My brilliant colleague Sharon Knipmeyer built a beautiful visual story of all the work my students did in Arc of Justice last semester. Click this link to see the photographs and learn more about the project.
The photos show the long and exciting process through which students imagined, planned, and created an interactive exhibit for the community to share what they learned about how change happens in the world. Building the exhibit required a diverse set of skills, and students chose the tasks that best matched their passions and interests, including:
cleaning and preparing the site
painting
mixing concrete
sawing and drilling PVC poles
selecting and arranging primary documents
choosing the music
making historically-accurate protest signs
flying the camera drone to record the unveiling
Please explore these additional links for more artifacts and background:
Here is a short talk I gave this month for alumni of my alma mater, The City College of New York. I share my experience as a college student to make the case that investment in our young people’s education is both personally and socially transformative.
Angela Peery’s recent article on engaged reading challenged me as a parent and a mom not to lose sight of what matters most in English language arts education: creating capable and enthusiastic lifelong readers. I want my kids to have enduring access to (and desire for) the accumulated knowledge, inquiry, and pleasure of the printed word. In short, I want them to read well and often.
As I observe my students this semester (and when I peer into my sons’ rooms), I’ll remind myself of Peery’s questions:
What does being engrossed in reading look like? What does it sound like? What evidence exists that true, engaged reading is taking place?
These questions call to mind the words of my principal at the beginning of this school year: “the classroom is a sacred space.” I want my classroom to be a place that privileges “true, engaged reading”, and I want that priority to be palpable when we open our books.
Peery draws on Nancy Atwell to identify three things we must provide to young readers: time, ownership, and response. Students need sufficient time for sustained study; they need the freedom to choose their texts and set their reading schedule, and they need a teacher to model, coach, and provide feedback as they work through their text.
In this kind of classroom, engaged reading becomes both the means and the end, and all of my instructional choices follow from that priority. Peery describes what this looks like, and in doing so articulates one of my core #teachergoals:
I responded to him as a fellow reader, not as a teacher checking off specific objectives on some kind of record of his reading achievement. When one’s teacher and one’s peers are also engaged readers, it’s hard not to partake in the community.
To what extent do our stories shape how we know and act in the world? What kinds of stories are we incapable of telling, hearing or understanding?
These questions guided our conversation of Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Poisonwood Bible, with context from Chimamanda Adichie’s TED Talk “The Danger of the Single Story” and the #oscarssowhite hashtag. We were fortunate to have Ms. Carraway, Loudoun School’s French teacher sit in. Students dropped references to Aristotle, Socrates, Mikhail Bakhtin, Saidiya Hartman and Suzan-Lori Parks. I learn deeply every day I work with these kids.
Performance artist, educator, and poetryN.O.W. co-founder Joseph Green introducing the student poets who made it to the finals of the Hyper Bole.
poetryN.O.W. hosted its annual youth poetry slam and festival at George Mason University this past weekend, and I was able to attend for the first time with a student and her dad. The organization was started by an English teacher and a forensics coach at Hayfield Secondary in 2010. Its website explains that poetryN.O.W.
is a Northern Virginia based organization that assists schools in developing their own poetry programs, programs that focus on creative writing and performance, but also on the use of the power of art and testimony to bridge the gap between students from all walks of life.
I got to spend the day with students from all over the DMV and their committed, talented mentors and was moved – as an English teacher, as a human being – by this community’s faith in art’s power and the power of their own voices. Their performances grappled with both personal pain and social injustice at the same time that they suggested resilience and an unyielding vision that things could – and should – be different. Ta-Nehisi Coates’ words to his son Samori came to mind as I drove home:
I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world.
The young poets at the Hyper Bole asked each of us to join them as conscious citizens of this terrible and beautiful world, and it’s a testament to their craft that so many of us found ways out of the comfort and security and complicity of our own dreams.
Here are some photos from the day. You can find more on social media; attendees were encouraged to use the hashtag #hyperbole2016 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram:
Tessa introduces herself to poets from other schools during registration. These young women are from Lake Braddock in Fairfax County. (Registration opened at 11, with some poets arriving before. Most stayed through 8 PM when finals ended).
The preliminary slam competition MC explains the rules to students. Most important, he urges students to remember that this is about sharing your work with others and opening yourself to something beautiful.
After students attended workshops and ate lunch, attendees came together for an open mic.
Tessa was the first performer at the open mic.
I was so proud to watch her.
Co-founder Joseph Green stands with all ten finalists.
Amid cheers, Hyper Bole champion Bobbi Johnson stands to accept well-deserved praise and a $500 scholarship.
Tessa is working hard to start a poetry club at Loudoun School. We hope to show up in full force at next year’s Hyper Bole.
