Greetings educators!

We’re a little late posting this month’s Teach Youth Radio segment, in part because Youth Radio’s newsroom has been swamped with deadlines, and as a result it’s been extra hard to pick which story to feature here as a centerpiece for our curriculum ideas.

In the same short period, Barack Obama officially became President of the United States, Israel launched an assault on Gaza, and the nation’s economic crisis escalated to a point where sources that used to say these are the worst conditions since the 1980s now report that on some measures, it hasn’t been this bad since the Great Depression.

With these events unfolding on the national and international scale, there was also a local story of tremendous significance to Youth Radio and our varied communities. On New Year’s Day, 22 year old Oakland resident, Oscar Grant, was shot and killed at a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station while he was being held face-down by a transit officer. The incident and its aftermath unleashed community outrage about this one young man’s death and long-standing struggles with police brutality.

If there is one guiding principle at Youth Radio that applies across all of these topics, it’s that every story is a youth media story. Needless to say, then, it’s been an intense few months.

So, we’ve decided to try something a bit different for this episode of Teach Youth Radio. Instead of focusing on just one story in-depth, we highlight several youth-produced stories from our very recent archive. As always, we’re eager to hear what you think.

Story One:

Oakland, Beauty and Ugliness
Brandon McFarland
Outlet: NPR

In this commentary, Brandon reflects on his hometown, Oakland, in the wake of the shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant by a transit officer on New Years Day. Brandon opens the story by reflecting on what makes him proud to be from Oakland. Something he doesn’t mention here is that as a music producer, Brandon goes by the name 1 o.A.k.—further evidence of his tight relationship with his city. And yet Brandon closes the story by acknowledging:

A lot of Oakland isn’t beautiful. There are some streets that I won’t ever walk down. And I’m desensitized to violence, because like most Oaklanders, I’ve got friends and loved ones who have been shot and killed. And even though I lived in Oakland when I was in high school, I went to Berkeley High, because my parents felt like Oakland public schools failed them back in the day.

This might be the ugliest part of my city…that it continues to fail people the same way it did generations ago. Schools were bad for my parents and they’re still bad today. Black folks were dehumanized by cops in the 60’s, and on New Years day 2009, a 22 year-old black man named Oscar Grant was shot in the back by a police officer. It’s hard to believe that all of this ugliness makes up my beautiful city.

Something that stands out about Brandon’s commentary is the way he uses narrative to capture mixed feelings. Work through Brandon’s text with your students, noting the concrete details he offers to juxtapose what is ugly and beautiful about Oakland to him. Check out the range in his references—from music to violence to education. With this textual analysis in mind, then have your students reflect on something that inspires profoundly mixed feelings in their lives. Maybe it’s their hometown, or their school, or their family, or someone they’re close to. Ask them to write across the top of a piece of paper: “It’s hard to believe that all of this ugliness makes up my beautiful BLANK.” Start by having each of your students fill in the blank, and then free-write off of that prompt. Share the narratives and discuss.

Story Two: 

What about Joe the Student? By Taylor Riddle
Outlet: NPR

In this commentary, Taylor Riddle explores the impact of the economic crisis on college students from middle class families. Youth Radio first met Taylor through our coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, where he was among the youngest delegates. The last thing he expected the following fall was to find himself facing the prospect of having to drop out of the University of Arkansas because he and his family were short on money. Taylor wrote this piece last year, after the election but before the inauguration. At that time, Taylor noted:

Everyone’s talking about the bailout for Wall Street, and a possible bailout for auto companies, but I’d like to see a bailout package for higher education, for people like me, an average student from an average town - Jonesboro, Arkansas. The country wants young people to be able to compete in this global economy. But the U.S. can’t produce a large pool of college graduates if many of us have to drop out.

Now it’s February, and President Obama just passed a massive stimulus package. Have your students research the details of the package. Where will the money go? Who is getting “bailed out?” What are Obama and his supporters counting on to restart the US (and global) economy? What are their critics pointing to as the bill’s shortcomings? Look specifically at the stabilization package aimed at education. See if your students can find out whether Taylor and other students like him will benefit from the solution that’s passed. Have them make predictions about outcomes of the stimulus package for various key stakeholder groups they care about, and identify measures by which they can track what happens over the next six months. Chart the progress of these groups over that period of time, debating what counter-proposals your students would support to strengthen the national and world economy.

Story Three:

Gaza City Diary, By Safa Joudeh
Outlet: huffingtonpost.com

Safa Joudeh is a freelance journalist living in Gaza City. She kept a journal throughout the assault on Gaza that began late last year. Youth Radio got in touch with her through one of our graduates, who’s been working in and covering the region for many years and has formed a strong network of young journalists and citizens. At a time when it was difficult to get through to Gaza residents, Youth Radio used the Internet, skype, and phone lines to find and share stories from young people experiencing the war first-hand.

Have students read Safa’s journal to themselves, while you post five pieces of butcher paper on the board. Label them with the following headings:

1. This gave me a strong feeling;
2. I have a question about this; 
3. I can relate to this part;
4. This is an image I will remember;
5. This is someone else I want to hear from.

Hand out sticky notes to all of your students, and ask them to jot down quotes from Safa’s writing that fall within each of these five categories. Invite your students up to the board to post those passages on the appropriate piece of butcher paper (for the fifth one, ask them not to pull from Safa’s writing, but to think of other people they’d want to hear from to get a better handle on the story Safa tells—e.g., a government official, a young person in southern Israel, a family member, a middle east historian, a military expert). Spend time discussing the passages that appear under each category. Probe why students chose the excerpts they did, and discuss ways to follow up on the questions they raise through further research.

Use this exercise to scaffold a close reading of Safa’s story in such a way that creates an open space for discussing a topic that often leads to polarized views. You might also use Safa’s story as a model for how young people can use the diary format to share experiences with deep personal immediacy and global political significance. You can find another example of this genre from Youth Radio’s archive in the eight-part Emails from Kosovo series.