ACTIVITY 1

INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES (1 x session)

ACHIEVEMENT OBJECTIVES
English- Creating Meaning- Purpose & Audience, Language & Features
Technology- Technology Practice- Planning for Practice
-Technology Knowledge- Technological products
The Arts- Communicating & Interpreting

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students are learning:
1. About the types of questions used in interviews and the way they are
delivered.

SUCCESS CRITERIA (examples)

 Questions are linked by similar ideas & flow on from one another.
 Questions are open ended and lead to detailed answers.
 Gesture, facial expression and voice tone are used in different ways.
 It is clear you have taken on the personality of the reporter or
interviewee.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Good interviewing techniques can take lots of practice and years to develop.
When your class visits the ONTV Studio the location team will use a hand held
microphone for the interview they have written. It is useful to practice this
technique – a piece of cardboard works just as well as a microphone!

EQUIPMENT
Videos of a variety of different interviews
Pen & paper
 LEARNING SEQUENCE
1. Share Learning Outcomes & Success Criteria with students.

2. Video a range of appropriate interviews to watch and discuss with your

class. For example Fair Go, Close Up, Te Kaea, Campbell Live, 60
Minutes, 20/20, Oprah or the News. Discuss criteria & what makes the
interviews “good”.

3. Ask the students to write two open-ended questions (i.e. ones that don’t
allow ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers). Try these questions out on each other.
Discuss how simple or difficult this is and how easy it was to meet the
criteria.

4. Some questions may be open ended, but could still only elicit very short
answers. Have the class try ways of extending the interviewee's
response, or getting a full answer with some impromptu supplementary
questions on the same topic. How important is the interviewer’s
reaction? Body language? Tone?

5. Compile a class list of their five golden rules for conducting an interview
- these could now be your new criteria, to have the questions assessed
against.

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS
1. Write five open-ended questions about a particular topic. Ask the
students to interview a fellow class mate. The interview should last for
one minute.

2. Try the same exercise this time conducting an interview that lasts for
three minutes.
 ACTIVITY 2
THE INTERVIEW (1- 2 sessions)

ACHIEVEMENT OBJECTIVES
English- Making meaning- Purposes & Audience, Language features.
-Creating Meaning- Purposes & Audience, Language Features, Ideas.
Technology- Technological Practice- Planning for Practice, Outcome
development & evaluation.
-Technological Knowledge- Technological products.
The Arts- Communicating & Interpreting.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students are learning to:
1. Identify the essential information in a news story.
2. Write successful interview questions (see Activity 1).
3. Ask interview questions using appropriate interview techniques.

SUCCESS CRITERIA (examples)

 Identify the ‘Who, What, Where, When, Why, How’ of the news story.
 Open-ended, interesting interview questions (see Activity 1).
 Questions are delivered using the right tone & body language (see Act
1).

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The job of an interviewer is to ensure that the interviewee tells their own story.
For example, if the interviewer asks long questions, the interviewee won’t have
time to answer, or will forget what they’ve been asked.
The interviewer should ask open-ended questions, that is questions that cannot
be answered by a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. It is an important skill in an interview, as is
their use of silence to bring the interviewee out more. Watch an interview and
see if you think the interviewer is doing too much talking. During the ONTV
session the interviews will consist of approximately 5 questions.

EQUIPMENT
Story Card Examples – blackline master
Tape recorder
Pen & paper
Video Camera
Tripod
Television (and Cabling to connect to the camera)
 LEARNING SEQUENCE
1. Share Learning Outcomes & Success Criteria with students.
2. Ask the class to get into pairs and decide who will be the interviewer
and who will be interviewed.
3. Hand each interviewer a story card. Explain that they have three or
four minutes to take in the story and make a note of the essential
1information (W/W/W/W/W/H).
4. Tell them to read the card and prepare to interview the person
described at the bottom of the card, thinking about the criteria.
5. Ask the interviewers to hand the card to their interviewee. Ask the
interviewee to read the story and to become the person described at
the bottom of the card, thinking about the criteria.
6. Two or three of the pairs could be given tape recorders so that the
class can hear the interview. Also in groups students can take turns
performing the interview in front of the video camera connected to
the TV as a monitor. These performances can be recorded to be
reviewed later.
7. Before sending the pairs off, discuss with the students what makes
an interview interesting to listen to - Success Criteria & “Golden
Rules” (Activity 1).
8. At the end of the exercise discuss why some of the interviews were
more lively and interesting than others. What could they do to make
their next interview more successful? Critique the interviews against
the criteria, at this point the class could also listen to and watch the
recorded interviews and critique them against the criteria.
NB: Could swap roles & repeat lesson see further investigations.

