Home
High School
Journalism 1a Project
Open
Imagine developing your reporting skills while working alongside professional journalists who bring real stories to life! Picture yourself conducting interviews, investigating topics that matter, and crafting compelling articles with the guidance of an experienced mentor. If you’re excited about telling the truth, uncovering facts, and making an impact through your writing, our VLACS Projects are the perfect fit for you!
This engaging learning pathway allows students to explore various career fields while mastering key concepts and skills. For each competency, you can choose to complete a pre-designed project that simulates real-life career tasks or create your own unique learning experience. Regardless of your choice, you’ll engage in thorough research and apply what you learn to authentic career scenarios.
With the pre-designed projects, you’ll tackle real-world tasks that align with each competency. If you decide to design your own experience, you’ll collaborate with your instructor and a mentor to design and complete meaningful career tasks that demonstrate your understanding. We have partnered with hundreds of mentors you can work with if you choose to design your own experience. Check out our Career Mentor Catalog here.
Take a look at the competency statements and pre-designed options below. We’re excited to support you on this exciting and open-ended learning adventure!
Note: This is a project-based course. If you’re looking for a traditional format, please return to the learning catalog and select the course.
Projects
Editor in Chief
Competency: Foundations of Journalism
You are the editor-in-chief of an online news publication. In an effort to support the newly hired journalists within the company, a handbook is needed to serve as a resource for the new journalists on the foundations of journalism.
You will create a journalism handbook that will explain the key principles of journalism, describe the journalist’s process for writing a story and summarize the technical writing skills used in journalism.
News Reporter
Competency: News Reporting
You are a news reporter for a local affiliate and you have been assigned to report on a breaking news event in your area. The news story will need supporting notes to verify that it is formatted as news reporting.
You will create a news report with supporting notes that will explain the rhetorical triangle, describe the structure of a news report and describe the ethics involved with news reporting.
Feature Writer
Competency: Feature Writing
You are a feature writer for a small, local newspaper. The paper needs a feature on a human interest piece. The feature will need supporting notes to verify that it is formatted as feature writing.
You will create a feature with supporting notes that will explain the process of conducting interviews, explain the use of tone in storytelling and explain the elements of a pitch in feature writing.
Editorial Writer
Competency: Editorial Journalism
You are the editorial writer for a popular online news site. You are preparing next week’s editorial, which will be an opinion piece. The editorial will need supporting notes to verify that it is formatted as editorial journalism.
You will create an editorial with supporting notes that will explain evidence-based opinion writing, describe rhetoric in writing, and describe the structure of an opinion piece.
Wildlife Biologist
Competency: Photojournalism
You are a wildlife biologist working for a museum. The museum lead curator has identified the need for an exhibit for scientific connections.
You will create an exhibit proposal that will describe evidence of evolution, explain the process of natural selection and explain the classification of living organisms.
Social Media Journalist
Competency: Social Media Journalist
You are a social media journalist who reports on various social media platforms. You are preparing your next social media post about a current, trending story. The social media post will need supporting notes to verify that it is formatted for social media journalism.
You will create a social media post and your supporting notes that will explain audience analytics of social media platforms, summarize the real time urgency of social media journalism and describe types of content creation for social media platforms.
Competencies
Foundations of Journalism
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the foundations of journalism by explaining the key principles of journalism, describing the journalist’s process for writing a story, and summarizing the technical writing skills used in journalism.
News Reporting
Students will demonstrate an understanding of news reporting by explaining the rhetorical triangle, describing the structure of a news report, and describing the ethics involved with news reporting.
Feature Writing
Students will demonstrate an understanding of feature writing by explaining the process of conducting interviews, explaining the use of tone in storytelling and explaining the elements of a pitch in feature writing.
Editorial Journalism
Students will demonstrate an understanding of editorial journalism by explaining evidence-based opinion writing, describing rhetoric in writing, and describing the structure of an opinion piece.
Photojournalism
Students will demonstrate an understanding of photojournalism by explaining photographic techniques, describing visual storytelling techniques, and summarizing ethical considerations in photojournalism.
Social Media Journalism
Students will demonstrate an understanding of social media journalism by explaining audience analytics of social media platforms, summarizing the real time urgency of social media journalism, and describing types of content creation for social media platforms.