The Scallion, which is by taught Mr. Snyder, is a creative and engaging module offered at the NYC iSchool. This course examines the elements of satire and gives students a platform to create their own memes, videos, and articles on local and global issues.

Students write satirical articles, films, and memes on current topics that teenagers find relevant and identify with. After weeks of producing meaningful student- created content, a launch party is culminated to feature the students’ hard work.

Mr. Snyder discussed how The Scallion began: Well, we have been talking about it as a English department for several years about how to teach satirical writing. But it’s tricky, a tricky concept to teach so it took a couple of years to develop the idea of doing a satirical newspaper and I just built the course and tried it out and that’s kinda how it happened.”

This course is still considered new as it has been recently introduced in second and fourth quarter. The course began by discussing about different uses of satirical devices and doing different projects such as writing short stories, newspaper articles,videos for films and then overtime leading into bigger projects.

Axel Reyes, a junior at the iSchool, talks about his favorite thing about The Scallion: “My favorite thing about the Scallion is the creativity that it supplies you with. It’s just the leeway in it is   incredible so many opportunities to make so many different things and it’s not limited to what Mr Snyder says. It’s basically as far as you can take it.”

The Scallion offers students an innovative experience that is fun and interesting. Mr. Snyder gives students a chance to “look at articles with a more critical eye as far as what they read online.” They go on to talk about fake news and how to identify it. By doing this students compare the difference between fake news and satire. “So I think they are better able to distinguish reliable sources from unreliable sources,” Mr. Snyder says.

Lily Jurman, a sophomore at the iSchool, describes her experience in The Scallion as “Good, really good. I like it a lot and it’s really fun.” She specifically thinks the projects are fun and interesting. Jurman likes Mr. Snyder’s instructions and said, “He tells you what he wants and gives a good scale so it’s like reachable.” She also enjoys the freedom in the class despite deadlines and grades.

Max Pierson-Panes, a junior at the iSchool, shared his view on the Scallion: “It’s been good, I have enjoyed the module pretty much so far.”  Max also described the class as fun and exciting, “We have had plenty of fun things to do and all the projects have been fairly straightforward.”

The Scallion is a perfect example of innovative learning that the iSchool stands for. Combining technology, trends and media with satirical writing makes learning fun, interesting and progressive.