Sigh. I've strayed from the provided curriculum. Fortunately, my administration has said several times it is an option and that I may use it as a tool in teaching, or find other tools. So my toolbox has grown in 5 months. I have used various online news sites for nonfiction lessons. We have read a novel together. And I had a grant from DonorsChoose allow me a class set of monthly literary magazines for many other genre options. Now? Now I want more. Over the past semester I have learned that my students are sadly unaware of our history...or of their histories! I use picture books for skill lessons, and one or two were able to correctly tell me who Harriet Tubman was. There were a few each hour that knew erroneous snippets they could rattle off. "She freed slaves." Harriet Tubman helped slaves get to freedom." "Wasn't she the one who took people to those train stations? I mean, not real train stations, but the houses? But this comment? "She was the one who rode the train in America." This was one that made me cringe. As a certified middle school social studies teacher, now, I feel compelled to teach tolerance as I teach reading skills.
I read a blog post by @bluecerealeducation (#WhiteSilence, Teacher Edition) that made me wonder if I were falling into the category of white woman teaching tolerance to diverse students. So, I commented on his blog post...and as I wrote, I felt better. I now know I am not "teaching" tolerance or diversity or culture. I am leading the learning. I am opening a door to a place where my students may choose and learn, and HOPEFULLY fall in love with true American heroes!
I am a 40-something white, married woman teachIng 6th grade literature in a middle school with 75% minorities (66% are from bilingual homes) and 99% free lunches/1% reduced lunches. The education powers that be in our state deemed us a failing school.
I have been amazed at how little my students (even those of diversity) know about American heroes and of the history of their rights. So, as an educator, I'm preparing my classes for my upcoming unit to teach them. I have selected a hodge podge of rights: human, civil, migrant workers, women's, children's, etc. Since Wednesday, I have handed out candy to those wearing red (one of our school colors), only the students have NO IDEA WHY I'm handing it out. Two students have asked why "those kids" got suckers but the rest didn't. Another was argumentative stating "It's not fair! I've been working hard and I've been quiet. Why didn't I get one?" Many others have noticed and have even shot looks back and forth, questioning each other in looks about my qualifications for suckers. When students ask to use the restroom or get a drink, I cringe. Those wearing red are allowed, those not wearing red are not allowed. I based my "faux preferential treatment" on a clothing color rather than eye or hair color since we have so many dark hair, dark eyed students. It would end up looking like racially based preferential treatment. That's not at all what I wanted!
So how am I approaching such a wide-spreading topic in literature? I'll have a brief group lesson on a reading skill of focus for the day, then students have choices from a reading activity game boardgame board, of sorts, to help them select ways of showing comprehension. What will they be reading? Picture books. Lots and lots of picture books about Jews in Nazi Germany, Jackie Robinson, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Jr. , Elizabeth Stanton, Frederick Douglas, Suffragettes, American child labor of the late 1800-1920's, Ruby Bridges, Harriet Tubman, Cesar Chavez, Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, and so, so many more.
All this to say that I'm either totally insane, completely naive, or both! I am passionate about allowing them to know who true heroes are. I grow weary of rap stars and athletes being held in such esteem when true heroes are literally unrecognized in my classroom. I feel my students deserve to know from whence America has come.
**stepping off soap box, clearing throat**
2 comments:
I think I have an understanding of what you're saying here. I taught at a high poverty, predominately minority middle school an hour from my house for two years. The main reason I left is because an English teacher position opened at a school 15 minutes from my home. I loved my students, and my colleagues told me that those students need me. But I also felt strange teaching my students about Clara Luper or reading Tulsa Burning by Anna Meyers with them, like maybe I didn't deserve to teach them about their own struggle, me being a white woman who grew up in a middle class neighborhood. After reading what you've said though, I think that perhaps I have done some good, or at least the best that I can at teaching my students to care about themselves, about others, and to see themselves as valuable human beings. That's all any of us can do. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Michelle, thanks for your input. I think as long as we approach "these issues" as history to be read about, mulled over, talked about, and digested, then we can all walk away having grown. I cannot pretend to understand racial profiling as a black teenaged boy does. I do not fear my 16 year old son being pulled over by police anywhere in America. That is not my world. But so far, no one has taught these children any part of their ancestory. They are historically MORE illiterate than they are with reading skills. I suppose it's not enough of a challenge to teach them to read...the social studies teacher in me is tired of taking the back seat.
No pun intended, but I left it because I giggled. ����
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