ADOL 635 – School and Community Relations: Lesson 1 Assignments

Students are to email answers directly to the instructor and copy them, along with the questions, to their electronic portfolio.

Assignment 1:

Search the internet and find a community relations plans, community communication plans, or public relations plans for a school district other than your own. Give a one page critique of the plan. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the plan? Give one example of how the plan can be improved.

Identify your answer with the title L1, A1, YourLastName, by the due date.

Assignment 2:

Using the lesson content along with secondary sources of information such as the internet, your local library, and your school district records answer the question: “Who makes up my community?” Do this for the community you work in or, if not applicable, the community you live in.

Identify your answer with the title L1, A2, YourLastName, by the due date..

Assignment 3:

Do you think most school administrators do a good job communicating with the public? Defend your answer.

Identify your answer as L1, A3, YourLastName, by the due date.

Reading Assignment:

The School and Community Relations. Chapters 1 – 3.

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ADOL 635 – School and Community Relations: Lesson 2 Assignments

Students are to email answers directly to the instructor and copy them, along with the questions to their electronic portfolio.

Assignment 1:

The Normaltown Elementary School has had several complaints concerning outdoor recess during cold weather. Parents, a majority of those with children in kindergarten, have called with concerns that their children were sent outdoors for recess during a week of extremely cold weather and snow showers. The school’s winter recess policy is stated as:

Elementary recess is held indoors if the temperature or wind chill falls below 15 degrees. Children should always wear appropriate cold weather clothing, including winter coats, hats, gloves or mittens, and boots during the winter months.

Develop a communication policy statement which will help the school staff and faculty handle the parent’s concerns and complaints. Make sure your statement has the four elements listed in Lesson 2.3.

Once you have created a policy statement – develop a goal, objective and tactic to support the policy statement. You may use the chart below as template:

Identify your answer with the title L2, A1, YourLastName, First Initial by the due date.

Assignment 2:

Develop a communication policy statement for a communication issue for your school district.

Identify your answer with the title L2, A2,YourLastName, First Initial by the due date.

Assignment 3:

Design four “sound bites” – key strategic messages that can be used by your school district. For each message distinguish the intended audience and whether the message is informational, argumentative, image-based or emotional-based.

Identify your answer with the title L2, A3,YourLastName, First Initial by the due date.

Reading Assignment:

The School and Community Relations.

Chapters 1 - 3

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ADOL 635 – School and Community Relations: Lesson 3 Assignments

 

Students are to email answers directly to the instructor and copy them, along with the questions, to their electronic portfolio.

Assignment 1:

 

Describe and evaluate the communications by which your school district’s school board communicates with the public. If applicable, give web site URLs with specific examples. How can this communication be improved? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this communication?

Send your answer with the title L3, A1, YourLastName, First Initial by the due date.

 

Assignment 2:

Describe and evaluate the communications by which your school district’s superintendent communicates with the public. If applicable, give web site URLs with specific examples. How can this communication be improved? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this communication?

Send your answer with the title L3, A2,YourLastName, First Initial by the due date.

 

Assignment 3:

Find the person in charge of a school district’s communication for a school district in your state. Interview the person by telephone or email and inquire concerning the following topics:

1. What are the responsibilities of that person’s position?
2. How did that person obtain that position and what qualifications were required?
3. What are the challenges that person faces in during their job duties?
4. What is most enjoyable about their job?
5. Ask an additional question that you determine to be important to understanding the role of this person to facilitate communication with the community.

Summarize your interview and send your summary as L3, A3,YourLastName, First Initial by the due date.

 

Assignment 4:

Design an outline (at least one page in length) for a one-hour communications in-service workshop which will be attended by both staff and faculty. Focus on three to five training points you wish to highlight for your attendees. For each training point, distinguish whether the training information should be focused towards the staff, the teachers, or both.

Send your outline as L3, A4,YourLastName, First Initial by the due date.

