Today we have unprecedented access to news from all around the world.  There are countless sources, both hard copy and digital, as well as entire television networks devoted to delivering the news to us 24 hours a day.  With this constant stream of information, it can be difficult to stop to consider the reliability and accuracy of the sources we use.  

In this unit, students will take a deeper look at the news media to ask what makes a story newsworthy,and how do we recognize bias in stories.  We will explore the changing role and responsibilities of journalists today, and consider the impact that the growth of social media has had on the way that news is reported.  Finally, we'll look at how the First Amendment  impacts the media today.

There is nothing more powerful for students than learning to consider the big questions. What is the right thing to do? How do we define goodness? Fainess? Beauty? Some of the greatest minds in history have disagreed in their responses to these questions. 

Over the course of several weeks, students assumed the role of the philosopher as they explored these and other questions using frameworks within the ethics and metaphysics branches of philosophy. They studied Plato's Allegory of the Cave and the famous Trolley Experiment.  Students learned how to present their arguments using sound logic and to identify common logic fallacies. 

Most importantly, students learned that the answer is often not as important as the thought you give to the question.

Storytelling is w hat connects us to one another. It is the link to our past and the visions for our future Storytelling allows us  to draw the wildest, the funniest, the most heart wrenching, and sometimes the most everyday characters from our imaginations to explore a range of experiences from the events of our own lives to the most unbelievably fantastic journeys.  

Students had an opportunity to explore  The Five People You Meet in Heaven , a novel that shares the story of one man and how his life was changed by those he met.  In addition to discussing the literary elements in the novel, students considered the following: 

• Why is it important to share our stories? 
• What kinds of experiences help to make us who we are? 
• Does everybody we meet have some impact our lives? 
• How can writing help us to better understand ourselves and the world? 
• How does the language a writer uses affect the reader?  

Along the way, students reflected on their own experiences by writing  Where I’m From  poems modeled on the poem posted below.  Please click to listen to the poet, George Ella Lyon, reading her piece.  http://www.georgeellalyon.com/audio/where.mp3 

Where I'm From 

By George Ella Lyon 

I am from clothespins,  
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.  
I am from the dirt under the back porch. 
(Black, glistening,  
it tasted like beets.)  
I am from the forsythia bush 
the Dutch elm 
whose long-gone limbs I remember 
as if they were my own. 

I'm from fudge and eyeglasses,  
          from Imogene and Alafair.  
I'm from the know-it-alls 
          and the pass-it-ons,  
from Perk up! and Pipe down!  
I'm from He restoreth my soul 
          with a cottonball lamb 
          and ten verses I can say myself. 

I'm from Artemus and Billie's Branch,  
fried corn and strong coffee.  
From the finger my grandfather lost