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Teach Youth Radio
Are you looking for a unique way to bring an awareness of the outside world into your classroom? Would your students like to hear from other young people about issues of pressing relevance to their own lives and studies?
Youth Radio, an award-winning producer of youth voices, has released a new curriculum resource called Teach Youth Radio, which adds radio to our traditional line-up of reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic. Radio produced by young people contains powerful opportunities for students to develop new literacies, build critical thinking skills, experiment with digital technologies, and express important ideas about the most pressing social and cultural issues we face today.
On the first Tuesday of each month, Teach Youth Radio releases an on-line News Break, providing free lesson plan suggestions and standards alignment linked to a radio story written and produced by youth. Stories featured in Teach Youth Radio series have aired on some of our nation's most influential public media outlets, and they are sure to engage your students in lively discussion and debate, just as they have for tens of millions of radio listeners. Each News Break includes:
1. How teachers can align the Youth Radio story to National Standards in the classroom.
2. Suggestions for lesson plans that link the story's content to your classroom's themes and subject areas.
3. Suggestions for lesson plans that explore media literacy, using the story to re-read mainstream media.
4. Bios of the Youth Radio reporters who produced the story.
5. A list of resources and further research related to the story's themes.
6. Links to Youth Radio's media production techniques as guides and inspiration for your students' creative media-making projects.
Teach Youth Radio content applies to a range of school subject areas, including English, social studies, and health classes. The stories also address a range of issues driving community organizing efforts and positive youth development projects taking place beyond classroom walls. Written transcripts and audio links for each Teach Youth Radio story are included in every News Break. These materials are especially helpful for struggling readers and English Language Learners. Teach Youth Radio is a great curriculum resource regardless of whether your students are using high-end computers or pencils and paper.
We'll be inviting teachers using Teach Youth Radio to submit their students' stories to Youth Radio's website, so the project is an exciting way to connect your students to real audiences and publishing opportunities.
If you have any questions or would like us to add your contact information to our database, please send your name and email address to: Lissa Soep at lissa@youthradio.org and Dawn Williams at dawnw@uclink.berkeley.edu.
Join the conversation at Drop that Knowledge.
November/December News Break:
Human Costs of Prescription Drugs, By Natasha Watts, Appalachian Media Institute
What's the story?
In this month’s News Break, we go to Eastern Kentucky, where Natasha Watts describes dramatic changes that have transformed her hometown in recent years. People she loves are facing a severe drug problem, an addiction to painkillers, with devastating effects.
Painkiller abuse in Natasha’s hometown is not just a health issue, it’s an environmental issue. She lives in a coal-mining town, where workers experience high levels of chronic pain. Kentucky’s rural residents are simultaneously living with the residual health effects of coalmining and unemployment due to mines closing.
From their vantage point on the opposite coast of the U.S. from Eastern Kentucky, twin sisters Elizabeth and Maribel Maciel, high school students at Berkeley Technology Academy, selected Natasha’s story as one they wanted to focus on this month and contributed to the lesson ideas we offer in this News Break. They related to Natasha’s story because they, too, have loved ones who depend on prescription drugs and are concerned about huge disparities in access to health care in the United States.
Natasha’s story was produced by Appalachian Media Institute and Youth Radio.
Check out this News Break if...
You are a high school teacher interested in new ways to inspire student writing, or if you are exploring any combination of the following issues in your classroom:
. Language Arts: Natasha shares intimate experiences faced by people close to her—but she’s careful not to tell other people’s secrets “in a place where you don’t air your dirty laundry.” Find lesson ideas that allow students to express where they come from without violating their loved ones’ trust.
. Health/Science: Teachers can use this News Break to explore how environmental conditions, industrial patterns, economic disparities, and drugs affect the body. These lesson ideas will also encourage discussions about coal—how this resource is used to produce energy, and at what human cost.
. Economics: How do you put a price tag on human suffering and death? Natasha’s story will push students to think about who’s responsible when the public is given misinformation about a product’s safety, and what the appropriate consequences should be.
. Critical Media Literacy: Raise awareness about class issues and dialogue about the similarities and differences between illegal and legal drugs.
Check out November's News Break: Human Costs of Prescription Drugs
October's News Break:
Jena 6
What's the story?
As you may have noticed, in recent months, we’ve been collaborating with young people to create the Teach Youth Radio News Breaks. Our goal is for teens not only to produce the media content featured in this curriculum resource, but also to help generate the lesson ideas we offer here. Who better to co-design educational experiences than students who “receive” but rarely shape daily classroom lessons?
