Yearbook curriculum
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Yearbook class: what to teach the first six weeks
You thought yearbook class was just putting pictures on pages. Then a roster arrived. Then the expectations to meet state and national standards for ELA, CTE, and 21st Century Learning. Cue migraine.
The yearbook heroes at Treering know the difficulties new advisers face (shameless plug: that’s why we’ve created a contract-free, flexible yearbook solution) and we’ve created six weeks-worth of material for your yearbook class.
If it’s your first year advising, select one or two areas on which to focus. As your program develops, deepen those areas and add a new growth target.
For example, year one, you may want to focus on theme development and photography. Year two, expand those areas and add storytelling captions. Year three, further develop your writers with feature stories. Repeat after me, “I won’t do it all! I won’t do it all!”
Week 1 Goal: Build a Mission-Centered Yearbook Staff
Teambuilding
Every day, do something to help your team grow in familiarity with one another. Start with something simple, such as Birthday Lineup followed by some cake. To reinforce all the new names, Hero-Shambo is a raucous way to inspire team spirit while putting names to the faces.
Spend some time understanding personalities as well. Free online tests can provide discussion start points. Debrief either by grouping students who scored similarly and have them discuss what resonated with them and potential misconceptions. Groups could even create a poster or mood board reflecting their strengths.
Theme Development
As your year, and your book, should be focused on telling the story, theme development is top priority. Start with a SWOT analysis. Then list all the changes, new initiatives, and differences that make this school year stand out from the last five. Are you doing a building project? Did you add an international program? Is there new leadership? Did you merge with another school? Is this the first senior class that’s gone all the way through from kindergarten?
How can you convey this story this year?
Many times, our students come up with a catch phrase and want it to dictate the content. Your story—whether you have a visually strong, photographic book, or a journalistic yearbook full of features—should lead your look. Our Yearbook Theme Curriculum Module can help.
Photography
There are five beginning photo exercises in Treering's blog. Spend some time getting to know your team's cameras before jumping in. This may also be time to involve the editorial staff: assign an exercise for each to learn and facilitate.
Reporting
Start asking your yearbook students a question of the day. (If you have a large class, you may want to poll 3-5 students each period for time.) Before the next class, your yearbook students should ask that same question to three other students (no repeats). If you have 12 yearbook students, that’s 36 student quotes you can include in a sidebar each day, 180 each week! Use a Google form to input responses and track respondents. This not only increases coverage possibilities, but it warms up your student body to be pursued and peppered by your yearbook students!
Week 2 Goal: Set and Slay Yearbook Goals
Photography and Design
Begin the week with a photo scavenger hunt. Use the results to introduce your procedures for file naming conventions, uploading, and tagging. Model how to design a spread with their snaps.
Introduce yearbook vocabulary then grab some magazines to play a grown-up version of show and tell. Reward students who can find eyelines, ledes, and serif vs. san serifs fonts!
Further demonstrate the principles of design and get in your yearbook software to recreate some of the layouts you loved in the magazines. You should be in your design application 2/3 of the week so your staff gets comfortable.
Teambuilding
Since focus this week is on goal-setting, use communication games such as Blind Polygon or adapt Minefield for your classroom. In both scenarios, identify the goal and evaluate what worked and what didn’t when you are finished.
Revisit the personality profiles from week one—what effect did they have on students’ problem-solving and communication?
Theme Development
It’s also time to revisit your SWOT and story-of-the-year brainstorm. Think of your senses: how does it feel, sound, smell, and look? (Don't worry, we're not going to encourage tasting your yearbook!)
Determine tangible ways to convey the story of your year. In the Design Module, we talk about color and fonts. Both are two key visuals to harness the essence of your theme.
For example, If your yearbook theme is Move Mountains, you are going to want to use colors and fonts that are bold, signifying strength.
Reporting
Continue your question of the week, and evaluate the process. Where are students struggling?
If fear is a hindrance, watch Jia Jiang: What I learned from 100 days of rejection. If it’s procrastination, watch Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator. In your debrief, develop concrete strategies such as a few scripted lines or a schedule.
Marketing
Make it a point to consistently market your book and your program. It's possible to plant proverbial seeds for next year's staff in September!
https://blog.treering.com/teaching-yearbook-making-a-marketing-plan/
Week 3 Goal: Build your Team’s Toolbox
Teambuilding
Begin holding weekly staff meetings. In these meetings, discuss event and photo assignments for the week, when your next deadline is, and have every staff member give a 15-second update of their work. A simple, “Here’s what I’m doing, and here’s what I need to do” will keep it focused. You're building a culture of accountability.
Editors can also lead the meeting by using the first 15 minutes of class to develop a skill: photographing in classrooms with fluorescent lights, sharpening images in Photoshop, cropping images, etc.
Reporting
Evaluate the question of the day. Have students put last week's action plan into play? What percentage of the student body has been asked? Discuss with your staff where you will begin incorporating these quotes and what questions you can ask to tie-in with your yearbook theme.
Start a word graveyard: on a prominent bulletin board, list “dead” words and phrases. Have a reason why you’re dumping one: for example, many athletes will say their team is a “family” as will ASB, the dance company, the math department, etc. Teach interview skills to develop this: what drives your bond? Tell me a way a teammate was dependable. What traditions do you have that make you like a family? Get the story.
Design
Develop your style guide and decide which elements (e.g. bleed, color overlays) will enhance the story you are telling this year. Your editorial staff should begin building templates in your design software. By the end of the third week, your entire team should be comfortable doing basic tasks in your design platform.
Week 4 Goal: Progress!
Teambuilding
Using comics or stock photos, create Comic Creations. Then, with a partner, students should list three questions they could have asked to get the quote. Use your word graveyard and our Five Common Topics as needed to build stronger questions.
Teach the expanded caption using the Comic Creations quotes. You may want to first show NSPA’s Terrible Leads as a non-example before modeling your own yearbook gold.
Theme Development and Design
Evaluate your style guide and templates using NSPA’s design checklist; adjust as necessary. This is a good time to pause and remember our mantra: “I won’t do it all! I won’t do it all!”
