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Strong News Leads Worksheet

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Strong News Leads Worksheet

News reporter with notebook illustration

📰 Part 1: Reflection & Analysis

1. Reflective Writing Prompt: Think about a news story you've read or heard recently. What was the first sentence like? Did it hook you? Why or why not? Write a few sentences reflecting on what you expect from the opening of a news story and why it matters.
2. Identify the 5 Ws and H: Read this lead and highlight or identify the 5 Ws and H: "The town council meeting was held on Monday evening and lasted for two hours."

Who: _________________________

What: _________________________

Where: _________________________

When: _________________________

Why: _________________________

How: _________________________

3. Lead Strength Judgment: Is this lead strong or weak? Circle your answer and explain why.

Strong Lead

Weak Lead

This lead is weak because _________________________________________________

✏️ Part 2: Rewrite & Self-Assessment

4. Rewrite the Lead: Using what you learned about the 5 Ws and H, rewrite the town council lead to make it stronger and more engaging.
5. Self-Assessment Checklist: Check all that apply to your rewritten lead:

Did I include the most important facts?

Is it clear and concise?

Does it hook the reader?

Did I need a full restructure, or just edits?

6. Reflection Questions: Answer the following questions about your writing process:

a) What was the hardest part of rewriting the lead?

b) How did identifying the 5 Ws help you?

c) What strategies will you use next time to decide if a story needs major restructuring?

🎯 Part 3: Differentiation & Extension

7. ELL Support - Sentence Frames: Complete these sentence starters about strong leads:

A strong lead should always include ________________________________

This lead is strong because ____________________________________

To improve a weak lead, I would _________________________________

8. Advanced Challenge: (Optional) Choose a recent news event and write two different leads for the same story - one focusing on WHO and WHAT, another focusing on WHY and HOW.

Lead #1 (Who/What focus):

Lead #2 (Why/How focus):

Success Criteria Checklist: By the end of this worksheet, I can:

Identify all 5 Ws and H in a news story

Explain what makes a lead strong or weak

Rewrite a weak lead to be more engaging

Decide if a story needs major changes or minor edits

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