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Okayplayer's PASSAGE, The EP: Short Film Visualizer

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For the past six years, I've taught high school students in Washington D.C. about race, class, and gender in an elective course I created on social justice and Holocaust and genocide education. This year, with a news cycle that never sleeps and a student body with the internet at their fingertips, discussion of sexual harassment, hate, bigotry, prejudice, and oppression will be inevitable-and that's a good thing.

I return to my classroom with renewed purpose: I must give my students the tools and courage to engage in intelligent, but intense, conversations with the power to inspire positive change. Adopt these five guiding principles to engage your students in courageous conversations.

1. Teachers must make themselves vulnerable.
It is important for teachers to make themselves vulnerable by discussing how these conversations affect them. During a conversation about gender, a student asked me, "So what is your role in this?" I had to pause and reflect the role I, a cis gendered male, play in the systemic oppression of women. I had to respond honestly to that question by acknowledging my male privilege and then bring it back to the conversation at hand. Once students realized I was not removed from the conversation, but a part of it, they were more open to discussing their own identities and stories.

Over the years I've taught about race, class, and gender, I've realized the more I talk about how I am both affected by these identities and the role I play in these identities, students are more likely to be honest about how their identities impact their lives and other individuals.

2. Create spaces of trust and safety-the conversation is not safe, the space is.
Creating a space where students feel comfortable having courageous conversations is crucial to facilitating honest dialogue around difficult topics. However, they must also understand that others in the room may challenge them on these ideas or personally held beliefs. I always make sure to remind my students that "the space is safe, but the conversation is not." By this I mean, students have the ability to say what is on their minds and express notions that they have held or have been taught by parents or society without fear of being labelled for these ideas. However, students need to also understand that by being a part of this space, whatever they say, and whatever ideas they are bringing into this space, can and will be challenged.

To facilitate these discussions and ensure students do not feel attacked, I use the Accountable Talk Protocol, where students speak in "I statements" of I feel, I think, I believe... Thus, students can have ownership over what they contribute to the conversation and acknowledge the personal nature from which other students respond to their opinions and statements.

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5 tips to engage students in courageous conversations

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For the past six years, I've taught high school students in Washington D.C. about race, class, and gender in an elective course I created on social justice and Holocaust and genocide education. This year, with a news cycle that never sleeps and a student body with the internet at their fingertips, discussion of sexual harassment, hate, bigotry, prejudice, and oppression will be inevitable-and that's a good thing.

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Race Talk: Engaging Young People in Conversations about Race and Racism

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As a society, public conversations about race and racism have increased in volume and intensity. Here are some suggestions and strategies for having classroom conversations with young people about these issues.

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In 2019, LFJ (then Teaching Tolerance) rolled out a series of articles challenging teachers to go beyond overused and whitewashed historical narratives when observing Black History Month. In 2020, we expanded that call by recommending that teachers widen their exploration of Black lives while also providing historical context so students will make meaningful connections to current issues.

It's not uncommon for educators to focus on slavery, segregation and other forms of oppression during Black History Month.

But only teaching a Black history steeped in trauma and struggle provides a very narrow view of Blackness and perpetuates the false notion of Black people's inferiority. This limited teaching of history can actually be violent.

Stephanie P. Jones, founder of Mapping Racial Trauma in Schools and an assistant professor of education at Grinnell College, examines the severity of such approaches in " Ending Curriculum Violence."

Jones' research shows that, too often, "the transatlantic slave trade and its resulting horror within the American slavery system are essentialized as all Black history itself."

She found that the hard histories of slavery, the civil rights movement and other traumatic events in Black history are frequently mistaught or introduced with little context. Curriculum violence occurs when, as too often happens, educators ask students to act out this history or empathize with enslavers' and other oppressors' perspectives.

As a result, students come away with a warped understanding of how racial inequity manifests today. And repeated instances of curriculum violence contribute to a larger traumatic experience at school-experiences that can affect Black students' mental health.

This doesn't mean you should skip teaching hard histories for fear of inflicting curriculum violence. Instead, you can take care to teach the truth and avoid harm in the process. Jones' article offers guidance on how to accomplish that. One way to start right away is to tell the whole story-not just a small part-of Black history. A first step is to commit to decentering racial trauma during Black History Month.

We will share some of our favorite resources focusing on aspects of Black history and culture that aren't centered on violence, trauma and struggle. We hope you'll use them to help your students recognize the many ways in which Black people have contributed to, inspired and created American culture while also leading the way in advocating for civic participation, inclusion and equitable spaces.

Teach the History of Liberation Movements

The fight for Black liberation has always been an integral part of U.S. history, but too often we don't explore that narrative. Black liberation in the United States is much more than a fight to defeat slavery or Jim Crow. It's also exemplified in efforts to reject anti-Blackness: the refusal of Black people's humanity, dignity, agency and voice. People perpetuate anti-Blackness in the degradation of Black aesthetics, denial of Black people's grievances and pain, and the erasure or discrediting of Black culture.

There are numerous ways to tell the story of Black liberation movements. In addition to revolts by enslaved people in the U.S. and beyond, educators can learn and teach more about the everyday and revolutionary ways in which enslaved people fought for liberation. You can start with the episode " Resistance Means More Than Rebellion" on the Teaching Hard History: American Slavery podcast. And students can watch historian Tera Hunter describe the life and escape of Henry "Box" Brown here.

