Introduction
Introduction
British newspapers are a good source of information about British culture and people.
But students often find newspapers difficult to understand.
By learning the conventions, structures and language features of British newspapers you will be able to enlarge your knowledge of English autonomously through
reading authentic texts in printed or online newspapers.
For this reason the English Department has organised a seminar about the press in Britain and the students have applied to participate in various activities.
We congratulate you because, among more than one hundred applicants, you have been MOTIVATION: selected for taking part in these activities concerning newspapers and therefore, it will be OUTCOME: expected that by the end of the seminar, you will be familiarised with this literary genre.
Task
Task
What are the main stories in this week's newspapers?
That all depends on what newspaper you read!
- 1. First, you are going to participate in several activities including a (i) workshop about newspapers in Britain.
- 2. After the workshop, you will take part in a (ii) competition to show which team has learnt more by doing the following (iii) task:
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DEFINE/IDENTIFY: You will have to prepare two front pages of two papers covering a week period. COMPARE/ SUPERLATIVE: The objective is to show your fellow students of English philology which were the most relevant news during the week.
You will select the news to be included in the front pages among all the articles that are published between Thursday 15th and Wednesday 21st. (One of the front pages will be from a quality newspaper and the other one from a tabloid.)
1. the content and 2. the style you have used in each front page.
- Student A will work for a right- wing newspaper. - Student B will work for a left-wing newspaper. This way your selection will 1. take into account different perspectives and 2. will include news articles from all the newspapers selected below. |
Process
Process – clear instructions of steps
(i) Find a partner to
(a) to work with and
(b) go through the following stages in the order presented here:
PRETASK - activates motivation and expectations of (what to do) and purpose (why) you have to do it, in the pretask stage, (giving meaning to the pretask):
- Activates expectations, reinforcing background knowledge. To do these activities you should only use the resources provided on the pages.
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PRETASK – oral practice in pairs Discuss these questions in pairs or in groups. TIME LIMIT: (5 to 10 minutes) - 2. What kind of topics and vocabulary do you think we are going to find in the news during the next week? PRETASK – writing practice, in pairs? Write a short list of 1. topics and 2.words in your notebook. |
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PRETASK – SORTING/MATCHING/CLASIFYING YOUR KNOWLEDGE (reinforces the new associations to learn to learn competently) Use your knowledge to write each of the words or phrases on this list (click) under the corresponding heading (do the activity in your notebook and also in pairs):
click here to see the answerNewspaper-related vocabulary
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Evaluation
Rubrics
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Evaluation of the "Process" |
Needs Improvement |
Satisfactory |
Good |
Excellent |
Mark |
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Treasure Hunt |
Answers are wrong and there is evidence of not having read the articles sufficiently. It is clear that you have paid litle attention to newspaper pages. |
Most answers are right, but there is evidence of not having understood the articles enough. Have not visited newspaper pages much. |
Most answers are right and show that you have read all the articles. There is enough evidence of having explore newspaper pages. |
You answer all the questions correctly and show that have read the articles accurately. There is enough evidence of having explored newspaper pages extensively. |
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Workshop |
You have carried out less than half of the exercises and haven't shown much interest in learning new vocabulary. You haven't paid any attention to the use of reading and vocabulary strategies. |
You have carried out at least half of the exercises and shown some interest in learning new vocabulary. Use of reading and vocabulary strategies has been irregular. |
You have carried out most of the exercises and shown interest in learning new vocabulary. You have used reading and vocabulary strategies |
You have carried out all the exercises and shown interest in learning new vocabulary. You have used reading and vocabulary strategies |
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Use of Dictionaries/ Take Notes |
You use the dictionary rarely or use it all the time, so that reading is not fluent. You do not take any notes or take notes in a messy way. |
You use the dictionary in a sensible manner. So that, reading is fluent. 1. You note the words that you look up in the dictionary. |
You use the dictionary in a sensible manner. So that reading is fluent. You record the following, but not always: 1. The words that you look up in the dictionary. |
You use the dictionary in a sensible manner. So that reading is fluent. You record the following: 1. All the words that you look up in the dictionary.
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Conclusion
Conclusion – THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNT (self satisfaction on the completion of a job well done motivates to do another task again with more enthusiasm!)
You have now learnt a number of things about British newspapers including linguistic and cultural aspects /linguistic, pragmatic and sociolinguistic competences, also general sociocultural competences see CEFRL)
In addition, you have practised and developed your reading skills and you have learnt a lot of new words.
And, what is more important, after taking part in this WebQuest, you probably feel better able (more competent) to read the news as well as other difficult types of text.
This site is best viewed at 800 x 600 resolution
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