This American Life: Is this Working? Review (actual media is shown right below this post)

Chicago Public Media, & Glass, I. (Producers). (2014, October 17). Is this working? [Show #538]. This American life from WBEZ. Podcast retrieved from http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/538/is-this-working

Summary: Act One of this episode talks about how Black and Latino children are being suspended as early as preschool way more than Whites.  Tunette Powell’s three and four year old children are getting suspended from preschool repeatedly.  Powell blames herself as a child who was repeatedly suspended and even expelled from preschool.  She thought it was because her father was in prison.  As an adult she believed with a two-parent household and a stable income, she was doing better for her kids.  Her kids’ suspensions make her wonder what she’s done wrong.  Then conversations with other kids’ parents at a birthday party make her realize that her children are being punished more frequently and for lesser offenses.  Powell writes a blog questioning the racism she is facing. 

Review:  This first 17-min clip is thought-provoking.  Anecdotally and statistically it is very rich.  Students could share their school experiences with discipline and their thoughts on justice in schools.  Who gets it?  Who doesn’t?  Lots of juicy questions for teenagers.  This podcast is perfect for the auditory learner.  It is well edited and the music helps engage all.  Using a reflection notebook, students could write down details about Powell’s story while listening.  

Diversity: Racism towards African American students is discussed extensively through this episode.

Suggestions for Teachers: A conversation about race in America would be a good pre-activity to prime students, but most will find this podcast engaging and disturbing. Use this to talk about current events in Ferguson and race in America in a Social Studies class.

Reading Level:

1. Quantitative: N/A
2. Qualitative: The stories and interviews used here are told in chronological order. Vocabulary is contemporary and largely familiar. No other context is needed to make meaning. A discussion about students' own racial experiences or a journal might be a good way to prime students.

Content Areas: English, Social Studies

Common Core State Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.2
Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.3
Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.5
Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.6
Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

Relevant links: This American Life

Subjects/Themes: racism, discipline, education, African Americans

Awards: N/A

Series Information: This American Life