Portraits and Stop Motion

For the first part of class you will be taking portraits of the art class.

1. Take a close, tight shot of their face so you can see the details.
2. Take another close, tight shot of their face showing emotion.

For the next part of class, create a stop motion video by taking many images of the same thing, slightly moved.

The First Amendment

1. Read the First Amendment.

CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF; OR ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR OF THE PRESS; OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES.

2. Re-write the First Amendment so that it applies to you and the Castro Cougar Courier.

3. Look up Prior Restraint. What does it mean? How does it relate to the freedom of speech?

4. Why are there some things that you can't say?

5. How far do my First Amendment rights go as a student?

6. Are my rights being infringed upon by school rules? State laws? My parents?

7. What about privacy? Is it a reporter's responsibility to protect an individual's or group's privacy? Or is a reporter supposed to report everything they find because it is the truth?

Ethics, Part II

Go back to the Ethics Assignment and review.

"The school board has passed a motion on a vote of 5-4 to ban ipods stating that they are too distracting. You have been assigned to write the story for the Castro Cougar Courier."

1. For the ethics assignment, you were to write an unbiased article about the news. An unbiased article only contains the who, what, where, when and why: the most important information. It does not contain your thoughts.
2. Now write an opinion article on the matter. This is your viewpoint. Tell your reader why you agree or disagree with the decision to ban ipods.
   

Progress

Take a look at the assignments on the right. You should be completing these assignments.

All these assignments relate to our news of Castro.

Make sure you are completing these assignments and thinking about how they relate to your news stories.

Remember, we can always edit stories on the Castro Cougar Courier. Why? Eventually, these stories will be on the morning announcements! We want our work to look good.

Ethics

Ethics addresses questions about good and bad, right and wrong.

How will we address ethics in our articles, photos and videos?

Please finish these sentences and write three reasons why each is important.

1. Responsibility. The school reporter will always...

2. Freedom/Independence. The school newspaper staff will...

3. Truth and accuracy. Every reporter will make sure to...

4. Impartiality/Fair play. In every controversial issue, the staff will make sure to...

Here is a potential issue:

The school board has passed a motion on a vote of 5-4 to ban ipods stating that they are too distracting. You have been assigned to write the story for the Castro Cougar Courier.

Write about how the code of ethics should guide your article.

Journalists Observe

As writers/photographers/videographers of Castro Middle, we need to OBSERVE what is going on around us and report the truth.

Go to Time

or

National Geographic

• Look at five pictures
• For each picture, make five observations.
  
• Write your observations in WORD or PAGES.
• Drag the picture into WORD or PAGES with your written observations.
• Remember to record where you got the photo from.

Now go to http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/castromiddle

• This will be our IDEA BOARD.
  
• Have a story idea? Did you see something? Hear something? Know about something?
• What's going on at Castro? In Phoenix? In your life?
• Write it down. Take a note. Leave a comment or idea.
• We will share our knowledge in order to work better as a team and learn better as individuals.
  

News of Castro

We are beginning to write, take photos and make videos for longer, more detailed stories.

• Make sure you take a look at the "Story Idea" sheet if you haven't already.
• Before you go out to report, you need to fill in the 5Ws and So What of your story.
• You also need to get permission from teachers, students BEFORE you interview them.
• You may go by yourself or with a partner.
• Only two groups can go out at a time.
• You should only be out reporting for 10-15 minutes.
  

Others in class should be working on planning their article, editing articles or working on their article for the Castro Cougar Courier.

• Remember, even with video, articles on the Castro Cougar Courier need to have a beginning, middle and end. Three paragraphs (each paragraph needs to be at least 3-5 sentences long.
• Proper grammar
• Correct spelling
• Does it make sense?
  

One way to plan is to look at examples:

• Go to My High School Journalism
• Read through some student written articles.
• In WORD, write if their articles have conflict, action, timely information, new ideas or prominent people.

1. Are the articles just about their school or could you write a similar article about Castro?
   
2. Do their articles have an impact on someone or something?
   

More than One Side to Every Story

Gossip Versus The Truth

Please write 3-4 sentence answers. Write in complete sentences with proper grammar and correct spelling.

1. What is gossip?

2. If you hear something about somebody, do you believe it right away? Why or why not?

3. What does it mean to “get more sides of the story?”

4. Do you think it is a reporter’s job to influence people’s ideas or inform them about what happened? Why?

Choose a story on azcentral.com.
Read the story and answer these questions:

1. Write the title of the article:

2. What is the main idea of the article?

3. Did the author inform you or influence you?

4. Do you think there is another side to the story?

5. Who would you talk to in order to get another side to the story?

Castro Courier ... So What?

