Most kids have a heck of a time producing a news story or feature. It’s not easy. When I was in high school, I struggled all the time with my newspaper stories, first as a reporter, then as the sports editor. Finding the story was not as hard for me as telling the darn story. What’s my angle? Where do I start? I need a better lead. How do I wrap it up? What to include, what to leave out.

So as a teacher, I constantly look for ways to boil it down for my students, to make it not so overwhelming for them. One way that works for me is to ask the kids to tell me ONE THING I don’t already know. That’s it, really. Does your story say anything I haven’t heard before? Is there a piece of information I didn’t have access to until I watched your report?

It sounds so simple, and that’s the point, to take the pressure off and to focus the student on reporting new information. By asking them to find something for their audience that will be unique or new, you challenge them to go beyond the surface. At “Camp STN” every summer, we discuss what we see in many high school stories. They tend to be a mile wide, but only an inch deep.

Another way to issue the challenge, and at the same time give direction to your young journalists, is to say, “Tell me something I don’t know, take me somewhere I can’t go.” If they accomplish either or both of those, that depth that is often lacking will suddenly become a goal in every story they do.