This integrated language arts unit, created by a high school English teacher, includes many opportunities for reading fiction and nonfiction texts, conducting research using the internet, and producing an online newspaper. Centered around Witness For the Prosecution by Agatha Christie, this unit uses literary response and research as the context in which students produce a variety of news articles using real newspaper articles as models, but based on the facts from the play. Links to additional resources for educators, detailed descriptions of the activities, and a classroom video clip of this unit in progess are also available at the website. (author/ncl)

Five writing activities, each corresponding to a different act in Christie's play, engage students in journalistic writing as they read each act. Broadcast and journalism students will benefit from using a seven-part process for analyzing a news article, then writing their own news articles. Students also engage in such journalistic assignments as writing an obituary, writing a feature article based on facts in the play, and writing an editorial based on the play or on a review of the play.