Hawken School Radiolab

Radiolab is part of the Hawken School Intensive catalog. Intensives are three week all-day courses, offered at the end of each semester, that allow students to dive deep into topics that interest them. These three week long experiences allow students to take a deeper look at topics other than core classes, and give students the opportunity to explore local and global communities. Radiolab is taught at the end of the first semester, and is offered to freshmen. Our intensive asks students to explore the following questions: 

 

Craft:

• What are the elements of storytelling?

• How can a writer/producer make the obscure relevant and interesting?

• How can editing control the meaning of content?

• What are the essential differences in writing and editing for audio vs. text?

• How does a small team best divide their talents and resources to collaborate effectively?

Content:

• How can short, compelling pieces work synergistically to explore the facets of a big idea?

• How do science, art, music, literature and personal narrative let us see truths of the human experience?

• How do we root abstractions (like mortality, or communication, or diversity) in particular, concrete material?

​

In addition, our intensive helps students to develop the following skills:​

​

• Interview: This kind of program depends on capturing interesting voices.  Becoming an adept interviewer who can ask the right question and pivot to another subject will be key.  Recording and note taking, following up and following through are subskills we will emphasize. 

• Editing: Students will be tasked with collecting huge amounts of material and editing it down and together to quality minutes of story.  

• Organizing/Sequencing: Both in terms of creating the short episodes and putting them together for the full episode, students will have to make hard decisions in finding structure, and think carefully about the effects.  In addition, organizing their resources, tasks, research and material will also present challenges and demand a disciplined approach.

• Teamwork: Because so much of the course will be done in small teams, particular attention will need to be paid to the skills of effective collaboration.  Sub skills include delegation, leadership, planning taking roles, evaluating strengths, and being patient with one another.

• Listening: Students will need to hone their abilities to listen carefully, both to published stories and their own material.  They will need to develop a kind of intentional sensitivity that lets them hear the elements of a recording and be aware of how they are creating an effect.

• Speaking: Not only will students need to become adept representatives of their projects who can explain clearly what they hope to gain from an interview, they will also have to be clear, articulate speakers of their own copy.  While not every member of a team will have a starring role in the final product, each student will need to present research, pitch her ideas, and express their reactions/understandings of what we examine together.

• Giving Feedback: As the pieces build, we will be moving to a workshop model where drafts go up for comment and criticism.  Students will need to become honest, clear, constructive members of those workshops who can express their reactions without ego.