On Final Exam Day, my Spring Semester 2023 students presented their research projects in front of a live audience at the campus library. I called it Jay's Student News Conference. Over the course of the semester, my students read a sixties novel and developed extensive MLA-style research papers. They wrote their papers about the Moon Landing, the Women's Movement, the MLK Assassination, Charles Manson. They scoured our campus databases for the most significant information available. In the sixties, I was too young to understand what was going on in this country. But I'm certainly old enough now. I encouraged my students to learn from the past to understand what is going on today.
In the sixties, the iconic rock group the Grateful Dead sang "What a Long Strange Trip It's Been..." My students will agree. This project was both rigorous and challenging, but as we advanced deeper into the writing process, students became more knowledgeable, confident and engaged. For this event, we brought in a big screen and a professional podium. In a brief three to six minutes, they presented their new knowledge and insight on racial division, sexual assault, gender equality, immigration reform, environmental degradations, to name a few of their topics. They also took questions from our gathering of reporters.
As I write this, 14 states have banned abortion following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. 50 years of Civil Rights erased. About half the states in the union are expected to follow suit. In Georgia, they've banned abortion at six weeks of pregnancy - this is before most women would even know they are pregnant. This looks like only the beginning. Extreme right elements of our own governement appear relentless in their attack on reproductive freedoms. Women's lives are being put at risk. English 105 student Ariana Valenzuela focused on the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s. Her paper analyzed the advent of the Birth Control Pill - according to many historians, the most signifcant "invention" of the twentieth century. Reproductive Rights are Civil Rights. The Pill gave women the freedom to choose their own paths in life.
Every year in California, the two counties where I teach – Imperial and Coachella - are often ranked near the top in teen pregnancy. The causes are diverse: no protection, peer pressure, lack of parental communication, gang activity. The effects are common: dropout, low-wage jobs drug/alcohol abuse, cycle of teen pregnancy. Moreover, Latina teens consistently rate atop all racial and ethnic categories when it comes teen birth.
I was happy and impressed to see Ariana lead an inspired discussion about birth control with our students and guests. The first things that come to mind when we see a pregnant teenager is drop-out, government assistance, single motherhood, promiscuity. Because of the rampant stereotyping, we blame the young women for their choices. As a result, teen moms experience more than their share of guilt and shame. Ariana argues that doesn't have to be the case. Ariana's presentation was SO COOL. We talked about things in our Student Press Conference that we just don't talk about in class.
This student news conference idea came to me at the beginning of the Trump presidency; from watching news clips of Trump, Nancy Pelosi, Sara Saunders, Rod Rosenstein, presenting important information to a roomful of reporters. And taking questions! I thought what a great format to generate and perpetuate student engagement at semester's end. The communication goes two ways. Everyone wins!
Over the last week of the regular semester, we had the chance to practice our presentations in groups. We practiced the back-and-forth, give-and-take press conference banter we see on CNN and MSNBC. Brianna Gomez( see her project Mind Map to the right) writes about Women’s Rights Leader Gloria Steinem, who TODAY is still speaking Truth to Power. Several of the projects you will see displayed at the press conference express the voice of young women in this class, truly grateful for theunyielding courage, spirit, and sacrifice of the women who have paved their way. Brian Magallanes developed his research paper on the Chinese Cultural Revolution. He was ready for questions about the role of women in the revoloution he speaks of.
I graded my students on the following:
* Professional behavior and preparation - effective use of time during presentation.
* Knowledge of subject matter - Ability to share 2-3 SIGNIFICANT elements of research
* Postive attention and feeback directed towards classmate presentations
My goal with our Student Press Conference is to provide an exciting, non-threatening collaborative atmosphere to reinforce our semester learning and motivate us for thenext semester.
This Is What I Believe: We all walked away from Final Exam Day feeling good about our efforts this semester. I look forward to picking up where I left off with my Summer Session students.
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