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Hello everyone, and welcome to today's lesson on creating effective headlines for newspaper articles.
I'm Miss Sutherland and I'll be teaching you today.
Our learning outcome for today is to be able to create engaging headlines and subheadings for newspaper articles.
We'll be learning all about how to hook the reader into our newspaper article with headlines and subheadings.
We have five keywords for today's lesson, and they're going to be really important in our learning today.
Layout, the layout of a text describes how features such as words, information, and images are arranged and presented.
Headline, the headline is the title of an article.
Subheading, a subheading is a phrase used to introduce some text.
Pun, a pun is a joke making use of the different possible meanings of words that sound alike.
And alliteration, alliteration is a technique where two or more words close together start with the same sound.
In today's lesson, we have two learning cycles.
We're first going to learn a little bit about the layout of a newspaper article and the different elements of a newspaper article.
And in the second learning cycle, we're going to learn how to write headings and subheadings for a newspaper article.
So let's start off with newspaper articles.
Here are the layouts of different types of writing represented visually.
What do you think the pieces of writing might be? So take a look at each of those layouts, assume that the boxes represent text, when the text is laid out in that way, what might we be writing? Pause the video and have a think.
Let's go through what you may have got.
The first layout represents a letter, this is because we have the address in the top right corner, we then have a salutation, which is, for example, saying dear or addressing who you are writing to, and then we have the body of our letter, and finally the sign off.
The next layout represents an essay, an essay usually starts with an introduction, includes several main body points, and ends with a conclusion.
Finally, we have a newspaper article, a newspaper article has many different sections, and it also includes a photograph usually.
We are now going to learn what exactly are those sections of a newspaper article.
So we are learning about newspaper articles, because our end goal is to be able to write an article reporting on the death of Julia Stoner from the story of the Speckled band.
So I want you to think about, from your knowledge of newspaper articles so far, what are the different features that you can recognise in the picture below? Pause the video and have a think.
Let's go through the newspaper article features, let's label them on the newspaper article.
Which feature is this? Which feature is this? Which feature is this? And finally, which feature is this? Pause the video and have a go at labelling the newspaper article.
Let's go through the answers.
The first element we see here in the background is the photograph.
The photograph usually tells the story in a visual way, it gives us a huge clue about what we are going to be reading about, and that can help us make our mind up about whether we want to read that article or not.
It can help us know whether we are interested in that article or not.
This feature is the headline, "They're not great," is the headline.
The headline is usually written in big, bold text that catches the reader's attention immediately.
The headline also helps the reader understand whether they want to read that article or not.
Next we have the subheading, the subheading here is, "Call for ban on kids cereal packaging." The subheading gives us a bit more information about that article, it almost summarises it in eight words or less.
And finally, we have the body of text.
The body of text is usually arranged in columns, and the body of text will include the article opening, the article main body, and the article tale, which we'll learn more about later.
I now want you to think about what the purpose is of each feature.
Some of it we've already mentioned, but pause the video and see if you can discuss that in your own words.
Let's go through what you may have said.
The photograph is there to give a visual depiction of the event, and as we said, it's to help the reader understand whether they want to read that article or not.
The headline functions as the title of the article.
It essentially tells a reader what topic the article will report on.
The subheading is a brief summary of the events, and as we said, it usually is eight words or less, it needs to be very brief.
And finally, the body of text, including the opening, main body, and tale, tells us all of the details of the news story or case.
Well done if you got that right.
Let's check our understanding of the features of a newspaper article.
Which of the below is not an important feature of a newspaper article? Pause the video and have a think.
Well done if you said analysis is not an important feature of a newspaper article, analysis is an important feature of an essay, but not a newspaper article.
A newspaper article reports on an event.
Therefore, we need a headline, subheading, and photo to give the reader a clue about what event we are reporting on, or what issue we are going to be talking about and informing on.
I now want you to consider all of the features that we've just learned of a newspaper article.
I want you to write a sentence explaining why each feature is important.
Use the sentence starters below to help you.
So you could start off by saying, "In an article there is a headline," for example, "this is an important feature because." "This feature is also important because, in addition there is a subheading, this is necessary because." So what you need to do is consider all the elements of a newspaper article that we've just learned, heading, subheading, photo, main body, and write about why we need each one.
So pause the video and have a go at this task.
Great job everyone, let's go through what you may have written.
In an article there is a headline, this is an important feature because it catches the reader's attention and gives them an idea about the topic of the article.
In addition, there is a subheading, which is important because it gives the reader a bit more information about what the article will cover.
Newspaper articles also include photographs, which are important because they may depict the person or crime scene that the article is about.
It allows someone to get a gist of the article before they read it.
Lastly, an article contains a body of text, this is important because it reports on all of the details of the story.
The introduction or opening is particularly important because it gives a concise overview of the key details.
Well done on that task everyone.
We're now going to move on and learn a little bit about how we write an effective headline and subheading for a newspaper article.
Let's start with headlines.
Headlines have to hook the reader and give them a clue what the article is about.
