Free speech vs. hate speech: What’s protected?
Title
Free speech vs. hate speech: What’s protected?
Description
In the United States, the First Amendment protects freedom of speech. Social media has provided a platform for anyone with an internet connection to post their views on any topic imaginable. Protesters have the right to hold signs and convey their beliefs in public places. But what about hate speech? Should certain ideas and messages be silenced.
Objectives
- Students will gain an understanding of the historical protection of free speech in the United States.
- Students will recognize the importance of protecting free speech.
- Students will explore ways to use free speech to combat hate speech.
Common Core State Standards
| http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RI/11-12/8/ | Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning (e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions and dissents) and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy (e.g., The Federalist, presidential addresses). |
| http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RI/9-10/1/ | Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. |
| http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RI/9-10/8/ | Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning. |
| http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/SL/9-10/5/ | Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest. |
Length
One 45-50 minute class period. Can easily be extended to two or three classes, depending upon the length of presentations and/or group vs. individual work.
Materials / resources
Links to use:
- https://www.history.com/topics/united-states-constitution/freedom-of-speech
- https://www.aclu.org/about-aclu
- https://www.aclu.org/other/speech-campus
- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/us/high-school-national-anthem.html
- https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/24/us/baraboo-wisconsin-nazi-salute-photo.html
- https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/03/private-school-students-gaybashing-not-free-speech-court-rules.html
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/football-anthem-taking-knee-one-all-black-high-school-team-n919116
- https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll/education/cc-boe-confederate-flag-talk-continues-20180213-story.html
Rubric to print:
Lesson step-by-step
Step 1:
- OPTIONAL: Teacher shows the History Channel video (3:09 min) as an introduction to the topic. https://www.history.com/topics/united-states-constitution/freedom-of-speech
- Teacher facilitates a class discussion about the students’ interpretation of hate speech.
- What kind of speech do you consider hate speech?
- What do you think the school administration, teachers or students should do to deter hate speech on campus?
- Should the school news show, yearbook, newspaper include controversial ideas in their publications?
- Teacher provides background on the American Civil Liberties Union. “For nearly 100 years, the ACLU has been our nation’s guardian of liberty, working in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.” https://www.aclu.org/about-aclu
Step 2:
Students will:
A. Read this article about the ACLU’s position on Hate Speech:
https://www.aclu.org/other/speech-campus
B. Summarize the article in one paragraph.
C. One or two students will read their paragraph aloud to the class.
Step 3:
A. Students will choose one of these stories from recent years to research. Teacher decides if students should work individually or in groups.
- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/us/high-school-national-anthem.html
- https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/24/us/baraboo-wisconsin-nazi-salute-photo.html
- https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/03/private-school-students-gaybashing-not-free-speech-court-rules.html
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/football-anthem-taking-knee-one-all-black-high-school-team-n919116
- https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll/education/cc-boe-confederate-flag-talk-continues-20180213-story.html
B. Students will summarize the 5W and the H of the story they chose.
C. Students will create a brief presentation of 2-3 slides (pptx, Google Presentation, Keynote) to share their findings with the class.
Step 4:
- Students share their presentations with the class.
- Teacher leads a class discussion about each case, focusing on ways to combat hate speech with free speech.
- Teacher assesses the presentations with this rubric: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/printouts/30700_rubric.pdf
Differentiation
The entire lesson could be facilitated as a whole group, small group, or individual assignment depending upon the level of the class. If student access to technology is limited, the teacher can print out the articles in advance and distribute them to groups of students for analysis and discussion. Students could work in pairs to create posters with paper/pencil/markers rather than electronic presentations.
Students could display posters around the room and visit each poster “station” to hear from the groups. One member of each pair would stand with their poster to present. The other member would circulate to hear from each of the other presenters at their station.
Students would switch from presenter to observer halfway through the period so that each student had the opportunity to present, and each would have the opportunity to observe and learn.
For past Constitution Day materials, go here
Read MoreEvaluating political ads
Title
Evaluating Political Ads
Description
In this lesson, students are introduced to how political advertisements use free speech and persuasive techniques to motivate voters. Students will evaluate advertisements, consider the ethical dilemmas of using persuasive tactics in political advertising and create their own political advertisements.
Objectives
- Students will explore trends in political advertising.
- Students will identify persuasive techniques in political advertising.
- Students will evaluate ethical dilemmas and free speech issues in political advertising.
- Students will create their own political advertisements.
Common Core State Standard
| CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.8 | Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation. |
| CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.2 | Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. |
| CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.3 | Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them. |
| CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.4 | Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper). |
Length
90 minutes (depending on class size
Materials / resource
Slideshow: Political Advertising
Storyboard Assignment Sheet (Copy front to back, and have extras)
Lesson step-by-step
Step 1 — Review political ads and strategies (30 minutes)
Use the slideshow linked above to review political ads and teach strategies commonly found in advertising. There are teacher notes and prompts in the slideshow, and showing the linked ads along with pausing for discussion prompts will likely take around 30 minutes.
Step 2 — Introduce the lesson (5 minutes)
Explain to students that they need to use their knowledge of political advertising to create an idea for their own political ad. You, their teacher, and thinking of running for state senate, and your students should create an ad idea to persuade voters (if you’re really feeling brave, you can let them decide whether they are persuading FOR you or AGAINST you!).
