15 minute read
Section teams will include as many students as
Section content
Clubs and organizations
Group photo considerations: • Will you put small group shots in the index, and place copy and photos that go with the spread next to each organization? • Will you follow up with a “Fast Facts” section about the club that includes information about the number of students, club activities, fundraisers, officers’ names and a quote from a member? • Will you devote one page or spread per organization? • At the photo shoot, be sure to get names for all group members according to the row that they were sitting in before they leave.
People/portraits
The people section is actually three sections in one: the seniors, the underclass and the faculty. You may have only one divider for this section, or you may have a divider for each. Traditionally, this section features portraits in a solid panel rather than in a pattern or shape. Some senior sections are designed for larger photos, with the students’ names and quotes under each picture. The people section includes: • Seniors • Underclass (may be grouped in one alphabetical group or by grade) • Faculty and staff • May include stories that do not lend themselves to a lot of photos • May include alternative coverage such as surveys, profiles and quote boxes
Content and
Coverage • 5
Organizations • Colorguard and Winter Guard
Clubs/organizations supplemental section • Group shots add visual variety to index
East Coweta High School • Sharpsburg, GA
Secondary coverage modules
While traditional coverage includes photos, copy and captions, secondary coverage modules allow yearbook staff to tell the students’ stories in multiple ways with different angles. Modules allow the staff to cover more students who may not be on a team or in a club, as well as more topics that may not deserve an entire spread. There’s no limit to the number of secondary modules that help yearbook staff tell stories. When possible, add a theme-related headline to tie each module either to the theme of the book or the theme of the section. The staff may choose to design several modules to use throughout the book or design particular modules for each section. Secondary modules include: • Featured quote with accompanying photo • Series of personality face shots with names and idents • Quote areas/personal narratives • Photo essays with captions • Scoreboards • Statistical factoids • Mini-features • Personality profiles • Timelines/lists • How-to informational graphics • Question/answer modules • Tests/quizzes created by designer • Pie charts/bar graph informational graphics • Maps/diagrams/calendars • Step-by-step informational graphics • Numbered images with captions • Photo collections with captions • He said/she said contrasting opinions • Images linked to video stories:
Content and
Coverage • 6
Academics • Secondary modules cover a variety of subjects in the school’s curriculum
Blended topics • Modules include cold-weather coping strategies, talented students and academics
Syracuse Schools • Syracuse, KS
Ladder diagram
A ladder diagram is a chart that helps the adviser and staff plan the subject and location of each yearbook page. Think of it as a master project plan and the simplest way to see what is on each spread (the two facing pages in the book). Once you’ve created the ladder on paper, transfer it to the electronic ladder in the online program.
Signatures and flats
Your book is printed in 16-page signatures with eight pages printed on one side of a large piece of paper and eight pages printed on the other side. In the diagram to the right, the pages in blue represent a flat and are printed on one side. The pages in white represent the flat printed on the other side. Once both sides are printed, they are folded several times, Smythe-sewn together and trimmed to form a 16-page booklet. When all signatures for the book have been printed, the signatures are glued together in correct order and bound with the cover and endsheets to form your yearbook.
Where to find the ladder
The following ladder diagrams are available from Lifetouch: • Laminated poster to hang on the wall • Electronic version on the Lifetouch Online Yearbooks website Sample signature within the ladder diagram
Ladder planning and
Coverage • 7
Reading the ladder diagram
• The ladder shows all facing pages in the book. Use it to plan the topics for your pages as double-page spreads. • Page one, the title page, falls on the right, as do all odd-numbered pages. • Even pages will always be on the left side. • The ladder is shaded to show which pages are on each side of the flat and where the natural spreads are located.
Using the ladder diagram
• First, place the opening spread, division pages and closing spread on the ladder. • Identify signatures containing special colors (metallic ink) or clear-coating. These must fall within 16-page signatures. Extra charges will apply for each signature containing special inks. • Determine the number of pages for each section using the formula on page 2 of this section. Leave those pages blank until section editors have planned the spread content. • After placing dividers, go to the end of the book and place parting page on the last page on the left side of the ladder. Working backwards, place the closing spread, then place the index, then add the ad pages.
• All four-color pages or those with metallic ink, spot color or clear-coating must be printed on the same flat or signature to avoid incurring extra charges. If signature one is all four-color and signature two is black and white, page 16 on the left side will be printed in color, but page 17 in signature two will be printed in black and white. • Mark color pages on the ladder diagram to avoid extra charges. • Review your deadline dates against the school calendar to make sure that school holidays or activities are included. Schedule deadlines so they don’t interfere with holidays. Missed deadlines can affect your ship date. Talk to your Lifetouch sales pro if you need to make changes to your deadine schedule. • Complete signatures as early as possible. When signatures are finished, they are printed promptly.
