Listen Lesson Kit: Cruel and Unusual… Lunch?

Engage your students and inspire thoughtful discussion and research with media!

This Listen Lesson Kit contains guided note-taking exercises in two formats, lecture and discussion guidance/narrative slides with a full teacher script, discussion questions, and follow-up links, built around “Are Prison Diets Punitive? A Report From Behind Bars,” from the Gravy podcast, a production of the Southern Foodway Alliance.  This is an AUDIO-only podcast.

I have built this lesson around the question of what constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment” in the 8th Amendment of the United States Constitution.  While the question of food quality might seem like a novel, if not inconsequential, approach to discussing the 8th Amendment, there has been interest in this specific question in the last decade, in part due to the use of food as punishment (in the form of the so-called “Prison Loaf”).  While one might be tempted to utilize a “weightier” issue like the death penalty to discuss the 8th Amendment, discussing a more accessible issue like food quality allows students to engage with the core of the topic without getting stuck in capital punishment discussion.

Listen Lesson Kits are not mindless worksheets!  I have created meaningful, engaging exercises to listen and record observations from the media, and engage with the themes afterward. The included slides were crafted with research-driven design strategies to keep students focused on the lesson narrative, not distracting, text-heavy slides.

Here are all of the items I have included in this kit:

• Extensive teacher guide, including age-level analysis, take time analysis, podcast technical notes, and expert advice on converting this into distance, remote, or online learning
• Guided notes in two different formats (short form and long form) for students in course formats to be easily used in print or with LMSs including Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams
• Accompanying slide deck (with over 30 content slides), including introduction slides, a short link to the media, background information, discussion questions, and also high-resolution slides with photographs and follow-up links to spark discussion
• Full answer key for the guided notes
• Nine additional curated links for follow-up research or projects

This lesson is ideally suited for high school students in a Government or Civics class, especially studying the Bill of Rights, civil rights, prison reform, or the criminal justice system.  It would also be a good fit in a Current Events curriculum, especially in relation to a current event that highlights criminal justice or prison abuse and/or reforms.

This lesson contains a highly-engaging talk that could be used in expository listening exercises in English/Language Arts courses.