For the month of October, Teach Youth Radio has teamed up with Kai Crowder, Shantel Alicea, Cory Butler-Wilson and Akira Chin from Berkeley Technology Academy’s hip-hop journalism class. B-Tech is the continuation high school for the Berkeley Unified School District in Northern California.
The students were unanimous in wanting to focus on a story now known as, “Jena 6.” At the beginning of the 2006-07 school year, nooses in school colors hung from a tree at Jena High School in Louisiana. District administration called the incident a harmless prank, and the students responsible were briefly suspended. Racial tensions flared throughout the semester. By December, a fight broke out, with one white student hospitalized and released later that evening in time to attend a school function. The young black male students involved were charged with attempted murder. As their trials caught media attention, they came to be known as the Jena 6.
The B-Tech students began their curriculum design process by studying the Jena 6 curriculum, Revealing Racist Roots created by the Network of Teacher Activist Groups (TAG). They wanted to add their voices to the national educational dialogue by offering lesson ideas linked to a Youth Radio story produced by a Louisiana-based correspondent named Jiarra Jackson, who reported on a protest that took place in Jena in September.
The students felt it was important for their generation to know about the situation in Jena and to take a stand against injustice. Students felt that the hardships that black youth in Jena are facing relate to black youth in all corners of the country who are criminalized and discriminated against. Their class participated in a rally at UC Berkeley to show their support for the Jena 6. We hope you will use this News Break and also check out the Revealing Racist Roots curriculum, which encompasses language arts, history, math, Spanish, music, media literacy and other subjects.
Check out this News Break if...
You are a high school teacher interested in new ways to inspire student writing, or if you are exploring any combination of the following issues in your classroom:
. Language Arts: Jiarra Jackson’s piece is an unscripted oral news dispatch, reported on the ground, from the center of the unfolding action. How does this style of reporting compare to other genres in journalism and writing?
. Health: Students can use this News Break to spark dialogue about how they decide whether and how to participate in risky situations for the sake of their principles.
. History: The Jena 6 story, and specifically Jiarra’s report, provide a strong launching point for historicizing this present-day incident against the backdrop of U.S. protests and social justice action. This News Break can serve as an example as students imagine themselves reporting from different protests throughout history and creating their own “eye-witness” accounts.
. Critical Media Literacy: Are your students interested in creating their own news reports? Check out this News Break for tips on how to do that.
Check out October's News Break: Jena 6 Protest
September's News Break:
Domestic Violence
What's the story?
Chandra Touch approaches a topic that is not often discussed around a dinner table much less in a classroom. In this month’s News Break, she delves into a situation of domestic violence that her family experienced while she was a child. She exhibits much courage in sharing this story, as she recounts how she and her mother dealt with the violent tendencies of her mom’s ex-boyfriend.
For more than a year, Youth Radio has been promoting awareness of domestic and dating violence. Two Youth Radio grads and current staff members, Stephanie Martija and Surmiche Vaughn, co-founded a group called, Ladies Overcoming Violence Everyday (L.O.V.E.). Chandra’s story brings the power of a personal narrative to the L.O.V.E group’s efforts. Drawing on health research and practice, the group describes domestic violence as a chronic abuse by one current or former intimate partner against another. It is characterized by a pattern of coercive control and increasing entrapment.
Stephanie and Surmiche helped tremendously in putting together this News Break.
Check out this News Break if...
You are a high school teacher interested in new ways to inspire student writing, or if you are exploring any combination of the following issues in your classroom:
. Language Arts: In this piece, students can find examples of various literary tools, including flashbacks and evocative imagery, to tell one’s story.
. Health: This News Break can be used to explore cycles of and alternatives to violence, and to facilitate discussion about relationship abuse and health.
. Critical Media Literacy: Use Chandra’s story to spark discussion about the unequal distribution of resources for communities facing various kinds of health crises.
Check out September's News Break: Domestic Violence
August's News Break:
The N-word Discussion
What's the story?
This is Dawn Williams, co-creator of Teach Youth Radio. I have been working with Lissa Soep on Teach Youth Radio since its inception and feel that I should be working myself “out of a job” by preparing other educators as well as young producers to build their own curriculum around youth-created content. Here, I share a behind the scenes look at how I develop Teach Youth Radio lessons each month. It is my hope that as the Teach Youth Radio initiative evolves, young producers at Youth Radio and other youth media groups will start to integrate curriculum design into the media production process. Imagine youth written and produced lesson plans with every youth media story!