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS

1. Using different story cards reverse the roles. This time also incorporate
the use of hand held microphones and encourage the interviewer to
speak into the microphone themselves and then hold the microphone for
the interviewee to speak directly into.
2. Watch a recording of a professional interview with the class. Discuss
what makes a good interview.
3. Type up the list of suggestions from the above discussion about what
makes an interview interesting and successful. Give one to each student
for them to think about and use (add to “Golden Rules”).
4. Ask the students to nominate whom they would like to interview, either
within the school community or the local community. Give the students
the opportunity to conduct these interviews. Perhaps arrange with your
local paper to have some of the interviews published.
 ACTIVITY 3
LINKS (1 x session)

ACHIEVEMENT OBJECTIVES
English- Making & Creating meaning-Purposes & audiences, Language
Features, Structure
Technology- Technology Practice- Planning for Practice.
The Arts- Developing Ideas- Communicating and Interpreting.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students are learning:
1. How to link news stories effectively using different techniques.

SUCCESS CRITERIA (examples)

 Links help the stories to flow together.
 Links mention the previous &/or following story.
 Links thank and introduce next speaker.
 Links need to be between10 & 30 words.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Links can be used for a variety of reasons – sometimes they are humorous to
help relieve tension at the end of a series of sad stories, or a change in the
direction in the news, or comment on an item. Often links are based on a news
element common to both stories i.e.
“...from losing your house to losing a test match…”

EQUIPMENT
Today’s Stories – blackline master
Stopwatches
Pen & paper
 LEARNING SEQUENCE

1. Share Learning Outcomes & Success Criteria with students.

2. Watch one of the previously recorded news programmes. Ask the

students to look particularly at how the stories are linked together.

3. Ask them to explain why they think good linking comments might be
important and identify some of the criteria within the links.

4. Explain to the students that they are going to write a five minute news
programme and that each story should be no longer than a minute in
length.

5. Tell them to use stories from the Today’s Stories – blackline master.
However, they will need to add to each story to make them fit the time
constraint.

6. Tell the students that you are most interested in the links between the
stories and how the stories flow together, not in the stories themselves.

7. Allow each group or student time to present their broadcast to the class.

8. Discuss the different presentations. Assess them against the criteria:

Do they flow together?
Do they mention following &/or previous stories?
How could the links be improved?

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS

1. Try presenting one of the above broadcasts without linking the stories.
How does it affect the presentation of the programme?

2. Ask the students to highlight the linking phrases on the sample script.
 ACTIVITY 4
SHOT SIZES (1 - 2 x sessions)

ACHIEVEMENT OBJECTIVES
English- Making meaning- Purpose and Audience, Structure.
Technology- Technological Practice- Planning for Practice, Brief development
-Technological Knowledge- technological modelling, Technological product
-Nature of Technology- Characteristics of technology
The Arts- Developing Practical Knowledge, Communicating and Interpreting

LEARNING OUTCOMES
We are learning to:
1. Identify different camera shots.
2. Why certain shots are used for certain stories.

SUCCESS CRITERIA (example)

 Explain what all 6 shots look like.
 …
 …
 …
 …
 …

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Using an ‘L’ frame or a box frame (made with their hands) is often what
directors do to help them see the different shots they have in mind. The use of
different sizes of shots in a news programme can be quite effective.
A close-up of an injury can be quite shocking, a wide shot of a scene, e.g. a
flood, helps tell the audience the extent of the tragedy. Imagine covering a
cricket or netball game only on close-up of the bat or ball. The excitement of
the game as a whole would be totally lost.
On the following page is a loose guide to shot types and their purpose:
SHOT PURPOSE EXAMPLE
LS Establish environment / orientate viewer Ending of 6pm News

MLS Show big action between subjects Typical sports shot

(you don’t know where the next action will be)

MS Show action – focus on subject Contestants on game

shows

MCU Show expression – focus on subject Interview of TV Star

(responding to questions)

CU Show reaction – focus on subject Expressing emotion

BCU Focus on singular detail Eyes weeping / fingers

tapping.

