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What Students Are Saying About: Extremist Content Online, Rivalries and Reflections

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What Students Are Saying About: Extremist Content Online, Rivalries and Reflections

Inspired by the many robust conversations we’ve seen taking place in the comments section of our writing prompts lately, we’re posing a challenge for students this coming week:

Reply to a comment of someone you don’t know. Even better, start a conversation and keep it going.

Try to go beyond just saying “agree,” “true,” “same” or “good comment.” Instead, be specific about what you liked about what someone wrote, share an alternate point of view, explain why you disagree with something, make a connection to someone else’s experience, or ask an engaging question to continue the conversation.

(And always do so civilly and respectfully — we won’t accept any comments that violate our moderation standards, like name-calling, personal attacks, vulgarity or profanity.)

We may round up some of the best conversations we read in a future Current Events Conversation.

Need inspiration for what to write? Here are a few great examples of the many responses we got from students at Silverton, Nanaimo District Secondary School and J.R. Masterman this week:

In this exchange on our prompt “Are Some Youth Sports Too Intense?” Karina Malunay from Glenbard West, Glen Ellyn, Ill. wrote:

The reality is, teens are only staying in their sport because of their want to achieve getting a scholarship in college or playing in college at all. Parents and coaches need to show children to play for the love of the game, rather than winning.

Kylee from Silverton3 responded by expanding on Karina’s point:

@Karina Malunay I totally agree with this, it’s so true that kids who play sports spend so much time worrying that they’re not the best or they’re bad. Coaches and parents should learn to show that sports are for fun rather having it just be about winning, yes winning is great thing to have and feel, but having fun is what makes sport an achievable thing.

And in this discussion on our prompt “Have You Ever Encountered Racist or Extremist Content Online?” Ashley NT from California wrote:

I think social media allows children to experience politics at an early age. Social platforms such as Instagram often have accounts dedicated to political parties or feminist groups that express certain standpoints. With that comes racist stereotypes.

Theodor from NDSS pushed back and added on to Ashley’s comment:

@Ashley NT I agree with your comment that children can be exposed to politics and racism and many other subjects, at an early age thanks to social media. But I think that our society needs to educate our children and teenagers on what’s right and wrong on social media. We need to teach them at a certain point on why racism is committed and on why people have racist thoughts about other races.

Finally, in our Picture Prompt “Music Therapy” we saw students sharing their experiences with music. Seinnel Cruz from J.R Masterman wrote:

My taste in music has changed a lot in the past few months. I used to only listen to pop and all the top 100 songs … Now, the majority of my music taste is influenced by the app, TikTok. TikTok is a video making app where you can make a video and put a sound over top of it.

Cyrus Fisher from J. R. Masterman replied:

@Seinnel Cruz I experienced the same transition. I used to only like pop, but TikTok has helped me to discover songs I like outside of the genre. My playlist of TikTok songs is one of my favorites.

Now, you go give it a try!

And, finally, before we get to today’s selections, we want to welcome the many new classes who joined us from all over the country: Fordham Preparatory School, N.Y.; Glenbard West High School, Glen Ellyn, Ill.; Napa, Calif.; Norwood High School, Norwood, Mass.; Quest Forward Academy Santa Rosa; Shaker High School; Silverton, Ore.; and VJMHS, Holland, Penn.

Film Club: ‘‘I’m Worried That I Will Die:’ Hong Kong Protesters Write Final Goodbyes’

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Film Club: ‘‘I’m Worried That I Will Die:’ Hong Kong Protesters Write Final Goodbyes’

Find all our Film Club films here.

Teachers: Please note that this week’s film includes powerful and disturbing images — including violence between protesters and police. Be sure to review the film before screening with your class.

What are you willing to fight for — even at the risk of being injured, or dying?

“‘I’m Worried That I Will Die:’ Hong Kong Protesters Write Final Goodbyes” is a three-minute film that touches on themes of activism, justice and sacrifice. It profiles young protesters in Hong Kong who are fighting for democratic reforms and freedom from China’s tightening grip on the territory. As violence escalates between demonstrators and the police in Hong Kong, protesters have started writing “last letters” to their loved ones, in case they don’t return. These notes chronicle the mental and emotional state of frontliners coming to terms with risking death for their beliefs.

Students

1. Watch the short film above. While you watch, you might take notes using our Film Club Double-Entry Journal (PDF) to help you remember specific moments.

2. After watching, think about these questions:

  • What questions do you still have?

  • What connections can you make between this film and your own life or experience? Why? Does this film remind you of anything else you’ve read or seen? If so, how and why?

