a new movie and this is the anniversary of Amelia 

Erhardts famous flight.  Through classroom suggestions the 

students might suggest common themes such as: people, women, 

women most people know, etc.)  The teacher will write all the 

common themes suggested by the students on the board. 

            (development)

   Students will work in small groups, examining articles 

in newspapers and magazines.  Each group will select 3-5 

stories, and decide upon a common theme for all the 

selections.  Students will then create a collage of their 

selections and write their names and the central theme on 

the back of the poster.  Posters will be displayed in the 

room.  

            (closure)

   Each student will then move about the room, studying 

posters and deciding on their idea of a central theme for 

each poster, recording their thoughts in a journal.

       

Assessment: Each student will be evaluated on their 

individual interpretations of collages.  Assessment 

will be based on the following criteria (per collage):

        3 pts.   Student will be able to relate 3 common themes

        2 pts.   Student will be able to relate 2 common themes

        1 pt.    Student will be able to relate 1 common theme



        Students will be given 5 points for working in their 

group to create a collage and may earn 10 additional points for 

their individual interpretations of collages.

        The rationale behind this assessment is the 5 points for 

working in a group, searching through current events selections 

would be a social studies grade and the 10 points for 

interpretations of main theme correlation would be a language 

arts grade.





Adaptations/considerations:  

   * due to time, students could select only 1 or 2 posters to 

reflect upon in their journals.

   * students who have difficulty writing, could explain their 

thoughts verbally to the teacher

   * classrooms could use headlines only for this activity

   * if students in the class have difficulty reading, the 

teacher could assign a "reader" in each group.  

   * might only use the first 4 paragraphs of each story so 

students don't get overwhelmed                          

   * a numbering off system or choosing a color card may be used 

to divide the class into groups

   * each group could make an oral presentation of their poster 

and explain their choice of common theme

   * television or radio articles could be taped and replayed 

for students

  



Reference:

     Donna Lewis, (1997)