Investigative Journalism by Mrs. Malick and Mrs. Wahle

This marks the second year our middle school has been teaching writing using the Lucy Calkins Units of Study. In the first unit for 8th grade, students write pieces of investigative journalism. They begin by writing newscasts and then write more developed pieces that seek to illuminate issues, such as school scheduling or bullying. With all students having one-to-one technology in the form of iPads, we wanted to use that to our advantage in order to get kids even more engaged with and excited about the curriculum.

One way we used our technology to engage students was by reaching out to local journalists from news stations in the St. Louis area. Our instructional technology facilitators coordinated this for us. They used social media to contact local journalists and see if any would be willing to answer some student questions about their jobs so that we could paint a more clear picture for students of the work they were about to emulate. Luckily, we had two journalists willing to help out: Chris Hayes from Fox2 and Chris Nagus from KMOV. We collected student questions and they replied by sending us a video of themselves answering our students’ questions. We then used EdPuzzle to tie critical thinking questions to each journalist’s video. Students watched as their questions were answered and then they responded to questions that we inserted at various points throughout the videos. Some questions were, “How does the Chris Hayes’s advice of ‘learn by doing’ relate to our investigative journalism unit?” and “What is the importance of having deadlines?”  This format allowed all students to actively participate without being pressured to share in a whole-class discussion.

Both videos we received from the journalists followed the same basic format: they stated the question, what class it came from, then they answered it. The cool thing was that although their answers were similar, the way they presented themselves was so different. Chris Nagus’s video was very formal. He sat at the news desk and responded directly to the camera in a very focused way. Chris Hayes’s video was much more informal. He did the whole thing like a selfie from his phone while walking around the news station. It felt very natural and conversational. Kids learned about the positive aspects and some of the challenges of being a journalist. Afterward, it was neat to discuss why the journalists might have presented themselves in the ways they did and how two very different people, with very different perspectives, can do the same job. It kind of opened up the idea that anyone can be a journalist as long as they are willing to work hard and learn something new.

Another way we used technology to enhance our instruction took place in one of our very first sessions of the unit. On the second day, students go outside the classroom to observe as journalists and take notes, collecting potential story ideas. We did this, as designed in the curriculum, but then wanted to give our students the opportunity to observe and collect story ideas beyond the walls of Troy Middle School. So we shared a website where they could view some live-feed cameras from all over the world. We were hoping to allow each student to choose his/her own location to view the camera feed and take notes from there, but had some technical difficulties in the process. So we did what all teachers do when things don’t go as planned - we improvised! We chose one location (Times Square, New York) and watched as a class and had students take notes collectively. Even though it didn’t go exactly as planned, the level of student engagement was awesome and we got to have some really fun conversations as well! Most of their notes from this lesson didn’t turn into full news stories, but they definitely learned how to observe as journalists do, be constantly on the look-out for story ideas, and document everything.

The last major way we innovated the unit with technology was by having students take the final drafts of their pieces of investigative journalism and create iMovie presentations to broadcast them. Students recorded themselves doing a story introduction, like news anchors do at the news desk. They got to practice their best news anchor voices “I’m So-and-So and here’s your top news story.” which was fun and challenging for many. Then they found pictures that correlated with their stories, used a news theme and music, and had to summarize the key points of their final draft to include in their iMovies. This was a really cool way for them to create a visual version of their written piece and then share it with others. The students enjoyed making and watching each other’s videos.

With this being our first shot at fully utilizing one-to-one technology in our classes, we were very pleased with the result. There were certainly some bumps in the road, but the benefits, particularly from the standpoint of student engagement, outweighed any of the drawbacks we experienced. The work of taking an already full and well-developed curriculum and adapting it through the lense of the SAMR model was challenging, but it was also a great opportunity for us to continue our learning and develop our instructional practices as educators.