Dear Journalist:
We have heard about your
expressed interest in starting up your own magazine. My partners and I are
interested in taking you up on your endeavor. But before we decide to invest in
your proposed magazine, we would just like to set out a few parameters:
Over the next couple of
weeks, you’re going to create a magazine that is targeted towards grade 7s and
8s at Mackenzie Glen Public School. The articles found in the magazine will
range from informational texts to editorials and reports and even fictional ads
that advertise products that you think grade 7s and 8s would find appealing.
Of course, this isn’t
something that’s going to come together over night. Our investors understand
that! As you work through your reading strategies in the first term focusing on
determining importance, making connections and questioning, those reading
strategies will support your writing as you blog, pen editorials and write
articles.
Each group will take
responsibility for pitching their proposed magazine to their peers for
“funding.” After which they will take responsibility for contributing one article,
one blog and one editorial in addition to one fictional advertisement
each. Similarly, each student in their
group will create one proposed magazine cover at the end of the unit which my
investors and I will choose as the cover for your magazine.
Some of you might be
wondering “what is the topic of the magazine?” The magazine, as was mentioned
earlier, is designed to appeal to grade 7s and 8s. Therefore the content you
decide to write about will likely vary. You could have an article on a current
school issue and perhaps an editorial on video games. Or vice versa.
Although you are putting
together a magazine as a group, you will be assessed individually according by
my investors to the criteria that is develop based on each writing task (or
media task in the case of the advertisement). The stronger the products, the
more likely my investors and I will take a risk on your magazine.
Looking
forward to seeing these potential products!
Sincerely,
- Count von Moneybags