EQUIPMENT
LOTS of old magazines Plain paper
Defining Shots – black line master Glue
‘L’ Frame – black line master Rulers
Pencils Scissors
Video Camera Tripod
Television (plus Cabling to connect to the camera)
 LEARNING SEQUENCE

1. Share Learning Outcomes & Success Criteria with students.

2. Use the template dimensions given and have students make themselves
two ‘L’ frames.
3. Discuss the Defining Shots – black line master with the students. What
is seen/not seen in each shot etc. Connect the Camera to the TV and get
some volunteers to set up shots while the class discuss how each shot
should look and what effect it might have on the viewer.
4. Using magazines explain to the students that they can use their ‘L’
frames to assist them to find the type of shot they are looking for. Point
out to the students that they can change quite big pictures with their ‘L’
frames. Give the students time to experiment.
5. Ask the students to find pictures in the magazines that show examples of
each of these shots. Ask them to cut them out and label them.
6. As a pair work through the criteria using your cut out pictures
7. To conclude bring the class together in front of the TV with students
operating the camera and setting up different shots. The others can then
guess what each shot is and in which situation it should be used.

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS

1. If possible use a digital camera and the computer to allow the students
to experience and experiment with framing different kinds of camera
shots as an ICT exercise.
2. Ask the students if they can explain why all these different shots are
important.
3. Ask the students to think outside the square! Take some large pictures
and block off all but a small area. Ask the children to guess what else
might be going on inside the picture. Try and use pictures that are quite
deceptive (a disaster picture with only a flower visible etc.)
4. Talk about television pictures being outside the square. Television news
pictures show only part of what is actually happening. Could this affect
how you feel about the story being shown?
5. Ask the students to make a box frame. Take a piece of paper and cut a
square out Of the center. Put this piece of paper over pictures so the
only visible Piece is seen through the whole. How dramatically does this
affect the picture as a whole?
 ACTIVITY 5
PREPARING THE SCRIPT (2 x sessions)

ACHIEVEMENT OBJECTIVES
English- Creating Meaning- Purposes & Audiences, ideas, Language features,
Structure.
Technology- Technology Practice- Planning for practice
Technological Knowledge- Technological modelling
Nature of Technology- Characteristics of technology.
The Arts- Developing ideas, Communicating and Interpreting, Understanding
in context.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students are learning to:
1. Understand & prepare a television script.

SUCCESS CRITERIA (example)

 Have joining links flowing between stories.
 Have appropriate camera shots in the margins.
 ...
 ...

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Television scripts are developed sequentially to ensure they are consistently

laid out, easy to read and so that different crew members have their
information written in a particular place so that they can quickly scan it.
Students may find the Script Definitions – black line master difficult at first but
if you work through it slowly and read out the presenters’ words first, they will
more easily understand the rest of the information on the page.
Autocue devices, which automatically scroll the script for the presenter, are
used often on television news. The script is usually projected onto a screen of
a two way mirror in front of the camera. Because of the distance from script to
presenter, the print is quite large on the screen, and has to scroll quickly to
keep up with the presenter.

EQUIPMENT
Blank Script Page – blackline master
Training Script – blackline master

LEARNING SEQUENCE
1. Share Learning Outcomes & Success Criteria with students.

2. Discuss the Training Script. Talk about all the different information found
on it. (Links/cues/shots/cameras etc could develop rest of criteria with
students).

2. Introduce the Blank Script to the students. Ask them if they can see any
similarities between the two. What will they need to add?
NB: The ONTV Tutors will put in the camera shots required for
your class’s script that will be used in the ONTV session.

3. Take an existing news story that the students have already written and
ask them to edit the story on to the blank script. (Please do not write in
the margins.)

4. Ask the students to write their story onto the sheet, imagining what all
the shots would be, which camera was filming etc.

5. Remind them to keep the stories interesting.

6. Put four or five stories together and then work through putting all the
shots etc in. This could be done as a whole class exercise or in smaller
groups.

