My classes this fall!

Aaaand....the blog is back! I am teaching at Parkmont School this year, a private school up on 16th st. NW in Washington DC. It is a small school with small classes and luckily I will have a good deal of freedom with the curriculum. My first session (there are 7 sessions each year I teach one main lesson of 2 hours and one reading class each session)...my main lesson is US Government and my reading class is modern US Foreign Policy. So it's time to throw out the first two topics for ideas and feedback-

1. What are some good novels on US Foreign Policy at a 7th/ 8th grade reading level? Think Cold War, Vietnam and on.

2. We are in DC so US Government should be full of great guest speakers. Here are some of the topics where I'd like guest speakers. (in no particular order) Help me think of some names to invite!

* The Constitution and Bill of Rights
* Free Press
* Civil disobedience vs. rule of law
* The role of the judiciary and activism vs. restraint
* The power to declare war
* State power vs. federal power
* Security vs. civil liberties
* Separation of Church and State
* Taxation
* Habeus Corpus and the torture debate
* The Right to Bear Arms (DC gun debate)
* The debate over torture
* Warantless wiretapping

Thanks y'all!

Political Commercials, wrapping up the unit

Today's lesson went VERY well with all of the classes. I feel like video is always effective at keeping the attention of the students and keeping them engaged. They understood the concept, from step 4 to step 6, they enjoyed watching the videos, had quick and precise reactions (for the most part), and breezed through the analysis worksheet of a specific ad. They quickly pointed out language choices, color, music, and other things used to influence, and understood the purpose. They were able to quickly spot subliminal messages and immediately identify which type of ad was playing (negative, warm and fuzzy (positive), humorous, or scary). I was very pleased with this lesson and I think it might have equipped them with the most useful media literacy skills of any lesson so far.

We were able to start in each class their final product, their personal media literacy plan. They will continue to work on those tomorrow. These should serve as commitments they are making to be more critical of media messages and learn how to get their information in a smart and savvy way.

Detecting Bias/ Analyzing Political Commercials

Today was much more productive than yesterday! First, with step four we were able to dissect a full article, answering almost every question on the detecting bias in the news worksheet, and many students who normally struggle answering some of the questions on their own. I thought the article was simple enough for them to understand, which helped a lot. We even got through the whole bias lesson and viewed a couple of political commercials to introduce them to that next topic. In step 6 we had a different group og 4 students today who were much more productive. We got through the whole bias lesson, and added a second analysis exercise where they analyzed editorials about the Iraq war to detect bias, and did so well. In this class we got through about 2 political commercials and will pick up there on Thursday. In step 5 we got through the whole bias lesson analyzing both the longer article and clips from editorials. One of the most effective parts was having them pick out the sentence they agreed with most and the sentence they disagreed with most. I think the point that got across the most in each class was that they don't include every point of view or ask each group that is affected for their opinion. We will pick up Thursday with the political commercials lesson in all 3 classes.

Detecting Bias in the News

Monday April 14-

Today's classes were a bit scattered as I divided time up between trying to put some finishing touches on their media ownership poster project and start the next lesson on detecting bias in the news. Managing the two of these tasks made transitions difficult and definitely lost some students in that process. Step 6 was also off the walls rowdy today and could not concentrate on their work at all. Students were frequently cursing, leading me to pull one student aside to address the issue. Classroom management became very difficult in this situation where they were all feeding off of each other. After class I discussed this with the other teachers, we shared concerns, and my cooperating teacher talked to them one on one during study hall.

In step 5 I did start the detecting bias lesson, but only briefly got into reading the article. With Wednesday off this week we have essentially 3 more days to finish 3 lesson plans now- detecting bias, analyzing political commercials, and writing their final media plans.

Meida Ownership, Day 2

Today was the continuation of yesterday's lesson and project. Their is wide disparity here. Many are very into the project and because of that were not able to finish in time, and some who did not want to draw at all (they were then offered the option to copy and paste the logos). There is also a wide disparity in terms of understanding, which concerns me. Many really seemed to understand yesterday (and today in the lesson with step 4), were frequently shaking their heads that they got it, and answered questions that made it clear they understood. Yet today many did not know WHY they were doing this project. I need to find some ways to briefly reinforce WHY it matters that the media is so consolidated and how it effects them. I will try to do that to some extent before we move on to the next topic....detecting media bias.

