September issue

Good morning everyone,
I hope your first exams went well
I wanted to plan on a small September issue in the fall - something like 4-8 pages...

So over the summer, keep your eyes and ears open...

If you know students who are working on internships or other special things - lets get a news story about that - summer jobs.
Maybe a feature story on summer travel for educational purposes.
Maybe if you are working an internship an editorial on what you gained from it.
Sports fans... watch closely for interesting things that happen over the summer that may interest students.
I'm thinking just a page or 2 for each section
News, Feature, Opinion, Sports and Entertainment... watch those movies and read those books... see the concerts and be ready to review...

I know 8 pages will seem easy after the 60 pages we did this last time...(which by the way was wonderful :)

keep in touch if you are interested in writing for the Septemeber issue...

Good morning everyone.

You should all be very proud of your efforts this year. We have come a long way.

Study hard for your Regents... good luck.

Have a great summer. Stay in touch.

See you next year :)

broadcast assignment

http://xinsight.ca/tools/storyboard.html - here is a template for the storyboard
www2.csd.org/showmemovie/storybrd.pdf - another storyboard template

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ricky/etec/sboardtemplate.html - this one has an example

Since we don't really have the equipment do record, you will need to present the two scripts of your stories and how you would shoot them. You must storyboard your broadcast... with angles and idea with specific interviews

http://www.mediaknowall.com/camangles.html - descriptions of camera shots and angles
http://www.stormforcepictures.com/theshoot-camerashotsandangles.php

podcasts

Over all, podcasts were amazing. Thanks for your hardwork.

Make up work

All make up work is due June 12th

Multi-media projects

Finished individual podcasts are due on Friday, May 29th at the end of Mr. Lai's class
Make sure to send or give me both written drafts - the original article and the rewrite. the podcast should be 1-3 minutes

Finished broadcasts (2 stories selected from your newspaper) are due on June 12th at the end of Mr. Lai's class. Both stories should be 3-5 minutes long.

Continue working on eportfolio.

Eportfolio

Has anyone tried to start uploading stuff onto eportfolio?

Please comment here... any problems? difficulties? easy? useful? I'd like your feedback.

Articles for the paper

If I asked you for an electronic copy of your article from your newspaper project, please make sure to email it to me soon.

Thanks,
Ms. Sackstein

preferably in google.docs or as a word doc.

Keep sending work

Only a few of you have taken the opportunity to show me what they have been working on. Don't hesitate to ask me to look at your work and give you feedback.

I have a student model if you are having difficulty. Just email me and let me know you need one.

more work for the week

Those of you with Macs at home I encourage you to play around with GarageBand and iMovie during this week. You may even be able to finish your podcast at home this week.

Those of you without Macs, please take a look at some video tutorials so that you are familiar with the software when we get back to school. There are lots of videos all around the web that you can easily find using a search engine, here are some from apple.com:

http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie
http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#garageband

Work for the week

Since we won't have classes this week, I encourage all of you to rewrite your pieces for the podcasts and for the broadcasts so when we return you can record and beging filming.

Also, you can go on newsu.org and practice some of your writing skills.

You should also listen to some of npr.org's podcasts and do some research of your own.

Feel free to email me and/or post to blog about work that needs to be done. More news to follow.

School Closed Week of May 18th

School will be closed for the week of May 18th.

School will reopen on Tuesday, May 26th.

News story group broadcast

In your groups, select one of the news stories written in the newspaper.

• Make sure your story topic is interesting, timely and fully thought out
• You will need to rewrite your story into a script
• You will shoot footage of your story with a lead in to the story you present
• You will shoot interviews, background, and provide possible music
• You will edit the footage so that there is a cohesive story at least 2 minutes but no longer than 4.

Standards that are used... will be forwarded soon.

Podcast assignment

Select one story from your group newspaper that you wrote.

Rewrite the story to make it ready for radio. Save a copy of the original and the new rewritten one to turn in with the original. The new script should be on top when you turn it in.

You will create a 2-5 minute podcast. (no less than 2 minutes, no more than 5 minutes)

You should consider getting interviews with other people.

Standards addressed will be provided shortly.

Eportfolio - the end has come

https://web.ideasconsulting.com/wjps/login.php

your log in information is your first initial and last name
password is your student id #

for example - student john smith is jsmith

I've uploaded all of what you need to show proficiency in as many of your other teachers have...

go have a look so that if you have questions, you can ask me in class.

Podcasts

Podcasts are due Friday, May 22 after Mr. Lai's class.

In class today we are working on rewriting one of your pieces for the podcast. You will need to hand in your rewritten copy with the audio file.

I also want the first print piece attached. So over the weekend, continue to work on this assignment.

In your groups, you may want to start planning out the stories you want to do for your newscast for broadcast as well.

Writing for radio

http://www.newscript.com/index.html -

here are some tips we will be talking about in class tomorrow as you draft your topics...

http://www.cyberjournalist.net/tag/podcast/

http://radio.about.com/od/podcastin1/a/aa030805a.htm

http://www.npr.org/about/nextgen/content/?p=841

Writing for Podcasts

Please make sure to bring your articles to class tomorrow from the newspaper project...

give some thought as to which piece you'd like to use for your podcast.

Writing for radio

On my way into work this morning I was listening to NPR (National Public Radio) as I always do and I was trying to be very cognizant of what made it compelling to listen to as oppose to reading it or watching it.

They told a feature story on Polio survivors that was moving and interesting... I'd like you to listen to the podcast on it and see if you notice what they do different in radio casting than written or visual.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103892252

when you get a chance, take a glance at the rest of the site too:
www.npr.org

Tomorrow

Good luck on your AP exam if you are taking it...

If you plan on leaving school after the test, please be aware that your projects are still due, so make sure someone in your group turns it in or it will be late.

Thanks.

Midterm...

Next Friday will be Midterm. Please make up any missing work before then.

You will be doing in class, self-assessments on Tuesday.

History of Media technologies

All year we have been working on journalism and how we consume news and/or present it to the world. As we move away from print mediums and move into mass media that involve more than just reading, I want us to consider the advances and how we have changed because of the many ways we are now able to get our news...



I want each of you in your groups to visit the following website:



http://cedmagic.com/history - this is a visual timeline of advances made through the 1950s... select 3 of the inventions and discuss how they have changed history. comment on this post.



then go to:

http://ezinearticles.com/?History-of-the-Media,-Radio,-and-Television&id=15556



Read the article about the history of media and then comment on what you think has made the greatest impact. How have these advances changed the way we get and consume news? How have our expectations changed?



If you can't finish this assignment in class, please finish it for Monday.

Newspaper project - Due Friday at the beginning of class.

I understand that a lot of you feel that there hasn't been enough time to complete the project, but you had more than a month to do it in class...

I will not extend the deadline on this assignment. You have known about the deadlines since day 1 and if time wasn't used adequately, then the lesson needs to be learned for the future.

There are not many days left in the school year and there is much that still needs to be done... we cannot stay in this place for any longer.

Reflection suggestions

As per our conversation in class today, your reflection should include:

• an honest look at how well you did this assignment
• using the rubric which standards do you feel you are showing proficiency in and how specifically?
• What do you perceive are your strengths?
• What did you learn?
• What do you still have to work on?
• What the challenges did you face in your group?
• What did you learn about yourself as a learner/group member? (i.e. did you take over when other people didn't appear to be earning their keep? how long did it take before you took over?)
• How did you contribute to the overall group and newspaper?
• How was your time management? Where did you do your work? How did you use your class time?

Tomorrow's class

Please come to class with all of your writing for the project tomorrow...

We will be doing conferencing and going over the rubric. Be ready and prepared...

Pictoral history of media

http://cedmagic.com/history/

Newspaper projects

Your projects are due on Friday. You will be graded on the strength of your articles, completion of articles, and your ability to maintain journalistic style.

You will get a group grade (teamwork)and an individual grade.

Each group should plan on conferencing with me or Ms. Cea on Tuesday in class, to show what has already been done. You must be able to produce product and not JUST talk about it.

Literary Magazine

If you have pieces that you have written this year - prose, essays, poems and/or art work you'd like to submit to the literary magazine - please turn it into Ms. Destefano in room 359 ASAP.

Thanks.

checking in

Where are you with your group projects... what have you done?

Post here...

Periodic Assessment

During class today, Tuesday, I will be doing a survey of your classwork where each group is in the newspaper project. Your project is due on May 8th.

This survey will be written up in teacherease as your 3 week periodic assessment.

Thank you to all students who sent me work for my review over break. I will get the work back to you ASAP.

Welcome back

I encourage all students to continue working dilligently through the rest of the school year. I know as the weather gets nicer, each of you will have the inherent want to pay less attention to school and more attention to the world around you...

I strongly recommend that in these times, you focus more clearly and directly at the task at hand and finish the school year strongly. We are officially in the home stretch.

Keep up your hard work.

Group newspaper project description

http://groups.google.com/group/foundations-in-journalism/web/Journalism_final_project.doc?hl=en

Group Newspaper projects

In class tomorrow, please be prepared to work in your groups for your projects.

Bring your materials to class and be prepared to work.

prepare interview questions and ideas for your articles.

Sports articles are due tomorrow

Please make sure you turn in your sports articles tomorrow with all earlier drafts attached.

Make sure all notes are attached.

Please make sure to send me an electronic copy via email as well (in word) so that it can used for the school paper.

Thanks

Corrected links for Sosa's surveys

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=iMj1EUKgdcbxmg6E7Gveuw_3d_3d

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ZV8jxVgfm9JKuXdnAPh2AA_3d_3d

comment here or under the original post when complete.

Reminders

We don't have class on Friday do to parent/teacher conferences.

Your second drafts of your sports articles are due on Tuesday, 3/30 - they should be typed and all drafts should be attached.

Your final draft is due on Friday, April 3.

I'd also like you to submit these drafts to me once they are graded via email so that I can get them to the newspaper class for layout...

Please click on the below links and take the surveys for Mr. Sosa's class

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=iMj1EUKgdcbxmg6E7Gveuw_3d_3d

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ZV8jxVgfm9JKuXdnAPh2AA_3d_3d

They should only take you 10 minutes. Please post to this link when you've completed both. Thanks

2nd drafts of sports articles

2nd drafts are due on Tuesday, 3/31 - sports articles should be typed with earlier drafts attached.

Make sure that you have good research - more quotes, good student voice.

First drafts of sports articles

First drafts of sports articles are due in class on Tuesday, 3/24 - These drafts MUST be typed.

Any hand written notes should be attached.

Homework for Friday, 3/20

Analyze 3 sports articles of your own... try to look for different kinds (like in class today)

Consider how they are different and what kinds of information are in each article.

Make sure to attach the articles to your analysis

Homework due on Tuesday

Yes, you need to find a NEW article for this week's homework... you need to be immersing yourself in the kind of writing we are doing... so read the section and choose and article. (a new one.

Homework for Tuesday, 3/17

Homework for the weekend (due Tuesday)
Find a sports article on any topic you want (preferably from the NY Times).

Identify each of the following: headline, lead, quotes and structure.

