Celebrate Scholastic Journalism Week
with lesson plan gifts for others
by Candace Bowen
It’s time to celebrate! Feb. 17-23 is Scholastic Journalism Week. Did your staff make 45 cookies, each with one word from the First Amendment on it? Wear staff t-shirts? Sign the TAO pledge?
That’s great, but celebrations also need gifts and how about some for your colleagues, the other teachers down the hall? It’s likely some of them could use a great last-minute lesson plan, so how about letting THEM see how well journalism skills apply to their content areas, not just in your classroom? The links below are a good start.
• Some think math and journalists don’t mix, but unfortunately, they must because stories have numbers — everything from budgets to school levies to percentages on standardized tests. EditTeach.org, edited by Dr. Deborah Gump, is full of useful goodies, but one of its teaching resources is “Math for journalists – and readers.” Included are math story dilemmas (READ: story problems) journalists – and their readers – face frequently. Yes, the answers are there, too – and so are two PowerPoints.
• HSJ.org is THE site for lesson plans for you, but it includes plenty to share with others in your building. One is perfect as a gift for a history teacher. JEA Illinois State Director Stan Zoller, who attended the ASNE Institute at Hampton University in 2003, created “Watergate: The Coverage and the Aftermath.”
• Concordia University’s HotChalk offers a range of lesson plans tied to rather generic but probably useful standards. For instance, for social studies teachers “Do Something about…Teen voting/civic engagement” gives examples of using writing to spur others to action. Activities include role playing as muckrakers and creating blogs while seeing what impact those can have on civic engagement in the real world.
• The New York Times and Learning Network is just full of lesson plans, all formatted and complete with accompanying materials.
• How about sharing a lesson plan on the history of Valentine’s Day with materials from articles in that publication.
• The economics teacher might like “Here Comes the . . . Bill,” a lesson plan on the cost of milestone events.
• Do teachers in theater classes have students study reviews? Offer them a lesson plan from the New York Times that discusses the pros and cons of using movie reviews to choose what to see.
Use Scholastic Journalism Week to build some good will with these gifts for your fellow teachers. And my gift to you? Some sites you may not have known about, full of additional lesson plans for you!
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Tweet 26: Now it’s your turn. What is the Hazelwood Cure?
After 25 days of Hazelwood, what would you like to see jlsm organizations address? How are YOU able to help? #25HZLWD http://jeasprc.org/tweet-26-now-its-your-turn-what-is-the-hazelwood-cure
What are your thoughts and experiences. What would you like to see journalism organizations address and why. What are you willing to commit to? It will take all of us.
We would love to hear your thoughts and comments about what you would like to see for the future of scholastic journalism and its media.
Please carry the discussion forward using the comment section below.
Read MoreTweet25- Paying the cost of Hazelwood
Tweet-25 Information coherence and civic engagement cannot develop under Hazelwood. #25HZLWD
http://jeasprc.org/payingthecost/
by John Bowen
Information coherence is at the core of democracy.
Information coherence allows those in a democracy to compare, digest and use information. With it, communities can make informed and intelligent decisions.
Without it, communities falter.
Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel in The Elements of Journalism also refer to this approach as one that allows audiences to make sense of information.
“Coherence,” the authors write, is “making sense of the facts. Coherence must be the ultimate test of journalistic truth.”
Accuracy, they write, is the foundation on which everything else – context, interpretation, debate, public communication and trust – is built.
Journalistic truth is a process, they say.
“If the foundation is faulty, everything else is flawed,” they say.
Neither the journalistic process nor information coherence works under an educational system guided by foggy and manipulative Hazelwood thinking, where prior review and prior restraint keep information from making sense, silence debate and undermine trust.
Information coherence is been a priority in schools and communities where 25 years of Hazelwood have limited – or should we say strangled – exchange of ideas and development of information coherence.
We could call it the cost of Hazelwood. Unless cured, this cost of Hazelwood has been, and will continue to be, high.
This cost includes:
• Citizens who do not trust authority figures because they never were involved with decision making in a learning environment
• Citizens who do not trust information authority presents because their background has shown them it has always been slanted or incomplete
• Citizens who do not participate in civic engagement because they have taught or have experienced education in which they had no voice
• Citizens who cannot respect the principles and actions of a free and responsible press because they have never seen one in their schools.
Given this heritage, these costs will only deepen in the future as schools reach out to control expression outside the school environment because untrained students misuse social media and the Internet to bully others.
