The JEA Curriculum Initiative shares lesson plans across 12 different content areas, complete with learning outcomes, assessments, evaluation guides, models and alignment to standards including the Common Core and Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Today, we proudly offer hundreds of weeks worth of lessons to complement high school journalism classrooms across the country. This content is available exclusively to all JEA members.

There are many free resources available to the public on the Anywhere JEA page, and some other curriculum falls into groups easily navigated using Curriculum Maps.

Thank you for checking out the JEA curriculum library. JEA updated our website Sept. 11. We appreciate your patience as our curriculum team continues to update links to some of the downloads and activities throughout the library in the coming weeks. Email staff@jea.org the name of the lesson (include the URL) you are trying to access as we may be able to send it to you directly.

Free

Weekly Lesson

Each week, we share a free curriculum lesson on a timely topic. These lessons are free to everyone for a limited period of time. After that, the lessons live in the curriculum library which is accessible only to JEA members. Click here to learn more about membership.

Developing a student leadership portfolio

Students will accumulate samples of their work and other necessary materials suitable for a leadership portfolio that could prepare them to enter their state and possibly national JEA student journalist of the year competition.
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Brainstorming column ideas

In this lesson, students brainstorm ideas for their columns, then narrow down their ideas conduct research on a selected topic.

Evaluating editorials with a rubric

The teacher will give students copies of the rubric, then have them evaluate some sample editorials based on the rubric.

Peer editing and sharing

Students will share their editorials with their groups and mark which parts help prove their point more or fit best with the original stance. Then students will have time to revise their editorials.

Say something with columns

This is a lesson on sharing opinions and insights of newspaper column.

Writing letters to the editor

Ethics in column writing

Students learn how the SPJ Code of Ethics applies to opinion writing and work in groups to discuss how they would deal with potentially difficult ethical situations in writing.

Types of opinion stories

A lesson comparing three main types of opinion stories.

Counterarguments

This is a debate activity using students’ topics to get an idea of what the other side thinks as a way to strengthen their argument. 

Types of editorials

This is a lesson that outlines the difference between editorials and columns and types of editorial  topics.

Using evidence to support opinions

This is a lesson on using evidence to back up the reasons for their main claims in a column.

The difference between news and opinion

The teacher will present about the difference between opinion and news stories as well as how to determine the purpose of a piece of writing.

Parts of the opinion section

Students will look at opinion pages and identify the parts of them.

JEA Curriculum Chat Podcast

Listen to the most recent episode.

About Curriculum & The Team

In May 2013, the Journalism Education Association began work on its curriculum initiative, creating lesson plans across 14 content areas, complete with learning outcomes, assessments, evaluation guides, models and alignment to standards including the Common Core and Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

Over the course of the next 11 months, JEA worked with 14 of its members — identified as national leaders in their area of expertise — to develop nearly 200 weeks worth of lessons to complement high school journalism classrooms across the country. Helping them were dozens of other JEA members, professionals and student journalists who volunteered their own ideas, materials and examples to benefit scholastic media advisers.

As important as this electronic resource is, it’s merely a portion of JEA’s curriculum initiative. Just as important is the ongoing commitment the organization is making to the effort. Curriculum leaders keep the curriculum current and dynamic by providing updated lesson plans and examples that reflect the newest trends and technology. They collaborate with other JEA committees such as certification and Career & Technical Education to ensure that the organization is at the forefront of defining 21st century journalism. They coordinate with our national Professional Advisory Committee to ensure our student learning objectives align with industry standards. They showcase their curriculum and lessons at national conventions and conferences. And they host online chats to not only discuss implementation of their module, but to coordinate discussion of best practices that will guide future development.

We welcome your feedback, suggestions, plaudits and corrections. Please feel free to email mfromm@d51schools.org, or contact specific curriculum leaders directly.