There have been many good contributions to this thread- all valid but perhaps too sophisticated and technical for the course of study and the project at hand.
You have a very limited window of opportunity to impart a mountain of knowledge and may be further encumbered by the virtual learning situation brought about by the pandemic. My suggestion is the old KIS theory, which is to keep it simple and use a very instructional "nuts and bolt" approach. These kids are smart, educated, and alert so the can connect the dots and fill in any gaps.The will pick up on he vibe and the philosophy!
I have absolutely NO pedagogical training, teacher's education, or theoretical knowledge oif lesson planning, nonetheless, by default, I found myself training rookies as my role as a specialist in the army, and later on having to train wedding and portrait photographer in comparatively short space of time. So here's my advice.
You will find kids with different levels of knowledge of technical photography and access to equipment. The most impactful usage of images in journalism is TELLING THE STORY. That's where the emphasis should be.
Avoid getting them hung up on gear. A smart kid with a cellphone camera can do as well at storytelling as one with an advanced DSLR or mirrorless camera. Teach them how to convert words to visual media. Talk about capturing mood, emotion, spontaneity, action, and how to anticipate action and get ready to shoot at the peak of action or expression. Tell them to make believe that they have to illustrate a happening or story as if there were no captions or copy and stress the old adage that a PICTURE is worth thousands of words.
Hopefully, they will not be covering violent demonstrations, dangerous fires or explosions, or natural disasters or will be operating in a war zone. There are investigative photojournalists that have risked their lives, have sustained injuries, and even died while pursuing a story- at this stage of their life, the should not do that and remain safe. Peaceful demonstrations are an important topic nowadays but instruct them to remain on the side of caution and safety and avoid crowds or any potentially violent outbursts. Perhaps working in teams woud be a safer policy-perhaps a photographer and a reporter working on a story. Maskig up is the order of the day and a bottle of hand sanitizer is required gear.
Tell them to think about the READER. The average reader is not an aficionado of technical photography- they will not necessarily be able to determine what focal length was used or where the photographer was located or distanced- if the picture tells the story and contains visual impact is what counts.
When I worked on the paper, a colleague of mine had a propensity for walking out on the field during Rugby matches and jumping onto the infield at rodeos. His pictures garnered many international press awards but he was banned from many professional sports events- they pulled his credentials. I think he had a death wish!
Nuts and bolts! Fumbling with complex equipment will cost spontaneous pictures. For the kids that can manage exposure control and camera handlig- that's great. For those who can't mange all the technobabble, the "P" mode and a cell phone camera is perfectly OK. The readers won't care! For those who are more technically savvy, a shot course in or review of the exposure triangel, depht of field, using flash to freeze sports action and a few tips on composition may be in order.
Some readers are auditories- they are mainly influenced by what they hear or read in the text. Others are visuals and respond mostly by what they see. Some are kinostethics- the need to feel, smell or touch things to react. So, if you can provied impactful images, you can effectively tell the story to a wide variety of folks. You may want to shock or attract the auditories into examining the pictures, include texture, depth, and tactility in the images to appeal to the kinesthetics and the visuals will take care of themselves.
Not all photojournalism and news photography is high action, celebrity events, glamor, and/or chaos- some of it is rather pedestrian. Folks gather for a ribbin cutting, shovels in the groud ceremonies, check presentation at charitable events- the stand there grin and eyeball the cameras (grip and grin before hand-shaking was taboo). Tell the kids to look for expression and animated moments during routine speeches, folks relating to each other, poignant moments, and joyous outbursts. Sometimes something funny, humorous or silly adds comic relief and humanizes an otherwise routine event coverage.
Keep us in the loop and tell us how the kids react. Excuse my calling them "kids"- I'm an old guy with a gray beard so anyone under 50 is a kid