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Gas Prices to Restaurants with Kora Moore
33 Plays1 year ago
In this episode, Kora shares how one of her reporter groups of students went from choosing rising gas prices as their investigative issue to the struggles of local restaurants. Helping students find a good local issue they care about can be a tricky part of a journalistic learning project, so tune in for some tips from Kora!
Kora Moore teaches 6th, 7th, and 8th grade ELA at Lighthouse Middle School in Coos Bay Oregon. This is her second year leading a journalistic learning project in her classroom across the three grades she teaches. Last year, three of her students won an award for their published journalism piece.
Relevant Links:
Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s website
An Education Week article with more information on Black History Education in the US
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Podcast
00:00:13
Speaker
Welcome to JLI's journalistic learning podcast, where we talk with teachers who are leading journalistic learning projects in their classrooms.
00:00:21
Speaker
Hey there, I'm your host Beau Brusco, a former high school ELA teacher and multimedia journalist.
Meet Ed Madison
00:00:27
Speaker
Today, I'll be joined by the executive director of the Journalistic Learning Initiative, Ed Madison.
Cora Moore's Project
00:00:33
Speaker
We'll be picking up where we left off with Cora Moore, an ELA teacher at a charter school in Coos Bay, Oregon, who is currently leading a journalistic learning project with her sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.
00:00:44
Speaker
This is Cora's second year implementing our effective communicators course, which is the JLI's 10-week instructional plan that takes students through a journalistic learning project start to finish.
00:00:54
Speaker
Let's jump back into it.
Student Topics & World Issues
00:01:05
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to say that one of the things that's unique about the program is that the students generate the topics.
00:01:11
Speaker
And I'm just curious if you're noticing like different trends amongst the different grade levels in terms of what they're interested in.
00:01:20
Speaker
I was really curious about that, too.
00:01:24
Speaker
And I was actually really surprised.
00:01:28
Speaker
at the similarities, especially the younger one, they notice so much.
00:01:35
Speaker
They know they have kind of a beat on what's going on in the world that maybe we don't realize that they do.
00:01:42
Speaker
And they're curious about things that maybe they aren't sure they know how to ask about them yet.
00:01:48
Speaker
And so
00:01:50
Speaker
There was a pretty similar list of topics across the grade levels.
00:01:56
Speaker
Homelessness came up a lot.
00:01:57
Speaker
That's something that's been really evident in our community.
00:01:59
Speaker
That's on a lot of people's minds.
00:02:02
Speaker
Suicide prevention.
00:02:05
Speaker
ableism, vandalism.
00:02:09
Speaker
Quite a few were just like, we're really worried about the economy.
00:02:12
Speaker
We don't know what we're worried about, but we're really worried about it.
00:02:15
Speaker
So I'm not sure what direction that's going to take yet, but I'm like, let's check it out.
00:02:22
Speaker
See what you find.
00:02:24
Speaker
Bullying,
00:02:26
Speaker
homophobia, pollution.
00:02:29
Speaker
One that surprised me, we're in a rural community on the coast.
00:02:33
Speaker
And I had one student speak up and say, I really want to know more about why there's not more services for children with autism in our community.
00:02:41
Speaker
And then I had another one speak up and say, that's a great idea.
00:02:44
Speaker
So now there's a whole group that's looking into that.
00:02:48
Speaker
So I
00:02:49
Speaker
Very wide variety.
00:02:51
Speaker
Cora, can you tell us about a time?
00:02:54
Speaker
Because it sounded like when you were just talking about the topics they generate in general and letting them explore and that process of discovery and seeing where they go with that kind of curiosity.
00:03:07
Speaker
Can you recall a time and maybe share with us when you were also surprised by where a topic started with students and where it ended?
Learning through Projects
00:03:17
Speaker
So probably the most extreme example is I had a club group last year.
00:03:21
Speaker
They started with gas prices and they ended up writing about local restaurants.
00:03:26
Speaker
You got to drive to get to the restaurants, right?
00:03:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:34
Speaker
And it was just kind of funny to see the path that that took.
00:03:39
Speaker
I think the point that really narrowed things down for a lot of students was our interview process.
00:03:47
Speaker
And that was kind of the point where it was just really cool to see how it went from something that was so challenging to narrow down and so nebulous and then
00:03:58
Speaker
We actually know what we're writing about.
00:03:59
Speaker
And so for that particular group, they started out, they were really mad about gas prices and their parents are talking about gas prices and complaining about gas prices.
00:04:10
Speaker
We don't really have a lot of control over the gas prices in our community.
00:04:14
Speaker
There's.
00:04:15
Speaker
They kept looking and they kind of kept hitting dead ends and they're trying to figure out how to interview.
00:04:23
Speaker
And we kind of just sat down and talked and we're like, well, what's the underlying issue here?
00:04:29
Speaker
And it kind of came down to the economy in general and just how we're spending money and how COVID has impacted things and
00:04:38
Speaker
A lot of different thoughts kind of were going on.
00:04:41
Speaker
And then it got closer to the interviews and they still didn't have a person.
00:04:44
Speaker
And we ended up having...
00:04:50
Speaker
a small business owner from our community.
00:04:52
Speaker
He owns a couple of restaurants in our community that came in to interview with another group.
00:04:57
Speaker
And it kind of just ended up being like, you know, why don't you guys tag on and see what you can find out about how all these things have affected our community.
