YMP Brings Authentic Learning, Teaches 'Common Core' Skills

?by Lynne Schneider
YMP Program Manager,
Murrah High School English, Journalism Teacher

​Teachers love to teach (most of them). Except in the summer. So what is a teacher doing spending all her summer weekdays in an office in downtown Jackson? With a group of teenagers?! 

That’s what I thought, too, when the alarm went off at 6:45 a.m. on June 1. It was the first day of June, and while my family kept on snoring, I started the morning commute to Capital Towers in downtown Jackson. And I wondered what the heck I was doing ... I adore the lazy days of summer. Now, three weeks into the Youth Media Project, I am no longer questioning why I’m here. The students are talented, and they want to be here. They REALLY want to be here. They get a writing assignment or another task assigned, and they do it, every time. And have I mentioned that the office is bright and open, and includes an amazing view of Jackson down below us?

But’s it not just that I’m in a fabulous space and working with the best teenagers in the tri-county area. As a teacher, I know what authentic learning looks like. And authentic learning happens every day in the YMP office. I could list all the Common Core Standards (or College and Career Standards, which is the same thing) that our lessons and the student work include, but it is summer. So let me just tell you that these students are researching every day. They write, and edit, and rewrite, and then edit some more. And then write the next story or blog and start the cycle again.

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They make critical decisions about how to write a story—who to talk to, what to ask, how to get the photos and video and audio they need. They learn a little public speaking and a lot about working in groups. They read articles and analyze them in great detail, and apply what they learn to their own work. These are all important Common Core English skills. Beyond Common Core, they also are learning that media play an important role in our nation, and have a great responsibility to get the whole story out. And they are learning just how media sometimes fail miserably to meet that responsibility, especially where young people are the subject. 

These lessons are all invaluable for high school students. What is even more important about the Youth Media Project are the lessons about our students are learning about themselves. How teenagers can be different in every visible way and still have the important things in common. How to disagree on almost anything (except Donald Trump) with a smile and a continued friendship. How to step out of a comfort zone and try something new. Each student journalist is stretching beyond the little box he or she has grown up in and is beginning to see the communities around them through a wider perspective. They are learning to stand a few minutes in someone else’s shoes. And it is the diversity of our student group that has made all this happen. 

Racial desegregation of schools supposedly happened over 40 years ago in Mississippi, but we can all look around and see that schools are almost as segregated as they were in 1964. And I wish that every school in Mississippi could offer students a chance to learn and be friends with other students who don’t look like them. It really would make our state a better place. The Youth Media Project is on to something, and that is that young people are able to change the world when they open their eyes and see what changes need to be made. That has to be the most important lesson any child can learn.