To begin with, I always thought I had done a great job of covering the angle of a story with my staff members. I believed we were doing a pretty thorough job of discussing a story before they would go out on their own.
That was until today.
Mapping your story was a very beneficial session for me. Our group work where we took our story idea and basically branched out in several different levels was amazing! This higher level thinking is something we should all try to institute with our staff when we get back home. Most importantly, this gives our students options. If one idea hits the fan, a back up idea is ready to go. We know how many stories this happens to all the time. A student will get excited and you even have the angle right....then your sources fall through. Or something drastic changes about this story. Mapping the story gives OPTIONS.
Great first day. It was also great being able to work 15-20 different people throughout all the sessions. There are amazing journalism minds in that classroom.
Have a good night everyone
Spencer O'Daniel
Wichita West High School
Wichita, KS
I agree. I will definitely be using this activity in my classroom. Not only is it useful, but it is fun!
ReplyDeleteI have had so many kids with great story ideas that just collapsed. I never thought to do such detailed mapping in order to produce multiple story ideas from one broad concept. I will definitely take this back with me. Mapping, expanding, and focusing their own ideas will also reduce frustration with my students, and hopefully increase their buy-in to writing for the paper.
ReplyDeleteSpencer, I love your observation about how mapping broadens the options.
ReplyDeleteBonnie K
I agree, and I love the slide with the example using Amanda Bynes. That will be a great modeling tool. And one that, fortunately for us, will be easy to update by switching the name of one sad star with another.
ReplyDeleteCindy Reves
McKinley High School
Honolulu, Hawaii
I'm late getting to this post, Spencer. For many participants, story-mapping is one of the most valuable lessons they take from the institute. I'm glad you liked the exercise. I got it from "Writing and Reporting the News: A Coaching Method" by Carole Rich, who was one of my professors back in the day at the University of Arizona. She's now at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. More than many texts on reporting and writing, hers offers good exercises for students to develop skills. I'm sure the latest version will cost an arm and a leg since it's a textbook, but it's been out long enough that you may be able to get one cheap on eBay. Here's a link to Rich's bio page: http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/bookstore/authors/rich.cfm.
ReplyDeleteSteve Elliott
Arizona State University
Phoenix