Lesson One - Cooks Brook

Before you read, consider:

• Why do people dare each other to do things?
• What role is played by excitement, danger, and peer pressure?
• What guidelines would you suggest for accepting dares?
• Have you ever accomplished or witnessed a dangerous feat? Explain.

• Cooks Brook flows into Humber Arm just outside of Corner Brook, the city in western Newfoundland where poet Al Pittman lived from the age of six until he was twenty-four.
• Read the poem, "Cooks Brook", by Al Pittman.

Read the notes on how to write a news story and news story structure.

Read through news stories found on the Calgary Herald website, to get an indication of the kind of objective reporting and inverted pyramid structure that are characteristic of this genre of writing.