Read through the Castro Cougar Courier

1. Edit or add to one short article. Remember, articles should:

• Have a beginning, middle and end (3 paragraphs).
  
• Paragraphs can be short, 3-4 sentences.
• Correct grammar and spelling. Proper punctuation.
  

Find seven articles that relate to the seven aspects of journalism.

• Describe why the article relates to the aspect.
  

So What?

You know the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY.

Now for the SO WHAT?

In Pages, define these words:

Conflict
Action
Timeliness
Novelty
Impact
Proximity
Prominence

Use dictionary.com.

Write a dictionary definition and then write your own definition.

Find a picture online to help describe each word.

You should finish with 7 pages. One word, dictionary definition, your definition and pictures on each page.

Castro News continued

Please continue your work on your Castro News articles.

CLICK HERE to go to www.castrocougarcourier.blogspot.com

Go through and read other stories. Make sure there is correct spelling, proper grammar and full sentences.

Take a look at some high school news websites and see how their stories are written.

The Free Press

The Casa Chronicle

Progress Report

What? You will be creating your progress report using tables in PAGES.

Where? By using PAGES, you will continue your knowledge about that program and how it works.

When? Now.

Who? You.

Why?? To become an independent, reflective, problem-solving student, it is beneficial to you to take a look at your own work and make decisions about your own progress.

I definitely offer feedback if you say you completed everything, but your work does not show that you completed everything.

Your assignments:

• Way of Life in WORD
• I was, I am, I want in POWERPOINT
• Photo Slide Show in iPHOTO
• Current events questions in WORD
• Outside photos/video in iPHOTO
• News of Castro on CASTRO COUGAR COURIER
  

Cougar Courier - The News of Castro

Write a story about Castro.

Write 3 paragraphs - beginning, middle, end. Your paragraphs can be 3-5 sentences long.

For a story idea, chose a photo that you took yesterday or Thursday to write about.

Or choose a completely different story.

Your log in is castro.cougars8@gmail.com

Take a look at the Castro Cougar Courier

Picture Day

I will take pictures to tell a story.

What story do you want to tell?

Take at least three action shots.

Take at least three emotional shots.

Take at least three shots that make people want to say "WOW, look at that picture."

Take at least one shot that involves repetition.

STRAIGHTEN your camera please.

Learning from Practice

Open and type in WORD to complete today’s assignment. You will be answering questions about what we did on Thursday.

Write 2-3 sentences for each answer.

Be sure to save your WORD document.

We will do the same thing on Monday that we did on Thursday (taking pictures, video outside), but after we review what went well and what we can do better.

What did you like about yesterday? (Taking pictures, video outside)

What went well?

What could have went better?

Why do you think we did that?

What did you learn?

How will you be able to use what you learned in this class?

Watch the attached video. It goes fast. You will have to pause to read the slides. These are some elements of photography that we will be using. Answer the following questions.


What are the elements of photography?

Do you think you used any elements in your pictures yesterday?

Current Events

Objectives:
“I will read and research current events.”

“I will study articles for good writing techniques.”

Write your answers in a Word document. Save the word document as Current_Events_9_8.doc. Please use full sentences and check your spelling, punctuation and grammar.

List your sources. (Where did you find the answer?)

1. What Central American country had torrential rains that triggered mudslides, killing at least 40 during the last week?

2. In a speech Monday, President Obama promised to push for $50 billion to create jobs to upgrade America’s infrastructure. What does he (and the media) mean by this term?

3. President Obama also was planning to announce Wednesday another request he will make to Congress to help the economy. He said he will propose that businesses be allowed to get tax write-offs in 2011 for everything they spend for what?

4. What was the name of the storm earlier this week that hit parts of Mexico and then crossed into Texas, though most of the damage there was due to rain and flooding?

5. What happened in Colorado this week that destroyed an unknown number of homes in the foothills near Boulder?

6. With elections two months off, which party is worried about losing seats in the House and perhaps losing its control there?

"You Are"

Pick someone in class to interview.

In WORD, type nine questions to ask them. (Preparation)

Ask them at least 10 questions.

So, be sure to ask them something you hadn't thought of.

Why? You should be LISTENING closely to their answers. (Active listening)

As they are answering, type their answers in WORD. (Keep a record of what they say)

Write a story about that person using at least one or two quotes.

READ this story to see how you can put in quotes.