Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies
Written by Administrator Friday, 27 February 2009 13:24
Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies is designed to include a diverse mix of race and ethnicities to create an inclusive learning experience.
That directive translated into Radio Rootz' classroom at BCS. Middle school students ages 12 - 14 already had an understanding of each other but learned about their fellow classmates as they explored their own culture through lessons in media literacy and radio production.
Our middle school students at the
Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies outdid themselves this year.
Our group of 12-14 students produced regular coverage for local broadcast,
and even reported and produced a national news story heard on more than
100 stations around the country. They covered serious issues
with humor, like a report produced by three female students on the pros
and cons of being a girl. They covered serious issues seriously
too. One student, whose mother works for the city’s Administration
for Child Services, interviewed his mother about her job in the wake
of the Nixmary Brown case.
They also learned a lot about media
literacy, advertising, and media policy. We are often told that
you can’t teach children about media consolidation, for example, but
an exercise we have developed shows how wrong that is. We ask
our students to map out their dream radio station, pushing them to be
creative and diverse in their programming. Once they have blocked
out all of their wonderful programming ideas, we begin to merge their
“stations” as they get bought up. As they negotiate with their fellow
students about what programs will remain on the merged stations, they
see how so often consolidation results in the lowest common denominator
of programming.
We also spent a lot of class time
discussing stereotypes of young people in the media, particularly young
people of color in urban areas, like them. We regularly looked
at the New York Daily News, picking out all the stories that mentioned
young people and explored how they were represented. How often
are they presented as criminals, or as victims? How often are
they quoted, given the chance to speak in their own voices? How
often are they presented as making a positive contribution to their
community? For young people who begin the year seeing the news
as objective fact, realizing that editors and reporters make choices
about the stories they cover, how they frame them, and who they quote,
is a powerful experience, and one that they will carry with them.
One student, whose father is serving in Iraq, recorded audio diaries of her feelings about his absence and the war. They are among the most powerful critiques of the current war in Iraq that we have heard anywhere. And one of our proudest moments at BCS came when two students whose parents are undocumented immigrant recorded a story on the proposed immigration legislation and the possible deportation of people like their parents. They asked fellow students what they thought of the immigration law changes, attended the massive may 1st rallies, and edited the piece themselves.
AUDIO COMING VERY SOON! please come back to listen to this powerful youth produced radio.
