Reporter: Silvia Perissinotto

Group Members: Francesca Dosmo, Barbara Monterisi, Silvia Perissinotto, Romina Sassara, Rita Tonino

Newspaper article: All school pupils to get a behaviour mentor

Kind of school: liceo scientifico

Target class: 4°

Objectives:

- Developing awareness of the main features of a journalistic style

- Improving Language Awareness, reading skills

Potential of the text:

- It arises a lot of discussion

- It contains the main features of a newspaper article

- It can be a starting point for a writing/speaking activity

- It contains the typical journalistic language and it can be used to develop Ss’ awareness of the different registers of language

Negative aspects:

- The layout is not appealing (ex there aren’t any images…)

- The text is too long and it can be redundant

Activities:

1) This text is quite complex, so it can be used at the end of a series of lessons on newspaper articles, meant to introduce the journalistic language.

2) A possible pre-reading activity could be to read the title and guess the content of the article. Ss are invited to reflect on the title and say how the language deviates from the everyday language (Find the language deviation from the norm).

3) T invites Ss to read the article and find the key words, cognates and possible points of discussion.

4) T asks Ss to find examples of: nominal style, deviations, reporting verbs, linkers and connectors, passive forms, indented paragraphs…

5) Possible speaking activity: dramatisation. Divide the class in two groups in order to discuss the pros and cons of the articles.