RESOURCES
Baruch College’s High School Journalism Program
Baruch College’s High School Journalism Program is offering its free “Launching a High School Newspaper” online CTLE-credit course for NYC public high school teachers from schools that do not presently have student newspapers. The class takes place via Zoom from 4:30 p.m. until 6 p.m. for five Monday sessions. The course, offered twice a year beginning in Fall 2021, has led to the successful launch of approximately twenty new high school newspapers in NYC public high schools and is designed and taught by Baruch College Department of Journalism Professor Geanne Belton, the program’s director. For updated schedules and to register, visit their website.
The Journalism Education Association
The Journalism Education Association (JEA) provides countless resources and educational opportunities for both member educators and students and also offers a mentoring program that matches trained veteran advisers with individuals new to teaching journalism and advising student media to offer support and guidance during their initial years in scholastic journalism education, two years of free membership included. In addition, in response to the Covid pandemic, JEA developed anywhereJEA, turnkey materials designed for immediate use in any scholastic media program, no membership necessary.
PBS LEARNING MEDIA for New York Educators
Beyond the Front Page 2.0 is a multimedia journalism collection designed for both teachers and students in grades 6 through 12. This collection includes interviews with contributors from PBS NewsHour and The New York Times. Through a series of nine videos and a companion website, the project highlights the keys to understanding and utilizing journalism - including What Is Journalism?
NBCU Academy is a free, award-winning education program for developing new skills and advancing careers in journalism, media and tech. Students (and teachers!) can take courses and watch how-to videos on a variety of essential journalism topics like “How to Write an Online News Article” and “Mastering the News Interview” narrated by NBC News journalists.
The Organized Adviser was created in 2017 to serve as a resource and online community. Made by journalism teachers for journalism teachers, this website provides free “ready-to-use resources and coaching that help to plan your publications, stay organized, prevent burnout, increase publication quality, and promote credibility in your community.” This particular page includes a great list of important things to consider when starting a school news publication from square one.
The Journalistic Learning Initiative
The JLI’s The Student Voice (TSV) is a student-run professional development program for high school students focused on providing practical, accessible journalism advising. University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication undergraduates produce a variety of educational written, video and audio content to be utilized by younger students as tools for journalism and communications skill-building.
The Missouri High School Journalism Project
Are you looking to teach or revamp your journalism or strategic journalism lessons? The faculty and staff at the Missouri School of Journalism want to share their expertise with you and your students. Each of these 25 modules contains learning objectives, short video lectures, worksheets and activities, quizzes and related resources, produced for easy integration using Google Classroom and Google Apps for Education. The topics covered include everything from audience engagement and audio storytelling to reporting and interviewing and journalism ethics.
High Five: Integrated Language Arts & Journalism Curriculum
In 2012, the Newspaper Association of America, with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, developed this integrated, three-unit “High Five” curriculum that includes reading, writing, journalism, grammar, linguistics and visual literacy. The curriculum uses the daily newspaper as a textbook and information source and places special emphasis on schools with students who are majority-minority, low-income and/or primarily conversant in a language other than English. Each unit, aligned to Middle School Common Core State Standards, is designed to be used as a stand-alone piece. However, the power of the curriculum lies in interrelated concepts presented in the individual units. Unit B: Become a Journalist puts students in the role of reporters and includes news-literacy, journalism ethics and writing and reporting lessons.
The SNO Sites Student Journalism Media publishing platform offers this free curriculum.
SchoolJournalism offers the following:
Journalism tips and lesson plans
Web Design lesson plans
Newspaper In A Box unit plan
Journalism Training Module videos
News Media Alliance & American Press Institute
The News Media Alliance and the American Press Institute offer this 5-Lesson unit and a Teacher’s Guide with worksheets and assignments.
MakeMyNewspaper offers a long list of free student journalism video lessons and an Adviser’s and Editor’s Resource Center with excellent advice for advisers just starting out, as well as newsprint templates and printing services.
The Pulitzer Center offers an array of educational resources and workshops, including this Journalist’s Toolbox lesson series.
Society of Professional Journalists
SPJ has also created a Journalist’s Toolbox and a series of video lessons for students on a variety of topics including Editing, Ethics, Headline Writing, and Basic Reporting.
NLP provides excellent news literacy programs and resources for educators and the public, including their NewsLit Nation Forum community for educators, and an extensive learning resource library and Checkology(r) free learning platform. Press Pass NYC highly recommends not only incorporating News Literacy into your journalism curriculum but incorporating the school newspaper into your News Literacy curriculum!
A Note for Administrators on the Importance of Student Journalism
This blog post from Quill & Scroll’s Principal’s Guide to Scholastic Journalism beautifully lays out the profound civic and pedagogical reasons for supporting scholastic journalism and student press freedom and recommendations for administrators. And The Principal’s Guide itself is an incredibly helpful resource for Administrators and School Leaders.
Looking to start an online newspaper at your school ASAP? Here are some great resources, in addition to Press Pass NYC support:
A NewsHound's Guide to Student Journalism
This comic book-style classroom resource engages students with a diverse cast of characters who experience the rewards and challenges of being young reporters, while providing readers the basics they need to produce high quality reported articles.
PEN America’s Writers in the Schools
PEN America’s Writers in the Schools places PEN America members, including journalists, in New York City schools.
Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) #Press4Education
SPJ and the JEA have paired in a nationwide effort to bring more journalism education to schools. Educators can fill out this form to request a volunteer journalist to visit their school.
The Pulitzer Center offers free virtual journalist visits to K–12 classrooms worldwide. They work with thousands of journalists covering diverse topics and geographic regions. Schedule a virtual visit here.
Looking to connect your students with professional journalists? Here are some excellent resources: