Developing Campus-Wide Newspaper Curricula The NiC Initiative University of Nebraska at Omaha

NiC Newspapers in Curricula Maria Anderson Knudtson Lecturer, English NiC Coordinator Christina Dando Assoc. Prof., Geography 3 year NiC member

Background – Newspapers in Curricula + Collegiate Readership – Develop a university wide network of faculty utilizing the newspapers as a resource for assignments supporting their course objectives. – – – –

Campus activities The NiC faculty group faculty support for the development of newspaper based pedagogy. creation of student events for promotion of the Collegiate Readership Program at UNO. Specialty events/ opportunities – Target audiences – Target spaces

Large group events Campus Conversations/ Times Talk Purpose: contact a large number of diverse students. Introduce newspaper and topics for discussion. Format: table conversations with moderator – Divided by specific topics – Divided by newspaper sections Results: evaluation forms – Overwhelmingly positive responses Event potential

Space oriented events Fireplace Read-In Purpose: reading marathon/pilot. How much newspaper reading could take place in 90 minutes? Results: 8 hours + Effect: exposure to newspaper content and the joy of print! Event potential

Targeted audience events The 2+3=5 Short Story Event Creative Writers Target specific group to incorporate newspaper into creative project. Results: 10 submissions 3 selected as featured by a panel of judges/ prizes awarded. Reading held. Event potential

Faculty and Curricula Black Studies Geography Communication History Criminal Justice Political Science Education Social Work English Sociology Foreign Language, Spanish Economics 3 years of faculty participation 16 faculty 12 departments 5 colleges

Examples from the classroom Dennis Hoffman, Criminal Justice  class “perusing” – assists students to “see” relevant topics  article summaries and course concepts – students apply course concepts while seeing relevancy of course in current issues  NYT letter to the editor – students see connection between the paper, course work and civic engagement

Examples from the classroom Claudia Garcia, Foreign Languages Elementary – brief article summaries Intermediate – daily journal writing, springboard for longer essays Advanced – daily journal writing leading to a reflective piece

Examples from the classroom Christina Dando, Geography/Geology  Clippings file and guided journal entries – students analyze the clippings, examining the framing of the country, role of the media  Media analysis on exams – students apply key concepts to current news  “Updating” a global conflict

Examples from the classroom Maria Anderson Knudtson, English oAll assignments : based on newspaper reading and research for development of arguments. oTextbook : all chapters correlated to newspaper work. oAssignments : more than just straight news and features/ also incorporate the visual rhetoric of advertisements and editorial cartoons.

Examples from the classroom Pedagogy  writing  critical thinking  media literacy  civic engagement

Faculty to faculty events Shift focus to faculty events Workshops Discussion events Individual course curricula Faculty presentations – To the NiC group internally – To departments – To other organizations on campus.

Estimated Numbers Student contacts Classroom: 1200 Events: 250 Total: 1450 Collegiate Readership program at UNO – Newspapers: 193,304 Faculty contacts : 55 Writing questions on NSSE survey.

Go back and NiC your campus! Maria Anderson Knudtson Christina Dando