Sports Stories and Critical Media Literacy
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Mark A. Fabrizi and Robert D. Ford A popular one- semester Sports Stories and elective, Sports Stories relies on student Critical Media Literacy knowledge of and interest in sports to teach critical media literacy and rhetorical analysis. enior year. Second semester. En- of the dominant themes consistently seen in the glish class. For many students, this stories— real and fictional— surrounding sports: is the last place they want to be. determination, the underdog, the hero, the fall of But when you look around this a legend. Sports provide the backdrop, themes pro- classroom, you see students huddled together, vide the focus, and historical figures provide the poringS over primary- source documents, looking human element. for evidence to support their group’s thesis. Oth- As we developed the course, we felt that a ers are listening to a Bob Dylan song, taking rapid simple exploration of the major themes present in notes every few minutes on the accompanying lyr- sports, while interesting, would be insufficiently ics page. Still others are searching the Internet for rigorous and that students would benefit from a corroborative information. The buzz of activity in more critical examination of fictional representa- this classroom would please any English teacher, tions of historical events. We also realized that we but for this group of students, success in school could take further advantage of the students’ inter- does not come easily, and their struggles in En- est in the subject by teaching them to read and ana- glish over the years have distanced most of them lyze the rhetorically rich texts of sports writers such from the subject, making their engagement that as Frank DeFord, Norman Mailer, and John Fein- much more gratifying. Fortunately, their interest stein; analyze iconic sports films such asRocky, The in sports is a powerful motivator, leading to our Natural, Hoosiers, and Field of Dreams; investigate development of this Sports Stories class, a course sports controversies such as the “Black Sox” scandal that uses sports as its centerpiece to help inspire of 1916; and explore documentaries and biographi- students as they strengthen their reading and cal accounts of sports legends. The talk is sports, writing skills. but the language used and the standards addressed Within the framework of our curriculum, are typical of any En glish class. seniors choose two one- semester En glish classes, This article outlines two approaches that based primarily on their interests. The courses vary can be used in a sports-oriented En glish classroom widely in content, including such topics as creative to help students develop critical-thinking skills writing, theater arts, fantasy literature, journalism, within a context that is both familiar and engag- film, college writing, and sports. The courses are ing. These two core elements of the course—one leveled— Advanced Placement, Honors, College literary and one rhetorical— provide the framework Prep, and General—and the students who enroll for the study of sports figures and events. Both of in Sports Stories tend to be those who struggle these units connect directly to reading, writing, lis- most with En glish. The Sports Stories course itself, tening, and speaking strands in the Common Core a General- level class, helps students explore some State Standards (CCSS). 42 En glish Journal 104.1 (2014): 42–47 EJ_Sept2014_B.indd 42 7/30/14 11:43 AM Mark A. Fabrizi and Robert D. Ford The “Hurricane” Carter Controversy the crime, and Carter eventually served nearly 20 years in jail before being released in 1985 when his The Sports Stories curriculum addresses criti- original conviction was overturned. He was also the cal media literacy primarily through an inquiry subject of a 1975 song by Bob Dylan that argued into the murder conviction of boxer Rubin “Hur- for his release from prison. ricane” Carter who, despite evidence to the con- We began the project in class by playing trary, continually proclaimed his innocence. The Dylan’s song “Hurricane.” We distributed lyr- circumstances are dramatized in the 1999 filmThe ics to the students to help them follow along and Hurricane, directed by Norman Jewison, which on which they could take notes as they identified draws its material primarily from Carter’s account significant details and major events for later use in of his early life and from a book by Sam Chaiton classroom discussions. We discussed the emotions and Terry Swinton that depicts the authors’ efforts Dylan was trying to elicit as well as his avowed po- to free Carter from prison. litical agenda. (In a live recorded version of the song, The students described at the beginning of Dylan identified the plight of Hurricane Carter and this article engaged in a critical multimedia study explained his purpose in writing and