Thursday, October 9, 2025

Huntington and Earthquake. Assigned 10/9, due 10/ 14 - Minor (last grade of the 9 week cycle)

Huntington and Earthquake

Please make a new Google Site subpage called Huntington & Earthquake stories and complete the following two tasks:

Directions – write a 250-word brief using inverted pyramid and in transition-quote structure. You may use this information and make up anything else you need to complete the story.

Janice Jones is 53 years old and lives in Barstow, California, according to California Highway Patrol press liaison Tammy Rye.

Rye said Jones was eating pork chops in the back of her motor home, which was parked on Beach Boulevard near Highway 1, when her dog knocked her 9 mm handgun off a seat. The weapon discharged when it hit the floor, and the bullet passed through Jones; leg and through the side of the vehicle, according to Rye. “It could have been worse,” Rye said. “The bullet hit two inches from the gas tank.”

Jones was shot in the right leg around 10 p.m. Wednesday, Rye said.

Jones was transported to Huntington Beach Hospital via ambulance and later was transported to Irvine Medical Center, Rye said. Jim Washington, a spokesperson for Huntington Beach Hospital, confirmed Jones was treated at the hospital but gave no additional information.

Jones’ dog, a Pomeranian named Tombo, was placed in the care of the Huntington Beach Animal Control officers.

The dog seemed to be malnourished, according to Janet Ngo, one of the animal control officers, and had fresh cigarette burns on its forehead. “It could have done with a little less abuse and a few more of those pork chops,” Ngo said.

Ngo indicated that her office would explore filing animal abuse charges against Jones.

Rye said officers cited Jones for expired plates and the county’s district attorney’s office was considering whether to charge her in relation to the gun accident. Jones doesn’t have a permit for the gun, Rye said.

#2 on the same Google site subpage

Directions - Write a 350-word, inverted-pyramid story based on the following set of facts. Assume that the story is for Tuesday morning’s paper. You may make up any additional information you need to complete the story.

An earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay area Monday morning. The quake struck at 8:12 a.m. PDT

A building housing McHenry’s Auto Supply at 2342 Plum St. partially collapsed, killing two people and injuring six others, according to  Jennifer Vu, a public information officer from the Hayward Fire Department. Names of the dead are being withheld pending notifications of families, Vu said.

Hayward resident Mike Beamer, whose apartment is across the street from McHenry’s, said he felt a rolling motion that lasted for about 30 seconds, with a big jolt coming in the middle. “I was eating my breakfast when the room started rolling. I dove under the table just as I heard an explosion outside and a chunk of cement flew through my kitchen window. That’s when the screaming start across the street.”

Hayward firefighters used ropes to stabilize the auto supply shop, conducting a search of the building and capped a gas line after detecting a gas leak at the site.

The epicenter of the earthquake, which had a magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale, was under the Hayward Hills, according to Penny Gertz, a scientist from the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park. Gertz called the quake a “strong one” and said it occurred on the Hayward Fault, which runs under the hills.

"Twenty-one fire personnel, 12 police and five American Red Cross workers responded to the building collapse, with some arriving within four minutes of the quake,"Vu said.

Three of the six people injured were hurt seriously enough to require hospitalization and were transported to Hayward General Hospital, according to Vu. She added the no other serious injuries have been reported in Hayward.

"People as far south as Los Angeles and as far north as Redding felt the quake," Gertz said.

Sunday, October 5, 2025

Dispatch Issue #1. Assigned 10/7, due 10/9 - Minor

The Dispatch Issue #1

Today we are going to spend the entire period reading the 1st issue of the Dispatch. I will pass out copies of the paper shortly. You will need your own copy. You are welcome to take it home if you would like.

