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When compiling these resources for this assignment, I was keeping in my a culturally relevant pedagogy. The development of this project included racial identity, sexual and gender identity, and disabled identities to create something that all of my students could relate to. Having a diverse group of students will mean not only diverse identities and opinions in the classroom, but also I need to have diverse and inclusive lessons and resources. When picking the theme for the project, activism is something that I thought would tie into culturally relevant pedagogy very nicely. Many adults seem to think that students are unknowledgeable on serious societal issues in this country. In reality, students have very wise and strong thoughts on problems that affect them every day, which makes them great activists for themselves and their communities. By providing examples of activists, resources on how to be an activist, and issues that may need to be addressed in their community, the hope was that this would inspire students to take their own steps towards being activists.

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Greta Thunberg is a great example of how normal, everyday kids can become world changing activists. This Time Person of the Year piece on Greta is a great read for all students, and will hopefully inspire them to become activists for things they are passionate about. Although climate change will not be everyone's passion project, the purpose of including this resource is to show students that they can be an activist too.

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Greta Thunberg Is TIME's 2019 Person of the Year

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The climate activist has succeeded in turning vague anxieties about the planet into a worldwide movement calling for global change

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Another marginalized community that my students may identify with is the LGBTQ community. The fim and lesson plan from this website is a great resource for teaching middle schoolers about LGBTQ history, a topic not frequently taught in schools. In a similar way to other resources linked, allowing students to better understand other identities and the struggles they face can lead to activism from the students. Specifically for this resource, the film could be used as a literature source, that can be analyzed just like any other text could. Alternative forms are media are just as valuable in the classroom as traditional books and articles.

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Source: Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance)
Subject: History
Topic: Integrated
Grade Levels: Middle School: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade; High School: 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade

Overview:

The film tells an inspiring story of a young gay man who took a stand against the bullying he experienced in school. It is designed to create empathy for victims and to encourage others to take action.

Lesson Plan Resources:

Lesson Plan and Video (Free Kit Required)

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Bullied: A Student, a School and a Case That Made History " Teaching LGBTQ History

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Source: Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance) Subject: History Topic: Integrated Grade Levels: Middle School: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade; High School: 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade The film tells an inspiring story of a young gay man who took a stand against the bullying he experienced in school.

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Kimberle Crenshaw's Ted Talk is a great introduction and explanation of intersectionality. For many of my students, they will have multiple marginalized identities that meet to create complex and unique people. The intersection of these identities can be difficult to understand, but I included this resource because it is important for my students to understand. Their racial identities may intersect with their disabled identity in different ways, and being able to understand themselves better will allow them to advocate for themselves more successfully.

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Kimberlé Crenshaw: The urgency of intersectionality

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Now more than ever, it's important to look boldly at the reality of race and gender bias -- and understand how the two can combine to create even more harm. Kimberlé Crenshaw uses the term "intersectionality" to describe this phenomenon; as she says, if you're standing in the path of multiple forms of exclusion, you're likely to get hit by both.

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In the memoir by Alice Wong, the disability activist chronicles the history and experiences of different disabled people in this country. As a future intervention specialist, most of the students that I work with on a daily basis. It is important to me that my students learn about their own identities within my classroom, and that all students learn about the history of disability rights in this country.

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Teaching social justice in the classroom not only connects to the pedagogy for this padlet, but also allows for diverse students to be supported in the classroom. Social justice as a whole can be adapted to fit the interests of different classes, depending on what they are passionate about. This topic can then be translated into reading and writing, in the forms of poetry, speeches, and other forms of literature.

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Historically, classrooms have been the stage for social change, providing a venue to promote and accelerate new ideas. In addition to academic instruction, one of a classroom teacher's most important roles is to help students develop the critical thinking, collaboration, and self-reflection skills necessary to foster a better society.

Goals of social justice

Social justice doesn't manifest in a singular fashion, nor is it achieved through a specific means of instruction. Students studying this field use critical examination of themselves, others, institutions and events to find patterns of inequality, bigotry or discrimination, then explore possible solutions to the problems they've identified. Social justice advocates hope to build a society in which individuals have equal access to resources and receive equitable treatment regardless of their race, gender, religion, sexuality, income level or disability.

