I used the pre-assessment from my fourth
lesson of the week, focusing on the application of the knowledge acquired
through lecture and independent learning activities through the first three
days of the week. I borrowed an AP
government class at a local high school where I substitute teach regularly to
pilot test a warm-up designed for a college prep class. This was done to not only test the warm-up
activity, but to also get feedback from the students about the utility and likeability
of the activity, as well as the teacher regarding the appropriateness of the
activity for a general education class. The
teacher allowed me to teach a complete lesson, providing the students with an
opportunity to review something they had already learned about, as well as take
in the information from a second perspective.
For the warm-up, we reviewed the general
history of the influence American media has had on politics through the
development and use of the telegraph, the radio, and television. We also reviewed some of the regulations and
restriction that influence what media is, and is not, allowed to report in
relation to elections and politics. This
review was completed through a series of questions with students answering
questions on these events. Students
completed the warm-up watching a video clip of commentary on a recent Supreme
Court decision, looking for bias in how the story was being covered. A secondary objective of this warm-up was to
lead the students to consider the importance of understanding the source from
which they are consuming news and information.
Students were provided with a graphic organizer to write down any
thoughts and impressions they had as they watched the video, as well as
questions to help them identify any possible bias after they watching the clip.
It was fun to teach and interact with
the students. They were very excited
about the activity and enjoyed getting to use the things they have learned in
class. Though they might not have a complete
understanding of what various motives are they influence what makes the news
and how it is reported, they enjoyed the opportunity to try. One adjustment I might make to the rubric
would be to be more rewarding of students’ attempts to analyze what they were
seeing and hearing. The rubric was more
appropriate for students who are more practiced at identifying the bias in
media; it would be more appropriate for a third or fourth attempt at the
activity.
As I talked with the teacher after
class, she really liked the idea of the activity because it is easily adaptable
as politics and news change. We
discussed the feasibility of adapting it to a general education class, as long
as it stays simple in content and I come up with more questions to direct the
discussion with the students. One area
of improvement would be to have more questions beforehand in order to lead the
discussion more with students. They may
not be as prepared as the AP students were to pick out the ideas and identify
the bias, so there may need to be more teacher guidance for them. Whether that is true of any particular class is
of less importance than the need to be sufficiently prepared to meet the needs
of any particular group of students.
Overall, it was a good experience
because of the feedback from both the students and the teacher. Using this lesson warm-up and class activity
will be much more useful in future teaching opportunities.