Please read one story from each of the following SIX sections:

1. News or the Politics page
2. Features 
3. Entertainment or Reviews or the Photo Essay (pg 6 or 16)
4. Sports
5. Commentary
6. And you must read either the In-Depth story on page 8-9 (Statehouse to Schoolroom) or 7 (Teen Driving)

As you read the stories I want you to answer the following questions for EACH story on your Google Site on a new subpage called Dispatch Issue #1:

1. Write a two sentence summary of the story.

2. Answer the following questions for each story:

Who was quoted in the story?
What quote was the strongest in your opinion?
Did the lead paragraph make you want to keep reading?
Was the conclusion a quote or a statement?

3. Now make a new text box on the same subpage (Dispatch Issue #1) and answer the following questions:

Which story made you want to learn more about the topic?
Which story was the best written?
Which story had the best quotes (overall)?
Which story was the most boring of the ones you read?
Which one was the hardest to follow (meaning maybe wasn't written as well)?

4. Then I want you to do a couple of things with the photography. In a new text box, answer the following questions:A. What is your favorite photo in the entire paper?A1. Why is this your favorite?B. What is your least favorite photo in the entire paper?B1. Why is this your least favorite?C. If you were a photographer on staff, which event/photo assignment would you have liked to do for this issue? You will need to look through the entire paper and see the topics covered and decide which one you think would have been fun.D. Overall, how would you rate the photography in this issue (1-10 scale, 1 being terrible, 10 being the best set of photos you have ever seen)? What were the strong points and weak points of the images as a whole?5. LAST TASK - The newspaper staff just completed a brainstorm activity for the second issue of the year which will come out November 5. I consider my Journalism 1 students part of staff, so I want to hear from you. Please list 3 to 5 story ideas you think would be interesting to read about in the school newspaper. Try to think of things that impact students, or has some sort of local connection. If you propose an idea for something broader than that, please give me some sort of story "angle" that could be "localized" to Bowie. Every story in the school newspaper should have some sort of impact on students at the school.

Friday, October 3, 2025

C.E. #1.2 AND Student of the Month Story. Assigned 10/3, due 10/3 - CE and MAJOR

On your Google Site, please make a new subpage and title it: Current Events Quiz #1.2. Answer the question below on that page. You are welcome to make multiple text boxes if that is easier, or if you want to work on just one text box, that is great. Whatever is best for you. Please be aware that if you copy and past the questions to your Google Site, it can create some formatting problems. I DO NOT NEED you to include the questions - just the answers.

Here is today's!!

1.  What is the big issue facing the new Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, according to the article below?


2. What was Taylor Swift's goal, according to the article, with her latest album release called The Life of a Showgirl?


3. What was the big controversy surrounding the most recent Ryder Cup played in New York last weekend?


4. What kind of items did researchers find in giant bird nests that have survived for centuries?


5. What would colleges receive from the Trump administration if they signed the "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education," according to the article?


Long Response:

Please read the following story and respond to the questions below. Please answer the question fully and always try to answer WHY. This section is the subjective section and I will penalize you if you write one word or short phrases for answers with an open-ended question. 


REMINDER - A single sentence isn't enough. I expect you to expand upon your writing. If you think you have written enough, you haven't, write more. Be sure to answer WHY you think something.

Please read the following article about OpenAI Sora 2:


A. Briefly, in a sentence or two, explain what the article is about.

B. List at least two companies whose copyrighted products might be used by this new AI product illegally, according to the article?

C. In your opinion, what should the limits on AI be? Is it okay for AI to source copyrighted products and be used to create memes, gifs, etc. using those protected images/creations?

D. Do you think AI could become so powerful that it could endanger humans?

E. What limits should be placed in an academic setting regarding the use of AI in the classroom, in your opinion?

When you are done with your Current Events Quiz #1.2, you need to finish your Student of the month story and get it turned in.

Here is how to turn in your SotM story via Google doc thru your Google Site:

Make sure you wrote your story in your AISD Google Drive.

PLEASE MAKE SURE I CAN EDIT THE DOCUMENT. I need to be able to leave you notes on your story.

