The Effective Communicators Course

The project and inquiry-based, Journalistic Learning unit.

The Effective Communicators Course is a ready-to-implement Journalistic Learning curriculum for middle and high school English Language Arts teachers—no journalism experience required! It includes 30 comprehensive lesson plans that guide students from start to finish through a journalistic project while meeting 90% of College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards.

Course Overview

Media and News Literacy: Teaches students critical skills like how to find credible sources and evaluate media.
Center Student Choice: Engages students in self-directed learning by aligning with their authentic interests.
Build Community: Civically engages students by connecting them with local issues and community experts.

Designed to Be Flexible: Easily adapt lessons to meet the unique needs of your students.
Amplify Student Voice: By guiding students through the publication process, they’re able to reflect on how their voice makes an impact.
Professional Communication: From cold emails to interview, students hone their communication skills to learn from local sources.

What better way to gain journalistic skills—like media literacy, critical thinking, and effective communication—than by doing what journalists do?

Learn more about Journalistic Learning

Steps to Implementing the ECC

Join – The ECC and coinciding materials are exclusive to members of our Journalistic Learning Community.

Prepare – Complete self-guided and self-paced ECC professional development.

Review – Review EC project materials and choose a timeframe to implement with your class(es).

Lead – Lead your students through the ECC plan and project, including publication.

Share – Submit samples of student work to JLI (optional).

Join our Journalistic Learning Community

Steps to Implementing the ECC

Join – The ECC and coinciding materials are exclusive to members of our Journalistic Learning Community.

Prepare – Complete self-guided and self-paced ECC professional development.

Review – Review EC project materials and choose a timeframe to implement with your class(es).

Lead – Lead your students through the ECC plan and project, including publication.

Share – Submit samples of student work to JLI (optional).

Join our Journalistic Learning Community

See Effective Communicators in Action!

JLI Educator Fellows leading their students through the Effective Communicators Course

Explore the JLC learning platform

The online platform offers a simple, organized way to preview, use, download, copy or print the Effective Communicators resources from any device. This is also where members can manage our suite of AI coaches and set up access for their classes.

View the video walkthrough to discover the wealth of resources including:

Instructor onboarding

Detailed ECC lesson plans

Multimedia support materials including videos, podcasts, and slides

ELA College & Career Readiness Anchor Standards

Discussion board for support

And much more

Explore Sample Materials

Sample Lesson Plan

Course Sequence

Course 45-Day Skills Map

ELA College Career Standards Checklist

Join our Journalistic Learning Community

Coming Soon: Elementary Effective Communicators

The research-based, standards-aligned program that infuses journalistic strategies into ELA courses, now tailored for young learners. Interested in bringing the power of Journalistic Learning to your K-5 students? Contact our Program Coordinator to ask about early enrollment!

Learn More

FAQ

Here are answers to the most frequently asked questions about the ECC.

I’ve never taught journalism. How much knowledge is expected, and how steep is the learning curve?

You need never have taught journalism to teach JLI’s Effective Communicators project, which is informed by journalistic principles and practices—but is not a “journalism” course. In fact, this program is geared specifically for middle and high school English language arts teachers with no prior journalism experience. The course includes 10 hours worth of self-paced online professional development modules that’ll prepare any teacher to lead this journalistic project, regardless of their journalism experience. Lesson plans are designed so that a substitute teacher can easily facilitate them. Language Arts teachers will recognize most of the skills and instructional practices in these lessons, which cover 94% of the ELA College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards.

Does this curriculum replace what I’m already using?

Partially. The curriculum is a complete set of supplemental materials, including detailed daily lesson plans and supporting materials such as slides, printable sheets, podcasts, and videos. It is designed to replace one quarter or trimester of your informative reading and writing instruction. It is modifiable so you can adapt it to your students and school calendar.

Our school has a newspaper and/or yearbook program. Will this course replicate or compete with what we already have in place?

No. The Effective Communicators course is a perfect complement to your school’s journalism or yearbook program. It can act as a feeder course to prepare students for those classes. Additionally, it supports English teachers in meeting informative reading and writing standards, and cultivates curious, analytical and media-literate readers and writers.

Are the project materials culturally responsive?

The Effective Communicators Course honors student cultures, backgrounds and communities while connecting academic learning to their lives, passions and struggles outside of school. Two key components of the project are student-centered practices and meaningful connection between school and the local community. Student-centered practices include participatory decision making, such as the freedom to choose topics of concern that are culturally and socially relevant to them; and working in teams to select meaningful texts, research, write, give and get feedback, publish, and reflect together. Students invite community members into the classroom to share knowledge and stories, deepening the connection between school and the outside world. Teachers shift roles as needed, acting as instructors, guides, mediators, consultants and advocates for their students.

Who may I contact with questions?

Please contact Susan Szafranski at susan@journalisticlearning.org with questions.