Reflect on the effectiveness on the writing and the content

What did you learn that you can you use in your own writing from the article...

Make sure to cut out the article and staple it to your work to be handed in on Tuesday.

This assignment will be collected.

Tips after reading the last assignments:

• Make sure to read the article and annotate it - not just highlighting and writing what each part is, but also discuss its effectiveness when you highlight... plus there is difference between a direct and indirect quote... please note it on your article
• when talking of headlines, leads, quotes and other information, talk about how the author's choices help you understand what is being written.
• How does the structure affect your understanding?
• Does the author use good language? Which words, phrases, sentences specifically really stand out and WHY? (this means quote the pieces in your write up)
• In your reflection, talk about the content briefly, but mostly talk about what you learned about sports writing through this article... what can you use in your own writing specifically and how do you think you would use it?

How to use Teacherease for the 1000th time

Please do not look at the grade you have on teacherease...

use this tool as a way to know what you are missing and to record what you have received on finished work... make sure to read the comments written on there as well.

As far as knowing where you stand, refer to the following:
4= A
3=B
2=C
1= Needs Improvement

other break downs:
3.5= A-/B+
2.5=B-/C+
1.5=C-

I hope this helps... when I tabulate grades, I look at your standards and the work you have completed. If you would like to have a conference about your grades, please email me... Do NOT post it to this blog.

Rewriting assignments

When working on rewrites and revisions on "finished" work, please remember to resubmit all prior drafts with the rubric when resubmitting. I need to be able to see your old drafts to be able to recognize the changes you've made.

Thanks a bunch

Portfolio pulling for the second trimester

Please make sure you turn in all of your work for portfolio no later than this evening. I would like to see and give you feedback on the reflections you have written.

Please email me tonight.

Thanks

Make up work for the second trimester

Tomorrow is the last day make up work will be accepted for the second trimester... this includes all rewrites, papers, and blog posts.

Portfolio pulling will be in class on Tuesday, so please make sure you have all work in class on that day. You will be writing reflections and selecting the pieces you would like to put in.

Indesign / Photoshop Test Mon 3/16

Mon 3/16: Indesign / Photoshop Test

make sure you know how to:
- crop photos & adjust brightness / contrast
- set up columns in Indesign
- place text and image files
- adjust text wrap settings
- export from Indesign in Adobe PDF format

Fri 3/20: Final trimester project due
- Take your (or another student's) layout design and files from the Google group (http://groups.google.com/group/foundations-in-journalism) and put the layout together in Indesign
- Export the finished layout in Adobe PDF format and email to: laiernie@gmail.com
- If you need additional time outside of class to finish this, see me for a Pub Lab pass so you can work on it during lunch.

Homework for the weekend (due Tuesday)

Find a sports article on any topic you want (preferably from the NY Times).

1. Identify each of the following: headline, lead, quotes and structure.
2. Reflect on the effectiveness on the writing and the content
3. What did you learn that you can you use in your own writing from the article...

Make sure to cut out the article and staple it to your work to be handed in on Tuesday.

This assignment will be collected.

Obama's education plan

http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-na-obama-education25-2009feb25,0,2871040.story
Saw this one and thought it would it be interesting.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101269227&ft=1&f=1013

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/02/27/budget

Portfolio pulling for the second trimester

Please select three pieces that you feel best displays your command of the standards we have worked on so far in this trimester...

Major assignments that should be considered are:

Editorial
Feature article
Ethics project
Layout project
Pearl reporter article

Please make sure to reflect on your selections particularly discussing the standards and skills your work is displaying. We need these completed by 3/20

Visit nylearns.org to look up standards.

The trimester ends 3/20

All make up work must be turned in no later than Wed. 3/11.

Sports writing packets

Please read through and annotate the packets provided in class on sports writing.



Which packet or article did you find most helpful or useful? What did you learn?



Please comment on this post about the above questions... be sure to reference specific articles/tips/ideas from the packets.



Thank you... this is due by Friday.

From today's science times discussed in class - post your thoughts on content and writing style

This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article. Visit www.nytreprints.com for samples and additional information. Order a reprint of this article now.

