Newspaper/Magazine Assignment

I used the following with my Honors 9 English classes and it turned out well both years I tried it. I figured if you were interested in the assignment, you could just tweak it to work with your class and topic you were covering.


Greek Mythology Newspaper/Magazine Assignment

You are going to become a reporter/writer for this assignment. First, read through the following list of choices for what the “reporter assignments” are and decide which are your top 3 – number them by the bullet points please. You and a friend may decide that you want to work together on one, and that is fine – those are the ones asking for 2 students. You may also choose to pick an extra piece to do for extra credit. Please make sure that you do something different than what others have chosen already. Each of you is responsible for a full page layout - typed, grammatically correct, with visuals when needed.

•Editorial – “Jump Off” p.1 of Vibe (2 students)
•Sports – Hyacinth/Perseus discus disasters or other sporting events, ESPN hosted by the gods with their picks?(1-2 students)
•Gossip Column – Zeus’ affairs? Who’s Who on Mt. Olympus? You must include visuals (1-2 students)
•Love Advice Column – Dear Aphrodite & Eros/Cupid & Psyche, have them answer your questions (2 students)
•“Featured god” Interview with gods/goddesses and write up– pick any god/goddess (up to 4 students)
•Feature Stories – 1st hand accounts of any of the myths or Trojan War (up to 4 students)
•Top 10 Ways to get on the gods’ good side? Gods/Goddesses you don’t want to run into? – 2 students
•Horoscopes (Oracles/Constellations), tell the future for all of the 12 astrological signs (relate them to Mythology) – 1 student
•Catseye Page – poems/short stories about gods/goddesses or from the P.O.V. of a god/goddess (1-2 students)
•“Live from the Underworld” with visual rendition of what it looks like – 1 student
•Advertisements – 1-2 students, each must make up at least 3 advertisements apiece (with visuals) and there must be a decent amount of writing with the ads
•Police Blotter – different “crimes” committed in mythology and what the punishment is (2 students)
•Mr./Mrs. Universe pageant – gods/goddesses compete, you decide winner – describe event, include visuals (2 students)
•Surveys/Questionnaires – Are you a Hera/Aphrodite/Siren, etc? Take this quiz and find out! (1-2 students)
•P.O.V. of a god/goddess – write a column by a particular god/goddess: Hera’s column on how to make your marriage last? (1-2 students)
•Obituaries – even though these are not included in the Vibe, you can create them for the fallen characters that you’ve been reading about (2 students)

Thanks for posting the newspapaer idea! I have done something similar w/ Don Quijote a long time ago. Maybe I'll try it again. I especially like the idea that they could choose to work alone or as a pair and that the assignments were set up accordingly. Could you post something about grading these, especially the single vs the pair. Thanks!

Each person is responsible for creating one full page for this assignment, so if students work in pairs, they have to figure out what they want to put on 2 pages and then divide up the work between themselves (for example, the Jump Off meant that the 2 students working on it had to decide which topic they wanted to argue and then each of them had to decide which side to take, then come up with a full page for their side of the argument). I went to the computer lab for one day so that they could work on their projects and so I could also make sure that each kid was actually doing his/her share of the work.

As for grading, they need to write enough on the subject (can't be mostly pics with a few words here and there), their writing needs to show that they actually understand the myth/mythological character that they are writing about, for most of the pieces they do need to include an image (clip art, something from the internet, photoshop, etc), and they need to make sure the piece is free from error (spelling, grammar, etc.).

I hope this helps!

That's a great idea! I could tweak it more specifically to culture... such as covering different countries, or even covering more specifics within a country (like food, places, music, people, customs, etc.). Thanks for sharing!