Reminder

You need to post on the one of the articles posted the other day about the future of newspapers. Please don't forget to read both articles and then post something relevent... what you think and why....

For class on 10/31

Come prepared with 5 questions for our new choral liaison from Urban Voices

make sure to turn in your final drafts of your first section articles with all notes and earlier drafts, interview notes and other information or research.

Your first drafts of the second articles are due on Monday.

Urban Voices is Coming to our class

Starting this Friday, we will be working with the Urban Voices program which is brought to us from the Metropolitan Opera Company.

this choral program will be working with our curriculum as an extention to what we already do.

More will be discuss in class on today.

Journalism – Election coverage assignment

Tuesday, 11/4 is our elections. Please make sure to check in with television coverage of the elections a few times during the day.

Make sure to get a copy of the NY Times or Newsday on Wednesday with the full results.

Your assignment is to report on the elections…

Make sure to include results for Local, State and National races…

If you can get comments from voting adults about the turn out and results.

What do you notice about the results? About the voters? Are they as knowledgeable as they should be for a voting public?

Your article should be written in a news format… inverted pyramid… strong active leads using journalistic style.

Get as many quotes as you can.

This assignment will be counted as a test grade due on Friday, 11/7.

Sport's Writing Tips

Tips for Sports Reporting From Phil Jasner

Here are some tips for conducting all kinds of sports interviews -- pregame, postgame, off-days, in-person, telephone or teleconference.

• Do your homework. Be as prepared as possible by reading clips, newspapers, magazines, etc. and by paying attention to TV, radio and cyberspace. Don't count on the interviewee filling in the blanks.
• Despite what you might hear some people in the profession say, do NOT treat sports as if it were the toy department. Given the salaries of the players and coaches, the prices of tickets for fans, concessions, parking, etc., you have a responsibility to take sports very seriously. I was taught that part of your job is to give the readers enough information to determine whether it is worth the investment of their time, money and loyalty.
• Treat your subject with respect. There's no place here for hero worship or being a fan. You're doing a job.
• Block out your prejudices about a player, coach, manager or executive. You're the conduit between the subject and the readers. If you're writing a column or opinion piece, you can approach it differently.
• Don't be afraid to ask the hard, pointed questions. In many cases, the better the question, the better the answer. But don't be confrontational. Try to make the subject feel at ease, to feel that you really care.
• Be specific.
• Remember that in today's world of cable, cyberspace, etc., game detail and scores are readily available many places. You can explain why and how things happened, how they developed, whether they involved situations that were covered in practices or meetings or timeout huddles.
• Don't hesitate to ask for additional explanations or details. The more you know and understand, the better you can relay it to a reader.
  Remember--who, what, where, why, when and how.
• Thank the subject for his or her time and patience (if that's appropriate).
• If it's a situation where you can, call back to clarify facts, names, spellings, etc. And always get both sides of a story--sometimes there are several sides.
  
• An editor I had early on always said, "Keep it light, bright, tight and right."
  

From Phil Jasner Sports Reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News
Phil Jasner covers the Philadelphia 76ers and the NBA for the Philadelphia Daily News. In his 26 years with the newspaper he's covered high schools, the Philadelphia Eagles and the NFL, the Stanley Cup finals, professional soccer, various college sports, and the 1992 Olympics in Spain. He is a former president of the Pro Basketball Writers Association and will be inducted in May into the Overbrook High Hall Of Fame.

Current Events assignment changes

Good afternoon all,

After careful consideration, I have decided to make a modification to the current events assignment. In the interest of quality rather than quantity, I would like everyone to do only 1 article a week in the future.

They will be due on Wednesdays. 1 article, focus on doing a really good job. Select an article from the section you working on in the newspaper for further insight into what you need to be writing.
For example, if you are writing for the news section, only look at the part 1 from the NY Times.
if you are working on the entertainment section, only read from that section.
Make sure to:
label the headline, by-line, date, newspaper and section and style.

Look at the headline, lead, any pictures associated with the article as well as the caption.
Look for direct and indirect quotes.
Length of paragraphs.
The inverted pyramid

Think about how effective the article is. What makes it effective or NOT? Be specific. Use the author's words for support.

Don't forget to reflect - you can think about the content, but more importantly, what questions do you have? What did you learn? What would you use in your own writing? Again, be specific and critical.

Choose your article well - I'm going to require you use the NY Times for your one article.