You can also work with students to examine other efforts and movements in which Black people resisted subjugation. These efforts include the work of the Black Panther Party and the Black Power and "Black Is Beautiful" movements. Students can learn more about Black queer liberation and womanism movements, which provided a template for activism today, such as Black Lives Matter.

Honor Black Civic Engagement

The civil rights movement is perhaps the example of Black activism that is most commonly taught in schools. Students should see that advocacy for Black civic engagement-although often attributed to individual figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.-was a collective effort that required the sacrifices of everyday people. For example, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was successful because Black communities united and pooled resources for a common cause and attacked segregated busing from multiple angles. This campaign required information sharing, volunteering and political engagement.

From the fierce activism and organizing of Ida B. Wells to the creation of the NAACP, Black people and organizations have a long history of uplifting their communities through civic engagement.

This Black History Month, educators can introduce students to those who aren't always highlighted, such as Francis Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker. Show students how their intersectional identities both helped and hindered their causes.

Recognize Intersectional Black Identity

Students must understand that, like other marginalized groups, Black people have identities that intersect, creating complex lived experiences and compounding the effects of oppressive systems.

Scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality in 1989 to study the social, economic and political ways in which identity-based systems of oppression and privilege connect, overlap and influence one another.

But recognizing intersectionality doesn't mean educators have to focus only on oppression when acknowledging intersecting identities. Show students that the overlapping of identities helps inspire and influence culture, activism and the consciousness of our society. Intersecting identities lend empathy and an appreciation for all human experiences, as shown in the activism of James Baldwin and Maya Angelou.

To start, some resources you can share with your students might be those that amplify the perspectives of the Black LGBTQ community, Afro-Latinx people and Black Muslims.

Celebrating Black Literature

Because literature is so central to the ways in which children learn about the world, Black History Month is a great time to recommit yourself to studying and teaching works by Black authors who can offer authentic depictions of what it means to be Black in the U.S. and beyond-as opposed to canonical texts that either ignore these perspectives altogether or tell them from the outside looking in. Works by authors like Ralph Ellison, Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison and Gloria Naylor can provide more accurate pictures of Black life and perspectives, even in the science fiction worlds of Butler's work.

Students can also delve into the biographies of authors like Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes and Nikki Giovanni to explore how their activism influenced their work and vice versa.

This exploration doesn't have to be limited to older literature. Examine the works of contemporary writers such as Elizabeth Acevedo's " Hair," which delves into the politics of Black hair. Eve Ewing's " Electric Arches" provides a magical look into Black girlhood while Ta-Nehisi Coates' body of work -from essays to graphic novels-offers a Black male perspective on topics such as history, politics and fatherhood.

This exploration also shouldn't be limited to U.S.-born writers. Help students connect the common threads among Black people across the globe. The works of writers such as Chinua Achebe, Jamaica Kincaid and Wayétu Moore center Black lives throughout the African diaspora in historical narratives.

There is plenty of history to uncover. Studying these four areas of Black life-liberation, civic engagement, intersectional identities and Black literature-can help move classroom discussions past trauma toward enlightenment and empowerment. This doesn't suggest that the realities of racism and racialized violence aren't worthy of discussion. However, students deserve to learn more accurate, balanced and humanizing accounts of Black experiences.

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Black History Month: Teaching the Complete History

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In 2019, LFJ (then Teaching Tolerance) rolled out a series of articles challenging teachers to go beyond overused and whitewashed historical narratives when observing Black History Month. In 2020, we expanded that call by recommending that teachers widen their exploration of Black lives while also providing historical context so students will make meaningful connections to current issues.

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Shawn Ginwright Ph.D.
From time to time, researchers, policy makers, philanthropy and practitioners all join together in a coordinated response to address the most pressing issues facing America's youth. I've been involved with this process for long enough to have participated in each of these roles. I recall during the early 1990s experts promoted the term "resiliency," which is the capacity to adapt, navigate and bounce back from adverse and challenging life experiences. Researchers and practitioners alike clamored over strategies to build more resilient youth.

In the early 2000's the term "youth development" gained currency and had a significant influence on youth development programs, and probably more importantly how we viewed young people. Youth development offered an important shift in focus from viewing youth as problems to be solved to community assets who simply required supports and opportunities for healthy development. Since that time, a range of approaches have influenced how we think about young people, and consequently our programmatic strategies. I have, for the most part, attempted to nudge and cajole each of these approaches to consider the unique ways in which race, identity and social marginalization influence the development of youth of color.

More recently, practitioners and policy stakeholders have recognized the impact of trauma on learning, and healthy development. In efforts to support young people who experience trauma, the term "trauma-informed care" has gained traction among schools, juvenile justice departments, mental health programs and youth development agencies around the country. Trauma informed care broadly refers to a set of principles that guide and direct how we view the impact of severe harm on young people's mental, physical, and emotional health. Trauma informed care encourages support and treatment to the whole person, rather than focusing on only treating individual symptoms or specific behaviors.

Trauma-informed care has become an important approach in schools and agencies that serve young people who have been exposed to trauma, and here's why. Some school leaders believe that the best way to address disruptive classroom behavior is through harsh discipline. These schools believe that discipline alone is sufficient to modify undesired classroom behavior, but research shows that school suspensions may further harm students who have been exposed to a traumatic event or experience (Bottiani et al., 2017). Rather than using discipline, a school that uses a trauma informed approach might offer therapy, or counseling to support the restoration of that student's well-being. The assumption is that the disruptive behavior is the symptom of a deeper harm, rather than willful defiance, or disrespect.

