Youth Express

1. Choose a comfortable space, ideally one that allows youth to sit in a circle and that is isolated fro m other activities. A classroom is fine. A gymnasium or cafeteria is a poor choice.
   
   
2. Strive for a space that is reasonably quiet. While some amount of noise is fine and will not be picked up by properly used microphones, be especially mindful of rooms that could pick up "sudden" noises such as automobile traffic from an open window, frequent hall traffic, or noise from a fan.
   
   
3. If possible, choose a room with carpeted floors and/or chairs that won't squeak.
   
   
4. Initial equipment can be very simple and helps students feel ownership and control. We suggest a simple digital recorder (Zoom H4n), microphone and XLR cable (Sennheiser e835), headphone amplifier (ART HeadAMP), and four sets of over the ear headphones (AKG 240 or similar).

Here's one simple way to start:

1. Recruit a group of 8 to 16 students.
   
   
2. Develop an initial schedule; we suggest meeting weekly for 6 to 8 weeks with each session lasting 40 to 60 minutes. 
   
   
3. Sit in a circle. Speak calmly and help students transition from their prior mindset to that of Youth Express. 
   
   
4. Provide a simple introduction of how microphones and digital recorders work. 
   
   
5. Introduce a "speed writing" script that will help students quickly formulate an interesting short set of sentences or paragraph to record. One we like to use on the first day is:
   
   My name is __________ (first name), I'm _____ (age) years old and am in _______ (grade level ) grade at ___________ (name of school). Other people would describe me as ___________, _________, and _________ (list three adjectives and stress that this should be based on how others would describe you). In my spare time, I like to _____________.
   
   
6. While students will want to fill out a script as if it were a worksheet, others will want to use the blank script as a speaking guide. Both methods are fine and also help students feel comfortable.
   
   
7. Have each student record his or her script. As these speakers share their script one by one, we suggest create rotating roles to help maintain engagement and support. We like to use roles of (i) producers, who will be responsible for quieting the group before recording, (ii) engineers, responsible for monitoring and saving recordings and (iii) listeners, responsible for detecting paper rustling, loud background noise, etc.
   
   
8. The class period will likely be over by the time all speakers have recorded. We deliberately do not listen to the recordings until the following week. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: The method above is simply one way of starting. Other options include developing a cohort based on youth engaged in a school newspaper, creative writing club, or debate team. Another popular technique is to look for the indigenous writing happening in language arts, social studies and other classroom work.

1. Listen back to the recordings from the prior week.
   
   
2. Listen for teachable moments and areas of curiosity. For example, nearly everyone thinks that their recorded voice sounds different than their actual voice. Explain that a person primarily hears one's own voice through the bones in his head while others (including the microphone) hears through a sound wave that moves through the air. This is why wearing headphones is helpful and why most broadcasters and singers where headphones or sometimes cup their ears to hear their voice as others do.
   
   
3. With the light editing you did offsite, most students will feel increased confidence on listening back. Now it's time to introduce  a new "Speed Script" for the week -- one that is more complicated yet still relatively easy to create and record (e.g., something I collect, a team I'm part of, three wishes, a book I'd recommend, my earliest childhood memory). SLB has hundreds of examples available.
   
   
4. Record using techniques similar to the prior week and continue listening back and building confidence.
   
   

While students who have made it to this part of the program will have lots of ideas, it's still important to provide some degree of structure in order to (i) help students work within a framework and (ii) yield a work product that is listenable. While counter-intuitive, the constraints provided by the structure actually encourage creativity. below are some sample projects we especially like.

1. Commentaries -- Students present a well-reasoned position on a social or political issue as a 1-minute narrative. Standard openings and closings are used to help all commentaries come together as a family. For example, each can begin "This is FirstName LastName with a commentary for Youth Express" and can end with "For more Youth Express commentaries, visit youthexpress.org". Here are  samples in which students deliver opinions about (i) the message it sends when a person comments on another  person's accent, (ii) misconceptions about transgender issues, and (iii) white supremacy.
   
   
2. Roundtables -- Three to five students form a groups and select three topics to discuss. A format is established to help hold the program together and consists of (i) introductions of the students and the three topics, (ii) coverage of Topic A, (iii) a reminder of the show hosts and topics, (iv) coverage of Topic B, (v) another reminder, (vi) Topic C, and (vii) a standard closing. An audio mixer and additional microphones will be needed. The roles of engineer and producer introduced earlier will be more challenging as the engineer navigates mic and recording levels and the producer helps make sure that the segments covering Topics A, B and C are each 3 minutes in length and the "in between" segments are no longer than 30 to 60 seconds, thus yielding a program of 12 minutes or less. Here are samples from 9th through 12th graders.
   
   
3. Documentaries -- A pair of students identifies and pitches a topic, records interviews with subject matter experts, selects soundbytes and writes narrative that helps educate the listener, and blends the soundbytes and written narrative together to yield a 3 to 4 minute documentary. Here are examples on topics ranging from criminalization of black girls to life for Somali Bantu refugees living in Pittsburgh. 

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At SLB, we believe that youth-created media needs to be heard by a broad audience. While students are usually adept at distributing their work among their own peers, it's our obligation to work together to make certain that adults, students from other neighborhoods, and the general public hear their work. Some of the ways we do this include:

Youth Express Podcast

Youth Express Website

Youth Express App