Recently I had the opportunity to meet Richard Dryfus. Yes…that Richard Dryfus. He was at the MacWorld conference working as a part of the John Lennon Educational Bus. Richard was there working with a group of students and recording content focused on bringing Civics curriculum back to the forefront in American schools.
In many districts Civics has been reduced to a single course. In a crowded curriculum continually being driven by testing, what is the case for allocating more time and energy to this subject area. Dryfus argues that there is actually a lot at stake. I have to admit that as I look around at the current political discourse and the superficial, overgeneralized “us v them” thinking that seems to dominate discussions of government, there is a lot of room for improvement.
As I listened to him share his thoughts, in the passionate and convincing way that IS Richard Dryfus, i couldn’t help but tie podcasting back into the conversation.
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I just listened to your podcast about Ethical Dlilemas, Civil Discourse and Citizenship.
My colleague, Nathan Toft and I each teach grade 5/6 classes at A. Lorne Cassidy School in Ottawa, Canada. For the past two years we have been producing a student created podcast called Portable Radio. This year in addition to our regular shows, we put out two 15 minute long shows a month, we are also producing shorter opinion pieces called Portable Radio Point of View.
Nathan and I select stories from the newspaper and bring them into the class. Students are encouraged to voice thier opinion about the articles. We summarize the story, state our opinions (with supporting details) and post it. We try to do these mini opinion pieces with small groups of students in one day. That way we are topical and timely. We send our podcast to our local CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Radio station. We have been fortunate that every piece that we have sent to the radio has gone to air within a day or two of the podcast being published. Topics that we have addressed include a hockey brawl, the upkeep of Royal Swans in the city and Ottawa’s claim to having the longest skating rink in the world.
The students have been learning valuable lessons about persuasive writing, working to a deadline and keeping their writing concise (each podcast is about 3 minutes long). Students have also learned, through the radio broadcast of their work, that their opinions have value and an audience in the real world.
You can find our Portable Radio Point of View episodes at:
http://portableradio.edublogs.org/category/point-of-view/
or you can visit us at http://www.portableradio.ca
Nathan and I both enjoy listening to you show and have found your books to be a valuable resource,
Jane Smith and Nathan Toft
Dan, as a sixth grade civics teacher in Northwest PA, I am new to podcasting and found your civics discussion thought provoking. You are correct in your assertion that the best circumstances for engaging in civic understanding simulate or mirror the real world. Putting students in a position of decision maker implicitly requires an understanding of the differing points of view of a topic. I have found the Tom Snyder Products Decisions Decisions to be very effective. Purposeful learning happens in real-world discourse.
Thank you for your thoughts, I am looking for ways to incorporate Podcasts in my classroom; and will link you any finished products.
Jim Brinling
Fairview Middle School
Fairview, PA
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