ELA Electives_Journalism and Advocacy

This research project is the culminating assessment for senior Journalism students. It directly follows a unit about understanding the nature of a complex issue (world poverty) and analyzing it from various perspectives. This project requires students to select a local or hyperlocal issue about which they care deeply and feel that a change would improve the lives of those in our community. The project combines the Solutions Journalism model and Connected Learning principles to allow students to research and examine what solutions have already been tried in our community and in other parts of the country, evaluate their effectiveness, and propose an appropriate course of action for ameliorating the problem in our community. Through use of powerful online digital literacies, scholars will take their message to a wider audience by writing, presenting, recording, and posting a TED Talk style presentation on our school YouTube channel in order to further the conversation in the community. The aim for the project is to empower students to use their voices to create lasting, meaningful change around issues they feel are worthy of their advocacy.
Liz Conroy, 2019