Use an idiom dictionary to create spin-offs for your theme. Let’s return to our Move Mountains theme. For recurring modules, you could use:
Photography
By now, your students should be photographing class activities, school events, and sports practices and competitions regularly. Have your editorial team select some photos of the month to show on a projector. Discuss, as a group, what made the photographs standout in their composition and storytelling. Elicit advice from the photographer. Share top photos on social media with a call to action: “Want to see more? Buy a Yearbook!
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Social media serves a double purpose: market your program and your yearbook!
Marketing
Create a social media calendar and assign posts to students. Each post should be approved, in writing, by an editor and another student before going live. You may want to utilize a group messaging system or a shared document to track approval and content.
Week 5 Goal: Momentum
Teambuilding
Before this week’s staff meeting, ask an editor and a staff member to each select a Yearbook Hero to celebrate. Share the love on social.
Introduce peer evaluation by partnering two students, equipping them with a rubric, and asking them to evaluate a strong example of design. Because it’s “easy” to critique something weak, this forces students to understand why a layout works.
Allow students to sign up for one-on-one sessions with you, and possibly your editor in chief, during class where they can have undivided coaching.
Theme
During your next editorial meeting, ask the team to brainstorm theme-related
Photography, Design, and Reporting
After your weekly staff meetings, you should have a good idea of the the page statuses for the yearbook. Your team will continuously be in a cycle of photographing-reporting-designing. Monitor progress by continuing to set and track goals. Break up the monotony by adding in relevant skill-building lessons and—dare I say it—nothing. Sometimes, a study hall so your students can catch up is a great way to show you value their time and commitment to all things yearbook.
Week 6 Goal: Establish Routine
Rest assured you created consistency and accountability with a weekly team meeting. Because of this, students know their weekly assignments such as social media posts and photo shoots. All of your yearbook team is trained on your software, and with peer editing, a safe dialogue and pre-disclosed standards will refine areas of growth. Is it perfect? No. Will it ever be? No. And that’s OK!
Remember your role: advise. Here's a checklist to help.
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5 things to do to sell more yearbooks… in the fall!
Back to school means back in business. Selling your yearbooks should start as soon as you do! Here are five easy ideas to immediately implement to gain sales momentum at the start of the school year. Plus, we're giving you a social calendar and slew of sales flyers you can customize, then share.
1. Stick it to Them
K-12 yearbook adviser Erika from California goes sticker crazy: “Our class meets 7th period, and with end times being staggered, my students run to the lobby and place a sticker on each [elementary] student as they head to the pick up lines.” The stickers have purchasing info on them.
In Georgia, adviser Dara does the same, then takes it one step further by sending a humorous follow up email:
We didn’t want you to get stuck without a yearbook, but if you accidentally ran the reminder sticker through the wash, here’re some handy tips to take care of it.
[Link to purchase yearbook online]
Consider designing your stickers to match the yearbook theme for a branding tie-in.
2. Plan Posts
We all know the cliché: failure to plan is a plan to fail. Use a promotions calendar to diversify your posts and make sure your yearbook sales and marketing strategy match your audience.
We’ve created a free social media calendar to promote your yearbook and your program.
Bottom line: parents buy the books. They’re mostly on Facebook and Twitter, so angle your yearbook sales posts to them. Unless you’re a huge *NSYNC fan, reading buy, buy, buy is not going to get the job done alone:
- Use #throwbackThursday as a feature for campus leaders and parent volunteers to pose with an old yearbook
- Ask parents to share their advice to seniors
- Do a guess the teacher feature with senior photos
Social proof is one way you can positively encourage others to support your program by buying a yearbook.
We trust our mom friends, so let’s give them a social badge to share.
We want students to want the book. Mix in student-centered messaging on Facebook and Twitter, such as reasons to buy a yearbook or highlight yearbook photos from a recent event that showcase non-buyers. Also, focus social media efforts on TikTok and Instagram to
- Play up a trending sound or duet with a popular video
- Post a variety of messages to increase engagement
- Partner with campus influencers (ASB, PTA/PTO accounts, athletics) to hype your yearbook or upcoming event
3. Sell your Program
One step beyond using social media to post links of how parents can buy yearbooks or recognition ads, is to show people the value of your yearbook program. The people who help make the book are just as important as your product.
- Show behind the scenes work: time lapse Photoshop work, someone hand drawing a layout, the yearbook committee meeting up for lattes and layouts
- Have the student body vote on a dominant image for a spread
- Reveal sneak peeks of the book
- Share your goals (e.g. 200 new followers, 60 books sold by December, 10 photos submitted) and, more importantly, how you celebrate
- Thank the yearbook heroes publicly on a #thankfulnessThursday
4. Simplify Your Yearbook Sales Processes
When someone says, “I need to buy a yearbook,” then you should be ready to sell it, not hand them a flyer. Repeat after me, “Sell the book.”
Evaluate your Yearbook Sales Platform
Your yearbook program is a business whether you have a multi-year contract with book minimum orders or not. Therefore, one way you can serve your customers aka mom and dad is to make it easy for them to buy your product!
- How many clicks does it take to go from home to checkout?
- Do you have to scroll for days?
- When you share an ordering link, it is two miles long?
- Can you link directly to your school’s store or do families have to search?
- Are the sales reports easy to find and read?
Crowdsource Efficiently
Parents want to buy your yearbook because they know their child will be in it. Make it easy to contribute:
- Add a specific, bi-weekly call-to-upload to your social calendar
- Pass out cards at games and events with your yearbook email to that mom with the camera
- Give shout outs to people who send you photos
- Use QR codes
Use QR codes on all. the. things.
5. ReMEMEber the Posters
Texas PTA mom Rachael said she drives past her children’s school every week. When there’s a big announcement, such as yearbook sales, her school puts a banner on the fence or a series of yard signs. Because it happens intermittently, she knows it’s valuable.
Old school paper posters can be effective (just don't be wasteful!) if the messaging is correct and the location is on point. While we love a good yearbook meme, keep it clean, positive, and fun—just like your yearbook!
QR Code is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.
Still not started? Get your yearbook done in a snap
Every school year feels like a whirlwind, so if you’re getting a late start on your yearbook creation this year, don’t sweat! This is the year where miracles do happen, and we find out we are all a lot stronger than we give ourselves credit for. You've got this! And if you don't want to do it as a solo act, join one of our live webinars, including our popular Yearbook Quick Start session.