Enabling conversations about these issues empowers students to voice their concern and question unjust situations in their lives or in the lives of those around them. To help students examine systemic inequality, teachers can have them consider questions such as:

Who makes decisions and who is left out?

Who benefits and who suffers?

Why is a given practice fair or unfair?

What is required to create change?

What alternatives can we imagine?

Through answering these questions, students can start to recognize injustice existing at the micro and macro levels.

Adding the philosophy of social justice to the classroom

In " Rethinking Our Classrooms, " Wayne Au, Bill Bigelow and Stan Karp write that "classrooms can be places of hope, where students and teachers gain glimpses of the kind of society we could live in and where students learn the academic and critical skills needed to make it a reality."

However, classrooms can also shut down that conversation, whether it's in order to prepare for standardized tests, through a lack of discussion time, or because a teacher simply doesn't understand or value cultural competency. In order to foster classroom social justice, teachers must first build a safe, encouraging place where students can speak about their experiences and beliefs.

Fostering a classroom community of conscience

The first way to promote social justice in the classroom is to create a community of conscience. This environment ensures that students' voices, opinions and ideas are valued and respected by their instructor and peers. Teachers can establish a community of conscience by creating rules that teach fairness in classroom discussions and behavior.

Productive conversations can be created by teaching students to share their ideas and respond to the ideas of others in a way that allows for disagreement but still values the student's perspective. Teachers can model questions and answers that illustrate ways to thoughtful conversation rather than making students feel bad or devalued by their classmates. By providing model responses, teachers can illustrate to students how a good response helps to enrich a conversation whereas some responses can shut discussions down.

Helping students see each other as co-learners rather than adversaries

Ideally, students should view each other as academic siblings or co-learners instead of competitors. This perspective allows students to understand that while disagreements may occur, they must work together to increase their knowledge.

If students don't perceive the classroom as competitive, they can approach the learning process as a path to solving problems instead of a mark of achievement only available to a few students. By creating this sort of classroom environment, teachers enable students to build each other up in conversation and action.

Including diverse experiences and backgrounds in classroom materials

Teachers can also strengthen the classroom community through learning experiences that draw upon the diverse backgrounds of their students. New information that includes multiple perspectives will better resonate with students' previous knowledge.

Teachers must also be aware of the messages sent by the learning materials they use. To determine if texts are privileging certain narratives, teachers need to analyze whether they recount an event - the Civil War, for example - from multiple points of view or favor the dominant culture.

When choosing class materials, teachers should employ books, articles and lesson plans that include diverse voices and cultures. Educators also may need to call upon colleagues or community members from specific backgrounds in order to better understand their cultures.

Social justice in the real world: classroom discussions that help students critically engage with issues that affect them

Once teachers are able to foster a learning environment that enables thoughtful discussions with a variety of opinions and perspectives, they can facilitate conversations about real-world issues that affect students' everyday lives. Students need to be able to recognize real-world problems and critically engage with these issues.

Racism and social justice

Racism in the United States has been the focus in several high-profile incidents of violence against people of color. As students explore issues like the Trayvon Martin case or witness racism in their own lives, they need to be able to bring up these issues in class discussions. They also need to be able to recognize ways racism masquerades as normal treatment and question this treatment.

Bullying, friendship and dating behavior

While young people are fairly adept at recognizing overt bullying in the form of assault, name-calling and online harassment, they might not be aware of the other ways that bullying can manifest. Students should be taught about the harm done by smaller behaviors that are often normalized as a part of the adolescent experience.

It's important that students recognize this behavior both in their own actions and those of peers. Examples include groups of girls who exclude or mistreat one member, boys who prove their masculinity by dominating and controlling others, or anyone who bullies a peer due to their declared or perceived gender or sexuality.

Students should also learn they have a right to healthy romantic relationships. To do so, they must understand issues of consent and be able to tell the difference between positive dating behavior and the use of coercion, humiliation or other forms of abuse.

