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Dear Educators,
This week, we celebrate the work that you and your fellow educators do everyday by featuring lesson plans written by some of our fantastic teacher partners. Thank you for all that you do for your communities!
News Bite Lesson: Why They Flee, Understanding the Migration of Minors
This week's News Bite lesson plan was written by Tracy Crowley, the Information Literacy Specialist at Community Consolidated School District (CCSD) 21 in Arlington Heights, IL. The lesson asks students to investigate multiple perspectives of child migration in order to propose solutions to their state senators.
Tracy has contributed nearly a dozen lesson plans to our Lesson Builder community and has collaborated with the Pulitzer Center over the past several years to incorporate international reporting and journalist visits into her schools' curriculums. Her colleagues at CCSD 21 have also used Pulitzer Center journalism in exciting ways to teach writing, photography, history, science and visual arts. Here is an example of some of the work that CCSD has done with Everyday Africa team Peter DiCampo and Austin Merrill to start discussions about how media impacts our perceptions of other countries. Thank you Tracy and CCSD 21 team for all that you do for your students!
Featured Lesson: Proposing a Win for Women Worldwide
This week's featured lesson asks students to integrate information from multiple news sources in order to describe current realities that exist for women in three countries, evaluate responses to persistent gender inequalities, and propose the best course of action for addressing gender inequality in one country. The lesson plan was written by DC public school teacher Clare Berke, who teaches AP Language at Benjamin Banneker High School. Clare also hosts a lunchtime lecture series that has met with several Pulitzer Center journalists.
Clare is one of nearly 60 teachers we collaborate with in DC every year to connect journalists with schools. This year, we also worked closely with teachers in Boston, Chicago, New York City, St. Louis and Philadelphia to introduce students to journalists and support school-wide projects. Here is an example of how Philadelphia's Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush addressed global issues through art as part of a school-wide social justice day. Contact [email protected] if you are interested in connecting journalists with your students!
Education News: A Slow Approach to Exploring Washington, DC with the 5th grade team at Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School
Last week, over 40 fifth graders from Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School stormed Dupont Circle in Washington, DC with notebooks, cameras and a mission to use reporting and interview skills to capture the essence of the park on a rainy April afternoon.
“The air was cold, but the park was beautiful,” Stella wrote.
“Crowded. Manmade. Loud. Traffic. Buildings. It was all looming over the beautiful Dupont Circle,” wrote Felix.
The students were participating in a three-day workshop in slow journalism inspired by the Out of Eden Walk, Paul Salopek’s seven-year project exploring how a slow approach to reporting on foot can enlighten our approach to larger world issues. The workshop was designed as part of the DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative’s Arts for Every Student Program, but was modified and strengthened through consultation with the fantastic 5th grade team at Washington Yu Ying.
The workshop series, titled “Walk Like a Journalist,” began with an in-class workshop exploring Paul Salopek’s photos. Students started by observing photos scattered around their classroom and making predictions about the Out of Eden Walk. Next, they developed questions about how journalists report after viewing videos and blog posts from Paul's journey. On the second day, students met with photojournalist Allison Shelley at the Pulitzer Center office. They learned about how Allison uses observation and interviewing skills when reporting global issues, and then applied those skills to a reporting project in Dupont Circle. On the final day, students conducted their own reporting projects at their school. Their goal was to use the reporting techniques they had learned from Paul and Allison to observe and capture moments in their communities through photography and writing.
"What I liked the most is finding out how many people have very interesting stories," Soloman wrote at the end of the final workshop.
His classmate Camilla added, "I learned that you have to get to know your topic before you can actually start your writing."
In her final evaluation, Morgan wrote, "I learned that being a journalist isn't just about TV. It's about caring about other people."
Jewel added, "I learned that being a journalist is fun. I would like to keep trying to be a journalist."
A final slideshow of the students’ work will be available at pulitzercenter.org/education later this month.
Contact [email protected] if would like to try this project with your students.
Featured Project of the Week: Out of Eden Walk by Paul Salopek
Click here to learn more about journalist Paul Salopek and his journey traveling around the world. Create your own lesson plan using Paul's work with our Lesson Builder.
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