Case+14+-+Mrs.+DeGeorge's+Read-aloud


 * MRS. DeGEORGE'S READ-ALOUD CASE STUDY**

Mrs. DeGeorge teaches a half-year Business Management course that is restricted to high school juniors and seniors. The course is taught primarily through original projects created by Mrs. DeGeorge supported by the curriculum purchased by the school district, the accompanying materials, and activities taken from the internet that were created for the express purpose of teacher reproduction and distribution.

There is an exception: midway through the course during the 2006-2007 school year, Mrs. DeGeorge reads aloud to her classes a 2006 article from The Economist magazine titled "The Search for Talent". It is 1 page in length and she reads the entire thing. She does not make any copies for the students to follow along. Since this is not part of a graded assignment, there is no concern for learning disabilities. The read aloud is a transitional activity. This is done after the students have an understanding of management styles and skills, but before they are doing the more important projects in the course. The course itself is also at the end of the student's school career. The article details the crisis corporate America faces when attempting to find employees that can think independently and creatively; and can offer more than fancy degrees and test scores. It is meant to inspire the students to look beyond their school career on paper to develop and market their intellectual capabilities because these skills are sorely needed. As intended, the students have a renewed spirit about themselves--feeling that they now have an "edge" over their counterparts when it comes to entering the workforce. They now understand that the paper is not enough. This concept lays the foundation for the remainder of the course, where the students must draw on their personal abilities to complete the management projects individually and in team settings. Suddenly, they are evaluating the skills of teammates in an entirely new light. Now, the student with the lower performance in the class is being viewed as someone who may have non-traditional but very valuable "talent" to contribute.

Mrs. DeGeorge believes that she is within the guidelines of Fair Use.


 * COMMENTARY**

When evaluating the factors of Fair Use, Mrs. DeGeorge is clearly using this in an educational setting for educational purposes. The nature of the work is primarily factual--describing a state of current employment market conditions. While the article was read in it's entirety, it was not reproduced or distributed; and it was read to a limited audience (approximately 65 students/year) as opposed to all of Mrs. DeGeorge's students (approximately 240 students/year). The magazine the article appeared in is tailored to a specific industry and is not even regularly available on newstands. Mrs. DeGeorge's students (and many of their parents) would have never known about the magazine in the first place and therefore her reading to them from it may have only enhanced the potential market for the magazine--but not necessarily the article.