Intereseting stuff...courtesy of NCTE

Censorship Widening, Experts Say
Journalism teacher and high school newspaper advisor Linda Kane was fired from those positions because she and her students refused to change the paper's policy on the use of profanity, an issue that arose over the inclusion in the paper of three controversial articles on marijuana, one of which was an anonymous column containing some profanity. Chicago Tribune, May 27, 2008 ...

views20 Years Post-Hazelwood, Student Freedom of Speechand Press Important As Ever In its resolution "On Students' Freedom of Speech and Press," NCTE emphasizes the importance of student journalists having the right to exercise freedom of speech and the press, as stipulated in the First Amendment of the Constitution.

The NCTE Assembly for Advisers of Student Publications/Journalism Education Association (AASP/JEA) and the Journalism Education Association provide resources on student publications. The Student Press Law Center provides help when student publications are challenged....blogStill Letting TV Work for YouNCTE INBOX blogger Traci Gardner shares a 40-year-old (and still relevant!) example of how you can let TV work for you in the classroom in this week's NCTE INBOX Blog....

ideasFree access to journal articles mentioned in this INBOX is provided for 21 days. After this free access period expires, articles are available to journal subscribers only. Initials in annotations indicate academic level of the resource (E=Elementary, M=Middle, S=Secondary, C=College, TE=Teacher Education, G=General).Exploring Journalism with Students On June 1, 1980, CNN debuted as the first television news network.

Take advantage of the anniversary to explore journalism activities in the classroom. Elementary students can explore and write op-ed pieces, using the resources in the Language Arts article "Exploring Inquiry as a Teaching Stance in the Writing Workshop" (E). The article includes a "snapshot" of a fifth-grade writing workshop and its study of op-ed writing to show inquiry in action. Remember that these pieces are not limited to print publications. Local television stations and radio stations offer "talk back" options.If you work with middle level students, try writing letters to the editor using ideas from the Voices from the Middle article "Going Public: Letters to the World" (M), which includes criteria for effective letters and an exploration of how student writing benefits from writing for a public audience.

Try a similar project with secondary students with the ReadWriteThink lesson Persuading an Audience: Writing Effective Letters to the Editor (S). Don't limit the letters to print publications. Check cable and network news websites for ways to submit students' letters to the news programs. Whether you're advising an extracurricular newspaper or working on a class newspaper project, the English Journal article "So You've Been Asked to Advise a Student Publication" (S) outlines the structures students can use for learning to find, research, develop, respond to, and reflect on story ideas.

The Teaching English in the Two-Year College article "Using Journalism Writing to Improve College Composition" (C) explores news gathering and news writing techniques common to feature writing and outlines a profile writing project. Students might then film YouTube videos of their news stories or post blog entries on the latest information....announcements
Exploring Journalism in Print, Online, and Video Media If you're looking for more resources on journalism in the classroom, NCTE can help.

NCTE's Applying NCTE/IRA Standards in Classroom Journalism Projects: Activities and Scenarios includes activities and vignettes that range from news to editorial writing to work with current and literary events.


Check out the book's sample chapter for a strategy that invites students to research the historical and cultural context of Elizabethan England and then write their own newspaper. Modernize students' presentations further by asking them to film news stories to share with the class or to post online.

Challenge students to look at the subjective influences on televised news programs with the chapter "Deconstructing Broadcast News" from NCTE's Lesson Plans for Creating Media-Rich Classrooms. The book shares 27 field-tested lessons, including activities on photo manipulation, video diaries, visualizing literary texts, exploring video games, analyzing the music industry through an exercise in artist promotion, and exploring the use of the video news release in local and national news broadcasts.