Silver Chips at Blair

[Anonymous]

Is it true that you can’t join until after you’ve taken a journalism class? My freshman is hearing this but doesn’t know who to ask to confirm whether it’s true.

[Anonymous]

That is correct. You need to take the journalism course and apply to Chips. You will only be able to enroll if accepted.

[Anonymous]

A pre req is typical for students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is correct. You need to take the journalism course and apply to Chips. You will only be able to enroll if accepted.

Is that because most of the work of Chips is done in the class? Is that for every year of working on Chips or only a student's first year?

[Anonymous]

You have to take one journalism class before Chips and then Chips itself is a class each year you are in it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is correct. You need to take the journalism course and apply to Chips. You will only be able to enroll if accepted.

Is that because most of the work of Chips is done in the class? Is that for every year of working on Chips or only a student's first year?

I would not say that "most" of the work is done in class, but it is a year-long elective slot. It's more that Blair is an enormous school, and there (I think) only two sections of Chips offered, so there is a natural cap on how many kids can do newspaper. There are another two sections (again, I think) of Silver Chips Online, and then some other journalism-oriented kids will do the TV program that airs every morning.

[Anonymous]

So is it all juniors and seniors then since most freshman aren’t probably taking journalism? Is there any way for a sophomore to participate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So is it all juniors and seniors then since most freshman aren’t probably taking journalism? Is there any way for a sophomore to participate?

Correct. Journalism A/B has a pre-req of English 9, and being on the newspaper has a pre-req of having taken Journalism A/B.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So is it all juniors and seniors then since most freshman aren’t probably taking journalism? Is there any way for a sophomore to participate?

Correct. Journalism A/B has a pre-req of English 9, and being on the newspaper has a pre-req of having taken Journalism A/B.

My kid took Journalism as an elective as a freshman and now she writes for SCO as a sophomore. Maybe they’ve changed the requirements?

This is kinda Blair specific for DCUM, but apparently there are five (yes, 5) students in Journalism this year. I’m surprised that Monteleone didn’t cancel it.

CAP students have a course that counts as their prerequisite to write for the paper. If that few non-CAP students take Journalism as an elective like this going forward, eventually the paper will just be a CAP thing. I hope the teacher does something to drum up interest!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So is it all juniors and seniors then since most freshman aren’t probably taking journalism? Is there any way for a sophomore to participate?

Correct. Journalism A/B has a pre-req of English 9, and being on the newspaper has a pre-req of having taken Journalism A/B.

My kid took Journalism as an elective as a freshman and now she writes for SCO as a sophomore. Maybe they’ve changed the requirements?

This is kinda Blair specific for DCUM, but apparently there are five (yes, 5) students in Journalism this year. I’m surprised that Monteleone didn’t cancel it.

CAP students have a course that counts as their prerequisite to write for the paper. If that few non-CAP students take Journalism as an elective like this going forward, eventually the paper will just be a CAP thing. I hope the teacher does something to drum up interest!

I will mention journalism to my son for next year in 10th grade. With few students there would be a lot of attention paid to each student.

[Anonymous]

What does the class spend its time on?

How is Journalism class different from Chips class? How big is Chips class?

If a kid wants to write about/for school but not commit so much class time, can they contribute to Chips? Or launch a rival zine?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does the class spend its time on?

How is Journalism class different from Chips class? How big is Chips class?

If a kid wants to write about/for school but not commit so much class time, can they contribute to Chips? Or launch a rival zine?

Journalism class is learning to write a news/feature story. So, standard structure (headline, lede, body, inverted pyramid, etc) but also the ethics of journalism. How do you identify a source? How do you make sure you are accurately quoting them?

Based on my child's experience, I think having the pre-req is valuable, and hopefully improves the quality of the various Blair student endeavors (Chips online, Chips, and BNC).