Carolyn Woodward
Clarkrange High School
Clarkrange, Tenn.
Title: Finding Diversity
Overview and Rationale
In rural areas where racial diversity
does not exist, students often fail to realize that diversity takes many forms
and must be considered by the newspaper
staff.
Goals for Understanding
- Essential Questions
- What unrecognized forms can diversity take in a school?
- Critical Engagement
Questions
- Why is recognizing diversity important to a newspaper?
- How can we assure
diverse coverage in our newspaper?
Tennessee Language Arts Standard 1.0: Writing Standard: The
student will develop the structural and creative skills necessary to produce
written language
that can be read and interpreted by various audiences.
Resource/Materials
Yarn in four colors (red, green, blue, yellow), overhead
projector (or computer monitor), handout sheets with transparency copy, handout
(related document)
Overviews and Timeline
Activity 1 (20 minutes)
- Upon entering classroom, students will be given a “necklace” of
yarn in one of four colors to wear for the remainder of the class.
- Normal
classroom procedure will follow, but students with red necklaces will be
given special
treatment (allowed to run fun errands, asked if they are comfortable, etc.)
and students with yellow necklaces will be ignored completely. Others will
be treated normally. This should continue until it becomes noticeable and
students begin to object.
- A discussion should follow of how each group
felt during the
activity and how it made them feel about the class and the teacher.
- End
this activity by emphasizing that recognizing diversity is important to
accurately tell the story of the school and to build readership.
Activity 2 (20 minutes)
- Allow students 10 minutes to list as many “groups” as possible
that exist in the school. Remind them that these groups can be organized
as well as casual. For instance, skateboarders are just as much a group as
is
the National Honor Society.
- When they have finished, pass out the worksheet,
place the transparency of the worksheet on the overhead and fill it in
as they call out their answers. Have them fill in their worksheets at the
same
time.
- Discourage derogatory stereotypes, should they be mentioned.
Activity 3 (40 minutes)
- Give each student a copy of a recent school newspaper
and have him/her count how many times each group is mentioned in that issue.
- When
everyone has finished, have one student per edition report the findings.
- Students
should then analyze which groups have been neglected and why.
Assessment
Students should return to class next timewith three story ideas
for each of the groups that were considered neglected.
