The article about "Free Speech "in Time for Kids is a good one. Your New Jersey cohorts (tell me what that word means!) have given you some excellent help. In fact, let me share the email that I sent to Mr. Richardson (their teacher).
"Just have to tell you - your kids are AWESOME! Some of the responses are coming in and they are supportive and kind, and giving EXCELLENT feedback! The human touch plus constructive suggestions."
I'll get your thoughts tomorrow about the other posts they made to your sites where they gave you individual help.
Your mentors went through the article, just like Meredith and Kristen did on the article we discussed in class.(A great big thank you to them for creating such a great teaching tool!) We're going to focus on leads. I'm sure most of you have read the article already so here are the comments Mr. Richardson's students made:
"The lead is effective because the writer leaves the reader asking questions, but they get the point of the story. It is interesting enough that the reader wants to know more."
"This is a lead...it is affective because it is describing what is going on in the article, it is focusing on one person being in an incident that is taking place in the article."
"This lead does a good job of setting up the article so the reader knows what its going to be about. At the same time it tries to grab the reader's attention by describing the situation and including an arrest and police involvement. It does its job because everyone wants to know what happened to these people after they got arrested and what exactly they got in trouble for."
"This lead paints a picture for the reader that shows two regular people who are against the war with Iraq. It sets up the rest of the article because gives a story that relates to the topic without giving away exactly what the story is about. It works because it draws the reader into the story, and it is also something many Americans can probably relate to easily."
"The first four paragraphs are a lead. It is almost like a story within a story. It is descrbing a situation that takes place. This situation is something that the people do that relates to the story as a whole."
"This is called a feature story lead. It uses a particular story to start the aticle and give a specific example of whatever the topic may be. This particular lead use's the persons own feelings to convay the message properly."
"This is the lead of a feature story. It involves someone doing something somewhere. It's kind of like a story/introduction into the story. He wants to draw your attention to the story, and it makes you want to know more about what's going on because he doesn't want to give away too much information."
"This lead contains a great explanation of the story that they are trying to bring across. It describes the story but starts off sort of dry in getting the attention of the reader."
Think about what they wrote and we'll talk tomorrow. Can't wait to see you!