How We Began – Unis Journalism
Unis Journalism, The Living Textbook Project, 2011
The Living Textbook is funded by the McCormick and Ford foundations with additional support from the Kodak Corporation. The project is co-directed by two veteran journalists, Emilia Askari of the University of Michigan and Joe Grimm of Michigan State University. The Living Textbook Project was made possible by the dedication of teacher April Kincaid and the support of Dearborn Public Schools administrators.
Watch the video below to see Unis Journalism, Year One
The Living Textbook by Bill Kubota (Journalistic Filmmaker)
- Exploration of the journalism class at Unis Middle School and jr. journalist Jamila Nasser takes us into her family’s immigration history.
https://www.schooltube.com/media/The+Living+Textbook+Project+in+Dearborn+MI/1_cytyzg5w
- Teacher, April Kincaid, and student, Nour Eidy being interviewed by NPR, radio host Michael Martin (September 8, 2011)
https://www.npr.org/2011/09/08/140291053/teaching-sept-11-to-a-new-generation
- Unis journalism students Mirvat Chammout and Jamila Nasser were amongst the fifteen conversations between Arab Americans from across Michigan and the nation selected through Story Corps. These conversations were recorded to document issues of profiling and stereotyping Arabs in the post-9/11 era.
http://arabstereotypes.org/resources/storycorps
- Unis Middle School Journalism competed yearly (2011-2016) at the Michigan State University, Michigan Interscholastic Press Association Middle School Conference Contest. Unis was proud to have winners each year in the Best Feature Story, Best Caption, and Best Photo Contest Categories.
Congratulations to the winners of the MIPA Middle School Conference Carry-In Contest. Winning entries were published and submitted by schools arriving at the Middle School Conference at the Michigan State University Union Hall. Nearly 200 student journalists from across the state attended the event and competed for awards.
Project Funding
- Unis Middle School’s journalism class discovered that The Living Textbook Project received two additional years of funding from the Ford Foundation. Actress Sally Field captured how we all felt when she won the Oscar in 1985, “I can’t deny the fact that you like me. Right now, you like me!”
- The Living Textbook, funded out of JTM-Create or Die last June in Detroit, has recently received a two-year grant extension from the Ford Foundation to continue its work. Co-directed by Emilia Askari and Joe Grimm, this project, sponsored by the Asian American Journalists Association, is produced by seventh and eigth grade students in Dearborn, Michigan who have a unique take on what it means to grow up Arab American in post-9/11 America. They are among the first generation of Americans to have no memory of what life was like before the 2001 terrorist attacks. (excerpt from JTM News)
Read the whole article, Living Textbook Gets Funding from Ford Foundation by Journalism That Matters (JTM News, 2011)
- Part of learning journalism at Unis Middle School includes video shooting and editing. The students were proud to produce videos like the one below that focus on the topic of bullying and friendship.
- Unis Middle School journalism students were also featured in a 2011 traveling art exhibit entitled “The Heart of Arab America: A Middle School Perspective.” The picture’s last stop was the Arab American Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The photos were eventually sold to local journalists and members of the community.
The art exhibit event was chronicled below by the Arab American Museum, The Dearborn Patch, Michigan Radio, Need To Know, and MLive online newspapers.
https://patch.com/michigan/dearborn/student-photo-exhibit-tells-post-911-arab-american-stories
https://animatingdemocracy.org/project/heart-arab-america-middle-school-perspective-0
https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2011/07/arab_museum_offers_tales_of_yo.html
https://www.michiganradio.org/post/new-exhibit-documents-arab-american-students-life-post-911
- New article about Unis Middle School’s journalism program by The Arab American News, August 2012
- In 2013, Unis Middle School journalism students hosted their own version of the popular TV show Shark Tank. The students had a new app competition called “Pitchfest.” This great event was documented in articles by the Press and Guide and the Arab American News.
- After the grant money ended, Unis Middle School journalists continued to thrive and successfully create quality news stories on their blogs. Current student stories are on the blog site, Unis Middle School Community News.
https://iblog.dearbornschools.org/journalism/
- Shake It Off Program
- Unis Journalism formed a Presentation Team in 2015 to teach a class for the Allied Media Conference, located at Wayne State University. The interactive presentation was called, The Hijab: Through the Eyes of Muslims. 75 high schoolers, college students, and other adults learned more about the hijab through a student-produced film, accompanied by games, discussion, and poetry.
