I am making my way through an interesting book titled, Disciplinary Literacy. Redefining deep understanding and leadership for 21st century demands.  Authors Thomasina Piercy and William Piercy relate a variety of ideas to engage students in rigorous, relevant and authentic work that easily meet both ELA and Math Common Core Standards.  The main idea is to provide ample opportunity for students to assume an identity and then learn how to read, write, speak, view, listen and think through the lens of that identity, e.g. read like a mathematician, write and think like a scientist, report like an historian.

In this particular blog, I want to focus on a foundational identity the authors state all students need to learn to assume, that is as Citizen Journalists.  No matter what you teach (math, science, social studies, ELA) or kind of student you teach (ESE, Gifted, ELL) you can easily engage your students in the Citizen Journalist process outlined below while simultaneously aligning your efforts to a key edict of the Common Core standards; every teacher is responsible for teaching literacy skills.

Ultimately the big idea of employing a literacy strategy such as Citizen Journalist, is to engage students in authentic work that starts with students choosing an event or story of interest to research and then finally publish their own thinking on the topic.  The concept of citizen journalism stems from a current 21st century phenomena where regular people, not in the journalism trade, can access real time raw data and report on it.  This raw data is essentially unfiltered by reporters, textbook companies, television reports, newspapers, parents, teachers, friends, etc.  One resource for this type of unfiltered raw data can be found at whitehouse.gov, an iPhone application where regular folks can access real time events as they unfold with virtually no filtered information with the report.  Of course, we can also access filtered information from the White House on current and past events related to domestic and global happenings.

Organizing students into small groups, you need to first model the whole process from end to end.  Together, your class should choose a compelling reported event or story from the White House app or the news.  You can instantly see that for a science teacher, students could look for science related articles, and so on and so forth for other content specific teachers.  You need to provide your students with at least a triangulation of unfiltered and filtered complex text.  Again, complex text can include raw unfiltered reported events as they happen and filtered text such as news and stories already reported on an event via the Internet and video.  Expand your mind in terms of what you think text is.  There’s print text from blogs, magazines and newspapers but text can also be delivered via video and radio addresses.  Notice textbooks aren’t even mentioned in this assignment, however, they can and still do, serve as useful resources for students as they dig deeper into their topics.  Another source, which will also be a place you can have students post their culminating work, is a site specifically designed for Citizen Journalists, CNN’s www.cnn.com/mobile/iphone/.

Obviously you will need access to the Internet, a way to project information and or let the students either access content through school supplied computers and Internet access or allow them to utilize their own smartphones to access the Internet and grab content.  They will also ultimately need to post their articles in a digital format.  In the mean time, you can print out articles on the chosen topic and project videos and audio files from the front of the room.  Either way, students need access to a variety of text.

Next, the class breaks down their research of these text genres or types into three literacy actions:

1. Evaluating and analyzing
2. Questioning unfiltered and filtered information
3. And distributing information to others through blogs and CNN’s www.cnn.com/mobile/iphone/

Students begin the process by questioning and ultimately answering the context of each type of text and its source (evaluating and analyzing).  Don’t assume any of your students know how to do this.  It’s a process you will need to take the lead on with consistent modeling and provision of multiple opportunities for guided practice.  This process will also require your consistent follow through with multiple checks for understanding as you invite students to think, talk, read, listen, view and write to answer these questions first with you, then in small groups, and then finally slowly release them to work as individuals.

We begin with evaluating and analyzing our triangulation of complex text, which remember, can include video and audio clips:

• Who is providing the information and how is that source connected to the topic?
• Can this source be trusted?  Why or why not?
• What does this source have to gain by providing this view of the information?
• In what way does this information, provided “by the people” accurately inform me or not?

Next, students question filtered and unfiltered information by asking:

• What claims or ideas in the information must be fact-checked for accuracy?
• Is this a primary document or has it been recycled by others?  Explain how.
• Does this information create a dilemma for me or others?  If so explain why and how.
• How does this new information connect with me and my prior information?

And finally, students synthesize their research and prepare an authentic project to distribute their new thinking and information to others in the form of a blog or posting an article on CNN’s site designed specifically for Citizen Journalists at www.cnn.com/mobile/iphone/ after considering and answering the following questions :

• What is my responsibility in reporting this information?
• Will my voice be perceived as reliable?
• How will my reporting contribute to interdependent or other peoples’ understanding?
• What medium will best communicate this information with clarity to the public?
• What will be the possible impact or results of our reporting?

I look forward to hearing from those of you who try this strategy with your students.  It’s a rigorous activity that brings in current and relevant topics pertaining to any subject you teach.  It invites and requires all of your students to engage in all areas of literacy. To consume information they read, listen, and view.  To produce new thinking they write for specific audiences and publish that thinking through authentic engaging 21st century means.  And most importantly they must take a stand, take a position, assume an identity, produce new knowledge, argue for and justify their thinking on relevant and meaningful topics.