KVOA Channel 4 News Comes to Class #JonathanMartin

Earlier in the week, my class participated in a view and respond about Jonathan Martin and his bad experience with bullying while playing for the Miami Dolphins. In an effort to let Mr. Martin know he has about 60 kids in his corner from Tucson, I figured I would send an email to a couple of news outlets in hopes the letters would get some attention. KVOA News was happy to oblige. The students really enjoyed the news coming out this morning. They are finding their voices at this age, and this was a good way to reinforce that their voices are being heard. They are also thrilled that they will be on the 6 o’clock news!

A Friendly Letter to Jonathan Martin (Miami Dolphins)

Friendly Letter to Jonathan Martin…

Earlier in the week, my class participated in a view and respond about Jonathan Martin and his bad experience with bullying while playing for the Miami Dolphins. We decided to write a friendly letter to Jonathan Martin in hopes that it would reach him. The class is working on a unit called Express Yourself  where students will learn how to properly format as well as write poetry, letters, and essays. This particular activity fit perfectly because students are currently working on their letter writing skills with an emphasis on Production & Distribution of Writing – 7.W.4 Common Core Standard…

It was also my hope that students would relate to his particular situation. We had a good discussion about this situation as well as other bullying type of situations that the students have experienced themselves. I had several goals for this letter. One was to get students to work on their writing as well as grammar skills (we are a work in progress), and the other goal was to get students to understand that we all go through tough situations like this no matter how big or strong we are.

Jonathan Martin of the Miami Dolphins – Bullying in the NFL (View & Respond)

Bullying in the NFL – Jonathan Martin of the Miami Dolphins (View & Respond)

On November 6th, the class will work on (7.SL.1) & (7.SL.5) common core speaking/listening standards with this view & respond about Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin of the Miami Dolphins. Students will began class with a bell work prompt about any bullying, and how does it make them feel. I will be passing out a news story via ESPN. Along with that news story, students will have questions to answer before we begin classroom discussion. That handout can be viewed [here]. The class will then move to the viewing portion by watching this video [here]. Students will be prompted to actively watch by using the 5W’s (who, what, where, when, and why)… Students will be given about 5 to 7 minutes to answer the questions from the previously mentioned handout. Once students have completed the handout, I will open up the floor for discussion.

As added bonus, I will give the students a chance to write a letter to Jonathan Martin. Our writing class is currently working on letter writing (Production & Distribution of Writing – 7.W.4 Common Core Standard), so this will be a perfect opportunity to display those skills in a real world setting. Luckily, the Dolphins mailing address is very accessible (here). Students will complete letter for homework and submit the following day.