Creating SoJo with Appropriate Frames, Sources and Structures
Co-creating the Final Story Rubric
Objectives: Creating SoJo with appropriate frames, sources and structures
Delivery method: Instructor-led recall; inquiry by station and facilitated discussion; flip charts
Materials: Markers, Tape (if needed)
Room setup: stations
Time: one hour, depends on numbers
Activity: Co-creating the final story rubric
- Tell students you value the knowledge they have gained over the term so you want their help creating the rubric for the final story.
- Instructor then asks students to generate a list of topics covered during the term and writes list of student ideas on board. Similar categories are grouped and/or combined.
- When the list is complete and agreed-upon, divide students into groups to generate characteristics of strong work by category. Students write their responses on flip chart paper at stations around the room.
Variation: Students analyze examples of strong solutions journalism for evidence of each of the agreed-upon categories. - Instructor coordinates share-out at each station with students from other groups encouraged to contribute their ideas as well. Instructor records responses.Instructor then leads whole-group discussion as students share out their findings. Instructor suggests parallels to students’ observations and previous discussion of solutions stories and “impostors.” Discuss how limitations and failure contribute to a story’s rigor.Activity Notes: For further explanation of Graffitti exercise, see Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty by Elizabeth F. Barkley.
- Outside of class time, instructor generates and finalizes the rubric based on student input. Here are examples from an intermediate reporting class with a solutions focus and from a specialized solutions elective.
- After students create first drafts, schedule an in-class peer review of those drafts using the rubric co-created by the class. Benefits: understanding how story topic affects solutions journalism creation, jumpstarting thinking about their own reporting and creating ownership for their final stories/projects.