Journalism Lesson Plan

Overview:Teens often find their lives full of stress. It comes from school requirements, jobs, parents, friends (and not so friendly colleagues), teachers, you-name-it. Not all stress is bad, but learning how to keep enough in your left without becoming unable to function properly is the bottom line.

Suggested time allotment: With as much material on this topic as is available, reporting could take months! Set a logical length of time – perhaps a week, and then decide on a narrow enough focus to cover most of what is available on the topic. (e.g. knowing the difference between good and bad stress or signs of stress overload or what to do)

Objectives

Students will:

1. Interview students, teachers, counselors, parents and local health providers to see how they identify “good” stress and suggest teens cope.
2. Write a news feature about stress, complete with extra boxes – list of signs to spots, places to go for help, etc. OR:
3. Write a news feature about stress that focuses on good stress and bad stress and how to cope with the latter.

Standards: National Council of Teachers of English and International Reading Association Standards for English Language Arts:

7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
8. Students use a variety of technological and informational resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
12. Students use spoken, written and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion and the exchange of information).

Resources and materials:
Web sites with information:
• A good overview is available on the Kidshealth.org. What does this group recommend?
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• Some of these ideas may be for younger students, but others work quite well. Check out KeepKidsHealthy.com, particularly the series of stress articles.
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• Another site with plenty of info is the Johns Hopkins Public Health News Center. Included these is a guidebook to help adults identify and cope with teen stress.
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