Turning social justice learning into community service and action

Once students are able to recognize and discuss social injustice, teachers can help them act upon the issues they see. Teachers can use service learning projects to connect their classroom to the surrounding community. Through long- and short-term projects, students can meet specific needs by participating in book and food drives, gardening or park care, or mentoring at-risk students.

Social justice classes can also use activist strategies such as social media campaigns, demonstrations and teach-ins to raise awareness of an issue and build support for positive change. Teachers can connect engagement in these activities to writing assignments that enable students to reflect upon how their actions have the potential to evoke social change.

Ultimately, social justice can't be taught in one easy lesson. It is a value that gets integrated into the teaching philosophies and actions of teachers. By helping students feel safe and encouraged, teachers can help students start asking the right questions and then participate in ways that are purposeful and productive.
Caitrin Blake has a BA in English and Sociology from the University of Vermont and a master's degree in English literature from the University of Colorado Denver. She teaches composition at Arapahoe Community College.

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How to Teach Social Justice in the Classroom | Resilient Educator

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Teaching social justice helps students recognize and respond to societal inequality. Classroom communities of conscience can create positive change.

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This article by the NEA speaks on how dress codes target female students and students of color in schools. This topic is something that most students relate to, and at the least know that there is a dress code. Dress codes would be a good way to introduce social issues within the school community, and would be a great springboard for discussing social justice work in the classroom.

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While a dress code is supposed to make the school environment more conducive to learning, it frequently does the opposite. In the past year, schools all over the country made national news for the ways they enforce their dress code- asking a student to put duct tape over the holes in her jeans, suspending a student for a skirt that was too short, or sending a student to the office for not wearing a bra -all of which take the focus off learning and place it on girls' bodies.

At East Longmeadow High School, Massachusetts, six out of the nine dress code regulations targeted female students. The dress code had not been updated since the 1990s. "It was time for us to revisit some of the language," principal Gina Flanagan said.

Many school dress codes use gendered language, such as "girls must not wear spaghetti straps or show cleavage." The reasoning? These things are distracting to other students, particularly males. Girlhood expert Shauna Pomerantz of Brock University says that "dress coding" students for being distracting is a form of victim-blaming.

"It's saying the male response is your fault. Your body is causing negativity," explains Pomerantz. Sexist rules also set a precedent for men, she adds. "It is offensive to men. It suggests they don't have the ability to talk to a female student without going wild."

Marci Kutzer, a fourth-grade teacher at Bertha Ronzone Elementary in Las Vegas, Nevada, says that, while school boards couch dress codes as preparing students for the workplace and adult life, their real purpose is to prevent "distractions."

Kutzer says that sends a powerful message: "A boy's education can be compromised by your gender. Please do what you can to neutralize it." This clearly puts a burden on female students.

Another notorious dress code rule is the "finger-tip policy." Female students must wear skirts or shorts that go past their fingertips. While this seems straightforward, students and parents report that for some, it's impossible to find clothing that complies with the rule.

In Duval County, Florida, Nikki Belsham says that she's been struggling with this rule since she was in school, and now her daughter is facing the same dilemma.

Shopping for her daughter is difficult; while Belsham can find appropriate clothing at the mall, it doesn't pass the test. This is a common problem.

"Take a tall, skinny 12 year old girl-her shorts may not pass this finger length test and would be considered inappropriate for school, even though her butt is covered and the shorts are relatively long," she explains.

Belsham also says that administration won't enforce the rule with boys. "Not one person in administration would even look at or question the length of a boy's shorts."

'White Male Default'

Kutzer says that she will only "dress code" students if their clothing is clearly so tight it is uncomfortable. Her school follows "standard school attire," (SSA) so students wear uniforms. On laundry day, however, some students show up without. Other student's families can't afford to keep up with their growing children, so their uniforms are ill-fitting.

"We are told by our administrators to send non-compliance issues to the office, but I only refer kids who are clearly wearing too tight or uncomfortable clothing, and I send them to the nurse, who keeps a stash of extra clothing for this type of situation," explains Kutzer.

