Writing Feature Articles - Step 1 - Lesson 1 | Page 11

Writing Feature Articles - Lesson .
Beginner

Mini Lesson (

min)

Show lesson visuals, Brainstorm Topics Based on Expertise.
Modify Instructional Strategy:
Have students think about the
various places in their lives: home,
school, and other places that
are part of their experience. Ask
students to go through their day,
thinking about the roles they play in
each place.
To scaffold this activity, provide
students with Brainstorm Roles
and Expertise – Beginner (Handout
1.2a).
Alternatively, students can use their
notebooks

Experienced
Modify Instructional Strategy:
Experienced classes should think
about their roles in relation to the
larger society. They should be
encouraged to select topics that are
more worldly or related to current
events. For example, recycler,
public transportation user, applicant
to high schools, standardized testtaker.
Note that while topics are more
worldly, they must still be relevant
to students’ current experience and
within their knowledge base.
Advanced students may also
generate topics that are not “role
speci?c”, but are something they
would like to examine further.
Brainstorming can be stimulated by
having students browse the titles
in Prof. P’s Of?ce as well as print
publications, both newspapers and
magazines.

© 2010, Teaching Matters, Inc.

Today’s Strategy: To brainstorm feature article topics by thinking
about roles and expertise.
Explain that when authors write feature articles, they often
build from their own experiences. Explain that feature articles
aren’t simple or dry news stories, nor are they memoirs; they go
beyond the facts or the individual experiences of the author, but
they do draw on that experience to ?nd a focused topic and a
unique angle that emphasizes the human side of a story.
Tell students that one way to come up with good ideas
for a feature article is to identify their own expertise.
Many students may not believe that they are experts at much
of anything worth writing about. Students do, however, have
personal knowledge and perspectives on topics that are unique
to them and potentially interesting to others. To identify where
their expertise lies, students will take part in a brainstorming
process through which they identify a wide variety of roles they
play in and out of school.
Teacher Model
?? Think aloud about the roles you ?ll or have ?lled over
the course of your life – both in and out of school.
For example, you may be a sixth-grade teacher and
director of the school play, but you are also a husband/
wife, parent, oldest son/daughter and friend. You may
also be a singer in a choir, member of a book club or
softball team. In the past you may have been in a band,
a member of a scout troop or the owner of a pet. List
roles that are fairly standard as well as roles that may
be unique to you. The goal is to demonstrate a range of
possibilities for students.
?? As you brainstorm your various roles, write them in a list.
Leave space adjacent to each role on the list.
?? Once you’ve listed three or four roles, stop and revisit
each one.
?? Think aloud about your personal expertise associated
with one or two roles on the list and the potential topics
that could result. Topics should be broader and less
personal than your experiences. Write down a few
no tes for each of the ideas that you share. You need not
address all of the roles listed. The goal is to demonstrate
a range of possibilities and to help students get started.
?? Recall that you can also go to the idea back you created
earlier in the year to see if you have any good ideas for
your article.

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