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Anchor Text: Always Running: La Vida Loca by Luis J. Rodriguez

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Anchor Text: Always Running: La Vida Loca by Luis J. Rodriguez

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Audience: 9th Grade Social Studies

Annotation: Always Running is the memoir of Luis Rodriguez.  He begins his story by describing his East L.A.  neighborhood as one that was overridden with poverty and violence.  Violence from the gangs that plagued the neighborhood and violence from the police that were there to keep the peace by answering violence with more violence.  As a response to the violence, poverty, and racism he saw, Rodriguez decided from a young age to be involved himself in gang activity.  The gang lifestyle offered him a false sense of power over the oppressive forces he saw in his neighborhood. This gang lifestyle led him to a life of even more violence, where people were seen alive one day and dead the next.  He was introduced and indoctrinated into this lifestyle and ended up dropping out of school and becoming addicted to heroin.

Through all this, however, Rodriguez loved to write and wrote poetry.  Once he realized he needed to get out of this lifestyle, he returned to education and educated himself on his own history.  When he returned to high school to get his diploma, he fought to have Chicano Studies taught at his school and called out racist rhetoric against Mexican Americans. He became involved in Chicano organizations such as MECHA and learned to embrace his history as a Chicano. Knowledge became a source of liberation for Rodriguez.  This newfound knowledge and empowerment ultimately led him to leave the gang life, led him to a sober life, and led him to be a writer and poet laureate for Los Angeles.

Standards:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1

Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2

Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.7
Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.9
Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.

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How can knowledge be a liberating force in someone's life?

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Philosophy: Pedagogy of the Oppressed- Paolo Freire

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Philosophy: Pedagogy of the Oppressed- Paolo Freire

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Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1

Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.

Complexity: Above Grade Level

Purpose: The excerpt from Pedagogy of the Oppressed will help students understand how education has served as a tool of oppression and how it can be turned into a liberating force.  Students will learn about the “banking system”  in which students are just receivers of knowledge and are not asked to actively engage with their learning.  The "banking system" inhibits students from developing "critical consciousness" , the ability to think for themselves and formulate their own ideas.  Friere states that it is important for students to develop critical consciousness, so they can learn to question the society they live in and ultimately enact necessary change.  In Always Running, Rodriguez at first was a passive receiver of knowledge. He was not engaged in school activity since he was preoccupied with his gang lifestyle.  When he decided to become an active participant in his education, Rodriguez began to turn his life around.  He learned about Chicano activists and learned his own history through Chicano Studies.  He began to develop critical consciousness and began to question the racist and unjust activities of members of his own high school.

Implementation: This excerpt would require teacher led front loading of information and teacher led discussion of the text.  The teacher would have to introduce the topics at hand and would have to teach terms before the reading. Students would have to understand the vocabulary terms Freire describes in the excerpt.  Students would learn the vocabulary words prior to reading the excerpt.  Then students would answer text dependent questions to fully understand the text.

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Article: The Purpose of Education- Noam Chomsky

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Article: The Purpose of Education- Noam Chomsky

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Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2

Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.

Complexity: At grade level

Purpose: This text highlights why education is so important for students and it highlights what education should do for students.  This is important because it teaches students that education is not a passive activity, education needs to serve them.  Chomsky states that students should leave the classroom feeling engaged, feeling motivated, and feeling that they learned something they are interested in.  This excerpt is important because it teaches students that they should be learning about things that engage them and that relate to their own experiences. In Always Running, once Rodriguez began taking steps to turn his life around.  He realized that he was not engaged in school activities because it did not reflect his own culture.  His own culture, Latino culture, was looked down upon and he wished to change this.  He among other students, fought to get Chicano Studies taught at his high school.  This showcases the connection to Chomsky's work because Rodriguez fought to get his culture represented at school.

Implementation:  The teacher would lead a read aloud of the excerpt and then would ask the students to answer text dependent questions.  Students would then be asked to create a poster of what they think they should be learning about at school.  The teacher can ask them to think about the classes they are taking and would ask them to think about if the classes they are taking represent their culture.  The teacher can get them to think about what topics they value by asking them to create a poster of what classes they would love to learn about while in high school.  This will help students to understand that they have a voice in their own education and that that voice is powerful.

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Standard:  CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2

Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.

Complexity: Medium complexity, the theme may be difficult for students to grasp initially.

Purpose: Always Running tells the story of a young Latino male who witnesses the racism going on in his community and responds to it by joining a gang.  Joining the gang makes him feel powerful among all the forces that are trying to oppress him. Ultimately, however, he fell into the trap of what we now know as the school to prison pipeline.  School and police policies in urban communities are known to lead students straight to jail.  Culturally responsive practices were not being implemented during the time that Rodriguez was going to school.  We now know that Black and Latino students are disproportionately being funneled from school to prison.  In order for students to understand how education can be a liberating force, they need to understand the system that is in place that disproportionately targets minorities for the prison system.