7. Swap scripts and use criteria as a check list.

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS

Give each student a story from the newspaper and ask them to rewrite it in
television script format. Repeat the above exercise, again adding in joining
links and camera shots.

Include news articles as part of the shared and guided reading programme.
Discuss the language, style and the W/W/W/W/W and H (could highlight these).
 ACTIVITY 6
THE WEATHER (1 X SESSION)

ACHIEVEMENT OBJECTIVES
English- Making Meaning- Language features
Technology- Technological Practice- Planning for practice
Technological Knowledge- Technological modelling, Technological systems
Nature of Technology- Characteristics of technology.
The Arts- communicating & Interpreting, Understanding in Context.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students are learning:
1. About techniques & skills needed for a TV weather presentation.

SUCCESS CRITERIA (to be developed)

 ...
 ...
 ...

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The science of predicting weather is very difficult. Think about how often
mistakes are made by weather forecasters on the news! The Meteorological
office in Wellington uses satellites, along with many other simple devices in
their weather prediction.

EQUIPMENT
Weather Symbols – blackline master & Map – blackline master
Old newspapers
 LEARNING SEQUENCE

1. Share Learning Outcomes & Success Criteria with students.

2. Get children to discuss & write down what they know about weather
presentations, in small groups.

3. Use the weather symbols sheet and old newspapers and make a game of
seeing how quickly the students can find the correct meanings for each
of the symbols.

4. On the Map – blackline master – ask the students to mark where the
following places are located: Wellington, Auckland, Hamilton,
Christchurch, Dunedin, Napier/Hastings, Nelson, Rotorua, Taupo,
Queenstown and their own town or suburb. Outline the following
regions: Canterbury, Taranaki, and The Bay of Plenty.

5. On the same map, ask the students to draw a compass correctly

showing the directions of north, south, east and west.

6. Think/Pair/Share – What skills does a good weather presenter need?

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS

1. Make up your own daily weather map. Use the weather symbols to
record the weather. You could use a map of your own region or a map of
the whole country.

2. Design a quiz using the weather page from your local paper. (A vast
amount of information is contained on it) or make some weather symbol
dominos as a game.

3. Listen or watch the weather forecast for a week, how often was it right
for your area?

4. Try predicting what the weather will be like every day for a week in your
local area. How accurate or inaccurate were you?

5. Name and label the Islands of New Zealand – including the smaller ones!
 ACTIVITY 7
WHAT IS THE NEWS MADE OF? (1 – 3 x sessions)

ACHIEVEMENT OBJECTIVES
English- Making Meaning- Purpose and Audience, Structure
Technology- Technological Practice- Planning for practice, Outcome
development & evaluation.
Technological Knowledge- Technological products, Technological systems
Nature of Technology- Characteristics of technological outcomes
The Arts- Communicating & Interpreting, Understanding in Context.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students are learning:
1. About the order, features & purpose of a news programme.

SUCCESS CRITERIA (example)

 understanding of why the news is ordered the way it is.
 …
 …
 …
BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Large numbers of staff compile the news each day. There are usually two
alternating teams, with each team consisting of newsreaders, editor, sub-
editor, director, news assistants and typists. The types of news vary from
‘harder’, serious news in bulletins to ‘softer’ current affairs stories in magazine
shows. There are also reporters who appear regularly. All these people help to
assemble a news broadcast and each has their own particular job.
The director also has responsibility for the overall presentation of the broadcast
and the other staff needed to make this happen. In addition, there are camera
operators, and people working in such areas as graphics, map work, titles and
slides. All have been specially trained for their position. Producing the news is
truly a team effort. Most people are only aware of the presenters and perhaps
the camera operators.

