The Civil Rights Activity Book

http://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/general/SPLC%20Civil%20Rights%20Activity%20Book%20web.pdf

This activity book can be found at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Civil Rights Memorial Center. Produced for grades 6-8, this book would serve as a great companion to the civil rights curricula typically taught in schools. In the book there is a combination of activities that educate students about the many different people involved in the movement and the major events along the way, that engage students in creative reflection about the events, and that encourage students to take the messages of the movement and make them meaningful in their own lives. For instance, there is one activity that has students create poems, in the style of protest songs, about an issue in their own communities; another has students considering the ways that the movement may have impacted their own lives; another asks them to consider how the consequences of their actions can ripple out to effect other people. Besides the more reflective activities, the book also might introduce students to names of foot soldiers and leaders they would otherwise be unfamiliar with, and to understand the human element behind a major historical movement.

Using this book in conjunction with typical school curricula about race and the history of the Civil Rights Movement would bolster a unit that, in many schools, is lacking. Lessons about this movement, and about race in general, are often relegated to a separate unit, or month, in a way that makes students think that it is irrelevant to their lives. However, in having students think more personally and critically about this piece of history, this book encourages them to think of it not as a moment but as a stage in an ongoing movement. Teachers, of course, have to be sure that the type of reflection that this book encourages appears throughout their lessons, and that it is paired with more explicit and educational discussion of race through history. This book is not intended to stand alone, but instead to deepen the knowledge that students have about this activist movement and about activist movements in general.

Mix-It Up Lunch Day

http://www.tolerance.org/supplement/six-steps-mixing-it-lunch

This is an activity from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance Program that can be very beneficial to schools looking to break down the social barriers that separate students. This activity can be adapted for any grade level, and for the particular needs of any school. The basic goal of a Mix It Up Lunch Day is to encourage students to sit with someone new in the cafeteria. While this seems simple, its ramifications can be significant. The SPLC has determined that the school cafeteria is the place where divisions between students are most clearly drawn, and have concluded, therefore, that this is a place where an intervention would be beneficial to unifying the school community in meaningful ways. They cite their intention to encourage children to “identify, question, and cross social boundaries,” which means that a successful program would go beyond having children switch their seats. Depending on grade level and school demographics, the different ideas suggested on their program website include various conversations, games, and activities that have students get to know new people in meaningful ways while also considering the reasons why they usually would remain separated. In this way, Mix It Up Lunch Days can be a powerful and practical tool for creating long-term connections between students who would usually be divided by lines of race, class, gender, and religion.

These Lunch Day programs typically take place early in the year so that students have a chance to form connections that could potentially last the duration of the year. The teacher, or facilitator’s role is to roam through the tables ensuring that students are, indeed, meeting new people, and to ask questions that prompt more insightful and thoughtful conversations. Asking students to introduce one another, to talk about their shared school experiences, and to find common ground can be a powerful tool in creating a successful day.

I chose this activity idea because it is a simple, practical, and meaningful way to create a more inclusive and equitable school environment. While there are many activities focused on individual classrooms, changing student attitudes, and having children confront the realities of disadvantage, this activity is focused on positive action and the school as a whole. Fostering a sense of community, where students know and care for one another outside of their separate groups can go a long way. However, this activity, obviously, does not stand alone. While this might be a good introduction activity, it needs to be paired with a more extensive curriculum about division and disadvantage in order for its message to really be valuable.

Lesson Plan: School Culture

http://www.pbs.org/pov/brooklyncastle/lesson_plan.php

        This lesson plan, intended for middle and high schoolers, is focused on school culture and how it can affect students attitudes towards learning and achievement. The lesson was produced by PBS and is centered around their POV documentary Brooklyn Castle. The film is about an inner-city, high-poverty school that cultivates a highly successful chess team; as a result of the school’s focus on this extra-curricular and its promotion of achievement at all levels, the school is an exemplary model of student academic success. By examining this school’s culture in comparison with their own, student can understand the ways that culture is transmitted through a population and how important it is for that culture to have a positive influence.