Articles on the future of newspapers in high school

Please read the two articles and comment to this post... (on either or both)


http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080611/0139151374.shtml - interesting article on the whether or not high school newspapers are obsolete.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/papers - another article about the health of high school journalism - please read and post your comments

links to other high school newspapers - be inspired

http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/K_12/Newspapers/Individual_School_Papers/

http://www.cnpa.com/members/HighSchool.htm

http://my.highschooljournalism.org/il/machesneypark/hhs/

http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic97.htm

http://www.viking.stark.k12.oh.us/~vv1nc/

http://www.nerdworld.com/nw5109o1o0.html

useful resources for starting a newspaper

http://hsj.org/Teachers/Teachers.cfm?id=73 - How to start a high school newspaper

http://hsj.org/Editors/Editors.cfm?id=74 - reaching the high school audience

http://hsj.org/Editors/Editors.cfm?id=47 - journalism jobs

http://hsj.org/Editors/Editors.cfm?id=52 - journalism colleges by state

http://hsj.org/Editors/Editors.cfm?id=110 - papers with youth sections

Independent Reading Assignment #2

Remember if I don't get a correct assignment from at least 3/4 of the class, we will be beginning weekly reading logs which will consist of at least 5 logs a week or 10 written pages.

Your next independent reading assignment is due Friday, Nov. 21. I gave out the assignment sheet again, so make sure it is done correctly this time...

all sections must be labeled with which passage you are selecting and your analysis must be specific to the passage selected. Use the author's words as you do in the current events assignment (particularly in the passages about effective language).

make sure to put passages in quotation marks and to label page numbers. Spread your passages out... not too many from any one section.

Use different passages for every one of the 10 parts and make sure to do analysis on every passage individually.

This week's work -

Remember that we will be working on your first stories all week - revision as well as beginning to prepare your second stories.

Make sure to have all appropriate material in class with you all week. You won't be allowed to go to your locker, so please be prepared.

Your final drafts of the first stories are due on Friday, 10/31 with all prior drafts.

Your first drafts of the second story are due on Monday, 11/3.

There is no school on 11/4 for students on election day... However, I will want you to cover the election. (more on this later)

Extra help will be offered in the morning before school - Monday, Wednesday... starting at 7am. If you are interested email me at mssackstein@yahoo.com for a pass.

high school papers online

http://my.hsj.org/nationaledition/ - this will give you all some ideas... go through what they have online...

I can also find some more links to other school papers. I think as we start to craft ours, we will need to see some examples.

Drafts are due tomorrow (they will be spot checked) and current events #3 is due as well.

Timeline for the first issue of the paper

Now we are coming into crunch time for our first issue to get out on time - we are shooting for a November 26th issue date, that means it must be completed no later than November 21st.

Monday, 10/27 - first drafts of first articles for all sections due (you won't turn them in, but will be expected to have them for in class revision)
Friday, 10/31 - hard copies of final drafts of these articles will be due (with all prior drafts attached) - finishing touches made by Monday and then electronically sent to mssackstein@yahoo.com in microsoft word format
Monday, 11/3 - first drafts of second articles are due
Monday, 11/3 - layout begins
Tuesday, 11/4 - election day - no school
Friday, 11/7 - final drafts of second articles -hard copies of final drafts of these articles will be due (with all prior drafts attached) - finishing touches made by Monday and then electronically sent to mssackstein@yahoo.com in microsoft word format
Monday, 11/10 - whole class finishing up final touches and beginning to work on layout... playing with Indesign. Each pair of students will be responsible for doing layout for pages in their section including adding pics
Tuesday, 11/11 - Veteran's Day - school is closed
Wed. - Friday - continued layout and finishing on last minute articles
Monday, 11/17 - finishing touches and proofreading... in sections, each student will go through the printed pages of their section with me and look for errors and typos.
Friday, 11/21- Independent Reading assignment 2 is due
Friday, 11/21 - First issue of the paper is complete and ready to be sent to the printer.

First drafts of section articles are due Monday

Due on Monday, 10/27 = first drafts of section articles. You should know what you are writing by today.

Current events 3 is also due on Monday.

Starting a newspaper

Today in class we will be watching Channel 1 and trying to get an idea of how they generate a news program around a theme or idea.

Our first issue so far is consumed with ideas about the beginning of a school year. We have a variety of paper topics.