EQUIPMENT
Television
Video
Videotape
Pen & Paper
 LEARNING SEQUENCE

1. Share Learning Outcomes & Success Criteria with students.

2. Record the evening news from several different channels (TV1, Maori TV,
TV3, Prime and your regional channel for example). You can also record
the Breakfast Show in the morning for a look at a magazine style show.
3. Watch parts of one of the programmes you have recorded with your
class, cueing as necessary.
4. Ask the students to write down the order of story presentation.
5. Discuss with the students why they think the news has been presented
in this order (re: criteria).
6. Repeat the process with another news programme.
7. Can the students see a pattern? Why do they think this pattern
exists?
(Possible end of session 1)
8. Revisit Learning Outcomes. Brainstorm different parts of news shows
with a pair (Stories/links/interviews etc).
9. Compile a class list of common features to be displayed.
10. Discuss the style of language & music used in the news format, add this
to the list.
(possible end of session 2)
11. Revisit Learning Outcomes. What is the purpose of television news? How
is it linked to the students’ values, culture and life-style?
12. What type of audiences do the students think television news is aimed
at? What do they as an audience expect to see and hear on the news?
Does the news currently live up to those expectations?

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS

1. Repeat the process with the students this time looking at the weather.
Are the patterns similar?
2. How has news and weather presentation changed over the years? Has it
improved?
3. Watch other styles of news programmes with your class. Do these
programmes have similar patterns?
4. A debate always shows two sides of a particular argument or issue.
Does television news do the same?
5. Look at a controversial national or international issue, currently making
the headlines. Are both sides equally presented?
 ACTIVITY 8
WRITING A NEWS ITEM? (1 – 2x sessions)

ACHIEVEMENT OBJECTIVES
English- Creating Meaning- Ideas, Language Features, Structure.
Technology- Technological Practice- Planning for practice
Nature of Technology- Characteristics of technology
The Arts- Developing ideas, Communicating & Interpreting, Understanding in
Context.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students are learning to:
1. Write a news story to fit within a certain time frame.

SUCCESS CRITERIA(example)
 Story contains the W/W/W/W/W/H information
 ...
 ...
 ...

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The order of the news is important and the news editors are responsible for
deciding the order and length of each news item. You may notice that TVNZ,
TV3 and Prime News often contain the same stories and it is interesting to
compare the order in which each chooses to broadcast them.

EQUIPMENT
Pen & paper
Sample News Story – blackline master
Headlines – blackline master (1 headline per student)
Stopwatch
 LEARNING SEQUENCE

1. Share Learning Outcomes & Success Criteria with students.

2. Explain to the students that each item that appears on the news is
written so that it lasts for a certain amount of time, and that they are
going to practice writing news items of a specific length. (The OnTV
news & magazine stories are 1 minute long, maximum or 1 script page
long.)

3. Read the sample news story script (or use one of your own). Highlight
features & anything missing together and record some of these on the
board (could become Success Criteria). For younger age groups this
works well when modelled as a shared writing activity.
4. Give each student a headline. Explain to them that it doesn’t matter
that they don’t know what the story was that went with the headline,
only that they write a one minute story to go with it. The story can be
realistic or as imaginative as they like. But it MUST contain all the
important facts. Remind them of the five W’s and an H: WHO, WHAT,
WHERE, WHEN, WHY and HOW.
5. Talk about the two main types of news stories:
HARD STORIES: Stories about important things that are happening
nationally and internationally, for instance; bomb threats in England,
storms in the USA, elections in New Zealand etc.
SOFT STORIES: Stories about things that have happened, usually
nationally, but they can be international as well, that have a happy
ending. For instance, endangered species giving birth, exhibitions
openings and Hollywood gossip.

6. There are also sports and weather stories.

7. Have the students read their stories out to a group of 4. Time the
students to see how well they managed to stick to the time guidelines.
8. Have students critique each others story against the Success Criteria.

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS

Ask the students to watch the news at night and time how long each story is
given. Are all the stories given the same amount of time? If some stories are
given more time, what sort of stories do they tend to be? Which sorts of
stories get the least amount of time?
 ACTIVITY 9
EDITING A NEWS ITEM (1 – 2 sessions)

ACHIEVEMENT OBJECTIVES
English- Creating Meaning- Purposes & Audience, Language Features
Technology- Technological Practice- Planning for practice, Brief development.
Technological Knowledge- Technological modelling
Nature of Technology- Characteristics of technological outcomes.
The Arts- Developing Ideas, Communicating& Interpreting Understanding in
Context.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students are learning to:
1. Summarise (edit) the main points in a news story to fit in with a certain time
frame when read aloud.