For this month’s News Break, we selected a segment called The N-Word Discussion, which aired on National Public Radio. This conversation is timely and relevant considering the recent coverage of public figures such as Michael Richards and Don Imus making racist comments and images of nooses hung from trees in Jena, LA. Media outlets have condemned rap music for its usage of the n-word, the b-word, and the h-word, and for normalizing these words for a wider audience. Youth Radio’s Alana Germany hosts the roundtable while Pendarvis Harshaw and Ayesha Walker share their views on this provocative topic. All three have produced stories that we’ve previously featured on Teach Youth Radio pages.
Ayesha: That word has been magnified for what? Why are we using this word first of all?
Check out this News Break if...
You are a high school teacher interested in new ways to inspire student writing, or if you are exploring any combination of the following issues in your classroom:
. Language Arts: This News Break provides a catalyst for discussion if you are looking at the usage of the n-word in literature, comparing oral to written speech, or needing examples of metaphors.
. Health: This piece could be used to help students talk about the emotional and psychological effects of hate speech and racial epithets.
. History: Students can use this News Break to place the n-word into a historical context and discuss power and freedom of speech.
. Economics: Use this News Break to compare racist language to racist actions carried out on black bodies and discuss how these abusive patterns are linked to profits.
. Critical Media Literacy: This News Break could be a springboard for analyzing news media coverage of race, class, urban issues, and youth culture.
. All subjects: Students can use this News Break to write their own lesson plan suggestions for teachers.
Check out August's News Break: The N-word Discussion
July's News Break:
Teach Youth Radio Lessons from the Field
What's the story?
To mark the end of the school year, we decided to try something a little different this month. Rather than provide one of our usual News Breaks linked to a single Youth Radio story, we thought we’d share some insights and ideas you all have generously offered to us over the last year. We want to thank everyone who has reached out to us with feedback and information about how you’re using Teach Youth Radio. Can’t tell you how much those messages mean to us!
Here are lesson examples from four educators with some great ideas for how incorporate Youth Radio stories into teaching across various school subjects as well as community-based health education. Each approach is different, some more detailed, others more abstract. Taken together, they provide a rich array of options and inspiration for further youth media production and education. Enjoy this great work from the field!
Check out this News Break if...
You are a high school teacher interested in new ways to inspire student writing, or if you are exploring any combination of the following issues in your classroom:
. Language Arts: A humanities teacher juxtaposes Teach Youth Radio’s “Oakland Scenes” with an episode of a cartoon to generate discussion on the Civil Rights Movement and where the struggle is today.
. History: Check out how a discussion on globalization can be enhanced using Teach Youth Radio curriculum for “A Border Story”.
. Health/Science: A community health educator shares some ideas on how to incorporate Teach Youth Radio when teaching about HIV/AIDS.
. Critical Media Literacy: See how an award-winning media educator uses Teach Youth Radio to get her students thinking about different perspectives on the war in Iraq, informed by young troops returning home
Check out June's News Break: Teach Youth Radio Lessons from the Field
 June's News Break:
From Blacksburg to the Bay Area, By Ayesha Walker
What's the story?
In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting, Youth Radio's Ayesha Walker reflects on violence in her own city...Richmond. Ayesha says while the mass shooting of 33 people shocked the nation, no one is shocked when young people die from gun violence in her neighborhood.
"When a young person is seen as having a bright future, their life seems more valuable - at least in terms of media coverage - than someone living in a city like Richmond."
Check out this News Break if...
You are a high school teacher interested in new ways to inspire student writing, or if you are exploring any combination of the following issues in your classroom:
. Language Arts: Against the backdrop of the mass shootings at Virginia Tech, this News Break invites students to bring the topic of violence into classroom conversation by presenting a view that has not received much press. While young people frequently show up in the media as perpetrators and victims of violence, here Youth Radio’s Ayesha Walker describes what it’s like living with violence while connecting with others to create positive change.
. Health: You may have seen our July 2006 News Break where one U.S. soldier talks about dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after surviving the violence of war. Using Ayesha Walker’s story here, your students can explore PTSD and other mental health effects in U.S. communities where violence preys on young people. Lesson ideas invite students to examine the coping strategies young people devise to deal with violence in various forms.
. Geography: Use this News Break to spark discussion about how a city can be divided from within and how cities (and their residents) are labeled, both literally and through the public images they carry.
. Critical Media Literacy: Analyze the words of Mahatma Gandhi and Chuck D with this News Break, and discuss how Ayesha Walker’s story exemplifies critical media literacy.
And please note, Ayesha Walker, the teen journalist who wrote the commentary featured in this News Break, helped create the curriculum offered here! Students co-creating lesson plans with and for teachers…that’s applying Youth Radio’s production methodology to pedagogy. The Teach Youth Radio team hopes to deepen this practice as our project evolves.
Check out June's News Break: From Blacksburg to the Bay Area
 May’s News Break:
Overprotected by Love, By Karime Blanco
What's the story?
