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 Monday, 11/10.

For Friday, 10/31

2nd drafts of your Town Hall meeting articles are due with the first draft attached.

Also please read the Headline packet given out in class today and annotate it. Practice working on your headlines starting with the Town Hall article.

Reminder that the photo journalism projects are due on 11/7 (Friday in Ms. Sackstein's class period 6). It will be late if you turn it into Mr. Lai period 7. Make sure you print all necessary components prior to class on Friday. Do not email your assignment to me in lieu of printing it out and handing it in.

If you would like to conference about projects before they are due, set up appointments via email. mssackstein@yahoo.com

For Tuesday 10/28

Remember to bring your project pictures to class on Tuesday. Also, if you did not finish answering the questions for your pictures during class, please finish for homework. Bring these answers also to class tomorrow.

1. Who is in the photograph?
2. When and where was the picture taken?
3. What happened just before this picture was taken?
4. What does the subject look like?
5. What is the subject doing?
6. What is the subject thinking?
7. What does the subject hear?
8. What does the subject smell?
9. What does the subject physically feel (touch)?
10. Who is taking the photograph?
11. What happened just after this picture was taken?

For class tomorrow

Please make sure you bring in your pictures to Ms. Sackstein's class tomorrow (Tuesday in the studio)

We will be working on caption writing and may have some time to draft your essays too - make sure to bring all work related to your project.

If you have yet to post your topic, please do so immediately. This is past due.

No class today - reminders for due work and upcoming deadlines

For Monday, please have your 5 pics that you plan on using for your project.

Make sure that you have:

• the website you took the pics from,
• when they were taken,
• where they were originally published,
• who the photographer is

For Tuesday, please make sure to bring in your pics again as we will be working on caption writing for the project. Also, make sure to bring in any notes you have written on your topic in case their is time for you to start working on your essay in class. These materials should be with you in class every time you come until the project is due.

Reminder that Friday, your 2nd drafts of the Town Hall articles are due with the first draft attached (if you haven't turned in a first draft yet, please do so ASAP)

Your photojournalism projects will be due on November 7, 2008 (to be turned in to Ms. Sackstein on Friday period 6).

You will need to turn in:

• all pictures in your series with the captions
• the accompanying essay (with all earlier drafts)
• works cited or bibliography of all information gathered
• Notes that you took while doing the assignment and gathering the research
• Since the rubric will be given out prior to the due date, your rubrics should be attached as well.

MLA Citations for the project

http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citmla.htm = excellent and easy... color coded

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/ - also useful and has more explanation

http://www.lvcsd.k12.ny.us/page.cfm?p=121 = excellent research guide

Missing work

We will accept any missing work from the first 6 weeks up until Wed. 10/22 and no later than that.

Moving forward, we will only accept missing work up to 3 days beyond its original due date.

For instance, something is due on Monday, the latest you can get it in on Thursday latest.

Upcoming reminders

Good afternoon all -

Today you were to turn in first drafts of your town hall news articles and your self assessments.

Midterm grades were due today and as discussed in class no "D" grades were allowed to be given. Therefore if you got an F or NC, please realize that you have 6 weeks to turn your situation around. Take charge of where you are and learn from the mistakes you have made.

Mr. Lai and I are committed to helping you be successful. Help us, help you.

By the end of class today, you should have also given in your project ideas. Please comment to this blog post with your topics, even if you have turned one into me or Mr. Lai already.

Thanks and have a great weekend.

Self assessment

Please complete the midterm assessments that were handed out in class by Friday to be turned in.

For teacher/student next steps, please review comments made on your papers or on teacherease and write a summary of different issues you need to continue to work on.

Photojournalism project

Foundations in Journalism
Mr. Lai and Ms. Sackstein
Project #1 – History of Journalism – photo project

Directions: In a dual effort to decorate the pub lab and the classrooms as well as learn about important journalistic moments in history, your task is to find a picture that shows a moment in journalism history or a photo that can be considered photojournalism that captures an important moment in our history.

Steps:
1. Research historical journalism and/or historical moments using photographs – you can use the internet and/or photo journalism books
2. Select a collection of at least 5 photos that function as a series of some kind that focuses on a theme or one event (i.e. photojournalism and its uses during war displaying pictures of one or several wars)
3. You will then have to write a narrative essay (2-3 pages typed and double spaced) that explores the theme or events you have selected.
a. What do the pictures show and what was the effect of people seeing the images when they were first published and still today?
b. How does photojournalism capture these moments for the future?
c. How do pictures tell stories without words?
d. Analyze at least one of the photos and how it functions as a piece of journalism.
4. Keep track of all the sources you use, as you will be expected to write a works cited including where the photos come from (we will be going over this skill in class)
5. You will also need to write captions for each photo that will be displayed with the photos.

A timeline will be established for when each part is due.
You will have to select a topic and/or historical moment(s) by Oct. 17th (Friday, next week)
Due dates will be posted as we go and there will be class time provided for research.

News article on the town hall meeting - 1st draft due Frid. 10/17

Should be objective, factual and balanced

Active headline

strong lead

Have direct/indirect quotes from students of every grade and teachers/administrators

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