Today you will be meeting in your sections after channel one and starting to learn about the kind of writing you will be doing.

What do you know so far about your kind of writing? Post comments to this posting

Different kinds of journalism writing

Those of you looking to get ahead... here are some links to different kinds of writing we will be doing in our paper:

News writing
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/news/

http://www.northernstar.info/nina/highschool/write.html

Feature writing
www.taje.org/fortaje/ppt/features.ppt

http://www.snn-rdr.ca/snn/nr_reporterstoolbox/featurewriting.html

Entertainment writing
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/review.html - book reviews
http://www.spiritofbaraka.com/how-to-write-a-movie-review.aspx - movie review
http://www.louisianavoices.org/Unit6/edu_unit6w_writemusicreview.html =- music

sports writing
http://www.apbookstore.com/apsporhan.html
http://sportswritingediting.blogspot.com/

http://www.notrain-nogain.org/list/spt.asp

editorial/opinion
http://www.rxaction.org/Toolkit/Writing_Opinion_Editorial.pdf

Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell

We discussed "the Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell today....
Monday, 10/20 - Shiptrap Island brochures are due - be creative and use the story... manipulate it to suit your needs.

consider:
What makes man different from animals?

consider:
foreshadowing: when an author plans clues about what will happen in the story later to help build suspense.
suspense: the quality that makes readers eager to know what happens next

How does Connell build suspense throughout the short story? give specific details... comment on this post...

What did you think of the story? How does Rainsford change?

Upcoming events -

Today in class we will be finishing up self-assessments and getting ready to really start full steam ahead on the newspaper.

You had your first independent reading assignment due today (Oct. 16)
Your Most Dangerous Game Brochure will be due on Monday, Oct. 20

Starting next week we will be breaking up into sections -
Editors in chief - Anastasia Papis and Erin O'Driscoll

News section: Livianette C - editor

Victor R
Andrew J
Eirene S
Vinny G
Kaity C
Chris C
Tanya C

Feature section: Sarah B - editor
Pria
Ariana
Christian
Adrianna

Entertainment -
Melissa
Shazia
Gigi
Jamie T

Sports
Georgina
Omar
Eric
Max * Layout editor
(Avi) layout editor

Gisselle Bonilla

Ms. sacksteim

I was absent friday 10/10/08 and i missed the Dangerous Game assignment. If you could please tell me what i have to do.

Thank you .

byeeee. see you tommorrow :)

Notables

Tomorrow is the PSAT. We will be administering the test in room 327 starting 2nd period. Please make sure you bring number 2 pencils and approved scientific calculators

Please show up on time as you can't join class if you are late after the test has begun.

Your self-assessment packets are due on Thursday, signed by your parents and you.

Your independent reading assignment 1 is due on Thursday.

The Most Dangerous Game assignment is now due on Monday, Oct. 20.

Current Events assignment observations

good afternoon all.

I have been reading the current events assignment turned in and I believe some of you are really getting the purpose of it as well as trying hard to really start examining author's craft.

However, some folks are still ignoring earlier comments made and leaving parts out.

You must identify varying parts of the article, analyze what the author has done with his/her writing and how effective it is for the reader. How do the author's choices affect how the reader understands the article?

a reflection is also very necessary... What did this article make you think of? Do you have questions about anything? What would you like to know more about? How can you use what you have noticed in your own writing?

Because of the amount of time we've lost in class over the last few weeks, Current Events assignment #3 will be due on October 27th instead of the 20th.

Revising News

Make sure you have a strong, active headline (includes some kind of verb and excludes articles)

Make sure you have an engaging lead that gets to the heart of your news story.

Make sure your paragraphs are short and all information is properly attributed to sources.

Make sure you have both direct and indirect quotes.

Make sure you have employed the inverted pyramid and used only necessary information to convey your story... BE OBJECTIVE. NO OPINION

lead post

LEAD:-
COAL,the "dark fuel" may be the most visible villin of global warming,but its use is up and projected to get higher.
WHAT KIND OF LEAD IS IT AND WHY?:-
i think its an effective lead because it keeps people aware of what are they doing.

The Most Dangerous Game

Please go to the following link and either read the story and/or print it out and read it.

You will need to have read this story by Friday, October 10

http://fiction.eserver.org/short/the_most_dangerous_game.html

Reminders....

Your current events assignment # 2 is due on Monday, 10/6.

Hope everyone is enjoying their day off