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‘Social Justice and Latinos in NYC: 1913 – 2013’ draws heavily on articles from longest-running Spanish language daily newspaper

City College of New York education majors have completed a project to develop a new curriculum called “Social Justice and Latinos in NYC: 1913 – 2013” developed in partnership with “El Diario/La Prensa.” It will be launched at a press conference Thursday, October 17, at Gregorio Luperon High School in Washington Heights hosted by the Spanish daily newspaper, which is celebrating its centennial.

“For a century, “El Diario,” the longest-running Spanish daily newspaper in the United States, has been covering social justice issues as they pertain to Latino communities in New York,” said Dr. Tatyana Kleyn, City College associate professor of education. “Their wealth of stories on these topics are a terrific source of content for the curriculum, and, by using newspaper articles we can also help students become better consumers of news and information.”

The project began during the fall 2012 semester in Professor Kleyn’s masters-level “Education That is Multicultural” class. The bilingual curriculum, which is intended for secondary school students, covers seven topics: immigration, workers’ rights, housing, healthcare, language and identity, education and arts and parades. It also includes a focus on media and media literacy. For the final project, students create a multimedia, multilingual newspaper with articles about social justice topics studied.

The articles used in the curriculum come primarily from “El Diario,” however other media sources are also included. While the articles are in Spanish with English summaries, assignments are English as well as Spanish. This positions students who are fluent in Spanish to serve as resources for their English-speaking classmates, and it values the bilingualism of so many New York City students, Professor Kleyn noted.

When students use articles from newspapers and other media as source material for their research they should be aware of who has published the story and the author’s perspective on the topic, she added. “Students need to be critical consumers of media, especially as people have access to more sources thanks to social media. This is an important skill our curriculum can help teach.”

“El Diario” will make the curriculum available after its press conference via its website,. The New York City Journalism Collective will also distribute the curriculum to its teachers. Professor Kleyn expects that some of her students who designed the program will use it in their classrooms, as well.

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