Example of Curriculum for Media Studies

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Lesson 1 Charlottesville and Discussing Hard Things: An Introduction

By Liz Anders I have done this lesson with my 12th Grade College Preparatory English class. It has components for in-person, blended, eLearning below.

Learning Objectives: 1) Practice framework for civil discourse 2) Develop listening skills 3) Discuss difficult informational media California Common Core Standards for English Language Arts: Reading Standards for Informational Text (Grades 9-10, 11-12): 1-7 Writing Standards (Grades 9-10, 11-12): 2, 9 Speaking and Listening Standards (Grades 9-10, 11-12): 1 b,c,d; 3

Lesson Plan (60 Minutes) Consider: a Discussion Framework That Could Improve Hard Conversations (1 minute) As students walk in the physical classroom or enter the Zoom, they should pick up handouts: the compass, agreements, mindful inquiry. Cue up the slideshow here. Click through to slide 2 where you can find them and add them to the Zoom chat if necessary.

Analyze: the Framework (20 Minutes) Students should get out a piece of paper or open a Google Doc (via your LMS assignment) and write two sentences about the three handouts. Here is the prompt for them to answer on slide 3: Take a look at the handouts–really look at them. Predict why you have been given them. Now stop writing.

After explaining the trigger warning on slide 4 and allowing those who need to do so to excuse themselves, show students the following NYT video about the 2017 protest in Charlottesville, VA which featured white nationalists and ended in the death of one counter-protester.

After the video, click on slide 5. Students should go back to what they wrote, skip one line, and answer the following about the video: What happened?

Who was involved?

Where did it take place?

When did it happen?

How did this occur?

Why did it occur?

What are you feeling now, after watching the video?

2 Have you discussed an event like this one with family or friends? If so, what did you talk about? If not, why didn't you talk about it? Now stop writing.

Explore: the Compass with the Whole Class (20 minutes) If the class is in-person, take a minute and place these four words in the four corners of the room:

Cue up slide 6.

Teacher says: Have you ever had a conversation with a person whose reaction to a particular incident or topic baffles you? Have you ever asked this baffling person why he/she/they are acting this way and get an “I don’t know”? Have you ever been that baffling person? It is in our best interests as budding scholars and people interested in discourse in our diverse United States to understand where we are coming from and why we are reacting the way we are. If we can actually unpack why we are reacting a certain way, we are more likely to understand that the people we are talking to are also coming at a topic with a basic human response that comes from personal history. Do you mostly respond to something like Charlottesville with cold analysis? Do you become emotional: angry or depressed? Do you become motivated to do something? Do you react in a moral way: seeing and naming injustice? Take a moment, get up out of your seat and walk to the corner with the word that is close to your reaction to the video we just watched. ***If this is on Zoom, have the students simply write one of the four words in the general chat.**

3 Teacher says: Raise your hand if you have had an argument with someone who you know is coming from an emotional space.

Raise your hand if you know someone who has to “do something” about what they read or saw.

Raise your hand if you have witnessed someone clarifying questions of a person who is crying.

Raise your hand if you know someone who is always talking about right and wrong or injustice.

Teacher asks: Does anyone have a story they would like to share?

Teacher asks each separate group: Why did you respond this way? Do you normally respond to videos this way?

Teacher says: Of course, these four words don’t encapsulate all of human emotion, but they are a start to identifying where people might be coming from when we discuss hard things. Does anyone want to change where they are standing?

Apply: the Compass to the Video (10 minutes) Cue slide 7.

Teacher says: We are going to unpack not what you wrote after the video, but where you were coming from when you wrote it.

Please take a look at the Four Agreements. These are pretty good rules for keeping your cool during conversations about hard stuff. Now turn to the person on your right. One of you is Partner A and one is Partner B. Between the two of you, choose who is which.

Give them a moment to re-read their writing. Then, Partner A should explain where they were on the compass when they wrote the response to the video: believing, thinking, feeling, acting. (Yes, they may be in more than one.) They should NOT go into detail about what they wrote. They should simply discuss how they reacted. They will speak uninterrupted for 30 seconds. Then Partner B will pick questions from the Mindful Inquiry Partner Questions in order to understand and clarify the root of Partner A’s reaction to the video. Questioning period is only 1 minute 30 seconds. After two minutes, Partner B discusses and Partner A listens and questions for another two minutes.

