Breaking News English ESL Lesson Plan on Digital Newspapers

Traditional and digital news media might soon merge to produce daily newspapers on iPads. This is if the plans of Apple owner Steve Jobs and newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch come to fruition. Industry rumours say the new newspaper will be called “The Daily”. There might even be a name to replace newspaper, as the new project will, of course, be paperless. There will be no print edition or even a Web edition of this new media. It will download straight to the iPad or alternative tablet for an unbeatable price of 99 cents a week. Messrs Jobs and Murdoch maybe onto a winning thing here. The Apple boss has the technology to be able to deliver digital news and Mr Murdoch owns the world’s biggest news corporation. They also both have a knack of knowing what people want.

There are reports that Murdoch is particularly interested in the iPad and how popular it is. He told Fox Business this week that The Daily was his “Number one most exciting project.” He seems to believe people will prefer to read the news on such a device rather than a traditional broadsheet newspaper. There are advantages of the tablet over a paper, such as the lack of origami-style gymnastics required to turn a page on a crowded train, or avoid the corner getting soaked in milk at the breakfast table. Other more obvious benefits to an iPad include the higher level of interactivity the user has with the news. Another advantage for Mr Murdoch and his News Corporation is that he could increase revenues by selling apps designed specifically for the iPad.

WARM-UPS

1. NEWSPAPERS: Walk around the class and talk to other students about newspapers. Change partners often. Sit with your first partner(s) and share your findings.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.

traditional / news media / come to fruition / project / download / unbeatable price / particularly interested / exciting project / device / broadsheet / tablet / origami / iPad

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.

3. NEWS: Complete this table and share it with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote. Change and share again.

	Good things about this	Bad things about this
Newspaper
Word of mouth
Radio
TV
Internet
Billboards

4. BAD NEWS: Students A strongly believe journalists need to report more good news; Students B strongly believe good news doesn’t sell newspapers. Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. iPAD: What might it be most useful for in the future? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Put the most useful at the top. Change partners and share your rankings again.

news
shopping
looking at photos / movies
learning

working
communicating
games
something not yet known

6. DIGITAL: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘digital’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if a-h below are true (T) or false (F).

a.	Newspapers might soon appear with moving images on their pages.	T / F
b.	Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch have an idea about fruit.	T / F
c.	The new news idea could cost as little as 99 cents a week.	T / F
d.	Messrs Jobs and Murdoch seem to know about people’s likes.	T / F
e.	This news project is the most exciting of Mr Murdoch’s projects.	T / F
f.	Murdoch believes people prefer news in papers rather than on iPads.	T / F
g.	There might be a danger of newspapers getting wet with milk.	T / F
h.	Mr Murdoch is thinking of making available all apps for free.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.

1.	merge	a.	version
2	fruition	b.	ability
3.	edition	c.	advantages
4.	alternative	d.	combine
5.	knack	e.	income
6.	particularly	f.	completion
7.	prefer to	g.	especially
8.	required	h.	substitute
9.	benefits	i.	needed
10.	revenues	j.	rather

3. PHRASE MATCH: (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

1.	Traditional and digital news media	a.	to an iPad
2	There will be no	b.	thing here
3.	It will download	c.	read the news
4.	maybe onto a winning	d.	print edition
5.	have a knack of knowing	e.	might soon merge
6.	people will prefer to	f.	by selling apps
7.	There are advantages	g.	what people want
8.	more obvious benefits	h.	the user has
9.	the higher level of interactivity	i.	straight to the iPad
10.	increase revenues	j.	of the tablet

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.

Traditional and digital news media ____________ soon merge to produce daily newspapers on iPads. This is if the plans of Apple owner Steve Jobs and newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch come to ____________. Industry rumours say the new newspaper will be called “The Daily”. There might even be a name to ____________ newspaper, as the new project will, of course, be ____________. There will be no print edition or even a Web edition of this new media. It will download straight to the iPad or ____________ tablet for an unbeatable price of 99 cents a week. Messrs Jobs and Murdoch maybe onto a ____________ thing here. The Apple boss has the technology to be able to ____________ digital news and Mr Murdoch owns the world’s biggest news corporation. They also both have a ____________ of knowing what people want.

alternative
knack
fruition
paperless
deliver
might
winning
replace

There are reports that Murdoch is ____________ interested in the iPad and how popular it is. He told Fox Business this week that The Daily was his “Number one most exciting ____________.” He seems to believe people will prefer to read the news on such a ____________ rather than a traditional broadsheet newspaper. There are advantages of the tablet over a paper, such as the ____________ of origami-style gymnastics required to turn a page on a crowded train, or ____________ the corner getting soaked in milk at the breakfast table. Other more ____________ benefits to an iPad include the higher level of interactivity the user has with the news. Another ____________ for Mr Murdoch and his News Corporation is that he could increase revenues by selling apps designed ____________ for the iPad.

