When this literature teacher completes a book with her class and hears a student say, “Reading this makes me happy I am an American,” she flips the script.
This week as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, I plan to gather my third-, fourth- and fifth-graders around me. I will tell them, "Our country is a beautiful place." I’ll keep this in mind as I think of the moments when we were clearly afraid.
In the course of the day, sometimes, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of choices and decisions to be made, I miss the big moments. Take a day last fall. We were coming from lunch when I noticed that Brendan was crying. “Malia, why is Brendan crying?” I asked. “Oh, he’s sad that his caterpillars got let go,” she said.
Letitia and Mae join children leaving school to march in Birmingham, Alabama. Disappointed that they were not arrested while picketing Woolworth’s, they feel reassured by Rev. Bevel, who tells them they made a great contribution to the movement.
Langston Hughes, a voice of the Harlem Renaissance, writes of a black man banished to the kitchen when company arrives. This same man looks to the future, for a day when he will sit at the table to eat with company, because he, too, is an American.
By incorporating quarterly independent reading projects into her curriculum, this English teacher ensures that every student reads culturally responsive literature.
This TT Award winner will extend his usual coverage of the Sherman Alexie classic to address how dominant cultural narratives reinforce who is considered American—and who isn’t.
Assess your students with performance tasks and rubrics that measure writing, civic engagement and critical literacy skills. Write to the Source tasks allow students to demonstrate their argumentative, explanatory and
Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder in Residence at PolicyLink, started the organization in 1999 with a mission of advancing racial and economic equity for all. Through her writing, speaking and leadership, Angela has helped to grow and define a national equity movement focused on innovating and improving public policy with a wide range of partners to ensure access and opportunity for all low-income people and communities of color, particularly in the areas of building an equitable economy, health, housing, transportation, infrastructure, and arts and culture. Prior to founding PolicyLink, Angela
During Brain Share, small groups of students rotate through stations, discussing and recording concepts from central texts. This strategy is a modified combination of gallery walks and jigsaw.