Recently the grade 10 Journalism class has been learning about writing ledes for their feature stories.
Don’t know what a lede is? Well, think of the phrase “You should always lead with your best foot,” and you’ll get close to what a lede is: the introduction to your story. (It’s a longer story about why it’s spelled that way.)
For news articles, writers must lead with the 5 W’s: Who, What, Where, When, Why.
But for Features, Review, or even Opinion pieces a more creative approach is acceptable.
The students’ task was to imagine they were reporting on a story about a particular time in their school day, and to spend 5 or so minutes of their school day taking notes in order to write the lede for this feature story.
Here is a roundup of what the students came up with:
Scene Report: Upcoming Morning Rush
In the early morning before the mess begins, you enjoy a mug of hot chocolate until the rush takes over.
The smell of fresh air slowly fills the car, as you exit your house an hour before most of your class to skip the morning traffic. You put on your headphones, but the stereo is louder, so you try to focus really hard on the lyrics drumming in your ear. The moment the building comes into sight, the school air ruins your moment with honks and upcoming grades. And every day, it’s the same.
Scene Report: My Morning Commute
At seven in the morning I get on the school bus.
It’s still quiet outside and the sun shines lightly through the trees. The bus feels cold and most people are sleepy and silent. Some students wear headphones, while others just stare out the window. As we continue driving, more and more people get on the bus and the streets start to get busier. At 7:40am we finally arrive at the school and students grab their bags and head to their homerooms.
Scene Report: MAP Testing
The birds outside chirped on an ordinary cold morning; in the classroom, panic filled the room. Desks are organized in rows, laptops shining as students open their computers, dreading the long-awaited moment.
The teacher’s calm voice breaks the silence and says, “Ready for MAP testing? Here is the name and the password for today! Don’t worry if you don’t know an answer; this isn’t graded.” As she said this, every face was tense, and the entire room knew what was upcoming: an hour and a half of clicking answers in silence. If the test isn’t graded, why make students dread it?
Scene Report: Phone Pickup
After 7 hours at school, you are finally looking forward to going home and ending the day.
As you make your way to the exit, you remember something: Your phone. In a hurry you rush back into school, bumping and squeezing your way to your phone pickup point, by the time you get there, you are breathless, and to make it worse, the case with your phone is already gone. You feel angry and upset and think to yourself how much better this concept could’ve been made.
Scene Report: Your Morning Commute
Hearing the alarm ring and being snoozed multiple times, then turns on and off as I hit my hand on my phone for it to stop
Opening eyes to the semi bright morning sun, getting ready silently tip toeing around the house, throwing and clinking different objects into the bag for school, rushing outside of the house, shoes half on running to the furthest bus stop, which is the nearest, arriving then seeing the bus run off to another stop.
Scene Report: Homeroom
As the clock ticks, slowly turning 8, you can hear the rush of footsteps going up the stairs, racing, trying to get to homeroom before they are late.
People are out of breath from the climb of stairs, desperately trying to make it on time, sweat clinging to their clothes. Chatter fills the air as everyone complains about the hardship of having the homeroom class on the third floor, while others whine about how tiring it is to go up these stairs every day, everyone wishing that they could be anyway but at school.
Scene Report: Morning Homeroom
After a long, painful climb up the stairs, students trickle into the homeroom attic, greeted by a sharp blast of cold air from the air conditioner.
Conversations and occasional chuckle drifting between desks as backpacks hit the floor and chairs scrape against the floor. The teachers voice calmly reading out the announcements of the day, only to be greeted by yawns, Outside, the hallway still echoes with noisy footsteps, but inside, the calm feels fragile, foreshadowing the calm before the day begins.
Scene Report: End of Day Phone Pickup
After the final block ends, students pour out of classrooms and rush toward the phone boxes.
Everyone is eager to reclaim the devices they’ve been separated from all day. The grade leader and high school principal stand next to the open boxes, keeping watch as students grab their phones. Just as they step into the atrium, the silence of the school day shatters, buzzes, chimes, and pings ring out in every direction, filling the air with a digital symphony of texts and notifications.
Scene Report: Late to School
Even though I have the luxury of living less than 5 minutes away from school, I often wake up late and end up having to sprint all the way to the atrium.
