Captions provide the total yearbook picture. A COB photo of a basketball player dominates the opening spread of the 2010 Caxton yearbook of Robert McQueen High School.
He is wearing sunglasses, beads and some sort of shiny purple head gear. Chances are, most students had to read the caption when they got their yearbooks to realize the player was senior Brian Grove, since his eyes and blond hair were covered. Chances are even greater that in 20 years, most graduates would not remember that this was Grove, because he looks like any basketball player. And that is the value of captions for today and the future. “Yearbooks without captions are incomplete,” Johanna Sergott, yearbook adviser at McQueen High, said.
Information about students and events vanishes each year because either the yearbook staff did not write captions for photos or they were not written with enough information to help students remember what the image was about. Put yearbook copy in the hands of a good copy editor. As years go by, yearbooks become more than what they were on the day of distribution.
The initial excitement of finding yourself and your friends fades away, as do memories from the year. The facts and names blur together as new facts and new names become increasingly important. But when nostalgia sets in and yearbooks are pulled off book shelves 20 or 30 or 60 years after their original distribution date, everything printed on those pages is true, whether or not it was true the day of distribution. Copy editing and fact checking are crucial to the production of a strong yearbook. Accurate copy editing could mean the difference between a winning or losing season to a varsity athlete, or the difference between looking at a picture of your friend Jim or your friend Tim in an academic spread, who could be either a junior or a senior. Responsibility for keeping these details accurate belongs to the copy editor. Copy editors: establish good relations with your staff. Article by Shannon Palka. Five Simple Ideas For... Knowing AP style. Journalistic writing style is different from writing done in English class and for business.
To teach journalism style, you may incorporate the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook since it is the standard for journalists everywhere. While your student journalists will only use parts of it, there are still certain journalistic spellings and punctuation they should know. Here are five of the more common mistakes in any type of writing. Knowing the differences should help most students inside and outside of their journalism classes. Teach caption writing with new video, lesson plan. Pictures are worth a thousand words, but the stories within them are incomplete without captions.
Captions are easier to write once you know the formula, and yearbook advisers are telling us they would like more training materials for their staffs on topics such as caption writing. Walsworth is listening, and has responded with a caption-writing lesson, complete with a new video called “A Simple Approach to Great Captions,” Lesson Overview, one pre-video activity, two post-video assignments and three handouts you can access at the links below on this page. Renee Burke, yearbook adviser at Boone High School in Orlando, Fla., wrote the script and is the presenter in the video.
Www.markville.ss.yrdsb.edu.on.ca/yearbook/handouts/rubric_layout.pdf. Photo Quest. Lesson ideas using photo websites that teach students how to judge effective images and write their reactions.
Read more → Photo web sites that provide good examples, inspiration, great discussions, and information on jobs and ethics. Read more → The more things change, the more they remain the same. Digital photography reminds us of that adage. Read more → A thinking photographer gets more out of each sports shooting experience. Of all the equipment a shooter takes to a sports event, perhaps the most important and least regarded is that equipment located just above the shoulders.
Read more → The first step in using lighting effects is to make sure image is in RGB mode even if you have a black and white picture. Read more → Before even getting to Curves, one of the first things Craig Sands recommends in Photoshop is for photographers to change the assigned Profile of the image from whatever the camera setting is to Adobe RGB (1998). Www.walsworthyearbooks.com/idea-file/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/self_eval_form.pdf. Grading students in yearbook class. Grading student work in yearbook class is complicated because yearbook production has many facets.
Many advisers come up with their grading system by trial and error. That is how Greg Keller, adviser at Lincoln High School, Lincoln, Neb., developed his system. Keller said he has tried several evaluation methods during his 10 years as adviser. His current grading system includes a rubric, a checklist and a student self-evaluation form. “I use a combination of methods, but the rubric helps students to see the big picture.
Keller spells out in his rubric his performance standards for yearbook creation, deadlines, work nights or weekends, use of class time, organization, working with others, and absences and tardies. “If I keep reminding them of the rubric, it works pretty well. While the rubric spells out the expectations, each staff member fills out their own checklist to remember their tasks. “I have a checklist for kids to keep current throughout the year on their spreads. Www.davenportschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/HS-Yearbook-Lab.pdf.