Perseverance, Power, and Privilege

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Subject

Reading & Language Arts

Topic

Race & Ethnicity Class Rights & Activism

Essential Question

In what ways do individuals persevere against systems of oppression?
How does one's identity contribute to the power they hold in society?
What kinds of privilege are woven into the U.S. education system?

Texts

Multimedia

Ben DeSoto 'Understanding Poverty' exhibit

In this video, photojournalist Ben DeSoto discusses "Understanding Poverty," an exhibit featuring images of people and communities affected by poverty and homelessness.

Ben Tecumseh DeSoto

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Subject

Economics

Topic

Class

July 2, 2014

Informational

Always Running

In this excerpt from his memoir, Rodriguez provides a stirring recollection from his adolescence: the first time he experienced racism as a result of being an immigrant in America. As he says, the experience "stays with [him] like a foul odor."

Luis J. Rodriguez

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Topic

Class Immigration Race & Ethnicity

July 2, 2014

Literature

What If There Were No Black People?

In this poem, the speaker explores how our culture would be lacking—in people, in music, in movements, in contributions—without contributions of African Americans.

Sean Mauricette (aka SUBLIMINAL)

Grade Level

3-5 6-8

Subject

History

Topic

Race & Ethnicity

July 3, 2014

Literature

Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question

In this poem, the speaker--who is Native American--responds to a series of unspoken discriminatory questions. The reader can deduce the missing questions based on the speaker's responses.

Diane Burns

Grade Level

6-8

Topic

Race & Ethnicity

July 3, 2014

Literature

Foul Line—1987

In this poem, a black woman carefully analyzes her interaction with a white waitress, whose actions, although civil, are smoldering with superiority.

Colleen McElroy

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Topic

Gender & Sexual Identity Race & Ethnicity

July 5, 2014

Informational

Families

This excerpt explains that families are defined by love, caring and sharing, not the number or gender of its members.

Ann Morris

Grade Level

K-2 3-5 6-8

Topic

Race & Ethnicity Religion Class Immigration

November 7, 2014

Literature

Becoming Joey

This poem, told by a third-person omniscient narrator, paints a picture of José, an immigrant student who carries the burden of being from the “borderlands.”

Paul C. Gorski

Grade Level

6-8

Topic

Class Race & Ethnicity

October 29, 2015

Informational

Hijas Americanas: Beauty, Body Image, and Growing Up Latina

Rosie Molinary describes how she felt as a Latina teenager in the United States, caught between disparate and unrealistic beauty standards.

Rosie Molinary

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Topic

Gender & Sexual Identity Race & Ethnicity

December 30, 2015

Informational

'What Has Happened to America?'

Klan groups frequently leave pamphlets on doorsteps and parked cars to spread their message of hate. A group calling itself the Bristol Knights distributed a flier in white Connecticut neighborhoods in the 1980s.

Bristol Knights

Grade Level

6-8

Subject

History

Topic

Race & Ethnicity

April 28, 2016

Multimedia

StoryCorps: It Was Never a Slum to Me

“They called it slums but it was never a slum to me.”

Carol Jacques

Grade Level

6-8

Subject

Civics

History

Economics

Geography

Topic

Race & Ethnicity Class

July 8, 2014

Visual

Rough on Rats

"Rough on Rats" is a late 19th-century advertisement for a pesticide. The image depicts a stereotypical Chinese man eating a rat.

Forbes Co. Boston

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Subject

History

Topic

Race & Ethnicity Immigration

September 3, 2015

Informational

Walking with the Wind

In this excerpt from his book, Walking with the Wind, John Lewis describes his involvement in the sit-ins in Nashville, Tenn., in the spring of 1960.

John Lewis

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Subject

Civics

History

Topic

Race & Ethnicity Class

August 9, 2017

Teaching Strategies

Close and Critical Reading

Challenge the Text

Challenge the Text helps students ask and answer their own text-dependent questions by taking multiple perspectives and uncovering assumptions and biases within the text.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

CCSS

RL.6-12.1, RL.6-12.2, RL.6-12.3, RL.6-12.6, RI.6-12.1, RI.6-12.2, RI.6-12.3, RI.6-12.6

July 19, 2014

Close and Critical Reading

Thinking Notes

Thinking notes are text annotations (highlights, underlines or symbols made on the text or in the margins) that document student thinking during reading. Depending on how you structure the task, these notes can indicate agreement, objection, confusion or other relevant reactions to the text.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

July 19, 2014

Student Tasks

Do Something

Community Arts Showcase

Students produce original art that conveys an anti-bias or social justice message then work with school staff to plan a public showcase of their work.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

July 13, 2014

Do Something

Consuming and Creating Political Art

Students examine the history of political art. They then create their own murals, political cartoons or posters, demonstrating an understanding of social justice issues.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

July 13, 2014

Do Something

Spotlight on Change Agents

Students investigate, interview and profile a person working for equity and social change. The person can work on the local, national or international level, with an organization or as an individual. The compiled profiles will form a resource for other students in the future.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

July 13, 2014

Plan Built By

Ms.Laning

Perseverance, Power, and Privilege

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