Step 1: Update Your Student Roster
The first step toward a quick yearbook build is to update your community and student roster. This seems tedious but will save you hours if you do this first. You will easily be able to tag to ensure inclusivity or to create an index. You will also be set up to start marketing and selling your book. Last but not least, this will make sure your books are sorted properly upon arrival saving you tons of time once they arrive, or shipped to the correct address if you're shipping yearbooks to homes.
Step 2: Communicate with Your School Community
With an updated student roster, you can now effectively communicate with your community and launch marketing campaigns that support yearbook building and orders. Examples of communication that will help you build a better book include emails asking for photos, how to purchase books, and special features like creating custom pages and showing your students/parents how to create e-signatures.
Step 3: Collaborate with Your School Community
The best yearbooks include input from your community, even in a non-pandemic school year one person cannot be everywhere all the time. Following strong communication, you are set up to effectively collaborate on the yearbook too. Crowdsource photos from school staff, parents, coaches, and more. When possible, assign class pages to others, not only will this lead to spreads that are most reflective of school experiences, but oh yea, you'll get to unload some of your workload. Win-win!
Step 4: Upload Your Students' Portraits
Whether your school was able to take professional portraits or you are sourcing portraits from your community, upload these to your yearbook next. Most yearbook software will have an easy solution to help you with either path.
Step 5: Select Your Yearbook Theme & Style
Now that you’ve connected with your community and begun sourcing ideas and visuals for your yearbook, you’re ready to select and set up your book themes and styles. In addition to designing your own themes, there is a library of professionally designed themes to pick from when you’re in a pinch.
Step 6: Build Your Book
It’s time! Let’s build … take advantage of technology here! With features like auto-page layouts that magically lay your photos out beautifully on a spread or pre-designed pages that cover the best of..., and year in review, you are set to create a meaningful yearbook for your students and community to cherish for years to come. Still looking for more information? We've curated a giant list of ideas for you to steal for your community.
Step 7: Set Your Yearbook to Print Ready!
That's it, you're done. The final step is to set your book to “print-ready,” which ships it to the printers and if you're using Treering, you'll have your books in hand in 3 weeks or less. If for any reason you want a little more time, it’s easy to adjust print-ready deadlines too.
Clearly, this is still a lot of work, but we've included every trick in the book to make sure you are on your way fast! This is the yearbook that will be looked at for years and years to come. The year like no other.
5 tips to help you find your yearbook theme
Why Should You Run a Yearbook Cover Contest?
Academic goals are of course the primary focus at school, but consider asking the students to layout SMART (specific, measurable, action, reasonable, time) goals at the beginning of the year. Come the end of the year they can go through a self evaluation that will lend itself nicely to the story of your yearbook. Goals could be long or short term. I remember having goals to read a certain number of books throughout the school year as well as trying to make it through a day without doodling on my hands/arms/legs.What’s popular with your students this year?
From movies to music, snacks to snapchat, pop-culture can be a great way to get some inspiration for your theme. The benefit to using a theme centered on pop culture is it adds an extra layer of nostalgia beyond your photo and story memories. The down-side, well as a child of the ‘80’s I can honestly say the photo of me with 5 foot tall bangs and fanny pack was embarrassing enough, not sure I need to be reminded of the countless hours lost to New Kids and Nintendo.How are your student’s different from others?
This might seem like a difficult question, but ask your students. They will typically know what makes their school “better” than the rival neighboring school. Growing up most of my classmates lived on a lake, because of this we were all about the water sports. We knew how to waterski off the dock, build pyramids, and wakeboard. We would have loved to see this represented in the theme of our yearbook, as it was unique to our school. You don’t need to limit yourself by the schools colors, the yearbook should tell the story of one moment in time and school colors are not unique to one year.What issues are student’s passionate about?
Pop culture changes year-over-year and with that children become passionate about different issues facing the world today. Similar to Michael Jackson and Free Willy raising awareness on preserving and protecting the ocean and its inhabitants, today children are talking about climate change and fact checking. Lucky for them they will never understand the frustrations of the card catalog now that Alexa can answer just about all their questions. Consider what issues students are talking about in class and how they are learning to make a positive impact in our future.Who are your student’s role models?
You might be surprised; kids today are #woke. Gone are the days where Micheal Jordan and Madonna served as the role models of youth. Kids today are looking up to people like Elon Musk and Ruth Bader Ginsberg. They are not just aware of what’s happening in the world, but they are choosing their role models wisely. Now that you’ve asked yourself a few questions, I thought I’d share some brand new themes that might get you on the road to something truly unique for your yearbook. Below are 5 fresh themes for you to consider for your tribe.Fingerpaint
This theme captures the spirit of imagination, similar to Harold and his purple crayon, each student has the ability to draw whatever they might need, leaving their unique handprints behind as a reminder of what they have achieved.
STEM
Early learning experiences in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) are critical in preparing elementary school students for STEM learning in middle and high school, as well as for future careers in STEM-related fields. This theme talks to more than just the tech culture our children live in, but how schools are more focused now than ever in bringing STEM to the forefront of learning.
J[our]ney
With multiple different color options, this is a classic, bold, choice for a yearbook tribe wanting to add some graphic texture to their book. It’s sentimental in begging the question, “What does the school care about for the year?” There are many ways to play with this theme. Consider some wordplay:
- Y[our] goals
- Enc[our]agement
- N[our]ishment
- Study h[our]
- Y[our] story
Color Splash
It’s subtle yet elegant in the movement of the dots first flowing together then breaking off to find their own individual path, but not before first making a splash. This yearbook theme would be best for books that are text heavy, given the words will pop on the purple background, and there isn’t a lot of distracting artwork.
Cosmic
The applications of this theme reach to infinity and beyond. From the single star that shines bright to the entire constellation of stars, our students are pushing the boundaries of learning to their outer limits.
Each yearbook tells the story of just one year, whether your theme is how power corrupts, as in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, or love and loss as in Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook, (I genuinely hope those aren’t actually your themes) these ideas should help you get started. If you are looking for more inspiration, check out this handy theme generator, it might get you and your yearbook tribe a bit further on your journey. 
Selling yearbook ads? Read this first.
