Applying Standards Based Constructivism:
A Two-Step Guide for Motivating Students
WWII Newspaper Lesson

Popular Name: World War II Newspaper
Grade Level: 11th/12th Grade
Discipline: Social Studies/English Language Arts

Standards:

Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history.

Learning Objectives:

Students will:

Write four writing styles: journalistic/reporting, opinion/persuasive, and news summary.
Analyze and synthesize different kinds of information from different sources.
Develop an understanding of the way WW II was reported
Develop a perspective regarding the major events of WW II.

EXPLORATORY PHASE:

Students will attempt to identify projected images from the WW II era.
Students in groups will fill in a grid revealing their general knowledge of the WW II era.

DISCOVERY PHASE:
Performance Task

Students will create sections of a newspaper set during WW II but written in the style of USA Today. Each student’s newspaper will cover the news from one month of one year of the WW II era.
Students will present a brief TV news report based on their newspaper.

The following is a combined Social Studies and English Language Arts lesson.
It is structured so that it can be team-taught. The division of labor could be very straight forward or reflective of the strengths and predilections of the teachers.

WWII Newspaper Lesson

Popular Name: World War II Newspaper
Grade Level: 11th/12th Grade
Discipline: Social Studies/English Language Arts

Standards and Performance Indicators Context

ELA Standard 1

Students will read, write, listen and speak for information and understanding.

Listening and reading to acquire information and understanding involves collecting data, facts, and ideas; discovering relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and using knowledge from oral, written, and electronic sources.
Speaking and writing to acquire and transmit information requires asking probing questions, interpreting information in one’s own words, applying information from one context to another, and presenting the information and interpretation clearly, concisely, and comprehensively.

Social Studies Standard 2: World History

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, ears, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.

Core Curriculum Outline Connection

ELA

Making distinctions about the relative value and significance of specific data, facts, and ideas.
Evaluate writing strategies and presentational features that affect interpretation of the information.
Write and present features articles on a variety of topics related to all schools subjects.

Social Studies

Interpret and analyze documents and artifacts related to significant developments and events in world history.
Describe historical events through the eyes and experiences of those who were there.

Learning Objectives (which will become the dimensions of the assessment’s rubric.)
The student will:

Write in four writing styles: journalistic reporting, opinion/persuasive, and news summary.
Analyze and synthesize different kinds of information from different sources.
Develop an understanding of the way World War II was reported in the United States.
Develop perspective regarding the major events that occurred during the period war years 1938 –1945.

EXPLORATORY PHASE
(estimated time:1 - 45 minute class)

As an icebreaker, teacher divides the students into groups of three.
The teacher projects pictures and images from the World War II era.
The teacher directs the students in groups to discuss the pictures and images and come to some conclusion regarding who or what they are. These conclusions are reported out after each projection. The pictures and images are famous persons, ordinary citizens, places, events, consumer products etc. This is a non-threatening exercise –all answers are treated with respect.
To access and assess prior knowledge and to grab the students’ attention, the teacher provides the groups of three the following grid and asks them to fill it in using their current knowledge.

During the World War II Years 1938-1945: who were the following or what was happening regarding the following:

US president	Radio stars	Factories	US economy	Us allies
US enemies	Hairstyles Men/women	Clothes styles Men/women	Famous battles	National leaders
Movie stars	Movies	Songs/music	Big events	Farms
Average salary	Asia	Europe	South America	Military leaders

The student-groups share their grids and the teacher facilitates a discussion based upon what the students have written. Some of the areas of discussion may include: commonly understood points, common perceptions, areas that need to be researched, areas least understood, allover impressions.

DISCOVERY PHASE
estimated time: 1 to 2 weeks)

Performance Task (including planned interventions and audience beyond the teacher.)

Create sections of a newspaper set during WWII but written in the style of USA Today. Each student is required to create three pieces for a month between 1938 and 1945: A Newsline summary plus:

One journalistic article, choosing to write an article for either the Nation, World, or World/Washington, sections.
One opinion/persuasion piece for the Letters or Forum section.

