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The news presentations are a major group project undertaken by International Leadership Course second-year students in the third term. In the news presentations, each group of 3-4 students must make a 15-minute made-for-TV news show. The show must include national and international news, as well as sports, weather, and special interest stories.
The International Leadership Course teachers show the students a video of the previous year's presentation, and the rest is up to the students. Students must decide the theme of their news show as a group. They then must gather news in English and decide which news items they wish to use. They must also decide what kinds of commercials and special features they wish to do. Then, they must summarize the news and write the scripts. They get their writing checked and rechecked (often more than 10 times) by the ILC teachers. They also must make and film commercials and special features. They make a set and costumes appropriate to their theme. They also must make a power point background to use on the screens that will be behind them during the show. Finally, they begin practicing. They have about one month of school time to prepare the presentation.
Through the presentations, the students learn several important things:
1. The students learn leadership. Each group is headed by a group leader. The group leader designates responsibilities within the group. He or she meets with the ILC teachers once a week to report problems, progress, and to ask any questions. All the people in the group learn to good teamwork and how to support each other within the group.
2. The students learn to manage their time very well. The students have only one month to prepare the presentation. Most students will use most of their time after school and often on weekends to prepare and practice. Each part of the presentation also has a deadline that must be met, so through doing this, and through managing their time very carefully within their group, students become good at scheduling their time.
3. The students improve their communication skills. The students improve their use of computers and video, and they learn to give a complex presentation aimed at a television viewer, by working in a group.
4. Students greatly improve their English. Students must use English news for this presentation. They have to find the news themselves, which means that they must read many English news articles and judge whether they are suitable or not. Students then have to summarize the news stories and rewrite them into their own words. All the news the students write is checked and rewritten until perfect. This, naturally, improves their English.
For pictures of this year's presentations, please see the album page.
One group's journey
First leaders' meeting
Gathering English news articles and writing news summaries
Gettting the summaries checked
Rewriting news articles
Making the set
Practice, practice, practice
Beginning the actual presentation
