Yearbook

GRADES: 10, 11, 12

Prerequisite: Successful completion of any two of the following preferred: Photography, Advanced Photography, Graphic Design, Advanced Graphic Design and application process with teacher approval.
Length: One year/one credit (may be repeated for credit)

Course Description

In this course students use Adobe’s Creative Cloud (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator) and other applicable software to create the school’s yearbook “Acorn”. Students develop and further their skills in graphic design, photography, story writing, interviewing, marketing, project-management, team-work and leadership. Students learn good work habits and are responsible for all phases of the publication of the yearbook. This course requires some work outside the classroom per week to photograph events, interview students, teachers or coaches and write the stories.

Qualifies for Fine Arts and Career & Tech credit.
Qualifies for English elective credit – if needed.

Course Resources

Required Material

  • Chromebook (provided by the school)
  • iMac (provided by the school)
  • Headphones (provided by the school)
  • Nikon D3500 or higher-end digital camera (provided by the school)

Course Calendar

Course Overview

Unit 1 – Introductions

Unit 2 – Yearbook Production Basics

Unit 3 – Creating the Yearbook

Unit 4 – Staff Yearbook

Unit 5 – Distribution

Unit 6 – Closing

Evaluation

Performance is assessed based on participation, team work, productivity and meeting deadlines. Students are expected to meet the standards of their assigned job.

Job Descriptions

Note: The structure might need to be adjusted as the year starts going. But this is our plan as of now.

Editor-in-Chief (EIC)

  • Knows everyone one staff, plans events and teambuilding activities, knows birthdays, cares about each team member (specifically the group leaders).
  • Knows everything that is going on all the time. Ensures that the big concept of the yearbook is shown throughout the book (design, text, photo).
  • Checks and corrects every page before it gets to the adviser for final review.
  • Helps teach the staff.

Coverage Teams (3 Teams, with each: 1 Team Leader, 2–3 Group Members)

  • In a 3-week cycle, these teams generate coverage ideas for their assigned week in collaboration with the EIC (week 1), do the covering or compile the necessary content (week 2) and finalize their content to submit for final review (week 3). Then they start over with idea generating and so on.
  • Team Leaders are in tight communication with the EIC and make sure all group members are doing OK, know what they should be doing and are on task at all times.

Crowdsourcing & Marketing Editor (1 Person)

  • Is in charge of keeping the calendar up to date, knows about all events that are happening and will update the inner-school communication.
  • Will work in tight collaboration with the EIC, but also the OHHS ASB, High School and School District Communication Directors. 
  • Will monitor e-mail and other communication channels for messages and reply to them independently. 
  • Needs to have good communication skills and needs to be reliable.

Design Team (1 Team Leader, 2–3 Group Members)

  • Group Leader will work in tight collaboration with EIC and Coverage Team Leaders. Group Leader will keep the big picture in mind and know what’s going on on each page of the yearbook. Group Leader will ensure the consistency of the theme throughout the book.
  • Group will create the overall design of the yearbook after intensive brainstorming as an entire staff to make sure everyone has a say.
  • Everyone on the team will design pages using the new software “Encore” – content will come from the coverage team. Our new software is similar to what you might know from “Shutterfly” – it’s very simple and user friendly. Here’s some more information: https://www.balfour.com/school-solutions/yearbook/encore

Reference Team (1 Team Leader, 1–2 Group Members)

  • Team will be in charge of all Senior Portraits, All other Student and Staff Portraits, Senior Ads, the All Student List, Senior Baby Photos, Senior Rides, Senior Superlatives and Group Photos.
  • Everyone on this team needs to be very detail orientated and well organized. Will use Google Forms and Spreadsheets a lot.

Adviser

  • Will teach all necessary skills especially at the beginning of the course.
  • Will advise and guide the EIC and all other team members in their tasks.
  • In charge of the final check of all pages.
  • Will assess students’ performance based on the listed standards.