Step-by-step ladder planning
1. Determine the number of pages in your yearbook. Note color, black and white, and spot color, if applicable. 2. Allocate the number of pages needed for theme. Include the title page, last page, opening spread, closing spread and dividers. 3. Calculate the number of pages needed for the people section. • How many students are in each grade? • How many portraits will you put on each page? • How are you handling the faculty? • How large will senior portraits be? 4. Add the pages needed for sports.
Table of contents
Douglass High School • Atlanta, GA • How will you include varsity, junior varsity and/or freshmen for each sport? • Which sports will be paired on double- page spreads? • Will you include team shots and scoreboards on these pages, or will you run a visual index of teams and statistics at the end of the section or near the book’s index? 5. Estimate the number of ad and index pages required. Use last year’s book, but adjust for budget requirements if necessary. 6. Add the remaining pages to the other sections. 7. Calculate the number of pages for each section and make sure your coverage is fair and balanced. Example: Sports: 24 Pages in yearbook: 200 Academics: 22 Theme pages: 16 Organizations: 22 Ads: 24 People: 38 Index: 8 Pages Remaining: 8 Student Life: 38 to use where needed 8. Compare with last year’s book. Did you forget anything? 9. Check with activity directors, club sponsors and the school secretary to make sure you’re covering all sports, organizations, academic areas and events. • Any activties discontinued? • Any new events, sports or groups added? 10. Plan your deadlines. Will you have content in time to complete deadlines on time? 11. How will you cover spring sports? Will you create a March-to-March book, including last year’s spring events in this year’s book? Will you add a spring supplement to the current book? 12. Once you’ve made these decisions and completed these tasks, finalize the ladder and set it in stone. Avoid moving pages after you’ve started designing the book.
Ladder planning and
Coverage • 8
What to cover and how to cover it
Whether you choose to organize your book chronologically or traditionally, be sure you cover all events, sports, organizations, trends and interests in your school. To plan the content of each aspect of your school, follow the plan below. Plug each idea into a bubble sheet and develop each topic into a spread. Share your ideas with your editors as they develop the ladder diagram.
Student life coverage ideas
• Students who have attended school together from pre-school to senior year • Students with unique names, names in common, longest name, shortest name • Students’ unique interests: fixing cars, snow boarding, skiing, musicians, garage bands, entrepreneurs • Why family matters to students • Students who give back to their communities • Students who are into health and fitness • Items we personalize (cell phones, backpacks, cars, bedrooms, planners) • Finding jobs in a tough economy • Profiles of students who pride themselves on being unique or different • Getting ready for school (mornings or before the first day) • Snow days and other unexpected events • Weekend activities • Birthdays and other family celebrations
Academics • Focuses on unique angle: Computer restrictions in classrooms
• Events that celebrate different cultures (Cinco de Mayo, Kwanza, Chinese New Year) • Shopping for bargains • Fads and accessories • Spirit week activities • Homecoming focused on behind-the-scenes • Modes of transportation (cars, bicycles, roller blades, skateboards, bus, feet) • Pep assemblies and other special events • Summer events and activities • Dances and preparation for those events
Ideas for academics section
• The “grade makers” and what they give up to be successful • Team projects • Hands-on classes Union Grove High School • McDonough, GA • Field trips • Academic competitions • Extra credit opportunities • Actors, musicians, dancers • Classes requiring experiments • Procrastinators vs. planners • Classes that build leaders • Places students study • Classes studying current events • Teachers known for unusual teaching methods • Rituals before taking tests • How students prepare for tests • Students whose parents are their teachers • How students use technology in classes • Electives: why students enroll in them • Required classes: what students learn in them • Favorite books, TV shows, movies and how they help students learn • Preparing for admission to college • Maintaining sanity in a chaotic life of academics and activities
Ideas for content and
Coverage • 9
• How senior players feel after playing their last home game • How young players feel before playing their first big game for the high school team • How senior players serve as mentors for younger players • Why we play sports (our motivation) • What we learn from losing • What we learn when we win • Other “off-the-field” duties • Road trips with the team • Superstitions and rituals (team and individual) • Most memorable plays • Fans and why they love the games • The cost of playing sports (equipment, injuries) • Staying in shape off-season • Summer practices • Summer sports camps • Teaching young kids at summer sports camps • Multi-sport athletes • We knew our team bonded when... • When Mom or Dad is your coach • How athletes plan to participate in sports after graduation • Duties of a team captain • Warm-up exercises and team drills • What it takes to be a team manager
Organizations • Unique angle: Seniors’ last night to perform with Colorguard Team
Union Grove High School • McDonough, GA • “Fun”-raisers and fund-raisers • Recruiting techniques • Motivations for joining • Field trips and out-of-town conferences • Group bonding activities • Groups’ favorite foods at meetings • Why our club is so large • How clubs help us learn skills for life • What we learn from academically based clubs • Club t-shirts and other uniforms • Clubs focused on volunteering in community • Places we visited and what we learned • Club projects • How we keep members engaged and motivated • Holiday celebrations and traditions