Advertising Take 2 and Media Ownership

Step four will now be working on a completely different track than the other classes since I want to limit our objectives there and achieve a basic level of media literacy. I prepared a worksheet for today that allows them to better delve into the world of images and advertising that we see everyday so that they can evaluate online advertisements. They attempted to differentiate between content and advertisement, list words commonly used in advertising, and talk about how advertising can make you feel. They did this analysis on two different ads and then compared and added to our class list. I honestly feel like this focused lesson accomplished more than any other lesson with the students at this level. The lessons provided by this lesson will help them be more critical consumers.

With Step 5 and 6 we started talking about media ownership, consolidation, and why it was a threat to democracy. I used a couple of analogies that I think worked really well. The first compared the situation to a rumor started by one person, spread to twelve classmates, about another one of their classmates. One of those 12 people says "Oh man, it must be true...I heard it from 11 people!!!." Then I asked, but how many people did you ACTUALLY hear it from? And they correctly responded, one. This is how media ownership works I explained. So many of the sources we use report news coming from a single company or single chief executive but they are passed off as multiple sources, which validate the information in our minds. The second analogy was how Banana Republic, GAP, and Old Navy are are the same company, but exist to sell clothes to different groups of consumers, but it is really one company trying to increase profit. These analogies really worked I felt and led into talking about media consolidation.

I gave them some surprising statistics on media ownership, and how the sources keep getting smaller. I spent some time talking about how GE owns not only media, but makes fighter jets, bombers, owns a health care company, and oil and gas. The presentation I think was very successful at getting them to understand how this means they would not want to important news like the war in Iraq or the health care crisis. One student actually came up to me later in the day and said "I couldn't believe that stuff. I was stunned!" We spent a little time talking about why this way bad for our democracy and then started in on their project.

We spent the rest of the class working on their project which will be a big poster in landscape greeting card form that has the logo of the big coporation on the front and when you open it, logos of many of the companies they own. We will continue that project tomorrow!

Day 5: Stereotypes and Race in America

Today's lesson for both steps 5 and 6 focused on stereotypes. With step 6 I caught them up by introducing stereotypes, giving examples, and doing the balloon activity with them, and the proceeded on to the second day's stereotypes lesson. With both 5 and 6 we viewed clips from the movies "Finding Forrester" and "Bowling for Columbine." In the Finding Forrester clip a young man basketball player is pigeon--holed by his professor who says "maybe your skills do extend a BIT farther than basketball," at which time Jamal corrects him saying it should be "further." The two challenge each other with the student clearly showing up the teacher and the teacher then making him leave the class. This gets to how stereotypes can be harmful. The second few clips were from Bowling for Columbine. The first one "A Short History of the United States" cartoon was engaging for the students and funny. It showed how racial tensions have built in our history and how it contributes to violence. We watched 2 more scenes where Michael Moore examines how the media fixates on black and Latino criminals and demonizes them, trying to create a culture of fear.

With step 5 I also used to illustrative examples. The first was two pictures after Hurricane Katrina where two individuals were taking food from a store for their familes. The picture of the white couple said they "found" food for their family, while the black man was said to be "looting" a store. The second example was about Elizabeth Smart and Alexis Petterson, one a young white girl and the other a young black girl, kidnapped on the same day. The article I passed out reviewed the way the media covered them, and if the racism played a role in the massive national news coverage of Elizabeth and not Alexis. Both of these examples I thought clearly helped the students comprehend media stereotypes.

In step four this morning we evaluated a local news source, the website for Fox 5 DC. This kind of source is more like ones they use, so we went back through yesterday's evaluating a news source worksheet with them. It has been VERY difficult to get through this concept with this class as they need very direct assistance to work through the questions. They are not able to work well on their own even with much prompting, so they need very specific tasks. I tried to do this by asking them to spot two articles on the site that they would read if they were at home, and asked if the site interested them at all. I also asked them what KIND of news this site offered that they normally would not access. What I really want them to get is to be ABLE to navigate a news website and find information that they need or want. I also want them to be thinking critically about what kind of news they are taking in and what the bias might be.

Tomorrow we will start media ownership with steps 5 and 6.

Media Ownership Lesson Planning

I promised I would use this blog when I needed some help with ideas so here goes:

Anyone have some ideas on how I can teach media ownership and consolidation in a very simple way to my students? I have found some great websites, but not really lesson plan or activity ideas. I would like them all to have one big company and make a poster detailing all of the media outlet that their assigned corporate giant owns, how it shows, and why it matters.

I need more ideas. Also...if anyone knows some fascinating stats on media ownership, that would also be excellent. Post comments below. Thanks!

