Lesson Plan 1 Subject: Freedom of the Press Unit(s): Language Arts, Social Studies, Journalism Grades: 912 1) Learning Targets Discern central ideas and concepts from both written and multimedia content Determine relevance of core concepts to realworld scenarios 2) Lesson Objectives Students will… a) define and understand freedom of the press b) discuss the significance of freedom of the press to their own livelihoods c) engage with multimedia sources concerning freedom of the press and current events 3) Relevance Encourage knowledge/awareness of rights and freedoms, both within and beyond the American context Promote constructive dialogue about difficult topics amongst students 4) Assessment Criteria Instructor may assess student work… by collecting and reviewing opening reflections. on the basis of participation in the activities and discussion. Instructor may also assign and grade followup research paper or activity (see section 7). 5) Activities/Tasks *Have students read concept sheet and/or similar literature regarding freedom of the press before class. Ask them to think about what freedom of the press means to them, and what they’ve heard about freedom of the press in the news lately. Opening Activity/WarmUp: Have students spend approximately 510 minutes answering this prompt: “In your own words, tell me what freedom of the press means to you.” If time permits, allow some students to share the key points of their responses with the class. Show digital resource on freedom of the press in the 21 st century (see below for options). After the video, allow students some time to ask clarifying questions and/or briefly share their reactions to the content. Gallery Walk Activity: For 510 minutes at the beginning of class, have students silently migrate around the room to various pieces of poster/butcher paper. Each paper should have one of the following prompts: 1) “In what ways can someone have ownership over the media?” 2)“Where do you get the news? How do you hear about current events?” 3) “Where do your parents/guardians get the news? How do they hear about current events?” 1 Lesson plan created/compiled by WAC-DC Spring 2015 Global Education Graduate Associate, Tony Harris. Neither the author nor WAC-DC claim ownership over materials cited from non WAC-DC external sources. This resource has been made publicly available explicitly for noncommercial educational purposes only.
Transcript
Lesson Plan 1Subject: Freedom of the Press
Unit(s): Language Arts, Social Studies, Journalism Grades: 912
1) Learning Targets Discern central ideas and concepts from both written and multimedia content Determine relevance of core concepts to realworld scenarios 2) Lesson Objectives Students will… a) define and understand freedom of the press b) discuss the significance of freedom of the press to their own livelihoods c) engage with multimedia sources concerning freedom of the press and current events 3) Relevance Encourage knowledge/awareness of rights and freedoms, both within and beyond the American context Promote constructive dialogue about difficult topics amongst students 4) Assessment Criteria Instructor may assess student work… by collecting and reviewing opening reflections. on the basis of participation in the activities and discussion. Instructor may also assign and grade followup research paper or activity (see section 7). 5) Activities/Tasks *Have students read concept sheet and/or similar literature regarding freedom of the press before class. Ask them to think about what freedom of the press means to them, and what they’ve heard about freedom of the press in the news lately. Opening Activity/WarmUp: Have students spend approximately 510 minutes answering this prompt: “In your own words, tell me what freedom of the press means to you.” If time permits, allow some students to share the key points of their responses with the class. Show digital resource on freedom of the press in the 21st century (see below for options). After the video, allow students some time to ask clarifying questions and/or briefly share their reactions to the content. Gallery Walk Activity: For 510 minutes at the beginning of class, have students silently migrate around the room to various pieces of poster/butcher paper. Each paper should have one of the following prompts: 1) “In what ways can someone have ownership over the media?” 2)“Where do you get the news? How do you hear about current events?” 3) “Where do your parents/guardians get the news? How do they hear about current events?”
1 Lesson plan created/compiled by WAC-DC Spring 2015 Global Education Graduate Associate, Tony Harris. Neither the author nor WAC-DC claim ownership over materials cited from non WAC-DC external sources. This resource has been made publicly available explicitly for noncommercial educational purposes only.
4) “What sorts of ethics or values do you think journalists should have?” 5) “In what circumstances, if any, should there be limitations on freedom of the press?” Once students seem to be finished writing, have them circle the room one last time (in silence) to see what their peers had written. Take some time to debrief and discuss the activity. Examples of discussion questions might be: “What did you notice in the responses?” “Did anything surprise you? Why?” “Did you disagree with any of your peers’ responses? If so, which ones and why?” (This is particularly relevant to #5 above) “Do you and your parents access news/information from any of the same sources? If so, how many and which ones? What might be the reason for any similarities/differences?” 6) Primary Resources (For alternative/additional options, see below.) WACDC Freedom of the Press in the 21st Century Concept Sheet WACDC Freedom of the Press in the 21st Century Webinar 7) Access, Equity, and Accommodations Class could divide into pairs or small groups in order to answer the discussion questions in a format that is more conducive to dialogue. If space permits, gallery walk questions could be written on butcher paper and then taped to tables/stations. Students could then rotate from station to station and write answers to the questions. In this format, students could either be silent or discuss their responses with another. An instructor might find it appropriate to assign a followon project. This might take the form of a research or a reflection paper. Prompts might include… 1) “How is technology changing the way we access and consume information?” 2) “Find an article about limitations on freedom of the press. Summarize and critique the author’s argument/position.” 3) “Research press freedom conditions in a country that Freedom House has labeled as ‘partly free’ or ‘not free’. Summarize some of the key press/media issues that have happened in this country in the past few years.”
Additional Resources “After Charlie Hebdo, Balancing Press Freedom and Respect for Religion” by Jeffrey Gottfried and Michael Barthel http://www.journalism.org/2015/01/28/aftercharliehebdobalancingpressfreedomandrespectforreligion/ First Amendment Center (Lesson Plans) http://www.firstamendmentschools.org/resources/lessonplans_press.aspx “Freedom of the press versus religious sensitivity” (Video) http://globalnews.ca/video/1766989/freedomofthepressversusreligioussensitivity
This site contains a number of short clips regarding freedom of press, freedom of expression, and journalism. Freedom House Website https://www.freedomhouse.org/ McCormick Foundation Conference Series – Freedom of Speech and the Press in the Information Age (Conference Report and Lesson Plans) http://www.jamesmadison.gov/lessons/freedom_of_speech_and_the_press.pdf “Press Freedom 2014 – the global picture” (This article by The Guardian builds incorporates and interprets Freedom House data into a userfriendly and easy to read format. This article might be particularly useful as a launching pad for the third suggested followon project prompt.) http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/may/01/pressfreedom2014theglobalpicture
