Laying Out the High School Paper

Wanda Wunder
Ironwood Ridge High School
Tucson, Arizona

Objectives:

• Students will practice the elements necessary to create a modular design layout.
• Students will practice the skills necessary to evaluate effective layout and design.
• Students will demonstrate communication skills through their layout and design.
• Students, as part of a team, will create a five-column grid for an 11″ x 17″ tabloid.

Previous Learning:
Students will have completed a basic introduction to the course including journalism terminology and basic layout information prior to beginning this identification activity.

Activities:

• Using a cut and paste approach, students will review several publications and identify:
  • the story
  • the headline
  • photos and captions
  • subheads
  • graphics
  • pull quotes
  • sidebars
  • other design elements that may appear in individual choice articles.
• Students will label each element and experiment with various layouts of their identified sections.
• Following the creation of several dummies, the students will share their creations with their individual study teams (groups of 5-6 students) and explain their decision-making process.
• The teams will evaluate their team efforts using pp. 327-328 of “School Newspaper Adviser’s Survival Guide.”
• The teams will then use their practice efforts to create a modular layout for a team-designed publication.
• The teams will then present their efforts to the entire class for a large group discussion/evaluation meeting.

Follow-Up Learning

• Add advertising.
• Create a design display ad.
• Following several lessons in photography, the students will practice “picturing the news.”
• Determine the layout goals for our publication.

Materials needed
“School Newspaper Adviser’s Survival Guide”