While trauma-informed care offers an important lens to support young people who have been harmed and emotionally injured, it also has its limitations. I first became aware of the limitations of the term "trauma-informed care" during a healing circle I was leading with a group of African American young men. All of them had experienced some form of trauma ranging from sexual abuse, violence, homelessness, abandonment or all of the above. During one of our sessions, I explained the impact of stress and trauma on brain development and how trauma can influence emotional health. As I was explaining, one of the young men in the group named Marcus abruptly stopped me and said, "I am more than what happened to me, I'm not just my trauma". I was puzzled at first, but it didn't take me long to really contemplate what he was saying.

The term "trauma informed care" didn't encompass the totality of his experience and focused only on his harm, injury and trauma. For Marcus, the term "trauma informed care" was akin to saying, you are the worst thing that ever happened to you. For me, I realized the term slipped into the murky water of deficit based, rather than asset driven strategies to support young people who have been harmed. Without careful consideration of the terms we use, we can create blind spots in our efforts to support young people.

While the term trauma informed care is important, it is incomplete. First, trauma informed care correctly highlights the specific needs for individual young people who have exposure to trauma. However, current formulations of trauma informed care presumes that the trauma is an individual experience, rather than a collective one. To illustrate this point, researchers have shown that children in high violence neighborhoods all display behavioral and psychological elements of trauma (Sinha & Rosenberg 2013). Similarly, populations that disproportionately suffer from disasters like Hurricane Katrina share a common experience that if viewed individually simply fails to capture how collective harm requires a different approach than an individual one.

Second, trauma-informed care requires that we treat trauma in people but provides very little insight into how we might address the root causes of trauma in neighborhoods, families, and schools. If trauma is collectively experienced, this means that we also have to consider the environmental context that caused the harm in the first place. By only treating the individual we only address part of the equation leaving the toxic systems, policies and practices neatly intact.

Third, the term trauma-informed care runs the risk of focusing on the treatment of pathology (trauma), rather than fostering the possibility (well-being). This is not an indictment on well-meaning therapists and social workers many of whom may have been trained in theories and techniques designed to simply reduce negative emotions and behavior (Seligman 2011). However, just like the absence of disease doesn't constitute health, nor the absence of violence constitute peace, the reduction pathology (anxiety, anger, fear, sadness, distrust, triggers) doesn't constitute well-being (hope, happiness, imagination, aspirations, trust). Everyone wants to be happy, not just have less misery. The emerging field of positive psychology offers insight into the limits of only "treating" symptoms and focuses on enhancing the conditions that contribute to well-being. Without more careful consideration, trauma informed approaches sometimes slip into rigid medical models of care that are steeped in treating the symptoms, rather than strengthening the roots of well-being.

What is needed is an approach that allows practitioners to approach trauma with a fresh lens that promotes a holistic view of healing from traumatic experiences and environments. One approach is called healing-centered, as opposed to trauma-informed. A healing centered approach is holistic involving culture, spirituality, civic action and collective healing. A healing-centered approach views trauma not simply as an individual isolated experience, but rather highlights the ways in which trauma and healing are experienced collectively. The term healing-centered engagement expands how we think about responses to trauma and offers more holistic approach to fostering well-being.

A shift from trauma informed care to healing centered engagement (HCE) is more than a semantic play with words, but rather a tectonic shift in how we view trauma, its causes and its intervention. HCE is strength based, advances a collective view of healing, and re-centers culture as a central feature in well-being. Researchers have pointed out the ways in which patients have redefined the terms used to describe their illnesses in ways that affirmed, humanized and dignified their condition. For example, in the early 1990s AIDS activists challenged the term "gay-related immune deficiency" because the term stigmatized gay men and failed to adequately capture the medical accuracy of the condition. In a similar way, the young men I worked with offered me a way to reframe trauma with language that humanized them, and holistically captured their life experiences.

A healing centered approach to addressing trauma requires a different question that moves beyond "what happened to you" to "what's right with you" and views those exposed to trauma as agents in the creation of their own well-being rather than victims of traumatic events. Healing centered engagement is akin to the South African term "Ubuntu" meaning that humanness is found through our interdependence, collective engagement and service to others. Additionally, healing centered engagement offers an asset driven approach aimed at the holistic restoration of young peoples' well-being. The healing centered approach comes from the idea that people are not harmed in a vacuum, and well-being comes from participating in transforming the root causes of the harm within institutions. Healing centered engagement also advances the move to "strengths-based' care and away from the deficit based mental health models that drives therapeutic interventions. There are four key elements of healing centered engagement that may at times overlap with current trauma informed practices but offers several key distinctions.

Communities, and individuals who experience trauma are agents in restoring their own well-being. This subtle shift suggests that healing from trauma is found in an awareness and actions that address the conditions that created the trauma in the first place. Researchers have found that well-being is a function of the control and power young people have in their schools and communities (Morsillo & Prilleltensky 2007; Prilleltensky & Prilleltensky 2006). These studies focus on concepts such as such as liberation, emancipation, oppression, and social justice among activist groups and suggests that building an awareness of justice and inequality, combined with social action such as protests, community organizing, and/or school walk-outs contribute to overall wellbeing, hopefulness, and optimism (Potts 2003; Prilleltensky 2003, 2008). This means that healing centered engagement views trauma and well-being as function of the environments where people live, work and play. When people advocate for policies and opportunities that address causes of trauma, such as lack of access to mental health, these activities contribute to a sense of purpose, power and control over life situations. All of these are ingredients necessary to restore well-being and healing.

