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Teachers: You are invited to join the KQED Youth Media Challenge: Let's Talk About Election 2020. Middle and high school educators across the U.S. are empowering students to share their take on issues that matter to them in this election. Read on to learn how your students can create media commentaries and publish them for a national audience.
The Let's Talk About Election 2020 challenge is a free, standards-aligned program on KQED Learn, co-hosted by the National Writing Project and PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs.
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All voices welcome!
The KQED Youth Media Challenge: Let's Talk About Election 2020 gives middle and high school students an opportunity to put their persuasive skills to work and have a real audience for the issues that matter to them most. With your guidance and supporting materials provided by us, each student will:
Choose an idea about an election-related issue that matters to them
Write a commentary on the issue that is backed by evidence and reliable sources
Include their personal experience and authentic voice
Record their commentary as a video or audio file
Publish their commentary media on the Election 2020 challenge showcase for a national audience
Address critical Common Core Literacy Standards important for 21st-century college and career aspirations
The Election 2020 showcase will be open from January-November 2020 and will be hosted right here on KQED Learn. Starting in January, students will be able to publish their video and audio commentaries to the showcase where they will be seen by the public. Select pieces will even be featured on PBS and NPR member stations.
Get ready
Join the challenge by signing up for KQED Learn. This will keep you up to date with all the latest Challenge news and opportunities. (It will also give you access to the regular features of KQED Learn.) Next:
Download the Student Prompt & Project Guidelines and get familiar with how to present the goals of the challenge and the criteria for success to students.
Everything you need to get your students started is in the Student Handout Packet (in the Curricular Resources Toolbox). Kick off the project and get students excited with these key resources:
Video Styles with Myles: Pro tips on how to make a great selfie video, from the star of Above the Noise.
Publish and Share
The Election 2020 challenge showcase will be open for submissions from January-November 2020. When your students are ready to publish their commentaries to the Election 2020 challenge showcase, you'll need to add them to KQED Learn. Just go to your dashboard and add a new class. Then:
Share student commentaries with your school, local communities and networks. All submissions will be visible in the online showcase during the submission period and after it closes.
Discuss student commentaries from around the country by having your students log in to KQED Learn and comment on media submitted by their peers.
Join classrooms across the country and let the nation know what your students think about election issues that will impact their lives.
