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.