Transcript
Speaker: Hello everyone and welcome to the Journalistic Learning Podcast where we talk with teachers who are leading journalistic projects in their classrooms.
Speaker: Today we are concluding our conversation with Oregon 6th, 7th and 8th grade ELA teacher Cora Moore.
Speaker: I've loved listening to Cora share her personal stories and insights as well as hearing about the things she's experimented with in the classroom regarding journalistic learning.
Speaker: In today's episode she's going to summarize for us her advice for teachers looking to lead these sorts of projects in their classrooms
Speaker: as well as how the students at each grade level that she teaches has responded to journalistic learning.
Speaker: So let's jump back into it.
Speaker: Yeah, for you, because you're teaching this again, and obviously you see it not only as something good, but perhaps something necessary.
Speaker: So why do you see this as something not only worth trying, but worth repeating?
Speaker: Worth repeating.
Speaker: So I feel like it is worth repeating this because it gives students more practice with those media literacy skills.
Speaker: It also gives them more opportunities to...
Speaker: research and tell those stories that are so impactful and why would you not want students to do that again and even again we might have to change the approach a little bit so if i do this again next year i'm going to have a group of students that have done it twice already and so maybe i might need to tweak some things
Speaker: But I think that the act of interviewing somebody and looking at what matters to us in our community and hearing different perspectives, all of that is so valuable.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: And, you know, I want to ask this too, but, you know, you're teaching sixth, seventh and eighth grade.
Speaker: What, what I guess are the differences between how kids are reacting in each grade?
Speaker: In each grade.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So sixth grade, I feel they were very much like, this is a...
Speaker: like a big kid, like a grownup kind of project.
Speaker: Like, I feel like they felt the weight of what I was asking them to do and they really stepped up and it was really cool to see.
Speaker: And those kids are seventh graders this year and they're the ones who are like, okay, I guess we could do this again.
Speaker: It went okay last year.
Speaker: Even though they're pretty shy and kind of reserved group.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: My eighth graders last year, they had very strong opinions and they just would not stop talking at all.
Speaker: Very talkative group, very strong opinions.
Speaker: very diverse opinions.
Speaker: And so I think it really was a helpful project for them to kind of see some different perspectives than their own.
Speaker: And I think that they, many of them recognize the value in that, which was really neat to see.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: And then your, your seventh graders, any unique about them?
Speaker: Last year, seventh graders.
Speaker: So they were, they have them again this year as eighth graders.
Speaker: Um, and they were the ones who were like, we have to do it again.
Speaker: Um, but they've come around and, um, last year, I think they were kind of a goofy, a goofy group.
Speaker: Um, there are a lot of joking around, um,
Speaker: And I wasn't really sure how much was going to get done.
Speaker: And then somebody walked in the door to interview.
Speaker: And let me tell you, they were all there with ties.
Speaker: And they were ready to get down to business.
Speaker: And I think that kind of fits with the middle school as well.
Speaker: The sixth graders were really kind of trying to keep up and say, hey, I'm a middle schooler now.
Speaker: And the seventh graders were like, we're goofy and kind of crazy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Eighth graders are really kind of starting to find their way in the world and realize that they have...
Speaker: some autonomy.
Speaker: And so I do think that kind of those traits that we often see in our middle school students as they've progressed through the years kind of shown, showed through in this project in, in little ways.
Speaker: Well said.
Speaker: And then, yeah, lastly, what are some just general pieces of, of advice you'd give to teachers who maybe are either implementing effective communicators for the first time, or perhaps even apprehensive about leading a journalistic learning unit?
Speaker: Well, especially if we are language arts teachers, I think we're really especially equipped to handle this unit just because we already grapple with really deep and difficult topics in the rest of our curriculum.
Speaker: So I think we're the right ones to do this.
Speaker: And it might be a challenge, but I think it's a really good challenge that has made me grow as a teacher and as a community member.
Speaker: really wonderful, not just for my students, but for me as a teacher and a human to walk through this project.
Speaker: And so I'm so glad that I did it.
Speaker: And I'm excited about doing it again this year.
Speaker: And I do think that it has been really important to have some support from my administration and to communicate well with my parents.
Speaker: I think that that's been really key.
Speaker: I haven't had any like parent pushback or anything like that.
Speaker: And I think just kind of communicating what we're doing, why we're doing it has been really essential.
Speaker: there and just kind of reiterating that what we're doing are skills that we're supposed to be teaching, that it's not a big political thing, that the students get to choose what they're writing about.
Speaker: Those sorts of things have been really important to communicate with our families as well.
Speaker: Thank you so much for sharing, Korra, and I appreciate your time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's where we're going to end today's episode.
Speaker: Thank you so much for tuning in, and we'll see you Monday.
