January 2007 by MIPAMSU

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Michigan Interscholastic Press Association January 2007 Vol. 34, No. 2 www.mipa.jrn.msu.edu

About the Photo

Inside

Rachel Wiedemann of Southfield HS took First Place in Division 1 in the Feature Photo category with this entry. The cutline read “Sophomore Tashara Barrett (left) applies blush to senior Brittney McCullers as senior Audrey Beard applies her own make-up.” The students were preparing for the production of “Strange Boarders.” Diane Hofsess is Rachel’s newspaper adviser.

State Standards

AdviserWatch

A Ready-Made Lesson Plan for You

Stet The President’s Column

Musings of my mind

one says the word “head” be the first to shout out the word “face”. Try it on deadline night as a stress reliever. Better yet, try it when an administrator is observing your classroom just to mess with her. n Bad pun #2: A book collector bought a first edition of “Great Expectations” and “A Tale of Two Cities.” He decided he was going to have them framed and mounted on his wall. Before he could do that, however, a burglar broke in to his house and stole them. The motto? Mount your Dickens before they’re snatched. n My MasterCard ad: Time this year spent at faculty meetings and professional development days listening to teachers complain about students’ use of iPods and cell phones: 9 hours Time this year spent at faculty meetings and professional development days listening to our technology people discuss effective ways to incorporate iPods and cell phones in to the curriculum: 0 hours Time this year spent at faculty meetings and professional development days listening to teachers complain about students wearing hats in the hallways: 4 hours Time this year spent at faculty meetings and professional develop-

ment days discussing meaningful ways to make sure students achieve at their highest level: 0 hours The fact that we spend more time discussing personal electronic devices and hats than student learning: Priceless n My personal, all-time, super cool, favorite list: Book: To Kill a Mockingbird Album: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars Song: (Tie) “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” by Sugar; “Save it for a Rainy Day” by The Jayhawks Movie about journalism: Salvador Beer: Crooked Tree IPA closely followed by Brooklyn IPA closely followed by Bells Two Hearted Ale Detroit news anchor in a movie: Bill Bonds in “Escape from the Planet of the Apes” closely followed by Diana Lewis in “Rocky” Opening day question by a student in my beginning journalism class: “Are we going to have to write in here?” Coffee: Starbucks Christmas blend Student newspaper Web site: (tie) www.paly.net, www.hilite.org Movie: Godfather, Part II

MIPA Officers 2006-2007

About Stet

MIPA Calendar

President, Rod Satterthwaite, Dexter HS 1st Vice President, Jeremy Van Hof, Grand Ledge HS 2nd Vice President, Sandra Strall, Carlson HS Secretary, Kim Kozian, L’Anse Creuse HS North Trustee, Nikki Schueller, North Farmington HS Trustee, Paula Pantano, Stevenson HS Trustee, Tim Morley, Inland Lakes HS Newspaper Chair, Julie Price, Haslett HS Yearbook Chair, Lynn Strause, East Lansing HS Broadcast Chair, Diane Herder, Laingsburg HS Legislative Chair, Gloria Olman, retired, Utica HS Workshop Chair, Betsy Pollard Rau, H.H. Dow HS Middle School Chair, Jenny Birmelin, Orchard Lake MS Hall of Fame Chair, Jeff Nardone, Grosse Pointe South HS Executive Director, Cheryl Pell, Michigan State University MIPA Office, Penney Aiken & Amy Brandt, MSU students

Stet is the official newsletter of the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association, an agency of the School of Journalism at Michigan State University. Stet is published four times a year by the MIPA executive director and MSU students.

Rod Satterthwaite Dexter HS

■ January 2007

hy do the teachers who complain the most about being teachers eventually become administrators? n One of my brothers-in-law is black. I once asked him, “Would you rather be called ‘African-American’ or ‘black’. He said, “I’d rather be called a person.” I didn’t know what to say after that so I changed the subject. n Bad pun #1: The best name for a demolition company that uses plastic wrecking balls to tear down shopping malls? “Wreck the malls with balls of poly” n What is the best time to go to the dentist? 2:30. ( Say it like this, “Tooth hurty.”) That makes me laugh out loud every time. n A friend of mine has a 2-yearold daughter. I was at their house last fall, and she pointed to the thinning hair on my head and then to my goatee. She then asked, “Hair from there (pointing to the large, bagelshaped spot on the top of my head) fall down to there (pointing to my chin)? I laughed, but I wanted to spank her and give her a time out for disrespecting her elders. n Here’s a game to try in you journalism room. Every time someone says “mom” be the first one to shout out “dad”. Every time some-

Send letters to the editor and advertising inquiries to mipa@msu.edu. The MIPA Web site is maintained by Cheryl Pell.

