Youth Media Challenge Spotlight: Stephen Hoffman

Stephen Hoffman has been teaching English, ethnic studies and U.S. history for 23 years and discovered KQED’s Youth Media Challenge after attending an online workshop three years ago. Since then, his juniors have done the First Person Youth Media Challenge project, crafting multimedia personal narratives to build community, strengthen writing skills and help them tackle college applications.

At a Glance

YMC Project: First Person, personal narrative audio essay and short film
Grade/Class: 11th grade English
School: Middle College High School at Contra Costa College, West Contra Costa Unified
Location: San Pablo, California
Student media from Stephen’s class: What Freedom Feels Like to Me (short film), Surface Tension (audio essay)

 

 

Inside Stephen’s Classroom

Junior year is a high-stakes time. What do you see as the value of doing the First Person Youth Media Challenge with your 11th graders?
I really love the work that students come up with for this challenge, and students love finding out more about each other, as well as students across the country participating in the YMC that they see on the Showcase. I give my students so many sample topics to choose from that they are able to play around with a lot of different approaches to writing a personal essay, something I think is really important for them to do as they start thinking about college essays.

How else do you connect the First Person project with your learning goals and standards?
Writing a script takes the mystery out of what many writers struggle with, such as a hook and effective conclusion. When analyzing example audio pieces, I have groups listen to the first 30 seconds of about eight pieces and then choose their favorite to focus on. This helps them see the value of a good topic and intro. When I ask what the conclusion of a piece is, they have to actually summarize it and can’t just point to the last paragraph. They are so inspired by the work that other students from our school have recorded. Some pieces from our school have even been aired on KQED. The YMC is a great opportunity for my students to find and develop their own authentic voice and share it with a very authentic audience.

All but one of your students shared their audio essay or short film on the Youth Media Showcase. That’s so great! How do you reinforce the value of publishing?
I require students to share on the Youth Media Showcase unless they talk to me personally to opt out. One student took me up on it because they are trying to avoid any type of digital footprint, but all the others felt supported by their peers and comfortable sharing their final pieces.

How do you introduce media making into your English classroom?
I’ve been able to use some of our school’s CA Prop. 28 VAPA money to get Soundtrap access for all of my students. During the first few weeks of school, I have students work in groups of three to collaborate with people they may not know well and create a recording to introduce each other that includes all of their voices and has more than one audio track such as music, sound effects, or laugh tracks. This is a great icebreaker. They then post these on a Padlet and share with the rest of the class. It’s a great way for all of us to get to know each other and have fun while learning a new skill.

What advice would you give teachers considering doing the First Person Youth Media Challenge?
I’ve learned to give students time to work on and refine their final pieces before submitting to the Youth MediaShowcase. I used to rush through the publishing process, but the extra time has really increased the quality of work. We do a lot of peer editing, but I now also set a pre-publication deadline for their final submissions to a class Padlet, then have the whole class do a “gallery walk” and listen or view each other’s pieces. After this, I then give them an extra week before the submission to the Youth Media Showcase is due. The gallery walk gives everyone a bit of a “dress rehearsal” before the main event.