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ADOL 635 – School and Community Relations: Lesson 4 Assignments Students are to email answers directly to the instructor and copy them, along with the questions, to their electronic portfolio. Assignment 1: Discuss which mass media vehicle you feel is best used to accomplish each objective. Defend your answers. Your school district must raise money to build a new middle school. A fundraiser will be announced along with information to vote for a new bond to support the finance of the building. The football team will be traveling to the state championship game. The new fourth grade reading curriculum will be introduced this fall. Email your answer with the title L4, A1, YourLastName, First Initial by the due date. Assignment 2: Find an example online of a newspaper article which reports on a local school issue in your state. Give the URL of the article. Does the article reflect positively or negatively on the school district? Is the article fair and balanced? Do you feel the article came mostly from a press release or from a reporter’s research? Email your answer with the title L4, A2,YourLastName, First Initial by the due date. Assignment 3: Create an outline (at least one page) for a communications training session for your school board members entitled: “How to Handle the Local Press”. Include three things for the board members to be sure to do/say and not to do/say when contacted by a local reporter. Email your answer with the title L4, A3,YourLastName, First Initial by the due date. Reading Assignment: The School and Community Relations. (9th Ed.) Chapters 4,5 and 6 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ADOL 635- School and Community Relations: Lesson 5 Assignments Students are to email answers directly to the instructor and copy them, along with the questions, to their electronic portfolio. Assignment 1: Read the article available on the internet at: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/pubs/onlinepubs/beyondptc.html entitled, Beyond the Parent-Teacher Conference: Diverse Patterns of Home-School Communication by Weiss, Kreider, Levine, Mayer, Stadler, and Vaughan. Discuss the following: Why is informal parent-teacher communication just as important as formal methods of communication such as parent-teacher conferences? Describe at least two ways in which a teacher can create an informal opportunity to communicate with parents that is NOT listed in this article. Provide specific examples of how these methods can be applied. Email your answer with the title L5, A1, YourLastName, First Initial by the due date. Assignment 2: STEP ONE: Identify and describe an example of an external public consisting mainly of parents who have fostered a partnership with your school district. Has the partnership been documented in the media or online? What have been the benefits of the partnership for all involved? STEP TWO: Identify and describe an example of an external public consisting mainly of non-parents who have fostered a partnership with your school district. Has the partnership been documented in the media or online? What have been the benefits of the partnership for all involved? STEP THREE: Distinguish how the two partnerships differ based on the fact that one group is comprised of parents, the other non-parents. Email your answer with the title L5, A2, YourLastName, First Initial by the due date. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ADOL 635 - Assignment - School and Community Relations: Lesson 6 Assignments Students are to email answers directly to the instructor and copy them, along with the questions, to their electronic portfolio. _ Assignment 1: Prepare two “ready” files that are specific to your school. Choose two from the list below: Press statement Daily update fact sheet Draft memo to faculty on media interviews Draft memos to press outlining parameters for pool coverage of funerals and memorials and the first day back at school. Draft volunteer orientation guide Media interview/information request form Curriculum for the first day of school after a crisis Draft Web page for communications during a crisis FAQ document Student response form Email your answer with the title L6, A1, YourLastName, First Initial by the due date. Assignment 2: Prepare a 2-3 page essay, double spaced, which describes how you would implement a communications plan in one of the crisis scenarios below. Describe to whom you will communicate, what your message(s) will be, when and how you will distribute communication. Describe what documents could have been prepared beforehand, what needs to be done 24-48 hours during the crisis, and after the crisis. Crisis Scenarios: Four students were killed in a car crash Saturday night. The driver (a 17 year old student) was intoxicated. The music teacher was found guilty in court this morning on four charges of child molestation. One child was a school student. A first grader was “stabilized” on the playground during school hours by police using a stun gun. The child was a danger to himself and classmates – deemed uncontrollable by police. Email your answer with the title L6, A2, YourLastName, First Initial by the due date. Reading Assignment: The School and Community Relations. Chapters 7,8,9 and 10. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ ADOL 635 – Lesson 7 - Assignment Students are to email answers directly to the instructor and copy them, along with the questions, to their electronic portfolio. Assignment 1: Write a template letter no longer than one page that addresses one of the following: Letter of commendation to a student’s parents concerning the student’s grades. Letter of praise to a teacher for outstanding work done in the classroom. A letter of welcome to new families in the community Letters to a volunteer thanking her for time spent in the classroom. Be sure your letter uses the seven C’s of letter writing as presented in this lesson. Email your answer with the title L7, A1, YourLastName, First Initial by the due date. Assignment 2: Search the internet for an adult or community program that is housed within a public school. List the URL that describes the program. Write a one to two page essay answering the following questions: What is the name of the program? Who does the program benefit? What role does this program play in a community relations plan? Can this program be replicated in your school? Why or why not? Email your answer with the title L7, A2, YourLastName, First Initial by the due date. Assignment 3: Your school has decided to participate in the Annual Mix It Up at Lunch Day, a project initiated out by tolerance.org. Review the Web page http://www.tolerance.org/teens/lunch.jsp and write two press releases about the upcoming event at your school. Create one press release for the newsprint media and another for broadcast media. Email your answers to the instructor with the title L7 A3, YourLastName, First Initial by the due date. Assignment 4: Using the following Web site http://www.educyberpg.com/Schools/default.asp, find three school Web sites and compare and contrast their features in an essay of two to three pages in length. Be sure to answer the following questions for each Web site: What is the purpose of the Web site? Is the Web site passive or interactive? What kinds of content is on the Web site? Email your answers to the instructor with the title L7, A4, YourLastName, First Initial by the due date. Reading Assignment: The School and Community Relations. Chapters 11, 12 ,13 and 14 _________________________________________________________________________________________________ ADOL 635 – Lesson 8 (Part 1) Assignments Students are to email answers directly to the instructor and copy them, along with the questions, to their electronic portfolio. Assignment 1: Locate an article listed on the NCEF Resource list at http://www.edfacilities.org/rl/bond_issues.cfm, summarize the article and explain why it would be helpful to anyone seeking a bond election for their school district. Email your answers to the instructor with the title L8(1) A1, YourLastName, First Initial by the due date. Assignment 2: Write a two-page position paper on school choice. Are you for or against school choice? Make sure to include a statement on how you feel school choice has affected the marketing and/or communication a school must engage in to seek and keep students. Email your answers to the instructor with the title L8(1) A2, YourLastName, First Initial by the due date. Reading Assignment: The School and Community Relations. (8th Ed.) Chapters 14 and 15 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ ADOL 635 – Lesson 8 (Part 2) Assignments Students are to email answers directly to the instructor and copy them, along with the questions, to their electronic portfolio. Assignment 1: Create an outline using the steps of the evaluation process listed in Lesson 8 for an evaluation of a communication effort or campaign recently implemented in your school. What is the rationale for the evaluations? Define at least two objectives to guide the evaluation. Describe which evaluation measures would best fit the process. How do you expect to report the results and to whom? Email your answers to the instructor with the title L8(2) A1, YourLastName, First Initial by the due date. Reading Assignment: The School and Community Relations. Chapters 16 and 17