Every other reporting class or so -- got to keep interested; got to rotate the notes -- I have the kids write a lead off a fake news release from an imaginary zoo that describes an upcoming naming contest for the zoo's new burro and adds that the zoo is going to start giving the zoo's female tigers birth control implants because they are producing more cubs that this zoo can accomodate or other zoos are able to take.
Typical reporting class gets a little queasy contemplating those sexy sexy tigers, and usually most of the kids choose to emphasize the burro, paying scant attention or even ignoring the fecund predators. But this new lot went for the tigers because *darn it that part of the dreary press release was the most interesting,* not to mention the larger significance of highlighting, if only indirectly, the plight of wild animals in zoos.
This gang didn't waste time imagining indignant readers, all the sex haters and granny ladies whose faces would go lemon if they were exposed to the idea of all those tigers, well .... doing it.
Doing it just for the sake of doing it, all penalties removed.
A promising class with an understanding of what is actually news, of what brings in the eyeballs that might then wander over to world affairs and political analysis. Yes, I told them, you may be the ones the legends speak of.
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8 comments:
I remember the sexy sexy tigers!
I hope that's a good thing.
It's a very good thing. Your class was excellent. Did you realize, though, that you gave me my first A-, forever ruining my 4.0 GPA? I don't blame you - I'm sure I shied away from the tigers when we did this activity. :)
I am weirdly proud of this, though it is a shame to spoil a 4.0. You were the only A of any kind in the class. That's been true of so many classes -- a single A and that an A-minus or occasionally no A at all -- that I swore last year that the top average in the class *would get an A*. That resolve lasted ... one class. Last semester: one A-minus. But, you know: *If you asked, I would change it* on the grounds of merit ex post facto.
Oh as far as the tigers go, they were a rude lot.
Now I feel very special. I must say, I was expecting a lower grade, and I was happily surprised by an A-. However, it set me on a path of slackerness which led me to receive one more A- and (gasp) a B, so if my journalism grade were changed I would still be approximately .03 points away from a 4.0. Hardly worth the effort on your part, but I do appreciate the offer.
A B? Point the SOB out. Measures can be taken. Unless it was Goodwin. He's tough, a real street fighter.
The B was while I was abroad in El Salvador - Sociology of Public Communication in El Salvador, taught by Antonio Cañas. I probably deserved the grade, but I like to tell myself it's because he had us reading some pretty heavy theory in Spanish. I don't know that I'd understand Wittgenstein in English, let alone Spanish.
As for Goodwin, he gave me two A+'s.
Goodwin's rep is now officially in tatters.
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