Proofs were coming back with the same problem on every spread: "It was an amazing year." "I’ll really miss everyone." "This school has taught me so much." Quotes that could belong to any student, at any school, in any year — which meant they belonged to nobody. Interviews were starting in days and staff needed to fix this before the next round of proofs, not after.
General journalism interview lessons didn’t fix it. The problem wasn’t that students didn’t know how to ask a question — it’s that yearbook interviews aren’t news interviews, and nothing built for a news desk actually addressed the specific trap of the trophy quote.
See it on Teachers Pay Teachers — $3.20
A 16-slide lesson that runs in one class period, built specifically around what makes a quote usable versus generic, planning questions around a spread theme, and how to interview the reluctant subjects who don’t want to talk. Paired with a 2-page tip sheet meant to live on the wall of the yearbook room all year — question starters by purpose, a side-by-side of usable quotes versus trophy quotes, and a six-item pre-submission checklist before anything goes to the adviser.
Teach the lesson once, post the sheet, and the fix holds for every deadline after this one — not just the interviews due this week.
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