00:05:06
Speaker
And so they ended up having a really wonderful interview and they were able to kind of come up with a topic that they were really excited about, even though it was so late in the game.
00:05:17
Speaker
and they were kind of able to see a connection there between some of the different things economically happening in our community.
COVID's Impact on Learning
00:05:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:25
Speaker
You, you mentioned COVID and I'm just, so these are kids that would have been what first, second, third grade when all that was going on.
00:05:31
Speaker
Then I'm just curious if you're noticing any difference, you know, with this, this cohort of students, middle schoolers compared to previous ones you've taught.
00:05:41
Speaker
Well, I noticed that, um,
00:05:45
Speaker
particular in reference to the project specifically last year, there was a lot of emphasis on COVID when students were trying to come up with topics.
00:05:53
Speaker
It was very much on the forefront of their mind versus this year.
00:05:57
Speaker
Uh, we've kind of moved away from that a little bit.
00:05:59
Speaker
Um, and they're more interested in a lot of the other things happening in the world.
00:06:04
Speaker
Um, in general, I think having missed a lot of school that, um,
00:06:12
Speaker
this is hard work and they weren't ready for hard work.
00:06:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:16
Speaker
When you're first, second, third grade, you're just learning sort of those, those sort of social norms about raising your hand and asking for a pass to go to the restroom and all those kinds of things that happen in school.
00:06:29
Speaker
And so if you don't have that, I can imagine, I mean, I am hearing stories from some of our public schools that teachers are just to some degree alarmed by, um,
00:06:40
Speaker
The fact that students have missed that important piece of preparation.
00:06:45
Speaker
I think having had some smaller class sizes, we've kind of been able to curtail that to a degree where we're at.
00:06:52
Speaker
Some of the students that have come in new to us the last couple of years have had a very challenging time because they are very much trying to relearn those things.
00:07:03
Speaker
And that does make it really hard to teach a topic that's really deep and requires a lot of thinking and a lot of hard work.
School-Community Bridge
00:07:11
Speaker
I think what's really rewarding from these experiences, especially for kids, is not only are they intrinsically motivated because they're allowed to choose a topic and investigate that topic that they're interested in, but also it really bridges that gap between school and the real world, right?
00:07:29
Speaker
Yes.
00:07:29
Speaker
Homelessness is a really big topic in a lot of places.
00:07:33
Speaker
And not only is it a topic because it's widespread and affects a lot of people, but also it's a big topic because there's not one sort of solution to it all.
00:07:44
Speaker
What approach has been successful for you when it comes to helping kids take a larger than life topic like that and find a narrow angle to investigate it with?
00:07:56
Speaker
I think that kind of came down to the interview as well, finding someone in our community to interview, somebody in our community who's got maybe a more narrow view of what's happening versus something very big and
00:08:13
Speaker
hard to comprehend.
00:08:15
Speaker
So the group I had that did homelessness last year, they got in touch with somebody who runs one of our local community shelters.
00:08:25
Speaker
And she came in and was able to just really talk about the things that they're doing to help people, you know, and saying, you know, we don't have a solution yet, but these are some tangible things that we're doing to help.
00:08:37
Speaker
And I think that that was really eyeopening because, um,
00:08:41
Speaker
the whole time they're just sitting there complaining.
00:08:44
Speaker
And my dad said he's tired of all these motorhomes parked on the side of the road.
00:08:48
Speaker
And I saw this guy, you know, and they're just like, you know, telling all these stories of things that they see out in the community.
00:08:55
Speaker
And it's like, how do we kind of bring that back to something that's really human and really respectful to a situation that's really difficult for a lot of people?
Black History Month Theme
00:09:08
Speaker
That's it for today's episode, but join us next week to hear Cora share which part about leading a journalistic learning project required the most from her, but was also the most rewarding.
00:09:19
Speaker
Before we sign off, I wanted to share a quick tidbit of news.
00:09:22
Speaker
I know we are well into February by the time this episode airs, but it's Black History Month.
00:09:28
Speaker
And here are two things you might not have known about it.
00:09:31
Speaker
First, did you know that every year the Association for the Study of African American Life and History chooses a different theme for the month?
00:09:39
Speaker
Well, they do!
00:09:40
Speaker
And this year's Black History Month theme is African Americans and the Arts.
00:09:45
Speaker
Here's a statement about it from the association.
00:09:47
Speaker
In the fields of visual and performing arts, literature, fashion, folklore, language, film, music, architecture, culinary, and other forms of cultural expression, the African-American influence has been paramount.
00:10:00
Speaker
The second thing you might not know about Black History Month, or Black History in general, is that only a dozen states in the U.S. have any kind of requirement or mandate about teaching Black History.
Black History Education
00:10:11
Speaker
Those states are Washington, Colorado, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island.
00:10:20
Speaker
And many of the mandates in these states are actually lacking in substance, and some even have laws that put parameters on what and how race and race-related topics are taught.
00:10:30
Speaker
The Journalistic Learning Initiative wants to unapologetically say that black history is American history, it's human history, and through studying, exploring, and appreciating black history, we expand our paradigms, increase our capacity to empathize, and ultimately come closer to understanding what it means to be human.
00:10:50
Speaker
Thanks again for tuning in.
00:10:51
Speaker
We have a new episode coming out Monday.
00:10:53
Speaker
Be on the lookout for that.
00:10:54
Speaker
I'm Bo Brisco.
00:10:56
Speaker
We'll see you next time.