English+8.3

  SOL: 8.3 The student will analyze mass media messages. a) Evaluate the persuasive technique being used. b)  Describe the possible cause-effect relationships between mass media coverage and public opinion trends. c) Evaluate sources, including advertisements, editorials, and feature stories, for relationships between intent and factual content.  21st Century Skills Taught: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving &  Information, Media and Technology Skills    Technology Tools: Google Reader/Delicious and Wikispaces
 * __ Major News Watch __**

The student will… 1) Students will be placed in teams of 5. Each student will subscribe to Google Reader and/or Delicious to bookmark and follow to the following mass media websites: CNN.com, MSNBC.com, CBSnews.com, abcnews.go.com, and foxnews.com. Each group will be given a Wiki page to discuss and post their observations. 2) Each group member will be given 1 major news cite to observe (they must read a minimum of 3 articles per day on their given website, with which they will use the information to make their assessments). Students will then review their respective website daily and post to the discussion board on the class Wiki any observations regarding advertisements, editorials, feature stories, and any information that is speculative. Also, students will make note of the persuasive technique used by the author. 3) Groups will also use Google and Google Reader/Delicious to subscribe to 3 public opinion blogs (such as pollingreport.com), to follow/track how the news released by the mass media networks affects the public opinion trends. 4) Students will also cross evaluate and make discussion posts for Wiki’s in other blocks. (So A1 will evaluate the Wiki’s and findings of the groups in class A2) 5) Groups will be evaluated based on the minimum requirements of daily posts, as well as constructive feedback given to other groups.