B R I A N B A R O N

N E W T O N S O U T H H I G H S C H O O L

N E W T O N , M A

@ B R I A N B A R O N 1 3

B R I A N _ B A R O N @ N E W T O N . K 1 2 . M A

. U S

MAIN GOAL: HELP YOU BRING THE PROFILES IN

YOUR PUBLICATION TO LIFE.

What you’ll learn:

How to apply the ladder of abstraction to your

writing

How to think visually to bring your writing to life.

How to apply the ladder of abstraction and visual

thinking to profile writing and issue stories

specifically

What you’ll take away:

A general plan for one profile you can start on

next Monday.

THINK OF THREE ISSUES THAT

THE STUDENTS AT YOUR SCHOOL

WOULD BE INTERESTED IN

READING ABOUT.

The Ladder of

Abstraction

ConcreteBloody knives, rosary beads,

wedding rings, baseball cards

AbstractFreedom, literacy

FOR EXAMPLE:

http://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000001906071/miseducation.html

THE BUMPY ROAD OF A SELF-EMPLOYED ARTISTAMANDA LIU, 2012

From afar, the light blue exterior of Lyn Brown’s house looks just like any other residence in Somerville. Upon closer inspection, however, one can catch a glimpse of her personality: a strange and straggly bush has taken over the front yard, and on her screen door is a sign that reads, “DON’T LET THE CATS OUT!”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor

Statistics, 62 percent of artists are self-

employed like Brown. Working without

ties to a stable industry or corporation,

however, can make finances a concern.

For Brown, it’s a puzzle to calculate

which shop to sell her pieces at to

maximize profit. “Sometimes there’s that

one ornament that just sits there in the

store for weeks,” Brown [said.]

SOME PARENTS OPPOSE STANDARDIZED TESTING ON

PRINCIPLE, BUT NOT IN PRACTICE

BY KYLE SPENCER, NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 13, 2015

This past winter, Nicholas Gottlieb, the

father of a third grader and a sixth

grader in Manhattan, helped organize a

citywide forum against standardized

testing during which more than 200

parents and teachers talked about ways

to “attack the issue from different

angles.”

But on Tuesday, when more than a

million third through eighth

graders in New York State sit for

the first of six English and math

testing sessions, Mr. Gottlieb’s two

daughters, who attend Public

School 3 in the West Village and

the Clinton School for Writers and

Artists in Chelsea, will be opting in.

“I would like to think that I would

have the courage of my

convictions,” he said. “But can I

really do that when it means I’m

gambling with my kids’ futures?”

New York has become a center of the

nationwide anti-testing movement,

and this could be a crucial year in

determining whether it breaks out of

the realm of rallies and Facebook

pages to become a significant

educational force. But for various

reasons, even parents who are

uncomfortable with the exams are

discovering it is hard to push the

button on the nuclear option —

refusing to have their own children

take them.

FIRST-GEN.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/education/edlife/first-generation-

students-unite.html

FIRST-GENERATION STUDENTS UNITE

BY LAURA PAPPANO, NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 8. 2015

Ana Barros grew up in a two-family house built by Habitat for Humanity, hard by the boarded-up buildings and vacant lots of Newark. Neither parent attended college, but she was a star student. With a 2200 on her SATs, she expected to fit in at Harvard.

Yet here she was at a lecture for

a sociology course called,

paradoxically, “Poverty in

America,” as a classmate

opened her laptop and planned

a multicountry spring break trip

to Europe.

(Ms. Barros can’t afford

textbooks; she borrows from

the library.)

On the sidewalks of Cambridge,

students brush past her in their

$700 Canada Goose parkas and

$1,000 Moncler puffer jackets.

(Ms. Barros saved up for two

years for good boots.)

On an elite campus, income inequality can be in your face.

Weary of trying to pass as middle class, Ms. Barros decided to “come out,” borrowing the phrase from the gay community. She joined and now leads the two-year-old Harvard College First Generation Student Union, which has 300 on its email list. “This is a movement,” she said. “We are not ashamed of taking on this identity.”

On the nation’s most prestigious

campuses, first-generation-in-

college students like Ms. Barros are

organizing, speaking up about who

they are and what’s needed to make

their path to a degree less fraught.

MIDNIGHT THREE AND SIX

http://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000003468854/midnight-three-

six.html

What is the abstract story you

want to tell? Is it about

diabetes? Parents and kids?

Dogs and cats? Sum it up in

one sentence.

Write the lede; which concrete

details will you use to exemplify

the abstract idea you want to

write about?

NOW YOUR STORY…

-- Choose one of the three from the

beginning.

-- What’s the one-sentence abstract?

-- What concrete details will you need

to exemplify that idea? Who will you

talk to to get those details?

MAIN GOAL: HELP YOU BRING THE PROFILES IN

YOUR PUBLICATION TO LIFE.

What you’ll learn:

How to apply the ladder of abstraction to your

writing

How to think visually to bring your writing to life.

How to apply the ladder of abstraction and visual

thinking to profile writing and issue stories

specifically

What you’ll take away:

A general plan for one profile you can start on

next Monday.