If you’re considering whether selling yearbook ads is right for your staff, you’re probably looking to take your team to the next level. Of course, it might also mean you’re hoping to satisfy a financial obligation to your yearbook publisher.
Yearbook ad sales can represent a fantastic learning opportunity. This process can empower your students with real-world skills, from pitching to potential clients to designing captivating advertisements. And the proceeds that come from selling ads to parents and local businesses can help offset or even eliminate the cost of many wish-list items.
However, if ad sales are necessary to offset yearbook debt instead of a way to benefit your program, Treering can help.
Define Your Goal
Before you think about ad sales, ask yourself: what’s our objective? Generally speaking, schools sell yearbook ads for one of four reasons:
- To teach business skills (sales, advertising, negotiation, and more)
- To purchase new equipment
- To help students pursue related learning opportunities
- To pay back existing yearbook debt
If your aim aligns with the first three, congratulations! Purchasing hardware and software that, in your staff's well-trained hands, will enhance your program for years to come is a fantastic achievement. And being able to do so self-sufficiently is even better! If you find yourself here due to the last reason, however, read on.
Cultivate Favorable Terms
There are many reasons your yearbook organization could be in debt. Perhaps you bought too many books last year (tip: not every company requires a minimum order quantity). Maybe unexpected charges surfaced on your final invoice or your per-book price seems high. Regardless, if ad revenue is solely meant to cover existing debt, it's a signal to reassess terms with your publisher.
The solution? Negotiate more advantageous terms. Open communication with your publisher can often lead to mutually beneficial solutions. Many publishers are willing to collaborate to foster goodwill and ensure continued revenue.
If renegotiation proves challenging, consider evaluating other publishers. Look for a partner that offers flexible terms, never requires contracts or minimum purchase requirements, provides inclusive per-book pricing without hidden fees, and offers school-friendly ways to raise funds.
Selling Yearbook Ads: the Potential of Your Program
Your yearbook has the potential to not only capture memories but also generate revenue for your program. If you find it becoming a financial burden instead, it's a cue to reassess your strategy. Selling yearbook ads should be a positive venture, enhancing your students' skills and contributing to the success of your yearbook program. As you embark on this journey, keep the focus on empowerment, learning, and the enduring impact your yearbook can have on your school community.
How to structure your yearbook staff to fit your needs
For a lot of yearbook advisers, the question of which students end up on their yearbook staff is outside their control—even if they don’t want it to be.
And while you can do a lot to influence that question, it’s still the teacher’s equivalent to rolling of the dice. Which means you could spend a lot of time focused on building your dream yearbook staff, only to find out it can’t happen for a number of reasons outside your control.
When it comes to your yearbook program, then, don’t just ask, Who are the right students for my yearbook staff? Make sure you ask, What’s the best way to structure my yearbook staff for my students and my goals?, as well. Because that second question might set you and your yearbook staff for success in more ways than the first question ever could.
Here’s why:
Focusing on the right structure for your yearbook staff will provide these advantages:
- Ensure the work your students do is aligned with your goals for the book, giving you a better chance of meeting your goals for the book.
- Ensure your students work in roles suitable to their experience and interests, giving them an opportunity to experience success early and learn a specific set of skills that interests them.
Inside this post, we’ll explore how to organize your yearbook staff for these advantages, plus the basic positions you’ll need to fill for a successful year. Read on.
Making Your Yearbook Staff Structure Fit Your Needs
When organizing your yearbook staff, you have two choices for structure: organize your staff by responsibilities, or organize your staff by sections of the book.
Understanding the advantages (and disadvantages) of both types of yearbook staff structures will make picking the right one for your team easier. That being the case, let’s break them down.
Organizing by responsibility.
A more traditional structure for large yearbook staffs, this approach mimics the type of organizational hierarchy that students will find out in the real world. It provides each member of a staff the opportunity to work on a core responsibility, giving them better experience in a select area.
If you have a large returning group of students, this can be an easy organizational structure to implement. You’ll know your students’ strengths and interests, and you’ll be able to match them to roles that will be the best fit for them.
The advantage here is clear: Your students will become rockstars in their given roles. As the year progresses, so, too, will your students skills. The layouts and designs will get better, the photos will get better, the writing will get better. Hard to turn down, right?
There are, though, a couple drawbacks to organizing your staff in this fashion. For one, you need a decent sized yearbook staff—and that’s something not every yearbook adviser has. If you don’t have a class smaller than 12 students or so, you’ll likely be asking students to focus on multiple responsibilities.
For another, your job as a classroom manager will get a little hectic. Each responsibility on a yearbook staff—layout and design, copy, photography—could be taught as year-long, stand-alone courses. And if you’re students are diving deep on a specific responsibility, they’re likely to want the knowledge and challenges that come along with that deep dive. Figuring out how to teach three different subjects to three different sets of students for the entire year, then, can be challenging.
Organizing by sections of the book.
When you’re running a lean and mean yearbook staff, everyone needs to get their hands dirty on everything. And that’s exactly what this organizational structure allows.
For small yearbook staffs and for staffs where you know little about your students’ strengths and interests, giving everyone the chance to design, write and photograph allows for more exploration, skill development, and overall interest in the book.
Organizing your yearbook staff by sections of the book will give everyone a specific task, keep them focused, and help ensure each section (if not the whole book) has a cohesive feel. Pretty much everyone we’ve ever talked yearbooks with would agree it’s nice when that happens.
The biggest downside to this organizational structure is actually it’s strength: Students will get experience with lots of different responsibilities, but not a lot of experience with a single responsibility. That’s a problem, if one of your goals as a yearbook adviser is to help students develop a specific skill.
For student-run yearbook staffs, either of these organizational structures will help you set up your yearbook staff for success.
Basic Positions For Any Student-Run Yearbook Staff
Just like there’s no single, perfect organizational structure for your yearbook staff, there’s no single, perfect set of roles. There are, though, a few roles that are good starting points for shaping your staff.
Here’s a breakdown of yearbook staff positions to consider:
Editor-in-Chief
Because of the huge list of responsibilities that come with the title, nearly all editors-in-chief are returning students. Experience alone isn’t enough.