March 3, 2009
Rewards for Students Under a Microscope
By LISA GUERNSEY
For decades, psychologists have warned against giving children prizes or money for their performance in school. “Extrinsic” rewards, they say — a stuffed animal for a 4-year-old who learns her alphabet, cash for a good report card in middle or high school — can undermine the joy of learning for its own sake and can even lead to cheating.
But many economists and businesspeople disagree, and their views often prevail in the educational marketplace. Reward programs that pay students are under way in many cities. In some places, students can bring home hundreds of dollars for, say, taking an Advanced Placement course and scoring well on the exam.
Whether such efforts work or backfire “continues to be a raging debate,” said Barbara A. Marinak, an assistant professor of education at Penn State, who opposes using prizes as incentives. Among parents, the issue often stirs intense discussion. And in public education, a new focus on school reform has led researchers on both sides of the debate to intensify efforts to gather data that may provide insights on when and if rewards work.
“We have to get beyond our biases,” said Roland Fryer, an economist at Harvard University who is designing and testing several reward programs. “Fortunately, the scientific method allows us to get to most of those biases and let the data do the talking.”
What is clear is that reward programs are proliferating, especially in high-poverty areas. In New York City and Dallas, high school students are paid for doing well on Advanced Placement tests. In New York, the payouts come from an education reform group called Rewarding Achievement (Reach for short), financed by the Pershing Square Foundation, a charity founded by the hedge fund manager Bill Ackman. The Dallas program is run by Advanced Placement Strategies, a Texas nonprofit group whose chairman is the philanthropist Peter O’Donnell.
Another experiment was started last fall in 14 public schools in Washington that are distributing checks for good grades, attendance and behavior. That program, Capital Gains, is being financed by a partnership with SunTrust Bank, Borders and Ed Labs at Harvard, which is run by Dr. Fryer. Another program by Ed Labs is getting started in Chicago.
Other systems are about stuff more than money, and most are not evaluated scientifically. At 80 tutoring centers in eight states run by Score! Educational Centers, a national for-profit company run by Kaplan Inc., students are encouraged to rack up points for good work and redeem them for prizes like jump-ropes.
An increasing number of online educational games entice children to keep playing by giving them online currency to buy, say, virtual pets. And around the country, elementary school children get tokens to redeem at gift shops in schools when they behave well.
In the cash programs being studied, economists compare the academic performance of groups of students who are paid and students who are not. Results from the first year of the A.P. program in New York showed that test scores were flat but that more students were taking the tests, said Edward Rodriguez, the program’s executive director.
In Dallas, where teachers are also paid for students’ high A.P. scores, students who are rewarded score higher on the SAT and enroll in college at a higher rate than those who are not, according to Kirabo Jackson, an assistant professor of economics at Cornell who has written about the program for the journal Education Next.
Still, many psychologists warn that early data can be deceiving. Research suggests that rewards may work in the short term but have damaging effects in the long term.
One of the first such studies was published in 1971 by Edward L. Deci, a psychologist at the University of Rochester, who reported that once the incentives stopped coming, students showed less interest in the task at hand than those who received no reward.
This kind of psychological research was popularized by the writer Alfie Kohn, whose 1993 book “Punished by Rewards: The Trouble With Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise and Other Bribes” is still often cited by educators and parents. Mr. Kohn says he sees “social amnesia” in the renewed interest in incentive programs.
“If we’re using gimmicks like rewards to try to improve achievement without regard to how they affect kids’ desire to learn,” he said, “we kill the goose that laid the golden egg.”
Dr. Marinak, of Penn State, and Linda B. Gambrell, a professor of education at Clemson University, published a study last year in the journal Literacy Research and Instruction showing that rewarding third graders with so-called tokens, like toys and candy, diminished the time they spent reading.
“A number of the kids who received tokens didn’t even return to reading at all,” Dr. Marinak said.
Why does motivation seem to fall away? Some researchers theorize that even at an early age, children can sense that someone is trying to control their behavior. Their reaction is to resist. “One of the central questions is to consider how children think about this,” said Mark R. Lepper, a psychologist at Stanford whose 1973 study of 50 preschool-age children came to a conclusion similar to Dr. Deci’s. “Are they saying, ‘Oh, I see, they are just bribing me’?”
More than 100 academic studies have explored how and when rewards work on people of all ages, and researchers have offered competing analyses of what the studies, taken together, really mean.
Judith Cameron, an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Alberta, found positive traits in some types of reward systems. But in keeping with the work of other psychologists, her studies show that some students, once reward systems are over, will choose not to do the activity if the system provides subpar performers with a smaller prize than the reward for achievers.
Many cash-based programs being tested today, however, are designed to do just that. Dr. Deci asks educators to consider the effect of monetary rewards on students with learning disabilities. When they go home with a smaller payout while seeing other students receive checks for $500, Dr. Deci said, they may feel unfairly punished and even less excited to go to school.
“There are suggestions of students making in the thousands of dollars,” he said. “The stress of that, for kids from homes with no money, I frankly think it’s unconscionable.”
Economists, on the other hand, argue that with students who are failing, everything should be tried, including rewards. While students may be simply attracted by financial incentives at first, couldn’t that evolve into a love of learning?
“They may work a little harder and may find that they aren’t so bad at it,” said Dr. Jackson, of Cornell. “And they may learn study methods that last over time.”
In examining rewards, the trick is untangling the impact of the monetary prizes from the impact of other factors, like the strength of teaching or the growing recognition among educators of the importance of A.P. tests. Dr. Jackson said his latest analyses, not yet published, would seek to answer the questions.
He also pointed out that with children in elementary school, who typically show more motivation to learn than teenagers do, the outcomes may be different.
Questions about how rewards are administered, to whom and at what age are likely to drive future research. Can incentives — praise, grades, pizza parties, cash — be added up to show that the more, the better? Or will some of them detract from the whole?
Dr. Deci says school systems are trying to lump incentives together as if they had a simple additive effect. He emphasizes that there is a difference between being motivated by something tangible and being motivated by something that is felt or sensed. “We’ve taken motivation and put it in categories,” Dr. Deci said of his fellow psychologists. “Economics is 40 years behind with respect to that.”
Some researchers suggest tweaking reward systems to cause less harm. Dr. Lepper says that the more arbitrary the reward — like giving bubble gum for passing a test — the more likely it is to backfire. Dr. Gambrell, of Clemson, posits a “proximity hypothesis,” holding that rewards related to the activity — like getting to read more books if one book is read successfully — are less harmful. And Dr. Deci and Richard M. Ryan report that praise — which some consider a verbal reward — does not have a negative effect.
In fact, praise itself has categories. Carol Dweck, a Stanford psychologist, has found problems with praise that labels a child as having a particular quality (“You’re so smart”), while praise for actions (“You’re working hard”) is more motivating.
Psychologists have also found that it helps to isolate differences in how children perceive tasks. Are they highly interested in what they are doing? Or does it feel like drudgery? “The same reward system might have a different effect on those two types of students,” Dr. Lepper said. The higher the interest, he said, the more harmful the reward.
Meanwhile, Dr. Fryer of Ed Labs urges patience in awaiting the economists’ take on reward systems. He wants to look at what happens over many years by tracking subjects after incentives end and trying to discern whether the incentives have an impact on high school graduation rates.
With the money being used to pay for the incentive programs and research, “every dollar has value,” he said. “We either get social science or social change, and we need both.”

