Derrick Smith
EDUG-512
Fallahi
ASSESSMENT PLAN
Class: Journalism 1
Students-Junior and Seniors
Plan: I am devising an assessment plan for teaching an introductory journalism class at
the secondary level. The students in the class would be juniors and seniors. The class will
only be one semester long so I will try to incorporate 20 learning targets in the class. The
targets will mostly be based upon the different types of articles in the class.
Knowledge Targets
 Hard News Story-teach students basic components and hard news story. What
hard news is? Why are these articles written? What are distinguishing
characteristics
 Profile Story- teach students the basic components of a profile feature story.
What a profile story is? What does it portray?
 Issue Story-teach students the basic components of issue feature story. What are
issues that could be explored? What does it attempt to accomplish?
 Column- teach students the basic components of journalism columns. What is the
difference between columns and hard news?
 A.P. Style- teach students basic elements of A.P. style
 News Awareness- test students understanding of significant current events
 Journalism History- significance of first amendment, “Watchdog”, printing
press, Watergate
Skills Targets
 Hard News Story- teach students the skills necessary to compose hard news
story. Concise lead construction, quote incorporation, style
 Profile Story- teach students skills necessary for profile story. Construct vivid
detailed, engaging leads, illustrate who the person is
 Issue Story- teach students the skills necessary to compose an issue feature story.
Writing engaging leads? Providing perspective on both sides of the issue.
 Column- teach students skills necessary to compose a column. Opinion to
express, give reason for column, more latitude in language
 A.P. Style and News Awareness- teach students how to use A.P. style book, how
it is arranged
 News Awareness- teach students how to tell what news is significant as a
journalist
Reasoning Targets
 Line of questions- teach students the reasoning behind what important questions
are, how to reason what questions should be asked during an interview, how to
reason to ask effective follow up questions
 Story organization- help students develop reasoning for constructing a logical
flow in articles. Where to place quotes, what issues are important to be included at
the beginning, instruction in Inverted Pyramid style
 Purpose of journalism- why journalism is important. Reasoning as to why
journalism is a necessary medium in the United States
 Editing Reasoning- what needs to be changed in a story, how to change construct
it
 Content Reasoning- how should headlines be written, what photos should be
chosen, where do you draw the line
Purpose Targets
 Critique Journalism techniques- instruct students on how to assess journalistic
writing.
Affects Targets
 Journalism Process- how to plan a story, the writing process, prewriting, writing
with long deadlines, writing with short deadlines
Assessment Components- I will use several types of assessment in the class. First, I
would use essays/articles as the major assessment strategy. Students will be required to
construct a hard news story, a profile story, an issue story, and a column in the class.
Students will be instructed on how to construct these types of articles and will be given a
rubric prior to the due date of the assignments. Quizzes will be another assessment
component in the classroom. Quizzes will be given once or twice a week to check for
news awareness and test components of journalism history. Students will also be assigned
three short response “critique” activities. In these responses students will write a 1-2 page
critique of articles from major newspapers. The other component of assessment will be a
portfolio assessment that will be include all assignment from the class.
Reasoning for Components- I selected all the forms of assessment for this plan because
I believe these are the best forms of assessment for teaching journalism. In a journalism
class students must learn how to construct and write articles. There is no other way for
students to learn this skill besides doing it themselves. The articles are an essential
component of any journalism class. I am including the quizzes because I think it is a
quick and easy way to check for students’ understanding of current events and journalism
history. These are not the most important components of the course so I don’t think a
large scale test would be in order to assess students. The short response critiques are
another form or writing assessment. I included these in the assessment plan to get
students to think about how articles are constructed on the professional level so they can
try to apply some of those techniques to their own writing. I would include the portfolio
assessment because I think it would be a useful assignment and assessment for students.
When students try to develop their writing whether it is journalistic or otherwise it is a
process. The portfolio will allow students to see that process first hand and see the
improvement they have made as well as to reflect on their own writing.
Conducting Assessment Plan- I would assess most of the learning targets through the
written articles. Most of the targets outlined for the course could be covered through
teaching students about the articles. The class would begin with the background and
history of journalism to give students some context. This knowledge would be assessed
through quizzes. Students will receive instruction on each article and a rubric will be
distributed when the article is first assigned. The articles will be scored a numbered scale.
For the critique assignments I will give students guidelines on what they should include
in their critique. The portfolio assessment will look to measure students’ progression in
the class. All articles and critique assignments will be included. Also, students will need
to write an overall reflection paper on the class to be included in the portfolio. Students
will have the opportunity throughout the semester to rewrite any articles for a higher
grade. Portfolios will be due 7 days before the end of the semester.
Communicating to students- To communicate my assessment plan to students I will do
several things. On the first day of class a detailed syllabus will be distributed. It will
outline my expectations for the course as well as how student’s knowledge will be
assessed. I will tell students in the syllabus why I am administering each form of
assessment. I will tell students that the quizzes are given just to see if they are keeping up
to date on current events and have an understanding of the journalism history. I will tell
my students it is important to keep up to date on current events as a journalist. I will tell
the students that the articles are part of being a journalist and taking a journalism class.
For the critique assignment I will tell the students that I think it is important to look at
other works of journalism to help them develop their own journalism skills. Finally, for
the portfolio I will tell the students that I think writing is a process and the portfolio is a
way of assessing that process. I will tell the students that they will have the opportunity to
rewrite all of their articles and have them included in the portfolio and graded. They will
receive the highest grade for their articles.
Rubrics will be distributed for all assignments so the students understand what I
am looking for. I think it is important for students to understand why they are doing all
the assignments in class. When a student doesn’t know why they are doing an assignment
they become less motivated. I want to make sure my students know why they are doing
every assignment in the class. The rubrics will let students know exactly what I am
looking for in all assignments.