They’ll need all the tools: dedication, talent, leadership. Your editor-in-chief will be part of a small team that shapes the theme and coverage of the yearbook, and will help train new students, provide you with feedback on how the yearbook program is being run, and be part of the team that signs off on the book before it goes to print.
Editor
How you decide to structure your yearbook staff will impact how you define your editor roles. If you choose to organize your staff by responsibility, you’ll want an editor for each core area of the book: layout and design, writing, and photography. If you choose to organize your staff by sections of the book, you’ll want an editor for each section of the book.
Regardless, your editors will be lead-by-example types who are also comfortable providing guidance to staffers and younger students. They’ll serve as coaches, and make sure students stay on theme and within the style guide constraints you and the editor-in-chief put in place. They’ll keep their pages moving or make sure their responsibilities aren’t blocking pages from being finished on time. And they’ll copy edit and proof pages before submitting to you and the editor-in-chief for final sign off before submission.
Staffer
With few exceptions, the majority of your students will be staffers.
Their primary responsibilities should include choosing the right layout for the write spread, taking photos, covering events, and writing headlines, captions and stories. Because many of your staffers will be new to yearbook, your editors will need to help guide with them. They'll work together on developing story ideas, learning to tell stories through photos, and fitting layout schemes and page designs to content.
There's plenty of work to go around when it comes to yearbook (as you know); so, making sure you have a sizable staff is worthwhile—even if that means your editorial staff is a bit smaller.
Spending more time on structuring your yearbook staff to best fit your students and your goals will do more than help you create a better book; it’ll help you deliver a more rewarding experience for the students in your program.
How to recruit yearbook staff: helpful tips for advisers
- Why should students join your yearbook staff?
- What are your goals for the yearbook?
Why should students join your yearbook staff?
So, why join yearbook? It’s a pretty straightforward question, really, and it’s one you might even be tossing back to your students on a yearbook staff application form. But here’s the thing: Because you’re asking yourself (and not your students) this question, you have an opportunity to shape your yearbook class or yearbook club before anyone even signs up. It’s your opportunity to align your recruiting with your yearbook program’s goals. Let’s take a look at some potential reasons for joining a yearbook staff, how they align with a yearbook adviser’s goals, and why they’re important to consider before diving into your recruiting efforts. Take these three examples:- Express yourself creatively.
- Get better at something you already love to do.
- Learn career-oriented skills.
- Express yourself creatively. As reasons to join yearbook staff go, this is about as low pressure as it can get. You’re looking for students who have a creative itch and want to scratch it. They’ll be eager, no doubt about that, but you may attract a number of students who need full instruction on theme development, design theory, and following style guides. That’s not to say you won’t create a great book with your class or club; we bet you will. But some of those advanced design elements and layout techniques you’ve seen elsewhere? They may need to wait a year or two until your staff has more experience.
- Get better at something you already love to do. You’ll still be finding those creative students who want to express themselves. Using this reason, though, you’ll be more likely to find students who are passionate about a particular discipline—like photography, writing and design—and are ready for the hands-on teaching to get better at it. These students will already understand the basics of stuff like theme development, design theory, layout techniques, and will be excited to try new, more-advanced aspects of it. You’ll be focused on getting them to the “next level” that they’re aiming for.
- Learn career-oriented skills. Before we dive in here, we’ll admit: It’s probably tough to find enough students who are looking for career-focused instruction to fill out a yearbook staff. (If you can, though, good for you. And kudos to your students.) Students attracted to this reason are more likely to know what they want to do when they grow up. They’re focused on becoming graphic designers, photographers, and journalists. So, you’re not just going to be focused on getting them to the “next level,” you’ll be focused on teaching them the tools they need, like desktop publishing software and photo editing tools.
What are your goals for the yearbook?
Like we mentioned earlier, knowing your goals for your yearbook class or yearbook club will help you better recruit the types of students you need to achieve your goals. But that’s not the only reason to outline your goals before you start recruiting a yearbook staff. The idea here isn’t just to find the types of students you need; it’s also to find the types of students who will get the most out of your class or club. Take, for example, a yearbook program that has a primary goal of “producing a book that lets students tell the story of the year while expressing themselves creatively.” That’s a good goal. It’s specific and it’s achievable. (It even sounds fun!) But a career-oriented student probably isn’t going to get the most out of a yearbook club with that goal. Likewise, a yearbook class with a primary goal of “producing an award-winning yearbook that teaches students how to better use professional desktop publishing and photo editing tools” probably isn’t going to appeal as much to the creative students who aren’t interested in deepening their talents and skills as it relates to journalism and desktop publishing. But that doesn’t mean that one goal is good and the other goal isn’t. It just means that the goal and yearbook staff need to be aligned. You need to draft your goal, determine the type of student who is going to get the most out of a class or club that has the specific goal, and work to bring those students onto your staff. So, here’s an exercise:- Draft your goal for your yearbook program.
- Be specific about what you hope the yearbook achieves, what you hope the students learn, and what you hope you’ll teach along the way.
- Determine which character traits and goals students should have to help you achieve those goals.
- Craft recruiting messages (based on those reasons we mentioned above) that speak primarily to those students.
