In this day and age it might seem newspapers are folding left and right, but students at Grant Beacon Middle School are bucking the trend and have founded a new newspaper, The Beacon. Recently, Profile editor Haines Eason visited with the students to share some professional tips and lunch, courtesy of neighborhood favorite Sexy Pizza.
The paper is overseen by Grant Beacon teacher Mary Aflague; she and students meet during the school’s enrichment program time at the end of the day. Students choose two enrichment classes each quarter, and topics run the gamut and are mostly hands-on in focus.
The first issue of The Beacon was published in November and students were buzzing about the challenges and rewards that accompany creating a newspaper.
The young staff said layout of the paper posed challenging formatting issues, and they said a misquote in a story about the volleyball team required them to make a public apology, something they had not expected to have to do. Aflague pointed to the misquote as an innocent mistake but also said it was a learning experience. Eason praised the students for issuing both a personal and school-wide apology saying, “that’s a big deal that you guys decided to go in person and actually apologize. There are a lot of newspapers that don’t and unless that stuff is taken seriously, they lose readers, they lose credibility. Your word in life and in journalism is all you have.”
“How do you keep readers interested?” asked seventh-grader and The Beacon’s Comic Editor, Dash Hall. “You have to spend a lot of time talking to people outside of the job,” Eason responded. “Get to know them personally; think about the big national issues, sure, but then think about how those issues relate to what your readers—your neighbors—have to say.” Eason encouraged the students to talk to their friends at lunch and recess and to use social media to figure out what people are talking about. “If you find people are posting and posting about something, chances are they’re going to want to read a story you write about it.”
Each student has their own story about why they chose to take the newspaper class. In fifth grade Addie Goetz-Montague anchored Super School News, a Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting System (PBS) youth news program, and wanted to try her hand at print. She said since she has always liked the news and writing, taking the newspaper class seemed like the right fit. Goetz-Montegue is working on a story about the Green Day Party, a pep rally to celebrate Grant achieving green status on the Denver Public Schools School Performance Framework.
Student Q. Freeman says he took interest in The Beacon because a friend is in the class but added when it comes to reading and writing he tends to be hard on himself. “I wanted to try it and see if I could lighten up on myself and write for the newspaper.” When asked if he felt he was improving, Freeman said, “a little,” though the expressive smile he flashed somewhat betrayed his modest response.
Keep an eye out for a Grant Beacon student article in a future installment of The Profile’s Youth Voices series.
