Singer, actor and activist Nick LaTour died Monday. To many children in Alabama and across the country, LaTour was a consummate storyteller who was able to bring the civil rights movement to life. People who heard him sing will forever be touched by his baritone renditions of spirituals or civil rights anthems.
It was more than just a change of scenery for Cole Archer. Today, he moved from his usual center lunch table to the front of the lunchroom to sit with five schoolmates he generally only sees in the halls and in classes.
Zaretta Hammond is a teacher educator and the author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. She has a passion for books and teaching reading. She blogs at www.ready4rigor.com.
This fourth-grade teacher, a TT Award winner, offers some classroom suggestions to make Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day an opportunity for deep, personal engagement—not a day off.