Please see PRESIDENT, page 6

Feb. 9, 2007 SND Quick Course (E-mail mipa@msu.edu for details) Feb. 16, 2007 Newspaper, video, yearbook deadlines March 16, 2007 Late newspaper, video deadline (Spartan only)

Web site: www.mipa.jrn.msu.edu

April 17, 2007 Spring Conference

MIPA 305 Communication Arts Building Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824-1212

July 23-27 & July 30–Aug. 3, 2007 Adviser Courses

Phone: (517) 353-6761 Fax: (517) 355-7710

Aug. 5–9, 2007 MIPA Summer Journalism Workshop

STANDARDS, curriculum, requirements, oh my

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State department reps, MIPA board and members meet

NCLB and new state curriculum requirements were the force behind a meeting arranged by the MIPA Executive Board with representatives from the Michigan Department of Education. The board opened up the meeting to MIPA members, and 20 journalism teachers and publication advisers attended the first meeting on Saturday, Dec. 2. That meeting consisted of lively discussions, and Kim Kozian, MIPA secretary, filed the report below, which has been edited for space considerations. A second meeting, held on Jan. 20, was a work meeting. Teachers broke up into two groups, with one group writing standards aligned with the English Language Arts content expectations and another writing standards for the new Visual, Performing, and Applied Arts requirement. A third meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 15, at Haslett HS. Any journalism teacher is invited to attend to assist in the creation of the standards. Submitted by Kim Kozian, MIPA secretary Chris Fisher, center, journalism teacher at Holt HS makes a point while committee members Kim Kozian, L’Anse Creuse North HS, and Brian Wilson, Waterford Kettering HS, look over their notes.

David Legg, video instructor, Novi HS

Sue Kelly, project coordinator for the high school content expectations from the Department of Education, shares her philosophy on the new state requirements and how she thinks journalism fits into the scheme of it all.

Barb Taestch, newspaper adviser, South Lake HS

MIPA members shared the following concerns, ideas and potential outcomes with the board of education representatives: ■ Fitting courses into the new graduation I think the standards requirements work is really im■ Student writing and portant because it improving student will help us to gain writing legitimacy within our ■ Preserving the imporschools, not just as a tance of these fun class or important programs service to the school, ■ Photojournalism: but as an English where and how does it credit. I’m really happy fit? New content area to be involved because expectations include a it is helping me to visual aspect rethink my curriculum ■ Opportunities to introand to get to know the duce students into standards even better. work/business/vocaIt’s hard work, but well tional/career experiworth the effort. ences in our programs—afraid classes —Chris Fisher, Holt HS will start to shrink ■ Some schools consider these courses to be visual/artistic and not English ■ Television: afraid courses will become electives and eventually electives will disappear and will not count for graduation ■ Intensive Journalistic Writing/AP course for 11th graders would fit the content area expectations for English ■ MIPA board perspective: stress the importance of the journalism curriculum, help provide justifiable reaPlease see Standards, page 6 January 2007 ■

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IN MY

OPINION

By Agnes Soriano, Journalism Major, MSU

Make journalism class cross-curricular

The job of a journalism teacher entails teaching a unique sector of the English Language Arts curriculum—communication. However, the concept of communication is not limited to a newspaper, yearbook or broadcasting class. Writing, reading and speaking not only cross specific curricular bounds but also go beyond any classroom setting and frequently are applied to real world situations. As a journalism and English pre-service teacher, I have only started compiling and creating future lesson plans, in which I am trying to make these connections. And through the process, I have discovered one of my core teaching beliefs is based on the importance of engaging students in cross-curricular activities using diverse texts. By combining ideas in both the journalism and English classroom realms, I have discovered that the term “text” could really mean more than simply a textbook or a novel. A text could be exemplified as a song, a movie, a T.V. show, a painting, an advertisement or a newspaper article. In actuality, a text is “any meaning-laden product or artifact,” according to Peter Smagorinsky in the education textbook “Principles of Practice.” Integrating a newspaper article into a lesson plan for an English classroom seemed easy enough for me when I created a lesson about diction for an education class I had this semester. To accompany the lesson, I created an activity sheet for students featuring headlines from a variety of newspapers covering different events. Students must create their own headlines based off the given examples: Therefore, they had to use different word choice for the same topic. This type of cross-curricular activity can be used in a journalism classroom as well. For instance, a lesson on how to be concise but still convey meaning is integral in journalism because of the short