EMILY DELTA WEST 15, BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MICH. Partisan glasses can be used to view any topic, from pizza to politics to Donald Trump’s hair. The correct stance will be crystal clear upon viewing of issue at hand. The two most popular prescriptions are available at your local anywhere.
ELISE MCCOMB 14, ROSEVILLE, MINN. Dora vs. Trump
We invited students 13 to 19 years old to submit their original illustrations. Our panel of judges chose five winners, 17 runners up and 26 honorable mentions. Visit The Learning Network to learn more about our contests and other resources for teaching and learning.
View all the winners here: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/gu/editorial-cartoon-contest-2015
The New York Times Magazine took a comprehensive look at the American media’s evolving coverage of Osama bin Laden’s death, perfectly illustrating our course text’s contention that journalistic truth is a practical, functional and evolving process. From the article:
Where does the official bin Laden story stand now? For many, it exists in a kind of liminal state, floating somewhere between fact and mythology. The writing of history is a process, and this story still seems to have a long way to go before the government’s narrative can be accepted as true, or rejected as false.
Jonathan Mahler also addresses the seduction of narrative (often at the expense of facticity):
These false stories couldn’t have reached the public without the help of the media. Reporters don’t just find facts; they look for narratives. And an appealing narrative can exert a powerful gravitational pull that winds up bending facts in its direction. During the Iraq war, reporters informed us that a mob of jubilant Iraqis toppled the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square. Never mind that there were so few local people trying to pull the statue down that they needed the help of a U.S. military crane. Reporters also built Pvt. Jessica Lynch into a war hero who had resisted her captors during an ambush in Iraq, when in fact her weapon had jammed and she remained in her Humvee. In an Op-Ed essay in The Times about the Lynch story in 2003, it was Bowden himself who explained this phenomenon as ‘‘the tendency to weave what little we know into a familiar shape — often one resembling the narrative arc of a film.’’
Was the story of Osama bin Laden’s death yet another example of American mythmaking? Had Bowden and, for that matter, all of us been seduced by a narrative that was manufactured expressly for our benefit? Or were these questions themselves just paranoid?
The students are expressing mixed opinions about traditional news writing.
We’ve looked at some different approaches to conveying information: the neutral, objective “view from nowhere” and the more subjective, personal presentation style.
On their blogs, students analyzed the structure of their choice of article from the Associated Press’ website. They discussed whether they plan to write their own articles in a more traditional or more subjective style. Here are some excerpts from their posts:
Fairness is generally good, but in journalism it can cloud the truth if you include all of the points of view equally, because some of the points of view are more rational and “better” than the others. By emphasizing fairness in the “dirty dozen”, Asimov is encouraging journalists to potentially cloud the truth by including all points of view equally.
In my article, I will take some aspects from Asimov, and some from John Oliver. I will take the lede, the kicker, the nut graf, and some of the quotes, although I will be flexible on how many quotes I put in my article. From Oliver I will take the humor aspect of journalism. I will try to keep the reader interested by being humorous but at the same time keep my loyalty to telling the truth in my article. – Zohaib, 9th grade
The use of the structure can be used to press a particular point. In my article, this particular point was the possibility of sustained life on Mars – the positioning of the lede, quotes, evidence, and transitions was used to emphasize certain points and make the article flow more smoothly, in a way that was interesting and comprehensive. This had no effect on the accuracy of the facts or of the truth of the statement. –Shailee, 8th grade
I believe that you can be bias in an article, interview, or news story, but your method of gathering facts cannot be, or it would be an inaccurate article. By only collecting facts and opinions on one side of an argument or story, and not “transparently conveying” the facts, the research you conduct is therefore biased and unreliable. My article will take on John Olivers’ style of conveying the news, not masking my personal bias, but still collecting data objectively. –Jaddus, 7th grade
In preparation for drafting their first news articles, students collaborated to come up with norms we’ll all follow during interviews. (I should mention that the term “sexy quote” comes from Asimov’s Dirty Dozen).
The lists on the board are entirely student-generated. They also came up with a sophisticated response to the “purpose of interviews for journalists”:
To pursue the full truth, document it authoritatively, present it transparently, and humanize issues and events.
This is an insightful bunch.
I think my favorite moment was when Sofi (perhaps unknowingly, but probably knowingly, drawing on Louis CK) suggested a journalist should basically “act like a person” during an interview. The optimism and prescience are strong in that one.
In the second half of class, they practiced interviewing each other. (We did “musical chairs” to randomly pair them. Musical chairs is exactly the awkward compulsory act set to music that I remember it being in elementary school. But it’s so much fun to watch).
They drafted questions for a fictitious article on how courses here at the Loudoun School are different from those at other secondary schools. I reminded them to uphold the norms they listed earlier on the board, and they went off to different corners of our campus.
At the end of class, we debriefed. Students pointed out when they felt awkward, and what effective things the interviewers did to get them to relax. They also noticed what kinds of questions helped them open up — and which ones might have been too open.