The pathway to restoring well-being among young people who experience trauma can be found in culture and identity. Healing centered engagement uses culture as a way to ground young people in a solid sense of meaning, self-perception, and purpose. This process highlights the intersectional nature of identity and highlights the ways in which culture offers a shared experience, community and sense of belonging. Healing is experienced collectively, and is shaped by shared identity such as race, gender, or sexual orientation. Healing centered engagement is the result of building a healthy identity, and a sense of belonging. For youth of color, these forms of healing can be rooted in culture and serves as an anchor to connect young people to a shared racial and ethnic identity that is both historical grounded and contemporarily relevant. Healing centered engagement embraces a holistic view of well-being that includes spiritual domains of health. This goes beyond viewing healing only from the lens of mental health, and incorporates culturally grounded rituals, and activities to restore well-being (Martinez 2001). Some examples of healing centered engagement can be found in healing circles rooted in indigenous culture where young people share their stories about healing and learn about their connection to their ancestors and traditions, or drumming circles rooted in African cultural principles.

Healing centered engagement offers an important departure from solely viewing young people through the lens of harm and focuses on asset driven strategies that highlight possibilities for well-being. An asset driven strategy acknowledges that young people are much more than the worst thing that happened to them, and builds upon their experiences, knowledge, skills and curiosity as positive traits to be enhanced. While it is important to acknowledge trauma and its influence on young people's mental health, healing centered strategies move one step beyond by focusing on what we want to achieve, rather than merely treating emotional and behavioral symptoms of trauma. This is a salutogenic approach focusing on how to foster and sustain well-being. Based in positive psychology, healing centered engagement is based in collective strengths and possibility which offers a departure from conventional psychopathology which focuses on clinical treatment of illness.

Adult providers need healing too! Healing centered engagement requires that we consider how to support adult providers in sustaining their own healing and well-being. We cannot presume that adulthood is a final, "trauma-free" destination. Much of our training and practice is directed at young peoples' healing but rarely focuses on the healing that is required of adults to be an effective youth practitioner. Healing is an ongoing process that we all need, not just young people who experience trauma. The well-being of the adult youth worker is also a critical factor in supporting young peoples' well-being. While we are learning more about the causes and effects of secondary on adults, we know very little about the systems of support required to restore and sustain well-being for adults. Healing centered engagement has an explicit focus on restoring, and sustaining the adults who attempt to heal youth- a healing the healers approach. Policy stakeholders should consider how to build a systems that support adult youth worker's well-being. I have supported organizations in creating structures like sabbaticals for employees or creating incentives like continuing education units for deeper learning about well-being and healing.

Marcus's comments during our healing circle "I am more than what happened to me" led me to question our approach to trauma. What blind spots do we have in our approaches to supporting young people who experience trauma? How might the concepts which are enshrined in our language limit rather than create opportunities for healing? What approaches might offer "disruptive" techniques that saturate young people with opportunities for healing and well-being?

The fields of positive psychology and community psychology offers important insight into how policy makers, and youth development stakeholders can consider a range of healing centered options for young people. Shifting from trauma informed care or treatment to healing centered engagement requires youth development stakeholders to expand from a treatment-based model, which views trauma and harm as an isolated experience, to an engagement model which supports collective well-being. Here are a few notes to consider in building healing centered engagement.

Healing centered engagement begins by building empathy with young people who experience trauma. This process takes time, is an ongoing process and sometimes may feel like taking two steps forward, and three steps back. However, building empathy is critical to healing centered engagement. To create this empathy, I encourage adult staff to share their story first, and take an emotional risk by being more vulnerable, honest, and open to young people. This process creates an empathy exchange between the adult, and the young people which is the foundation for healing centered engagement (Payne 2013). This process also strengthens emotional literacy which allows youth to discuss the complexity of their feelings. Fostering empathy allows for young people to feel safe sharing their experiences and emotions. The process ultimately restores their sense of well-being because they have the power name and respond to their emotional states.

An important ingredient in healing centered engagement is the ability to acknowledge the harm and injury, but not be defined by it. Perhaps one of the greatest tools available to us is the ability to see beyond the condition, event or situation that caused the trauma in the first place. Research shows that the ability to dream and imagine is an important factor in fostering hopefulness, and optimism which both of which contributes to overall well-being (Snyder et al. 2003). Daily survival and ongoing crisis management in young people's lives can make it difficult for them to see beyond the present.

The greatest casualty of trauma is not only depression and emotional scares, but also the loss of the ability to dream and imagine another way of living. Howard Thurman pointed this out in his eloquent persistence that dreams matter. He commented, "As long as a man [woman] has a dream, he [she] cannot lose the significance of living" (p. 304). By creating activities and opportunities for young people to play, reimagine, design and envision their lives this process strengthens their future goal orientation (Snyder et al. 2003). These are practices of possibility that encourage young people to envision what they want to become, and who they want to be.

Healing and well-being are fundamentally political not clinical. This means that we have to consider the ways in which the policies and practice and political decisions harm young people. Healing in this context also means that young people develop an analysis of these practices and policies that facilitated the trauma in the first place. Without an analysis of these issues, young people often internalize, and blame themselves for lack of confidence. Critical reflection provides a lens by which to filter, examine, and consider analytical and spiritual responses to trauma. By spiritual, I mean the ability to draw upon the power of culture, rituals and faith in order to consistently act from a place of humility, and love. These are not cognitive processes, but rather ethical, moral and emotional aspects of healing centered engagement.