deadlines and the limited amount of space in a publication. Journalism students, in addition to reading exemplar newspaper articles, could also read and analyze techniques used in Michael Cunningham’s novel “The Hours” or any other short novel to see how it is possible to express emotion, dialogue and narrative in a highly descriptive, yet concise form, without sounding formulaic, like what mostly results from the typical inverted pyramid method of journalism. English and journalism lend themselves easily to cross-curricular activities with each other, but it is also important to integrate non-English Language Arts subject areas into the journalism classroom. For instance, I have heard students who excel in journalism and English say that they like these subjects because they do not have to do math. Furthermore, in professional newsrooms, I have heard journalists say they are so happy they do not even have to use math anymore. Although I am not a personal fan of math, statistics make almost every piece of journalism more credible. By using polls or surveys, calculating percentages or ratios and creating graphics to supplement an article or utilizing numbers to back up statements in an article grounds the journalism in its overall purpose of educating the public. While encouraging the use of math in students’ articles, we not only enable them to improve their journalism skills, we also cross curricular boundaries to help them be more well rounded individuals. As journalism educators, or even more broadly, as teachers, it is imperative we teach our students more than Associated Press style or the 5 Ws in interviewing because our main responsibility is to simply instill a love of learning. To impress upon them the existence of crosscurricular connections widens their opportunities at excelling in other areas and creates more authentic activities to demonstrate their abilities.

Agnes Soriano is a senior at MSU majoring in journalism education. She works at The State News as the assistant copy editor chief.

■ January 2007

&NEWS

NOTES

Know about NewsU? NewsU offers online training for journalists. Sponsored by the Poynter Institute, the site offers numerous courses in everything from diversity to photojournalism. Most courses take an hour or two to complete, are free and open to anyone who wants to register and take the time to do the work. A popular one for high school students is The “Be a Reporter” Game. These can be great supplements to your curriculum or use them for extra credit. Everyone needs to enroll before they can take the course. New courses are being added all the time.

Check it out: newsu.org

2007 CONTEST

Remember the deadline! All contest entries are due with a postmark on or before Feb. 16. Don’t be late!!

Dawn Kettinger of the Lansing State Journal and Gayle Martin from Stoney Creek HS judge newspaper stories at Judging Day last March.

Sign up to judge on March 3! We need newspaper, yearbook, and video judges. Come join us on this fun day! E-mail mipa@msu.

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AdviserWatch

Lake Orion adviser ends up back where he started By Agnes Soriano, MSU Student

Please see Adviser, page 6

‘‘

Photo by Mallory Malloy

Lake Orion video students work in the control room during a rehearsal of the daily live newscast of LO-AM. Adviser Roger Smith oversees.

I get to work with some of the best students we have every single day. The students want to learn. They rearrange their schedules just so they can squeeze in a radio or TV class. —Roger Smith, broadcast adviser, Lake Orion HS

‘‘

n the last decade, Lake Orion High School has seen many changes: a new building, a growing community and the retirement of the founder of its broadcasting program. Roger Smith has experienced those changes as both a teacher and a student. “Yes, that’s right ... I teach where I learned!” he said. Smith returned to his alma mater a math teacher after graduating from Michigan State University’s teaching program and following his student teaching at Mason High School. But with the retirement of Brett Saunders, the school offered Smith the chance to revisit the broadcasting classes he once attended as a teenager. “In fact, and this is a true story, when I was an 11th grader, I sat with Brett Saunders and talked about how ‘one day’ I could come back and take over his job,” Smith said. “We were sort of joking about it at the time, but this is one of those rare stories that actually came true!” Smith is now in his fifth year as the broadcasting adviser but has been teaching seven years total at Lake Orion. His family largely influenced his subject area preferences. Smith said his grandfather fostered his love of math. “We’d have races where he’d do a problem in his head and I’d do it on the calculator,” he said. “He usually won, even when we did algebra or trigonometry.” Whereas, Smith’s uncle’s relationship with broadcast journalist Sheri Jones on Channel 6 WLNS-Lansing sparked interest in that area. “She was dating my uncle when I was in junior high ... and now she’s my aunt,” Smith said. “I got to see her studio a couple times, and that furthered my interest in television production.” As a high school student, Smith enjoyed reporting on sports in Saunders’ broadcasting classes. He eventually landed an internship at a local public access studio for the last two years of high school, where he got the chance to produce a bi-weekly half-hour TV show about the Red Wings.

