|
Students in freshman English courses work on self-directed projects built upon journalistic foundations . Photos by
Matthew Neil
|
of the texts under study it became possible . We moved the spotlight from a general overview of important classical myths to a more specific focus on myths of foundation and of place .
Our content goal was to see how mythological narratives establish a foundational set of characteristics through origin stories : myths of the foundation of Rome , of Thebes , of Athens , etc . The journalistic bent came in when we encouraged students to consider the stories we tell of the foundations of places near to us : our own school , the school system , Flushing , New York City .
|
For example , every October , our school celebrates “ Founders ’ Day ,” where we hold a ceremony to honor the legacies of those who founded the school and carried on its mission . By exploring foundation myths , we were able to see how cultures have used mythic narratives to reflect a sense of identity for a location — and how often that process creates the identity that it claims to reflect . In seeking out narratives about our own homes , could we more accurately reflect the place we live in , or is every narrative we tell about ourselves mythical in some sense ? |
It ’ s important to see that this journalistic task — the search for the stories of the community — complemented and enhanced the mythological curriculum . Nonetheless , to be able to complete the task at hand required teaching the essentials of journalistic research , of interviewing and of following up , of synthesizing information from multiple sources , and of verifying facts . Once the time for “ publication ” came , our students had every reason to share their work with the community at large , either through the school newspaper , through social media or publicly at our ceremony .
Based on this work , I would advocate for future experimentation in the same vein , focused on reimagining core English units through the following takeaways from the journalism classroom :
|