Youth Radio's Karime Blanco has a strong relationship with her mother, but she can't shake the feeling that sometimes, her mother doesn't trust her choices about going out at night with friends. This type of conflict is nothing new to a lot of mothers and daughters, and can often end in tears. But instead of fighting with her mother, Karime looks into her mother's past for answers...and ends up staying home on the occasional Friday night.
"I know her overprotectiveness comes from a place of love, and history."
Check out this News Break if...
You are a high school teacher interested in new ways to inspire student writing, or if you are exploring any combination of the following issues in your classroom
. Language Arts: Find ideas on ways to honor mothers and mother figures on Mother’s Day with your students and ways to inspire writing from a personal standpoint.
. Health: Bring Karime’s News Break into your classroom to create dialogue around communication with parents and peers to foster respect and understanding.
. Critical Media Literacy: Discuss and find out what students think about issues such as images of moms in the media and popular culture, living at home, and teen fashion.
Check out April’s News Break: Overprotected by Love
 April’s News Break:
Killing Off Cancer?, By Alana Germany
What's the story?
There's been a lot of hype about the new HPV (Human Papillomavirus) vaccine, which prevents cervical cancer and is being recommended for girls ages 9 to twenty-six. Many states around the country are considering mandating it, including Texas and California. Skeptics of the vaccine are speaking up from different sides of the political spectrum. Some claim the vaccine will encourage early sexual activity. Others raise questions about how the vaccine’s manufacturer might be profiting from its mandatory use. Meanwhile young women and their parents are trying to sort through all the information to decide whether or not they should get the vaccine. Youth Radio's Alana Germany is one of those young women:
I learned about cervical cancer in health class, but it never seemed like that big of a deal. Now I see these commercials, and the statistics about how many people will be affected by HPV and how it can lead to cervical cancer and...well...it’s all shocking.
Check out this News Break if...
You are a high school teacher interested in new ways to inspire student writing, or if you are exploring any combination of the following issues in your classroom
. Language Arts: In this report, Youth Radio’s Alana Germany sorts through a complicated health issue with serious political, economic, and cultural implications. Her end result—the story that aired on NPR—is a useful model for students interested in carrying out original research to explore topics with personal and social relevance.
. Health and gender: This Youth Radio story draws attention to a link between cancer and a virus transmitted through sex. Some STD’s affect men and women differently. HPV is a source of more health problems for women than men. Students can form research groups to find images and articles about different STD’s and present their findings to the class
. Economics: While public service announcements present the HPV vaccine as a safe way for young girls to protect themselves from cervical cancer, the controversies behind the vaccine raise tough economic questions about who profits from the vaccine and its mandatory use in some states. Alana Germany’s story plants the seeds for further exploration of the economics at the intersection of teen health, disease prevention, the pharmaceutical industry, ethics, and gender politics.
. Critical Media Literacy: In her story, Youth Radio’s Alana Germany refers to an ambitious public service media campaign designed to introduce girls and their families to the HPV vaccine. The campaign tag line, “One Less,” is meant to suggest that by taking the vaccine, each girl will bring down the statistics of women who develop cervical cancer. The content of the ad campaign, and the questions viewers have raised, provides a rich case study for young people studying critical media literacy.
Check out April’s News Break: Killing Off Cancer?
 March’s News Break:
Abstinence, By Sanovia Jackson
What's the story?
In his State of the Union address in 2004, President Bush called for funds to teach abstinence in the nation’s schools. One federal program that already provided such funds required that recipients teach, among other things, that “abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage is the expected standard for all school-age children.”
A poll by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government asked adults whether they agreed with that statement, and more than six out of ten said they did. What’s more, many of those adults said that when answering the question, they were thinking about kids abstaining from a lot more than sexual intercourse. Large percentages said they included abstaining from intimate touching and passionate kissing, too.
Youth Radio suspected that teenagers might not define abstinence the same way, so we asked Sanovia Jackson, at the time a 17-year-old reporter for Youth Radio, what she thought.
SANOVIA: I can’t tell you how many teens I know who pride themselves on being abstinent, but trust me, they’re doing EVERYTHING but. So before anybody tries to change the way we are, they’d better be sure when talking about abstinence, we all mean the same thing.
Sanovia asked her mom and some girlfriends to share their experiences with abstinence, and prepared this report.
Check out this News Break if...
Students can compare and contrast their hang out spots with one in South Africa and think more profoundly about what factors shape social groups.
. Language Arts: It can be difficult for teenagers to talk about sex with anyone, especially parents and teachers. This News Break is a springboard for students to talk and write about the meanings and boundaries around "abstinence" in young people's lives.