3. An additional challenge | Respond to the essential question at the top of this post: What are you willing to fight for — even at the risk of being injured, or dying?

4. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)

5. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.

6. To learn more, read “In Hong Kong, Gasoline Bombs, Masks and … Goodbye Letters.” Cora Engelbrecht writes:

“When you find this letter, I might have already been arrested or killed.”

This is how a 22-year-old protester in Hong Kong began what he worries could be the last letter to his family. He used the pseudonym “Nobody”; like most of the young people who have been confronting the police on the front lines, he fears arrest or death.

I met “Nobody” and his cohort during a recent Sunday demonstration. After 19 weeks of street battles with the police, the protesters’ roles are well rehearsed: They move swiftly, each to his or her appointed task, using codes and sign language. They assemble barricades in minutes, only to disperse in seconds.

But I came to observe handiwork of a different kind. As the violence intensified over the summer, I learned that young protesters were writing farewell notes to family and friends in the event that they were arrested or killed. They call them “Wai Shu,” or “last letters.” Some carry handwritten copies to the streets in their backpacks or wallets. Others hide them at home, in drawers and under mattresses. Several people read them to me off their phones.

“Nobody” told me he wrote his letter when he was at a protest last month in Causeway Bay, after witnessing an undercover officer fire into a crowd. “Right in front of me, live bullets,” he said. “At that moment, I learned that my life was at stake.”

What’s Going On in This Graph? | Oct. 30, 2019

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What’s Going On in This Graph? | Oct. 30, 2019

This graph of annual number of tickets sales for three sports — baseball, basketball and football — originally appeared elsewhere on NYTimes.com.

By Friday morning, Nov. 1, we will provide the “Reveal,” the graph’s free online link, additional background and questions, shout outs highlighting student comments and headlines, and Stat Nuggets.

After looking closely at the graph above (or at this full-size image), think about these three questions:

  • What do you notice? If you make a claim, tell us what you noticed that supports your claim.

  • What do you wonder? What are you curious about that comes from what you notice in the graph?

The questions are intended to build on one another, so try to answer them in order. Start with “I notice,” then “I wonder,” and end with a catchy headline.

2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment online. Teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students’ comments.)

3. After you have posted, read what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting a comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.

On Wednesday, Oct. 30, our collaborator, the American Statistical Association, will facilitate this discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.

4. By Friday morning, we will reveal more information about the graph at the bottom of this post. Students, we encourage you to post an additional comment after reading the reveal. How does the original article and the moderators’ comments help you see the graph differently? Try to incorporate the statistical terms defined in the Stat Nuggets in your response.

  • Read our 2019-20 introductory post, which includes the archives of past releases by topic and graph type.

  • Learn more about the “Notice and Wonder” teaching strategy and how and why other teachers are using this feature from our on-demand webinar.

  • Sign up for our free weekly newsletter so you never miss a graph, and add our 2019-20 “What’s Going On in This Graph?” live-moderated discussion Wednesdays to your Google calendar (10/30, 11/6, 11/13, 11/20, 12/4, 12/11, 1/8, 1/15, 1/22, 1/29, 2/8, 2/12, 2/26, 3/4, 3/11, 3/18, 3/25, 4/1, 4/8). Graphs are always released by the Friday before to give teachers time to plan ahead.

  • Go to the A.S.A. K-12 website, which includes This is Statistics, resources, professional development, student competitions, curriculum, courses and careers.

Word + Quiz: slovenly

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Word + Quiz: slovenly

1. negligent of neatness especially in dress and person; habitually dirty and unkempt

2. characterized by carelessness

_________

The word slovenly has appeared in 15 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Sept. 19 in the obituary “Mark von Hagen, Critic of Times’s Stalin Coverage, Dies at 65” by Sam Roberts:

Four years later, responding to “Stalin’s Apologist” (1990), S.J. Taylor’s critical biography of Mr. Duranty, The Times assigned a member of its editorial board, Karl E. Meyer, to assess Mr. Duranty’s coverage. Mr. Meyer concluded that it amounted to “some of the worst reporting to appear in this newspaper.”

In a letter to the Pulitzer board accompanying Professor von Hagen’s report, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., then the publisher of The Times, wrote that “over the past two decades, The Times has often acknowledged that Duranty’s slovenly work should have been recognized for what it was by his editors and by his Pulitzer judges seven decades ago.”

_________

Lesson of the Day: ‘The World Can Make More Water From the Sea, but at What Cost?’