We must, as the Student Press Law Center says, develop a cure for Hazelwood, one that empowers students to practice the essential freedoms and skills of a democracy, and become engaged with decision-making that creates an impact on their lives and on the lives of others.
We honor schools which have not paid Hazelwood’s price. We salute these schools and celebrate their leaders, whether administrators or community members, for actions leading to the path of learning and civic enrichment.
But, in the end, we have not done enough. It is not enough to note that Hazelwood has led to a decline in information coherence as well as in civic engagement. If we have not tried to intercede in this process in and outside schools, then we are, in many ways, responsible for it.
Others in this series have said it well: Hazelwood is, has been and will continue to be everyone’s problem.
Its effects will only continue unless we do all in our power to educate ourselves, our students and our communities about why we must have a Hazelwood Cure.
And then work to create one.
If we continue to ignore Hazelwood’s cost, if we do not seek a cure, then we bear the burden of responsibility for the lack of action that enables such cultural malaise to continue.
To do nothing to is chose.
What will be at the core of your plan of action? What will you do to empower a Hazelwood Cure?
Resources:
• Press Freedom in Practice
http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/docs/Foundation/Training/pressfreedom.pdf
• Cure Hazelwood
http://www.splc.org/cure.html
• Resources for school newspaper advisers
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/student-journalism-resources-for-school-newspaper-advisers/
• Media Adviser’s Forum
https://www.splc.org/classroomresources/mediaadvisers.asp
• Scholastic Journalism Resources
http://www.asjmc.org/resources/scholastic/index.php
• Statements
http://jea.org/home/about-jea/statements/
• Teaching and learning about journalism
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/teaching-and-learning-about-journalism/
• Scholastic journalism resources
http://www.hsj.org/teachers/index.cfm?requestAction=goMenuContent&menu_id=6&menu_page_item_id=16&CmsPagesID=181
• High school journalism
http://www.journaliststoolbox.org/archive/high-school-journalism/
Marshmallow fluff: What learning looks like in Hazelwood’s world
by Candace Bowen
Hazelwood stories: Jan. 14, 1988. As I walked through the main office of St. Charles (Ill.) High School, my principal waved me into his office. “Did you hear that Supreme Court decision?” he said. I didn’t need to ask which one – the whole scholastic journalism community had been worried about Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, and though we hadn’t had time to sort out all it could mean, we knew if wasn’t good. But the best defense is a good offense, so my reply to him, “Sure, I heard, but there’s not enough room in the X-Ray office for your desk, too.”
Our principal didn’t immediately start talking about prior review, but the chilling effect was there. When my staff worked on a spread about teen sexuality, they worried about the interview with a local teen mother. One editor was convinced the Supreme Court said no one could write stories on that topic. Another checked with every health teacher to be sure the “safe sex” advice – actually from Planned Parenthood – was something at least SOME of them had in their curriculum. The spread ran, and the principal wasn’t pleased, but he didn’t move his desk up to Room 217.
He wasn’t pleased about factual reporting about a possible teacher strike or criticism of the district for having far fewer guidance counselors than the American School Counselor Association recommended. But he didn’t demand to see the publication before it went to press.
Sadly, that open forum status did not continue after I left in 1994. With a new adviser, albeit one with a good background and understanding of press law, and then a succession of principals, administrators had a much heavier hand. As I moved to a new state a year later, I found out this was more common than I had feared. Principals in Ohio seemed more than willing to cut articles and predetermine taboo topics, all in the name of Hazelwood. Advisers were threatened for “not having enough control” of their student journalists, and experienced, trained advisers lost their publications to novices when the administration said they wanted to “take the program in a different direction.”
A telling example: When speaking at a nearby press day and drinking coffee with advisers who had just arrived, one asked what my presentation would be. “The educationally sound reason to not have prior review,” I answered. Several across the table said, “Oh, yes, we have that – thank goodness.” “Yes, me, too,” the other said, “and it takes so much pressure off me.” Yikes! Clearly my audience and I would not be on the same page. So…I quickly revamped the presentation and seated them all – about 12 or 15 – in a circle. I told each to tell her status as far as prior review and censorship went. To a person, those whose students had free speech rights told about stories that made a difference, principals who were hesitant but then impressed, awards they won for great content. The others complained they had a hard time recruiting and their students said they “could only write about marshmallow fluff.” By the time they had told their stories, I didn’t need to say much more: The power of Hazelwood, often far beyond even what the Supreme Court said, has taken its toll on student media.