January 2007 ■

Stet PRESIDENT, cont. from page 2 TV show: Police Squad Photoshop effect: Drop shadow InDesign effect: Drop shadow Lede: Concessive clause Vice-president who shot someone: Aaron Burr closely followed by … no one Serif font: Warnock Pro Light Sans serif font: Myriad Pro light Ex President: William Howard Taft Ex MIPA president: Brian Wilson Ex Beach Boy: Brian Wilson Cheryl Pell joke: “Cheryl, please stand up. Oh, wait, you are standing.” Lede joke: A good lede is like a woman’s skirt. Long enough to cover everything. Short enough to keep you attention. Way to write a column when you have no other ideas: Random musings on unrelated topics

Stacey Hicks of Thornapple Kellogg HS shares thoughts on journalism as an applied art credit. A curriculum guide deadline was looming for her back at her school.

Standards, cont. from page 3 ADVISERWATCH, cont. from page 5 His experience, knowledge and passion for broadcasting are integral in his ability to teach the subject. Smith said media literacy is a skill that should emphasized in the classroom, adding that the constantly changing media industry does not hamper his teaching because he relishes in that. “I can’t pinpoint one particular favorite aspect (of teaching broadcasting), but I certainly enjoy the constant evolution of the industry and of my classes,” Smith said. “No two consecutive years are the same. Equipment changes, programs change, (Federal Communications Commission) rules change, etc.” Because of his unique position compared with his education colleagues, Smith has found much aid through the membership of professional organizations such as Michigan Interscholastic Press Association, or MIPA, and Michigan Association of Broadcasters, or MBA. He often attends conferences, lunches and judging days—finding camaraderie among his peers. “There aren’t many of us broadcasting teachers out there, but it’s nice to be able share stories, ideas and lessons learned with each other,” he said. “Unlike math and English and science teachers, I don’t have anybody else in my building that does what I do, so MIPA has been a way for me to connect with those who are in a similar situation.” He describes receiving MIPA’s Spartan Award last school year as a defining moment in his teaching career. Smith said the best part about winning the award was that it was something every student in the program contributed to earning. Regardless of winning awards, his students are what really inspire Smith to continue teaching. “I get to work with some of the best students we have every single day,” he said. “The students want to learn: They rearrange their schedules just so they can squeeze in a radio or TV class. “Having been a math teacher, I went from teaching required classes that many students don’t want to take to elective courses which students want to take but don’t have to.” ■ January 2007

sons to retain these types of courses, help educate administrators and clarify our role in the curriculum ■ These classes are a place where kids may “fit in” ■ South Lake changed to grade level English courses where they used to have elective classes in the department; they are losing electives there. This especially affects special education students ■ Holt is switching to trimesters to meet requirements; how does lit fit in with all 91 standards? ■ The workforce is rapidly changing—students need these skills that we teach ■ Studies show that journalism students are better prepared for collect; they work at the highest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy ■ One school is in trimesters already, which has weakened the program since it is only offered during one trimester. Some students need a different avenue to explore. ■ We do not teach/train kids how to consume media. We are doing a disservice to our students if we only teach about how to read novels. Response from State Board representatives: ■ The bigger picture: everything we value is infused in the expectations. The things we describe should be occurring in all courses (media, authentic writing, etc.) ■ As a board, we should ask ourselves: how do we fit in? What is the application of what they have learned in core classes? ■ Be part of a team to implement skills into other English classes ■ Send a message that we know why and how our programs are valuable—not only do they fit English but also the visual, applied arts expectations. Within that, look at the value, programs and variety, how it aligns/applies, build it into English credit to keep programs vibrant, show model schedules we create. ■ Have conversations with English departments to facilitate our power in getting students where they need to be ■ How are these requirements going to affect our total student population? How can we integrate them? Base it on the student outcome ■ Administrators are trying to meet standards through compliance—we need to help them with this task because they do not know everything!