SUCCESS CRITERIA (example)

 The edited story fits within the set time frame.
 ...
 ...
 ...
 ...

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Recording how long an item will be in the news is the job of the news editor.
S/he will be juggling this when planning the bulletin often right up to the last
minute. Reporters who believe their stories are worthwhile might try to
persuade the editors to give them extra time, but that will be at the cost of
another item. It is a very tricky balancing act.
When your students visit the ONTV Studio, the scripts the class have written
need to be a specific length (1 minute or 1 script page long) to meet the 10
minute maximum requirement. The more practice they have had at school to
work through the process using activities such as this one, the better equipped
they will be on the day.

EQUIPMENT
A newspaper story which takes approximately
5 minutes to read aloud (1 between 2)
Stopwatches (1 between 2)
News Bites 1 – blackline master
Pen & paper

LEARNING SEQUENCE
1. Share Learning Outcomes & Success Criteria with students.
2. Find an interesting story in the newspaper that takes approximately 5
minutes to read aloud (3 words per second is a good estimate if you’re
not using a stopwatch).
3. Present the story to the class (1 between 2) and discuss its contents.
4. Ask the students to think about which parts of the story are the most
important and which bits could be left out. You want the students to
realise that WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW are what people
really want to know. The 5 W’s and an H! (Could develop the Success
Criteria with the children here).
5. Explain to the class that this particular piece of news is going to appear
on tonight’s six o’clock news but that the time allowed for the piece is
only one and a half minutes. They have been asked to edit the piece
down so that it only takes this amount of time to read aloud. Younger
children may find it easier to work in pairs.
6. Remind them that they must keep all the most important information
and that it must be interesting and that they need to try and meet the
Success Criteria.
7. They need to rewrite the story with the appropriate information & length.
8. Ask each group or child to read their finished story to a small group.
Explain that presenters in the ONTV Studio have to read out loud in front
of a camera so this is good practice!
9. Discuss with the group which stories covered the W/W/W/W/W/H.
10. Discuss with the whole class some stories they thought met the criteria
and which they could continue to work on.

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS

1. Repeat the exercise with another story.

2. Give each student a story from the News Bites – blackline master.
Explain to them that this time they have to expand the story. Instead of
making it shorter they have to make it longer. Explain that they can
make up the rest of the story but that it must read for at least one
minute when it is read aloud. The key is to come up with many answers
for your 5 W‘s and an H. (This exercise is a lot harder than it sounds, try
it yourself!)
 ACTIVITY 10
A PICTURE SPEAKS A THOUSAND WORDS (1x session)

ACHIEVEMENT OBJECTIVES
English- Creating Meaning- Language Features
Technology- Technological Practice- Planning for practice
Technological Knowledge- Technological products
The Arts- Developing practical knowledge, Developing ideas, Communicating
& Interpreting.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students are learning:
1. about successful pictures in news stories.

SUCCESS CRITERIA (to be developed)

 …
 …
 …
 …

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

We take information in much more quickly visually than we do when reading or

listening to it. The use of graphics and pictures, which tell a story by
themselves, is very common on television. We also tend to accept visual
information as “truth” much more readily than we do when reading or listening,
after all “seeing is believing”. It might be interesting to consider situations in
which this saying doesn’t apply.

EQUIPMENT
A4 sized paper
Coloured pens and pencils
News Bites 2 – blackline master or a similar selection of non-illustrated news
stories
 LEARNING SEQUENCE

1. Share Learning Outcomes & Success Criteria with students.

2. Share with the class some effective pictures and their corresponding
news stories. (You could develop the criteria here together).
3. Explain to them that they are only allowed to draw one picture and that
as near as possible it should tell us what has happened.
4. Provide each student or group with one of the stories and ask the
students to draw a picture to illustrate it.
5. Give some of the groups the same story as it will be interesting to
compare if different individuals or groups perceived the same story.
6. Encourage the students to draw in landscape rather than portrait. As
this is the easiest format to use with graphics on camera in the ONTV
Studio.
7. Once the pictures are finished have a small competition to guess what
the stories are about.
8. Critique 2 or 3 new pictures with stories against their criteria. Discuss
how the pictures could be improved.

