Journalism Lesson Plan

Overview:Thanks to a $3.5 million initiative from the Ohio Board of Regents, high school students will have a chance at no-cost college credit in a variety of areas of student. For instance, Kent State University, Bowling Green State University and Oberlin College will run a Summer Foreign Language Academy for high school students who will be juniors or seniors during the 2007 – 2008 academic year. With a five-day-a-week residence experience during July and mini-emersions weekends during the fall semester, students can earn up to eight college credit hours in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Russian. Other areas of study include math and science education for future teachers

Suggested time allotment: One week for research online and thorough phone calls. Then one week to write the feature.

Objectives

Students will:

1. Research the new Foreign Language Academy and other free summer programs at colleges for teens.
2. Write a feature about the options, including interviews with people like Dr. Brain Baer, director of modern and classical language studies at Kent State.
3. Interview school guidance counselors for a sidebar about how to make such summer opportunities more successful.

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

4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

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:
• Information about the Regents Foreign Language Academy housed at Kent State is available as well as a downloadable application form.
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• Information about the Southwest Ohio STEM Secondary Teacher Academy is also online at
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