Before teaching yearbook writing, read these 7 stories
7 Stories to Help Teach Better Yearbook Writing
“The North West London Blues,” by Zadie Smith
You need to read this because… Zadie Smith is an excellent writer and one of the most influential writers in Britain (which is pretty much the same as saying she’s one of the most influential writers in the world, because, come on, we all know how much the Brits love to write). “The North West London Blues” is a piece in defense of the Willisden Green Library, a place she frequented as a child and that clearly functioned as a cornerstone of the community. Set to close and make way for commercial endeavours, the story is built around a community’s peaceful protest of the library’s closing. Smith talks through her own experience with and passion for the library, generally speaking, as a necessary component of any community, and does so with beautiful prose. Her sprawling narrative introduction gives way to highly descriptive writing that weaves personal experience with an argumentative streak yielding a piece of writing your staff will love. Stylistically, Smith deploys parentheticals throughout the piece in an interesting way, using them to insert long swaths of supporting information, as if the speaker grabbed a snippet from a pertinent Wikipedia page. Share this story with students who might enjoy weaving elements of personal narrative and rich description in a piece shedding light on a serious economic or social problem impacting the school community. A Brief Snippet of What Makes this Story Great... “Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay.” Read “The North West London Blues” here“Taylor Swift Runs the World,” by Chuck Klosterman
You need to read this because… Since the likelihood of your yearbook including a profile of some sort is rather high, knowing what a great one looks like is imperative. A profile shouldn’t be an all-out fluff piece, an unabashed celebration of an individual. But writing something that allows readers to get a glimpse of the subject without deifying them can be quite difficult. It requires tact, a strong voice, and the ability to sift through facts and quotes, determining what matters most before spinning it into a cohesive story. “Taylor Swift Runs the World” is an exceptional example of a profile piece. Klosterman’s patented style (gratuitous hair metal references and self deprecation) makes for a great read, and the stark contrast it creates when compared to the version of Swift depicted creates great tension throughout the piece. Chuck Klosterman is a criminally underrated national treasure. The guy’s hilarious, impossibly smart, and writes with a truly unique voice. A Brief Snippet of What Makes this Story Great... “There’s simply no antecedent for this kind of career: a cross-genre, youth-oriented, critically acclaimed colossus based entirely on the intuitive songwriting merits of a single female artist. It’s as if mid-period Garth Brooks was also early Liz Phair, minus the hat and the swearing. As a phenomenon, it’s absolutely new.” Read “Taylor Swift Runs the World” here“Consider the Lobster,” by David Foster Wallace
You need to read this because… “Consider the Lobster” is probably more of an assignment for an AP English class, where you’d discuss the underlying philosophical argument, and take turns wrestling with the obscure language and the paragraph-length tangential deep dives. You can read the essay’s eight pages over and over and come away with your mind blown every time. David Foster Wallace is (in)arguably the most prolific essayist of the 90’s/aughts. His footnotes are often more illuminating (and more wonderfully written) than entire volumes produced by his peers. This essay is an interesting, off-kilter entrypoint into existential philosophy and the opulent-ish world of gourmandizing. Share this with your staff as encouragement to find their voice (no matter how “out there” it might be). Just be sure your staff doesn’t try too hard to emulate DFW: it’s impossible! A Brief Snippet of What Makes this Story Great... “Is it all right to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure? A related set of concerns: Is the previous question irksomely PC or sentimental? What does “all right” even mean in this context? Is it all just a matter of individual choice?” Read “Consider the Lobster” here“The life and times of Strider Wolf,” by Sarah Schweitzer
You need to read this because… If this one doesn’t make you cry, you’re wrong. Written over the span of months, Boston Globe reporter Sarah Schweitzer’s soul-wrenching story runs the gamut, detailing the life and circumstances of a young boy from rural Maine named Strider Wolf. A victim of horrific abuse, abandoned by his parents, and raised by his grandparents, Strider somehow manages to emit glimpses of optimism and happiness on a daily basis. This is a phenomenal example of telling an utterly tragic story with tact and beautiful prose, and the perfect way to introduce your staff to emotionally impactful writing that isn’t overdone. An added bonus: the accompanying photography won a Pulitzer, so be sure to share this one with your whole staff. A Brief Snippet of What Makes this Story Great... “A few weeks later, shortly before the end of school, Strider sat alone, under a DARE sign, curled into a wall alcove. The lunch ladies in blue smocks had piled his tray with potatoes and carrots and chocolate milk, but he picked only at a package of Pillsbury mini-bagels. It was grab bag day. A dollar bought a brown paper bag of goodies, like pencils and erasers. Two mothers from the PTO were stuffing bags at the table over from him. Lanette had told him that morning she didn’t have a dollar.” Read “The life and times of Strider Wolf” here“Friday Night Lights,” by Buzz Bissinger
You need to read this because… It revolutionized the way people write about sports. It’s a sociological study of small-town Texas in the late eighties. You loved the TV show. Football season is over. Need I go on? Bissinger’s essay (and book, if you haven’t read it) chronicle a Texas high school football team and the surrounding community in the late 1980’s. An outsider (from Philadelphia), Bissinger became a part of Odessa, learning the town's racial, social, and economic machinations, and penned his book in a way that tackles (had to) these themes very much head on. While it’s unlikely your yearbook will feature pieces riddled with racial undertones, Bissinger’s ability to write about stories that didn’t take place on the field—as well as the actual accounts of football being played—in “Friday Night Lights” are excellent examples for your staff to check out. A Brief Snippet of What Makes this Story Great... “Crousen was saddened and dismayed. He couldn't help but wonder if Boobie, because of his natural athletic ability, had gotten too used to having everything handed to him. This August, while other college players prepared for the beginning of football practice, Boobie stood in front of his home in the Southside, chatting quietly with members of his family. It was then that his cousin Jodie found out that Boobie wasn't going back to Ranger and would sit out a year. She was shocked and worried. "You're just going to rust up, "she said. "It ain't gonna happen," replied Boobie, for he knew better. "It's a God-given talent."” Read “Friday Night Lights” here“The Last American Man” by Elizabeth Gilbert
You need to read this because… Don’t be shocked if you read this piece by Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert and decide to move to the heart of Appalachia to build yourself a yurt and start clearing trees for fields. “The Last American Man” is another profile, though on the opposite end of the spectrum; instead of the subject being someone of unimaginable fame, Gilbert details the life and philosophy of a man who has chosen to eschew mainstream society, instead preferring the simplicity and joy of self-sufficiency (think Chris McCandless with more know-how and much better luck). If you have a staff that swears its high school is so boring they’ll never be able to find a unique story inside its four walls, show them this. Gilbert proves that anyone, anywhere can be fascinating. Warning: There are a handful of F-bombs in the introductory paragraphs. A Brief Snippet of What Makes this Story Great… “Eustace hated to blow its beautiful head off, so he took his knife from his belt and stabbed into the jugular vein. Up came the buck, very much alive, whipping its rack of antlers. Eustace clung to the antlers, still holding his knife, and the two began a wrestling match, thrashing through the brush, rolling down the hill, the buck lunging, Eustace trying to deflect its heavy antlers into trees and rocks. Finally, he let go with one hand and sliced his knife completely across the buck's neck, gashing open veins, arteries and windpipe. But the buck kept fighting, until Eustace ground its face into the dirt, kneeling on its head and suffocating the dying creature. That's what living in the woods means.” Read “The Last American Man” here“Death of an Innocent,” by Jon Krakauer
You need to read this because… A lot of high school students read Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild. It’s a classroom classic; why not show your staff the essay from which it spawned? “Death of an Innocent” manages to combine a series of interviews, passages from McCandless’ own journal, scientific research, and even snippets of Krakauer’s own time spent wandering after college, to create a fascinating piece. Pay particularly close attention to the way Chris McCandless is characterized. Is his rugged individualism heralded, or is he painted as a brash young man woefully under-equipped for the circumstances he sought out? Is there even a definitive answer to this question? A Brief Snippet of What Makes this Story Great... “His education had been paid for by a college fund established by his parents; there was some dollars 20,000 in this account at the time of his graduation, money his parents thought he intended to use for law school. Instead, he donated the entire sum to Oxfam. Then, without notifying any friends or family members, he loaded all his belongings into a decrepit yellow Datsun and headed west, without an itinerary. Chris McCandless intended to invent a new life for himself, one in which he would be free to wallow in unfiltered experience.” Read “Death of an Innocent” here Read them. Learn from them. Teach with them. Talk through style and technique, pointing out the rhetorical devices and artistic flourishes that your young writers might incorporate into their yearbook writing. Most importantly, though: enjoy.