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU SHARE IT PROPERLY SO THAT ANYONE WITH THE LINK CAN EDIT. I need to be able to leave notes on your story. DO NOT EMAIL ME THE LINK, instead when you have those done, make sure the link is a CLICKABLE link on your Google Site on a new subpage called: Student of the Month Story.

Here are some things you should check before you share it:

1. Make sure it is around 350 words. You can be a little under or even a little over, but not by much. I will check this.

2. Do you have 10-12 paragraphs (or more)? You should have at least 10 paragraphs.

3. Did you make it easy to see those paragraphs? Go back and put a space between each paragraph. See my sample below.

4. Did you put direct quotes on their own paragraph? You should have. DO NOT EMBED QUOTES, EVER!!

5. Did you think about inverted pyramid? Is the most important stuff (WHY did your friend win student of the month?) at the top? Are there additional things at the end, that might be interesting to know, but aren't crucial to the story?

6. Did you answer the 5 W's and 1 H?

7. Did you look at the multiple examples of how to format the direct quote properly? Each of them should look just like this:

"Start of the quote goes here, usually 1 sentence," title name said. "The second sentence goes here, if you have one."

Look CAREFULLY at the punctuation marks. Yours should look EXACTLY like mine.

8. Do you have 3 sources? You should have at least 1 quote from each source. Ideally you would have 2 students and 1 adult in each story. For this one, you should have your primary source (your friend in class) and 2 other sources you made up.

9. Here are a few things you probably don't know, but if you have time to fix, you should. 

A. Numbers under 10 are spelled out, numbers over 10 are not.

B. Titles are not capitalized unless they are a proper noun. For example English teacher, the English would be capitalized, but government teacher, the government would not.

C. For dates, we never use the letters th, it would just be March 4.

D. Make sure you check proper nouns. Don't use text-speak. You is you, not u. I is I not i. Use proper English spellings and punctuations. This is still an English-type class.

E. If the google doc puts a colored line under anything on your page, it is telling you that there is a problem. Red lines mean spelling, blue lines generally mean you have broken an English rule. Do not turn in anything with any lines underneath them. Fix those.

F. I should only read the first name and title for any source ONE TIME. Once you introduce them, you should use last names ONLY.

G. High school is two words, and if it is used with the school name, it is a proper noun so it should be capitalized like James Bowie High School.


Here is my sample story: Don't plagiarize my writing!!

Word count = 389, 14 paragraph

       Monday morning the Bowie administration named its October student of the month. The winner was Erica Jones and she was chosen because of her high GPA and outstanding efforts outside of the classroom, according to the committee that picked her.

    "I was so excited to win student of the month," Jones said. "It really meant a lot to me to be singled out for this award, I worked very hard last month in my classes and I volunteered 25 hours for the NHS."


    Jones maintains a 4.60 GPA and is a member of a number of extra curricular clubs at the school.


    "We named Erica the student of the month because not only is she a great student, she gives so much to the community," principal Mark Robinson said.


    Jones said that one of her favorite classes is Biotech because she is hoping to go to college at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland after graduation.


    “My dream since I entered high school was to be a doctor, but I am a little squeamish of blood,” Jones said. “So, the next best thing is to become a researcher where I can impact what kinds of drugs people take, or maybe help create the next biofuels for human use.”


    At the end of last year Jones was nominated and won a leadership role in the National Honors Society.


    "Erica was heads and shoulders above the rest of the people who were nominated," NHS sponsor and English teacher Samantha Smith said. "Her position this year is president of the club."


    In addition to NHS, Jones is also involved in the Art Club, the Magic the Gathering Club and plays ping pong during lunch with the Ping Pong Club.


    "I love to play Magic. I think the logic and deck building is so much fun," Jones said. "Plus when I need a good workout, I go smash around a ping pong ball."


    In addition to her high grades and club involvement, Jones volunteers at her church.


    "I am a pre-school teacher in bible class," Jones said. "I love to work with the little kids. I want to be a teacher in the future."


    Jones has three younger siblings, including her step-brother Ethan King, who is a freshman at Bowie.


