Guest Post | 10 Ways to Talk to Students About Sensitive Issues in the News Michael Appleton for The New York TimesSybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, the parents of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was shot to death by a neighborhood watchman in Sanford, Fla., joined a protest in Union Square on March 21. How do you talk about news stories like this in your classroom or at home? Go to related article » This week it might be the Trayvon Martin shooting, while last week it could have been the “Kony 2012″ viral video, the soldier in Afghanistan accused of massacring women and children, or the outcry over Rush Limbaugh’s criticism of Sandra Fluke: In a “flat” social media world, parents and teachers are no longer the gatekeepers, and news of all kinds reaches children — sometimes even before it gets to adults. How do you talk about difficult or sensitive news stories with young people, whether in your classroom or at your dinner table? What would you add? 10 Ways to Talk to Students About Sensitive Issues in the News By Jinnie Spiegler 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Planning to Change the World: A Plan Book for Social Justice Teachers » Zinn Education Project Planning to Change the World: A Plan Book for Social Justice Teachers is a plan book for educators who believe their students can and will change the world. New editions are produced annually and designed to help teachers translate their vision of a just education into concrete classroom activities. The weekly planning pages feature dates and anniversaries from the history of struggle for justice along with references to online resources you can use to teach about those dates. Visit www.justiceplanbook.com for more information. Reviews “An imaginative and innovative idea in the field of education…I hope it will be widely adopted.” “This book, with its wisdom, inspiration, and resources, could not have come at a better time! “Finally, a plan book that is enlightening, provocative and fun.” “After 18 years in the classroom I have found a planning book that treats teaching as an art form. “Are you planning to change the world? “This book is one of the gifts I give new teachers.”
The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1) by Angie Thomas ”Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” - Martin Luther King Jr.If you ask me there is no quote that would describe the essence of “The Hate U Give” better than this one. Heaven knows, to speak up for yourself and your beliefs is never easy, but if you don’t do it your voice won’t be heard and things will continue to go on the way they were before. It’s a lesson our heroine Starr learns the hard way and it’s a more than just important lesson as well. ”I always said that if I saw it happen to somebody, I would have the loudest voice, making sure the world knew what went down. Now I am that person, and I’m too afraid to speak.”I could understand Starr’s internal battle and I could relate to her so much. To admit that she’s the witness, to speak up for Khalil and to say what truly happened... well, it takes guts to take that step. Especially because she was smack in the middle of it all.
Digital Literacy and Youth Civic Engagement | Learning for Justice Resources and Readings Erica Hodgin and Joe KahneCivic Engagement Research Group, Graduate School of Education, University of California—Riverside References: Transcript Monita Bell: I recently had to explain to my seven-year-old that sometimes people use the Internet to say mean things about other people, and this was our example. A dear family friend, who was an educator, sent out a tweet encouraging teachers not to use cultural appropriation to teach about Thanksgiving and to teach the truth about this country’s relationship with Native people. Sounds straightforward enough, but it resulted in swift backlash, news headlines and personal insults directed at this educator. My child was concerned for our friend. I’m Monita Bell, your host for The Mind Online, a podcast of Teaching Tolerance, which is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Thank you for joining me for today’s episode on digital literacy and youth civic engagement. Erica Hodgin: Sure, and thank you for having us.
[Infographic] Income Inequality in the United States in 2019 | Survey Cool The infographic shown above explores the rise in income inequality in the United States. There is a particular emphasis on the rise over the last four decades, which have seen income inequality rise and rise. The whole topic is now very much a part of regular public discussion. What is Income Inequality? Income inequality is a broad term used to measure the inequality of household/individual income of various members within an economy. Income inequality is often represented in a statistical form, measuring percentage of incomes for different groups vs the entire population. Image: “We are the 99%” is a popular slogan exposing income inequality in the US 10 Factors Impacting US Income Inequality There are many contributing factors as to why US income inequality has grown. It’s important to emphasise that income inequality is built up literally by hundreds of different factors. Image: With income inequality, we need to stop and ask ourselves what type of society do we want?
Resources - Youth Activism Project YOUth ACTivism: Guide to Change Our free YOUth ACTivism: Guide to Change was written by teens for teens. It breaks down all the steps needed to start and execute a successful policy advocate campaign from the ground up. Girls Gone Activist! How to Change the World through Education Our free bilingual action guide, co-authored by experienced student activists with School Girls Unite, describes key elements for starting a campaign plus many clever advocacy stories that showcase video petitions, street theater and lobbying elected officials. Youth PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH TOOLKIT Our free guide covers all the basics of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and how this powerful process that has been used all around the world for empowering youth to use surveys, focus groups, interviews, photovoice, etc. to make their case for real change. Safer Schools Students Talk About Talking Circles The most ‘woke’ teacher or counselor cannot speak for students. Catalyst! Activist Gameplan!
Scientific Literacy: More Than Just “Reading” If someone gave a dense scientific journal article on polymer chemistry to Kathryn Sutherland, the world-leading expert on Jane Austen, she would be completely lost. Does this mean that Dr. Sutherland is not literate? On the contrary, she is the Professor of Bibliography and Textual Criticism as well as a Professorial Fellow at St. Anne’s College at the University of Oxford (Sutherland, 2016). Her job title and position lead me to believe that she is an exceptionally well-educated professor, and certainly highly literate. In all disciplines, literacy is paramount to understanding. When discussing disciplinary literacy in science, we need to consider what counts as text in a science classroom. Therefore, scientific disciplinary literacy requires a very specific way of reading scientific texts. The part of scientific disciplinary literacy where most educators fall short, it seems, is the application of the knowledge in the classroom. References Klaus-Quinlan, M., & Cazier, J. (2009).
20 of the Best Social Justice Books For Young Readers Sourcebooks. Anna and her mother have moved hundreds of miles to put the past behind them. A fresh start is what they both need. But then rumors and whispers start up again. Anna tries to ignore what’s happening by immersing herself in learning about Maggie, a local woman accused of witchcraft in the seventeenth century. Young people will be the ones to start the revolution, and it could all start with reading a few great social justice books for young adult and middle grade readers. Young Adult Social Justice Books You're Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner Julia attends Kingston School for the Deaf. How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon Tariq Johnson, a Black teen, dies from two gunshot wounds. Internment by Samira Ahmed This book is set in the United States in the not-so-distant future. Watch Us Rise by Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan This is a book about two teen girls, Jasmine and Chelsea, who start an online Women's Rights Club. The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis George by Alex Gino