Who’s Involved? MIPA MEMBERS Lise Blades Lydia Cadena Amy Clark Chis Fisher Stacey Hicks Kim Kozian Dave Legg Karen Marino Tim Morley Sara-Beth O’Connor Gloria Olman Paula Pantano Cheryl Pell Julie Price Rod Satterthwaite Nikki Schueller Sandy Strall Lynn Strause Barb Taetsch Jeremy Van Hof Brian Wilson Michelle Wilson State reps Susan Kelly Bonnie Rockafellow Gale Sharpe Next Meeting Thursday, Feb. 15 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Haslett HS Lunch provided Care to join us? RSVP: mipa@msu.edu

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Ideas You Can Use: Clichés

By Evelyn Miska, Fr. Gabriel Richard HS, Ann Arbor

Many of our students fall into the trap of using clichés when writing pieces for the school newspaper or yearbook. They know the sayings but don’t stop to consider that many of these phrases are hackneyed and add little value to their work. It is easy for an advisor to just give the blanket order to avoid clichés at all costs, but before that kind of demand is effective, students need to understand what clichés are, why they don’t add anything to their writing and what their alternatives might be. The following lesson plan is one possible way of helping your students learn to recognize clichés and eliminate them from their writing. Objectives n To help students identify clichés in others’ writing. n To help students identify clichés in their own writing. n To look at alternative methods of getting the information to your audience without clichés. Materials/Resources Cliché Finder: http://www.westegg.com/cliche/ Procedures 1. What is a cliché? See if anyone can take a stab at defining a cliché. If not, begin by deconstructing the following definition: “A phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.” 2. What are some examples of well-known clichés? Give a few well known examples: n One man’s meat is another man’s poison. n Close the barn door after the horse is out. n Which came first, the chicken or the egg? n Tough as boot leather. n Knock the socks off… n A piece of the action n 24/7 n If you can’t beat em, join em 3. Break students into small groups, no more than three per group. Have each group see how many clichés they can come up with in seven minutes. Have one member of each group write their clichés on the board. Award the team that gets the most “original” clichés (no other group came up with them) a small prize. 4. Now ask the class if everyone agrees that all the clichés on the board really are clichés. Go back to the original definition of the word. 5. Still in groups: hand out copies of a variety of newspapers (The New York Times, USA Today, Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, etc.) and have students read the opening paragraph of each story in one section. Have them circle anything they think may classify as a cliché and then discuss with their group why they think it would fall into that category. Have each group select the one they think is the worst of those they found and write it on the board. 6. Now, as a whole class, look at the clichés that were found in the newspapers. Select one and discuss: n What is wrong with the statement (i.e. why is it a cliché?)? n What are some alternatives to how the writer could have communicated this information? n How do you think you can avoid clichés in your own writing? Homework n At home, select two to three articles or pieces you have written for journalism class. Find all the clichés you may have used and rewrite the paragraph for the top two you think are the worst. Other Ideas to Try Listen to your teachers/friends/parents and jot down any clichés they use for the next two or three days. Record all the ones you catch! Modern clichés versus older clichés (do the old ones even make sense to us anymore?) For example: n Dumber than a doornail n My bad n Hollaback

We know you’ve got some good lesson plans! How about sharing one with your fellow advisers? Get published here, and your colleagues will be grateful. E-mail mipa@msu.edu with your plan.

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JR HI JRN

Students listen with interest. More than 20 sessions were available throughout the morning.

Fourth annual Conference growing

There was a whole lot of learning going on at the 4th annual Junior High/Middle School Journalism Conference on Nov. 2. The event, held at the MSU Union, featured sessions based on journalism fundamentals such as interviewing and writing leads. Some students took part in the on-site writing contest. Like the fall conference for high school students, this conference was the largest one with nearly 500 in attendance.

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MIPA/School of Journalism 305 Communication Arts Building Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824-1212

Photo by Sarah Turner

TOP: Paw Paw MS students pose for a group photo outside the MSU Union before they head home. Adviser Chris Swanson is on the far left. ABOVE: Two students from Mason MS in Erie sit on the floor at a session and take notes on their Macintosh computers. All 15 students from Mason brought their school laptops.