Yearbook Class Syllabus 2021-2022

Advisor: Joe Derrig                                                                                               

Email: joe.derrig@tumwater.k12.wa.us              Phone: 360-709-7886

Course Objectives:

Students will

• Develop leadership skills.
• Design aesthetically pleasing layouts: placing the dominant photo and subordinate photos; establishing an eye line; placing headlines, story copy and captions; properly using white space; and enhancing layouts with the use of graphics.
• Take great photos using the rule of thirds, line, contrast, and composition.
• Write interesting and engaging copy, telling the Black Hills story for 2019-2020.
• Manipulate digital photographs, text, and backgrounds in Adobe PhotoShop and Yearbook Avenue.
• Create pages in Yearbook Avenue that are precise and have photos/graphics properly linked.
• Understand and employ the ethical decisions inherent in making a yearbook.
• Meet all deadlines in a real-world application.

Grading:

The most important part of your grade is meeting your deadlines with high-quality completed pages. Your grade will break down as follows:

• Completed page grades
• Quality and attitude points
• Ad Sales (Senior recognition ads) and book sales.
• Classroom activities and weekly exercises.
• Because in Yearbook we have deadlines that carry real costs should we miss those deadlines, no late work will be accepted.

Page Grades:

Once a page has been submitted for a deadline, you will be graded on the quality of your work. This includes layout design (including precision), photography, graphics, use of color, saving the page and links in the correct place, coverage, writing (content, style, and conventions in particular) and ethics. You will also be expected to cover the story of the page well. For example, if you are doing a sports page, you should attend at least three games (one being away so you can cover the bus ride) and one practice. Coverage also includes equitable and fair coverage of grade levels, gender, and the student body. Putting your friends on your assigned page is unethical and unfair to all who buy the book. You will be asked to remove yourself or friends from the page and you will receive a deduction in points. In addition, each error on a page (spelling of words and/or names, grammatical errors, format errors) will result in a lost point per error.

Groups:

Part of being in yearbook means that you are working with a group of your peers to complete a real world task (such as you would do in real-world job). You will often be given a group grade for work completed in this manner. It is your responsibility to motivate the other member(s) of your group to ensure that a page is completed in a quality and timely manner. Only the advisor reserves the right to adjust group grades based upon performance.

Meeting Deadlines:

It is imperative that you meet your deadlines that are set for you. Not making deadlines means less unique opportunities for the yearbook. Missing a deadline means that your grade will severely suffer. You should weekly critique your page and honestly evaluate if you think you will/will not make your projected deadline. Ask for help from the editor, advisor, or other staff members if you think you may not make a deadline.

 

By signing up for yearbook, you’ve undertaken the making of an important product. It’s expensive, and your fellow students are counting on you to include each and every one of them in it, to make a “cool” cover, to make great pages, and always to make it better than the year before. Missed deadlines means these cool things can’t happen, so be sure you meet all deadlines!

Failure to meet deadlines could result in a dismissal from the course.

Grading for Editors:

Editors will be graded according to the criteria listed above, but will also be subject to additional responsibilities of being an editor. An editor is ultimately responsible for the pages in his or her section that are due for each deadline. When a page is submitted to you, you must determine whether it meets standard. If you think it does, the group will get the grade they have earned (depending on when it comes in), and you will send it along to the editor in chief. If the editor in chief accepts it as meeting standard, you will receive the same grade for the page that the group received. However, if the editor does not accept it, you now have to fix the page, and your grade drops .2 of a grade each day it takes you to complete it.

Behavioral Expectations:

In order for you to accomplish your pages, you will on occasion have to leave the classroom.  Thus, I have to be able to trust you not to abuse this privilege in any way. Pairs or groups are not necessary when leaving the classroom. If at any time you abuse your privileges, you will lose them. In such a case, any interview or photograph will have to be done on your own time.  It will also mean that your grade is affected. If you have time to goof off, either you haven’t set appropriate goals for the week or you will not be accomplishing them. Remember, any extra time you have is spent helping others. You are expected to be on time to class, too, of course.

 

 

 

Please sign and return this syllabus by Monday September 16, 2019.  This is your first deadline, don't miss it. This worth 50 points.

 

I have read and understand the course syllabus above.  In particular, I understand that failure to meet a deadline could result in an F grade, loss of credit, and dismissal from the class.