Course Description: Journalism is both a class and a club where students work together to create the school newspaper, The Kilt. We create both an on-line newspaper every two weeks and a paper issue at least 6 times a year. It is an entirely student-lead class where you get to publish your writing, graphics, and photography once a month and you get to collaborate on how to express what really matters to you. You will make great friends and memories to last a lifetime.

In this course students will gain skills in page design, advanced publishing techniques, copywriting, editing, and photography while producing a creative, innovative school newspaper. There is an emphasis on journalism and leadership skills in this class. Participants gain useful, real-world skills in writing, time management, marketing, teamwork, photography and design principles.

Instructional Philosophy: Students will be given challenging real-world projects and assignments typical of professional journalism, graphic design, and publishing industries. High quality work is expected, and students will be given opportunities to redo work until it meets standards specified during instruction. This is a deadline-oriented class and students must make their deadlines to be published. Classroom activities will include journalistic writing, reading, research, interviewing, photojournalism projects, goal setting and problem solving. Students will often work in teams but will be expected to complete individual assignments in relation to the team's work. Students will be assessed on final story, graphic, and page design rubrics.  

Typical month's schedule for this class:

• Week 1: Reflect on previous issue and set goals/ Pitch stories/ Write stories/Interviews
• Week 2: Write stories/ Share stories with each other and edit
• Week 3: Round two edits/graphic designs/ page layouts if in print/ Work night
• Week 4: Publishing 
• Bonus Week 5: Mini projects that grow our journalistic talents and skills/ guest speakers/ middle school mentoring opportunities/ Fun team building activities

This year we have two new exciting developments: 

• A business team dedicated to ad sales and generating revenue.
• Fun day Friday competitions.
• A renewed relationship with The Renton Reporter to mentor us and publish our work.
• An opportunity to mentor middle school students to grow their skills as student journalist.

Course Goals:

1. Students will learn publishing industry practices and terminology
2. Students become familiar with publishing software.
3. Students will learn effective copywriting and editing techniques.
4. Students will learn and apply elements of design and graphic design.
5. Students will work with various types of print production equipment including digital cameras, light studios. And computers.
6. Students will apply computer skills and design principles to the production of online and print newspaper pages.
7. Students will learn journalistic laws and ethics and practice them in their work.

Course Components

• Journalistic Writing: Students will learn about journalistic writing through the production of a finished online and print newspaper.
• Introduction to Graphic Design and Publishing Industries: Students will be introduced to the graphic design and publishing industry through magazines, internet, etc.
• Photojournalism: Students will be introduced to the work of photojournalists and will use Digital Cameras to create their own photojournalism stories.
• Journalistic Law and Ethics: Students will learn the history of press law, including US supreme court cases and Washington state journalism laws. Students will also learn about ethics and responsible journalistic practices.
• Introduction to Equipment: Students will use multimedia elements to create the newspaper with graphic design software. Students will be introduced to each piece of equipment tied to page production: computer, printer, camera, etc.
• Elements and Principles of Design: Students will learn about design elements through production of a finished publication. Students will learn about color, shape, space, balance, eyelines, contrast, variety, emphasis/dominance, harmony, repetition/pattern, and unity.
• Typography: Students will maintain a consistent typographic theme throughout the newspaper production process. Students will learn about typefaces, typographic measurement, typographic standards, typographic guidelines. Students will produce a style guide for their publication.
• Creating and Editing Images for Print: Students will learn when to use particular image formats for yearbook. Students will learn about formats, resolution, ethics, and copyright laws.
• Leadership: Students will participate in leadership activities such as: Project management, goal setting. good attendance, school involvement, time management and organization, and will perform other leadership tasks within the classroom and school.
• Materials: Students will work extensively with Adobe In-Design, Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, and an online publication site by set up through Sno Sites.

Work Expectations

• Students are expected to work on journalism assignments during class time. There is always something to do. When students engage in the course work fully, they will leave this class at the end of the year with journalistic, marketing, Photography, graphic design and production skills.
• Deadlines are non-negotiable. Late work is not accepted. If you repeatedly miss deadlines, you may be subject to dismissal from the class at the tri If you know you are going to be busy at the time of a deadline, plan ahead with your work. Talk to you teachers and team leaders and make a plan so you can make your deadline. Our commitment is to our readers and we need to honor those commitments by being on time with our writing, graphics, and pages.
• Tardies and excessive absences are not permitted. In order to complete this amazing publication, students must be present in class to meet deadline goals. The work we do in this class is collaborative and student-driven. Students must work together to plan, create, and reach the goals of the work. If you are excessively tardy or absent, you may be subject to dismissal from journalism class at the trimester.
• Work doesn’t stop when class ends. Students are expected to participate in outside-of-class activities. To produce a complete school newspaper, students will be required to attend school activities to take photographs and gather information to be used in the school newspaper.
• Due to the nature of publishing deadlines, students will be expected to work periodically before or after school and on weekends as needed to meet publishing deadlines. Our work nights are usually one time for staff for deadlines. You will have plenty of notice to tell coaches, work, your family, etc. Editors are expected to meet once a week during lunch.
• Journalism a marketing and production class and we want to create the best product. It is your responsibility to make certain that you have put every effort forward to create the best quality product we can create.

