Student journalists make a difference
Part one of an eight part series.
by Jane Blystone
In today’s world of global interconnection the staffers of the Arrow at Renton High School, in Renton, Wa, have found a way for the student voices within their school to speak, even if it is in Chinese, to the world. They challenge our definition of the word ‘ghetto’ as voices jump from the pages of another issue. We feature their work here.
Be aware that you may need to create a soundcloud account to hear the audio parts of the New American Voices package the students created at a local NPR affiliate. Additionally, if you wish to read the PDF files you will need to download Acrobat Reader to gain access to the files.
In May 2013, JEA SPRC asked advisers to submit student work that had been published during the year to the Making a Difference project. The project’s primary goal is to showcase scholastic journalism that makes a difference in the students’ school or community.
Instead of compiling these entries in an e-book or paper version, the SPRC has chosen to showcase them here with links to online storage so you can see the power of the work, and to provide a public venue beyond schools for this work. We will feature one school’s package per month.
The team of judges select entries that have taken risks in storytelling and provided depth of coverage on a topic. One of the questions we ask of advisers was to tell us if the publication had been subjected to prior review or censorship during the year. As you view these works, consider the impact of student journalism in schools where free speech is honored and in schools where free speech is not honored.
Adviser Derek Smith writes this about the submissions we feature this week. “What if we allow print to do what it wants to do? What if the turning of each page feels like an event—like a children’s book? What if the publication asks a single question (“Is that ‘ghetto’ part of our community actually ‘ghetto,’ and what does ‘ghetto’ mean anyway?”)?
What if our whole issue tells the story of one evolving, developing perspective? What if we rename our Editor-in-Chief “The Chief Storyteller”? What if section names are organic and fluid—the name and size always changing?” The reader will see in part I of this package how students voices jump from the page.
Part II of this submission addresses the English language learners at Renton and the power of their voices. Smith explains the impact this way, “As part of a themed issue called “The Perfect Language,” reporters worked with English Language Learners to record stories of coming to America. Reporters conferenced with ELL students, edited the 1st-person narratives those students composed in English and other languages, and traveled with the students to a local NPR affiliate to record the stories as MP3 files. The MP3 files were included in the “The Perfect Language” issue on a complimentary compact disc titled “New American Voices” – glued into the double-truck. The print edition and “New American Voices” CD were distributed to students and community members during Multicultural Week …” You can also hear their voices a this soundcloud URL and read their work on these PDFs.
In a time when student voices are being silenced across the land, we celebrate the student journalists at Renton because they demonstrate how to tell the stories of their peers in print and on air.
Week 7 blog of a series
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Hazelwood’s impact more than a memory
Just like any big event — you remember where you were or what you were doing. Those who were advising scholastic media when the Supreme Court announced Hazelwood v.Kuhlmeier 25 years ago probably can recall their reactions — and maybe those of their administrators as well.
My own recollection: The principal, a fairly supportive guy, motioned me into his office. “Have you heard the decision?” Of course I knew what he meant. “Yes.” I smiled and added, “But there’s no room for you to moved your desk up to the X-Ray office.”
Luckily the St. Charles High School student newspaper, the X-Ray, didn’t face prior review. There had been some sticky moments in the past, but I got along well with this principal and his successor a short time later.
Not everyone had such smooth sailing. One way to find out what happened then and what changes followed was to talk to advisers who were in the classroom and student media newsroom both before Jan. 13, 1988 and after. What impact did they see from that landmark Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier decision? What difference did it make to them and their students and others they observed?
That’s why the Center for Scholastic Journalism at Kent State took advantage of the Fall 2012 JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention in San Antonio to interview four such advisers who were attending. All taught at that time, and one is still in the classroom while the other three are retired but very much involved with high school media as mentors in the Journalism Education Association program and press association board members.
Gary Lindsay, JEA regional director recently retired from Kennedy High School, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was only in his second year of advising when Hazelwood came about.
Janet Levin, adviser in 1988 and today at John Hersey High School, Arlington Heights, Ill., remembers the local media reaching her when she didn’t yet know the decision.
At Homestead High School in Cupertino, Cal., Nick Ferentinos’ principal almost immediately took what he saw as an opportunity to remove an article in progress about an HIV-positive student.
Wayne Dunn, president of the Ohio Scholastic Media Association and JEA mentor, had been advising four years at Lebanon (Ohio) High School in 1988.
See what they had to say. Did Hazelwood have the kind of impact journalism educators feared in 1988? According to these four advisers who have seen the before and after, yes, the chilling effect on student journalists has indeed made a difference, and it hasn’t been a good one.
Read MoreCensorship by any other name
Students in Prague work on deadline for the publication. (photo by Candace Perkins Bowen)
by Candace Bowen
The good vibes that come from creating a publication that’s yours know no language barriers. And when someone in power tells students what they can and cannot publish, it’s demoralizing and sucks the life-blood out of what could otherwise be a great product. Even talented writers and designers can’t overcome that, no matter how good the teaching is.
