March For Our Lives: Ways to debrief with students this week

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We included two videos for students to use for discussion following the March For Our Lives. The first (above) is NewsHour Weekend’s “Youth voices take center stage at March for Our Lives.” The second (below) is by NewsHour’s Student Reporting Labs, PBS’ youth journalism program.

Discussion questions:

1. Essential question: Following the March For Our Lives, what measures need to be taken to ensure changes to gun policies are made?
2. If you marched, why did you decide to do so? If you didn’t, why did you decide to do so?
3. What struck you the most about the students’ stories in the videos? Did you hear anything you particularly agreed with? How about disagree with?
4. Another student walkout is scheduled for April 20th. What has your school said about how they will address walkouts? Do you think schools should support student walkouts? Explain your response.
5. What do you know about the term civil disobedience? What forms of civil disobedience took place during the civil rights movement? If you are not sure, how could you find out?
6. Is it considered a form of civil disobedience if school administrators decide the terms of a student walkout?
7. Media literacy: Do you think the media is doing a good job covering the issue of gun violence in the wake of the Parkland shooting? should cover gun violence? Explain your response.

Extension activity:

• To learn about civil disobedience, ask your students to take a look at this case study about walkouts in Portland, Oregon, “School Walkouts as Civil Disobedience,” by the Justice in Schools Program at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. Use the case study discussion protocol as a guide. You may also wish to watch the video featuring future teachers to see how they developed this project.

• Read the Student Voices’ piece written by students after the March For Our Lives: ‘We were there. We were making history.’ Students reflect on the March For Our Lives Did any stories resonate with you? Explain.

• Read NewsHour Extra’s Student Voices’ blog How teens want to solve America’s school shooting problem. Then share your class’s own solutions @NewsHourExtra via Twitter using #StudentGunReformIdeas.

Visit PBS NewsHour Extra for more education resources designed to help teachers and students identify the who, what, where and why-it-matters of the major national and international news stories. @NewsHourExtra