Global Scholars Media Community

Program Description

For the 2021-2022 academic year, IRIS NRC is happy to announce a new program to support K-12 student engagement with internationally themed texts and films. After a small pilot program run in spring 2021, we will be inviting 25 teachers to participate in the inaugural year of the Global Scholars Media Community. Modeled after our book and film club offerings for educators, IRIS NRC has selected two books and two films and compiled resources for participants to use with students in a club or classroom setting.

Please direct all questions about the program to outreach@iris.wisc.edu

Applications are now closed for 2021-22.

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2021 - 2022 Participant Schools

 

Pulaski High School

Milwaukee Public Schools

Oshkosh West High School

Oshkosh Area School District

Pathways High School

UWM Charter School

Oconomowoc High School

Oconomowoc Area School District

Kettle Moraine Global

Kettle Moraine School District

South Division High School

Milwaukee Public Schools

Osceola High School

Osceola School District

Audubon High School

Milwaukee Public Schools

Greenfield High School

School District of Greenfield

Slinger High School

School District of Slinger

Port Washington High School

Port Washington/Saukville

Logan High School

La Crosse School District

Lake Mills High School

Lake Mills Area School District

De Forest Area High School

De Forest Area School District

Menomonie High School

Menomonie Area School District

Nicolet High School

Nicolet High School District

Rock University High School

School District of Janesville

Medford Area Senior High

Medford Area Public School District

Wausau West High School

Wausau School District

James Madison Memorial

Madison Metropolitan School District

Wauwatosa East High School

Wauwatosa School District

Amery High School

School District of Amery

Riverside University High School

Milwaukee

Milton High School

School District of Milton

Cuba City High School

Cuba City Schools

Onalaska High School

School District of Onalaska

What you will receive

In return for your commitment to participate in the program, IRIS NRC will provide:

  1. A set of 10 books of each of the two selected Internationally themed book titles (20 books total) for you to keep
  2. Electronic materials for books and films including discussion questions, recorded resources, and other instructional suggestions
  3. An electronic document where you can share successes, recommendations and other discovered resources with the group

Participant Obligations

As a participant receiving materials, we ask the following from you:

  1. Utilize the materials with your students in a club meeting or classroom setting. You have the freedom to choose what might be best for your scholars (monthly meetings, semester meetings, informal conversations, integration into a course curriculum, etc.).
  2. Attend one 45 minute online group meeting with the other educators in the community in December 2021 to discuss the program and share successes or challenges.
  3. Complete a survey at the end of the academic year to give feedback, offer testimonials, and make suggestions for next year’s themes.
  4. Contribute to an online shared document within the group before or after each student meeting to share best practices.

"The Global Scholars Media Community program far exceeded my expectations. The selected books and films were phenomenal choices; they were highly engaging for my 11th and 12th graders, while at the same time appropriately challenging and diverse in their themes.

Thank you, IRIS NRC, for providing our Global Scholars with such an invaluable learning opportunity! I am excited to participate in this program again!"

Danielle Chaussee, NBCT Spanish Teacher / Global Scholars Program Coordinator

2021- 2022 Books

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Description

An #ownvoices contemporary YA set in Argentina, about a rising soccer star who must put everything on the line—even her blooming love story—to follow her dreams.

In Rosario, Argentina, Camila Hassan lives a double life.
At home, she is a careful daughter, living within her mother’s narrow expectations, in her rising-soccer-star brother’s shadow, and under the abusive rule of her short-tempered father.

On the field, she is La Furia, a powerhouse of skill and talent. When her team qualifies for the South American tournament, Camila gets the chance to see just how far those talents can take her. In her wildest dreams, she’d get an athletic scholarship to a North American university.

But the path ahead isn’t easy. As her life becomes more complicated, Camila is forced to face her secrets and make her way in a world with no place for the dreams and ambition of a girl like her.

Online Resources

Book Club Kit 

Kit from the author which includes  discussion questions, supporting materials and song lists

Yamile Saied Mendez Talk 

An engaging hour long talk from the author, Yamile Saied Mendez, where she reads a selection of the first chapter of the book and then answers questions from the audience moderated by the Utah Humanities Festival.

Short Story by Yamile Saied Mendez

Participant Resources

Furia Antonella Papolla video

Antonella Pappolla is a graduate student in the Department of Education Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research examines the dilemmas that have emerged from the democratization of higher education in Argentina. In this recording she shares about Rosario, Argentina and the themes from the book.

Interview PowerPoint

A copy of the slides from Antonella’s interview

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Description

A National Book Award Finalist, this remarkable graphic novel is about growing up in a refugee camp, as told by a former Somali refugee to the Newbery Honor-winning creator of Roller Girl.

