For Educators
TAL in the Classroom
Below you'll find brief
descriptions, sent in by teachers all over the country, of how
they're using TAL with their students. We'd love to hear
more, so if you'd like to send in descriptions of what you're doing, or
maybe even samples of student work, just email us at web@thislife.org
with EDUCATIONAL USE in the subject heading. Unless you
say otherwise in your email, we'll assume it's okay to post an excerpt with
your name and location on this page (just be warned that it sometimes takes
a few months to post emails.)
You also may want to check out our comic book, Radio:
An Illustrated Guide, which shows readers, step-by-step, how
to craft a radio story in the style of This American Life.
The comics are available at a discount for educational use.
Finally, please don't hesitate to email us if you have suggestions on what
we can to to encourage and support educational use of This American
Life.
TAL in Creative Writing and Composition classes
TAL in Documentary/Media Studies classes
TAL in Drama classes
TAL in English as a Second Language classes
TAL in Literature/Language Arts classes
TAL in Philosophy classes
TAL in Psychology classes
TAL in Rhetoric classes
TAL in Social Work
TAL in Sociology/American Culture classes
TAL in Political Science/International Relations
classes
TAL in French classes
TAL in Creative Writing and Composition classes:
I
teach Senior English for special education students. We spent an entire
six week unit learning to tell and narrate a story like TAL
does. These students love to tell stories, so this unit provided them the
chance to do what they love to do most. They came up with their own stories
and then learned the process by which to tell and tape them. In the 24 years
I've taught, this was the most successful unit I've ever taught. The students
were engaged in learning the entire six weeks. It was remarkable. Nancy
Marder
To Kill a Mockingbird
in my classroom, located in an affluent, suburban, Midwestern town that
sees very little crime or overt acts of racisim; it's about as far from
Great Depression Era Alabama as one could get. That's why High
Speed Chase has become an integral part of this unit. We're
close enough to Chicago that it shocks kids we never heard the news of the
couple introduced at the beginning of the show. And we're close enough to
the Dakotas and other Indian reservations that the rest of the episode makes
an even stronger impact. I use this episode of TAL as an
introduction to the unit and will come back to it throughout to remind students
that To Kill a Mockingbird is not an aberration of the
South, that it's not solely a history of the South, and that such attitudes
do not exist only in the South. On a lighter note, I also use Sarah Vowell's
story in Music
Lessons, parts of David Sedaris' "Santaland
Diaries," and even "The Little Mermaid" from Recordings
For Someone. Anonymous
READ
MORE
Back to Top
TAL in Documentary/Media Studies classes:
I teach media studies at a large high
school in Durham, NC. Your show was brought to my attention by a student
of mine a year ago who wanted to do an independent study for me. His idea
was to document his thoughts on his senior year of high school while exploring
his mixed feelings about moving away from his "dreadful" hometown. He approached
the project as if he was writing it specifically for your program. We spent
many afternoons in my office listening to tapes of your broadcast and being
amused and moved by stories that documented experiences as wide-ranging
as a little
girl's first day of school to a man's
former occupation as a "squirrel cop." The exercise ultimately yielded
several drafts of a script that encouraged my student to explore his feelings
while examining critically and analytically his own personal style of written
and spoken expression. He learned alot about himself in the process. I will
be incorporating this "audio documentary" approach into all my classes this
year. The quality of the final products will be varied but the process will
certainly prove to be invaluable. It's always about the process anyway.
Jeff Arndt, Media Studies, C. E. Jordan High School, Durham, North Carolina
I teach Introduction to
Theatre to undergraduates, and I use Act One of Fiasco!
to spur a discussion regarding audience dynamics. We talk about
the unique quality of liveness; how actors and audience relate to and influence
each other; the ephemerality and unpredictability of theatre; and the conventions
of theatregoing/ audience behavior in different time periods. It's a great
way to talk about what makes theatre so different from film: the give-and-take
that occurs between performers and spectators. Amy Hughes, Baruch College,
CUNY, New York City
I played Fiasco!
for my drama students. We spent the day discussing what made a
successful performance. I was trying to get at the idea that art is that
fine line that's acheived when everything is just right. It's also a good
lesson in not going too far over the top, which can be a problem with kids
raised on Jerry Springer. Ammy Hill
Most recently I've been recommending
Sarah Vowell's piece "Goth"
as one of the best introductions to Erving Goffman's concept of dramaturgy.
Anonymous
TAL in English as a Second Language classes:
I'm an ESL tutor and
find that This American Life is a fabulous source of stimulating
lesson plans. One of my favorite TAL episodes to use
with my intermediate ESL students for listening comprehension and conversation
is from Cruelty
of Children, "The Man in the Well." This original fiction,
written and read by Ira Sher, is about a group of children who find a man
trapped in a well. The children are faced with the choice to rescue
or ignore the man in the well. The story unfolds in an eerie way (enhanced
by the choice of background music, always a bonus with ESL students), the
childrens' actions are unpredictable, and the narration is steady and well-timed.
