Journalism

Fall Semester

Journalism plays a key role in keeping a school community informed and responsible. 

Students learn to differentiate between fact-based news reporting and irresponsible media actions, biased reporting, or online rumors. 

Students learn how copyright laws protect creators and how to practice safe digital citizenship when using internet media.  

Students explore research habits to identify and avoid plagiarism or copy-pasting in their projects.

Good reporting means gathering facts from trusted people and avoiding single-source bias.  

Students find and select diverse sources, practicing how to gather facts from trusted campus databases and community members.  

Students practice checking online information to evaluate its credibility and recognize bias before using it.  

Students learn how planning open-ended questions serves as the foundation for a successful interview.  

Students conduct active listening and take notes during peer interviews to combine details accurately.

News writing uses a structured approach to deliver the most important facts first. 

Students explore the elements of news to determine what topics are most interesting and relevant to a student audience. 

Students learn how news stories use a specific structural pattern (the Inverted Pyramid) to share key ideas first.  

Students practice writing short, objective news copy by combining facts with direct and indirect quotes.  

Students use simple editing symbols as essential tools for proofreading, revising, and improving their peers' writing.

Visuals draw attention to a story's main point.  

Students examine visual features, focusing on how cropped photos and simple graphic elements draw attention to a story's topic.  

Students learn how a strong headline and photo caption must work together to explain a story quickly.  

Students practice writing clear, descriptive captions to match school-based photographs and images.  

Students use basic layout design routines to arrange their articles and pictures neatly for final publication.

Spring Semester

Strong writers adapt their tone depending on their intended message and audience.

Students analyze how different writing types (timely news, descriptive features, or school opinions) serve distinct purposes and audiences.  

Students learn to adapt their language choices to inform, entertain, or persuade based on the type of story they are writing.  

Students develop a multi-paragraph feature or profile story, focusing on the writing process through planning, peer feedback, and rewriting.

Print newspapers, video broadcasts, and online blogs share the same goals but package stories differently.

Students examine how different formats, such as print newsletters, video broadcasts, and online blogs, share fundamental goals but deliver info differently.  

Students explain how selecting the correct media format helps them reach their target student audience.  

Students write specialized columns and reviews (like cafeteria or game reviews) to develop a unique and objective authorial voice.

Media production requires planning, distribution strategy, and support from the community..  

Students learn to evaluate media messages to identify the critical difference between helpful advertising and faulty reasoning or propaganda.  

Students design distinct advertisement types, like a display ad or a school club promo flyer, to target specific student needs.

Students build and present their final media projects.  

Students identify how online school media requires a different visual approach than traditional printed newsletters or posters.  

Students build a publication layout, culminating the year by gathering their best work into an individual student media portfolio.