The other key component, is taking loving action, by collectively responding to political decisions and practices that can exacerbate trauma. By taking action, (e.g. school walkouts, organizing peace march, or promoting access to healthy foods) it builds a sense of power and control over their lives. Research has demonstrated that building this sense of power and control among traumatized groups is perhaps one of the most significant features in restoring holistic well-being.

I ran into Marcus at a street fair in Oakland not long ago. He was excited to see me and wanted to share with me that he was in a new relationship so he introduced me to his girlfriend. "This is my friend Michelle"! He introduced her with a sense of pride, and accomplishment. He also shared with me that he had enrolled in a program that was training him to become a medic. As we chatted for a while in the warm sun, dodging children, and fast walking parents, he leaned toward me and whispered, "yeah Dr. G, I'm not entirely healed, but I'm hopeful". I smiled, gave him a "brotha hug" and we departed ways.

I suppose, that if we had more time to chat he would have explained that healing is a process that we navigate for a lifetime. He might have shared with me that the future of his healing journey had just begun. Seeing him again, holding hands, sipping a soda with his new girlfriend was a powerful reminder, that he was so much more than the trauma he had experienced. As practitioners, researchers and policy stakeholders we need to listen and learn from young people who have insights that can advance how we think about trauma and healing. Shifting to healing centered engagement offered new questions, and strategies about how to support young people who experience trauma. Healing centered engagement is just a step toward a more holistic, and humanistic framework to support young people who have been harmed. Such an approach encourages us to think and act more boldly about how to restore young people and create places where they can truly flourish.

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The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement

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From time to time, researchers, policy makers, philanthropy and practitioners all join together in a coordinated response to address the most pressing issues facing America's youth. I've been...

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We lead with the heart and courageously work to address racial injustice in education, embodying Black joy, confronting anti-Blackness, and building authentic partnerships with all who support creating equitable school communities across the nation.

​In September 2016, DeShawn Jackson, along with Black Men Uniting to Change The Narrative, planned a day of encouragement. The previous school year, another local elementary school had more than 200 Black men show up to greet students as they arrived at school. The men wore their uniforms, regalia, and Sunday best in hopes of disrupting the inaccurate imagery students have of Black men. Black men make up only 3% of teachers in k-12 education.​

DeShawn had taught at the school for six years and even attended the elementary school as a child. He wanted students to see Black men in a positive light, not like they often are portrayed in media. A bomb threat was called into the school on the day of the event, so school leadership officially canceled it. Yet, after the threat was investigated, nothing was found, and the school remained open. So, DeShawn personally greeted students and about fifty others joined him.

When students arrived at John Muir Elementary School, they were greeted with cheers and high-fives while drums played in the background. Black men showed up because they wanted to counter the perception students have about education and race. Inside the school, staff wore shirts that said "Black Lives Matter We Stand Together."Julie Trout, the art teacher, designed the shirts. Teachers' lessons for the day were focused on racial justice.

​Social Equality Educators (SEE), a group within the Seattle teachers union, decided October 19th would be "Black Lives Matter At School Day." They'd wear Black Lives Matter shirts to school, created a second design with "#Say Her Name," and educators picked from several options. Parent Teacher Associations made buttons and stickers for teachers and students to wear. This attracted national news, which spread to Philadelphia, where the Racial Justice & Organizing Committee of the Caucus of Working Educators was inspired to plan a similar action.

We envision a nation in which we live in authentic and conscious relationship with ourselves, each other, and the lands we occupy with the least amount of harm and violence, in which we are unapologetically Black and collectively love and care for one another as extended intergenerational families. To achieve safety, equity, and liberation for all Black lives, we attend to systems and networks of care to make the domination, erasure, and dehumanization of Black life obsolete. ​

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National coalition organizing for racial justice in education.

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https://www.edliberation.org/planbookresources/thematic-resources/

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Planning to Change the World Planner.pdf

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March 2020 marked the beginning of a new era for teachers: teaching in the time of coronavirus. "Remote" came to describe not just how learning would be delivered, but also many teachers' sense of efficacy and expertise - which seemed suddenly very far away, a distant memory. All those tireless hours spent decorating classrooms, carefully arranging the furniture of learning spaces, selecting the books on shelves, designing lessons, painstakingly choreographing student-centered activities, discussions, and interactions - made unexpectedly irrelevant by shuttered schools and the vacant glow of a computer screen.

Now in fall of 2020, most educators are once again meeting their students online, with a few braving an entirely new version of in-person education: physical barriers, six feet of distance, face masks and shields. No matter what the particulars of each school district's hybrid, remote, or haltingly in-person model, many are lamenting, "We're all first-year teachers again." Seemingly overnight, apps have become not just add-ons for particularly techy teachers, but essential pedagogical tools for all educators. Barraged with suggestions - PearDeck! Screencastify! Jamboard! - teachers can be forgiven if they are overwhelmed.

But however we teach our lessons this year, let's keep our focus fixed on our pedagogical and curricular values. Unifying all the lessons and resources at the Zinn Education Project is a deep belief in the power of everyday people to shape the course of history toward greater justice - that's what we mean by "people's history." And to teach people's history we need a people's pedagogy, an approach to the classroom - online or in person - that recognizes the power of students to read the world, make meaning, and act with intention and efficacy. This "people's pedagogy" is the yardstick by which we urge educators to measure the tech tools flooding their inboxes.