When I use this in a lesson, I simply tell my students, as introduction,
that they are about to hear a fiction story. I ask them just to listen
once, all the way through. Ira's a good narrator: he doesn't speak too quickly.
After once all the way through, we discuss the students' impressions
and what they got from the reading. Because the story is so strange and
hard to predict, the students often have quite different interpretations!
Following class discussion after the first listening, I enhance and
correct their interpretations, and we listen to the story again. Upon second
listening, the students always come away with a more accurate understanding
of the passage. In addition, because of the controversial nature of the
story, we always have interesting conversations at the end of this exercise.
Cassie Tuttle, Pittsburgh, PA
One activity I have done with my upper-level
eighth grade English as a Second Language students is with the What
Are You Looking At? episode, specifically with Lucia's story:
It's on
my web page under "Breaking down Racial Barriers." Adriane
Moser, Concord Middle School, Concord, North Carolina
READ
MORE
Back to Top
TAL in Literature/Language Arts classes:
I use Superpowers
in my ninth grade English classroom with my unit on the Odyssey.
I actually just fell into using it, as I had taken a "break" (or so they
thought) from the Odyssey one day and had my students write
an impromptu essay on what sort of superpower they would choose if given
that option. That evening, I heard the show on NPR, and played it for my
students the next day. We'll then take a look at their essays again, and
try to figure out why they chose the superpower that they did. What sort
of personality traits do their choices show us? Then, we'll discuss Odysseus'
special powers, and his personality traits/weaknesses. This activity allows
us to discuss the epic hero and heroic traits, and what these heroes and
btraits reveal about a culture, which leads us to understanding the Greek
culture a bit better. The Superpowers radio show helps them with this because
of the whole flying/invisibilty discussion-what the choice reveals about
a person, and that person's culture. The entire show is great, but so far
I think the first short segment is the most interesting to my freshmen,
and fit perfectly with the essay question I had just assigned. Julie
Swinehart, Crook County High School, Prineville, OR
I am a Language Arts teacher in Weymouth,
MA who has used TAL excepts in class--one notable lesson
included the schitzophrenia test cut from the TAL CD. In
Modern American Authors we talked about social maladjustment with Salinger's
Catcher
in the Rye, and I augmented it with chapters from Pipher's
Reviving
Ophelia, and the TAL monolgue.
I have used other excerpts to teach narrative and point of view. I also
have a link to the TAL site on my Period 3+6 website for
the kids to check out. John Pappas, Dorchester, Massachusetts
READ
MORE
Back to Top
I am a graduate student
at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. I had some input in a Intro class
for which I was a TA. An option in my class was to listen to the program
entitled Like
it or Not and write an essay describing which act would best
serve as an example for a determinist and how an advocate of free will would
respond to that example. Robyn, Bowling Green State University, Ohio
I use TAL
to illustrate various concepts and issues that are covered in my Introduction
to Psychology and Abnormal Psychology classes. Students have listened to
Kid
Logic to get examples about children's cognitive development
; they've heard snippets from Edge
of Sanity to vividly experience what it would be like to have
auditory hallucinations; and they've heard Kindness
of Strangers to see what a paranoid delusion might look like
in interpersonal relations. TAL brings to life a lot of
the concepts that may be too abstract or frankly, boring to students, and
who doesn't love a good story? Leticia Y. Flores, Assistant Professor,
Department of Psychology, Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos,
Texas
READ
MORE
Back to Top
While listening to one
of your more recent broadcasts themed Time
to Save the World, I was intrigued in particular by Act IV:
The Science of Good and Evil. It was fascinating that Robert Hartman, living
in and horrified by Nazi Germany, asked himself: "If evil can be organized
so effectively, why can't good be organized in the same way?" In creating
the Hartman Value Profile, Hartman created a process to judge the good and
the bad. Conveniently, my students and I had just begun to explore the rhetorical strategy
of process analysis; this process, however, differed from most of the examples
of processes in that it was more philosophical than mechanical. At that
point, I decided to see what my class could do with the task of developing
a process to judge the good and the evil (or if it could be done at all).
After listening to Act IV of the show, my students, in small groups, began
to create their processes. In doing so, I instructed them to complete the
following: 1. Develop steps with reasons for judging good from evil; 2.