Reflect: on Listening to Others (10 minutes) Cue slide 8 This should be a kind of whole class discussion. On Zoom, the teacher should craft a white board and ask the students to each write a response to one question. In person, this can be a spontaneous whole class discussion, a popcorn discussion, or one which uses a kind of talking stick.

Teacher asks: Where were you on the compass when you wrote your journal?

Where are you now after you read your journal and talked to your partner?

Has your comfort level discussing your reaction to the video changed through these exercises?

Was it easier to talk or listen for you?

What generally keeps you engaged (or makes it hard to be engaged?)

What edit or correction would you give this lesson?

Cue slide 9: Exit Ticket

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Lesson 2 One-word Interview Rodeo

By Liz Anders This lesson can be done online, in-person, or blended. I have included a slideshow that highlights Zoom use/LMS use, but I have done this in all of the iterations above. I do this exercise on the very first Introduction to Journalism class every year and the kids love it.

Learning Objectives: 1) To introduce the Introductory Journalism class to the very beginning of interviewing, highlighting early pitfalls and recovery strategies 2) To “break the ice” or begin to develop relationships between the students in the class 3) To test equipment and apps/practice working quickly and appropriately California Common Core Standards for English Language Arts: Speaking and Listening 9-10 and 11-12: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 Vocabulary Observational Journalism: using the five senses to build a context for a source or interview.

Lesson Plan 60 minutes Consider: Your Background (10) minutes Open the slideshow for the Interview Rodeo. Start at slide 1. Now click on slide 2. Play the Tiktok and have the students ruminate upon the questions silently: Teacher asks: What is going on here? What is working? What isn’t? Have you experienced something like this? How did it make you feel?

You may add a written response assignment to the questions, or a small video response. Have the students keep their reflections to themselves until the end of the lesson, though.

Explore: A New Way to Listen (15 minutes) Click on slide 3. Have the students open the “One Word Interview Sheet.” This is the point in which students must do one or more of the following: Open this slideshow: slide 6 (so they have the script) on a new tab (if on Zoom) Open their transcription app (Otter in our case) and check to see if it is working Check Zoom record, open Zoom transcription Check camera equipment Check recording device Make sure that they can write on the Google Doc online or on the worksheet (irl) Have sketching gear ready

5 While you wait for the class to have these things open and ready to go, click on slide 4, and breathe. If you are in-person, take this moment to count the class and place half that number in chairs in two concentric circles.

Analyze: the Method (5 minutes) Click on slide 5, 6, 7 Direct the class to the one-word interview sheet, explain that the goal here is practice: app practice, note-taking/observation practice, interview attempt/practice – nothing more.

No, students do NOT need to take notes on what is being said beyond that one word. They WILL take observation notes.

Maybe the interviewee wants to explain the word. That is fine. The interviewer needs to write down that one word and then focus on observing.

Teacher will go over the assignment on slide 5 and 6.

Then on slide 7, Teacher asks: So, what are the fundamentals of observation? Have you ever talked to someone and noticed an annoying sound?

Have you noticed what the person was wearing or if they were nervous or happy or sad?

Write these observation words on the Zoom white board or on an actual whiteboard: see, smell, hear, taste, feel (physical and emotion). No, they don’t need to write down something for each of these senses for each question on the worksheet.

Simply tell the students that observation is a fundamental part of reporting. Observational journalism builds the context of a story and helps the writer to connect the dots. Have the students look at the example page for a model of what they need to do.

Create: the Interview (10 minutes) Click on slide 8 and then back to slide 6. If in person, students should now seat themselves in the circle. The inner circle is Group A. The outer circle, Group B, will rotate after two one-minute interviews. (Both students will have the job of being both interviewer and interviewee.) The class will have only one minute to follow the script, get the one-word response to each premade question, and write observation notes or sketches. Please start a timer and let the students know when to switch roles and when to rotate.

If this is on Zoom, you will need to create breakout rooms. Please feel free to do this with randomized room making, through students renaming and then assigning, or by having students choose breakout rooms with names. (I can go into

6 more detail, if you wish later.)

Let the chaos begin!

Reflect: on the Process (10 minutes) After the Interview Rodeo, direct the students to the Interview Rodeo Form on the final slide 9 and then have the entire class share their experience. On a Zoom white board or on an actual chalkboard, take notes from their observations.

THEN, open the form and display the results.

Beyond the activity: Connecting Our In-Class Work to Professional News (10 minutes) Teacher says: We are all enmeshed in media, and many many of us have opinions about what we see, how press is generated, etc. How did this exercise change or underscore how you see the media? Let’s discuss.