Lesson 29: Assessing and Evaluating a News Report

Lesson Goals:

Students will

Review the necessary components of a news report

Understand the scoring criteria for writing a news report

Examine sample responses and assign scoring codes and giving justification

Reflect on news report learning goals, update or change as required

In this lesson, we will assess and evaluate a sample response to a news

report question. A student was given a headline and a picture, which they used to

write a news report in a manner similar to what we have seen in the previous

lessons:

 Connect the picture to the headline

 Consider a placeline and blyline

 Create a lead paragraph answering the 5Ws and H

 1-3 body paragraphs

 Quotations

 Details

 Written in the past tense

 Written in the third person

To evaluate a news report, we will use the following criteria, set in codes. Notice

that the higher the codes (code 50 and code 60) show a more developed news

report compared to the lower codes (code 10 and code 20).

Read through the criteria below and highlight key words. Write a

paragraph to explain why you highlighted the specific text and how you think it will

help you evaluate a sample news report.

High-lighted words: clear and consistent focus, sufficient details, develop, coherent.
The reason why I high lighted these words is that it help me to focus on relating my words to the headline and picture and
use enough details to support my idea. Meanwhile, I should make the paragraphs coherent because it easy and comfortable
to read.
Let’s take a look at an example of a code 60 news report and determine why it

received this score. Note that this is a hand written response, and may require

you to read slowly and more than once!

Can you determine why this is a code 60 piece?

This is a code 60 piece because:

Clear and consistent focus on an event (snowstorm)
Sufficient specific, supporting details thoughtfully chosen
Quotations are effectively placed
Organization is coherent
Final statement is an effective conclusion, connecting to the ideas in the
response.
Lesson 29 Discussion Board

Examine the following sample news report response.

Use the criteria to determine what code you would assign to it. Explain your

response thoroughly and clearly. How would you improve this response?

Once complete, place your response in the Lesson 29: Discussion Board,

Success Criteria:

Read the article (more than once!)

Read the rubric carefully (more than once!)

Identify what code you would assign to the response

Write your response in full sentences

Check your spelling and grammar

 30 code

Clear and consistent focus on an event (snowstorm and it’s influence).

No Sufficient specific, supporting details thoughtfully chosen
Quotations are effectively placed
Organization is not coherent(No conjunctive words)
Final statement is not an effective conclusion.

To improve this response, to begin with, I would add some supporting details from the article to increase its
authenticity and credibility. For example, I would describe the thickness of the snow or the extent of damage to
local houses to express how severe the snowstorm was. Other than that, I would use conjunctive words or
transitional sentences to make the writing smoother. Last but not least, based on this response, I would write
another conclusion, which includes the impact of the snowstorm and how people will react to the catastrophe, to
finish the news.

Student-Teacher Discussion
Share your response to the lesson 29 discussion with your teacher. Discuss your

understanding of how codes are assigned to news reports and how you came to

your decision. Get feedback on your response from your teacher.