Purpose:

Students will learn how information is organized in a news story.

Time:

1 class period, about 45 minutes

Materials:

• Copies of the newspaper (front sections only)
• Handout of the Inverted Pyramid (a graphic organizer)

Overview:

Every news story contains facts. These facts are organized according to their importance in the story. The organization of information, along with background material, can be put into the shape of an inverted pyramid.
A sample is included.

Literature Connection:

If this unit is following a study of short stories or novels, use the pyramid shape to compare and contrast how a fiction writer tells a story verses a news reporter. A blackline master of the pyramid and inverted pyramid is available by clicking on the handouts section.

The Lesson:

1. Distribute copies of the newspaper, or a news story you have pre-selected.
2. Ask students to take turns reading paragraphs.
3. When the story has been read, go to the board and draw an inverted pyramid. Draw a line across the pyramid about a third of the way down. This section will represent the first paragraph of the news story, called a lede. Key information and facts are contained in the lede paragraph. If the reader only looks at the story headline and reads the lede, he or she will have a basic understanding of the story. Write the word lede in this space.
4. Ask students to identify the 5 W’s contained in the lede. Why are they the most important facts?
5. Draw a second line across the pyramid, again about a third of the way down. Point to the body of the story (the space below the first line) and ask students to identify and explain why the reporter has placed the information here. Write the word body in this space.
6. Finally, point to the bottom of the paragraph and ask students to identify the background information that is not essential to the telling of this story.
7. Distribute a copy of a second news story, or direct students to read a specific story in the newspaper you have in the classroom.
8. Ask students to draw an inverted pyramid and fill in the space with facts according to how they are presented in the story.
9. Collect the completed pyramids. Check for understanding of key concepts.

The Inverted Pyramid

Most news stories are written in the inverted pyramid style. This means all the important information—most of the 5 W’s—can be found in the lede. Information and quotes are added according to their importance. The least important information can be found at the bottom of the story, or pyramid.  

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Sample Newspaper Stories (Adobe Acrobat format)
Adobe Acrobat software is required to view these files. To download and install the free Adobe Reader, click here.

Sample 1 - Winnipeg Free Press - 161 KB

Sample 2 - Edmonton Journal - 370 KB

Sample 3 - Star Phoenix (Saskatoon) - 283 KB

Sample 4 - Toronto Star - 242 KB

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Cross-curricular Connection:

News Writing Opportunities with Literature Connections

Many contemporary novels provide an opportunity to link news writing to literature. Characters and events are often based on real incidents, and may even have been sparked by actual news stories.

Breaking the story into the 5 W’s also helps students with reading comprehension. Here are two examples of how to introduce journalism writing in a novel study.

Getting Started:

This exercise works best if students already have an understanding of what a news story is. If you’ve been using the Intermediate lesson plans included in this media unit, the novel study assignments listed here can be given out with just a brief explanation.

If you’re exploring news writing through a novel study and this is the first time students will be writing in a journalistic style, it’s worthwhile taking a look at the introduction to news writing provided on this site. The lesson plans will help students develop a basic understanding of journalism.

Hatchet
By Gary Paulsen
Scholastic ISBN 0-590-98182-X
Newberry Honor Book, 1988.

Materials:

• Copy of the novel, Hatchet
• Sample of search and rescue stories

About the Book:

Author Gary Paulsen makes his home in Minnesota, but much of this adventure is set in the Canadian wilderness. It’s the story of a plane crash survivor’s struggle to stay alive in the woods. When the pilot of the single-engine plane has a heart attack and dies, 13-year-old Brian Robeson must take the controls and try to land the plane on the only flat surface he can see - a lake. Brian survives the crash, but can he survive alone in the wilderness?

Brian’s only tool is a hatchet. The hatchet is a parting gift from his mother who hands it to him before he boards the plane that is to take him from New York to the oil fields of Alberta where his father now lives and works.

Activities:

1. 1. The missing plane is a natural for a front page news story, especially when the sole passenger is a teenager. News media would carry a story of the missing plane and the search-and-rescue efforts to find the craft and any survivors. Details of the flight schedule would be included in a news report, along with any information reporters could get on pilot and passenger.
   
   Imagine how a news reporter would write this story. Who would he or she interview? The list would include police, aviation officials, Brian’s parents, the family of the pilot, and anyone involved in the search and rescue. It may even include interviews with Brian’s friends and classmates. Several stories may be written, providing readers with updates on the search. Eventually the search will be called off, and that too is a news story.
   
   Based on the characters in the story, have students make up quotes to fit in to their news story. How would Brian’s mother and father react when no sign of their son, or the downed plane is found?
   
   
2. As a follow-up, have students write the story of Brian’s rescue (see the epilogue). They should look back in the story and pull out the kind of details Brian might give in an interview with reporters as he tells the story of living alone in the wilderness.
   

