Fisher teaches media literacy to middle schoolers

MCKINLEY GARNER

THE RUBICON

In a world where media literacy is becoming ever important, many ask the question, “How can we work to facilitate a better understanding of how media works?”

Senior Maddy Fisher set out to do her part with a four-week workshop with middle school students focused on fact and opinion.

Fisher’s goal is “for them to start developing consciousness and awareness about biases you can encounter in the media and about the misinfor- mation you can encounter.”

The last two sessions in April focused on writing. Students learned that while news pieces often follow an inverted pyramid structure with most relevant facts at the top and least important information at the bottom, opinion pieces can sit in a triangle, with the least controversial information introduced at the start with growing persuasion that push a reader to see value in less popular perspectives by the end.

The middle schoolers will submit final opinion pieces to Fisher, and the finished pieces will be considered for the May issue of The Rubicon.

Each student chose their topic, from silly to serious.

Eighth grader Juliette Smith said she “got to learn about how to write an opinion article, and why strawberries are the healthiest fruit.” continued on pg. 2

Seventh grader Jack Gao mentioned how he got to learn about “positive and negative opinions” in addition to how to write an opinion article.

HARD AT WORK. The last two middle school sessions were focused on writing; in this photo Fisher helps students outline their first opinions articles. “Writing is just as important as media literacy and education because it gives students a chance to see from the perspective of a journalist, which can help them identify bias in the future,” Fisher said.

In the email announcement Head of School Luis Ottley described wrote that Lee impressed “with her strong academic and professional background as well as her thoughtfulness, her dedication to her students, and her empathy.”

Lee will take over the role from interim principal Ken Jaffe in July.

This week is the countdown on campus for seniors as they wrap up coursework and plan for a four weeks of senior project. Students will spend time in a primary internship and spend approximately 12 hours completing community service. Those involved in the musical or sports or have outside of school commitments may have included these additional activities. The process changes to the graduation requirement included a shift away from a senior project committee to a whole-faculty and class approach. The seniors will return to campus for a 4-hour senior project presentation format similar to their proposal process on June 5.