From Redwood City to Russia: New project explores youth media and international baccalaureate education

Approximately 100 students in Justine Rutigliano’s International Baccalaureate English classes at Sequoia High School in Redwood City, California, are kicking off a three-month multimedia project on Russia, the country that Winston Churchill once called “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

This academic and journalistic exploration will take place with the help of Global Student Square, which will help students produce and publish their stories, photos, videos, social media conversations and other multimedia content to the GSS website.

The title of the project is “From Text to Context,” including an exploration of the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky‘s “Crime and Punishment,” and how the novel, about a St. Petersburg student who commits a murder and then suffers mental and moral anguish as he contemplates the consequences of his deed, relates to current events in Russia.

Among the projects students have proposed are an in-depth look at the murder of Boris Nemtsov, the opposition leader gunned down on a Moscow street in February; a music review of a new song by the Russian feminist punk band “Pussy Riot” about the killing of Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York; and an opinion piece on whether or not Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked top-secret information about U.S. government surveillance activities, should be allowed back into the United States.

“The purpose of (our) course is to talk about a text and everything around it,” said Rutigliano, who was named IB Teacher of the Year in March by the California Association of IB World Schools. “The part that’s different with this project is the medium — that this is digital and multimedia. It will give the kids a different medium to work with, and new tools.”

“One part of this that’s interesting is connecting the book to aspects outside of the book, because normally we would just analyze the book itself and not connect it to anything outside the world of the book,” said Abby Mejia, a senior in Rutigliano’s fifth period IB Language and Literature class. “Also the fact that we get to be creative with it is awesome … we can express our own opinions in the way that we want to.”

“I think that the title of the project — “From Text to Context” — says it all,” said Beatrice Motamedi, executive director of Global Student Square. “I’m eager to find ways to connect the deep inquiry and rigorous academic standards of the international baccalaureate program both at Sequoia and abroad to the critical thinking and analytical skills we teach in journalism. If we can connect those things, I believe some powerful learning can result.”

Student work will be published during the month of April and lesson plans from the Russia unit also will be available at the GSS Curriculum page.