In the OLS “News and Daily Living” course, second-year students were frequently asked to find news stories of interest to them and bring them in to present and discuss in class. On one of these occasions, they found themselves being taken through the process behind an evening newscast: First, they wrote their headline on a sheet of colored paper – and stuck these to the whiteboard at the front of the room under the appropriate heading for World, National, or Local. Instantly, the board looked just like the wall in any news editor’s office, as they decide which stories will “make the cut” for a half-hour broadcast.
Next, the students had to work out the order of importance for the stories in each category or if a story was even in the correct column. The recent hurricane in Puerto Rico, for example, is an international story at first glance; but it might also be presented as a national story if it’s told from the angle of worried relatives in Florida.
The final step was for the students to play the “reporters” and present their stories as if they were on TV. The instructor acted as the news anchor, setting up each story and then turning it over to the correspondent, and the students, holding dry-erase markers as microphones, gave a summary of the stories they had brought in. It was a fun, active way to start thinking more deeply about the news that comes to us every day.
News & Daily Living is one of the many courses OLS Students take to obtain their associates degree from OLS. More
information about our curriculum is available on our website. To learn more about our program register for an upcoming Information Session.
Last Updated March 8, 2018