false reporting -- mike daisey and apple in china

False Reporting Unit
By Ashli Jones
Unit Description:
As the students have been analyzing the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the individuals involved and have been making their own assertions of why basic human rights were violated during and after the disaster, they will expand their knowledge by critiquing how media coverage of particular ethnic groups can become falsified. Students will examine two news reports from New Orleans on Hurricane Katrina and one report from China on Chinese factory workers.
Unit Goal: By the end of the week students will be able to…
Analyze the effect of false reporting on local and international scale
Compare the relationship between the fabricated news coverage of New Orleans citizens post-Hurricane Katrina and fabricated report on Chinese factory workers
Synthesize their understanding of the two types of false reporting in order to draw conclusions and identify themes in a one page response.
Standards Assessed:
Reading Comprehension:
2.4 Make warranted and reasonable assertions about the author’s arguments by using elements of the text to defend and clarify interpretations.
2.5 Analyze an author’s implicit and explicit philosophical assumptions and beliefs about a subject.
2.6 Critique the power, validity, and truthfulness of arguments set forth in public documents; their appeal to both friendly and hostile audiences; and the extent to which the arguments anticipate and address reader concerns and counterclaims (e.g., appeal to reason, to authority, to pathos and emotion).
[font=" times="" new="" roman","serif"]Literary Analysis:[/font]
[font=" times="" new="" roman","serif"]3.2[/font][font=" times="" new="" roman","serif"] Analyze the way in which the theme or meaning of a selection represents a view or comment on life, using textual evidence to support the claim. [/font]
Listening and Speaking Strategies:
1.1 Recognize strategies used by the media to inform, persuade, entertain, and transmit culture (e.g., advertisements; perpetuation of stereotypes; use of visual representations, special effects, language).

Texts:
Hurricane Katrina News Report
Mike Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory article
Rob Schmitz’s Report on Mike Daisey: news radio report audio
Major Assessment:
One page response synthesizing the effects of false reports and asserting a universal theme that captures the message
Minor Assessments:
Mike Daisey Goes to Apple Factory Discussion Questions
False Reporting Fact-Checking and Analysis Sheet
Daily Agendas and Objectives
Day 1
Learning Objective: SWBAT analyze the effect of false reports on specific ethnic groups and discover why those kinds of reports are made.
· Analyze and Discuss false reports during Hurricane Katrina
· Introduce and build background knowledge of China through PowerPoint
· Introduce and Read Mike Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory Report
Day 2
Learning Objective: SWBAT analyze the effect of false reports on specific ethnic groups and discover why those kinds of reports are made.
· Review the facts found in the article about Chinese Workers
· Introduce Rob Schmitz and his report on Mike Dasiey
· Uncover and analyze fabrications found by Schmitz while listening to his radio report and completing a graphic organizer

Day 3

Block
Learning Objective: SWBAT synthesize information and make connections of how false reporting can effect specific ethnic groups. In addition, SWBAT create a specific universal theme that ties both incidents together.

· Review significance of false reports from the Mike Daisey report
· Compare false reports of the specific ethnic groups pointed out in Hurricane Katrina to the specific ethnic group pointed out in Mike Daisey’s report
· Synthesize information on the effects of false reporting from both regions

Day 4
Turn in One page False Reporting Response
edited by Clay Dube on 8/3/2012