 

As such, students will:

• Show up to cover clubs, sports, student activities when you agree to do it. If something comes up, get someone to cover you.
• Follow class protocols for how and where to store stories, pages, graphics/photos and interview notes.
• Complete all assigned stories, graphics, photos and pages by deadline. Store your stories, graphics, and pages in designated drives before due dates.
• Revise your work as soon as revisions are offered. Have final revisions done by deadline.
• Conduct interviews in a timely fashion. Have interviews completed in enough time to have your work written by deadlines.
• Conduct interviews with students that take more than 5 minutes outside of class time.
• Design pages and to the proper specifications.
• Follow the correct theme, style guide, colors, etc.
• Take pictures as assigned in a variety of activities during and beyond the school day.
• Complete all miscellaneous assignments and projects.
• Business ads: Each staff member is expected to sell ads. You will receive a grade for ads sold. Business ad sales are a group effort.
• Daily classroom procedures will be explained to you.

Grades

 We work on a deadline system. All assignments need to be completed by deadline for credit. Missed deadline grades cannot be made up. You must have your work in the drives and ready for editing even if you are absent. All final stories and pages must score 100% on our rubric before they will be published in The Kilt.

Your production grades are worth 90% of your grade. They will be given grades for the following:

 

• Rough/ Final Stories
• Rough/ Final Pages
• Photography and Design Assignments
• Page ladders and class calendars (editors only)
• Mini lessons and enrichment assignments
• Leadership/ editor duties
• Ad sales
• Work nights/ Production Nights

 

 Professionalism is worth 10% of your overall grade and you are assigned weekly points for it. This is a CTE class and employability skills are a large objective in the work we do in this class. Think about this class as a business and work in this class like you would in a business. You are expected to work within our business in a way that will help us thrive and reach our goals. Your actions in my classroom and outside of my classroom should show that you take our business seriously.  These components go under professional expectations:

Electronics:

• Your cell phone needs to be put away (smart watches should be on airplane mode), headphones and air pods put away during group and collaboration time, and you need to use your Chromebooks and computers for class content only. (No games, sporting events, no social media, etc.)
• A Phone violation (notice there is no 's') or misusing your Chromebook or Computer, Air pods, etc. will result in the complete loss of your Professionalism and participation points for the week. I won’t give warnings other than this one. This is non-negotiable.
• There will be many times this year, when your work for journalism happens outside of this class. When you are out getting interviews, I expect you to be on task and not to be traveling in groups. Get out and get your quote, photo, etc and come right back. You should always be in class in the first and last ten minutes unless there is a coverage reason that we have discussed prior to class.
• When getting go gets or quick quotes we need for a deadline, come back 15 minutes early to record your information in the drive.
• If you are gone for long periods of time and do not enter the work or communicate about how it will be entered with an editor, you will lose your professionalism points for the week. You cannot earn these points back if you lose them.
• Represent this program everywhere you go. You are the ambassadors of this program. Our integrity as a publication rides on your reputation. If people, don’t see you acting respectably and responsibly in the hallway or at school events, they tend to think the work we do together is not respectable or responsible. When you have a journalism job or a journalism camera especially, be your best self and make us proud of you.

 

Expected Behaviors:

 

❏ Be on time daily.

❏ Put your cellphone away and only use school computers for work that furthers the goals of the The Kilt. Failure to do this will result in the loss of professionalism points.

❏ Use class time for class work and class conversations.

❏ Show respect and courtesy toward all students, staff, and guests.

❏ Participate and complete classroom activities.

❏ Be mentally present when class members, staff, and guests speak.

❏ Engage in conversations. Listen and challenge each other. Support each other.

❏ Cooperate and collaborate. Be creative and productive together.

❏ Use your hallway privileges in a way that represents our program well. Get interviews and photos quickly and come back quickly. Always be back from interviews and stories 15 minutes before the class ends.

❏ Follow rules and procedures outlined in our school handbook.

❏ Use appropriate language and behaviors.

❏ Be Flexible and resourceful. When you run into roadblocks, look for ways to overcome them, ask for help; try a new strategy.

❏ Participate in all out of class activities and assignments. Come to Work Nights. Come to class meetings.

❏ Pay attention to deadlines and have your work done by them. Revise in a timely fashion and store your work in appropriate drives

School Information

Weekly Announcements | Student Handbook | Bell Schedule | Family Access Skyward | Family Access Canvas

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Community Building and Creating Our MIssion