Goals of this unit are pulled from stated goals in the Communications curriculum as well as meeting cross-curricular goals of Language Arts 7 and National Standards for Competent Communication (as listed in the Communications curriculum). The Communications goals specifically relate to the concepts of different types of newspaper writing as well as the necessary delivery techniques used in communicating via a video format. The Language Arts SOL’s include communicating with verbal and nonverbal messages, recognizing and using persuasive techniques, and selecting and synthesizing information. The National Standards for Competent Communication further add that students will “demonstrate knowledge that media content is produced with social and cultural contexts” and “use media to communicate to specific audiences for specific purposes.”

        Having spent much of the year teaching the concept of news writing, objectivity, gatekeeper, and bias, students have been ever restrained at giving their opinions in news writing assignments. They will most likely seize this opportunity to proclaim their opinions with great relish. However, in past classes I have found that students think their opinion is viable to stand on its own merit and any substance to back it up is offered by forwarding more opinion. The background of this lesson will be to look at the structure of editorials, and discuss how to effectively give support for an opinion.

        Next, the unit will break down into three parts. Students will compose a written editorial. They will then take the message they presented in written editorial form and create an editorial cartoon. Prior to students even beginning to draw, we will examine examples of editorial cartoons and revisit the concept of a metaphor from their Language Arts classes. The students’ challenge will be to create an editorial cartoon that firmly explains their position while presenting a humorous, interesting graphic. Finally, students will create a video editorial using their same topic. In this section, students will need to consider not only the meaning of the words, but also the effect of graphics, music, font, as well as the speaker’s gestures, tone of voice, and overall mood in communicating the message.

        The authentic problem in this unit is to announce the 2011 NewsCurrents Editorial Cartoon contest. NewsCurrents is a weekly current events discussion program for teachers to use in the classroom. I will demonstrate the web site in class both to show students the source of the contest and also to offer background on events about which they might consider writing. The Editorial Cartoon contest is divided into three categories by age with first, second, and third place winners selected from: Grades K-6, Grades 7-9, and Grades 10-12. Prize winners will receive a U.S. Savings Bond. Thus students in my class will be competing against students of a similar age.

        The next step as mentioned above is to explain the concept of editorials and offer a writing organizer to help students organize their opinions and support. Once they have a well defined argument in the form of a newspaper editorial, their next step is to take the same information and create an editorial cartoon. The reason for having students do the written editorial first is to force them to gather the sources of their information, form a well defined opinion, and synthesize the information in a brief written format. Having accomplished the first step, students have a clearer understanding of the message they are trying to convey as they now attempt to put the message in a metaphor format.

        Students will create the editorial using blank ink on white paper, as per the rules of the contest. The contest states that artistic merit will be considered secondarily after the originality and clarity of the cartoon’s ideas. Once completed, this part of the assignment will serve to help students in the third part as now they see the power of using images to convey a message.

        Preparing for the video editorial, I will quickly review prior lessons on symbols (taught in forms of communication) and music (taught in advertising) for their communication value. I will also review non-verbal communication (taught in forms of communication), but will broaden the lesson to demonstrate how gestures and tone of voice affect the overall message. (This will be brought back again later in the year during the public speaking unit.) Students will film and edit their editorials using flip cameras and MovieMaker software. Students have experience with filming and video editing and will use this experience to build on their skills in preparation for creating an original movie later in the year. When the video editorials are completed, I will work with the school’s Technology Resource Teacher to have some of the best video editorials featured on the school’s morning news show.

        Assessment for this unit will include a separate rubric (quantitative) for each part of the editorial assignment. Qualitatively, I will observe and report their growth in developing and communicating their opinion in various formats. My goal overall is for students to know how to better offer a well-supported argument of their position as well as understanding how various components assist or detract from the opinion. Further, once students make this connection, they will be able to recognize and evaluate these techniques in messages that seek to persuade them.