Omar and his younger brother, Hassan, have spent most of their lives in Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. Life is hard there: never enough food, achingly dull, and without access to the medical care Omar knows his nonverbal brother needs. So when Omar has the opportunity to go to school, he knows it might be a chance to change their future . . . but it would also mean leaving his brother, the only family member he has left, every day.

Heartbreak, hope, and gentle humor exist together in this graphic novel about a childhood spent waiting, and a young man who is able to create a sense of family and home in the most difficult of settings. It’s an intimate, important, unforgettable look at the day-to-day life of a refugee, as told to New York Times Bestselling author/artist Victoria Jamieson by Omar Mohamed, the Somali man who lived the story. 

Online Resources

Refugee Strong 

This is the website of Omar Mohamed’s non-profit organization. He works to deliver school supplies and other resources to kids living and attending school in Dadaab. 

A Conversation with Omar Mohamed and Victoria Jamieson 

A presentation filmed for the virtual book launch. (48 minutes)

Teaching about refugees-  materials from UNHCR

On this UNHCR Teaching About Refugees page you can find free-of-charge and adaptable UNHCR teaching materials on refugees, asylum, migration and statelessness and a section dedicated to professional development and guidance for primary and secondary school teachers on including refugee children in their classes.

Participant Resources

Who is a Refugee Video Discussion Questions

Video Clip from Safiya Jama Book Club Presentation (December 2020)

PowerPoint from Safiya Jama

2021-2022 Films

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Description

FRONTLINE investigates the promise and perils of artificial intelligence, from fears about work and privacy to rivalry between the U.S. and China. The documentary traces a new industrial revolution that will reshape and disrupt our lives, our jobs and our world, and allow the emergence of the surveillance society.

Online Resources

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Description

Great Decisions examines the Western Hemisphere’s migration crisis and the fractured societies at the heart of it: Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Online Resources

Spring 2021 Books

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Description

An #ownvoices contemporary YA set in Argentina, about a rising soccer star who must put everything on the line—even her blooming love story—to follow her dreams.

In Rosario, Argentina, Camila Hassan lives a double life.
At home, she is a careful daughter, living within her mother’s narrow expectations, in her rising-soccer-star brother’s shadow, and under the abusive rule of her short-tempered father.

On the field, she is La Furia, a powerhouse of skill and talent. When her team qualifies for the South American tournament, Camila gets the chance to see just how far those talents can take her. In her wildest dreams, she’d get an athletic scholarship to a North American university.

But the path ahead isn’t easy. As her life becomes more complicated, Camila is forced to face her secrets and make her way in a world with no place for the dreams and ambition of a girl like her.

Online Resources

Book Club Kit 

Kit from the author which includes  discussion questions, supporting materials and song lists

Yamile Saied Mendez Talk 

An engaging hour long talk from the author, Yamile Saied Mendez, where she reads a selection of the first chapter of the book and then answers questions from the audience moderated by the Utah Humanities Festival.

Short Story by Yamile Saied Mendez

Participant Resources

Furia Antonella Papolla video

Antonella Pappolla is a graduate student in the Department of Education Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research examines the dilemmas that have emerged from the democratization of higher education in Argentina. In this recording she shares about Rosario, Argentina and the themes from the book.

Interview PowerPoint

A copy of the slides from Antonella’s interview

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Description

Heaven is a thirty-year-old slum hidden between brand-new, high-rise apartment buildings and technology incubators in contemporary Bangalore. In this tight-knit community, five girls on the cusp of womanhood-a politically driven graffiti artist; a transgender Christian convert; a blind girl who loves to dance; and the queer daughter of a hijabi union leader-forge an unbreakable bond.

When the local government threatens to demolish their tin shacks in order to build a shopping mall, the girls and their mothers refuse to be erased. Together they wage war on the bulldozers sent to bury their homes, and, ultimately, on the city that wishes that families like them would remain hidden forever.

Elegant, poetic, and vibrant, A People’s History of Heaven takes a clear-eyed look at adversity and geography and dazzles in its depiction of love and female friendship.

Online Resources

Discussion Questions

Teaching Resources

  • Lesson plans 
  • About the Author 
  • Interviews 

Article: Writing Women Back Into Existence 

Participant Resources

People’s History of Heaven Mathu Subramanian video

Interview with the author by the faculty director of IRIS

People’s History of Heaven Slides

Supportive materials for talking about the themes of the book

Spring 2021 Films

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Description

FRONTLINE investigates the promise and perils of artificial intelligence, from fears about work and privacy to rivalry between the U.S. and China. The documentary traces a new industrial revolution that will reshape and disrupt our lives, our jobs and our world, and allow the emergence of the surveillance society.

Online Resources

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Description

Around the world, sea levels are on the rise. Great Decisions explores how low-lying nations are fighting to ensure their survival and asks what can be done today to prepare for the crisis on the horizon.

Online Resources