The high school attended by her daughter, however, uses a dress code policy rather than the SSA. Kutzer noticed that it essentially targets female and minority students-the focus being on on parts of the female anatomy, like backs, shoulders, and legs.

"Targeting styles of clothing that are mostly associated with a particular minority group is discriminatory. When styles such as 'sagging pants' are the issue, we are putting a burden predominantly on black males," says Kutzer.

She calls this the "white male default," a common trend for school dress codes. "Dressing as most white young men do seems to be what is encouraged.'

In 17-year-old Maddie Reeser's Baltimore City public school, it's the Black girls at her school who are the most frequently dress coded-a double discrimination. "My white friends rarely get sent to the office, but my Black friends do quite often," says Reeser.

Another student said she brought up this issue to a male administrator, who told her it was "because white girls don't have as much to show." The student says this comment made her feel uncomfortable, let along failing to address the inequality.

Despite the fact that Reeser's school has a uniform, she and her peers still faced the same issues that Belsham described at her Duval County school. "The rule should be based on the clothes, not how they fit, because it's different for each person," says Belsham.

Despite the rules being the same for every girl, teachers end up enforcing the rules more strictly with Black females, and in a way that is humiliating.

Many dress codes can cause black students to fall behind academically, according to a 2018 National Women's Law Center study. Looking at public schools in the District of Columbia, the report found that three in four D.C. public high school dress codes say students can be pulled out of class or school for dress code violations.

"It's outrageous that girls are losing critical class time simply for what they are wearing," said NWLC Education Fellow and report co-author, Kayla Patrick. "This sends a disturbing message to all students: What a girl looks like is more important than what she learns and thinks. No girl should ever have to forfeit her education because her shirt is the wrong color or she has a hole in her jeans."

Making All Students Feel Comfortable

East Longmeadow principal Flanagan said she's tried to target inequalities at her own school by creating a gender-neutral dress code, and by involving students in the dress code process. "Instead of saying no low cut shirts or cleavage, the dress code says all private parts must be covered at all times," she says.

Pomerantz recommends giving students lots of leeway to express themselves with fashion. If something truly crosses the line, there's a way to tell them, without enforcing victim-blaming.

"A question you can ask is 'What is it about dressing this way that's so important to you?'" Pomerantz recommends.

Many schools are looking into updating their dress code policies by making them more gender neutral, gathering student input and changing the wording-just taking the blame off females for "distracting" male students. Kutzer says the SSA at her school promotes equality fairly successfully-at least at the fourth-grade level. The districts hasn't yet introduced the SSA at the high school level.

"We want our kids to feel comfortable when they come to school," says Flanagan. "Who knows? Five or ten years from now we may have to update again to fit the changing times."

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When School Dress Codes Discriminate | NEA

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Student dress codes continue to unfairly target girls and students of color. Experts and educators weigh in on how to make them more equitable.

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Langston Hughes, known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance, is a fabulous poet, with his poems looking at his life as a black man during the 1920s. His poem I, Too speaks about his desire to be at the table like everyone else, and that one day he hopes this dream will come true. The last line of the poem, "I am America too", is a great way to connect a classroom's array of identities together. Although not all students will connect to being an American, this poem is a great conversation starter about discrimination in this country. Reading poetry by a black author is not something all students have experienced in school, but the inclusion of diverse authors allows for all students to feel connected to poetry and literature.

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I, Too by Langston Hughes | Poetry Foundation

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New York Times Personal Narrative Contest

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New York Times Personal Narrative Contest

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The New York Times Personal Narrative Contest is open to all students 13-19 in the United States. Students can submit a short personal narrative to the contest, with winners having their narrative published in the New York Times. There is a unit plan included on this website for teachers in order to build a lesson surrounding writing personal narratives. This contest and paired lesson allow for students to write about their life experiences, whether good or bad, in a form that helps build their writing skills. This contest is wonderful because it gives space for students of different cultural backgrounds to tell stories that affect them and their communities.

