⏰ Do Now — Start Here
Flip through a past yearbook. List every distinct section you can find in 3 minutes.
Only About a Third of the Senior Class Is In This Room
Most seniors are enrolled in other CTE programs, not this class -- so the roughly one-third of the senior class actually producing this book is responsible for capturing and representing all of them. That's exactly why cross-class coordination, advance photoshoot planning, and a hard production schedule matter so much: there's no spare roster to redo missed work at the last minute when this few people are covering an entire grade.
🎯 Today's Big Question
- What actually goes into producing a full school yearbook, and what are we responsible for?
📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To
- Identify every major section a yearbook typically contains (cover, senior portraits, senior quotes, student life, clubs & sports, ads/sponsors).
- Explain why a yearbook needs a hard, non-negotiable print deadline.
- Preview the systems the class will build to manage it: a shared Drive folder, a planning doc, a tracking spreadsheet, and a submission form.
🧰 What You'll Need
- A finished yearbook from a past year (physical or PDF) for reference
- Chart paper for a class section map
- Computer with access to the class Google Drive
📋 Your Plan for Today
- Do Now + share-out, building a master list of sections on the board (10 min).
- Mini-lesson: why yearbooks run on a fixed print deadline, and what happens if a section misses it (10 min).
- Class discussion: finalize our own section list for this year's book, informed by the sample and by what's realistic for our class size (15 min).
- Preview the systems ahead: shared Drive folder, planning Google Doc, tracking spreadsheet, and photo submission Form -- we'll build each one together over the next few lessons (10 min).
📚 Key Words
- Section
- One defined part of the yearbook (like Senior Portraits or Clubs & Sports) with its own owner and content.
- Production Schedule
- The fixed timeline a print project must hit at each stage to ship on time.
- Stakeholder
- Anyone with a stake in the yearbook's outcome -- classmates, families, staff, and the school.
✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include
Informal check: every student can name at least 4 yearbook sections and explain why a print deadline is non-negotiable.
Exit Ticket: Which yearbook section are you most interested in helping lead, and why?
📊 Before You Leave
Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.
🔗 Want to Learn More?
🚀 The Extra Mile
Cross-Class Connection: The same whole-project-scope thinking a Business class covers in project planning and resource allocation.
Career Connection: Managing a real, deadline-driven publication start to finish is direct experience for Web Design and Advertising & Marketing production roles.
Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:
- Write a one-page project charter for the yearbook (scope, roles, deadlines) as a real planning document, not just a class handout. Start here: open a blank doc and fill in just the four headings — scope, roles, deadlines, and "what done looks like" — before adding any supporting detail.
- Research how a real publishing company organizes a magazine's production cycle and compare it to your own yearbook plan. Start here: find one real yearbook or magazine publisher's website (Jostens and Walsworth both post theirs) and screenshot their stated production timeline to compare against yours.