Summer recognized some of the reasons an interviewer might not seem fully engaged: it takes a lot of focus to listen, transcribe, ask, and refer to notes. There’s so much temptation to hunch over the notepad instead of maintaining normal eye contact and open posture. Especially since interviewing can be such a nerve-wracking performance.
And Brenn pointed out that being recorded makes the interview subject equally nervous. I’m hoping this insight translates into empathy during their “real” interviews this week.
They came up with great ethical questions: to what extent should we alter grammatically-awkward speech (or edit out fillers like “um” or “like”) in our articles? Are there some interview subjects we might want to make uncomfortable – for instance, when we’re trying to hold the powerful accountable? What do we do during an awkward silence?
I’ll guide them as they prepare and carry out their own interviews, but they’ll ultimately have to come up with those answers for themselves.
Both the middle school and high school sections have just finished reading two chapters of Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel’s “modern classic” Elements of Journalism. Given that this is a book written in response to a perceived crisis in the American news media’s credibility, I was curious about how the reading has affected their attitude toward the media they consume.
So I asked them.
I used our digital reading tool, Actively Learn, to insert this question into the end of “Chapter 2: Truth – The First and Most Confusing Principle”:
After reading this chapter, do you find yourself feeling more optimistic or pessimistic about your ability to find “truth” in America’s news media? Explain.
Student responses ran the gamut. Some articulated a fundamental faith in the news consuming public’s ability to sift through the mass information made available electronically:
I feel rather optimistic about my personal ability to analyze content and find truth in the news. This chapter lays out the essential components, methods, and techniques necessary to providing journalistic truth. As a consumer of news (through a variety of sources) I trust in my ability to sort through facts and information in order to find truth, using the information provided in this chapter. -Sofi, grade 8
After reading this chapter, I find myself feeling optimistic about my ability to find “truth” in America’s news media because with the internet, there are more than enough people to follow the “sorting-out process” to unveil the truth. Even if the journalists don’t get it right, with the connected world, it is impossible for somebody not to. -Chasya, grade 9
One student was less sanguine, pointing out that there might not be practical ways to address the pressures preventing journalists from producing reliable content:
I feel pessimistic. Most of the examples that the authors gave of accuracy over truth, speed and orientation towards argument over accuracy, and of lack of accountability and fact-checking are examples I have seen myself. Journalism is in a crisis, and while the authors offer solutions, I don’t see how they would implement these opportunities. -Shailee, grade 8
Others had mixed feelings, reflecting particularly on the 24-hour news cycle pressure.
I feel a little of both, half and half. In some ways, news media is an amazing place to get information. It’s easy, and a good amount of the time you can rely on the media to be accurate and truthful in the information they give out. But if you look at it from a different angle, news media is a terrible place to get your facts. If you can’t always rely on something to get information, why every try to? You may end up thinking you finally found something accurate, but later, too late, you realize that you should have never trusted that media source. I do not think that news media should give out information quickly with inconsistent reliabilities, instead I believe that they should slow down their rate in which they feed us the information we want and need, in order to allow themselves enough time to fact-check, and be more reliable, accurate, and truthful. -Eric, grade 7
My outlook on the news media after reading this chapter can’t truly be defined by one of two terms, but I think I’m leaning towards pessimism. With the new age, people are growing ever more opinionated and persuasive. With technology such as the Internet, one can spread their news to thousands instead of merely a few dozen, however, inaccuracies are frequent. Every journalist wants to be the first to get their story out there and available, yet this inevitably leads to faults. As proven by the two articles we read about Ahmed Mohammed, journalists can be extremely biased and incredibly convinced that their opinions are correct. -Summer, grade 7
Another student echoed this issue of speed as the enemy of accuracy, pointing out as well that we tend to seek out sources that confirm our own biases:
Personally, I feel a mixture of both. Certainly, with the digital age’s accessible information, not to mention social media’s unique ability to correct mistakes in news, there is a definite advantage to seeking “truth” in modern American journalism. However, with the abundance of news sources that place speed above accuracy, prey on our inherent confirmation bias, and mislead us by cherry-picking which facts to use in an argument, it is very difficult not to feel at least somewhat pessimistic about my ability to discover “truth” in America’s news media. Either way, it is definitely (at least in my opinion) a positive step forward that this book has taken the time to acknowledge flaws in modern journalism and attempt to correct them/teach citizens how to be informed and conscious in their consumption of news. For example, I was reassured that, instead of simply noting the inability/unwillingness of journalists to define their concept of “truth”, this book delved into the question and created its own definition. -Katie, grade 8
I’m excited to see how students’ feelings shift as we get deeper into the text.
My brilliant colleague Sharon Knipmeyer built a beautiful visual story of all the work my students did in Arc of Justice last semester. Click this link to see the photographs and learn more about the project.