Implementation: Students will read the article on what the school to prison pipeline is.  Students will then be asked to create a poster summarizing how the school to prison pipeline works.  They would then be asked to present to the class.

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In Meridian, Miss., police routinely arrest and transport youths to a juvenile detention center for minor classroom misbehaviors. In Jefferson Parish, La., according to a U.S. Department of Justice complaint, school officials have given armed police "unfettered authority to stop, frisk, detain, question, search and arrest schoolchildren on and off school grounds." In Birmingham, Ala., police officers are permanently stationed in nearly every high school.

In fact, hundreds of school districts across the country employ discipline policies that push students out of the classroom and into the criminal justice system at alarming rates-a phenomenon known as the school-to-prison pipeline.

Last month, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., held the first federal hearing on the school-to-prison pipeline-an important step toward ending policies that favor incarceration over education and disproportionately push minority students and students with disabilities out of schools and into jails.

In opening the hearing, Durbin told the subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, "For many young people, our schools are increasingly a gateway to the criminal justice system. This phenomenon is a consequence of a culture of zero tolerance that is widespread in our schools and is depriving many children of their fundamental right to an education."

A wide array of organizations-including the Southern Poverty Law Center, the NAACP and Dignity in Schools-offered testimony during the hearing. They joined representatives from the Departments of Education and Justice to shine a national spotlight on a situation viewed far too often as a local responsibility.

"We have a national problem that deserves federal action," Matthew Cregor, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, explained. "With suspension a top predictor of dropout, we must confront this practice if we are ever to end the 'dropout crisis' or the so-called achievement gap." In the words of Vermont's Sen. Patrick Leahy, "As a nation, we can do better."

What is the School-to-Prison Pipeline?

Policies that encourage police presence at schools, harsh tactics including physical restraint, and automatic punishments that result in suspensions and out-of-class time are huge contributors to the pipeline, but the problem is more complex than that.

The school-to-prison pipeline starts (or is best avoided) in the classroom. When combined with zero-tolerance policies, a teacher's decision to refer students for punishment can mean they are pushed out of the classroom-and much more likely to be introduced into the criminal justice system.

Who's in the Pipeline?

Students from two groups-racial minorities and children with disabilities-are disproportionately represented in the school-to-prison pipeline. African-American students, for instance, are 3.5 times more likely than their white classmates to be suspended or expelled, according to a nationwide study by the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights.

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In Meridian, Miss., police routinely arrest and transport youths to a juvenile detention center for minor classroom misbehaviors. In Jefferson Parish, La., according to a U.S. Department of Justice complaint, school officials have given armed police "unfettered authority to stop, frisk, detain, question, search and arrest schoolchildren on and off school grounds."

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Primary Source Document: Proposals made by High School Students of East Los Angeles to Board of Education

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Primary Source Document: Proposals made by High School Students of East Los Angeles to Board of Education

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Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2

Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.

Complexity: Teacher Led group work, medium complexity.

Purpose: It is important for students to understand that education is power and that when students feel they are not getting adequate education that it is their right to stand up and demand an equitable education.  In 1968, students in East Los Angeles did just that.  They stood up for themselves and the unjust school conditions and demanded better education from the school board.  In Always Running, Rodriguez explains the struggle of getting Chicano Studies taught at his high school and how walkouts were done to gain attention to student demands.  In 1968, other high schools were organizing high schools and pushing for drastic change in the school system. By reading these demands, students would be able to understand the history of what Rodriguez talks about in his book.  The actions taken by East LA High School students and the set of proposals showcase how education is a liberating and empowering force.

Implementation:  Students would work in groups to analyze the proposals made by the high school students.  Students would be asked to read the text and they would be asked to refer back to the vocabulary term, critical consciousness.  Students would fill out a graphic organizer summarizing the proposal in their own words and would have to analyze whether or not the proposal is in line with Freire’s idea of critical consciousness.  The proposals themselves are not difficult to read, that is why the students can read them with minimal teacher direction, but they are lengthy which is why they would have to work with a partner.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.7
Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.

Complexity: Teacher directed project, at grade level work.

Purpose: After reading the proposals, it would be beneficial to see how the protests actually played out.  The clip tells the story of how the students organized the walkouts, how they organized, the community, and how they proposed the proposals to the board of education.   This shows how education is a powerful force that can empower students to enact change.  It falls in line with the walkouts Rodriguez talks about in his book as well.

Implementation: Students would be asked to watch the movie clip and answer questions.  After they are done watching the clip, students would be asked to create a protest poster that showcases what they would want out of education.  Along with their poster, they would have to write a page response explaining their poster, what the poster is fighting for, and why their poster displays critical consciousness.

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Takes viewers through the past 30 years, with a second wave of Cubans arriving in Miami during the Mariel exodus and with hundreds of thousands Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and Guatemalans fleeing civil ...

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Takes viewers through the past 30 years, with a second wave of Cubans arriving in Miami during the Mariel exodus and with hundreds of thousands Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and Guatemalans fleeing civil ...