Step 4 Be A Reporter (The 5 W’s And An H)

Background Imagine you are working on a poetry report for Language Arts. You have found some great web sites with definitions, examples and pictures. The web pages are very long, and you won’t remember all of it when you get back to class to work on it. So, you need to pull out just the facts. Here are some tips on how to do this.

Objective By the end of this lesson you will know that: The ‘Be A Reporter’ strategy can help in writing notes and recording findings from a web site. Not all information on a web page is helpful, some of it can be ignored (omitted.) Referencing is a very important part of a search.

Lesson Being a reporter or detective is a tough job, you need to be alert, and ask good questions. By asking good questions and reading you will be able to find out A LOT of good information.

The 5 W’s and the H Who What When Where Why How Reporters use the 5 W’s and the H, all the time to ask questions. These 6 questions are THE most helpful ones to ask yourself when reading.

Take the time to ask questions, then be sure to make the time to answer them. How this works is when you find a good web site, you need to find the answers to the 5 W’s and an H as you read. By doing this, you are pushing yourself to find meaning in the reading and pull out the important information.

Write your answers down, these will become your notes. While you are looking at the web site, ask yourself the question: WHO Who worked on the web site (authors)? Who is the author talking about or to (if any)? Who is the web site built for? Who … Write your answers down, these will become your notes.

WHAT What question was the author answering? What is the the main idea for the web site (title)? What new things did you learn? What … Your answers, are the notes that will help you remember what is important.

WHEN When was the web page published (updated)? When is the important event happening? When … Your notes will be a study guide, as they are the most important pieces of information.

WHERE Where is the main character or writer from? Where is the action taking place? Where are the headings and titles? Where …

WHY Why did you select this web site? Why is the important event happening Why…. Your notes will follow you when you go back to the classroom, so write down ONLY what is important (the answers to the questions.)

And last, but not least ask questions which contain: HOW And last, but not least ask questions which contain: How did it happen? How did they do that? How did the story end? How …

Were you a good reporter, did you get answers to all of your questions? Find out by looking at your notes and see if they make sense. Do you have all the important points written down? If not, go back and get the answers.

Let’s Review By asking questions like a reporter, we can pull the important facts from a web site. The 5 W’s and an H are helpful starting points for your questions. Your answers become the review (study) notes of the web site. Be sure to reference the web site you were looking at for answers. Remember the more you practice the faster and easier this process will become. Go complete Activity Sheet 4.