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Lesson of the Day: ‘The World Can Make More Water From the Sea, but at What Cost?’

Find all our Lessons of the Day here.

Featured Article: “The World Can Make More Water From the Sea, but at What Cost?”

The issue of water quantity and quality is increasingly a global problem. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, over 80 percent of the world is covered in water, but only 3 percent is fresh water. As more places face water scarcity, desalination is seen as a possible answer. However, energy and financial requirements limit how widely that process can be used.

In this lesson, students will explore the issue of water access, examine how desalination presents a potential solution, and finally, weigh the costs and benefits of various approaches to water scarcity.

Do you have access to clean and safe water? How concerned are you about access to quality water now or in the future?

Do you believe that your family, and Americans in general, use water wisely? Or do you think we take this vital resource for granted?

Before reading, look at the graph below and answer the following questions:

  • What do you notice?

  • What do you wonder? What are you curious about that comes from what you notice in the graph?

  • What story does the graph tell? Write a catchy headline that captures its main idea. If your headline makes a claim, tell us what you noticed that supports your claim.

Read the article, then answer the following questions:

1. Scroll through the photos in the article: What do you notice? Which image stands out to you and why? What story do these photos tell?

2. The article begins, “Desalinated seawater is the lifeblood of Saudi Arabia, no more so than at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.” Why did Henry Fountain, the author, start by describing the water uses of one university? How does this single institution illustrate the needs of the entire country?

3. How big a problem is water quality and quantity globally? What are the major causes of water scarcity worldwide?

4. What challenges do Saudi Arabia and other countries face in making desalination affordable and sustainable? In what ways are engineers and researchers addressing these challenges?

5. In your own words, describe the desalination process. Explain reverse osmosis.

6. How is Saudi Arabia’s effort to find renewable and sustainable water sources linked to finding sustainable energy sources?

7. What is your reaction to the article? What was most interesting, surprising or provocative to you? How does this article alter your opinion of the way you, your family and your community use water? What responsibility do we all have to using water responsibility?

Imagine you are a member of local government in one of the high water-stress locations identified on the map in the warm-up activity. Should you invest in desalination technology? What factors would you consider? What are the pros and cons of using desalination to solve the problem of water scarcity?

As part of your analysis, consider whether other possible solutions might be more desirable, such as changing individual water consumption patterns, recycling sewage into drinking water, combating water pollution, increasing agricultural efficiency, investing in green infrastructure and taxing water use?

(You can find more information on the countries facing water stress in “A Quarter of Humanity Faces Looming Water Crises.”)

What would you recommend?

How the EMBA helped Louise step into executive leadership

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How the EMBA helped Louise step into executive leadership

Within weeks of finishing her Executive Master of
Business Administration (EMBA) with RMIT, through Open Universities Australia (OUA), Louise was offered
the role of her dreams:  Acting Deputy
Executive Director of Safety and Security for Sydney Metro. She sat down with OUA
to tell us how she did it.

Ask any leader in business, and they’ll likely tell you that their road
to where they are today was hardly linear. For Louise, this couldn’t be more
true.

Sitting across the table in a well-fitted suit, the executive leader
tells us that, once-upon-a-time, she had studied (and was working in) occupational
therapy.

“I lasted about 18 months,” Louise laughs.

Within minutes of speaking to Louise, it’s clear that she’s a woman who
knows what she wants out of life. Unafraid of a challenge, she reassessed her
future.

Seeing her husband suffer a workplace injury confirmed what she had
suspected. She wanted to prevent injury occurring in the first place, instead
of focusing on the “fixing side of things”.

It was this that convinced Louise to study a Masters of Work Health – a
path that lead her to a successful career in health and safety for over 10
years. But for Louise, she hadn’t yet reached her dreams.

Her ultimate goal? To become an executive leader in work health and
safety. Through the Executive Master of
Business Administration, she achieved just that.

The need for an executive skillset

To get to the next level in an industry she had already spent a decade
in, Louise knew she needed to expand her skills.

“A really effective work health and safety professional, in my opinion,
is being able to tap into other parts of the business, having some financial
acumen, people management skills…” Louise explains.

“Leadership is a big one in work health and safety… the ability to
influence people…  That’s what the Executive MBA at RMIT offered me,” she says.

With a history working for the government, Louise knew that financial
knowledge, in particular, would progress her career.

“We’re working with tax-payers money,” she explains.

Today, Louise oversees the health and safety of contracted employees
across road and rail projects worth approximately 80-100 billion dollars.

Woman points to computer screen.