Planned Intervention: Year/Month Selection

1. Each student selects a year between 1938 and 1945 by picking it out of a hat. (The number of redundant/repeated years put in the hat is determined by the number of students in the class and by the years the teacher wished to stress.

2. Then the student picks a month in a similar fashion.

3. The students are to imagine that the USA Today style paper for which they are creating pieces is titled USA This Month and use the events of the month they have picked as the basis of their Newsline, journalistic and opinion pieces.

Planned Intervention: Newsline Rubric Development

4. A separate rubric is created for each of the three types of writing involved in the task: journalistic reporting (Nation, World, World/Washington), summarizing main idea (Newsline), opinion/persuasive writing (Forum, Letters to the Editor).

5. These are developed with the students; the process:

Have the students read the Newsline pieces from past editions of USA Today.
From their reading, have students develop the dimensions that are being used to write the Newsline piece.
Have the students use a think/pair/share approach to refine their thinking.
Use a whole class discussion to create the rubric, which synthesizes their thinking.
When a teacher has his students create a rubric, he should have one created in advance so he will be able to guide the discussion to arrive at a useful and standards-based rubric.
The student-created rubric has the advantage of being in the students’ own language, and engendering ownership and an understanding of the task.
The teacher’s pre-created rubric gives the teacher the opportunity to think out what his expectations are and how the learning objectives of the task relate to the assessment’s dimensions and criteria.
The Newsline rubric that appears below is provided as an example of the dimensions and criteria that need to be included in the student generate rubric.

The Newsline Section

6. The students conduct the research and write their Newsline section for the year/month they have “picked”.

Planned Intervention: Research Strategies

7. Through a pyramid process (starting with pairs and then moving to pairs of pairs) students explain/share the strategies and resources they have found useful in researching the information used to create their Newsline. For example:

Almanacs that are helpful resources
How to work backwards to fit events into a particular month/year.
Websites that are aligned with the task.
Key words that facilitate searches.

Planned Intervention: Peer-Review

8. Using the student-created rubric, pairs of students peer-review each other’s Newsline pieces.

9. Students revise their Newsline pieces based on peer-review input and self-reflection.

Planned Intervention: Teacher-Review

10. Students submit their Newsline pieces for teacher review.

11. Students are provided an opportunity to revise their Newsline piece based on teacher review.

The Journalistic and Opinion/Persuasion Articles

12. The process outlined for the Newsline piece is repeated regarding the Journalistic Articles (Nation, World, World/Washington) and then the Opinion/Persuasion pieces (Forum, Letters to the Editor). That process includes:

Student creation of a rubric.
Student research.
Writing of an article or piece.
Peer exploration of research sources and strategies.
Peer-review of the article or piece.
Student revision.
Teacher-review.
Student revision.

Task Specifications for Developing the Student-Generated Product/Process
See Teacher-Created Rubrics below.

Teacher-Created Rubrics Used as per Numbers 4, 5, and 12 above
Assessment of Performance Task.

Dimensions of the news summary piece written in the style of USA Today Newsline section	Criteria for a score of 4	Criteria for a score of 3	Criteria for a score of 2	Criteria for a score of 1
Content Major Events Essence 70% Sections	There are items covering all the major events of the time period. All items capture the essence of the major news events of the time period covered. There are items representing all the sections of USA Today (70 points)	There are items covering most of the major events of the time period. Most items capture the essence of the major news events of the time period covered. There are items representing most of the sections of USA Today (60 points)	There are items covering some ofthe major events of the time period. Some items capture the essence of the major news events of the time period covered. There are items representing some of the sections of USA Today (50 points)	Many major events of the time period aren't covered. Few items capture the essence of the major news events of the time period covered. Many sections of USA Today are not covered (40 points)
Format & Mechanics Page and Section 30% Sentence Grammar	All items provide page number and section letters of whole news article being summarized (These will include articles that have been actually produced by the student and those the student is referencing but not creating. ) Each item is one complete sentence. Items are free of grammatical and other structural errors. 30 points)	Most items provide page number and section letters of whole news article being summarized (These will include articles that have been actually produced by the student and those the student is referencing but not creating. ) Most items are one complete sentence. Items are free of grammatical and other structural errors. (20 points)	Some items provide page number and section letters of whole news article being summarized (These will include articles that have been actually produced by the student and those the student is referencing but not creating. ) Some items are one complete sentence. Items are somewhat free of grammatical and other structural errors. (15 points)	Few items provide page number and section letters of whole news article being summarized (These will include articles that have been actually produced by the student and those the student is referencing but not creating. ) Few items are one complete sentence. Few items are free of grammatical and other structural errors (5 points)

