Chronicle or debate article on discrimination

Podcast/Chronicle/Debate article

This teaching example is suitable for carrying out in connection with work on democracy, human rights, in history teaching, in social studies in Swedish, Swedish as a second language or in other language teaching and image. The arrangement is well suited for cross-disciplinary collaborations.

An important part of seeing and preventing discrimination is to reflect on prejudice and the deeply human need to place every new person we meet in a compartment.

In this lesson, we start from the Forum for Living History classroom material To divide people into groups.

Associated teacher guidance can be found here: Testimonials with classroom exercises – teacher guidance

Based on the testimonial exercises, students should then choose between writing a column or a debate article on the subject of discrimination.

Feel free to use the teacher’s guide To work with prejudice in the classroom, from the Forum for Living History.

Tip: Do one or more of the exercises in the “Source Criticism Folder”.

Läroplanen och globala mål
Subjects: Social studies, history, image, Swedish and Swedish as a second language, English or other language teaching.

UN Global Goals: 16 PEACEFUL AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETIES

Teacher support: Difficult questions in the classroom | Forum for Living History

Elevpublicistens etiska regler
If you haven’t done so before, read “Student Publisher’s Ethical Rules” in the mobile stories tool (in logged-in mode). Please also discuss what the various points mean. Put simply, they are about:

  • Be careful with their sources and never publish inaccuracies or contribute to the spread of rumors online.
  • Never violate anyone’s copyright or the terms of use of free images downloaded from the web (preferably use your own images or illustrations!)
  • Avoid hurting or offending an individual or group in society.
Bakgrundsmaterial
We all need to understand history in order to be able to see, reflect on and resist the racism and intolerance that exists in society. The Holocaust has happened once and can happen again, says Peter Kadar (1935–2020) in this clip from EDUT:

“The vaccination against this is that young people tell and that they do not let any formof anti-Semitism, racism or intolerance pass by.”

At the Forum for Living History there are modules What was the Holocaust? and Anti-Semitism then and now and Antiziganism in history and today that can form the basis for further work. At the Living History Forum you will also find recorded testimonials from survivors, with associated classroom exercises. You can also find testimonials at the narrator group EDUT and at Eternal Echoes. If your school wants visits, digitally or physically, from survivors, their children or grandchildren, you can register your interest via, for example, EDUT or Zikaron. In the “Resource Bank for Young Voices for Tolerance” you will find, among other things, a list of people available for student interviews.

Discussion exercise: Who/what can be a credible source? Let students make suggestions. Write up on the board or in a common document.

example:

  • Expert. If your source is an expert you have spoken to, such as a researcher, it should be clear what makes that particular person credible. The expert should have a special knowledge of exactly what they are speaking out about.
  • The case. The case is an interviewee who is in some way affected by what you are writing about. It can be someone who has experienced an injustice or someone who has done something good and who can inspire others.
  • Witness. A witness is someone who can confirm what you are writing about You should preferably collect more than one witness who indicates that the incident you mention in your article has taken place.
  • Image. An image, still image, or moving image, showing a something happening can also be a source. Keep in mind that images may have been manipulated and are not always true.
  • Document. A document can be, for example, a written letter or email, notes from a meeting or a decision from an authority or from the government.
  • you. Of course, you become a source when you post something online.

“Sources and credibility” is a model for creating structure for source review in sharp mode. When students search for information online, the classic criteria Authenticity, Time, Dependency, and Tendency should be used, in combination with checking what other sources say about the first source.

When practicing: Give some suggestions for sources related to the topic, both good and some less good. Invite students to use the model below in groups to reflect on the relevance and credibility of the source in the context in which the source will be used. Then review what the students have come up with. Note, students don’t have to put a negative if they can’t find anything.

Here the template can be downloaded:

Feel free to have students read the help article “Methods of Source Criticism” in the signed-in mode in mobile stories tools: https://app.mobilestories.se/content/info_article_x_16812

This is a guide for those who want to source-check like a pro. This poster was produced by Therese Personne at Nya Elementar with the aim of helping schools value digital sources. Print a copy and set up in the classroom! The poster is available to download here:

Here students can take a digital self-test developed by Uppsala University in collaboration with the research institute Rise and the association Science & Public.

In this exmament, students in high school or high school can sharpen their knowledge of media, source criticism and online laws!

They can take the test up to 15 times. By explaining after each question, students can improve their performance and become more online smart every time they take the test! If they get 90 percent of the questions right, you can download a piece of evidence that they can put in their resume or share on social media.

From idea to finished article

  1. In the link below you will find classroom material from the Forum for Living History, which deals with group division and group affiliation. Listen to the testimonies and do the discussion exercises A and B.

    Dividing people into groups | Forum for Living History

    Now students, or you as a teacher, should choose between the exercises C, E and F, all of which result in different types of articles.

    Exercise C – CHRONICLE: The teacher divides the students into smaller groups to discuss the issues in the exercise. Based on these questions, students should then write a chronicle of their own group affiliations.

    Tip: If students need further help to think, they can also reflect on the connection between characteristics and external attributes: Judge the dog by the hairs | Forum for Living History

    Exercise E – DEBATE ARTICLE: Here students will read up on the Discrimination Act and interview a person with experience of being discriminated against. The assignment states that students can find a person who has been rewritten. Instead, try to find first-hand sources, i.e. a real person who has been discriminated against according to the definition in the Discrimination Act. It can be a classmate, a relative or one of the interviewees in Resursbanken.

    Exercise F – CHRONICLE: Here students will tell about when they themselves were discriminated against in a column. The exercise, of course, assumes that the student has experience of discrimination. Otherwise, Exercise E fits better.

