754 Reading Reflection #3 Story sharing, social justice and Creating your own content
Focusing on tweens and teens is my jam. Having been a middle school teacher for the past 17 years has made me attune to their brains. Though pop culture and topics change, their wants and needs typically do not. These students are struggling with both wanted to be independant and conforming to a group they wish to be accepted in. Programming to these struggles can be a challenge but specifically targeting the tweens will make it easier to keep them in their teens. In distilling the materials for Module 4 a few themes rose to importance; Sharing your story, gamification and connection to the world.
Sharing your story
As Ms. Harris and Sab. discussed in their programming ideas of creating programming with themes of social justice, using your story and truth along with your hobbies or art can make for a quality and authentic program. Using the model that National Public Radio uses with their Story Corp program as well as some of the resources available with Narrative 4 can allow for the safe sharing of these stories and allow people to take away valuable lessons. Finding a structure to follow as well as creating safe boundaries (or as Ms. Harris likes to call them; touchstones) can enable the involved group to guide conversation regardless of age.
Gamification/ creating your own content
Tweens and Teens for the most part thrive on games and puzzles whether they know it or not. Capitalizing on this can make for successful programming. Creating your own Escape room or game was a particular fun find that I already started working on.
Connection to the world around you
Their need to connect to their community is important and should be included in all programming. This connection can aid with buy in which can often be a challenge with both age groups. Having them serve on an advisory board might bring light to subjects and ideas that you were not aware of and lead to more successful programming.
Continued great work! The reflection was concise but insightful.
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