Final drafts of editorials

Please email me your final drafts of your editorials (as well as bring in a hard copy to class on Tuesday with all earlier drafts attached.)

Thanks for your cooperation

Happy Snow Day

Just a reminder that your editorials are still due tomorrow... please make sure to complete your midterm reflections and email them to me.

Thanks.

Reflections in general

It is really important when writing reflections that you really go into depth about what your understanding of the assignment was and then how your work demonstrates you have done it.

Use the rubrics provided by your teachers to be specific in the standards and skills expected of you and then you can address many of them in your reflection.

Talk about what you did well.

Talk about what you could still do better.

Talk about how you felt about the assignment while you were doing it.

What do you want the reader of your reflection to take away from the piece you have used?

Sample standard based portfolio reflection

I have chosen my independent reading assignment for my portfolio because I feel that it illustrates my ability to demostrate a variety of skills and standards in this class. Because I have achieved a 93 on it, I feel that I am more than meeting many standards. It shows that I can identify texts of various genres independently and then write brief critical analysis about my selections.

For questions 3 and 4 where it asked me to locate a passage that shows the author's effective use in language, I show that I am both able to identify different literary elements such setting and characterization as well as literary techniques like foreshadowing and figurative language in the text. In addition to identifying these elements, I can discuss and analyze the author's craft and effectiveness. I feel that is not enough to just mention, but rather also to discuss the effect it has on the audience by using these things. I feel that reading published author's work has further helped me develop my writing as well.

Other things I am successful with in the assignment is my ability to understand texts on more than one level. I show that there is deeper meaning by selecting a passage and then drawing my own conclusions and making inferences.
I think this assignment demonstrates my successful mastery of these standards. I have learned to read a novel more closely and become acutely aware not only of story line meaning, but author's purpose while reading. I've also been able to write about these things in a meaningful way.

In the future, I feel that I will need to be more specific in addressing theme in this assignment. I think that I misunderstood what theme was about in question 6. I could have also worke with symbolism, but I think I mistook theme to be the main idea, when really it is just an overriding idea and there could be many in a text. Author's use them to connect the story to readers. Sometimes I could have selected more effective passages too. I think I may have rushed alittle in my selection of a passage about setting.

Final Editorial drafts are due on Tuesday, 3/3

Your final drafts of editorial articles are due on Tuesday, 3/3.

All earlier drafts should be included - and a reflection where you express: what you learned? challenges you faced? things you could have done better?

your most recent draft should be on top.

If your final isn't turned in on time, it will NOT be considered for publication in The Blazer.

google group for file storage

i created a google group where you can access the files you need for working with your layout projects in indesign. if you want to upload you need to join the group.

http://groups.google.com/group/foundations-in-journalism

Editorials to read - what do they do well? What can you use in your own writing?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/opinion/20waters.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/opinion/20glanville.html?ref=opinion

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/opinion/18wed3.html

Make up work

Good afternoon all:

I was just going over teacherease and many of you are missing many assignments. Please login to teacherease and try to make up some of the work you owe.

Particularly the midterm reflection which should be emailed to me.

Thanks,
Ms. S

Break assignment

Make up any missing work -

Write a second draft to your opinion/editorial article

Pearl Reporters update

The following people have completed all 3 assignments on the Pearl website:
Avi S
Nadine
Raisa
Rosemarie
Mary
Robin
Allison
Maggie
Donna
Anastasia

The rest of the class is missing one or more of the assignments. Please log onto the website and find out what you are missing and complete the assignments. (i.e. If your name is not on the above list, please do the work.)

Midterm reflections

I was contemplating how I wanted to do this since the 6 week mark has already passed for the second trimester...

Here is what I decided:

I'd like each of you to email me the answer to the following questions:

1. How do you honestly feel you are doing in the class specifically using evidence from your work to support your thoughts? (Reference specific assignments and/or activities to show your understanding of specific skills and/or standards)
2. What are you doing to contribute to the classroom community? (again be specific - you help your classmates or you are always prepared, etc)
3. What do you need to continue working on? Be specific -
4. How can I help you work on your perceived weaknesses on your standards?
5. What have you learned so far this year? Be specific...
6. What have you improved? (be specific)
7. What are some goals you have for this class by the end of this trimester? the end of the year?
8. Have you made an attempt to come for extra help if needed?
9. Do you check the blog every day? how often?
10. What do you use the blog for? is it useful? explain

Email your answers to me at msackstein@yahoo.com - put midterm reflection as your subject

Battle Plans for Newspapers - opinion

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/battle-plans-for-newspapers/

What do you think of this?