Provide warnings that might hinder the process; 3. Offer advice to their
audience; 4. List advantages of the process; 5. Lastly, define good
and evil and determine whether or not people are good or evil or if they
only engage in good or evil behavior. The room became loud and energized
as the students worked together. Each group then presented their humorous,
thoughtful, and poignant processes to the class. Teri Waters, English
Instructor, Waubonsee Community College
I teach a writing intensive elective
rhetoric course at the University of Texas at Austin. Each of these classes
has a special topic or flavor, and the course I've designed focuses on documentaries
in various mediums (book, radio, film). We listen to a few TAL
segments in class, both to analyze from a rhetorical stance and to seek
inspiration when writing our own documentaries. You can take a peek at our
very low-tech site: E309K
The Rhetoric of Documenting Experience. Laura Wilder, Assistant Instructor,
Division of Rhetoric and Composition, University of Texas at Austin
Social
work texts and curricula are replete with “case studies” that
offer synthetic representations of people’s lived experience. I am
committed to privileging people’s own voices and experiences in my
teaching of social work practice. This American Life is
one of the most effective ways I’ve found to achieve this. In my "Introduction
to Social Work and Social Welfare Institutions" course, which is an introductory
course open to the entire university, I use High
Speed Chase to unpack issues around power and privilege. I
use The
Edge of Sanity to invite dialogue about the uncertainties surrounding
ideas of mental illness. In “Social Work Methods”, where students
learn how to practice as a professional social worker I use I
Didn’t Ask To Be Born – Act One, which richly describes
the story of one family’s struggle to stay connected and Act Two,
a young man’s narrative of his experience setting himself on fire.
These stories support the notion that people’s lives are filled with
paradoxes, exceptions, and contradictions. I use Living
The Dream – Act One, which tells the story of a transgendered
community in Los Angeles, to emphasize the importance of working with people’s
strengths when doing social work. I use American
Limbo – Act One, which tells the story of a family living
an “alternative” lifestyle, to prompt dialogue about values
and ethics.
I use You
Gonna Eat That? – Act One, to demonstrate to students
the key features of an “ecological” perspective that considers
individual problems only in relation to other contexts of people’s
lives, such as their family, community, environment, and cultural discourses.
I also use The
Other Man – Act One, which tells the story of a family’s
response to their mother’s connection with a human presence nobody
else sees or hears, to suggest to students that what gets called “crazy”
and what doesn’t often depends on people’s skin color or financial
situation. In my “Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Justice”
course I use The
Kids Are Alright – Act Three, to suggest to students
that many people engage in behaviors which qualify for the term “delinquency,”
but not everyone is considered “a delinquent.” I use Perfect
Evidence to highlight the idea of “disproportionate minority
confinement” that is a central issue in the juvenile justice system.
I use Democratic
Convention because students always want to know what ever came
of Lafeyette and Pharoah after reading There Are No Children Here
for class. I also use Mother’s
Day – Act Two, to give students a window into the experience
of juveniles in the adult criminal justice system. In my “Social Policy”
course I use 81
Words to emphasize the political nature of what is considered
normal behavior and what is considered pathological. Nobody tells a story
about people’s lives better than the folks who actually lived the
life. This is central to a progressive social work approach. This
American Life offers these sort of narratives in ways a textbook
just can’t provide. Ronnie Swartz, Department of Social Work, Humboldt
State University, Arcata, California
TAL in Sociology/American Culture classes.
I'm
a big fan of your show and I used TAL programs as part
of my syllabus for a multi-disciplinary required course for freshmen and
sophomores. We used the following required readings: 81
Words to talk about gay rights, The
Fix Is In to talk about corporate malfeasance, Two
Nations, One President and The
Friendly Man to talk about income inequality, and Faith
to talk about religion and culture. Best of all, in homage to your mission
to revitalize radio, students were required to use materials from Transom.org
to produce their own audio shorts to present some aspect of their American
life. Dr. David A. Shirk, Director, Trans-Border Institute, Assistant
Professor, Political Science, University of San Diego
READ
MORE
Back to Top
TAL in Political Science/International Relations classes.
I listen to the show religiously
for my personal enjoyment. However, two of your recent shows will be very
beneficial to my teaching--the show on Why
We Fight and Secret
Government. I teach international relations and am always looking
for good materials in a variety of engaging media formats for my students
to use, and I think these two do an excellent job of raising crucial questions
that almost nobody else is talking about. I will use the Why
We Fight show in my Introduction to International Relations
and US Foreign Policy courses this semester to stimulate discussion about
the upcoming war. And, I will use Secret
Government in my Human Rights and Global Politics class when
we talk about human rights in the post-9/11 world. I have found nothing
else that in such a balanced, yet provocative, way raises the issues of
the threat to civil liberties. Kurt Mills, Department of Political Science,
James Madison University.
We listened to Americans
in Paris before the Level Three French students went on their
trip to France and they came back raving about it. Some even tried to find
the acclaimed frozen food store. Our discussion was not only rich in french
culture and attitudes, but also race relations and the value of gaining
life experience through travel. The students thoroughly enjoyed listening
to David Sedaris' crazy lifestyle in Paris and his description of French
life was hilarious to many. Joanne Robb, Fox Chapel Area High School,
Pittsburgh, PA.
Back to Top