People/portraits section ideas
• Profiles about students few people know • Kids who share their hopes and dreams • Students involved in community activities • Students who share their most memorable moments of high school • Seniors’ advice to younger students • Teachers’ most memorable moments in school • Students’ heroes and why they admire them • Favorite TV shows, phone rings, movies, events
Ideas for content and
Coverage • 10
Chronological coverage
First, decide how you will organize your book chronologically. Some schools plan four sections based on seasons: summer, fall, winter, spring. Others organize sections by months. Other approaches are to organize chronological coverage week-by-week or day-by-day. It is important to plan the entire book before school begins. Listing all clubs, events, sports and academic activities prior to planning the ladder diagram will ensure the staff covers every event and person in the school. If new clubs form or unexpected events occur, the staff will need to add those to the ladder diagram and rearrange content to accommodate the additions. Accidentally leaving out a group, event or person guarantees a bad day. Use the forms on pages 14-15 of this chapter to develop your coverage plan. The staff may want to designate “specific looks” for student life, organizations, academics and sports pages within each chronological section of the book. Another approach might be to design each chronological section using specific colors and type throughout the section. Some staffs blend student life, organizations, sports and academics into one chronological section and create separate sports and people sections. Other staffs blend sports into the chronological part of the book, creating a separate people section. In a few books, staffs have blended people coverage into the entire book, reserving the lower one-third of each spread for portraits to run throughout the book. There is no right or wrong way to plan and design a chronological book, as long as the structure makes sense to the reader.
Chronological
Coverage • 11
Spring pages feature baseball and other sports played at that time of year
East Coweta High School • Sharpsburg, GA
More chronological strategies
Month-by-month
Staffs using a calendar approach usually begin coverage in June, just after school ends and continue through the following May. Staffs who have a spring-delivered book begin with late March from the previous school year and end with early March for the current school year. Several months at a time
Some yearbook staffs group two or three months together for each section, thereby saving space with fewer divider pages.
Chronological
Coverage • 12
Month-by-month • Band competition and club activities in October on same spread
Combined months introduce February/March activities
Buffalo High School • Buffalo, TX
Eagle’s Landing High School • McDonough, GA
Blended
This organizational plan often blends coverage of academics, organizations, student life and sports on the same double-page spread. The staff covers events happening each week and blends the stories together, emphasizing the “biggest” story of the week as the dominant module and featuring smaller events in secondary coverage modules.
Staffs creating larger books may opt for day-to-day coverage, mixing stories from traditional sections on each spread. These staffs emphasize the most “newsworthy” story in the primary focus area. Smaller events are covered in secondary coverage modules, as in weekly coverage. Some staffs prefer to cover student life, academics and organizations chronologically in one section, pulling sports and people into separate sections. Yearbook staffs using this approach find that their target audience, the students, prefer separating sports from other activities because sports play a large part in their schools’ identities. In other instances, schools with strong fine arts programs create separate sections to showcase music, art and dance programs. Many staffs have discovered that chronological coverage helps them meet their deadlines. At the beginning of the year, whether using traditional sections, chronological or a blended approach to coverage, it is important to plan how the staff will cover every group, sport, event, activity, academic area and person in the school. Be assured there is no right or wrong way to organize the book so long as it makes sense to the reader and contains everything that happened. Pleasing your target audience, the students and faculty, is your number one goal.
Chronological
Coverage • 13
Weekly • Combined coverage of vocal music and tribute to veterans in week 16
Blended coverage - Celebratory moments in athletics and school spirit-building events
El Reno High School • El Reno, OK
Planning exercise:
Brainstorm for coverage ideas for each section of the yearbook listed on this page and the following page. Team names:
Student life
Academics
List all courses your school offers.
Now list them according to commonalities: Classes with projects, classes that also meet after school, classes that teach teamwork or leadership, classes that develop individual talents, etc.
Sports
List all sports that are a part of your school’s activities program, season by season.
List at least 10 new ideas for stories that haven’t been covered in the past three years. List at least five new ideas for stories that haven’t been covered in the last three years.
Content/Coverage Adviser Resource • page 1
Planning exercise:
Clubs/Organizations
Now list the clubs according to commonalities: Clubs that have members who volunteer in the community, clubs that teach leadership, clubs that focus on teamwork, clubs that meet after school, groups that hold fundraisers, etc. Team names:
People
List all topics that must be covered each year (class rings, class officers, traditions, etc.).
List ten new ideas for stories that haven’t been covered in the last three years. Also list people who would make interesting profiles.
Community
List at least 20 stories that feature students in relation to their community.
Content/Coverage Adviser Resource • page 2