Candace Bowen is a former president of the Journalism Education Association and current director of the Center for Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University.
Read MoreTweet24: You can Make a Difference. Show everyone how.
Don’t give up. Change happens slowly. Cures don’t work overnight. You can make a difference. #25HZLWD
http://jeasprc.org/tweet24-you-can-make-a-difference-show-everyone-how
In 1988, because of the first outbreak of the Hazelwood malaise, JEA published its first collection of student journalists making a difference through their reporting.
In 2012, we committed ourselves to updating the project, hoping to show student journalism had not succumbed to Hazelwood.
We hope to have Making a Difference become an ongoing project with your help and submissions.
Here is the first: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jcur7k75ut2dz80/Makingdifference.pdf
Here is the 2012 version: http://issuu.com/journalismedu/docs/makingdifference1990
• For background on 20 years of Hazelwood:
http://www.splc.org/news/report_detail.asp?edition=44&id=1399
Here are instructions on how to submit an entry for Making a Difference
Yes, student journalists make a difference. We have seen that in the past year as students submitted outstanding journalistic work that has made a difference in their school or community.
]Is there a story student journalists at your school have written that has made an impact in your school or community? We would like to hear your story and share it to encourage other student journalists.
The Journalism Education Association’s Scholastic Press Rights Commission is looking for such stories to showcase in the 2013 editions.
We want to show scholastic journalists can — and consistently do — develop stories which demonstrate professionalism, make a difference in the lives of peers, school and community and exemplify research, responsibility and courage. The Commission knows this work will be an inspiration to students, advisers, parents, administrators, lawmakers and professional journalists.
We’re looking for student journalism in any of its forms — electronic media, newspapers, yearbooks, multi-media — from this year or previous years. The submission should reflect student-selected content of high journalistic quality that had an impact on the school or community.
Include with submission:
• Statement from the adviser about how this story made a difference
• Electronic version of the story – can be PDF, JPG, PNG, MP3, M4V
• Submit package for consideration to jane.blystone@gmail.com by Jan. 30.
• Include contact information for person submitting package.
Jane can be reached at the email address above if you have questions or ideas. If you would rather Skype for contact, Jane’s Skype name is jblystone.
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Student journalists can ward off prior review, Hazelwood with TAO pledge
Student journalists can ward off prior review, Hazelwood by taking TAO pledge #25Hzlwd http://jeasprc.org/tao-pledge/
by Kathy Schrier
Hazelwood stories: Student journalists who take the TAO of Journalism Pledge, promise to be “Transparent, Accountable and Open” in their practice of journalism. Upon taking the pledge, they may post the TAO of Journalism Seal with their masthead. It’s a public promise to do the best journalism possible, and a way to tell readers/viewers and school administrators that their trust is valued.
The TAO of Journalism Pledge was introduced four years ago by the Washington News Council as way for professional journalists to rebuild credibility in a rapidly changing media environment. The idea caught on, worldwide. Now journalists across the U.S. and as far away as Mozambique have taken the TAO of Journalism Pledge, and post the TAO of Journalism Seal with their work.
The Journalism Education Association endorsed the idea three years ago, and included a TAO of Journalism Sign Up Day on the Wednesday of Scholastic Journalism Week. This year, student journalists are again encouraged to Take the TAO of Journalism Pledge on TAO sign-up day, Wednesday, Feb. 20.
Here’s how you do it:
- Go to taoofjournalism.org and click on “Take the Pledge.”
- Click on “Students: Click here to make it official.”
- Fill out and submit the short online form.
- Take a photo of your staff taking the TAO of Journalism Pledge.
Send a copy of the photo to kathy@wanewscouncil.org to be posted on the TAO website.
What you will get:
- Downloadable versions of the TAO of Journalism Seal that can be posted online or with your printed masthead
- Once the Seal is in use, your program will be listed in the “Directory” on the TAO of Journalism website
- Temporary tattoos of the TAO of Journalism Seal for every member of your staff
- A poster with the text of the TAO of Journalism Pledge to display in your staff room
- Improved credibility and trust in your student media by school administrators and your audience in general
TAO OF JOURNALISM: EARN TRUST. TAKE THE PLEDGE. CARRY THE SEAL.
FEB. 20, 2013 – DURING JEA SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM WEEK
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