Step 3— Storyboarding (20 minutes)
Pass out the storyboard assignment sheet to the groups you formed during the discussion and slideshow review.
Give groups 20 minutes to determine the storyboard for their ad, sketching the scenes and describing the music, mood, lighting, and techniques on the lines below each scene.
Step 4 — Present and assess (5-8 minutes per group)
Groups should present their storyboards. As groups present, instruct them NOT to give away the strategies being used in the ad, just the description of how the ad will flow.
Students in the audience should take notes of which strategies they identified in each ad as a way to check for understanding.
Finally, decide as a class which ad will be more persuasive and why.
For past Constitution Day materials, go here.
Read MoreResources for working on student free press legislation
For Constitution Day, we created a resource for those working on state student free expression legislation. This resource can take stakeholders through the stages of the process.
We hope this blossoms into a robust resource area. Samples are included for many items, but please remember, these are samples of what others have done. It is not a best practice to use them as your own. Your information should be specific to your state and should include issues of concern to your legislators.
• This Google Drive includes the following:
Writing the legislation
Finding a sponsor
Organizing advocates
Preparing for the long process Citizenship
Building the case for legislation
Lobbying with students and following up
Educating all before and after bill passage
If you have questions or something to add to this resource, please send it to keekley@gmail.com.
I wish you the best in this legislative season.
Lori Keekley, SPRC director
For past Constitution materials, go here.
Read MoreFive steps for a great start to the school year
The typical to-do list of journalism teachers during the back to school season often includes setting up the newsroom, prepping lessons, attending professional development days and coordinating with editors and staffers. Whether that list lives in a mobile app, Google Doc or pretty new notebook, it’s usually a long one.
But adding these five things to the teacher to-do list will make for a great experience all year long. A little extra planning and outreach in August builds a foundation for students and colleagues that truly sets the tone for student press freedom, positive working relationships and increased awareness on campus.
Consider these for a great start:
- Get on the school calendar now for Constitution Day. Administrators often develop a list of upcoming events to distribute at staff in-service, for the school website, for parent communications and for posting on social media. Make sure Sept. 17 is listed, and begin the conversation with key partners on your campus about what activities you’ll plan and implement. Check out JEA’s set of Constitution Day lessons and activities here.
- Meet with any new teachers and staff members on your campus. Ideally, you can carve out a few minutes to introduce yourself and share about the student media program you advise. Who knows what journalism was like that their previous schools? Drop off copies of the students’ publication so your new colleagues can see what a great job students do. With just a brief conversation you can create the beginning of a positive relationship and help them understand that your students make the content decisions and take their roles as reporters seriously with a focus on truth, accuracy and integrity. If possible, invite them to stop by your room to see the media staff in full swing.
If possible, guide your editors as they prepare a brief introduction to new staff members, too. It’s great for new teachers to see students taking the lead, especially so they learn to contact students with story ideas or questions rather than coming to you. - Incorporate the First Amendment in your welcome back activities. Make these part of any icebreakers, bootcamp sessions, editors’ planning meetings and other gatherings you have lined up for the next month. Incoming editors will follow your example; if you use law and ethics discussions as part of your first meet-up or work session together, they’ll do the same when training their new staff members.
Even simple warm-ups like singing, rapping or reciting the First Amendment or using related T-shirts (like this one or this one) as special prizes will set the tone for a new school year. One simple activity in teams is to distribute envelopes containing the 45 words of the First Amendment on little slips of paper and having a race for each team to put the words in order correctly.
4. Add the First Amendment Press Freedom Award application to your editors’ to-do list. They’re probably in the process of determining the publication/distribution dates and deadline nights for the semester, so the timing is perfect for them to add the Dec. 15 application deadline. As we all know, what gets scheduled gets done. And having the award on their radar may lead to positive, necessary conversations from editors and staffers to educate their classmates, teachers and administrators throughout the fall.
5. Commit to teaching law and ethics. Plan lessons both for the start of the school year and to incorporate periodically all year long. Don’t rush into production with all attention on deadlines only to have students miss the significance of what they’re doing. Don’t apply a “one and done” unit in the first month and consider students’ learning complete. As you map out a scope and sequence, plan to revisit and layer important topics related to student press freedom and their rights and responsibilities.
The Law and Ethics module in the JEA Curriculum Initiative is a great place to start. You also can print the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics for classroom use, or contact them to request a class set of bookmarks. The Student Press Law Center has great resources for educators, too. The key is to plan now and make it a recurring topic for discussion, reading, analysis, debate and/or practice in your journalism curriculum.
With a strong foundation and continuous practice, students make better, more informed decisions.
An adviser’s First Amendment passion is contagious, and the time invested now to accomplish these five tasks will pave the way for students and colleagues to follow your lead.
A pillar of strength: the Tinker decision
Mary Beth Tinker takes pictures at Kent State University’s May 4 Visitor’s Center of exhibits from the sixties. The center documents the era as its protests and time of anti-war expressiion foreshadowed the deaths of four Kent State students.