Day 4: Evlauating Sources, Media Use, and Stereotypes

For the first two class periods today was a bit of a catch up day. In step four I took the advice of my cooperating teacher and went slowly with the evaluating a news source activity, picking only one site that they could all evaluate and walking through it step by step with them. By choosing only some questions to focus on and using only one website, they were able to get a better grip of some of the questions, such as what kind of news site it was and whether it was reliable as a news source or not, and especially whether they would use it to find news. The site we used was www.nationalenquirer.com . We now finished this activity but I think it will be helpful to do one more day on this theme so that we can really drill in evaluating news sources. Tomorrow they will each have their own source to work with.

In step 6 we had 4 people today so we were able to cover some ground. We did the media use survey as well as evaluating a news source. With this more advanced class we were able to jump right into them all doing their own source and they did some good analysis which we will share tomorrow.

In step 5 we did the scheduled stereotype lesson today, which I was very excited about. I started with the warm-up this week of writing in their journal some media and news that they took in over the weekend. I then started out the lesson on stereotypes by asking them to imagine the following people and write characteristics of each down or draw them: criminal, basketball player, politician, Native American. For the most part we got some good answers, but not exactly what I was going for off the bat. We then waled through what a stereotype is, an assumption, and prejudice so that they know how they are different. It would have been helpful to define stereotype as opposed to racism however. The next part of the activity I put a different group label like "young people", "Latinos" or "women" in different parts of the room and gave everyone 3 post-its. They were supposed to write down 3 steroetypes, for 3 of the groups and then stick them under the label on the wall. It would have been helpful here to define these groups, like "homosexual" because some put the definition instead of an assumption.

The lesson was visual, kinesthetic,engaging, and I think well-scaffolded. Overall, I was very pleased with this lesson and will try it with the other classes.

Day 3- media use

Okay...this is that inevitable point where the 3 classes have separated and are now working through different parts of the unit. The attendance issue has meant going back and reviewing earlier elements of the unit with some students, and will force me to make some strategic decisions, especially with step 6, about which parts of the unit to move forward with, and which to skip over to stay on pace.

As far as today's lesson on media use, I got through about 2/3 of the lesson plan with the step 4 class. All of the students got through the media use survey and we defined some important terms as a class as we went through the questions. The next part of class was a powerpoint presentation on media use by Americans, including specifically people their age. I think that students found most of the information interesting, especially things like how many days per year people spend in front of the tv set, that there are more tv's than people in America, what news sources people trust, and how the news doesn't really cover the issues people care about most.

We begun the activity with step 5 to evaluate their own news source with a guiding worksheet. We will continue this coming week. Step 4 did not get that far. Step 6 has been very inconsistent due to absences. With a different two students almost every day, we have gone back through the beginning part of the unit now with two new students. I will try to get them back on track this week, but might have to skip over a few activities.

Day 2: What is news???

Today's lesson was very fun! Each class started out by giving the students back the results to their political preference quizes and explaining how to read where they rated on the political spectrum. Students were asked to first think about this question- "what is news?" After a couple minutes to write down their own definition some students shared their answers and we tried to reach a class consensus. We began by using two clips and asking the students to respond to each one and whether they thought it qualified as news. The first clip was breaking news of Paris Hilton being released from prison, and after some laughter, almost every student concluded it wasn't really news and probably shouldn't be on the news. The second clip was breaking news about the shooting on the campus of Virginia Tech. Almost all students agreed that was news. We then went into what made each one newsworthy or not newsworthy.

I was somewhat surprised and very pleased that students in each class were able to name all of the qualities of newsworthiness. They didn't identify them by name they identified the idea behind each- timeliness, prominence, conflict, impact, and human interest. Having these identified, the students proceeded to an activity to assess their skills in determining newsworthiness. This part was differentiated by class. For the step 4 class we used one article, read it together as a class, and went through the worksheet to determine if the news was timely, if it related to an area near them, was it out of the ordinary, and did it fulfill other qualities of newsworthiness. This article, about a conflict at a local high school, was easy for the students to understand, and we were able to get through the whole activity. With the other classes they each had different articles (1 each in step 6, and in groups with step 5). The students in step 5 answered the questions in their groups but had individual worksheets to keep them on task.

Following this activity we defined the difference between soft news and hard news, and viewed a couple of very funny videos, which I thought really engaged the class (one about what soft news IS, and the other 3 minutes on cable news about Barack Obama's bowling game). The second video really gave them an understanding of what soft news is and how to spot it. I then listed different stories and had the class guess whether it was hard news or soft news. This was probably the point in the lesson where I felt everyone was most engaged. Lastly, we defined infotainment, the blending of hard and soft news, and concluded class. In all 3 classes we accomplished everything on the lesson plan, and I was pleased. One lesson on classroom management was that one students, obviously out of it, slept through most of the class. There was a group activity moment where it would have been wise to take him aside and tell him that he needed to be awake and staying with us, or go to the counselor.

