For the past four years, I have had my classes write their versions of National Public Radio’s “This I Believe”
segment. I was introduced to this idea by a colleague and have been
always impressed by what my students hold as their personal values and
beliefs. Writing these essays has allowed for them to do something they
don’t get to do all that often at school - express their heartfelt
beliefs.
After writing the essays the first year, we submitted
them to NPR, but we also decided to podcast them ourselves – no need to
wait to see if NPR might choose to broadcast them. The writing was good
at expressing their values, but once their voice was added to their
written expression, WOW, it simply transformed that personal essay.
Instead of the words simply being words, the words conveyed deeply held
emotions. Now, this is the standard.
Here are some previous class examples:
Period 2 06-07
Period 5 06-07
Period 3 06-07
Period 2 07-08
Period 5 07-08
Period 3 07-08
Wiki 09-10
Wiki 10-11
We
are approaching that time of year, when I am going to start the kids on
this writing adventure, but this year I wanted to invite you in the
blog-o-sphere to join us again. I want “This I Believe” to go global. I
want my students to benefit not only from knowing what their peers
believe, or what the other AHS classes believe, but to hear and see what
the world values. What do kids elsewhere in the U.S. believe in? What
do kids elsewhere in the world believe in? What do some of the learned
professionals that I know believe in? I want my students to walk away
from this experience realizing the power they have as professional
writers as well as connecting to other teenagers and adults from around
the world. I want to see them exchange ideas, foster relationships, and
appreciate the variety of perspectives. Maybe you can challenge your
principal, your school board members, your local politicians, heck,
maybe your entire school. Maybe we can even get our President to write
his own “This I Believe.”
So, how do we accomplish this? Karl Fisch, of course, is willing to be my master facilitator. He has set up a wiki (still a work in progress) that will provide the guidelines for the classes to follow. I am making Maura Moritz’s classes join us again, so there will be five classes (ninth grade, 14
and 15 years old) from AHS writing and podcasting their essays: Moritz 2, Moritz 4, Smith 3 and Smith 5.
We are hoping to attract at least four other classes from around the
world, one each to pair up with each of our four classes. If we get more
than ffour classes that are interested, then we will try to pair up any
additional classes with another class somewhere in the world.
If your class(es) are interested, please complete this Google Form
with some basic information (your name, your email address, school
name, location, grade level(s)/ages, how many classes, number of
students in each class, and time frame that you’d like to do this) so we
can setup those partnerships. (Our thinking is that pairing one class
with one class will keep this from becoming too overwhelming for the
students, although of course anyone can read/listen/comment to any of
the essays on any of the wiki pages).
We will create a wiki page
for each set of paired classes and each student will upload their
written essay as well as their podcast (the podcast can either be
uploaded directly to the wiki, or you can use a variety of other
services for that and then link to them). Each pair of classes will be
in charge of their own wiki page and we’ll use the discussion tabs on
each page to give feedback to the students.
If you are an adult
interested in writing a piece yourself, simply add them to the “adults”
page on the wiki. I am hoping to get some notable edubloggers as well as
my superintendent, CIO, and others to participate. It would also be
helpful to include a brief bio so the kids can know who they are reading
about.Obviously you don’t have to do this with us or on our wiki, you
can create your own. But we thought it might be interesting and helpful
to have one wiki that aggregated all these essays/podcasts, one place
that students (and others) could visit to learn about beliefs all over
the world. Wondering where to start? NPR has a number of education
friendly links to help you along the process:
For Educators
For Students
Essay writing tips
How to contribute an essay to NPR
Timeline:
For our honors classes we are going to start writing our essays, October 27th with a final due date of November 7th for their essay. The week following
their due date, they will begin podcasting their essays. The paired
classes don’t have to match this timeline exactly (although that would
be great), but we’re hoping they can have theirs completed by
Thanksgiving so that the students can start commenting on each other’s
essays /podcasts.But for other pairings you can set whatever time frame
works best for you – that’s the beauty of the wiki, it’s a living
document with no “end” to the assignment (although that’s why we need
you to include your time frame when you email us so that we can try to
match folks up). We would really appreciate any feedback (now or as this
progresses) to make this an experience that is truly relevant and
meaningful for these kids.
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