Do you have a plan?

Just figuring out how you’re going to divide the book into sections isn’t enough...
YOU'VE GOTTA HAVE A PLAN
to guarantee that coverage is logical and thorough.

Traditional sections work well to ensure that the yearbook is easy to follow and readers can locate coverage they are looking for. The student life section is generally in calendar order with features sprinkled throughout. If all the sports are together, it makes sense that they would be arranged by seasons while school organizations found in a single section might be in alphabetical order or grouped by function (service clubs, performance groups, publications staffs, etc.) The academics section presents an opportunity for some creativity.If academics always means departmental coverage, it’s no wonder the readers might call it boring. It’s appropriate to use the plan on occasion, but an annual spread on math is less than titilating. What might other options be? Remembering that it’s important to have a solid record of the curricular offerings in the book each year, many staffs run complete details of all courses taught, all clubs advised and all sports coached with the faculy mugshots. Then, the yearbook staff can explore other coverage plans for the section.

It might be that they examine skills used and offer spreads on creativity, analysis, productivity, logic and more. Or maybe they cover what happens in the classroom by breaking the learning processes down based on people involved, presenting spreads on individualized learning, working in pairs, the value of small groups/teams and some spreads on group dynamics. Covering academics by the senses or by wings of the building can present interesting options as well. The key is making sure that the story is told a new way each year.

Chronicle, Charter Oak HS, Covina, CA
Covering academics by skills used or learning method is one twist on traditional departmental coverage. Each of the book’s eight academic spreads focused on a differnt learning verb; others included create, express, observe, explore and prove.

Jag, Mill Valley HS, Shawnee, KS
An array of topics, scattered throughout the book, tell the academic story. New seminar classes like Advanced Photoshop and Jazz Band were covered alongside Freshman Academy, CPR, the library and A.P. classes.

Ash a Wut, Gabrielino HS, San Gabriel, CA
Academics by location is another option. A panorama from an academic setting presented options for covering all kinds of personal and assignment-specific stories. A total of 15 settings campus-wide were included, detailing art, orchestra, woodshop and more.

The Hawk, Pleasant Grove HS, Texarkana, TX
Here the world of academics was covered by hour of the day. In addition to spreads for each block (this one included coverage of nine different cours were packages for before and after school to provide complete coverage.

>> In recent years, many staffs have taken to extrapolating the theory that coverage should be different each year and requiring that each section have a distinct coverage strategy. Others have experimented with chronological coverage in a variety of formats and several have undertaken the challenges of topical coverage.

Chronological coverage has many faces. Commonly divided into seasons, some books have dividers recognizing the changing sections while others feature a single section with spreads ordered accordingly. Many schools adopting a calendar approach will combine several traditional sections and present spreads of coverage arranged in date order. Others will combine small modules of dated coverage on a single spread. And some have gone as far as every spread including timelines or dated folios.

Haida, Auburn Riverside HS, Auburn, WA
This book’s chronological plan took a strictly seasonal approach. The bar of four seasonal icons with their assigned colors was first detailed on the front endsheet. All four colorful icons appeared through the extended opening. Once the summer divider appeared, the lower three were screened back leaving only the summer icon yellow. In addition, the bottom margin became a golden bar. Progressing through the book, the baseline changed hues. The fall section used red as an accent, winter brought meaning to blue and the final section of the book (spring) was green.

The Guardian, Westfield HS, Chantilly, VA
The literal timeline is another option for books considering chronological coverage. Here the marginalia detailed events of specific dates below mods covering bigger stories in roughly the same timeframe. Rather than have an entire section filled only with sports or clubs or even a single spread dedicated to lacrosse or robotics, each spread in the yearbook was a mix of stories from all aspects of life. Date-stamped coverage adds to the credibility of the staff; it’s clear that all components have been thoroughly researched and reported.

Topical coverage, on the other hand creates an umbrella concept linking several stories on a single topic. For example, the “break” package in the 2008 Ash a Wut from Gabrielino HS in San Gabriel, CA included a profile on a break dancer, a record-setting swimmer, a feature on the short time between classes, a mod on students with broken bones and one on the marching band’s hydration breaks during practice. Since then other books have experimented with a number of different variations on this idea.

Besides changing the theme and the visual voice each year, ambitious staffs have found that crafting a strong coverage strategy for each section is yet another way to give each volume of the yearbook a distinctive personality of its own.

The Pilot, Redondo Union HS, Redondo Beach, CA
In a twist on topical coverage, this staff maintained traditional sections (Life, Education, Competition and Involvement plus a reference section) and gave each spread a main topic rather than blending sections and covering everything together. A sports spread based on routines includes the surf team’s early practices, the process of learning a new cheer and wrestling weigh-ins, while a groups spread on timing details the precision of MCJROTC, ASB’s rally planning challenges, robotics time constraints and keeping time with music in Indian dance.

Odyssey, Chantilly HS, Chantilly, VA
In a different spin on topical coverage, the staff imagined the concept CANDID becoming two parts and coverage being divided into a CAN section spotlighting potential and aspirations and a DID component celebrating achievement. With a main story on culinary arts classes and competitions, layers of supporting coverage on the CAN cook spread included family dining traditions, team dinners, and a profile on a student who worked at a bakery and learned to decorate cakes.

Yearbook Discoveries Volume 14 Issue 3