Dimensions of a journalistic piece written in the style of USA Today Sections: Nation, World, World/Washington	Criteria for a score of 4	Criteria for a score of 3	Criteria for a score of 2	Criteria for a score of 1
Content Headline By-line 70% Appropriateness Lead Essential Questions Quotes Sources References	-The headline captures the essence of the story - By-line is included (Nation and World) - Content of article is appropriate to the section in which it appears. - Article includes a lead that is factual and sparks interest - Article answers what, who, when, where, why - Article includes quotes from significant participants that advance the story - Information is from four or more different kinds of sources (newspapers, encyclopedias, internet sites, almanacs, texts, etc.) - Information is historically accurate and substantiated by source reference. (70 points)	-The headline captures the essence of the story - By-line is included (Nation and World) - Content of article is appropriate to the section in which it appears. - Article includes a lead that is factual and sparks interest - Article answers 4 of the 5 following: what, who, when, where, why - Article includes quotes from significant participants that somewhat advance the story - Information is from three or more different kinds of sources (newspapers, encyclopedias, internet sites, almanacs, texts, etc.) - Information is historically accurate and ususally substantiated by source reference. (60 points)	-The headline somewhat captures the essence of story - Some By-lines are included (Nation and World) - Content of article is somewhat appropriate to the section in which it appears. - Article includes a lead that is factual but doesn't spark interest - Article answers 3 of the 5 following: what, who, when, where, why - Article includes inappropriate quotes from significant participants. - Information is from two or more different kinds of sources (newspapers, encyclopedias, internet sites, almanacs, texts, etc.) - Information is historically accurate and rarely substantiated by source reference. (50 points)	-The headline doesn't captures the essence of the story - No By-lines are included (Nation and World) - Content of article is inappropriate to the section in which it appears. - Article includes a lead that is not factual and doesn't spark interest - Article answers less than 3 of the following: what, who, when, where, why - Article includes no quotes from significant participants - Information is from primarily one kind of source (newspapers, encyclopedias, internet sites, almanacs, texts, etc.) - Information is historically inaccurate and not substantiated by source reference. (40 points)
Format & Mechanics Length 30% Voice Grammar	- Length is appropriate (Nation and World: 9-12 short paragraphs, World/Washington 3-4 paragraphs - Objective voice is maintained - Article is free of grammatical and other structural errors. (30 points)	World: 9-12 short paragraphs, World/Washington 3-4 paragraphs - Objective voice is mostly maintained - Article is free of most grammatical and other structural errors. (20 points)	World: 9-12 short paragraphs, World/Washington 3-4 paragraphs - Objective voice is maintained to a degree - Article contains several grammatical and other structural errors. (15 points)	World: 9-12 short paragraphs, World/Washington 3-4 paragraphs - Objective voice is not maintained - Article contains numerous grammatical and other structural errors. (5 points)

Grading Example: Content:                      student meets criteria 3 = 60 points
                               Format & Mechanics: student meets criteria 2 = 15 points
                                                                                                           ____
                                                                                                 Grade 75
Assessment of Performance Task

