Tip #146 from 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents (McKinley, Trombly) - Stay Tuned

 


Today's tip for parents from two talented teachers comes from 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents by Cindy McKinley Alder and Patti Trombly.

                                         

 

#146

Stay Tuned

 

Your work is a portrait of yourself.
~Unknown

 

Try watching the news with your child today. Ask her to focus on all the words and phrases the newscasters use to get the audience’s attention or to emphasize an important news bulletin. Jot them down. Take notice of all the different segments within the broadcast (local news, world news, weather, sports). Record these as well. Have her pay attention to the way the newscasters speak and articulate their stories. Where they look, how they hold their arms, head—all these little elements come together to make the newscast professional and interesting.

Now, ask your child if she’d like to create her own newscast. Her newscast will be different in that it will not be broadcasting regular news but will focus on the information and characters from a book she’s read. She can use the catchy opening and closing statements made by television newscasters and create her own newscast by writing her own articles, stories, and headlines.

For example, if she is focusing the news on the information and characters from The Boy Who Cried Wolf fairytale, her newscast can be complete with story headlines she writes such as:

 

●      “Escaped Wolf on the Hunt for Food” (local news)

●      “Local Boy Learns the Value of Truth” (moral, inspiring story)

●      “Townspeople Get in Shape” (sports)

●      “Perfect Weather for Outside Wolf-watching”(weather)

●       “Sheep Herders all over the World learn a Valuable Lesson (world news)

 

Encourage her to write down the details of each headline story so that the newscaster presenting it can deliver accurate facts. The more detailed her book, the more interesting and detailed her writing should be. The more characters she includes, the more angles she can explore.

The whole family can be involved in presenting the newscast. Everyone can help her by presenting a segment, directing, creating and holding cue cards. Add even more enjoyment to the activity by videotaping the newscast. Everyone will enjoy sitting down afterward and watching their “creation.” Perhaps she’ll think of more segments to add or different headlines. She may want to focus on different characters or different main events from the same book or even do another newscast from a different book.

Whatever she decides, she will enjoy utilizing her writing skills to design interesting headlines and detail the stories. She will also love applying teamwork to create a newscast, performing with her family and, most important, she will be exhibiting her comprehension of the story.

Consider sharing the recording with others. Chances are, they will see or hear all the fun and want to join your child in her next broadcast!

 

Variation:

Try this activity with a concept being taught in school. Having her (and a few classmates?) create a broadcast about it will definitely aid in comprehension and may even lead to further interest in the subject.

     


     Cindy McKinley Alder                                            Patti Trombly

 

For more posts about the authors and their books (this is not the only one), click HERE.

For excerpts from more books, click HERE. 

For more excerpts from 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents, click HERE.

          For more posts about books about parenting, click HERE. 



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