For exercise E – DEBATE ARTICLE, the student should preferably do an interview with a real person on the subject of discrimination. The interviewees can be found in Resursbanken or through a previous interview that the student finds, where the person has told about their own experiences of discrimination. It can also be a person in the class or a relative. Then the student may not need to write an email but contact in a more informal way.

Students should tell the interviewee at the first contact if they intend to publish their work on the open platform Mobilestories.se. Ask students to ensure that the interviewee is comfortable with this! The interviews can also be controlled by the teacher, for example by inviting a few people via link to the classroom on one or more occasions. Then the entire class can listen to all the guests and a group of students can be tasked with asking the questions of “their” interviewee. Here, too, it needs to be clear to the invited person that the meeting may be recorded in order to make it easier for students to quote correctly. The person also needs to be given the opportunity to read their quotes before possible publication and of course the person should be involved in them being interviewed.

Students can use this template when contacting the people.

Hi, my name is __________ and I go to school ___________ We do a job on ____________ and if you would like to know about this? We think it’s important to spread knowledge about ___________och spread your experiences with ____________ further. We are therefore working on an educational publishing tool that aims to produce and publish elaborate articles on an open platform, Mobile Stories. You will of course have to read your quotes before publishing and change if something is wrong. We could use a nice picture, too. If we meet, we would like to photograph ourselves, if you prefer to be seen digitally or over the phone, we would be happy if you have one or more images that we can use.

Feel free to contact us with suggestions for times when you could conduct the interview.

Thank you in advance. Sincerely _____________

Contact details ______________________

Checklist for students for the interview:

  • Keep track of your phone’s recording function. Try it before. Make sure the interviewee knows you’re recording.
  • Make sure your phone is charged – bring a charger as a precaution.
  • Make sure that the query battery is available to start from (but don’t forget the follow-up questions!).
  • Make sure you have some prior knowledge of the person and subject through your research.

Practical tips for students   during the interview: https://mobilestories.se/så-lyckas-du-med-intervjun

  • Feel free to use the recording function on your mobile phone to record the interview. Feel free to use two phones to secure, or record the meeting on your computer if the meeting is done via link.
  • Don’t forget follow-up questions. To do a good interview, you need to go further and deeper into each topic. Let your own curiosity rule!
  • Choose a quiet recording location, if the sound is to be used in, for example, a podcast, the room should be without echo. Pillows and textiles dampen.

Tips for students when shooting:

  • Think about who’s going to see the picture. What do you want the viewer to feel?
  • Vary tight portraits and images from a distance, preferably in an environment that is natural for the interviewee or has other connection to the subject.
  • Take many pictures from several angles! It often takes time and confidence to relax your “photo item”.
  • Think norm critically, how can you break prejudice through the image?
  • Let the photographed person see the pictures. If the person is satisfied, they are more likely to spread your work.
  • In the vast majority of article types on Mobile Stories, landscape formats are best, i.e. images taken horizontally as in the example below.

Horizontal image of Hedi Fried. Photo: Lotta Bergseth

CHRONICLE. In a column, the writer draws on his own experiences and observations. Nevertheless, it is important to use credible sources to substantiate any claims in the text.

Students can read the info article about the chronicle article type in mobile stories tool (in logged-in mode): This is a chronicle

At Mediekompass (formerly The Newspaper in School) you will find a slightly more detailed text about the article type chronicle : Chronicle

Please create the following structure inthe chronicle:
• Beginning. Start with something you’ve experienced personally. Preferably with a snapshot where you describe your experience. What happened and how did you feel?
• Middle. Broaden it to describe how it is is part of a larger trend/phenomenon/societal problem.
• End. Connect by reconnecting to what you wrote in the introduction.

Examples of good student chronicles at Mobile Stories (compare the structure of the chronicles with the points above):
Bruksgymnasiet in Östhammar: Don’t let loneliness drown you!
 Ludvika Church School: I am constantly ashamed

DEBATE ARTICLE. In an opinion article, the author should alert the   reader to a particular issue, strengthen his arguments with facts from credible sources and use explanatory examples. The purpose, of course, is to make the reader feel the same way. It is important for credibility that the writer is rooted in his own subject and feels a real commitment to the issue. Therefore, encourage students to write something related to their own everyday life or the future. On the Young Journalism Prize site, students can listen to Aftonbladet’s debate editor, who gives his best tips for a good debate article (scroll down a bit on the page to find the clip).

 Students can get information about the structure of the debate article in mobile stories tools (in logged-in mode): This is a debate article 

In the Publicist Guide (produced by Mediekompass and the Swedish Media Council, 2018) you will find a slightly more detailed text about opinion texts (page 34): The Publicist Guide

If the students write a column, it’s nice to have a picture of the writer. Feel free to cooperate with bildläraren if there is one at the school! A good option when the subject is a little sensitive can be to make a self-portrait. Do exercise D (Aesthetic design) in the classroom material. Tell students before they begin with their self-portraits that the portraits can be used to illustrate the chronicle they wrote and that if they wish, they can publish it on Mobilestories.se.
Students want to publish their articles can become part of the Young Voices for Tolerance campaign and spread them on social media with the hashtag #YoungVoicesforTolerance. In the figure below, students can get tips on how to increase their chances of reaching out. Download it here:

Reflection

Suggestions for reflection questions:

1. What have we learned?

2. Who else might have learned anything?

3. What can we do when we see anti-Semitism, racism and intolerance in society? Try to list different ways to react in different contexts.