Sarah Garrecht Gassen's session today clarified for me several misconceptions I had heard
about opinion writing. My students love to write opinion; however, often the tone of their articles is inappropriate. Their pieces sometimes result in little more than pointless complaints, forums for venting their unhappiness about school rules. Of all the articles students write for our paper, they are most defensive about criticism of their opinion pieces. Their philosophy tends to be that since it's their opinion, they should be allowed to say whatever they want to say. I was pleased that Gassen explained how responsible journalism also applies to editorials and opinion pieces. To help students write effective opinion,
Gassen require the following basic structure in the development of the article:
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Opinion-this is what I think and why
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Why it matters/ why you should care, too
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Reasons: How I got to my opinion and why it is
the best and most logical conclusion
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Counter-arguments; Why they are wrong or what can we learn from the other side
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Call for action
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| Gassen provides teachers guidelines for helping students produce effective opinion articles.
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Donna Owen
McIntosh High School
Peachtree City, Ga.
I,too, see the same rants come from my students.Gassen inspired me so much yesterday, I posted on my newspaper's blog site there will be no columns for next year, and I know this will disappoint quite a few of my returning staff who were vying for that columnist position, but frankly, I'm tired of seeing the rants.
ReplyDeleteReally? I'm hyped to revamp how we do them. I think if you set parameters, such as the ones she suggested, you could get some powerful articles. I'm also planning on checking out the writers she mentioned at the end of the session. I'm not going to give a column to one person, however. I'm going to require all my writers to do opinion.
ReplyDeleteDonna Owen
Important points. I'd imagine teaching the line between news and opinion is a challenging with high schoolers. Same with the idea that strong opinion pieces flow from reporting.
ReplyDeleteSteve Elliott
Arizona State University
Phoenix