You Can’t Sell News by the Slice - opinion piece - to read

February 10, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
You Can’t Sell News by the Slice
By MICHAEL KINSLEY
SOMEWHERE at Microsoft, there is a closet packed with leftover Slate umbrellas — a monument to the folly of asking people to pay for what they read on the Internet. These umbrellas — a $20 value! — were the premium we offered to people who would pay $19 for a year’s subscription to Slate, the Microsoft-owned online magazine (later purchased by The Washington Post). We were quite self-righteous about the alleged principle that “content” should not be free. The word itself was an insult — as if we were just making Jell-O salad in order to sell Tupperware.
The experiment lasted about a year. Still, every so often the dream of getting people to pay recurs. It’s recurring now because of the newspaper crisis: they have been hemorrhaging subscribers and advertisers for their paper editions, even as they give away their contents online. In the current Time, its former managing editor, Walter Isaacson, urges a solution: “micropayments.”
Micropayments are systems that make it easy to pay small amounts of money. (Your subway card is an example.) You could pay a nickel to read an article, or a dime for a whole day’s newspaper.
Well, maybe. But it would be a first. Newspaper readers have never paid for the content (words and photos). What they have paid for is the paper that content is printed on. A week of The Washington Post weighs about eight pounds and costs $1.81 for new subscribers, home-delivered. With newsprint (that’s the paper, not the ink) costing around $750 a metric ton, or 34 cents a pound, Post subscribers are getting almost a dollar’s worth of paper free every week — not to mention the ink, the delivery, etc. The Times is more svelte and more expensive. It might even have a viable business model if it could sell the paper with nothing written on it. A more promising idea is the opposite: give away the content without the paper. In theory, a reader who stops paying for the physical paper but continues to read the content online is doing the publisher a favor.
If the only effect of the Internet on newspapers was a drastic reduction in their distribution costs, publishers could probably keep a bit of that savings, rather than passing all of it and more on to the readers. But the Internet has also increased competition — not just from new media but among newspapers as well. Or rather, it has introduced competition into an industry legendary for its monopoly power.
Just a few years ago, there was no sweeter perch in American capitalism than ownership of the only newspaper in town. Now, every English-language newspaper is in direct competition with every other. Millions of Americans get their news online from The Guardian, which is published in London. This competition, and not some kind of petulance or laziness or addled philosophy, is what keeps readers from shelling out for news.
Micropayment advocates imagine extracting as much as $2 a month from readers. The Times sells just over a million daily papers. If every one of those million buyers went online and paid $2 a month, that would be $24 million a year. Even with the economic crisis, paper and digital advertising in The Times brought in about $1 billion last year. Circulation brought in $668 million. Two bucks per reader per month is not going to save newspapers.
And the harsh truth is that the typical American newspaper is an anachronism. It is an artifact from a time when chopping down trees was essential to telling the news, and when you couldn’t get The New York Times or The Washington Post closer to your bed than the front door, where the local paper lies, sopping wet.
The Times, The Post and a few others probably will survive. When the recession ends, advertising will come back, with fewer places to go. There will be a couple of surprises — local papers that execute their transfer to the Web so brilliantly that they will earn a national readership (like the old Manchester Guardian in England). Or some Web site might mutate into a real Web newspaper.
With even half a dozen papers, the American newspaper industry will be more competitive than it was when there were hundreds. Competition will keep the Baghdad bureaus open and the investigative units stoked with dudgeon. Competition is growing as well among Web sites that think there is money to be made performing the local paper’s local functions. One or two of these will turn out to be right. And then, who will pay even a nickel for the hometown rag?
Michael Kinsley is the founding editor of Slate magazine.

Required files for Indesign tutorial

you need these files for the indesign tutorial layout, ctrl-click and save link as... to save the files to your local computer.

http://mysite.verizon.net/laiernie/journalism/uncle-ben.jpg
http://mysite.verizon.net/laiernie/journalism/town%20hall.txt
http://mysite.verizon.net/laiernie/journalism/spiderman brief.txt

(edit)
for those that were not paying attention in class, these are the files you need to complete the indesign tutorial using donna's page 3 that we went over in class. when you spend class time working through the tutorial you will need to download these files to the computer that you are using in order to place them in indesign. everyone will be required to use these files to create the layout shown in the tutorial and then email me a pdf of the final product. we'll go over this again in class.

(edit)
if you lost the tutorial here's a soft copy:
http://mysite.verizon.net/laiernie/Indesign%20Layout%20Tutorial.doc

HW for Tuesday - comment on this post - editorial writing

Thumb through the editorials in either the Times or Newsday over the weekend… what topics are covered? Read at least one of them and discuss what the writers do… what is the language like?

How are the topics covered?

Post to the blog what you notice

Assignment 2 - articles for publication

Please forward me your assignment 2 articles if they are new (i.e. not the ones you turned in for a grade already) for possible use in the school paper

Please make sure that you change your titles to headlines before you send them to me... remember an active headline has a verb in it... no one word or two word titles!

This is just a reminder... All Pearl Assignments should have been submitted on the Pearl website already. They are beginning to evaluate your work and if you would like certification, you should consider getting this work done ASAP.

The Homework DebateKids, Parents and Teachers Disagree On How Much Is Too Much

Tuesday, January 27, 2009; C12
Backpack bulging, worksheets galore, read this, study that . . . all after seven hours in school already.

HOMEWORK.
If you think kids are the only ones who disagree with teachers about the need for homework, you may be surprised to learn that many parents don't like homework any more than their kids do.

A new survey shows that parents and teachers don't always agree on why homework is assigned -- or how involved parents should be in helping their kids get it done.
Ask kids about the dreaded "H" word and you'll hear something similar to what Sabrina Martin, a third-grader at Wood Acres Elementary School in Bethesda, told us.

"I'd rather not do it, but I know I have to," said Sabrina, 8.

Teachers say homework is important in the learning process and can help kids develop study and organizational skills. They say kids need to practice what they've learned in school so that the material sticks in their brain.

Some teachers say they give homework to get parents involved in the learning process. "My hope is that they will have a conversation with their kids about the homework so it is not just a drill," said Sue Ann Gleason, a first-grade teacher at Cedar Lane Elementary School in Loudoun County.What Homework Works?

There is a big debate among educators about how much homework, and what kind of homework, really helps kids learn.

Harris Cooper is a professor of education and psychology at Duke University who is an expert on homework. He said there is very little evidence that most homework in elementary school helps kids learn.

