What story of 2012 had the most impact on you and how did you hear about it? (It could be something that affected you personally. It does not have to be one of these stories or even a national issue).
Introduction
KQED's news blog The Lowdown gives us the top 15 stories that Americans paid the most attention to this year. The results are taken from the polls produced by the Pew Research Center. It seems there are no surprises here - the presidential election was the most popular story, with the tragic school shootings in Connecticut attracting a great deal of attention and sympathy, and the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy followed as a close third.
But what were the top stories for you and where did you come across them?
Did the fortunes of Facebook’s stock value matter to you? Or how about the death of Whitney Houston or the doping allegations against Lance Armstrong who was stripped of his Tour de France titles? Or perhaps the controversy surrounding gay marriage....Which stories mattered to you and your friends or family?
Resources
Pew Research Center post Election, Tragedies Dominate Top Stories of 2012 - Dec. 20, 2012
The public’s news interests were very much focused on domestic developments this year, with the election outcome, last week’s horrific school shooting and Hurricane Sandy leading the list of the top stories of 2012.
The upcoming presidential election provides an excellent opportunity to weave news, civics and public affairs directly into your curriculum. This election, in particular, is chock full of relevant themes and issues pretty much guaranteed to tie into the core concepts and standards you teach, and to provoke the attention and interest of your students. From broad national issues pertaining to wealth inequality, social justice, health and social welfare, to California-specific propositions addressing criminal justice, the death penalty, taxation and even food production, election season is an excellent opportunity to engage students in civic affairs and integrate the news into your classroom.
With that in mind, KQED Education is hosting a free elections event just for teachers on October 3 at 5 p.m. at KQED. In addition to introducing our recently-launched news education project, we'll also present a whole bunch of free election-related teaching resources.
Use news as a teaching tool and learn to create your own short videos in this free, hands-on two-part workshop led by KQED Education staff. We'll cover basic multimedia production skills, talk about how to inspire students to create their own pieces, and go over additional creative ways of integrating news into the classroom. This training is perfect for high school social studies and language arts teachers looking for opportunities to keep up with the headlines and increase student engagement. The workshop will be held on two consecutive Thursday evenings: March 22 and March 29, from 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Participants must be available to attend both sessions.
Laptops and equipment provided (but BYOD if you wish); dinner included.
Dates: Two consecutive Thursdays – March 22 and March 29; both from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
This fall, KQED Education launched the ESL Mobile News Blog. It reaches out to ESL educators to help us explore how ESL students engage with news. How do students who have moved here from different cultures connect with news? Interestingly, many of the ESL educators we asked were not sure of the answer since the demographic is so diverse and complex.
We asked ESL educators, mainly from San Francisco City College and colleges and adult schools in Silicon Valley and the South Bay, to invite their students to interview a class mate from an immigrant community and ask them five short questions about news.
Do you follow the news?
What interests you?
Where do you look?
Who do you believe?
Are your perspectives being represented?
Students were encouraged to adopt the role of investigative reporters, researching issues of importance to their peers. They could post the interviewee’s photo with the response if they wanted to, but we did ask them to try to be as specific as possible in identifying and naming sources, while at the same time respecting reserve. Accessible through email or mobile devices, the use of a blog platform was intended to encourage students to work collaboratively in their investigations and enjoy reading each other's posts.
What we are looking for
What is newsworthy to ESL students? What is missing? Are their countries represented in US news? If so, how are different countries represented? How do disconnected communities use our networked culture to connect? If they continue to search their home source online, how do we alleviate this disconnect?
Watch this space….. we plan to review findings with ESL instructors who have participated in the project.
CCSF class photo
SJSU class photo
Here are two links to student entries from the blog:
What do you remember about the day of September 11, 2001? Consider one of these follow-up questions to help with your response: Where were you when you heard about it? Who were you with? What do you remember your parents telling you about it? Do you remember the reactions of the people around you? Do you recall any of your own thoughts from that moment?
Intro
On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, nineteen members of the militant Islamic group al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners to conduct coordinated suicide attacks on America’s East Coast. Two airlines were intentionally crashed into both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and decimating the buildings. The third plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and the fourth, also headed towards Washington – supposedly for either the Capitol Building or the White House – crashed in a rural field in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to retake control of the plane. In all, the terrorist attacks on that day claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people. It was the first foreign attack on American soil since the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. The events had a dramatic effect on America’s foreign and domestic security policies, ushering in a series of new laws and procedures, including the PATRIOT Act and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. The 9-11 attacks also fueled America’s military offensive in Afghanistan and indirectly led to the War in Iraq two years later. Both conflicts continue today.
Resource
California Report segment 9/11 Victim's Family Remembers
Many of the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks lived in California, including Deora Bodley, a Santa Clara University student who died when Flight 93 crashed into a Shanksville, Pennsylvania field. On the second anniversary of the national tragedy, reporter Judy Campbell talked with the Bodley's family about their grief and the strength that they have gotten from her memory. Reporter: Judy Campbell
To respond to the Do Now, you can comment below or tweet your response. Be sure to begin your tweet with @KQEDedspace and end it with #KQEDDoNow
KQED Forum's segment Ten Years Later, Are We Safer? I Fri, August 19, 2011 -- 10:00AM
As the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks nears, many are asking if we're safer now than we were before the attacks. Has heightened security and extra screening at the airport -- including removing your shoes and belt -- made you feel safer?
As part of our series on how the country has changed since 9/11, we take up these questions with security experts.
We knew life in America would never be the same after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, but no one knew exactly how it would change. How has our society and country come to terms since then? Public radio tackles this question with Understanding America after 9/11, a week of special coverage on stations nationwide.
Do Now is a weekly activity for students to respond to current issues through the use KQED's award-winning online media resources and social media tools like Twitter.