. Health: Teenagers need to know about sexually transmitted diseases and options for pregnancy. Knowledge and honest talk can lead to educated decisions in the future. As teenagers become more familiar with the facts of life, they can feel more in control of their actions and choices.
. Critical Media Literacy: Young people are constantly bombarded with sexual images. With this News Break, students can explore the impact of businesses using sex to sell products to teens. Lesson plan ideas also open up discussion about the connection between sexuality and popularity.
Check out March’s News Break: Abstinence
 February’s News Break:
Mzoli's Meat, By Unathi Kondile
What's the story?
In this story, University of Cape Town student Unathi Kondile reports from post-apartheid South Africa, where the government's economic policies are beginning to show results. A growing black middle class has nearly doubled since apartheid ended in 1994. More young blacks are going to college, earning business and marketing degrees, and capitalizing on the drive toward “Black Economic Empowerment.” So where does this up-and-coming young black middle class go to spend disposable income? Unathi says, it's a most unlikely destination - a butcher shop on the outskirts of the city.
Unathi’s profile of Mzoli’s butcher shop is part of Youth Radio’s International Desk, a newsroom initiative that explores young people's impact on the global economy, transnational youth culture, and local political struggles from major international cities like Cape Town, Kabul, Mexico City, and Bombay. Unathi met Youth Radio producer Nishat Kurwa when he worked as her guide and translator during an International Desk reporting trip, while also contributing this story. Here’s what Unathi told Nishat about how the topic developed:
“I was busy talking about how Cape Town wasn't representative of the racial divides and all the other bitter jazz. I mentioned all the possible stories we could do for me - like shacks, unemployed youth, but you...said I should find something positive, so I suggested we go to a place that would show you young rich blacks who flaunt their stuff, plus the good meat and celebrities. I think you didn't believe me as such until we were there...”
Check out this News Break if...
Students can compare and contrast their hang out spots with one in South Africa and think more profoundly about what factors shape social groups.
. Economics: Although there is a governmental push for 10% black ownership in corporate business shares in South Africa, there is an almost 80% black population. Some might consider this a form of Affirmative Action. Use this News Break to spark discussion.
. Language Arts: Students can compare and contrast their hang out spots with one in South Africa and think more profoundly about what factors shape social groups.
. Critical Media Literacy: This News Break could be used to open up conversations about where students spend their money. They can additionally think about the strategies that businesses use to get students to spend their money in particular places.
Check out February’s News Break: Mzoli's Meat
 January’s News Break:
Children as Medical Interpreters, By Antony Jauregui
What's the story?
According to the 2000 U.S. census, around 45 million people speak a language other than English in the home. That means, when someone in one of those homes gets sick, or even just wants a medical check up, often a translator is needed to make sense of what doctors are saying. In California, there are regulations that require HMO’s to cover the cost of translators, but the state government has trouble enforcing these laws. So very often, children and teenagers end up translating for their parents.
Youth Radio’s Antony Jauregui knows what that’s like: I’ll never forget this one time when someone in my family was in the hospital. All of the sudden, my mom’ s like, “You have to translate.” But what the doctor said confused me. And all my family kept saying was, “Are you sure? Did they really say that?”
In 2006, the California Senate considered a bill that would ban young people from translating in all medical situations, including hospitals, clinics, and even private doctor’s offices. The bill’s author, Assemblyman Leland Yee, says using children as translators is poor medical practice. But some parents prefer to communicate through their children, and even when they’d like an interpreter, often one is not available, especially in emergency situations.
From Youth Radio’s LA bureau, Antony Jauregui reports on the issues and controversies surrounding the use of children as medical interpreters.
Check out this News Break if...
You are a high school teacher interested in new ways to inspire student writing, or if you are exploring any combination of the following issues in your classroom:
. Language Arts and Culture: This News Break helps students identify diverse perspectives, assumptions, points of view, and sources of expertise in a single narrative. Antony’s story can be a jumping off point for exploring moments of linguistic and cultural connection and miscommunication in medical situations and other arenas in everyday life. You’ll also find lesson ideas here that help students think about “translation” as metaphor.
. Health and Science:Antony’s story shows how health policy and legislation are formed and debated, often with unexpected ripple effects in the lives of constituents. The News Break explores the relationship between science, medicine, language, and culture.
. Critical Media Literacy: Use this News Break to get students thinking about how policymakers, lawmakers, and advocates use the media to build support for their agendas, and to compare and contrast characters they see on television, in movies, and in their real lives.
Check out January’s News Break: Children as Medical Interpreters
Click here to see: 2006 News Breaks, 2007 News Breaks
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