I want you to look at the headlines on the right in that picture there, and I want you to discuss what you think those news stories are about based on the headline.
So pause the video and have a go, what are those three news stories likely about? The first news story may be about climate change, since the subheading is, "Act Now to Save the Planet." The second article may be about technology or a new invention, because it references a walking car in the headline.
And the last article may be about politics in America, because we see that it's talking about the President.
In order to hook the reader, newspaper headlines often contain language devices.
Can you think of any language devices often used in headlines? Pause the video and have a think.
Here are some you may have thought of.
Headlines often contain puns, for example, peace of cake.
Peace of cake makes use of the multiple meanings of the word peace.
Headlines also often include alliteration, for example, saluting our Stars and Stripes.
Headlines also make use of rhyme, for example, tissue issue.
Headlines also make use of sensationalist language, this means language designed to shock the reader, for example, hell on earth.
And headlines may also make use of imperative language, such as act now that we saw in the previous headline for climate change.
Well done if you said any of those.
I now want you to show your understanding of the many language devices we may see in headlines.
You need to decide which language device has been used in each headline.
So pause the video and match each headline with the device used.
Let's go through the answers.
A beary good sight uses a pun, it makes use of the word very and combines it with bear to create this funny or intriguing title.
Lethal lion on the loose contains alliteration, that is because the le sound is repeated in lethal, lion, and loose.
Stoke Moran Horror uses sensationalist language, the word horror is designed to shock the reader.
And fun in the sun uses rhyme.
Well done if you got those right.
Let's move on to talk about subheadings.
Subheadings tell the reader more about the new story in a short, snappy way.
Subheadings should be no more than eight words.
I want you to look at the subheadings on the right, and I want you to think about why you think subheadings need to be short and snappy.
So let's read them first, "Alert and alive.
Tea addicts reported to live longer." "Alert and alive, research from the Rainbow University reports that people who drink a mug of tea a day live three years longer than average." Remember, both the articles contain the same headline, it's just the subheadings below that differ.
So can you pause the video and think about why subheadings need to be short and snappy? Off you go.
Subheadings need to be short and snappy, because together with the headline, they draw people in to to read the article.
People use the subheading to quickly decide whether the rest of the article is of interest to them.
Remember, there are many articles in a newspaper or magazine, most people do not read everyone, so they need to be selective and choose the ones they are interested in.
So when we look at the example subheadings on the right, we can confidently say that the subheading "Tea addicts reported to live longer," is more effective.
The reader can skim that subheading and decide whether that's of interest to them.
Whereas in the second subheading that starts, "Research from the Rainbow University," we see that this is potentially too detailed, and this information can be put into the main body text.
Well done if you said that.
I now want you to create a subheading for one of the headlines below to show your understanding of what makes an effective subheading.
Remember to keep your subheading eight words or less.
Pause the video and create one subheading.
Let's go through some possible subheadings.
"Lethal lion on the loose," for that headline, the subheading could be, "Adult lion escapes London Zoo." That summarises what's happened in five words.
"A beary good sight, Traveller reports first ever sighting of sea bear." Again, that summarises the article in just eight words.
And "Stoke Moran Horror, Young women dies suspiciously on Britain's oldest estate." Again, that uses eight words to summarise the article.
Obviously, your subheadings will not be exactly the same, but as long as you have created a concise, short, snappy summary of the headline and article, great job.
What is a subheading? Pause the video and have a think.
Well done if you said a subheading is the part of the article that gives a short, snappy summary.
A subheading is not where all of the information is revealed, all of the information is revealed in the body text.
And a subheading is not the title of the article, the title of the article is called the headline.
Well done if you got that right.
Now, we are going to show that we know how to create effective subheadings and headlines.
Imagine each of these images came from a news article.
I want you to create a suitable headline and subheading to match each image.
Remember to use language devices in the headlines, such as pun, alliteration, rhyme, and keep the subheadings no more than eight words.
Pause the video and write your headlines and subheadings for those two news stories.
Let's go through what you may have said.
The first image could have the headline, "Phoney Friends" as the headline, and the subheading could be something like, "Social media enthusiasts reported to be less loyal." The headline Phoney Friends makes use of a pun, because phone refers to the device they're using, but the word phoney relates to being fake or not really believable.
And again, in my subheading, I've summarised what that article could be about in eight words.
The next picture I might choose this headline, "Earth is Dying." Now, that could be considered effective because I've used sensationalist language, the word dying is designed to shock the reader.
And my subheading is, "Scientists predict Arctic to be uninhabitable by 2030." Again, that is my eight word summary.
Obviously, your headlines and subheadings will be completely different depending on how you interpreted those images.
The main thing is that your headline contains a language device and hooks the reader, and that your subheadings are eight words or less and contain a summary.
Great job on that task everybody.
Let's go through what we've learned today.
The purpose of a headline is to grab the reader's attention.
A headline should give an indication of the content of a news article.
Language devices are often used in headlines, and subheadings can be used to give more detail about a story.
Great work in your lesson today, everyone, I really look forward to seeing you next time.