An exercise in research

With a Bachelor of Applied Science and a Masters of Work Health and
Safety under her belt, Louise was no stranger to study. So when she realised
she needed to return to the books one more time, she knew research was key.

“I wanted to make sure it was the right decision,” she says.

“You didn’t have to go to each university’s website. The curriculum, the
course content… it was all there,” Louise recalls of weighing up different
MBAs on the Open Universities
Australia website.

When she needed further guidance, she found herself supported over the
phone, too.

“The call centre was really helpful. Everybody was really knowledgeable.
I never really had a problem with accessing information.”

Choosing the Executive MBA

“The reason I chose OUA and RMIT was to have a certificate from a great university, Louise says.

By choosing the Executive Master of
Business in particular, as opposed to a more traditional Master of Business,
Louise ensured her degree was accredited by the prestigious European Foundation
for Management Development Program Accreditation System.

What sets her degree apart is the course’s focus on business design in
particular. The course has been applauded for its ability to help leaders
analyse the architecture of business problems, and take creative, innovative
approaches with their solutions.

Louise: The executive leader

Today, Louise lives the high-powered life she once dreamed of.

“The ability to work via correspondence via OUA… it wouldn’t have been possible otherwise to work full-time and also
study.”

And while she’s thrilled with her new role, Louise isn’t slowing down any
time soon.

“The end point? A Chief Executive Officer is not out of the realms of possibility, she grins.

Become the leader you want to be

Keen to follow in Louise’s footsteps and take on an executive role?
Anything is possible through Open Universities Australia.

To learn more about how to study through OUA – fill out the form on
this page, and a friendly student advisor will get in contact. You can also
chat to them on OUA’s website Messenger service,
Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or SMS. They’ll help you find
the right course for your future.

Otherwise, head over to the website to browse hundreds
of degrees and subjects from leading Australian
universities right now.

Word + Quiz: jowl

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Word + Quiz: jowl

1. a fullness and looseness of the flesh of the lower cheek and jaw (characteristic of aging)

2. the jaw in vertebrates that is hinged to open the mouth

_________

The word jowl has appeared in 23 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Jan. 28 in “A Day of Rice Cakes for the Lunar New Year” by Tejal Rao:

WEST COMPTON, Calif. — In a sunny field here in Los Angeles County, the chef Diep Tran folded a banana leaf like wrapping paper, running her fingers along the crease. As she spooned some pork jowl and rice on top, a dozen women leaned over to observe her technique.

“Not too much!” Ms. Tran said. “Don’t forget, rice expands as it cooks.”

Tet, or Vietnamese New Year, falls on Feb. 5 this year. To celebrate and prepare for the holiday, Ms. Tran gathered about 100 women to make banh chung, the rich, sticky rice cakes filled with pork, shallots and mung beans, wrapped in banana leaves and boiled until tender. The women would take home their finished banh chung to share with family and friends.

_________

Can Social Media Be a Tool for Learning and Growth in Schools?

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Can Social Media Be a Tool for Learning and Growth in Schools?

Find all our Student Opinion questions here.

How does your school view social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok? Does it have its own social media accounts? Do teachers and staff use any of these popular apps to engage with students in the classroom or in after-school clubs?

Do you think social media provides opportunities for learning and growth? Or are these apps at best just entertainment and distractions from school, and at worst, places for gossip, bullying and misinformation?

In “High Schools to TikTok: We’re Catching Feelings,” Taylor Lorenz writes about how the app TikTok is getting the stamp of approval in some schools:

WINTER GARDEN, Fla. — On the wall of a classroom that is home to the West Orange High School TikTok club, large loopy words are scrawled across a whiteboard: “Wanna be TikTok famous? Join TikTok club.”

It’s working. “There’s a lot of TikTok-famous kids at our school,” said Amanda DiCastro, who is 14 and a freshman. “Probably 20 people have gotten famous off random things.”

The school is on a quiet palm-tree-lined street in a town just outside Orlando. A hallway by the principal’s office is busy with blue plaques honoring the school’s A.P. Scholars. Its choir director, Jeffery Redding, won the 2019 Grammy Music Educator Award.

Amanda was referring to a different kind of stardom: on TikTok, a social media app where users post short funny videos, usually set to music, that is enjoying a surge in popularity among teenagers around the world and has been downloaded 1.4 billion times, according to SensorTower.

The embrace of the app at this school is mirrored on scattered campuses across the United States, where students are forming TikTok clubs to dance, sing and perform skits for the app — essentially drama clubs for the digital age, but with the potential to reach huge audiences.