Time: Summer 1998
The Place: Prague and Bratislava
Instructors: Candace Perkins Bowen and Merle Dieleman, hired by the Open Society (Soros Foundation) to teach “fact-based American journalism” to teens in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
In Prague, our Center for Independent Journalism contact set us up in a nice facility for teaching, made sure we had good interpreters, gave us a lab for the last two days when the students were to produce a newsmagazine and then she left us alone.
Typical 16-year-olds, the 25 we worked with were passionate about the interviewing and writing. Some took on more than they could handle, and, with four hours left until deadline, mild panic ensued. But the sensible editors made the rounds of their staff, encouraged, coached and told some just to focus on one story and not try to finish three. They also made sure everyone would have something in their publication.
Even when we faced challenges like a PageMaker menu bar in Czech (How do you say, “Drop cap?”) and missing cutlines and cables, it was a crazy wonderful time. As we broke from a giant group hug when we met our deadline, one of the Charles University interpreters said excitedly, “I think I want to be a student media adviser!”
When we distributed the paper the next day, students were all thrilled. Sure, some of the photos were fuzzy, and no one knows where the last line of the street car story went, but they were excited and pleased. It was theirs.
Fast forward to Bratislava for the next two and a half weeks. Different center, different director. Much different philosophy. She wanted a PR piece to make her Center look good. She hired a designer and only one of the 25 students had any hands-on opportunity with actually putting the pieces together. All stories went through her, as she edited, changed, eliminated articles without any input from the 25 students, who shyly complained to us at first. Then, when we could do nothing either, finally they just did some articles, but without enthusiasm.
Teens in Bratislava, who had no real say in the content of their publication, as less enthused. (photo by Merle Dieleman)
When their publication was distributed the last day of the workshop, the expressions on their faces told the story. The newsmagazine looked appealing and, I’m sure (though it was in Slovak and I couldn’t read it!) had articles with perfect spelling, punctuation and mechanics. But the students didn’t care. The publication had none of their voices, their passion. It wasn’t theirs.
What an opportunity she had denied them. They didn’t wrangle over what content to include like the kids in Prague. They didn’t have to decide what was most important or plan what got front page and what had to be buried inside. They didn’t spend time coaching each other or double checking source names. They didn’t try just one more time to reach that reluctant source. They didn’t learn to think. And they definitely didn’t meet their deadline with a group hug.
Read MoreCelebrate Scholastic Journalism Week
with lesson plan gifts for others
by Candace Bowen
It’s time to celebrate! Feb. 17-23 is Scholastic Journalism Week. Did your staff make 45 cookies, each with one word from the First Amendment on it? Wear staff t-shirts? Sign the TAO pledge?
That’s great, but celebrations also need gifts and how about some for your colleagues, the other teachers down the hall? It’s likely some of them could use a great last-minute lesson plan, so how about letting THEM see how well journalism skills apply to their content areas, not just in your classroom? The links below are a good start.
• Some think math and journalists don’t mix, but unfortunately, they must because stories have numbers — everything from budgets to school levies to percentages on standardized tests. EditTeach.org, edited by Dr. Deborah Gump, is full of useful goodies, but one of its teaching resources is “Math for journalists – and readers.” Included are math story dilemmas (READ: story problems) journalists – and their readers – face frequently. Yes, the answers are there, too – and so are two PowerPoints.
• HSJ.org is THE site for lesson plans for you, but it includes plenty to share with others in your building. One is perfect as a gift for a history teacher. JEA Illinois State Director Stan Zoller, who attended the ASNE Institute at Hampton University in 2003, created “Watergate: The Coverage and the Aftermath.”
• Concordia University’s HotChalk offers a range of lesson plans tied to rather generic but probably useful standards. For instance, for social studies teachers “Do Something about…Teen voting/civic engagement” gives examples of using writing to spur others to action. Activities include role playing as muckrakers and creating blogs while seeing what impact those can have on civic engagement in the real world.
• The New York Times and Learning Network is just full of lesson plans, all formatted and complete with accompanying materials.
• How about sharing a lesson plan on the history of Valentine’s Day with materials from articles in that publication.
• The economics teacher might like “Here Comes the . . . Bill,” a lesson plan on the cost of milestone events.
• Do teachers in theater classes have students study reviews? Offer them a lesson plan from the New York Times that discusses the pros and cons of using movie reviews to choose what to see.
Use Scholastic Journalism Week to build some good will with these gifts for your fellow teachers. And my gift to you? Some sites you may not have known about, full of additional lesson plans for you!
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Yes, Common Core has room for law & ethics
by Candace Bowen
Like so many things, it’s good news and bad news. The Common Core State Standards actually may help us show how journalism has skills everyone should know, but in the process could we be losing support to teach the very framework necessary to use our voices in democracy?
In other words, where does teaching law and ethics fit with the new standards?
Nowhere that’s obvious, that’s for sure, but maybe we can find niches that aren’t so apparent.
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