http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine/drama-truman-high-school.html?hp
Adapted from a forthcoming book, and published Sept. 15, 2013 in the Sunday New York Times Magazine, I ended up reading this twice before 7 a.m. Not for the first time, I started planning on how to work this into this week's journalism classes and then remembering that I don't do that anymore.
If you don't have access to www.nytimes.com (limits on number of downloads per month), I have posted the article as a 14-page Word document at http://issuu.com/chspa/docs/levittown_drama_program_-_ny_times_
Showing posts with label long form writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label long form writing. Show all posts
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Looking for nonfiction titles to supplement media classes?
One reasonable criticism of publication lab classes is that with so much emphasis on meeting deadlines and producing a product, there is little organized reading instruction. This may lie at the heart of English departments considering journalism classes "a step down" in intellectual rigor.
To combat this and, more importantly, expand students' use of language and structure, I organized small (no more than 8 in the group) nonfiction lit circles. They were perfect for those lab days when the next deadline seems a bit far off, and we had already picked apart the last deadline. Lit circles revealed new voices, helped disparate staff members get to know each other, and even inspired in-depth reporting.
I would buy 10 paperback copies of lit circle titles, in the expectation that they would eventually wear out, and be replaced with more timely pieces. But the best of those titles don't seem to lose their luster.
Here's the lit circle library I had acquired when I left the high school classroom in May, 2010:
In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle, by Madeline Blais (wonderful full-year reporting on a girls basketball team in Massachusetts)
Hiroshima, by John Hersey (short, powerful, demanding)
Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman (a damning extended essay on mass media and what it does to our minds -- written before the Internet exploded and yet still seems current)
School of Dreams, by Edward Humes (a year in the life of an extremely competitive California high school)
Praying for Sheetrock, by Melissa Faye Greene (wonderful true story of race and pride and betrayal and heroism)
Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi (challenging read, but an eye-opener to a wider world)
Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser (passionate, funny, horrifying)
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote (still can scare, and still a model of narrative writing)
Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissinger (ostensibly about football, but really about race and class and education)
The Life of Reilly, by Rick Reilly (first collection of his Sports Illustrated columns, with the second being "Hate Mail From Cheerleaders")
The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell (every kid experiences little epiphanies while reading this)
My Losing Season, by Pat Conroy (a challenging read, on one level about a not-very-good college basketball team, with lots of additional levels about family and community)
Another Planet, by Elinor Burkett (a year in the life of a suburban Minneapolis high school)
To combat this and, more importantly, expand students' use of language and structure, I organized small (no more than 8 in the group) nonfiction lit circles. They were perfect for those lab days when the next deadline seems a bit far off, and we had already picked apart the last deadline. Lit circles revealed new voices, helped disparate staff members get to know each other, and even inspired in-depth reporting.
I would buy 10 paperback copies of lit circle titles, in the expectation that they would eventually wear out, and be replaced with more timely pieces. But the best of those titles don't seem to lose their luster.
Here's the lit circle library I had acquired when I left the high school classroom in May, 2010:
In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle, by Madeline Blais (wonderful full-year reporting on a girls basketball team in Massachusetts)
Hiroshima, by John Hersey (short, powerful, demanding)
Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman (a damning extended essay on mass media and what it does to our minds -- written before the Internet exploded and yet still seems current)
School of Dreams, by Edward Humes (a year in the life of an extremely competitive California high school)
Praying for Sheetrock, by Melissa Faye Greene (wonderful true story of race and pride and betrayal and heroism)
Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi (challenging read, but an eye-opener to a wider world)
Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser (passionate, funny, horrifying)
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote (still can scare, and still a model of narrative writing)
Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissinger (ostensibly about football, but really about race and class and education)
The Life of Reilly, by Rick Reilly (first collection of his Sports Illustrated columns, with the second being "Hate Mail From Cheerleaders")
The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell (every kid experiences little epiphanies while reading this)
My Losing Season, by Pat Conroy (a challenging read, on one level about a not-very-good college basketball team, with lots of additional levels about family and community)
Another Planet, by Elinor Burkett (a year in the life of a suburban Minneapolis high school)
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Death of long form journalism exaggerated
Just when you might have thought that all that was left in scholastic journalism (or professional journalism) were short bits and flashy visuals, it is good to be reminded that there is still a large amount of significant long form writing out there, in newspapers, in magazines, on blogs.
Most people will agree that an increasingly complex world needs more thought, more reporting, than an infographic, or a page of 100-word briefs. But who has the time? Some of us moan: No time this morning. Gotta run to school.
But what if you could call up a long piece when you DO find some time (in an airport, waiting for a kid to emerge from soccer practice...)? Check out this article from Poynter to discover ways to store and access long form writing you want to read, through various miracles of technology.
Check it out at http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=188741
Most people will agree that an increasingly complex world needs more thought, more reporting, than an infographic, or a page of 100-word briefs. But who has the time? Some of us moan: No time this morning. Gotta run to school.
But what if you could call up a long piece when you DO find some time (in an airport, waiting for a kid to emerge from soccer practice...)? Check out this article from Poynter to discover ways to store and access long form writing you want to read, through various miracles of technology.
Check it out at http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=188741
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