Reading is important, he said. There are some studies showing that kids in grades 2 through 5 do better on tests when they complete short assignments that practice basic skills that will be on the test, he said.

Those skills can be in any subject, he said, including math and spelling. But young kids should not get homework in areas that haven't been completely explained in school.
But a survey of parents and teachers showed that many parents believe teachers give homework to kids on subjects they haven't learned well in school.

In fact, 68 percent of the parents surveyed said that teachers use homework to cover material they haven't had time to teach in class. Only 17 percent of teachers said that is why they assign homework.

The survey also showed that a lot of parents wish they were less involved in homework. But most teachers don't think parents are involved enough.

Sabrina said that now that she is in third grade she doesn't ask her parents to help her much at all -- and that's the way her teacher wants it.

"We are not allowed to ask our parents" for help, Sabrina said, "unless it is a challenge. She wants to see what we can do by ourselves."Does Homework Help?

One of the big homework issues is exactly how much makes sense to help kids learn.
Sabrina said she usually gets two assignments each night in different subjects, and she is supposed to spend no more than 20 minutes on each. In addition, she said, she is supposed to read a book 20 minutes a day, which she loves to do.

Her father, Dan Martin, said he thinks that an hour of homework in third grade may be too much but that the assignments seem to help Sabrina learn.

So how much homework is too much?

Researcher Cooper says studies show that up until fifth grade, homework should be very limited. Kids in middle school shouldn't be spending more than 90 minutes a night on homework. In high school, the limit is two hours, Cooper says.

Cooper also has a little advice for elementary school teachers doling out homework to kids: Make the assignments fun. Teacher Gleason agrees.

"The best homework is when I choose a piece of literature for a particular child because it will tickle his or her funny bone," she said. "Learning should be fun."

-- Valerie Strauss
© 2009 The Washington Post Company

Pearl Remnders

You should have finished all the modules of the Pearl Reporters Course... Assignments 1 and 3 are long past due. Only about 12 of you have done both of these... that means more than half of you haven't.

Please go onto the pearl website
http://www.pearl.iearn.org/course/login/index.php
login is your first and last name with space, all lowercase
for example: john smith
password: john

go into the journals online and submit online for assignments 1, 2 and 3.

Assignment 2 is due tomorrow. Assignment 2 is the full feature or news story. You can use something you've already written, but I would have recommended actually writing something new for this.

Pearl Reporter Certification is a feather in your cap that you will be able to put on your high school resume for your college applications. However, if you don't complete the course the opportunity will pass you by.

All other assignments related to Pearl were due on our blog on specific dates. You are all off today... please make up all blog assignments that are missing. Look on teacherease... go on the blog and make up the work.

When we return, we will be moving on to something else.

Pearl Reporters

I recently heard from the woman who is responsible for grading your assignments at Pearl Reporters... Many of you haven't finished the submitted assignments due...

By now you should have submitted Assignments 1 & 3 on the Pearl Website (in the journal)

Assignment 2 is due on Tuesday on the site.

Plus, all the other blog posts for the other modules are past due. While you are at home during this Regents week and Monday, please make an effort to at least make up the work you owe online.
http://www.pearl.iearn.org/course/login/index.php

Assignment 3 - ethics on the Pearl Website

Please complete Assignment 3 on the Pearl Website by tomorrow, 1/27.

In class on Friday, you should have discussed the ethical issue presented on the website. We have just worked on ethical issues in journalism for the last few weeks and I feel that you will be ready and able to discuss what needs to be done after you've read what the Pearl Reporters program offers you and the work we have done in class.

After you submit assignment 3 online, please comment to this blog to let me know that it is done so you can receive credit.

Advice for Students Interested in a Career in Journalism

Bill Kovach, Senior Counselor of the Project for Excellence in Journalism

A curious mind and a broad liberal arts education are by far the best qualifications for a career in journalism.

The best foundation begins with an undergraduate liberal arts education that exposes you to a wide range of disciplines of study and helps you supplement your native curiosity with a habit of critical thinking. Whatever course of study you follow, be sure to include a strong foundation in ethics. Then consider study at a university that offers a graduate degree in journalism.

You can begin to develop your skill in the "craft" of journalism by working on a college newspaper or radio station; a television station that features a college report; or working as a college correspondent for a local, regional or national news organization. As for experience while still in school and immediately after graduation, think about immersing yourself in a local experience. Working in a community in which you must look the people in the eye about whom you report before and AFTER you have reported on them can provide very important lessons.

And, throughout all this, read. Read everything you can, including classics in fiction that can help you begin to understand human nature and the human condition. Develop a habit of critically following the work of other journalists and find models for your own work.Good luck.

Pearl Reporters - Due Friday, 1/30

Read module 6 - News Writing

Comment to this post:

Review as per class and your reading... what is the difference between news and news feature?

Explain the delayed lead and the nut graf - how does it differ from a news lead?

Assignment 2 needs to be submitted online by Tuesday, 2/3 - you may send me your drafts as soon as they are done if you want my feedback... I am not going to require it though.

Children's Press Media

http://www.cplmedia.org/

Pearl Reporters - Due Friday, 1/23

Read module 5 on Tools of reporting.

Comment to this post about tips you've learned about interviewing and citing sources.

Define Beat reporting and list a few WJPS beats that may be of interest for the school paper.

Make sure to comment on this post for all of the above due Friday, 1/23.

Pearl Reporters due Tuesday, 1/20

Read module 4 on Starting principles. Read the whole thing.

Comment on this post about the principles stated... define each one in your words.

Do assignment 1 and read assignment 2

Post your ideas for assignment 2 to this post as well.

