Weekly Response 9: Free Choice
The Video Journalism course at the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush has 28 students who are in their junior or senior year.
I am nearing the end stretch with my field experience at the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush and I finally feel like everything is finally coming together. For the past two weeks I have been setting up our culminating activity, which will involve me bringing the students from the Video Journalism course to our class on Tuesday, Nov. 29. I will also be taking them on a tour of Temple’s main campus. Although everything is planned for the upcoming field trip, we still have some students who are finishing up their videos/slideshows. I was a little worried at the beginning of the week, but I finally saw a handful of completed projects which have all been very good considering it is their first attempt at a journalism piece. Still I am concerned about the students who are falling through the cracks, but not so much for November 29, but for their final grade in the course.
This week was the end of the first marking period, so a lot the kids were upset with their grades. However, the students who were coming to us complaining were the students who I know have not been putting a lot of effort in the class. I made this comment several times, but a lot the students started projects, hit a wall and gave up. The education system has young children programed to think if they can’t find it, then it must not be true or that I can’t do it. This is completely different from journalism, which is a different world for most high school students. I still have some students treating their projects as if it was a research paper and not a news feature. I’ve explained it to them several times, but it just not seem to click because their minds have been programmed to to think a certain way. May be I am over generalizing, but I do see it in their projects.
Fortunately I did see this week that they do understand bias in news pieces, which is a small step away from the persuasive essays they are used to writing. This occurred when one group presented their piece on vandalism in Mayfair. It was a pretty good slideshow, but the students noticed that the music choice was over dramatic and most importantly there was only one side of the argument presented. It was great to see that they actually caught on to that little mistake, which made me realize that although the students may not be at the stage Louis and I had hoped, they are still progressing. Still I am worried about the students who just sit in class and do nothing. This a common occurrence that many teachers face, but I have made suggestions to Louis to use the Library day to have students do research about journalism. This can include current events, class discussions and critiques of published news stories. So in a way this can serve as not only “busy work,” but really more of a learning experience about journalism and the rest of the class days can be devoted to their stories.
Shellon interviews Sang, another student from the class, about his favorite musician.
Overall I am happy with where we are right now, but there still is only four more school days until I bring the students to Temple. I look back at the calendar and wonder where all of the days have gone. I really wish I could have started day 1 with the kids because I think I could have used strategic planning to help prevent students from falling between the cracks. I have also said to Louis that I would have liked to request students to only do audio slidehshows for their first project because video is a bit more challenging. I actually kept thinking about this and other approaches we could have taken first while I was reading Jumping for joy, wracking our brains, searching our souls: Youth media and its digital contradictionsby Elisabeth Soep. I enjoyed reading about Soep’s experience with developing and help run Youth Radio “an after-school, nonprofit organization where young people produce stories for local and national broadcasts on radio, television, and online outlets.” This program does seem to be successful with teaching journalism to youth, but as she mentions it also has its ups and downs. She discussed the story about the American soldier who wanted to share his experience in Iraq with the students, but was not published because higher authorities in the army disapproved of releasing it to the public. I found her comments about this issue to be very similar to the sensitive topics that students wanted to cover when I first started my field experience. I had spent most of my first two weeks helping students redirect their story idea to be more appropriate for a school setting, but without completely going off topic. I actually found this to be a huge issue for me because it did hinder the early stages of progress for the entire class. Louis and I were spending to much time individually with students, that the class as a whole was being jeopardized.
Trevor is a Junior Media Arts major who enjoys being the camera operator and the editor. Students from the class tend to seek help from Trevor when they have difficulties with the equipment and software used for their projects.
Soep’s suggestions for three “signature pedagogies,” (collegial pedagogy, multiple outlets, and applied agency) could have served as a great for Louis and I to start the course. We had both wanted the students to have their own voice in their video journalism pieces, but we had never considered applied agency, or rather ”working on a systemic level to help open concrete opportunities and expose erasures and injustices where they exist.” Also we would like to expand our outlets, but we won’t be looking like Youth Radio anytime soon who works with NPR and other large news organizations. However, I am trying to make strides for a partnership with one of my Philadelphia Neighborhoods acquaintances at NEastPhilly.com. In fact a handful of the students are interested in producing stories for their site. For me this is exciting because I giving the students an opportunity to have exposure to a local media outlet that they can use in their portfolios for college.
All I can say is that I can take Soep’s suggestions and my own experience at Rush and use for when I one day teach my own journalism course to high school students. I am learning what works and doesn’t work in an elective course, which I have hopes of one day doing as a teacher.
Lisa: As usual it is fascinating to read your experience and insight of the Rush student media literacy experience. You capture not only great pictures but write about those little media literacy moments. I wish you put the references in the APA format.
You may need to check if publicizing the picture is legal since they are students in high school.
Impressive work!!!!
Yonty