Embedded Files
Evidence of collaboration to enhance the justice/ reading/ technology interface
STATEMENT:
- This ideas and content of this course transcend the classroom in multiple ways.
As a co-taught course, students worked together in a non-tracked class so that honors, college preparatory, and learning disabled students learned together.
Because each student has a personal Google website published under a pseudonym, each student is writing for a real world audience. This changes the teacher as sole audience to a much wider field of readers, and students of all intellectual levels respond by choosing media texts, topics, and ideas that have personal meanings for them.Special educators have taken a special interest in their students' abilities to compose digitally in this class and have sought out personal tutorials from me to help other, future students to learn these technology skills.
Guest speakers bring behind-the-scenes insights and ideas, which balance the dominant media perspectives on important issues.
In previous years, I've had a female race car driver named Jodi Johnson and a former NFL defensive coordinator, Steve Sidwell, speak to the classes. This year John MacKinnon, security attaché for the Boston Bruins and the Olympic Hockey team, described his experiences with amateur and professional players in national and international settings.
Students work collaboratively in the units and must choose real-world texts to analyze and recontextualize.
In the "(Inter) National Sports and Identity" unit, students work collaboratively in a Sports Nationalism Challenge. They created International Sports Magazine Shows that required them to speak with expertise on current global events, the intersection of sports and world issues, and the degree to which one country "Others" other countries in order to gain power and prestige. Here are some student samples from this collaboration. Students posted their work individually on their personal Google websites but problem-solved, did research, made decisions, offered feedback, and brainstormed together. (In a separate activity, each student also adopted an Iditarod musher and followed his or her musher's progress across the multiple day race.) The student artifacts are derived from one group of students and represent a broad range of learning styles as well as athleticism/ fandom/ non-interest in sports.
Annie's Sports Nationalism Challenge (Annie is an honors student)
Jack's Sports Nationalism Challenge (Jack is a college preparatory student and an avowed sports fan)
Laraine's Sports Nationalism Challenge (Laraine is a college preparatory student and non-fan)
Natalie's Sports Nationalism Challenge (Natalie is a student with special psychological learning needs--- a non-fan)
Jay's Sports Nationalism Challenge (Jay is a student with below average percentile reading)
Collin's Sports Nationalism Challenge (Collin's education has taken place primarily in a separate setting)
In the "Role of Race in Professional Sports" unit, students draw upon media texts to research issues around historic segregation of athletes in professional baseball. Their inquiries take them to fields where whites were the primary fans for all-black teams; to personal narratives of life in the Jim Crow era; to rich celebrations of culture and customs; and, to new understandings about White Privilege and their own place in racial discussions.The student artifacts are derived from one group of students and represent a broad range of learning styles as well as athleticism/ fandom/ non-interest in sports.
Parker's Racism Prezi (Parker is an honors student and varsity basketball player)
Marty's "The Role of Race" poem (Marty is an honors student and varsity soccer player)
Stuart's argument and support (Stuart is an honors student)
Maius' Commentary (Marius is in honors for the first time this semester)
Tom's "Struggle" poem (Tom is a college preparatory student)
Alex Adam's Point of View journal (Alex Adam has been educated primarily in a separate setting until this class)
In the "Sex and Gender in Sports" unit, students read a scholarly study by sports sociologist Michael Messner and then attempt to conduct a similar experiment themselves. The goal in the Messner Replication Study is to determine if Messner's "Televised Manhood Formula" is still apparent in sports broadcasts nearly 13 years later. Students posted their work individually on their personal Google websites but problem-solved, did research, made decisions, offered feedback, and brainstormed together. The student artifacts represent a broad range of learning styles as well as athleticism/ fandom/ non-interest in sports.
Maddie's Messner Study Project (Maddie is an honors student)
James Jesse's Messner Study Project (James Jesse is an honors student)
Tyler's Messner Study Project (Tyler is an honors student)
Mark's Messner Study Project (Mark is an honors student)
Tom's Messner Study Project (Tom is a college preparatory student)
Levy's Messner Study Project (Levy is has severe learning disabilities)
In every unit, students reflect on their collaborative and cooperative processes in a formal manner.The student artifacts represent a broad range of learning styles as well as athleticism/ fandom/ non-interest in sports.
Rich's Same Sex Orientation Video Response (Rich is an honors student who looped with me from semester one)
Stanley's Sex and Gender Writing prompt (Stanley is an honors student and fan)
Karl's Visual Analyses of Athletes of Color (Karl is a martial artist)
Jerry Jimmy's Letter to Mrs. Robinson (Jerry Jimmy is a college preparatory student and a sports fan)
Darren's Consumer Culture in Sports reflection (Drew is a college preparatory students and a reluctant learner)
John's Consumerism poem reflection (John is dyslectic)
Matt's Sports as a Reflection of Society essay (Matt has executive processing difficulties)
Garry's Race in Sports analysis (Garry is a severely learning disabled student and a futbol fan)
I research, write, and offer professional development to other educators and media professionals about the intersection of sports and literacy.
This year, I wrote an article for the Journal of Media Literacy Education about the course. Please click here to see the article, which will be published in their autumn 2014 issue with minor revisions.
I delivered a presentation in spring, 2014 at the Highlander Institute's Blended Learning Conference about one aspect of the course. I titled the presentation, "The Art of Digital Challenge and Choice: Curated Collections of Texts for Student Inquiry." (See attachment at bottom of page.)
I teach a semester version of this course at Rhode Island College called, "Sex, Sport, and Society." This course focuses specifically on social constructions of gender in sports and society.
Please see my Curriculum Vitae for my previous year's writing and research about the importance of media literacy in K-12 education.
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