        The lesson will begin with a discussion of the definition of culture, with particular emphasis on how culture is learned and shared. The class will then think about what the most influential transmitters of culture are in their own lives, and what messages about learning and academic success they receive from each of the sources they listed. After this, students will watch a series of clips from the film, during which they will be asked to consider the messages and transmitters in the school depicted, and how they are alike or different from their own lists. After each clip, the class will pause for discussions about whether they are  surprised by the popularity of chess in Brooklyn Castle, how they feel about the interactions between students and teachers, what they noticed about how the school treats the chess team, and what they learned about how culture is transmitted. After, students will be asked to write a persuasive piece about whether or not they would like their school to be like the school in the film and why.

        This lesson plan is valuable because it engages students directly with the culture that shapes their learning. By making students aware of these processes, this lesson can make students more active in them. In inner city schools, especially, it is common for students to equate high achievement with being less tough, “street-smart,” or“cool.” These stereotypes are harmful because they force students to choose between academic achievement and social success, and because they can perpetuate this myth to such an extent that it impacts a school’s performance as a whole. By having students look at the ways that culture is constructed, and getting them thinking about whether or not the cultures that impact them are beneficial, this type of lesson creates a more equal playing field for students of all backgrounds. A school community should promote the achievement of all of its students, and when students realize they are potentially being disadvantaged by one that does not, they can be more active in changing it.

        It would be important for a teacher using this lesson plan to have given her students practice in thinking critically about their schools and communities. While this lesson stands alone fairly well, it may not work as well for students in schools vastly different from the one in the film (i.e. schools that are not located in a city or schools that are not faced with poverty) without a fair amount of context or practice in comparing and evaluating communities. In addition, it might be helpful for teachers to expand on this lesson by exploring other models of successful school culture, or even examples of harmful school cultures so that students do not see the school depicted as necessarily exceptional. Finally, to build on this lesson, teachers should give students the opportunity to think actively about how they can use what they've learned about culture to actively change the culture at their own school. This lesson is unique in that it can be modified to be extremely relevant to the students’ lives, and because it acknowledges culture in a context different from how it is typically depicted in social studies curricula (i.e. in conjunction with race/ethnicity). Overall, this lesson is a valuable resource because it has the potential for making students agents of change in their communities and because it breaks down the stereotypes that inhibit student achievement.

Poster: Buttons of the Cause (1960-2003)

http://www.donnellycolt.com/catalog/product638.html

        This poster depicts over 370 activist buttons, representing over 200 historic causes. It was created based on the collection of a personal collector, and is sold by Donnelly/Colt Progressive Resources, a company which designs and distributes materials that promote social justice, peace, and human rights. It would be an asset to any upper elementary, middle, or high school classroom, especially those that engage with the politics and conflicts surrounding historical moments. This particular poster displays buttons that were used to make statements about a number of issues through American and global history, including the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, the LGBTQ rights movement, and many more. In addition to the buttons, the poster also includes footnotes which provide context for the buttons’ messages.

        This poster is valuable because it acknowledges and brings attention to the activist movements that shaped history. The collector who created the poster made a point to show both sides of every issue depicted on it, and, in this way, the poster highlights way that history is multifaceted and more complicated than it often seems in textbooks. For every pro-war button there is a button calling for peace; for every button calling for integration there is a button calling for segregation. In this way, this visual frames history as a series of ideological conflicts, the outcomes of which shaped the way that we view history.

        For a teacher displaying this poster in the classroom, it is important that it is acknowledged to be more than just wallpaper. Active engagement with such visuals is important to help students create meaning and to allow it to spark meaningful discussion. A teacher should take advantage of this poster by referring to it whenever the opportunity arises; there is no doubt that a discussion of any contemporary cause would benefit from a discussion about contemporary reactions to it. It is also important that the teacher acknowledges that some of the views and positions represented on this poster would now be considered problematic, even if at the time they had supporters. Contextualizing discussions of the buttons in a history of progress towards more comprehensive human rights is important. This poster cannot stand alone in the classroom, and instead should be used as a supplement to classroom lessons and discussions.