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Our 3rd Annual Personal Narrative Writing Contest (Published 2021)

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We invite students to tell a short story about a meaningful life experience in 600 words or fewer. Contest Dates: Oct. 13 to Nov. 17, 2021

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This lesson introduces to students how to write a speech. This could be used to springboard into a full writing lesson on how to write a speech, and students would be able to then share their speeches with the class. Students do not need to necessarily write about world issues, their speeches could be about something as simple as the school lunches. But this allows students to learn how to use their voices and to speak their opinion to others, in a way that could affect change in the future.

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Speech Skills: Lesson for Kids - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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Important speech skills used in public speaking, such as while giving a presentation, include identifying the audience, adding facts and details,...

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This speech by Naomi Wadler at the March For Our Lives is a powerful reminder of how black girls are often left out and pushed aside in our society. At 11 years old, Naomi was the youngest speaker at the march, and her speech garnered national attention for eloquently describing the struggles of black girls in this country. She is a great example of how even young students can have a large impact on their community. I saw her speech in person, and it was a powerful reminder of how racism in this country affects everyone, including children.

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Watch 11-year-old Naomi Wadler's full speech

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11-year-old speaks out, at the March For Our Lives rally in Washington, for all the African-American girls who have been left out of the gun violence discussion. Wadler led a walkout at her elementary school to bring attention to the gun violence in schools across the country.

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"I can write an opinion piece that has supportive reasoning"

W.4.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.

For a fourth grade class, students will be taught the characteristics of an opinion piece. The class will be given a topic to write about, in this case, what the cafeteria should serve for lunch. Students should use "facts", although accuracy is less important for this lesson, to support why their meal should be the next day's lunch. Students will write their opinion pieces, with opportunities to ask their peers for advice and editing when going through the writing process. Then, students will read their opinion pieces out loud, in an effort to explain why their lunch choice is the best. By doing this, students will not only improve their overall writing skills, but will also be able to use evidence and facts to support their opinions.

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I used this format because I enjoyed the combination of pictures and text together for the artifact. Starting at the top left, I included a decorative version of the Star of David, as being Jewish is a large part of my identity. Below that picture, I mention my love for music. I was in band for a long time, and being a part of something like that meant a lot to me in high school. Although I don't play anymore, music still means a lot to me. Next, I just put a picture of myself from my freshman year, as I have loved my time at Miami. Above that, I mention my love for football. I love soccer as well, but I watch a lot of football, especially when I am home with my family. My last article is a picture of a teacher, as that is the reason why I am here at Miami. I want to be a teacher, and I chose Miami because I believed it was the best fit to make me into the best teacher I can be.

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While in my first field placement classroom, from the outside, everyone is treated exactly the same. However, despite the fact that all students receive free meals, I could sense some class differences amongst the class. From one girls perspective, she was really happy to have breakfast, as she frequently did not get to eat dinner. She always scarfed down her food. Another student missed school a lot, and although she did not tell me why, the teacher believed that she was being kept home to help care for her younger siblings. From the teacher's perspective, she seemed to feel really frustrated with the lack of progress in her classroom. Some students were obviously not trying in her opinion, and she did not appear to make an effort to understand why.  Because this classroom was math/science, there was very little literacy instruction in the classroom. The most that was done was a vocabulary assignment with their science lesson. However,this lesson was not an engaging way to teach vocabulary, and was more rigid and straight to the point.

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Before I was in high school, I loved to read. I constantly had a book in my hand, and it was hard for me to put it down. However, once I got to high school, the way that English classes were taught and how the curriculum was laid out, I did not enjoy reading anymore. We only ever read the cannon, which I do not personally appealing. Most of the cannon is either Shakespeare or historical fiction, neither of which I am particularly fond of. We never had choice reading, and I can count on one hand the number of times that we strayed away from books written by white men. Those books, where the authors came from more diverse backgrounds, were much more enjoyable to me. The classes were all roughly taught in the same way, where students had to read the book outside of class and then there was either a quiz or assignment about it the next day in class. Those who still struggled to read in high school, especially with comprehension, really struggled in these classes. The only class I took that differed from this structure was AP Lang, and that is because we also had to fit in test prep content along with the typical english lessons.