Press+Conference

toc =Real World Examples= There are so many press conferences that happen every day. A baseball manager has a press conference after every game, an actor will have a press conference if there is controversy surrounding him/her or if they have a new movie coming out, politicians also have press conferences all of the time. =Performance Task= [Delete this text in brackets and list some ideas about Performance Task possibilities for a WebQuest inspired by this genre.]

=Audience= You can engage your audience without having them take on an evaluation role. Have your audience ask questions that are relevant to the presentation and show their own understanding of the content. One idea is to give each student in the press (class) a piece of paper that has the name of a reporter on it (even if you make it up) and the news station or newspaper they are from. The students then can do some acting and will be more engaged.

=Role= Roles that the students could partake in are the obvious, the person(s) that is giving the press conference and the news reporters. Each student can prepare a set of questions for the person or people giving the interview and answer those questions in depth. After the press conference all the students could also write up a small article as to what happened. This allows all the students to be able to participate in all roles.

=WebQuest Examples= [|Newspaper Reporter] : This webquest is designed for Middle School students to select a bill from either their State Legislature or the U.S. Congress and then research the bill and be prepared to present both sides of the argument to the voters in that area so they can make an informed decision about the bill. I liked this WebQuest for the reason that this gets students involved in the govermental process from an early age so they can gain a deeper understanding of the work and multitude of issues that go into a proposed piece of legislation. This WebQuest could be as easily used for high school students. The links and bill proposals will have to be updated on a regular basis because the number and type of bills change so frequently.

[|We Were There: The U.S. Constitution:] The WebQuest allows the students to choose one of three roles, either as one of the delegates selected to go to the Constitutional Convention, a reporter to write articles regarding the events, or as a public relations person who has been hired to pursuade other members of the Convention to vote in the Constitution. I liked this webquest because it gives the student the opportunity to have flexibility in choosing the type of product they are expected to make and the links provided are extremely rich and worth deep investigation.

[|Gatsby Meets the Press] This webquest allows students to dive into the roaring 20's as newpaper Jounalist. Students are put into teams that are responsible for producing a newpaper. Each student is responsible for certain articles. Each team is competing for the Pulitzer Prize title.

[|A Symposium on the Dinosaur Extinction Question] In this WebQuest students take the role of a world renowned earth scientist that will be speaking at a press conference. The students must gather and analyze information regarding the extinction of the Dinosaurs. They will then participate in the press conference presenting their conclusions about the extinction event of the Mesozoic era.