Noteworthy this week in support of student expression
With Constitution Day (Sept. 17) and its Congressional mandate to teach a lesson on constitutional issues, the press rights commission would like to highlight a couple of points:
• NCTE released a statement, NCTE Beliefs about Students’ Right to Write, that could lead to lessons and discussion.
• Fond du Lac High School in Wisconsin received new guidelines for their Cardinal Columns that allow students, in consultation with the adviser, to decide content without prior review. For more information and how it came about, check jeasprc.org in the next several weeks.
• Later this week, check this blog for the JEA Scholastic Press Rights Commission Constitution Day teaching lessons and activities. Until then, you can find previous lessons here. We designed our Constitution Day lesson plans to help students celebrate the Constitution and Bill of Rights, as mandated by Congress. Legislation requires schools to offer lessons on the Constitution and how it affects all Americans. Our lesson plans emphasize the First Amendment and particularly the freedoms of speech and the press.
With Constitution Day close, you might want to work our lessons when released Friday into that timeframe. One post will win a $25 gift certificate for the JEA bookstore. It’s easy to enter — just use the #CD2014. The winner will be chosen at random. In order to enter, post either students learning or celebrating Constitution Day by at 9:17 p.m Sept. 17. The winning post will be announced on the listserv.
Read More
‘You have the power to IMPROVE the world,
not just change it’ are words worth noting
by Stan Zoller
Sometimes it’s difficult to see the forest through the trees. Or perhaps we spend a lot of time preaching to the choir. Take your pick.
As journalism educators, we know about the problems we face handling student media. So when someone from “the outside” addresses them, it’s a breath of fresh air.
So rather than write about a “really great speech I heard…”, I’m going to let you read it for yourself.
But first, a bit of background. The presentation was by Dann Gire, film critic for the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Gire was the featured speaker at the Illinois Journalism Education Association’s annual award luncheon June 7.
Read MoreStudent free speech vs. adviser job security?
“But what do you do if what they want to publish may cause a problem?” Rachel asked, a little furrow of a frown between her eyes.
She and the other 16 education majors in Kent State’s Teaching High School Journalism course had heard all about the value of a free press from Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism Mark Goodman. He had met with them the week before when I had to miss class. Now I was back, explaining the value of the Tinker standard and re-emphasizing their future students’ First Amendment rights.
Rachel and most of the others felt our passion and wanted to believe, but…they envisioned a lot of “what ifs” for new teachers.
Read MoreIn case you missed these curriculum, activity materials
During the last week or so, JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Commission released or assisted with the release of some important teaching and advising materials.
In case you missed them then, here are the links again:
• Lesson plans for Constitution Day, Sept. 17 (and links to plans from previous years).
• Links to essential information available on the commission site
• Information about Quill and Scroll’s The Principal’s Guide to Scholastic Journalism revision now active and online. The print version will be available Nov. 1.
• Talking Points for teachers to use The Principal’s guide to fight against prior review and for the educational value of scholastic journalism.
• A blog on the importance of FOIA use.
JEA and its Scholastic Press Rights Commission hope these materials will be informative and useful.
Read MoreThe decision to report: Because you can, does that mean you should?
Part of JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Commission’s Constitution Day lessons and activity package. The whole package can be seen here: http://jeasprc.org/constitution-day-2013-teaching-materials-and-lessons/
by Jeff Kocur
Objective: For students to explore ethical situations using the TUFF formula as described in the lesson. This unit focuses possible discussion points for inclusion in editorial policies.
Primary Common Core: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1
Secondary Common Core: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1b, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1d
Introduction: Start the class with the following hypothetical situation: “A student on staff has overheard his father (a police officer in a neighboring town) talking about pulling over your high school principal for suspicion of drunk driving. The staff member heard his father report that the principal was barely over the legal limit. And then would ask the following questions:
- How do you verify the accuracy of this? Is the father a reliable source? Where else could you get the info you needed?
- Does the community deserve to know if one of their leaders engages in this behavior?
- How much does the school board know about this?
- Does the fact that the infraction was just over the legal limit influence your decision?
- Whose interest should prevail in this instance?
- How do you negotiate what is fair here?