    "I was so proud of her," King said. "She is an inspiration."


Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Student of the Month writing day. Assigned 10/2, due 10/3 - MAJOR

For the rest of the class you will be working on your Student of the Month story. You will have until Friday to complete this assignment and to write in class. This will be due on Friday, October 3 by the end of class. You will also take a current events quiz that day.

You have interviewed someone in class and you should have your questions and answers already on your Google Doc. You were also already supposed to have your additional two interviews completed, remember we made these up. Those should also be on your Google Doc. A really good way to organize these "different" interviews is to color code them. Here is an example:

SAMPLE STORY DOC

On YOUR same Google Doc, either at the top or the bottom - start writing your story. You could label it with DRAFT, or even just write the words STORY. 

For this first effort, I want you to write a straight news lead, meaning you should try to tell me who, what, where, when and maybe the beginning of why or how in that first paragraph.

This can be really simple, just answer the following questions in the first paragraph:

Who:
What:
Where:
When:
Why:
or
How:

HINT: Make sure you use full names, make sure you do the quotations correctly, make sure you follow the format, and in general each sentence will be its own paragraph.

Here is the formula we will be using to write these "NEWS" stories:

LEAD - 5W's
Direct Quote - which goes with the lede
Statement - factual information about your subject - can be an indirect quote, but should be used sparingly
Direct Quote - which goes with the statement above
Statement - factual information about your subject - can be an indirect quote, but should be used sparingly
Direct Quote - which goes with the statement above
Statement - factual information about your subject - can be an indirect quote, but should be used sparingly
Direct Quote - which goes with the statement above
Etc
Etc

Statements are FACTS. These tell us something new about your subject. You should base these "facts" on a quote you have to go with your story, as they work together. Think about the inverted pyramid. Tell me the most important reasons your person won student of the month first, and slowly add less relevant reasons.

When you do your quote, we also use a very specific style. Please not the construction of that direct quote. Notice the punctuation. The quote structure will be EXACTLY the same every single time. Look at where the quotation marks are. Look at the attribution - it always starts with a title, then a full name and finishes with SAID. Once you introduce someone the first time, you can revert to just using their last name from then on. Finally, if you end up having people with the same last name in your story, I will  go over how to do that next class.

Here is an example of a quote:

"I think Dave was a perfect choice for student of them month," history teacher James Smith said. "He works hard in class and is a leader in JROTC and those really help him be a standout."

Your story needs to be at least 350 words and should be at least 10-12 paragraphs long.

HINT: Simple and concise are the best words to think about when you are writing. Is this simple, like so your little brother who is 12 could read it and understand it. And concise; meaning are the sentences and paragraphs short and to the point. Big words are fine, but use appropriate big words. Let your VERBS shine!!

You will be assigned a club or organization to write about soon, and at that time we will talk a little more about lead writing, specifically we will shift to a "narrative" lead and will add another paragraph between the lead and the first quote. We will cover that later.

Saturday, September 27, 2025

Student of the Month interview. Assigned 9/30, due 10/2 - Minor

Student of the Month Interview:

Today you are going to practice conducting an interview and taking notes. Get out your Chromebook and open your Google Doc with your Student of the Month questions. 

DO NOT CREATE A NEW DOC!!

I will pair you up with another student and you will interview them. Then we will rotate, and they will interview you. You need to take great notes, with the answers to your questions, but.....I want you to get to know your partner because interviews really should be conversations and you should take away more information about your subject than you would normally get from just your questions alone.

Now, I know you are all very worthy of being student of the month, but you are going to have to pretend a little bit. You may even have to make some things up. Just go with it. This is practice and for a little bit of fun. So don't stress.

One thing I want you to do is to make sure you introduce your self and that you tell your interviewee that you are a member of the press. You can say you are from The Dispatch or even the Austin American Statesman, I don't care, but you need to say you are from a newspaper.

You will have 10-15 minutes for each person. When you are finished, you will have the rest of the period to write the answer to your secondary sources interviews (remember these are all made up, so you can make these up).