Best yearbook tips: let our experienced advisers help!
7 Yearbook Tips From Experienced Advisers
How to Boost Creativity
“We always do a review of the previous year's book and discuss what worked and what didn't. We do a lot of brainstorming to come up with new ideas and angles. We try to look for interesting features that will make that spread unique. For example: Our wrestling spread last year...we learned that we had a girl wrestling on the team for the first time, and it was a very interesting story. We interviewed her and her teammates; it turned out to be one of our best features last year! We encourage our staff to carry a small notebook (yearbook journal) with them during the day. We instruct them to look for interesting features every day and jot them down in the notebook. They really like the idea of being "investigators" and getting the scoop! We also encourage them to create a Pinterest account and create a yearbook board. Pinterest has endless sources for yearbook: it has become a staple for our staff! We encourage them to "think outside the box.” All ideas are welcome; sometimes, they need to be "re-focused," but even the "overboard" ideas have given us something to work with!” — Shari Black, North Stanly Middle SchoolHow to Promote Your Yearbook
“At our registration event before the school year started, I had a yearbook booth to show off the results of our first year using Treering. I ordered an extra copy of my yearbook to show them my two, free customized personal pages — both dedicated to the Kansas City Royals’ World Series championship last year. That sparked some ideas among parents and kids alike! (I used primarily photos that I took, or that friends on Facebook took, of the games and the victory parade.)” — Kevin Worley, Northgate Middle SchoolHow to Keep Your Club Manageable
“In the beginning, I thought the more hands/minds the better, but it was a bit more chaotic than I had hoped. Now, I limit my team to 10 people. We meet once a week for about an hour and cover anything that needs to be done and start new pages if we are ready to move on. We use Schoology at our school and I created a “club” page there which allows us to stay in constant contact as assignments are getting done. My club consists of 8th – 12th graders. I will generally put my younger ones in charge of tagging photos and making sure photos are moved to the proper folder. My seniors have a lot of say in how the senior section of our book will look and spend most of the year working through the special projects for that. My mid-age students will mostly work on page design. I do also have a student that I put in charge of proofing so we know we have a final eye on everything. We have so much fun coming up with new projects each year that it has been fairly easy keeping the excitement at a good level.” — Rachel White, Cherokee Christian SchoolsHow to Help Students Feel Comfortable as Reporters
“Make really meaningful, visually pleasing, and large yearbook press passes for your kids. A good pass will make them more confident in getting into tight spots to get photos and helps keep them on task. It will also help others be less freaked out or think: ‘Why is that kid pointing a camera at me?’. A good pass makes getting your kids access to things like the sidelines of games or free entrance to events easier as well. I like doing passes because I can customize them each year to match the theme and colors of the yearbook for that year, but others do shirts or pullovers, which work well also. Whatever you get, put some time/money in to help it feel legit.” — Ben Johnson, Hutchison High SchoolHow to Introduce Design Concepts
“I usually start off the year by telling my students, ‘Design a page all about you.’ But that’s usually not enough guidance. This year, I’m going to start by saying, ‘Design a double page spread about Field Day.’ It’s an annual event at the school that all the kids know. I’ll give them all of the pictures from last year. Then, we’ll have their designs as a learning tool, and we’ll critique everyone’s designs.” — Toni Vahlsing, Abington Friends SchoolHow to Step Into a New Role
“The most important thing I did when I became yearbook adviser was to interview students who had been involved in the process before me. I sat down with my new yearbook staff (which included those who had some experience) and we went through several years of books to decide what we thought worked and what didn’t, and made notes of what we wanted going forward.” — Rachel White, Cherokee Christian SchoolsHow to Generate Sales
“I like to print perforated, blank business cards with our yearbook sales info, then hand them out to students and families. With these handy, portable cards, my yearbook staff—whose first names and last initials all appear on the card—can generate buzz or initiate conversations about sales by handing them out to classmates and friends. At Meet-the-Teacher Night, registration or other family/school events, I always have a stack handy.” —Kevin Worley, Northgate Middle School The best part of getting yearbook tips like this from advisers? Putting them to use, of course. Remember: advice comes from experience. It took these advisers time to figure out what works (and what doesn't) for their schools' yearbooks. The same will probably be the same for you, but these yearbook tips can give you a head start on solving any challenge you may face.
Yearbook examples: why studying sample content is critical (& how to do it)
Why You Should Be Getting Your Hands on School Yearbook Examples
We already hinted at the big reasons for grabbing yearbook samples from other schools, but let’s take a second to make it super clear. You can’t beat having a whole book, in all its context, right in front of you. Think about it: You don’t release your yearbook one spread at a time on Pinterest for your students, do you? Of course not. You give them the whole thing, in all its printed glory, because that’s what the yearbook is all about. Each page and spread builds on the other to create a story of the entire school year. While learning how other schools shape their yearbook’s narrative is reason enough to collect yearbook examples, there are others, too. Let’s explore six of them:- Find new design ideas. It’s a lot easier to have your yearbook team work through design problems and find inspiration when you have some great examples sitting in the same room as with them. And we’re not just talking about spread designs. Other schools’ yearbooks can serve as a way to work through design issues related to everything, including mods, folios, and section breaks—with the added benefit of seeing how those designs complemented theme development, were used as templates throughout the book, etc..
