Hit 1 Clever

1. Last Name, First Name, and subject area: Scorzo, Samantha, English/Journalism

1. Title of class: 11th/12th Publications class (newspaper staff)

1. Context of instruction. The class is split into two different groups: students who work on the schools
yearbook, and students who work on the schools newspaper. The yearbook students are mostly focusing
on photography skills at this point in the summer and will turn to writing when composing the photo captions
and writing story blurbs and sidebars. The newspaper students, however, are beginning to conduct their
interviews and starting the writing process to meet their first semester deadline. Most of these students,
however, are in need of a crash course on story formatting, which I, as well as my placement teacher, have
noticed through looking over student progress the past two weeks. I have been working one-on-one with the
newspapers editors, but the other writers are in need of this instruction so the editors are not the only ones
with formatting and editing knowledge. I have been giving little crash courses on different topics within the
realm of journalism- regarding grammar, formatting, and InDesign. (As a side note- I did teach in the honors
9th grade English class but realized that the day I recorded was more eliciting student thinking versus
explaining and modeling content).
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Claims-Evidence-Reasoning for HIT1:

I. Consulting the rubric for this HLTPIdentify a s

trength of your enactment, then:

1. Make a claim about the strengths youve identified in your effort to enact this HLTP:

Regarding my effort to enact this HLTP- Explaining and modeling content, practices, and strategies- my structure of
the content/practice/strategy of formatting news stories was strong as well as my explicitness in teaching the Inverted
Pyramid.

1. Present evidence that supports your claim:

The content and order of content that I displayed in my PowerPoint to show how a news story is formed using the
inverted pyramid shows my command of the topic. Additionally, the way that I explained where the
lede/nutgraph/quotes would go (and why they would go there) in a story supports the fact that my structure of content
was strong. I say that my explicitness in this lesson is strong because students knew why they were there listening to
this mini lesson- many of the newspaper staff writers sat down to write their new stories and either werent sure how
to start, or began writing the story out as if it were an essay for an English class. I believe I highlighted the differences
in newswriting (such as chunking the paragraphs) that they needed explained to them.

1. Explain your reasoning. That is, explain how your evidence supports your claim.

2. I tried to make my PowerPoint fill in the gaps of knowledge that the students are currently missing and in
need of now that they have completed their interviews and are trying to sit down to write their assigned
story. Many of them didnt know how or where to start their story. I used my knowledge and background in
the different types of journalistic writing styles to focus in on what they needed explained most: How to go
 about crafting a story. I was explicit in the way that I broke down how to write a news lede and nutgraph in
steps using a fictionalized example.

II. Consulting the rubric for this HLTPIdentify a limitation of your enactment, then:

1. Make a claim about the strengths youve identified in your effort to enact this HLTP:
I believe my instructional approach was decent, but not yet strong enough and my ability to help students make
sense of the practice could have been a lot stronger.

1. Present evidence that supports your claim:

If I was to do this lesson again, I already know what I would do differently to enhance my instructional approach and
my ability to help students make sense of the practice. First, I would have printed copies of the PowerPoints to give
each student, including a printed version of the inverted pyramid so that they could take notes on it. The students
have some of these notes in their google classroom file, but it would have been more helpful if it were in their hands.
Additionally, I would have made another fictionalized event and had them break it down and write their own ledes and
nugraphs to share to the class.

1. Explain your reasoning. That is, explain how your evidence supports your claim.

Giving them an activity where they would have to actually use the inverted pyramid would allow students a chance to
make sense of the strategy I presented and see if they understood it enough for them to put it into practice
themselves. Also, sharing out would have opened up the classroom environment a bit more, which would give more
chances to elicit student thinking versus me just explaining to them.
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1. How did you work/plan with your cooperating teacher or others in this HIT?
I worked with my cooperating teacher and the current newspaper staff to form this lesson. After reading some of the
students writing, my cooperating teacher gave me license to teach them what I believed would help the most for their
newswriting. The inverted pyramid, chunking paragraphs, and even the order of the titles before names are all simple
practices, but practices that are NEEDED in journalistic writing. Instead of having to explain all of these little rules to
the students, it was good to present this information in one lesson and then have the lesson posted to their google
classroom for them to go back and reference it. I know that personally, I am able to grasp a strategy much easier
when I have examples to look at to help me move forward.

1. What other people/resources helped you think through and plan to Explain and model
content, practices, & strategies; if any?

In planning this lesson I referenced other teachers powerpoints to create my own. I also used a teaching journalism
website for my fictionalized example. Lastly, I pulled ledes/nutgraphs from real articles, as well as some of my old
articles.

1. Reflect: What did you learn from your efforts in HIT1? Focus primarily on transferable skills
you have honed, insights about this particular practice, and what you might do next time.
I think the most valuable lesson that came from this is that I need to have more materials incorporated the next time I
explain or model a practice for students so that the material is more accessible and more engaging. Additionally, I
need to work on incorporating an informal assessment such as a worksheet or exit ticket that could then be shared
with a partner or shared out to make sure that all students are grasping the context and if not, explain the material
in a different fashion/break it down further.

1. Plan: Share your written plans for HIT1. M

y lesson plan is attached!

1. Teach: upload any evidence you collected representing your efforts for this teaching
practice (for instance: video, audio, PowerPoint slides, worksheets, completed reviewer
forms, etc.). My video is in the folder!

1. Anything else? We are interested in hearing your thoughts relevant to HIT1.

I really enjoyed the task of putting this HIT into practice and watching it back to analyze my strengths and limitations. I
found this assignment very helpful because I was able to see where I have gaps in my practice and I look forward to
correcting them and enhancing my ability to help students.