performing to determine the historical accuracy of several rep- the song— to free Carter from prison and to encour- resentations of the primary event— a 1966 triple age the audience to support Carter’s cause.) The homicide allegedly involving Rubin “Hurricane” students did not seem troubled by Dylan’s use of Carter, a mid-20th- century boxer with a promis- celebrity to promote his personal agenda; they felt ing career whose public life was spotted with vio- Dylan had the right to express himself as he wished lence, drugs, and multiple arrests. Carter and an and that it was a case of caveat emptor on the part of accomplice were arrested and convicted (twice) for the media consumer. However, the question helped lay the groundwork for a later discussion on the responsibilities of the consumer to question media sources as well as any explicit or implicit agenda(s) that might manifest. Following this activity, we watched the film The Hurricane (Jewison) in class, noting major events and evidence (or lack thereof) to convict the boxer. The film is emotionally powerful and com- pelling, presenting a one- sided account of the ho- micide by inventing characters and circumstances and manipulating the “facts” of the case to favor Carter. After watching the film, students were pre- dictably outraged at the obviously unfair incarcera- tion of the boxer and gratified at his release. Now the fun begins. Once the film has ended and we have com- pared the facts presented with those in the Dylan song, we examine nonfiction sources found in print and on the Internet, including the Chaiton and Swinton text, graphicwitness.com, and biography .com, to uncover the contrasting sides of the case. This multimedia inquiry supports the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), specifically strand RIT.11-12.7, which requires students to “integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information pre- sented in different media or formats . to address Rubin “Hurricane” Carter (Associated Press) a question or solve a problem.” We remind students English Journal 43 EJ_Sept2014_B.indd 43 7/30/14 11:43 AM Sports Stories and Critical Media Literacy that the film is based, in part, on an account writ- legwork, virtually all students are invested in the ten by Carter himself and is likely to be biased in activity. his favor. At the conclusion of the seminar, most stu- As part of their summative assessment, we dents maintained that Carter was innocent and sug- provide students with a 15-question “scorecard” gested that many of the nonfiction sources— even based largely on a comparison of the evidence pre- the primary source documents they examined— sented in the song and film versions of the event were false. While this may be due to students’ as well as their investigation of the “other side” of inherent desire to defend the underdog or to the the story from the contrasting sources. Their task power of the Jewison film, it may have resulted is to answer the questions using both the fictional from the order of presentation of the texts: the so- sources from class and nonfic- called halo effect. An interesting twist on this unit Most of the discussion tion sources they must research could involve completing the nonfiction research surrounds their evidence themselves. In responding to before engaging with the fiction sources. and their interpretation the 15 issues, students must The indeterminacy of what really happened document their sources, pro- gave students license to work hard to prove their of it, and the students are vide quotations, and evaluate cases, whether they agreed or disagreed with Cart- often eager to share their the evidence from both sides. er’s original conviction. Students were engaged analyses of the evidence As they answer each question, in significant tasks and numerous CCSS were ad- they uncovered. they must weigh the evidence dressed throughout the unit: research and syn- from their sources, marking thesis (W.11- 12.7- 9), documenting and citing each “round” on the scorecard in favor of exonera- sources (RIT.11- 12.1), determining an author’s tion or conviction. At the end of the “fight,” they point of view (RIT.11- 12.6), integrating multiple must announce their decision and defend the “win- viewpoints (RIT.11- 12.7), speaking and listening ner” in an essay, discussing the veracity of the evi- (SL.11- 12.2, 4), etc. Students learned critical media dence they found and explaining why they gave the literacy skills, they began considering the respon- round to one side or the other. Because an essay ex- sibilities of consumers in a democratic society, and amining each of the 15 questions would be long by they learned that “social justice” does not mean most standards, we ask students only to examine that the punished should always go free. and discuss the five questions that were most dif- ficult to score or that were particularly significant.