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

InsideState Standards

3AdviserWatch

5A Ready-Made Lesson Plan for You

7

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.

About the Photo

� ■ January 2007

Stet

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.

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

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

MIPA305 Communication Arts BuildingMichigan State UniversityEast Lansing, MI 48824-1212

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

President, Rod Satterthwaite, Dexter HS 1st Vice President, Jeremy Van Hof, Grand Ledge HS2nd Vice President, Sandra Strall, Carlson HSSecretary, Kim Kozian, L’Anse Creuse HS North Trustee, Nikki Schueller, North Farmington HSTrustee, Paula Pantano, Stevenson HSTrustee, Tim Morley, Inland Lakes HSNewspaper Chair, Julie Price, Haslett HSYearbook Chair, Lynn Strause, East Lansing HS Broadcast Chair, Diane Herder, Laingsburg HS Legislative Chair, Gloria Olman, retired, Utica HSWorkshop Chair, Betsy Pollard Rau, H.H. Dow HS Middle School Chair, Jenny Birmelin, Orchard Lake MSHall of Fame Chair, Jeff Nardone, Grosse Pointe South HS Executive Director, Cheryl Pell, Michigan State University MIPA Office, Penney Aiken & Amy Brandt, MSU students

Rod SatterthwaiteDexter HS

The President’s Column

Feb. 9, �007 SND Quick Course (E-mail mipa@msu.edu for details)

Feb. 16, �007 Newspaper, video, yearbook deadlines

March 16, �007 Late newspaper, video deadline (Spartan only)

April 17, �007 Spring Conference

July �3-�7 & July 30–Aug. 3, �007 Adviser Courses

Aug. 5–9, �007 MIPA Summer Journalism Workshop

Musings of my mind

MIPA Officers �006-�007 MIPA CalendarAbout Stet

Why do the teachers who complain the most about being teachers eventually

become administrators?■ One of my brothers-in-law is

black. I once asked him, “Would you rather be called ‘African-Ameri-can’ 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.

■ 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”

■ 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.

■ A friend of mine has a 2-year-old daughter. I was at their house last fall, and she pointed to the thin-ning hair on my head and then to my goatee. She then asked, “Hair from there (pointing to the large, bagel-shaped 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.

■ Here’s a game to try in you journalism room. Every time some-one says “mom” be the first one to shout out “dad”. Every time some-

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 administra-tor is observing your classroom just to mess with her.

■ 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.

■ My MasterCard ad:Time this year spent at faculty

meetings and professional develop-ment days listening to teachers com-plain about students’ use of iPods and cell phones: 9 hours

Time this year spent at faculty meetings and professional develop-ment days listening to our technol-ogy 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 develop-ment days listening to teachers com-plain 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 devic-es and hats than student learning: Priceless

■ My personal, all-time, super cool, favorite list:Book: To Kill a MockingbirdAlbum: Ziggy Stardust and the Spi-

ders from MarsSong: (Tie) “If I Can’t Change Your

Mind” by Sugar; “Save it for a Rainy Day” by The Jayhawks

Movie about journalism: SalvadorBeer: Crooked Tree IPA closely

followed by Brooklyn IPA close-ly followed by Bells Two Heart-ed Ale

Detroit news anchor in a movie: Bill Bonds in “Escape from the Planet of the Apes” closely fol-lowed by Diana Lewis in

“Rocky”Opening day question by a stu-

dent in my beginning journal-ism class: “Are we going to have to write in here?”

Coffee: Starbucks Christmas blendStudent newspaper Web site: (tie)

www.paly.net, www.hilite.orgMovie: Godfather, Part II

Please see PRESIDENT, page 6

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January 2007 ■ 3

State department reps, MIPA board and members meet

STANDARDS, CuRRICuluM, RequIReMeNTS, Oh My

NClB AND New STATe CuRRICuluM RequIRe-MeNTS 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 meet-ing. 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

MIPA members shared the following concerns, ideas and potential outcomes with the board of education representatives:■ Fitting courses into the

new graduation requirements

■ Student writing and improving student writing

■ Preserving the impor-tance of these programs

■ Photojournalism: where and how does it fit? New content area expectations include a visual aspect

■ Opportunities to intro-duce students into work/business/voca-tional/career experi-ences in our pro-grams—afraid classes 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 rea-

Chris Fisher, center, journalism teacher at Holt HS makes a point while commit-tee members Kim Kozian, L’Anse Creuse North HS, and Brian Wilson, Waterford Kettering HS, look over their notes.

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, news-paper adviser, South Lake HS

David Legg, video in-structor, Novi HS

Please see STAndArdS, page 6

I think the standards work is really im-portant because it will help us to gain legitimacy within our schools, not just as a fun class or important service to the school, but as an English credit. I’m really happy to be involved because it is helping me to rethink my curriculum and to get to know the standards even better. It’s hard work, but well worth the effort.

—Chris Fisher, Holt HS

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The job of a journal-ism teacher entails teaching a unique sec-tor of the English Lan-guage Arts curricu-

lum—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 jour-nalism 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 Prac-tice.” Integrating a newspaper article into a lesson plan for an English classroom seemed easy enough for me when I cre-ated a lesson about diction for an educa-tion class I had this semester. To accom-pany 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 inte-gral in journalism because of the short

deadlines and the limited amount of space in a publication. Journalism stu-dents, in addition to reading exemplar newspaper articles, could also read and analyze techniques used in Michael Cun-ningham’s novel “The Hours” or any other short novel to see how it is possible to express emotion, dialogue and narra-tive 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 them-selves easily to cross-curricular activities with each other, but it is also important to integrate non-English Language Arts subject areas into the journalism class-room. 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 supple-ment 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 Associ-ated Press style or the 5 Ws in interview-ing because our main responsibility is to simply instill a love of learning. To impress upon them the existence of cross-curricular connections widens their opportunities at excelling in other areas and creates more authentic activities to demonstrate their abilities.

IN MyOPINIONBy Agnes Soriano, Journalism Major, MSU

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

Make journalism class cross-curricular

nOTES nEWS&

T

Know about Newsu?NewsU offers online training for journalists. Sponsored by the Poynter Institute, the site offers numerous cours-es 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

CONTEST2007

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.

Stet

January 2007 ■ 5

lake Orion adviser ends up back where he started

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

By Agnes Soriano, MSu Student

In 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 broad-casting 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 broad-cast journalist Sheri Jones on Channel 6 WLNS-Lan-sing 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 even-tually 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.

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

ADvISeRWAtCh

‘‘ ‘‘

Photo by Mallory Malloy

Please see ADVISER, page 6

6 ■ January 2007

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ADvISeRwATCh, cont. from page 5

PReSIDeNT, cont. from page �

His experience, knowledge and passion for broad-casting 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 con-stantly 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 con-stant evolution of the industry and of my classes,” Smith said. “No two consecutive years are the same. Equipment changes, programs change, (Federal Com-munications 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.”

tV show: Police SquadPhotoshop effect: Drop shadowInDesign effect: Drop shadowLede: Concessive clauseVice-president who shot someone: Aaron Burr close-

ly followed by … no oneSerif font: Warnock Pro LightSans serif font: Myriad Pro lightEx President: William Howard TaftEx MIPA president: Brian WilsonEx Beach Boy: Brian WilsonCheryl 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

sons to retain these types of courses, help educate adminis-trators 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 visu-al, 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 sched-ules 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 compli-ance—we need to help them with this task because they do not know everything!

STANDARDS, cont. from page 3

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.

Who’s Involved?

MIPA MeMBeRSlise Bladeslydia CadenaAmy ClarkChis FisherStacey hicksKim KozianDave leggKaren MarinoTim MorleySara-Beth O’ConnorGloria OlmanPaula PantanoCheryl PellJulie PriceRod SatterthwaiteNikki SchuellerSandy Stralllynn StrauseBarb TaetschJeremy van hofBrian wilsonMichelle wilson

STATe RePSSusan KellyBonnie RockafellowGale Sharpe

NexT MeeTINGThursday, Feb. 159:30 a.m. to � p.m.haslett hSlunch providedCare to join us?RSvP: mipa@msu.edu

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January 2007 ■ 7

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 ■ To help students identify clichés in others’ writing. ■ To help students identify clichés in their own writing. ■ To look at alternative methods of getting the information to your audience without clichés.

Materials/ResourcesCliché Finder: http://www.westegg.com/cliche/

Procedures1. 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:

■ One man’s meat is another man’s poison.■ Close the barn door after the horse is out.■ Which came first, the chicken or the egg?■ Tough as boot leather.■ Knock the socks off…■ A piece of the action■ 24/7■ 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: ■ What is wrong with the statement (i.e. why is it a cliché?)? ■ What are some alternatives to how the writer could have communicated this information? ■ How do you think you can avoid clichés in your own writing?

homework ■ 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 TryListen 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: ■ Dumber than a doornail ■ My bad ■ 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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Students listen with interest. More than 20 sessions were available throughout the morning.

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There was a whole lot of learning going on at the 4th annual Junior High/Middle School Journal-ism 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.

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.

FOuRTh ANNuAl CONFeReNCe GROwING

MIPA/School of Journalism 305 Communication Arts BuildingMichigan State UniversityEast Lansing, MI 48824-1212

Photo by Sarah Turner