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Teaching The Personality Profile
Students write a comprehensive personality profile feature that demonstrates knowledge of the Wall Street Journal formula of feature writing and the concept of show, don't tell. They experience a press conference interview situation.
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Out of Your Comfort Zone
Students practice their interviewing skills. For this journalism skills lesson, students discover how to use open and closed questions when interviewing a subject. Students prepare for and experience a press conference with a school...
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Same Old Story
Students relate their favorite childhood stories to their lives today. Through personal interviews, students discover the connections between their favorite stories and their own choices and characters, as well as connections to the...
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Walter Cronkite: Witness to History
Students brainstorm a list of news sources. They interview people about today's media and discuss their results. After watching segments of a film about Walter Cronkite, they role play as reporters and subjects from an historic period...
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Growing and Changing
Students practice interviewing skills. In this school newspaper lesson, students interview students in their school about what they want to be when they grow up. Students take pictures of the people they interview use the photos...
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Producing a Daily News Broadcast: A Cross-Curricular Activity
Sixth graders create a daily newscast which they broadcast to the whole school. They write the scripts for the broadcast, after reviewing interviews, feature writing, and proposals. They organize the newscast for presentation and edit...
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Legally Wed
Students explore the controversial topic of same-sex marriages in a fishbowl discussion. They write balanced news articles based on interviews exploring people's opinions on laws that define marriage.
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Journalism: Technology and Teen Abuse
Students investigate the link between technology and abuse among teens. They research dating abuse when cell phones or the Internet are involved. Working as a team of reporters, photographers, graphic artists, and page designers, they...
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Nellie Bly's Newspaper Club: Introducing the Art of Writing
Students use video and the Internet to research the life of Nellie Bly, a famous female reporter from the 19th century. They research a writer and present their information to the class in the style of a news reporter.
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Check It Out: Verifying Information and Sources in News Coverage
If it’s in the news it must be true, right? Prompted by a New York Times article, class members consider the importance of accuracy in reporting and validating sources. The detailed plan includes warm-up exercises, discussion questions,...
VH1
Lesson 4: Behind the Movie Chicago
The elements of music and journalistic integrity in one lesson; What could be better? The class discusses journalistic approaches to better understand responsible reporting versus sensationalism. They watch the Act One from the film...
Newseum
'The Press and the Civil Rights Movement' Video Lesson
Scholars watch a video featuring journalists who covered the civil rights movement, then respond to questions on a viewing guide. The video features interviews with participants and original news footage from the 1950s and 1960s. In...
Macmillan Education
A Class or Company Newsletter: A Collaborative Writing Lesson
A class newsletter? The possible extensions for this activity are endless. After examining examples of news print-outs from hotels or workplaces, class members develop their own articles and produce a newsletter. A great way to keep...
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Hair, Clothing Considered Disruptive
Young scholars investigate dress codes in their school and how they compare to what courts have ruled as well as interview school administrators, students, and teachers on their views of the dress code. Young scholars then write a news...
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Safe and Sound: Rock Concert Dangers
Students read attached articles and others they can find about dangers at rock concerts and also what bands, venue owners and others have done to increase safety. They conduct interviews and write a feature about concert safety in the...
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Citizens Hold Their Breath in Smoke-free Cities
Students investigate the laws covering smoking in public places in their community and find out if city council or other governing bodies have considered changing these laws. Students conduct interviews and write an article explaining...
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Lessons to be Learned: The Importance of Attribution, Accuracy, and Honesty
Students investigate real world examples of media law issues. In this media law instructional activity, students read Janet Cooke’s feature and respond to the writing. Students read articles by Stephen Glass to highlight facts in need of...
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Cell Phones with Cameras Banned in Locker Rooms
Students research the way phones work and what places - both locally and nationally - have already faced the problem of in appropriate use. Students also interview gym owners or managers in their community and those who use they gyms....
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Lesson: Extra! Extra! Read All About It!
A great idea for a fun homework assignment! The class fully and critically analyzes Daniel Sprick's painting, Your Plans. They then generate questions to ask the artist as they attend a mock press conference. They pretend to ask the...
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Interview a Politician
Students, in groups of two, choose a politician of interest and research that person. They each assume the role of either the reporter or the politician and write a "mock" interview that they later present to the class.
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Where Do I Begin: Writing an Effective Feature Story
High schoolers write an effective feature story. In this journalism lesson plan, young scholars learn through 6 activities to ask open-ended questions, write effective leads, and handle quotes, and write headlines for news stories.
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Story Generators
Students develop news stories for the high school paper based on current issues in the local news. Students identify different sources for articles, and develop interviews questions. In this news ideas and sources lesson plan, students...
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Creating a Digital Newspaper
Students create a digital newspaper. In this digital newspaper lesson, students review the sections of a newspaper and brainstorm ideas for their paper. Students complete a schools news report, student interview, opinion page, sports...
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To Be or Not to Be
Students gather information about setting goals through a variety of activities. In this setting goals lesson, students view a PowerPoint that explains the outcomes of the project, take notes, interview a local business person, write a...