Our lessons - trials, role plays, reading, writing, viewing, and discussion activities - have at their heart a belief that students should be given opportunities to interject themselves into history, to comment and act on, not just passively receive, the past and the present. The tools - whether pencil and paper, a Zoom breakout room, or a Flipgrid video - that best safeguard those democratic opportunities are the ones we recommend.

What follows are modest suggestions - modest in two ways. First, they do not require a great deal of technological know-how and are widely available; we only suggest tools that take little time for educators to learn, are relatively intuitive for students, and are free or commonly adopted by public schools. Second, we are not experts in remote-education and we know many of you will likely surpass - creatively and ingeniously - these suggestions in your own classrooms. These recommendations are more like invitations - invitations to hold fast to your belief in the power of people's history as you innovate, experiment, fail, learn, and discover how to teach during a pandemic.

Finally, one more invitation: Please share your experiences with us , and the larger ZEP teaching community, as we build this road together.

Please read the Zinn Education Project's statement, "How to - and How Not to - Teach Role Plays ," before launching any role play in your classroom.

What follows is not an exhaustive list of all the lessons available at the Zinn Education Project. Although most of these suggestions are written for specific lessons, some reflect a "genre" of lesson. In that case, you will see a list of similar lessons below the featured activity. As we continue to experiment with teaching remotely, and as we hear from you about what's working in your online classrooms, we will update this list.

The lessons with an * have the handouts prepped for remote access via Google Docs. Access the template for the handouts on the last page of the PDF of the respective lesson.

How Red Lines Built White Wealth: A Lesson on Housing Segregation in the 20th Century *

Who Gets to Vote? Teaching About the Struggle for Voting Rights in the United States *
Teaching SNCC: The Organization at the Heart of the Civil Rights Revolution
Stories from the Climate Crisis *
U.S. Mexico War: "We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God"What We Don't Learn About the Black Panther Party - but Should
And more mixer role plays

Synchronous: Once students have assumed their mixer roles, have them "meet" each other in multiple rotations of Zoom Rooms or Google Meet (we recommend groups of three). If students have the capability to change their screen names, it is helpful to change it to their character's name, so that their discussion partners can easily track who they're talking to.
Asynchronous:

1. Have students make Flipgrid videos as their characters.

2. Ask students to respond, in character, to at least four of the videos.

3. Have students watch 8-10 videos and responses from other characters and take notes on their mixer questions sheet.

Example: Black Panthers Flipgrid

Who's to Blame? A People's Tribunal on the Coronavirus Pandemic *
Deportations on Trial: Mexican Americans During the Great Depression The Climate Crisis Trial: A Role Play on the Roots of Global Warming Hunger on Trial: An Activity on the Irish Potato Famine and Its Meaning for Today Tè Tremblé: An Unnatural Disaster: A Trial Role Play Probes the Roots of Devastation in Haiti
And more trial role plays

Synchronous: Assign each student to one of the defendant groups. Have groups write their defense in a Zoom Room or Google Meet. Also, give them a chance to draft questions they'll want to ask the other defendants. Once everyone has written their defenses, in the full class meeting, the teacher "prosecutes" each group, then projects one defense at a time. Ask one student from the group to read it aloud, as the rest of the class reads along. Then ask other groups to ask questions of the group, either in the chat, or by unmuting. Any member of the group can answer.

The Color Line *

Who Gets to Vote? Teaching About the Struggle for Voting Rights in the United States * (Lesson 2 in the unit.)

Synchronous: Students work in small group Zoom rooms or Google Meet to come up with ideas/suggestions for each situation and compare to real colonial laws/policies.

Asynchronous: Students first individually jot ideas on a for each situation (or build on the ideas of others). After students share their initial thinking, do a "gallery walk" of real laws and policies and/or excerpts from Chapter 2 of A People's History of the United States (using Google Slides or , writing comments and reactions as they go.

Reconstructing the South: A Role Play *

Lessons with similar formats:
'If There Is No Struggle...': Teaching a people's history of the abolition movement Lawrence, 1912: The Singing Strike

Synchronous: The author of this lesson, Bill Bigelow, leads this lesson as a full class discussion, which we encourage you to try to replicate in a Zoom meeting or Google Meet since in this case, the pedagogy reflects the history. He writes, "Tell students that you will not be leading them in this activity - that, just as in the real historical moment, it was the people themselves, newly freed from slavery, who had to confront these difficult choices. Students will need not only to figure out what they think are the best answers to the questions posed in the handout, but they will also need to decide how they will discuss and resolve these." Students may choose to "elect" a facilitator who calls on other students, to use the chat box to create a speaker's list, or any number of other creative systems.

Alternatively, you could have students work in small groups in Zoom rooms or a Google Meet to come up with proposals for each problem, scenario, and/or question. Groups might record their proposals on a Google Slide. When students return to the full class meeting, each group shares (a screen with) one of their proposals for a large-group discussion, verbally and in the chat box.

Creating Collective Understanding

Poetry of Defiance: How the Enslaved Resisted *

COINTELPRO: Teaching the FBI's War on the Black Freedom Movement

And more document-based lessons.

Please share your experiences with us about using these adaptations and others that you create.

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Teaching ZEP Lessons Remotely: Recommitting to the Why - If Not the How - of Our Pedagogy - Zinn Education Project

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March 2020 marked the beginning of a new era for teachers: teaching in the time of coronavirus. "Remote" came to describe not just how learning would be delivered, but also many teachers' sense of efficacy and expertise - which seemed suddenly very far away, a distant memory.