And unlike other social media networks, TikTok is winning over some educators, like Michael Callahan, a teacher at West Orange, who had never heard of TikTok before the students told him about it.

He is an adviser to the school’s club and said he loves how the app brings students from different friend groups together. “You see a lot more teamwork and camaraderie,” he said, “and less — I don’t want to say bullying — but focus on individuals.”

In many of the videos on the app, which are 15 seconds to a minute long, school hallways, classrooms and courtyards serve as a recurrent backdrop. And if kids aren’t filming themselves at school, they’re making jokes about school. One popular meme on the app mocks the class of 2023 (freshmen this year) for being cringey and trying too hard.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

  • Does your school see social media as a tool for learning? Share how your school and teachers use social media as part of the education process?

  • Should schools and teachers take better advantage of social media to engage with students? Do you wish your school did? Or should the two worlds remain separate — for everyone’s sake?

  • Are you familiar with TikTok, the app discussed in the article. What’s your take on it? The reporter states that “teachers at many schools say they view TikTok culture as a net positive.” What do you think?

  • Do you have any suggestions for how your school could use social media like TikTok to promote student learning and growth? Please share.

Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Lesson of the Day: ‘Fear, Anxiety and Hope: What It Means to Be a Minority in Gaming’

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Lesson of the Day: ‘Fear, Anxiety and Hope: What It Means to Be a Minority in Gaming’

Find all our Lessons of the Day here.

Featured Article: “Fear, Anxiety and Hope: What It Means to Be a Minority in Gaming”

Five years after “Gamergate,” little seems to have changed in the gaming industry for minorities, women and members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community. In this lesson, students read six stories of people trying to change that. Then, they take a critical look at how their own identities are — or are not — represented in games today.

Create a personal identity chart. Write your name in the middle of a piece of paper or document. Then, on branches extending outward, write all the different things that make you who you are.

These can include your physical characteristics, your personality, your hobbies and interests, your background, your role in your family or other relationships, or anything else that you feel defines you. Here’s an example of what it might look like.

Now, circle five items that are most important to your identity.

Today, you’re going to read an article about identity and gaming. Take a look at the five items you circled in your chart. How often do you see these parts of your identity reflected in the video games or other games you play? Are there characters that look and act like you? Do the story lines reflect your own interests and life experiences?

Would you say that your identity is represented in the majority of video games you play — or, if you’re not a gamer, in other kinds of media, like television, movies and music? How does it feel when you see yourself reflected in these spaces? How does it feel when you don’t?

Read the article, then answer the following questions:

1. The authors note that there is a lack of diversity in the gaming industry today. How does that influence the types of mainstream games that are made? What impact does it have on the gaming community?

2. How did “Gamergate” help shape Squinky’s career path?

3. How did making games help Emma Kidwell reconnect to her Japanese identity?

4. In what ways is Joyce Lin’s game, Queering Spacetime, different from other simulation games? Why does she see it as a “queer form of resistance”?

5. What does Julian Cordero dislike about gaming culture and why?

6. Why is Aziza Brown optimistic about the future of gaming? How does she think the industry can change to become more inclusive?

7. Which of these stories stood out to you the most and why?

If you were to create a game that represented who you are, what would it look like?

Like the developers profiled in the article, design a game that reflects one or more aspects of your identity, such as your gender, race, sexuality, favorite hobby or anything else that you included in your identity chart above. Whatever you choose, it should be important to you.

For additional inspiration, you may want to watch the short film “Games You Can’t Win,” which shows how a transgender woman, a man with severe mental illness​ and the parents of a child with cancer transform their experiences into intensely personal video games.

In designing your game, consider who the main characters would be, what story line the game would follow, what form it would take, how it would be played and anything else you want to take on.

You can design it by creating a series of storyboard sketches of each phase of the game, or simply describe it in writing.

Then, take a moment to reflect on your creation:

  • How did it feel to create something that reflected your own identity?

  • How do you think you would feel if there were more games like this in the mainstream?

  • Do you think there are others who would feel “seen” if they could play your game? Why or why not?

Multitasking

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Multitasking

How well do you multitask? Are you able to juggle different priorities effectively? Or do you prefer to focus on one thing at a time? What are the benefits of taking on different tasks simultaneously? What are the drawbacks?

Tell us in the comments about a time when you tried to multitask. How did it go for you? Did you accomplish more than you expected to, or less? Then read the related Op-Ed to learn more about this common habit.

Find many more ways to use our Picture Prompt feature in this lesson plan. You can find all our Picture Prompts in this column.

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