- Spot trends that fit your book. A new yearbook trend seems to pop up every year. Keeping track of them can be hard, and figuring out which ones are best for your yearbook can be even harder. It’s easier to spot them—and know which ones you like—when you have a library full yearbook samples from other schools.
- Identify story angles and themes. You might not know the students featured in other schools’ yearbooks, but that doesn’t matter much. They can still be a goldmine for identifying story angles, themes, and everything else that goes into shaping your yearbook’s narrative. Granted, you won’t use this stuff verbatim, but it’ll help you and your team look at your yearbook a little differently.
- Develop best practices. If you’re lucky enough to collect a bunch of yearbook samples that your team aspires to recreate, you’ve just found the ultimate resource for developing best practices. Gather those books, ask students to find commonalities among key aspects of the yearbook, and list them out. Use that as your guide for creating your own, best-of-the-best yearbook.
- Create new takes on old features. Some features, like table of contents and superlatives, are practically synonymous with the yearbook. But that doesn’t mean they need to be treated like status quo. In fact, a lot of schools have stopped doing that. Using your library of yearbooks as examples, you can find those refreshing approaches and draw inspiration to create your own.
- Practice critiques without hurting feelings. Teaching your yearbook team how to conduct critiques is important, but it’s not always easy when the only yearbook you have on hand is your own. It can be hard to be honest when you’re worried about insulting your friend’s work, and having yearbook samples can ease that tension and give everyone a safe place from which to practice critiques. Do that, and the actual critiques your team does will be that much easier and that much more effective.
How to Get Yearbook Examples From Other Schools
So, here’s how you can actually get your hands on yearbook samples from other schools:- PTA/PTSA Meetings: Every PTA and PTSA is full of involved, invested parents. Some even create the yearbook. Start asking around at county-level or regional-level meetings to build yearbook connections and swap books with other schools in your area. Even if the PTA or PTSA doesn’t run the yearbook, they’ll be able to connect you to the person at the school who does.
- Principal Groups: Most principals meet in groups, whether it’s part of a school district’s requirements or a professional development opportunity. Before they go to their next meetup, have your principal ask his or her existing connections to bring a copy of their schools’ yearbooks, so you can have them. It’s an easy way to collect a bunch all at once. (Just be sure to give your principal enough books that he or she can return the favor.)
- State Associations: While most yearbook advisers likely know JEA and NSPA, the national scale of those organizations might be intimidating to some. Instead, look to your local scholastic journalism associations at the state level. These organizations can be less intimidating, and are focused solely on your helping schools in your state. Check out this list to find your state organization.
- Social Media: You’d probably be surprised at how many friends and family can be in a position to help you. And how many other people out there would be willing to help. Put out a request on Facebook or Twitter, and you’re likely to get dozens of offers for help. And don’t forget about LinkedIn. Nearly 6,000 people list themselves there as being elementary, middle, and high school yearbook advisers and volunteers.
This is the trick to a great yearbook principal message
6 Tips For Writing a Better Yearbook Principal Message
Start with a story.
Did you know that there’s science behind storytelling? Seriously. Our brain actually reacts differently when it receives information as plain ol’ data than it does when information is delivered in a story-like format. That doesn’t mean a principal’s message needs to start with “Once upon a time…” It simply means that using more adjectives, including metaphors and sharing personal anecdotes are techniques that help a message connect with the reader—so start your message with a story.Connect to the theme.
There is a lot going on at your school, right? That’s exactly why your yearbook has a theme. The yearbook theme serves as the unifier between all the clubs, activities, sports and classes that take place throughout the year. So it makes sense that, as the leader of the school, your message both unifies and sets the stage for that theme. Plus, tapping into the theme is a way to recognize the hard work of your yearbook team -- and a subtle way of supporting them.Write like you talk.
This is your principal's message, and it should sound like them. Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine. Avoid long words, formalities and clichés that wouldn’t be part of your vocabulary in everyday conversation. One of the benefits of keeping your language simple is that it will be easier for readers to remember and connect with your message. And that’s exactly what you want.Show gratitude.
Remember to thank the people who worked really hard to make the yearbook—and the school year—amazing. This recognition of a job well done goes a long way, especially if you rely on a group of volunteers throughout the school year.Be concise.
Attention spans are shorter than ever. For most people that means shorter than a goldfish. There’s a better chance that people will read your message if they can see that it won’t take much of their time.Find an editor.
This is where you, the yearbook adviser, get to play a really big role again. Once your principal has created a message they're happy with, it's your turn to step in, and give it a good edit. Check for the other five tips, then proofread it. Doing so will ensure that their message is clear and error-free. It's the best way to make your principal's message stand out (and to save them unwanted embarrassment). Your yearbook principal message isn't just the responsibility of the principal. And it's not just letting your principal write whatever it is he or she feels like. You need to step in and help shape that message. If you use these tips, your principal will deliver his or her message better than they would have done on their own. And that'll make you a hero.
How to write a yearbook story people will love to read
5 Tips for How to Write a Yearbook Story
#1: Power Up Your Headline A strong headline can make or break your yearbook story. Headlines draw readers in with a promise or a bold claim. They hold attention and create anticipation. The best yearbook story headlines are:- Short – they quickly summarize the content to come
- Specific – they tell readers exactly what to expect
- Standalone – they make a statement on their own
- Special – they are unique, powerful and interesting
- Deliver on the promise made in your headline
- Give readers the critical information they need
- Introduce action, conflict or emotion
- Prompt readers to continue to learn more
- Interview the swimming star on her big win.
- Ask a science student about his favorite experiment.
- Talk to a teacher about how her students changed over the year.
- Keep sentences and paragraphs short.
- Cut out unnecessary words.
- Add subheads to divide stories into sections.
- Break up text with call-out quotations or facts.
- Use bullet points to list short moments or stories.
- Keep fonts simple – select one font style for headlines and one for body copy.