1. Of the music, films, TV shows, and books that you enjoy, are there any that your parents don’t like or don’t want you to watch? What are those songs/shows/books?
2. Why do you think your parents don’t want you to listen to/watch/read those things?
3. Why do you like those songs/shows/books?
This reflection and discussion would lead into a discussion of what censorship is and it’s history. I would probably find an article on censorship from our school’s media center databases, and ask the students to read it for the following day’s activities.
Lesson 2: After reading the assigned article, students would hopefully have a better idea of what censorship is, where it comes from, and what people do to stop it. We would put our ideas into practice by examining a specific example. I might use the “Cop Killer” song that we used in class, or I might find another, more recent song by someone like Eminem. As a class, we would listen to the song and analyze the lyrics. After we analyzed the song, the students would break into groups and each group would be assigned an identity: concerned parent, music industry executive, minority or group “attacked” in the song (women, homosexuals, African Americans, etc), teenager, school principal, etc. Each group would be asked to identify the stake their particular identity had in the song and its distribution, and also come up with a statement summarizing why this identified person would or would not support the censorship of this song. This would serve as preparation for the culminating activity.
Lesson 3: The Great Censorship Debate! This lesson might take several days to complete, due to the amount of prep work required.
The Situation: An English teacher at the local high school wants to use the Harry Potter books as required curriculum in his or her 9th grade English class. Certain groups are furious and do not want the books used at all, while other groups are supportive and would like to see the books used. To figure out what to do, tProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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school board will be holding an open meeting to hear from both sides of the argument, as well as allow attendees to ask questions, before they make a decision.
The Set-up: Students will be assigned to one of three groups: Those in favor, those opposed, and the audience. All students will be given a day or two in the media center to research ALL sides of the issue. Then, each group will meet together to compare notes and come up with a strategy. For the actual arguers, they will prepare a statement expressing their view and a refutation and rebuttal of the opposing side. The audience will prepare insightful questions to ask both sides during the Q&A section of the debate. For greater challenge, students could be given different identities within their larger groups as well.
The Debate: Students will have a day in class (preferably a block day) to have their debate. If they desired, students could invite the building administrators or actual school board members to hear their debate and offer some insight and feedback.
Reflection: Following the debate, students would reflectively discuss what they discovered and offer evaluative suggestions on what they think should be done. They could also discuss censorship and its ramifications as a larger social issue as well.