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS

1. Show one of the pre-recorded news programmes the students have not
yet seen. Turn the sound off. At the end of each item pause the video
and ask the students to try and guess what the story was actually about.
2. Replay the story this time with the sound up and see who is right. This
exercise could be turned into a group point scoring competition and the
team with the closest description gets the points.
3. Refer back to Activity 3, discuss with the students how they would put
graphics to one of these stories. Remind them to think about the points
that make a good news picture.

Portrait paper: Landscape paper:

 ACTIVITY 11

AUTOCUE TECHNIQUES (1 x session but ongoing)

ACHIEVEMENT OBJECTIVES
English- Creating Meaning- Language features, Purpose &audience, Structure.
Technology- Technological Practice- Planning for practice
-Technological Knowledge- Technological products.
The Arts- Communicating and Interpreting.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students are learning to:
1. Understand how using an autocue improves the production value of a Live
broadcast.
2. Read a script off an autocue using pace and expression.
3. Operate an Autocue to keep in time with the presenter.

SUCCESS CRITERIA (to be developed)

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Autocue is a UK based manufacturer of Teleprompter systems. The company
was founded in 1955 and patented its first teleprompter in 1962.
The term Autocue has become used for any heads-up prompting system in the
UK, Ireland and Australia, and has as such become a genericised trade mark.
Also known as:
• electronic speech notes
• cueing device
• prompter
• idiot board (slang)
As the speaker does not need to look down to consult written notes, he or she
appears to have memorized the speech or be speaking spontaneously, and will
look directly into the camera lens. Cue cards, on the other hand, will always be
placed away from the lens axis, making the speaker look at a point beside the
camera, which leaves a "distracted" impression.

EQUIPMENT
Computer with internet connection
http://www.cueprompter.com/
Autocue device (not necessary, but a fun project to try to make)

LEARNING SEQUENCE
1. Share Learning Outcomes & Success Criteria with students.

2. Video a range of presenters talking to camera. Chances are 99% will be

using an autocue. Look closely for their eyes scanning the text.
3. Show students these autocue mistakes to show what can happen
http://www.break.com/index/really-funny-teleprompter-blooper.html

4. Moving words tend to frighten people. It forces them to read faster and
make mistakes. Look at the teleprompter naturally. Notice what is
happening to your face. Stop if you are straining to focus on the
teleprompter.
5. Read through your material once quietly to yourself before you begin to
present. It is imperative that you know the story you are reading before
you see it on the teleprompter. If you are already familiar with the script
you are less likely to strain to see the words. Reading an autocue
effectively is all about not appearing to be reading. If your face is
contorted and eyes moving around it will be obvious that you are.
6. In pairs have one person operate the autocue http://www.cueprompter.com/
while the other person takes on the role of Presenter. Use the autocue as
a guide. Do not try to read every word exactly as it is written on the
teleprompter. Every anchor makes mistakes. Sometimes words are
misspelled. Occasionally a long word will be cut in half because it is too
long for a line. Whatever the problem is, if you get lost in your script you
will fall apart on camera. If you already know your story well then you
can adapt to whatever happens. The autocue is a helpful tool but you
must be able to communicate without it. Every autocue goes down at
some point. If you are completely reliant on it you will be in big trouble
when it eventually fails you.
7. The presenter will dictate the pace. Don't let the operator’s pace dictate
you. There is a temptation to read faster when the words are scrolling off
the screen. Always remember that it is not your obligation to play catch
up. Read the autocue at your own speed and make the operator adjust
to you.
8. Be natural and just talk. You may be looking at words on the autocue but
all those people on the other side of the camera are looking at your face.
They aren't thinking about the fact that you are reading. You should
therefore not give them any reason to think you are reading. Speak
fluidly with natural pauses and inflection. Every time you catch yourself
reading stop and just talk.
9. Practice. Effectively reading an autocue is all about confidence and
comfort in front of the camera. The only way to gain that is through
repetition. When reading an autocue comes as naturally as breathing
you will be ready. Eventually you will forget the autocue is even there.
 FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS
1. Try adding your own dialogue between autocue lines to add a unique feel
to your presentation.

2. Try designing and building your own autocue for the future.

http://www.creativepro.com/article/bit-by-bit-forget-cue-cards-make-a-teleprompter-