We started class this Monday as we do every Monday with current events. Instead of asking the students for what they saw occurring in the world this weekend, I invited them to engage in a discussion around the #pointergate story that blew up over social media this weekend. The students were shown the original news cast and then had to answer a choice of a series of questions regarding whether or not a news outlet in Minneapolis was fabricating a news story or covering something relevant to their viewing audience. The students then viewed a video which documented the context in which the #pointergate picture was take. They drove the discussion on whether the mayor did indeed throw up a gang sign as was suggested.
What makes one story better than another? We discussed what makes stories interesting and good overall. The students worked together to create a each point in a rubric to evaluate the stories we have read and the ones we will read in the future. Each story will be given points based on how we evaluated them on the rubric and those average scores will be used to to see who wins in a head-to-head single-elimination style bracket.
In the interest of time, we did not make it to the points and bracket portion and will be sure to evaluate “Flowers for Algernon” versus “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
Homework:
- Read for 30 mintues.
PowerPoint:
