Newshounds

◦Welcome: Daily news report.◦Description: This WebQuest will allow students to express their opinions regarding relevant and current news of their interests. This task must be done in groups of three or four. Feel free to search for whatever you think will be interesting for your classmates.◦Grade Level: 7th grade◦Curriculum: English◦Keywords: news report,news hound, trending, tendencies, opinions, feelings, social life.◦Author(s):  Claudia Millafilo/ Melissa UlloaIntroduction
◦In school, there is no access to television; therefore, the creation of a news program would let students catch on with the daily news while improving their speaking skills.◦In groups of three, the selected members will search for news of their interest, some suggested topics are: fashion, green issues, sports, music, movies, etc... They will eventually choose 3 or four (depending on the number of students) and in order to show it to their classmates they will have to record a video as if they were real news reporters. Also, each video will be shown on separated classes so students can watch different news everyday.                      

◦Aim:

• Researching about trending topics and news of their interests in order to make a news report in English expressing their opinions about the selected news.
• Students will be able to talk about true stories in the past.

Process◦Step 1: You will form a news team of three members or four members.◦Step 2: As “news hound” you will research about different topics and news of your interest, selecting at least 1 piece of news by each member of the group .◦Step 3: The news  hound will present the news to their classmates as if they were in a real television studio. You can imitate a TV show that you like. E.g “Maldita Moda”◦Step 4: The news report should last at least 10 minutes in which presenters can show pictures or videos related to their pieces of news.◦Step 5: In order to complement the presentation and catch the audience’s attention, you and your team have to create a proper setting according to the task as you were in a TV studio, including customs, pictures, music, etc. You will explore with your team some of these links provided, choosing the best option for you. If you like another source you can use it as well.◦http://www.mtv.com/news/◦http://www.buzzfeed.com/news◦http://www.skysports.com/◦For the creation of your news report speech, these tips may help you:◦
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/technical-writing/oral-presentations-tips/◦http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1857815/◦http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/professors-guide/2010/02/24/15-strategies-for-giving-oral-presentations◦For doing your news report video/movie, you can use one of these programs provided in the following link:

◦ http://www.softonic.com/s/programas-para-crear-peliculas-caseras

(if you have another option you like more, you can use it too!)

This is an example of what you have to do:

◦Each team’s news report will be shown in class. You and your team have to give the teacher the topics you will talk about in a piece of paper.◦The mark will be given individually and will be added up to your "work in class" mark.◦You will be evaluated according to the following rubric:

Conclusion◦Now you have become an expert in doing reports and you know more about current news of your favourite singers, actors, films, etc.◦The objective of this webquest is to provide students the opportunity of improving their speaking skills by doing an entertaining task which is the creation of a news program as they were real “newshounds”, concerning topics of their interests. Furthermore, this task promotes a constructivist learning style, as  they learn new vocabulary, improve pronunciation and will also have to learn to work in groups.

Teachers: Claudia Millafilo/ Melissa Ulloa

Course:English as a Foreign language