I studied journalism. Life showed me the path into teaching, but I’ve always found a way to flirt with it. Incorporating it into teaching, has felt appropriate in many cases, but in the project I will attempt to explain in this post, it felt more than appropriate, it felt right!
This project titled Video-Columnas (Opinion Columns on Video), was carried out with 8th grade students from a school in Bogota, Colombia for the Spanish Language and Literature, native speakers of Spanish. It was replicated in the English Language and Literature class of 10th grade, for Students who were ELLs in a Transitioning or Expanding level (High intermediate or advanced) with similar outcomes. For New York City urban schools, and other similar contexts, I’d love to see it in action in Heritage Speakers classes, or in International High schools.
This format of opinion columns on video seems to be recent. Some people may recognize it as simply You-Tubers or talk show hosts speaking their mind about current events, and making people laugh through satire. I don’t know many examples of this format in the United States, but I can compare it with John Oliver and Trevor Noah’s monologues. When questioning if this was actual journalism, Variety published an article that said “In an era of splintered media and partisan news outlets, good journalism – like beauty – is in the eye of the beholder”. It is much deeper than You-Tubers speaking their mind about political events, but it is not as serious as a New York Times article. It is however political humor and deep questioning of reality in a format that appeals to adolescents, basically because it seems to be breaking molds in a trustworthy, new, bold and audacious way. It “tells it like it is” by showing evidence to support what is being criticized with hilariously satirical arguments. One of the teenagers in my class defined it best “Te hace reir y te deja pensando” (It makes you laugh and gets you thinking”.
The goal of the project is that students make their own version of this journalism as a culminating product of this project, not to be shown to me as the teacher, but to all their 8th grade class. They would be the judges of their final product (this gets them thinking about their audience). To show them the way, it was necessary to break up the process into steps.
Step #1- Students start by watching some video-columns examples in Spanish, that particularly criticize political decisions or ways in which minorities are diminished/ oppressed, by denouncing injustice or systematic miss-information.They watch, laugh, take notes of aspects they like, hate and consider.
Step #2- They decide their work groups and their roles to get clear and equal responsibility. The groups are not decided freely, but they are also based on their interests. They write down three current news events covered on the media recently which they want to know more about, then they explore who may have similar interests. Some of the topics I remember were: #bring-back-our-girls, What’s happening in Venezuela?, The deal with the Peace Treaty, Natalia Ponce de Leon, Understanding Mass shooting, Displacement and migration due to our own doing, Los falsos positivos.
Step #3: They start their research, by gathering different sources to analyze how each medium of information covered the details of their topic. These sources had to be collected from different media to get a gist of the “how”. They had a format where they would look at every single source closely, collecting the relevant information, then comparing them to other sources, having discussions, debates, agreements using only the evidence that was extracted from the texts, noticing absence or altering of information for reasons that can only be speculated, but that seemed mind-blowing.
Step #4- With their findings, they would now identify their focus for the video. Now the writing begins. The script of the video included words, images, jokes, music, supporting documents, voices, tone, register and locations. This is by far the hardest step. They were sick of the topic by now, but by reliving that connection that drew them to the theme in the first place, and using their voices to report on the wrongs, gave them a new perspective and for some a new start.
Step #5- Filming was done with phone cameras or school cameras. When they had all the footage, they had to revise the script for adjustments. We invited the technology teacher to support their editing.
Step #6- Then they would present the video to the class and they all had a discussion around each video, using the assessment rubric as reference. I had a rubric for the process and the students had a rubric for the videos, so the feedback was thought through. The class chose the videos that they considered the best to upload into a private Youtube channel, and vote for the best videos along with all the other classes that were doing the same project.
All kids were engaged in the project with no exceptions. That was a complete first for me! They developed so many skills when facing media, that would allow them to interact with information through deeper understanding and questioning of the sources and their underlying reasons to omit or overlook a specific part or detail, not just for this project, but for life. Part of the video included making a specific reference between the topic and their reality. Recognizing their privilege and their duty to denounce and accuse what is not right. One of the groups that I clearly remember, was able to make a connection between the use of acid to deform women and the silence kept by the school community about teenage girls in abusive relationships.
This was a massive issue, brought to the classroom community. Hopefully their experience can better help them understand the multiple sides to new ventures at many different scales.
Some references of the format:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu2cUfy1hmjlcfZHzvVuEgg
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqTbeZBXruMeD5ySS42Q5cQ
The original guide and rubric for the task
Sumativa 2 octavo 2016 revrubrik
The project sounds very interesting! I would love to implement it with Spanish heritage speakers one day to question out there what’s being told about their communities in the US or other countries. As you you said, at the end, they will become critical when reading other types of media expanding their vocabulary in Spanish and will have more ways to express themselves.
Wow this is wonderful Diana!
More and more we have been learning about how to get students more involved in their communities. Whether it’s through photos, videos, etc… projects such as this one allow for students to get out there and question what is around them, what they hear, and think about how they get to use their knowledge in order to present these topics to their audience (in this case, the rest of the class).
It gives students a chance to step out of the classroom, research and collaborate with with their fellow classmates in order to create a true “tell it like it is” project.
I like how you explained it and made the purpose of it so clear, hope to bring this into my classroom one day.