Writing Newspaper Articles About Alien Pizza Delivery Problems
Objective
Students will analyze and write news articles using the inverted pyramid structure and journalistic writing techniques.
Materials
- Paper
- Pencils
- Chart paper
- Markers
- Whiteboard
Hook
Breaking news: Aliens have landed and started a pizza delivery service, but their pizzas keep floating away before customers can eat them! Today you're investigative journalists covering this ridiculous story for the evening news.
Main Activity
Students work in pairs to write newspaper articles about various alien pizza delivery disasters using proper journalistic structure. They must include a headline, lead paragraph with who/what/when/where/why, supporting details arranged from most to least important, and quotes from imaginary witnesses like confused customers and frustrated alien delivery drivers. Each pair receives a different silly scenario such as pizzas that turn invisible when delivered, toppings that sing opera songs, or delivery spaceships that only land in swimming pools. Students practice using formal news writing language while maintaining the humorous premise, then present their articles as TV news anchors to the class.
Discussion Questions
- How does the inverted pyramid structure help readers quickly understand the most important information?
- What makes a good lead paragraph in news writing?
- How do quotes from sources strengthen a news article?
- Why do journalists arrange information from most important to least important?
- What differences do you notice between news writing and creative story writing?
Exit Ticket
Write a one-sentence news lead about something funny that happened in your life this week, including at least three of the five W's.
Differentiation
Support: Provide a template with sentence starters for each paragraph and a checklist of required elements to include in their news article.
Extension: Students create additional multimedia elements like weather reports about pizza storms or sports coverage of alien delivery races, maintaining proper journalistic style.