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Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 7 pages. Writing activity for students to complete the narrative of women workers striking at a glove-making factory, exploring possible outcomes.

Themes: Labor, Organizing, Social Class, Women's History

Read More

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 7 pages. Students read a poignant excerpt from Agnes Smedley's novel, Daughter of Earth, and use it to think and write about how schooling-their own included-teaches lessons about social class.

Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909

Themes: Education, Social Class, Women's History

Read More

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. Students are invited to solve a mystery, using historical clues, about the real story of the Draft Riots.

Time Periods: 19th Century, Civil War Era: 1850 - 1864

Themes: African American, Democracy & Citizenship, Immigration, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery and Resistance, Social Class, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements

Read More

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Teaching Materials - Zinn Education Project

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Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 7 pages. Writing activity for students to complete the narrative of women workers striking at a glove-making factory, exploring possible outcomes. Themes: Labor, Organizing, Social Class, Women's History Read More Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 7 pages.

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a YouTube series for teens that dives deep into the research behind the issues affecting their daily lives.

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Above the Noise, a YouTube series for teens, cuts through the hype and dives deep into the research behind the issues affecting their daily lives. The series investigates controversial subject matter to help young viewers draw their own informed conclusions while inspiring media literacy and civic engagement. FOR EDUCATORS: Join us on PBS Learning Media where you'll find standards-aligned free lesson plans, viewing guides, transcripts, and more for each episode. Learn more about our partnerships and funders.

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Above the Noise, a YouTube series for teens, cuts through the hype and dives deep into the research behind the issues affecting their daily lives. The series investigates controversial subject matter to help young viewers draw their own informed conclusions while inspiring media literacy and civic engagement.

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"spkerbox media" podcast "cornel west" "tricia rose" "the tight rope"

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The Tight Rope is a weekly podcast where we take time to welcome listeners and guests as thought collaborators with our revered hosts, public intellectuals Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose. In unfiltered conversations with their esteemed guests, the co-hosts will provide context, feedback, and guidance, helping us to adjust our moral compasses and find equilibrium in this tumultuous world.

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Resources for Agitators | Abolitionist Teaching Network

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ATN Guide to Racial and Restorative Justice in

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Series of free live & recorded conversations with thought leaders and experts on topics about Antiracism.

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Help create an AntiRacist America- The AntiRacist Table

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Join our 30 Day AntiRacist Challenge! We teach people how to incorporate AntiRacism into daily life and help create an AntiRacist America.

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Difficult But Necessary Conversations - National Curriculum Council

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26 Mini-Films for Exploring Race, Bias and Identity With Students (Published 2017)

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To help teachers make the most of these films, we also provide a grab-bag of teaching ideas, related readings and student activities.

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STEM - Difficult But Necessary Conversations

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A new tool in counseling: Hip-Hop

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Tuesday, December 13, 2016 Bronx School Embraces a New Tool in Counseling: Hip-Hop

Ellis McBeth did not talk to people when he was mad or upset. He picked fights with them, lashing out with his fists to show his feelings.

But when his 12-year-old cousin died four months ago, Ellis found another way to work through his grief: He rapped about it.

Ellis, 14, a ninth grader at New Visions Charter High School for Advanced Math and Science II in the Bronx, wrote a hip-hop song about his cousin with the help of his school counselor and recorded it with his older sister singing the chorus: "I want to say R.I.P. to you because I don't believe it's true, but I'll still remember you."

"When I leave my feelings inside, the only way you're going to hear it is if I throw a punch," he said. "Now I make songs about them. I write verses that cool me down."

Ellis is part of an innovative school program that seeks to use hip-hop music to reach teenagers who may not respond to more traditional counseling. Called hip-hop therapy, it encourages them to give voice to their day-to-day struggles in neighborhoods where poverty and crime are constants, and provides a foundation for school leaders to engage directly with them in a way that seems more enjoyable than intrusive.

Hip-hop therapy is being used increasingly with teenagers in the Bronx and in other parts of the country as part of an expanding education movement to harness the widespread appeal of hip-hop music and culture to promote academic and social goals.

From hip-hop's roots in the Bronx in the 1970s, with disconnected youths banging out beats on school lunch tables, it has evolved into a powerful teaching tool that has been used, among other things, to give students a fresh perspective on Shakespeare and algebra and motivate them to exercise and eat better.

"Hip-hop education is everywhere," said Christopher Emdin, an associate professor of science education at Teachers College at Columbia University who moderates a weekly chat group on Twitter called #HipHopEd and, along with the artist GZA from the Wu-Tang Clan, sponsors an annual competition for students to rap about science. "There is no school in an urban area that does not know about hip-hop, or that has not experimented with it."

Of course, some mental health experts caution that using hip-hop this way would be considered no more than a first step in formal psychotherapy, which emphasizes the importance not only of expressing emotions but also of learning how to deal with them.

Still, many students will rap about deeply personal experiences they might not otherwise share. Jason Alcequiez, 17, a sophomore at the charter school, has rapped about fights with his parents, a best friend who moved away and a girlfriend who broke up with him. "I'm not one of those people who would get sentimental about my feelings and talk about my feelings," Jason said. "I'd rather write it out in music."

Afterward, he said, he felt relief: "It was like, you know what, it's life, so you'll get over it soon. And I did."