Progressive City Planners

http://www.tolerance.org/lesson/progressive-city-planners

        This project-based activity will have students think about the ways that society is divided by class and race as they create their own cities. The lesson plan was created by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance campaign with the goal of educating students about the ways that the health and well-being of low income communities, and especially low-income communities of color, are impacted by environmental racism and classism and of encouraging students to create a vision of a more just and equitable society. The lesson plan can be adapted for either upper elementary (3rd-5th grade) or middle school classrooms.

        In this activity, students, in groups, will be given materials to create cities. Each city must include a number of required urban resources (including libraries, roadways, landfills, schools, different types of housing, etc.) and must be divided into three areas: one for “people who run the city,” one for “people who clean the city,” and one for “other workers.”  Using tiles that represent the different elements and a paper bag as the city’s base, students must decide how to allocate the resources among the different areas. Day one of this activity has students laying out their cities while the teacher observes and takes notes about student conversations, decisions, and motivations. After they have finished, the teacher will have students rotate to look at the cities created by different groups and engage students in a discussion which gets them thinking about the the fairness of their resource distribution, the relative health and safety of people in the different areas, and whether or not their cities reflect cities in real life. At the conclusion of this discussion, the teacher will introduce students to the concepts of “environmental racism” and “environmental justice.” Day two of this activity will have students learning and thinking more in depth about issues of environmental equity in connection with the cities they planned. They will be shown clips and given readings about the disparities in community health between high and low-income communities, and will use that knowledge to propose ways that they could make their own cities more equitable.

        This lesson plan addresses issues of both race and class, which are inextricably tied together. In having students confront and think about the way that cities are structured to maintain disadvantage for some and advantage for others, this project is engaging students in valuable critical thinking and prepares them to conceive of ways that these disparities can be reduced. This lesson is relevant to students , especially those in urban communities, because it addresses the ways that institutions impact their daily lives. The teacher, though, has a very important role  in this activity. While this lesson is valuable, it does not stand alone. In order for it to be truly successful, the teacher must lay the groundwork beforehand about how race and class are linked, and how this link is often not acknowledged. In addition, the teacher must take on a number of different roles through the course of this lesson. On the first day, as students are building, the teacher is supposed to observe and record without judgement so that, afterwards, she or he can engage students in critical thinking about the basis of their own decisions. At this point, the teacher must facilitate discussion that does not blame students for their biases and prejudices, but instead has them confront the ways that those aspects of their thinking are harmful for the community. Finally, in the final stages of this lesson, the teacher must be a resource for students, providing them with useful facts and knowledge about the realities of city planning and its impact on communities’ health. It is important for teachers to modify this lesson to the skills and knowledge of their students, and to make sure that the lessons it teaches are not taught in isolation; ideally, race and class, and their connection, should be something that the teacher has been addressing throughout the year, so that students have some context.

Learning About Autism: A Service Learning Project

http://www.pbs.org/pov/bestkeptsecret/lesson_plan.php

      This is a lesson plan focused around the PBS documentary Best Kept Secret. The lesson is part of a series of teaching resources based on their POV documentaries which include video clips, lesson objectives, and activity suggestions. This particular lesson plan is intended for high schoolers, but I think it can easily be adapted for middle school by adding more structure and supplemental materials. In it, students are part of a service learning project where they develop and produce educational materials for elementary school children about autism. The lesson plan can be integrated into a number of subject areas, including English/language arts, health and psychology, and social studies, and can be used for content about autism in addition to lessons intended to build media literacy and service skills. In the lesson, students will begin by watching a series of clips from the documentary, which is about a school in Newark, NJ which serves special-needs students. The film profiles 4 autistic students who are approaching graduation, and the teacher who is working to find places for her students post-graduation. The film highlights the struggles of autistic students as they reach adulthood, and the ways that educators can advocate for their special needs students even as they leave the school system. For the purposes of this porject, students will watch clips from the film that profile the specifc needs, skills, and personalities of the students in the film in order to better understand the effects of autism on daily life. After watching the clips, the instructor will facilitate discussion and possibly provide more supplemental learning materials before introducing the assignment. For the assignment, students will be broken into groups and instructed to create an activity or presentation that will educate elementary school students about autism. Their projects will then actually be presented to their intended audiences.