- An Arab American News article was written about the Unis Middle Journalism Class (November 24, 2016)
Accolades
Unis Middle School journalism students were also allowed to have their photos become a traveling art exhibit in 2011 entitled, The Heart of Arab America: A Middle School Perspective. The picture’s last stop was the Arab American Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The photos were eventually sold to local journalists and members of the community.
The art exhibit event was chronicled below by the Arab American Museum, The Dearborn Patch, Michigan Radio, Need To Know, and MLive online newspapers.
https://patch.com/michigan/dearborn/student-photo-exhibit-tells-post-911-arab-american-stories
https://animatingdemocracy.org/project/heart-arab-america-middle-school-perspective-0
https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2011/07/arab_museum_offers_tales_of_yo.html
https://www.michiganradio.org/post/new-exhibit-documents-arab-american-students-life-post-911
Joe Grimm, co-creator, The Living Textbook
Professor Joe Grimm teaches college journalists to create unbiased content
https://www.secondwavemedia.com/capitalgains/innovationnews/biasbusters0823.aspx
April Kincaid, Journalism, and Social Studies Teacher
April Kincaid wins Middle School Teacher of the Year
https://mcunis.dearbornschools.org/2016/05/15/congratulations/
The 2024-25 journalism students participated in a New York Times activity, Conversations With A Journalist: An Invitation To Teenagers. Students were asked to read an article and pose comments and questions to professional journalists. Our 8th grade student, Lana Zaiter, was given a shout-out by Sapna Maheshwari, a business reporter for The New York Times, about how TikTok has changed the world. Click below to see the whole post.
Several Unis student comments were also featured in the Q&A section.
NerimanZ
Unis Middle School · Oct. 3, 2024
Hello! I am Neriman from Unis Middle School. Facing hateful comments can lead you to depression, suicide, and harming yourself. People write hateful comments so they can build up their self-esteem, but they don’t know and don’t understand how the other person is feeling. If someone has really bad mental health and you leave a hateful comment, their mental health could become worse. Giving negative comments to other people is considered cyberbullying. But sometimes people like to comment because something is going on at home. Why do people like to comment mean things?
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Sapna Maheshwari commented October 4, 2024
Sapna Maheshwari
Business Reporter · Oct. 4, 2024
@NerimanZ Hi Neriman, I mentioned to someone else — I think people can be really unnecessarily mean on social media, especially when commenting anonymously. It has to do with themselves and their own insecurities. It’s a really tough part of internet usage these days.
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Jenna commented October 3, 2024
J
Jenna
Unis Middle School Dearborn MI · Oct. 3, 2024
Hi, my name is Jenna. I’m an 8th grader at Unis Middle School. I used to use TikTok a couple of years ago, but then I stopped for a while. I got it back around a year ago, and I think that it’s better without it. I’m saying this because it’s really addictive. Also, people are putting themselves in danger with the trends they’re doing. People are going viral for doing harmful things, but they’re getting injured. I think that TikTok has been very bad for us and causes a lot of bad things to happen. The viewers of these trending videos would wanna try what they’re doing. So, I think it’s bad for everyone. One question I have is: what age do you think people should start using TikTok
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Sapna Maheshwari commented October 6, 2024
Sapna Maheshwari
Business Reporter · Oct. 6, 2024
@Jenna Hi Jenny, good question! There isn’t a lot of research on the right age for people to start using social media, partly because these companies are so new. Right now, they generally require users to be 13 and up. Mental health experts and pediatricians and researchers seem to be suggesting lately that the age should be higher. What do you think?
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Excerpt from the NYT article that shows a mention of Lana Z.’s shout out:
Here is a good example. A student from Alisal High School named Gustavo writes that TikTok has changed him and others he knows:
It has changed our humor to the point where stuff is unfunny and confusing to “boomers” but drop-dead funny to us. At the same time, although this is concerning based on how much time we spend online, it creates a sense of unity among teenagers. You can say a joke that is found on TikTok to a stranger your age and create a quick bond.
Lana, from Unis Middle School, agrees and poses her own question:
Many of my classmates and close friends’ personalities changed almost completely after using TikTok, my entire generation is what could be called “chronically online.” I want to ask about your opinion on this. What effect will this have on our future?
How would you answer? It’s not too late!
By The Learning Network
Published Sept. 26, 2024Updated Oct. 10, 2024