While the use of hip-hop as therapy is not new, it has been gaining attention at a time of growing concern that the nation's mental health systems do not effectively treat many young people, particularly in minority and ethnic communities. Tomas Alvarez III, a social worker in Oakland, Calif., said he started one of the first programs, called Beats Rhymes and Life, at Berkeley High School in 2004 to address the mental health needs of young black and Latino men, who tended to have higher rates of suspension and expulsion than other students.

"The same young men who refused to meet with me for traditional talk therapy - every single one of them - were writing rhymes at home on their own," Mr. Alvarez said. "They were already using hip-hop to process their emotions."

Mr. Alvarez later helped found a nonprofit organization that has run programs at more than two dozen sites in California and New York, including at schools and community centers. "Hip-hop gives young people a platform to talk about their hopes and dreams as well as their grief and loss," said Mr. Alvarez, who is working to create the Global Institute for Hip-Hop Therapy to develop more financial support for such programs.

In the Bronx, Mott Haven Community High School started an after-school hip-hop therapy program in 2013 that now draws as many as 20 students. J. C. Hall, a social worker who runs the program, called it a "bottom-up" approach to therapy that taps into the interests and skills of teenagers, and works with them to develop coping strategies and other life skills. "It's like a sugarcoated pill, something to make the medicine go down easier," Mr. Hall said.

At the New Visions school, where nearly all of the 550 students are Latino or black, hip-hop therapy has become part of the school culture. Students rap about being stressed about grades, tests and relationships. After a girl in the senior class committed suicide in October, some of her classmates coped by making a hip-hop video tribute that was shown at a school talent show.

Taliesha Thompson, 15, said she now raps whenever she feels pressure building inside her. "It has opened me up more," she said. "I'm very shy and quiet. I keep everything to myself."

The hip-hop program grew out of an after-school club started in 2014 by Ian P. Levy, a school counselor who is developing a model for hip-hop therapy as part of his doctoral research at Teachers College. About 30 students write and record songs in a corner of Mr. Levy's office, with $3,000 worth of recording equipment paid for by the school and donations through the crowdfunding site DonorsChoose.org.

In response to police killings of black men that have attracted widespread attention, Mr. Levy's students recorded 20 songs expressing their views on social justice for an album called " Hoodies Up " on the website SoundCloud. "When traumatic events happen, it's important that students have a space to digest them," Mr. Levy said.

This school year, Mr. Levy also introduced a music class at the school, called Hip-Hop Lyricism, that allows students to earn credit for their work. There have been other academic benefits as well. One ninth grader who was reading and writing below grade level recently downloaded an app for a thesaurus to expand his vocabulary for songwriting.

Stacey King, the school principal, said hip-hop had helped her connect with students like Ishmel Prince, 15, who used to miss school two to three times a week because he could not get up. She bought him an alarm clock. He still did not show up.

But that changed last month after Mr. Levy and 19 students were invited to rap live on a morning talk show hosted by Sway Calloway on SiriusXM Radio. Ishmel signed a contract with Ms. King, promising to go to school, pass his classes, and get extra tutoring in return for being allowed to go to the show. He kept his word.

"Now when I look at his attendance record and say 'Ishmel,' I have a relationship with him," Ms. King said. "It's not just like I'm wagging my finger. Each time we do something like this, we get to know students better and better."

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Bronx School Embraces a New Tool in Counseling: Hip-Hop - #HipHopEd

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Ellis McBeth did not talk to people when he was mad or upset. He picked fights with them, lashing out with his fists to show his feelings. But when his 12-year-old cousin died four months ago, Ellis found another way to work through his grief: He rapped about it.

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Educators play a crucial role in helping students talk openly about the historical roots and contemporary manifestations of social inequality and discrimination. Learning how to communicate about such topics as white privilege, police violence, economic inequality and mass incarceration requires practice, and facilitating critical conversations with students demands courage and skill.

This guide offers classroom-ready strategies you can use to plan discussions and to facilitate these conversations with your students. We hope you find this guide useful and that you'll share it with colleagues. And don't forget to check out our related resources.

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This resource is for educators working to build their own competency facilitating classroom conversations about critical topics like identity, discrimination and inequality.

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BLM Week of Action 2021 Teaching Slide Deck

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Learning for Justice webinars offer helpful guidance and great ideas from our experienced teaching and learning specialists and from innovative educators in the Learning for Justice community. Watch these FREE on-demand webinars at your own pace and share them with colleagues!

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Rethinking Schools is a nonprofit publisher and advocacy organization dedicated to sustaining and strengthening public education through social justice teaching and education activism.

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#Disrupt Texts is a crowdsourced, grass roots effort by teachers for teachers to challenge the traditional canon in order to create a more inclusive, representative, and equitable language arts curriculum that our students deserve. It is part of our mission to aid and develop teachers committed to anti-racist/anti-bias teaching pedagogy and practices.

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Lessons are highly engaging and ready to use. They're built around a topic and genre and focused on an educational outcome.

Level(s)

Writing Type

1. All

2. Informational

3. Narrative

4. Persuasive

5. Poetry

6. STEM

7. Social-Emotional Learning

8. Visual, Performing, and Media Arts

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826 Digital - Inventive Resources to Ignite a Love of Writing

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Lessons are highly engaging and ready to use. They're built around a topic and genre and focused on an educational outcome. Level(s) Writing Type All Informational Narrative Persuasive Poetry STEM Social-Emotional Learning Visual, Performing, and Media Arts