      This lesson plan would enable instructors to address issues of ability in the classroom. As the lesson plan points out, 1 in 50 children in the U.S. is autistic, and therefore it is necessary for schools to address this reality. By engaging students in the education process, the benefits of this project are twofold: the middle or high schoolers become experts and agents of change in their school communities, and the elementary school students being taught gain an early understanding of autism and differently abled students in general. As a teacher, it would be important to be a sensitive and knowledgable facilitator in this activity. While the documentary is a useful resource, it does should not stand alone; the teacher should provide a variety of other resources for students, including readings, guest speakers, and other materials.  The teacher should also be aware of the language that is appropriate for talking and educating about different abilities, and be explicit with the students about this language.

      I chose this resource because, beyond just educating students about an issue, it also makes them active in using their new understanding to create change. This is valuable because the lessons taught through this activity go beyond autism; students can use what they learn to understand and engage with different types of neurodiversity, and to learn valuable activism skills like being community leaders and engaging in meaningful research. The lesson plan gives lots of room for modification, and therefore can be changed to accommodate the skill levels and needs of a variety of classrooms in a variety of subjects. One possible criticism of this lesson is that the film does not focus on the perspectives of the autistic students, and often dwells on their deficiencies and not their skills. To remedy this, teachers can make sure to provide other materials that are from the perspective of people with autism, and to engage older students in discussions about the way that disability is socially constructed.

The GLSEN Companion to NEA’s Read Across America

http://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/readacrossamericadiscussionguidesonly.pdf

       

This resource is a series of discussion guides produced by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) to be used in coordination with the National Education Association’s annual Read Across America campaign. Read Across America is a reading motivation and awareness program which many schools around the country participate in by hosting guest readers, holding Drop Everything and Read periods, and hosting other activities focused on encouraging student literacy. GLSEN created this discussion guide to capitalize on this established educational tradition for the purposes of teaching young students about LGBT themes and issues. The books discussed in these guides are appropriate for elementary school students in kindergarten through 2nd grade, and they address gender and gender-expression based bullying and bias, family diversity, and gender roles/gender diversity.

        The discussion guides are centered around six children’s books that address these issues: And Tango Makes Three, Antonio’s Card/La Tarjeta de Antonio, Chrysanthemum, Oliver Button is a Sissy, It’s Okay to be Different, and Just Kidding. For each book, the discussion guides provide activities and discussion questions that precede and follow the reading of the story which ask students to discuss what they know and what they have learned about the different types of family structures, the harmful effects of bullying on peers, and the many different ways that people can express their gender. The questions are intended to make students question the stereotypes and biases that surround these topics, and to conclude that it is always right to treat others with respect, kindness, and understanding.

        In order to use this tool successfully in the classroom, the teacher must be willing to engage students in these discussions, and compassionately address students’ potentially problematic views. These discussions will address issues of gender and sexuality explicitly, and because these are sensitive issues in the classroom, the teacher must treat them with care. However, these discussions are also very necessary and important in the classroom, and lessons about kindness and respect for peers and all people do not have to be controversial. While many people might think that sexuality has no place in the classroom, because sex is not relevant in the lives of young children, this is not true. Students confront different family structures, restrictive gender norms, and bullying based on perceived sexuality and gender differences every day, and therefore, meaningful discussion about these issues is necessary for creating an inclusive classroom community.

I chose this resource because it builds upon an existing, popular curriculum, and because it provides and opportunity for student engagement and discussion. Because Read Across America is already a part of so many classrooms, it would be fairly easy for an educator to integrate this resource into their plans. In addition, this resource does not aim to override student thinking; instead, its goal is to engage students in meaningful thought and to validate their experiences. At the end of these discussions, students will be better versed in being understanding and compassionate members of their communities, which is a goal that goes beyond LGBTQ issues. To make these discussions even more meaningful, teachers can expand on this lesson by including more LGBTQ inclusive books in their school libraries, by encouraging students to use what they've learned about respect and inclusion in other arenas, and by making sure that the lessons they've learned can be applied to situations outside of those in these specific stories.