lack
advantage
project
obvious
specifically
particularly
avoid
device

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

Traditional and digital news media ______________________ produce daily newspapers on iPads. This is if the plans of Apple owner Steve Jobs and newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch ______________________. Industry rumours say the new newspaper will be called “The Daily”. There might even be a name to replace newspaper, ______________________, of course, be paperless. There will be no print edition or even a Web edition of this new media. It ______________________ to the iPad or alternative tablet for an unbeatable price of 99 cents a week. Messrs Jobs and Murdoch maybe onto a winning thing here. The Apple ______________________ to be able to deliver digital news and Mr Murdoch owns the world’s biggest news corporation. They ______________________ knowing what people want.

There are reports that Murdoch ______________________ in the iPad and how popular it is. He told Fox Business this week that The Daily was his “Number one most exciting project.” He ______________________ will prefer to read the news ________________________ than a traditional broadsheet newspaper. There are advantages of the tablet over a paper, such as the lack of origami-style gymnastics ______________________ on a crowded train, or avoid the corner getting soaked in milk at the breakfast table. Other ________________________ an iPad include the higher level of interactivity ______________________ news. Another advantage for Mr Murdoch and his News Corporation is that he could increase revenues by selling ______________________ for the iPad.

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionary / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘digital’ and ‘news’.

digital

news

Share your findings with your partners.

Make questions using the words you found.
Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…?

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall how they were used in the text:

soon
fruition
replace
edition
99
knack

popular
exciting
advantages
crowded
higher
selling

STUDENT NEWSPAPERS SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about newspapers in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper.

When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

	STUDENT 1 _____________	STUDENT 2 _____________	STUDENT 3 _____________
Q.1.
Q.2.
Q.3.
Q.4.
Q.5.

Now return to your original partner and share and talk about what you found out. Change partners often.
Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

NEWSPAPERS DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

a)	What did you think when you read the headline?
b)	What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘newspaper’?
c)	How important are newspapers to you?
d)	What are your “news-gathering” habits?
e)	Do you prefer to get news via newspapers, TV or the Internet?
f)	What do you think of the iPad Daily News idea?
g)	Do you think iPad news will eventually replace newspapers?
h)	What do you think of the price of 99 cents?
i)	Do you think Steve Jobs has a knack of knowing what people want?
j)	Do you think digital news will change your lifestyle in any way?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	Why do you think the iPad is so popular?
c)	What are the annoying things about newspapers compared with digital devices?
d)	Would you miss newspapers if they completely disappeared?
e)	What new things would you like to see in the news?
f)	How much interactivity do you need from a device like an iPad?
g)	What’s your favourite newspaper and why?
h)	What’s the difference between the news in a newspaper and that on TV?
i)	Why is news important?
j)	What questions would you like to ask Steve Jobs?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

Traditional and digital news media might soon (1) ____ to produce daily newspapers on iPads. This is if the plans of Apple owner Steve Jobs and newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch come to (2) ____. Industry rumours say the new newspaper will be called “The Daily”. There might even be a name to replace newspaper, as the new project will, of course, be (3) ____. There will be no print edition or even a Web edition of this new media. It will download (4) ____ to the iPad or alternative tablet for an unbeatable price of 99 cents a week. Messrs Jobs and Murdoch maybe onto a (5) ____ thing here. The Apple boss has the technology to be able to deliver digital news and Mr Murdoch owns the world’s biggest news corporation. They also both have a (6) ____ of knowing what people want.

There are reports that Murdoch is (7) ____ interested in the iPad and how popular it is. He told Fox Business this week that The Daily was his “Number one most exciting project.” He seems to believe people will prefer to read the news on such a device rather than a traditional (8) ____ newspaper. There are advantages of the tablet (9) ____ a paper, such as the lack of origami-style gymnastics required to turn a page on a crowded train, or avoid the corner getting soaked (10) ____ milk at the breakfast table. Other more obvious benefits to an iPad include the higher level of interactivity the (11) ____ has with the news. Another advantage for Mr Murdoch and his News Corporation is that he could increase revenues (12) ____ selling apps designed specifically for the iPad.

Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

1.	(a)	emerge	(b)	merger	(c)	merged	(d)	merge
2.	(a)	fruition	(b)	nutrition	(c)	preservation	(d)	indigestion
3.	(a)	useless	(b)	paperless	(c)	heartless	(d)	weightless
4.	(a)	far	(b)	near	(c)	straight	(d)	line
5.	(a)	winners	(b)	won	(c)	winning	(d)	wins
6.	(a)	knick	(b)	knack	(c)	knock	(d)	kick
7.	(a)	particulars	(b)	particular	(c)	peculiar	(d)	particularly
8.	(a)	broadsheet	(b)	broadly	(c)	broad	(d)	abroad
9.	(a)	across	(b)	over	(c)	within	(d)	under
10.	(a)	on	(b)	up	(c)	at	(d)	in
11.	(a)	uses	(b)	used	(c)	user	(d)	useful
12.	(a)	by	(b)	at	(c)	of	(d)	for

WRITING

Write about newspapers for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper.

_____________________________________________________________________________

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find out more about digital newspapers. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. NEWSPAPERS: Make a poster about newspapers. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. iPAD: Write a magazine article about the iPad and the new newspaper project. Include imaginary interviews with people who are for and against it.

Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s).

5. LETTER: Write a letter to Steve Jobs, the Apple iPad’s boss. Ask him three questions about the iPad and news. Give him three ideas on how to make it better. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	merge	a.	combine
2	fruition	b.	completion
3.	edition	c.	version
4.	alternative	d.	substitute
5.	knack	e.	ability
6.	particularly	f.	especially
7.	prefer to	g.	rather
8.	required	h.	needed
9.	benefits	i.	advantages
10.	revenues	j.	income

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	Traditional and digital news media	a.	might soon merge
2	There will be no	b.	print edition
3.	It will download	c.	straight to the iPad
4.	maybe onto a winning	d.	thing here
5.	have a knack of knowing	e.	what people want
6.	people will prefer to	f.	read the news
7.	There are advantages	g.	to an iPad
8.	more obvious benefits	h.	of the tablet
9.	the higher level of interactivity	i.	the user has
10.	increase revenues	j.	by selling apps

GAP FILL:

Digital newspapers on their way

Traditional and digital news media might soon merge to produce daily newspapers on iPads. This is if the plans of Apple owner Steve Jobs and newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch come to fruition. Industry rumours say the new newspaper will be called “The Daily”. There might even be a name to replace newspaper, as the new project will, of course, be paperless. There will be no print edition or even a Web edition of this new media. It will download straight to the iPad or alternative tablet for an unbeatable price of 99 cents a week. Messrs Jobs and Murdoch maybe onto a winning thing here. The Apple boss has the technology to be able to deliver digital news and Mr Murdoch owns the world’s biggest news corporation. They also both have a knack of knowing what people want.

There are reports that Murdoch is particularly interested in the iPad and how popular it is. He told Fox Business this week that The Daily was his “Number one most exciting project.” He seems to believe people will prefer to read the news on such a device rather than a traditional broadsheet newspaper. There are advantages of the tablet over a paper, such as the lack of origami-style gymnastics required to turn a page on a crowded train, or avoid the corner getting soaked in milk at the breakfast table. Other more obvious benefits to an iPad include the higher level of interactivity the user has with the news. Another advantage for Mr Murdoch and his News Corporation is that he could increase revenues by selling apps designed specifically for the iPad.

LANGUAGE WORK

1 - d

2 - a

3 - b

4 - c

5 - c

6 - b

7 - d

8 - a

9 - b

10 - d

11 - c

12 - a

Breaking News English

PRINT

13-Page PDF
Handout - with
all-skills activities

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MP3 (2:05 - 999KB)

Digital Newspapers on Their Way (22nd November, 2010)

WARM-UPS

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

WHILE READING / LISTENING

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

AFTER READING / LISTENING

STUDENT NEWSPAPERS SURVEY

NEWSPAPERS DISCUSSION

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

WRITING

HOMEWORK

ANSWERS

Digital newspapers on their way

Help Support This Web Site

Sean Banville's Book

Thank You

My 1,000 Ideas e-Book	Breaking News English HOME \| HELP MY SITE \| 000s MORE FREE LESSONS	My 1,000 Ideas e-Book

Breaking News English

PRINT

13-Page PDF Handout - with all-skills activities

LISTEN

MP3 (2:05 - 999KB)

Digital Newspapers on Their Way (22nd November, 2010)

WARM-UPS

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

WHILE READING / LISTENING

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

AFTER READING / LISTENING

STUDENT NEWSPAPERS SURVEY

NEWSPAPERS DISCUSSION

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

WRITING

HOMEWORK

ANSWERS

Digital newspapers on their way

Help Support This Web Site

Sean Banville's Book

Thank You

13-Page PDF
Handout - with
all-skills activities