Pearl Reporters - Homework due on Friday, 1/16

http://www.pearl.iearn.org/course/login/index.php

Please read module 3 about news.

Comment on the elements discussed in the module - what makes a piece of news newsworthy?
Define each of the elements in your own words.

Layout Design Project

Soft copies of the articles and media you will be using due Friday 1/23, final project due Friday 2/6

Task:
• Compile soft copies (soft copy = computer file, hard copy = printed document) of all briefs and articles written so far this year (Spiderman brief, Yankees brief, Failing Grades brief, Town Hall article, Photojournalism project, Election article, Feature article)
• Compile soft copies of various media (photos, diagrams, charts, maps, etc…) to go along with your articles
• Using some or all of these items, create a minimum four-page layout on 8.5 x 11 inch paper (longer articles will likely span multiple pages, if you haven’t written enough articles to fill four pages, use other classmates’ articles or write new ones yourself)
• Make sure that your newsletter contains a nameplate (name of your publication, date, school’s name, address, volume & issue number)
• Make sure that articles have headlines and bylines and that photos have captions
• Make sure to include at least one sidebar
• In designing your layout keep in mind the concepts from Chapter Ten of the textbook, especially the layout checklist on page 235
• Project is due at the beginning of class on Friday, February 6th. You must hand in both (a) the pages containing your layout design along with this rubric, as well as (b) soft copies of all articles and media either on a usb-drive or emailed to laiernie@gmail.com (hard copies of articles and media may optionally be attached to your layout but are not required)


For example layouts, take a look at these web pages:

http://marian.creighton.edu/~nhspa/2008/nl.html
http://marian.creighton.edu/~nhspa/2007/nl.html
http://marian.creighton.edu/~nhspa/2006/npl06.html
http://marian.creighton.edu/~nhspa/2005/npl05.html
http://marian.creighton.edu/~nhspa/2004/04npl.html
http://marian.creighton.edu/~nhspa/2003/03npl.html
http://marian.creighton.edu/~nhspa/2002/nl.html

Pearl Reporters is here

Your usernames are your first and last names, with a space in between and all in lower case.

Your passwords are their first names.

For instance -
username: bart simpson
password: bart

http://www.pearl.iearn.org/course/login/index.php

Please read modules 1 and 2 tonight - Overview and Journalism: Power with Responsibility
Post comments about your thoughts on the reading here.

This is due tomorrow - Tuesday, 1/13

email your feature articles to Ms. Sackstein

Now that you have finished your feature articles, please forward them to me via email so that I can have them on record for the newspaper.

mssackstein@yahoo.com

Thanks in advance.

In this issue I will be using:
Rosemarie's on homework
Donna's on dreams
Maggie's on astrology

Model assignment for group presentations on ethics

Abortion issues – Ms. Sackstein’s sample assignment

Ethical Issues
The ethical issues in this case have to do with falsely defaming an advocate for a pro-life stance on abortion based on the hearsay of his own support of his daughter’s alleged abortion. How can a man who has been extremely outspoken in the community on this issue, take a different view when it comes to his own family where he should be advocating his feelings the most?

Journalistic Responsibility
Our journalistic responsibility is to cover the issue of abortion, showing all sides and potentially student opinions on the matter.
· How does the issue affect students in a modern community?
· We must report the facts, but we can’t report hearsay about a particular student unless that student steps forward and wants to be a part of the article. It can’t be second hand story. It must come from the source to avoid libel
· Perhaps discuss the 50 year anniversary of Roe Vs. Wade and what it represents.

Stakeholders
The stakeholders are the newspaper itself, the school if the paper is a part of the public-forum, the person or people who may be defamed or outed and the adviser as well as the sources.

Interviews
I would try to get the staff to interview the daughter and also the father because I would want to get the truth from the horse’s mouth. Is there any validity to the allegations set forward by these sources? What were the circumstances? I would imagine that if the father was supporting his daughter and he feels the way he does about abortion, there would have to be a reason.
Perhaps other members of the community who have openly heard Mr. Clear speak in public venues. Perhaps I would seek out public records to see if he has ever been on record speaking his opinion. This way we can have a way to corroborate his story in a legal manner.
If there is a Planned Parenthood in the community, I would want to interview people who work there to get statistics and opinions from people who work with abortions. I would want student, teacher, parent and administrator opinion to round out the discussion.

Alternatives
Perhaps as an alternative we can print a retrospective of the Roe v. Wade decision. What was it? What are the implications of it? How has it changed the world in both positive and negative ways? Who are the greatest supporters of it? Why are people opposed? It can run as an editorial and/or opinion piece showing how this important court case changed women’s rights.

Group assignment - Journalism Ethics

Journalism Ethics - http://journalism.indiana.edu/resources/ethics/

• In groups of 4, you will visit the above link, and as a group will decide which issue they want to cover.
• You will read the link on the issue.
• You will then do research and present a sheet like my abortion model provided. (given out today)
• You will have 2 class periods and they will need to turn in one sheet per group and each student will turn in a reflection.
• You will be presenting on their topic a week from today.

Gearing up for the new year

Happy New Year.

If you haven't turned in your feature stories, please make sure you do ASAP with all work that led up to the final draft. (See earlier posts for the specific)

When we return, we will begin working on sports writing... We will also begin working on the Pearl Reporters program. You will largely be working on this at your own pace in and out of class. It definitely will not suit our purposes to have you reading in class. Instead, once I get your login information, you will have homework assignments that will be due with it.

You will also be assigned a group project by Friday, 1/9 that has to do with Journalism ethics and Freedom the Press... part of the 1st Amendment.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday.