I've been thinking about what Dean Callahan said about student journalists having to find their passion, their niche before they can be great writers. It's easier said than done. I'm an adult most of the time and I still don't know exactly what to say when people ask me what my area of specialty is within my field. I usually say American Lit. because that's what I teach the most, but that's just the easy answer. End of digression. My student reporters used to follow beats, but we've gotten away from that the last few years. Maybe it's because our school is small, and many times people come to us with ideas (lazy on our part, I know), that we stopped covering beats. It also takes extra effort and organization to assign them, cover them, and then check that the students are actually covering them. I wonder if it's time to bring back the beat.
Could a beat be the way students discover their areas of expertise? While I'm a firm believer in "everyone has to try everything," there might be value in students following one topic for a whole year. Maybe the kid who likes doing features doesn't yet know how much he loves writing about art and music. There are great opportunities to write feature style stories on things besides student of the month and other such local flavor. If that same kid has to attend every music event at school, he could become an expert and offer really in-depth story ideas. Maybe that persistent senior finally gets a solo, or a local professional works with one of our ensembles, things like that. I think we'll bring back the beat this year, or should I say, and the beat goes on?
Shannon Kuehmichel
Berlin High
Berlin, Wisconsin
That's a great idea. This way, students could experience one topic in depth and really push their creativity in one defined area. This might force them to go into more depth and cover people or events that would get overlooked otherwise. I think this concept would work particularly well if you have students that come back year after year--give them a different beat each year so they still learn the variety.
ReplyDeleteKristin Garletts
Rio Rancho High School
Rio Rancho, New Mexico
Shannon:
ReplyDeleteI can empathize. For what it's worth, what I did - in my total ONE year of journalism thus far - is require the kids to write both inside and outside of their "beat." If a kid is a sports writer, that's fine for me, but he better darn well know how to write an school board policy article. I just think that we maybe have some imperative to give them a little diversity of experience. They hate it though, sometimes. I'd love to hear more on developing a beat if you or any others here have some experience with it.
David Tow
Terra Linda High School
San Rafael, Calif.
I also struggle in the beat department. My staff is quick to admit that we "suck" (their term, not mine) at beats. I have a form from the Newspaper Adviser's Survival Handbook, but the follow-through does not exist. I am interested in finding out how other advisers are doing beats with their staff, as well as how they are monitoring/grading said beats.
ReplyDeleteKristen Morey
Fremont High School
Ogden, UT