Cross-curricular Connection

News Writing Opportunities with Literature Connections

The Outsiders
By S.E. Hinton
Puffin Books, ISBN 0-14-038572-X

Materials:

• Copy of The Outsiders
• Sample of news stories dealing with youth violence

About The Book:

Author Susan Hinton was only 16 when she wrote this story of gang violence. Set in the American mid-west, it’s the poignant story of two boys and their efforts to escape the prejudice poverty carries with it in a town where the rich kids can do no wrong.

The Outsiders was written over 30 years ago, yet this story of loyalty, heroism and youth violence still has a contemporary ring. It’s also a book that provides an opening for dialogue between students and parents. In fact, many adults may recall reading The Outsiders in English class.

Activities:

The attack on Ponyboy as he walks home alone from the movies isn’t likely to be reported to the police, but the murder of Bob, leader of the Socs, will be splashed across the front page.

1. Ask students how the media might play out the gang rivalries between the “greasers” and the Socs, a group of rich kids, in a news story. Students should take the events and characters in the novel to write their news story. In the assignment, students should consider which characters are most likely to come forward and be interviewed.
   
   While the novel is told from a young person’s point of view, a news story is more likely to be written from an adult point of view. Who among the adults might be included in a news story (police, a social worker, Johnny’s parents, Bob’s parents, and teachers)?
   
2. Johnny and Ponyboy’s rescue of the children from the burning church is an opportunity to make heroes out of the greasers. In fact, that’s exactly what happens in the novel (chapter 7). Their story, “Juvenile Delinquents Turn Heroes,” is featured on a front page section of the newspaper. Hinton gives the reader the headline, but doesn’t include the news story. Ask students to write the story as they think it might have appeared in the local paper.
   
3. Students could also write a news report on the death of Dallas Winston in a police shoot-out.

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Teacher Notes: What a News Story Might Look Like

Hatchet

Turning the plane crash into a news story is a challenging assignment for students. Key details about Brian Robeson’s fateful journey are missing, leaving “reporters” with the task of having to put together a story with the information they have – not the information they want. This gives the assignment a touch of reality.

In the novel, author Gary Paulsen does not give a name to the pilot, a piece of information reporters would know. In this assignment it’s up to the teacher to name the pilot. In the example below he’s been dubbed Jake Smith, an experienced pilot with 20 years in the cockpit. The plane’s destination is also unclear – somewhere near Canadian oil fields located along the tree line in Canada. In real life the pilot would have filed a flight plan, leaving no mystery as to where the aircraft was destined. For this story the destination is a remote oil field north of Edmonton, Alberta.

When the plane and passengers are not found, reporters will start digging around for more details. Brian’s parents would be interviewed, as would relatives or colleagues of the pilot. Canadian search and rescue would send out regular updates on the mission for the media. Follow-up stories will be written as the search continues, and finally called off.

Here’s what the initial story might look like:

Single-engine Plane Missing, 2 On Board

Hampton, N.Y. – A single-engine bushplane with two people on board is missing on a flight from Hampton, New York to a remote oil field north of Edmonton, Alberta.

The Cessna 406 took off at 9 a.m. yesterday with pilot Jake Smith and passenger Brian Robeson, 13. The teenager was on his way to visit his father, a mechanical engineer working in the oil fields north of Edmonton, Alberta. Smith, an experienced pilot, was ferrying oil drilling equipment to a remote camp at the edge of the tree line.

When the plane failed to arrive at the oil field, company officials tried to contact the pilot by radio, but got no response. Canadian search and rescue teams have been called in and are following the flight plan, searching for any signs of a downed craft.

Weather is not considered to be a factor in the failure of the aircraft to complete the seven-hour flight.

Teacher Notes: What The Story Might Look Like

The Outsiders

Newspaper reporters have a minor role to play in author S.E. Hinton’s award-winning novel, The Outsiders. In Chapter 7 they converge on Ponyboy and his friends at the hospital where the boys are waiting to hear what will become of Johnny. The media make heroes out of the two boys, and Hinton even gives readers the headline of the day – Juvenile Delinquents Turn Heroes. The rescue of the children trapped in a burning church is splashed across the front page, along with stories about the gang rivalries and the death of Bob.

This novel provides many opportunities for students to imagine how a reporter would cover the story of The Outsiders. The sample story below is an example of how the initial news story might appear in the paper. In real life reporters would have more detail to go on, but for this exercise the story has been kept simple. And since Hinton did not give all her characters last names, liberties have been taken to fill in a few blanks.

Teen Murdered in Park

Bob Brown, a popular high school senior, was stabbed to death in an East Side park yesterday.
The seventeen-year-old student died from wounds inflicted by a switchblade knife, according to police. The body was discovered near the park fountain by a woman out for an early morning walk with her dog.

Two boys are wanted by police for questioning in Brown’s death. The boys were seen hanging around the park early in the evening.

The parents of the slain boy have made no comment about their son’s death. Family friends say they are too distraught to talk with the media. Teens in the posh West Side neighbourhood where Brown grew up describe him as “popular” and “part of the in crowd.”

Local youth are being brought in for questioning in what police suspect is a gang-related crime. Decade-old rivalries between East Side and West Side gangs have flared up recently.

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