Sixteenth Annual Elementary Math Bowl
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Bakersfield City School District The Advisory Bulletin To: Junior High/Middle School Principals and Language Date: November 3, 2016 No. 17234 Arts Teachers Subject: Young Writers of Kern Essay Contest: How Does a Person Overcome Adversity? Prepared By: Michael D. Stone, Coordinator, Visual and Performing Arts Department Approved By: Dr. Tim Fulenwider, Director, Instructional Support Services Division Page 1 of 14 Essay Competition Essay Topic: Should social media be used as a valid news source for students? What: Students attending District Junior High/Middle Schools in Bakersfield City School District and throughout the County are invited to participate in an Essay Contest sponsored by the Writers of Kern. This project will be aligned with Common Core State Standards in the area of argumentative writing. The writing prompt will be on the following topic: “Should social media be used as a valid news source for students?” Lesson plans for this project will be provided for the purpose of building background knowledge and student discourse that will align to the writing prompt. Initial screening of essays will be conducted by teachers from participating schools. Each school selects up to 10 entries. Submissions will be judged using the SMARTER Balanced Writing Rubric. Who: Students in Grades 6, 7, and 8 at the District’s Junior High/Middle Schools and other similarly-configured schools outside of the District are eligible to participate. When: The lesson plan will be introduced and taught during the week of January 30-February 3, 2017, with submission of up to 10 essays from each school at the discretion of the principal, submitted to the Visual and Performing Arts Department Office by Friday, February 24, 2017, at 4:30 p.m. Guidelines: Essays are to be typed in Arial font, size 12, double-spaced, and no more than 1,200 words in length. Screening Selection Process: Initial screening will be conducted by teachers from the respective participating schools. Each participating school principal may select up to 10. Rating Criteria: Submissions will be judged using the SMARTER Balanced Writing Rubric. Deadlines: Submissions from school principals are to be delivered to the Visual and Performing Arts Department Office by Friday, February 24, 2017, at 4:30 p.m. These entries will be delivered to the official judges. Winners will be selected and announced by the last week of April, 2017. Awards: Cash prizes will be given to the top students from throughout the County. Essay Topic: Should social media be used as a valid news source for students? Essay Competition REGISTRATION FORM (Duplicate as Necessary) School Name: ________________ STUDENT’S NAME GRADE SCHOOL NAME_____________________________________ TEACHER’S NAME_____________________________________ Important: Make a copy of this box and attach to the entry (e.g., essay, short story, or poetry) STUDENT’S NAME GRADE SCHOOL NAME_____________________________________ TEACHER’S NAME_____________________________________ Important: Make a copy of this box and attach to the entry (e.g., essay, short story, or poetry) STUDENT’S NAME GRADE SCHOOL NAME_____________________________________ TEACHER’S NAME_____________________________________ Important: Make a copy of this box and attach to the entry (e.g., essay, short story, or poetry) Release of Directory Information for Purposes of Publicity As an outcome of participating in the above-mentioned writing and art competition, information about a participating student may be publicly disclosed (e.g., student's name, school award received, and involvement in this contest). These disclosures are permissible under "directory information" law and policy unless the parent or legal guardian ("Parent") has notified the school in writing that such information may not be disclosed. I declare that no Parent of a student entered in this contest has given a notice of non-participation in the release of directory information policy (i.e., placed a check in the "Release of Directory Information" box of the Parent Acknowledgement page of the Guide for Parents and Students). _______________________________________ PRINCIPAL’S SIGNATURE Return: (1) Registration Form and (2) Labeled Entries to the Visual and Performing Arts Department Office no later than Friday, February 24, 2017. Questions, please call the Visual and Performing Arts Department Office at 631-4774. DUPLICATE FORM AS NECESSARY Should social media be used as a valid news source for students? Essay Competition Lesson Plans (Placeholder) Essay Topic: “Should social media be used as a valid news source for students?” Dear Teacher, Thank you for your consideration and work to include your students in the Writers of Kern 2016/2017 Essay Contest. Contained within this document, you will find an array of resources to help you prepare your students for participation and suggestions for instruction. The writing prompt is “Should social media be used as a valid news sources for students?” In