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DOCUMENTARIES WITH A POINT OF VIEW

Radical Math and Documentary Films

April 16, 2008 10:23 AM, by Jessica

Jessica LeeP.O.V.'s Community Outreach and Education department participates in a range of conferences and workshops throughout the year. In an effort to explore using media in classrooms — even those where you might not expect to — Jessica Lee and Irene Villaseñor attended the Radical Math conference at Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY last week. Jessica reports that the event was a great success.

Last week, Irene Villaseñor and I presented a workshop at Radical Math's Creating Balance in an Unjust World conference. Radical Math is the brainchild of educator Jonathan Osler, who, in 2006, started the website as a way to encourage and support math teachers who wanted to incorporate issues of economic and social justice into their curriculum. The conference was attended by nearly 400 people from 26 states and 37% of its workshops were facilitated by youth.

Radical Math is dedicated to encouraging math teachers who want to incorporate social justice issues into their classroomsSince math isn't exactly the most obvious subject to be showcased in a social issue documentary series, it was very heartening that the conference organizers accepted our workshop proposal. Their decision reflects a positive trend: more and more educators are looking to engage their students by using media in their classrooms — and they look to programs like P.O.V. to help them make that transition.

P.O.V. showed Roger Weisberg's 'Waging a Living' at the Radical Math conference in Brooklyn last week.

Math teachers discussed how to inspire students to study algebra with Roger Weisberg's Waging a Living at the Radical Math conference in Brooklyn.

Though math isn't really an overt element in many of our films, we have broadcast many films that showcase injustice. In the Community Engagement and Education Department, we want educators to be able to use our films as examples of academic concepts embodied in real life. Irene and I decided to show our workshop participants clips from Roger Weisberg's documentary Waging a Living (P.O.V. 2006), which is about hard-working Americans struggling to make a living wage. Irene and I showed clips from the film and presented the companion lesson plan and discussion guide. Given that we're not math teachers, we wanted to give the group ample time to brainstorm with each other. In our department, we strongly believe that organizers, educators and those who borrow our films know their constituencies best and like to think of ourselves as a resource that can help meet community needs. As we were getting breakout groups together, one teacher said, "I think this would be a great introduction to algebra for my students. Does anyone want to talk about how we can use the film to talk about algebra?" Several teachers joined her group and they began a lively discussion on how concrete mathematical skills could be drawn out while still emphasizing the film's social justice message.

It's easy to assume that social issue media might be better matched to subjects like Language Arts and Social Studies, but the enthusiasm that we saw at the Radical Math conference proves that there is a diverse group of educators out there willing to further develop their teaching techniques and expand their repertoire. It's a natural fit for our films, too — in a sense, it's a pretty logical idea. Documentary filmmakers are educators, illuminating information deemed relevant and necessary, and they want audiences to learn something new each time they tune in. And it's fun for us to be part of process, too!

Tags: P.O.V. News, community engagement, education

Posted by Jessica on April 16, 2008 10:23 AM | PermaLink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks ()

Comments

good morning, it is a conscious conspiracy to remove math from people because math enables you to be analytical and not reactionary to solving problems and math helps build civilizations.i am speaking from an afro centric perspective here in america.as malcolm x said " of all our studies history is best qualified to reward all researcch." just 143 years ago especially those of us whose roots are from texas were just emancipated from chattel slavery .dr.carter g.woodson's book written in the 30's " the mis-education of the negro ' is as relevant in 2008 as it was when he wrote it.look at how many african americans or latinos graduate in or with math and science as a major ? how many of us have a ph.d. in math or science related majors from 1900 to 2000 ? is this deliberate ? yes it is.what type of counseling is in the schools to eradicate ignorance of math and science across america ? this is systemic! the greatest contributors to math and science in america are african americans and how many of us know it ? is it taught in schools ? why not ? the first clock in america ? benjamin banneker.ask across america and see what the percentage of americans know this black,brown white etc.? the first street light and gas mask ? garret morgan.blood transfusion.dr,charles drew and here in los angeles the hospital that bears his name with the best trauma unit in america is closed.who was it serving ? dr.ivan van sertima has an outstanding book on black scientist why is his books not a part of the curriculum in public schools ? dr.carruthers.what is he famous for ?" education is our passport to the future.tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today." [malcolm x].dawah_ma_90221@yahoo.com-p.o.box 338-compton,ca.90223

Posted by muhammad abdullah | June 27, 2008 2:27 PM

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