Day 1 (B)- Political Preference

Today in each class we picked up where we left off the day before, mostly finishing off political and media definitions. The primary activity of each class today was the difference between the Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives. We also did the political preference quiz. To distinguish between the party's I printed out positions on many different issues, had students in group try to place that view under which party or part of the political spectrum might believe that position. I also handed out a broad political and media spectrum that I made so that students can get as to where different political figures fit on the political spectrum. For the most part we didn't get to the media figures so we will catch up on that. The students tried to name each person on the spectrum and then fill in their worksheet.

For the most part the students were excited to see what their political preferences were. This activity definitely got a couple students excited as classroom debate broke out in the Step 5 class. This activity definitely made it seem like it would be a good idea to have some class debates on some of these issues later in the year. Students are very opinionated, and although mostly liberal, have conservative views on things like gay marriage and abortion.

Along with the political preference quiz it was definitely necessary to do some explaining what each question so that students understood the sides of the issue and what each answer meant. The class generally behaved very well today and was engaged in the lesson, even some students who have not been in the past. I was pleased with what we accomplished.

Day 1 (A)- unit overview

So today I started the unit on media literacy. First I was introduced to the class because many of the students are new (having moving in from other classes this trimester). The first class moves a little slower as many students are special ed. or have fewer English language skills. We spent a good deal of time defining media and media literacy with them, trying to provide them with many examples. I went over the schedule, and then began working through the definitions. This class was shortened today because we had a meeting with all students to start the day. We got through about half of the political definitions today. We did the same material with Step 6, but were able to get through the entire introduction, political and media definitions today so we can move onto the political preference quiz tomorrow. Step 5, which is now a huge class, will be a real challenge both in terms of adapting the lessons and classroom management. The class is not arranged very well, prohibiting me from getting to the back of the class, which is where the most management is needed.

My cooperating teacher offered some very good suggestions after the classes. She suggested visuals to go along with the pictures would be very helpful for the first period, Step 4 kids. They have done that in the past. I am already limiting the vocabulary I will use with that class. She also suggested that I re-integrate the fact vs. opinion lesson in the context of media literacy because it is a god think to keep in mind as they learn to analyze and evaluate media for trustworthiness, bias, etc... Tomorrow I need to begin instituting some of the procedural things like what we write on the board (date, class, agenda) at the beginning of each class, and the ground rules for my 2 week unit so they are more clear. This was the most tedious part of the process, once the definitions are out of the way the rest will be much smoother. Tomorrow- political preference quiz!

Unit Starts Tomorrow!

The full media literacy unit in it's very new and adapted form begins tomorrow when the kids come back from spring break. Up first... An overview of the unit, explaining what media, and media literacy are, and taking a political preference quiz so students have some idea where they stand as we start this bigger unit on media and American politics.

Lesson 2: Fact V. Opinion

My objectives with this lesson was for students to be able to differentiate facts and opinions, neutral language and bias language, and to be able to recognize how a source may sometimes pass off an opinion as neutral or factual information. In addition I hoped that students could identify facts and opinions in the business plans they have been working on, and identify persuasive arguments to investors, and areas where they needed to add evidence.

Overall, the lesson went according to plan. I was surprised that I was able to get through everything that I had written into the plan and still had time left for the most part. In the first class I was able to get through the whole lesson and still have 10 minutes for them to work on how to make their business plans more effective using facts and opinions. In the second class we were also able to get to that point and since there were only two student, we were able to individually work on how to make their business plans more persuasive.

There are some things that I could have done, upon reflection. When the students were reading through the article out loud, it is important to correct their punctuation. Since many students might know the words but not the spelling, it is important to clarify how the word is pronounced. Also I could have emphasized more in the first class that although facts are verifiable, it is GOOD to have opinions, and you should express them often, but is important to be able to back them up. I emphasized that in the second class.

Overall, the worksheets and materials worked well, the editorial could have been shorter with less advanced vocabulary but we got through it, and the student participation was better than expected!