I slide my key in the door and leave at 7:55. I run past the playground and scrape my legs on the rose bushes. As I go, I notice classmates on bikes rushing, like me, to arrive on time. I pass my gate and offer a smile at the security guards, then chide myself for walking. I skip the overpass, and head for the busy crosswalk. Waiting for the light to turn red, I watch the blur of cars go by. After what feels like an eternity, I reach the school entrance and calmly speed-walk past students. I painstakingly try to pick up the pace, and once I finally sit down in my homeroom, suddenly, I’m putting my shoes on at 7:54.
Scene Report: Drama Class
Lisa slips off her shoes and feels the carpet beneath her thin, white socks.
Mr. Cant calls the class up to the stage, and the stairs creak with the weight of last period on a warm Friday afternoon. The sound echos across the ruby red seats, stretching across the theatre, and the tension of going home hangs heavy in the air as they fold their bodies, vertebrae by vertebrae, down onto the hardwood floor, scarred with decade-old scuff marks and memories of the limelight shining centerstage.
Scene Report: Scatterbrained
Boys are so ninnyhammerish. What does “ninnyhammerish” mean?
It’s a term used to describe something, or in this case someone, who is foolish, childish and scatter brained. I encounter a huge group of them in the back of my homeroom class, while walking in. I go to sit next to my friend Marlene and focus on myself. Rather than the chaos at eight in the morning. The girls sitting around me at the tables close by look stunning. Lucious hair and perfect bodies. The two teachers are working or making conversation. Lastly, the back of the classroom is filled with the male race. Stinky, slow, and scatterbrained. Homeroom lasts for ten minutes and it is quite the experience.
Scene Report: Independent Reading Time in English class
As students come in, sweating after spending their break time otuside, now, is the time to calm down and enjoy reading.
We eagerly pull out my notebook, slapping it on the table with “BAM!”. I cracks the spine of the novel, 1984, a dystopian classic by George Orwell. The smell of paper and old books fills the air, with light shining in from the panel windows, revealing the cafeteria. All of my attention is on the lines written in the book. Pages turn softly, chairs creaking, and faint whispers from the distance in the hallway.
Scene Report: Morning Sunlight at 8am
The classroom is filled with a quiet mix of yawns, whispered conversations and the shuffle of backpacks hitting the floor.
A streak of early morning sunlight cuts across the whiteboard. Someone drops a pencil, and a few heads turn at the same time. While others rest their foreheads on folded arms, stealing a few more minutes of rest before the day truly begins. The announcements crackle on, filling the room with the usual reminders, but most students are feelings too sleepy to understand.
Scene Report: Morning Homeroom
When I step into my homeroom, it doesn’t feel good when the room is colder than the morning fall air.
I’ve forgotten my jacket, but all I can do is suck it up. I say hello to my teachers and go to my usual spot in the back, where the air conditioning is directly blowing air onto my body.
My homeroom just so happens to be a container, since I guess there aren’t enough classes for us to fit in an actual building. My homeroom teachers insist on full control of temperature, which makes the container feel less welcoming than it already is. I have to sit in that room for at least an hour every day, and on Wednesdays it’s even more. Shouldn’t a homeroom be a little more comforting than that?
Scene Report: Morning Homeroom
The morning cold makes students at AIBS shiver as they enter the atrium on their way to homeroom.
At the entrance, teachers beam with wide smiles, greeting each one with bright “good mornings.” Most students, still groggy from sleep, manage only a nod or a mumbled reply. They navigate between their classmates, entering the buildings still half-asleep, wishing they were back in their warm, comfortable beds. Inside the classroom, they drop into their seats, slam their backpacks onto the floor, some resting their heads on their desks, while the teacher flips through the Vampire Diaries. Shortly after, the dreaded phone box creaks open, and each student must surrender their phones.
Scene report: End of the day phone pick up
The final bell rings as the hallway fills with the shuffle of sneakers and chatter, the day’s last task already on their minds.
Up on the second floor, the locker waits, packed with phones that have been off limits since morning. As the steady flow of backpacks makes its way over, students scan their lockers for the familiar shape of their devices, quickly grabbing their phones, anxious for the screen to light up with missed messages and notifications. For many this routine has become a part of their day; however, it also raises questions about distraction, connection, and how these small devices shape the rhythm of student life.
Talking about and bringing attention to what students do in their everyday lives is so interesting! Thank you for sharing