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Guidance for Grown-Ups
August 2007
Breaking Through the Billboard
Activist of the Month - Breaking Through the Billboard
(link back to feature)
This Discussion Guide contains the following Activity Sections:
- The Answers to Your Questions
- Problem Solving: Exploring Options, Giving Advice
- Make a Historical and Global Connection: Changing Options
I. The Answers to Your Questions
The purpose of this activity is to introduce teens to the media literacy work of Teen Voices activist of the month, Alexandra Pates, 13, from Chicago, Illinois.
- Ask the teens to read the introduction to the interview with Alexandra Pates. Before going any further, ask the teens to brainstorm out loud the kinds of questions they would ask her if they were conducting the interview.
- Next, ask them to read the interview text. Afterward, to encourage reading comprehension, ask the teens to respond to the following questions in writing: What is the mission of FUFA, where Alexandra Pates volunteers? Describe one of FUFA's accomplishments. If you wanted to volunteer for FUFA, but you don't live in Chicago, what would you do?
- To get a firsthand idea of FUFA's work, ask the teens to visit the organization's MySpace page at myspace.com/femalesunitedforaction and leave a comment about one of the posts. Does FUFA have any current campaigns that the teens could help with from a distance? Either way, ask the teens to follow some of the links on FUFA's page. Are there other organizations doing media literacy work near where the teens live?
- Ask the teens if they have any examples, similar to the one described in the interview, about advertisements that they think promote either negative or positive images of women or girls. What steps could they take to express their views and possibly get the advertisement(s) removed or changed?
II. Problem Solving: Exploring Options, Giving Advice
The purpose of this activity is to practice what Alexandra Pates calls "media monitoring."
- Review Alexandra's description of media monitoring with the teens: "Basically, that means I take one story, read it from three different news sources, and see—out of all three news sources—which [version] is the most biased. After I figure that out, I try to figure out in which way the writers make the story biased. What group of people is this story appealing to?"
- Either ask the teens to determine a recent news story and find three examples of coverage of that story, or refer to the list of stories in the Jena 6 activities, also in this month's Guidance for Grown-Ups. In reviewing the three stories, make sure the teens look for examples of bias. Does the wording directly or indirectly assign blame? Who is the intended audience? What details does the article leave out? Is there an appropriate place for the teens to post or publicize their findings?
- In order to help the teens understand the source of bias, ask them to practice writing headlines for one news story. They can create a fictional news story or use the example of an NFL player being arrested for physical assault against his girlfriend. Following are some possible headlines, with different types of bias:
- Star quarterback to miss next three games
- Man arrested for assaulting woman
- Girlfriend claims NFL player hit her
What are the differences in points of view for these headlines? What is the consequence of having and promoting different points of view in these ways?
III. Make a Historical and Global Connection: Changing Options
The purpose of this activity is to inspire teens to take action in their communities by learning about other teen activists.
- Did you know? Here are some statistics about youth volunteering, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service:
- Over 8 million people aged 16-24 performed volunteer work (per year) from 2003-2005, for a national young adult volunteering rate of 24.2%. During this same period, the state young adult volunteering rates ranged from 15.8% to 45.4%.
- The states with the top young adult volunteer rates are as follows: 1. Utah 2. Wyoming 3. Washington 4. Vermont 5. Minnesota 6. Wisconsin 7. Nebraska 8. Idaho 9. Alaska.
(Source - nationalservice.gov — VIA_summaryreport.pdf )
- Ask the teens to raise their hands if they have ever volunteered for a cause. Are any of the teens willing to describe her experience? What did she do as a volunteer? How did she learn about the opportunity? Why did she volunteer? Have any of the teens led other teens in a volunteer service project?
- Next, ask the teens to pair off. They are going to role-play an effort to recruit a peer to join their volunteer cause, protesting harmful and violent images of women and girls in media. What kinds of things does the recruiter say to gain the interest and trust of the potential volunteer? What are volunteers looking for in order to have a meaningful experience? Give the pairs a chance to switch roles.
- Every month Teen Voices honors an activist for her inspiring social change work. Ask the teens to peruse the archives of this column and read interviews with at least three other activists. Do they know anyone they could nominate for this honor? Give them time to write a nomination to Teen Voices. If they don't know someone currently, ask them to write it for themselves, five years from now.
- Ask the teens to think of at least three social issues they care about. Give them time to research organizations or volunteer opportunities related to those causes. Could they start a chapter of an organization at their school? How can they become more involved with their community?
Have you used Guidance for Grown-ups with your class or teen group? Tell us which ones you used and what kind of success you had with it. Did you put your own spin on it? Let us know.
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