Love The Lead You're With

The session yesterday on article writing and leads was an eye-opener.  I came to the Reynolds Institute to bring back practical, hands-on teaching methods and practices that I could take back with me to my classroom.  Other than being a consumer, I have very little experience with professional journalism. My toughest hurdle in teaching journalism to my students is being able to give them information that actually learn, actually use.  I spend weeks before we publish going through our textbook, booking at different types of leads, discussing the differences between direct and delayed leads.  We push through it, and then the students write as they want to.  The two to three students who are going to into journalism in college will pay attention, but the rest only care to write a five paragraph essay.

Yesterday, however, I saw how to put an end to this, and it came down to being a student in the classroom.  The best way to learn to teach is to learn to become a student.  It is often said that teachers make the worst students, which can be true.  Breaking into small groups yesterday, being given a situation and a type of lead, and working under a "deadline" to make a "Question Lead," I saw what an effective teacher does:  Model a situation, give it to the students to try, and provide feedback.  It is simple. It works for me in my Literature classroom, but for some reason I could not seem to translate it to my journalism classroom. I would say that is over now.  As much as I don't want my summer break to be over, I cannot wait to get back to my classroom.

Kelly Robinson