Dimensions of a opinion/ persuasion piece written in the style of USA Today Sections: Forum, Letters to the Editor	Criteria for a score of 4	Criteria for a score of 3	Criteria for a score of 2	Criteria for a score of 1
Content Caption By-line 70% Lead Opinion Support	- The headline/ caption captures the essence of the piece - By-line is included - Piece includes a lead that sparks interest - Piece expresses an opinion on a controversial issue in the news - Reasons/support for opinions are related to the position(s) taken and are clearly explained. (70 points)	- The headline/ caption captures the essence of the piece - By-line is included - Piece includes a lead that sparks interest. - Piece expresses an opinion on a controversial issue in the news - Reasons/support for opinions are related to the position(s) taken and are to a degree explained (60 points)	- The headline/ caption somewhat captures the essence of the piece. - Some by-lines are included - Piece includes a lead that doesn’t sparks interest - The opinion expressed in the piece is unclear - Reasons/support for opinions are not clearly related to the position(s) taken and are not clearly explained. (50 points)	- The headline/ caption doesn’t captures the essence of the piece - No by-lines are included - Piece doesn’t have a lead. - Piece does not express an opinion on a controversial issue in the news - Reasons/support for opinions are unrelated to the position(s) taken. (40 points)
Format & Mechanics Length 30% Voice Facts Grammar	- Length is appropriate (The Forum: 8 – 12 short paragraphs, Letters to the Editor 3 – 4 short paragraphs) - The piece has an appropriate subjective voice (uses forceful, unique and precise language , is distinct and clever) - Facts are accurate - Piece is free of grammatical and other structural errors (40 points)	- Length is appropriate (The Forum: 8 – 12 short paragraphs, Letters to the Editor 3 – 4 short paragraphs) - The piece has an adequately subjective voice (uses precise language) - Facts are accurate - Piece is free of most grammatical and other structural errors (20 points)	- Appropriate Length requirement is not fulfilled i.e., (The Forum: 8 – 12 short paragraphs, Letters to the Editor 3 – 4 short paragraphs) - The piece has an inadequate subjective voice (language is not precise) - Facts are inaccurate - Piece has grammatical and other structural errors (15 points)	- Length is inappropriate (The appropriate length requirements are: Forum: 8 – 12 short paragraphs, Letters to the Editor 3 – 4 short paragraphs) - The piece has an no real subjective voice (i.e., doesn’t use forceful, unique and precise language , is distinct and clever) - Few facts are included. - Piece has many grammatical and other structural errors (5 points)

Resources to Be Made Available to Students

Multiple back copies of USA Today
Access to a resource center/library containing: almanacs, encyclopedias, newspapers on diskettes or other recording formats, other chronologically organized reference books such as Chronicle of the 20th Century, Chronicle Publications, Mount Kisco, NY
Access to internet-connected computers.
Access to computers for word processing.

Suggestions for the Teacher

Regarding Resources

Teachers should consider making a preliminary search regarding resources. This search to include:

The in-school print resources that are available
The in-school Internet sites that are available.
Public library print resources.
Public library Internet sites.
Historical societies both local and otherwise and the role they might play.

Regarding Rubrics

Creating rubrics can be time-consuming task. Teachers may wish to consider streamlining the process by following these steps:

The teacher develops the dimensions in advance.
Negotiate the criteria for the top score on the rubric with the students then leave it to the teacher to develop the criteria for the lesser scores.

Multiple copies of the student-generated rubrics in sets of four should be available to facilitate self, peer, and initial teacher, and final teacher reviews.

Regarding Sharing the Knowledge

Have the class read the editions of the student-generate USA This Month, starting with one closest to January 1938.
After each edition is read, have the student who wrote the edition present a brief TV news report based on his/her edition of USA This Month .
Follow-up the new-report by having the student-reporter administer an assessment he/she has created based on his/her edition of USA This Month

Carol Amberg contributed to the development of the ideas, and procedures found in this lesson.

Applying Standards Based Constructivism: A Two-Step Guide for Motivating Students WWII Newspaper Lesson

Applying Standards Based Constructivism:
A Two-Step Guide for Motivating Students
WWII Newspaper Lesson