order to prepare your students to fully address this prompt and provide a well-reasoned point of view, you will need to build background by reading materials, holding class discussions and collaborative conversations, and allowing your students time to research the topic on their own. Contained in this packet you will find: Suggested Instructional Approach: ● Building Background ● Identifying the Problem ● Self-Directed Student Research Teaching Materials: ● Student Graphic Organizer ● Suggested Sources ● 6-8 SBAC Argumentative Rubric Suggested Instructional Approach Build Background Students must fully understand the concept of research, validity and social media. Use a KWL chart and class discussion to determine what students already know. Next, we recommend you create instruction suited to your style (class inquiry, direct instruction, or as a student-led activity) based on focusing on the following questions and purposes: Guiding Question Purpose Where to find information What is social media? Students must have an http://www.digitaltrends.com/ understanding of what social features/the-history-of-social- media is and how it evolved networking/ over time. What is the impact of social Students must learn how news https://www.mushroomnetwo media on the news? spread on social media and rks.com/infographics/social- how that may alter the public media-news-outlets-vs.- perception on events. traditional-news-infographic http://www.journalism.org/20 16/05/26/news-use-across- social-media-platforms-2016/ How do you determine the Students must learn how to http://mason.gmu.edu/~monte credibility of a news source? determine the validity of a cin/web-eval-sites.htm news source. https://uknowit.uwgb.edu/pag e.php?id=30276 Identify the Problem During this phase of the lesson, the students should gain information and begin to form an argument to determine if social media is a relevant, valid news source. Information students acquire during this phase can be organized by using a graphic organizer. Teacher can use the articles and sources provided to help build an understanding and to further student knowledge of creditability, the impact of social media and the shifts in the public consumption of the news. Self-Directed Student Research Students should have discussions with groups, create research questions for themselves to learn more information, and perform research to form their argument. When the class has a concept of a solid understanding of social media and the news, they should begin to perform research independently to solidify their position, and finally prepare to write their essay. Identifying the Problem Graphic Organizer Current Event Summary How does impact my position? How does social media impact society? What are the benefits to accessing the news through social media? What are the disadvantages to accessing your news through social media? How has social media changed how we consume the news? Graphic Organizer for Student Research Research Question Information Found How this Citation strengthens my argument The following resources are intended to build understanding of the societal impact of social media. They are to be used as an in-class background building resource 40 percent of millennials pay for print, online news By Tali Arbel, Associated Press 10.13.15 NEW YORK — In a world flush with free information, some young people are still willing to shell out for news they read. A recent poll shows that 40 percent of U.S. adults ages 18-34 pay for at least some of the news they read, whether it's a print newspaper, a digital news app or an email newsletter. Another 13 percent don't pay themselves but rely on someone else's subscription, according to the survey by Media Insight Project, a collaboration of the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Older millennials are more likely than younger ones to personally pay for news. "Forty percent is a strong number but that means the majority are not willing to pay," said Keith Herndon, a visiting professor of journalism at the University of Georgia and former journalist. "We have to think of ways of making the content compelling enough that someone would be willing to pay for it." The proliferation of free news online and new ways for advertisers to reach consumers has besieged publishers of newspapers and magazines. Newspapers' print ad revenue, their primary source of cash, has dropped 63 percent, to $16.4 billion, in 2014 from 2003, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. Daily paid newspaper circulation reached a peak in 1984, at 63.3 million, according to an industry group, the Newspaper Association of America. That represented a quarter of the country's population. Daily paid circulation has now shrunk to 40.4 million, even as the U.S. population has grown by about a third. There have been attempts to capitalize on the shift online. Digital ad revenues from newspaper websites have more than doubled as print ad revenue collapsed, but still come to only $3.5 billion — just a fraction of print ad revenue last year.