In this project, students will create an online media platform to highlight local and national news, alongside identity politics. We hope to create a news website, an instagram feed, a twitter account, and a snapchat profile where students produce not only written pieces, but videos and photographs that report news and share stories.
Students will also read Huxley’s Brave New World, participate in Mindplay assessment, and have time for independent reading each day to improve reading skills.
As for content, students will read, write, and discuss a range of topics including, but not limited to:
Fact and Opinion
Truth
Colonialism
Dystopian society
Freedom
Suffering
Technology & Innovation
ASSESSMENT
Students are assessed throughout the semester on their work and their demonstration of learning. They will have rubrics for critiques, Socratic seminars, student led conferences, and project work. Each week in partners, students created two pitch slides that were pitched to the editors (also students) who selected which pitch to turn into an article. Weekly pitches and news articles are assessed by the teachers in three categories: Depth of Thought, Quality Work, and Effort and Mindset. From the pitch, students work together to draft articles from 200 - 500 words. Weekly rubrics look like this. Students will also create two individual larger pieces to be published on the website. These larger pieces are up for critique each week. A rubric for one of the larger individual pieces can be found here. Much of the grading is completed with thoughtful student reflection. Each week, students turn in their own rubric circling where they believed they belonged within the points of: Not Meeting Expectations -3 points, Nearing Expectations -3.5 points, Meeting Expectations -4.5 points, and Exceeding Expectations - 5 points, in all three categories of Depth of Thought, Quality Work, and Effort and Mindset. Along with this, there is also a space for students to write a written reflection. For their second larger piece, students will have final critique from a local news anchor.