Lesson 1: Advertising

My objective with this lesson was to have students understand how prevalent advertisements are, how they attempt to influence us, and what clues they might leave about our culture. Unfortunately, this lesson got off to a shaky start as I was a bit late coming into the classroom, but I think after a few minutes I had it together and was able to execute the lesson for the most part as I had intended. It was my impression before the lesson that it would be difficult for students to differentiate between many advertisements and content, and that was confirmed at the beginning of the lesson when I handed out the magazines. I had planned to use the first few minutes to define the terms but was unable to do that so I decided to define them as needed as we went along, which worked relatively well. After some one-on-one attention I was surprised at how quickly students began to be able to pick out the advertisements. They were able to identify logos and other indicators of advertising. I was also very pleased with how quickly they identified the lesson that they were supposed to take away from the exercise. They understood the subliminal effect advertising can have on them through my examples, were able to identify lessons that historians might take away from advertisements about our culture at this time and relate that to their autobiography projects, and also identify the importance of being able to distinguish between facts and opinions. Participation was very high for this class. I did not get to do the formal written assessment I had wanted to with their paragraphs, but I got more than I expected out of the discussion and was happy with the lesson overall.

10 Day Unit on Media Literacy Introduction

Starting a couple days after the students come back from Spring Break (that will be April 2nd), I will be starting a 10 day unit on media literacy. This will be my full two weeks of teaching, and allow me to put to work the media literacy unit that I prepared in my social studies methods class last semester. Using this unit in my current school will be a challenge, since it is a much different groups of students than I had in mind while preparing the unit. Instead of block classes, I will see the students once a day for just 50 minutes. We are lucky to have more than 40-45 mins of time to really work. The class sizes are much smaller. The largest class has less than 10 people (depending on attendance). Technology that I planned to use is available, but since my classes are all in different rooms transporting, restarting the equipment, and getting the resources set up will require extra set up time. There are a few things that require dramatic changes to the content-

1. Vocab, Vocab, Vocab. - A lot of the vocabulary that I had intended to use will not be practical in classes where the majority of students first language is not English, and for some, their English vocabulary is still very little. So the first thing I realized is that I was going to have to do a significant amount of contextualizing the unit before we begin. I will have to review (hopefully in a somewhat interesting way) a lot of vocabulary that relates to politics and media. Defining the initial terms and concepts will take up a good part of the first two days of the unit. Even still, there will be a lot to establish as we proceed to make sure that the students can take full advantage of the activities. Since this is the beginning of a larger trimester of studies on politics, media, and government, spending a couple days on context will be worth it.

2. Technological Literacy- During the last trimester we did a unit with the students on autiobiographies as historical evidence. We were having them set up MySpace pages as their own autiobiographies. We did not anticipate however how long the project would take because most students did not have an email account, did not know how to set up an email account, did not know how to make a MySpace account, what upload and download meant, and other technological skills. Surely, there will be similar hurdles in this unit as we attempt to do extensive internet searching, using YouTube and more.

3. Time and Depth- Because of some of the unique challenges that I will be facing, each of the lessons that I have prepared will take longer than I had planned for. I have cut back on some of the lessons and for some of them I have only cut out some of the activities. The vast majority of the lessons in this media literacy unit concentrate on learning important skills that students can use in a future increasingly dependent on technological literacy. The students will be learning about politics and government throughout this unit, but only in the process of learning how to find information, sort through it, analyze it, contextualize it, and more. I have also taken into account the student population in adapting this lesson so that I use examples that relate to their lives.

I am aware that I will not be able to get through all of the material I have set out, even in this abbreviated version of the unit, so I have prioritized the schedule at the same time as ensuring that it was properly scaffolded based on what the students come in knowing.

In addition, I have already begun the unit in a way by doing two lessons that fit into the unit in advance of the full two weeks. I have done two lessons so far...one on advertising and one on fact vs. opinion. I will provide some brief reaction to those lessons in my next post!

New school!

So I have FINALLY started my student teaching at a public charter school in the Columbia Heights/ Mt. Pleasant neighborhood in DC called Next Step (Proximo Paso). The school is comprised of 83 students, mostly very recent immigrants and high school drop-outs. One of the school's major goals is to prepare these students for the GED. The students in steps 1 to 3 are being taught content in Spanish at varying reading levels (elementary-step 1, middle school level- step 2, and at or near high school level- step 3). Those students also take ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages). Steps 4, 5, and 6 classes are taught in English at varying reading levels (some literally at 1st-3rd grade reading levels).

Of course I will primarily be teaching social studies but for the first week I am sampling all of the steps to get an idea of the schools program and get to know each of the teachers. Today I even taught a science class about global warming IN SPANISH! It was challenging but really awesome! I am also getting involved in helping an ESOL class of lower level Spanish speakers.

Tomorrow and then ALL DAY Friday I will be teaching the digestive system (in English, thank God!). I will be posting about all of my experiences as I go here on this blog. When I have an idea of lessons I will need to plan, I would love your ideas!

Scott