Next class we will review LTQT and I will show you a sample story, but you still need some additional information:

Your story will need to be around 450 words, it should be in the proper LTQT style, your attributions should be in the correct format. You will have two full classes to work on this piece. I will provide examples and I will help you individually as needed to complete this assignment. I will also be walking around during the writing process to make sure you are working in LTQT style. You get to make up almost everything you want, EXCEPT the direct quotes you get from your partner. Those should be real.

Good luck and always, always take good notes!!!


Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Student of the Month prep. Assigned 9/25, due 9/30 - Minor

You have today to make sure you are fully caught up with everything in Journalism 1.

You should have the following completed:

Funco Pop - Minor
Making a Google Site - MAJOR
About Me Slide - Minor
Current Events Quiz Practice - CE
Important People Slides - MAJOR
News Values - Minor
Media Literacy - Minor
Free Write - MAJOR
Inverted Pyramid & LTQT - Minor

It is very important that you have the assignment below completed and sent to me by the end of the period. I will print them and have them ready for you on Wednesday.

Assignment #2, SotM questions:

Imagine you are working, as a reporter, for the school newspaper and your editor gives you the assignment to interview the student of the month.

1. Make a new Google Doc. 
2. Come up with 12-20 questions you might ask that person who won student of the month
3. Think of 2 other sources you might interview for this story.
4. Come up with 5-8 questions you would ask those other sources.
5. Copy the link, MAKE SURE YOU SHARE CORRECTLY, and make that a clickable link on your Google Site on a new subpage called Student of the Month.

Next class you will be paired with someone to interview them for this fictitious award. You will ask them your questions and they will get a chance to play reporter and ask you their questions. You will record their answers on your Google Doc, and then start crafting a story about them. You will not be asked to interview additional sources, and you will be allowed to make up those other sources answers to your questions. We will talk about good Google Doc preparation next class.

Thursday, September 18, 2025

Free Write Friday. Assigned 9/19, due 9/25 - MAJOR

Today we are going to change things up a little. It's Friday. How about a free write?

Create a new Google Doc. Pick a prompt. Write. Share the Doc properly (so anyone with the link can view it) and put a clickable link on your Google Site (Using the Embed function) on a new subpage called Free Write #1. I don't need to edit this one, so you can just make it so I can VIEW it.

Here are the prompts - Pick ONE and write - lets say 400-500 words and complete the story.

There are no rules. Write a poem (or 3 - remember you need 400-500 words). Write a short story. Write an essay. Just start writing, and have fun.

Creative Writing Prompts if these help you!!

1. An alien has just abducted you. Give three reasons why it would send you back to earth and three reasons why you would beg to go with it. Explain fully each reason.

2. If you could talk to Mother Nature, what would you say and what would you talk about?

3. Do you believe in miracles? Have you or someone you know witnessed one?

4. Finish this sentence: "Life is short..."

5. How important do you think communication is in a relationship?

6. What do believe is your purpose in life?

7. Who is your rock? Why do you feel that way about them?

8. What global issues concern you?

9. How do you feel about superstitions? Do you have any?

10. Describe your perfect picnic? What's in your picnic basket?

11. If you could sit down with any outlaw or criminal (past or present), who would it be? Why? What would you ask them or talk to them about?

12. If you could boldly go where no man has gone, where would you go?

13. Create five new endings for this phrase" "Mirror, mirror on the wall" and fully develop one.

14. Describe each day of the week as food.

15. You have to give each room in your house or apartment a name. What are the names of each room, and how did you come up with those names?

16. Write a short rap song about yourself. Make sure it rhymes.

17. You are taking a lazy drive down scenic back roads. Describe your perfect car for the ride, and name the top five songs you would cruise to. Describe the location as well.

18. Name something you're afraid to try but really want to. What makes you afraid to try it?

19. If love could talk, what would it say?

20. Outline a "mission statement" for your life.