Inertia to Action (Morton and Lounsbury)
Shared by Lynn Reid
This assignment asks students to use Morton and Lounsbury’s article in an analysis of the YA novel All American Boys and its potential for creating empathy in readers. We read the article to the top of page 57, and students write their analysis focusing on one particular theme.
Lessons for Teaching #BlackLivesMatter and White Supremacy
Shared by Rochelle Spencer (Fisk University) and Susan Naomi Bernstein (City University of New York)
In these lessons, we offer multimedia resources that focus on Black lives and white supremacy. Moreover, we suggest that teachers need to reflect deeply on why we choose and how we teach antiracist resources so that our students learn and grow as writers. In these posts, we offer the emotional labor of that work as we think through how to create antiracist pedagogies that encourage student-centered classrooms.
Shared by Nancy Heuer-Evans
This video dives into the multiverse, compelling faculty to set the tone in classrooms regarding diversity and inclusion.
Shared by Jacqueline Wilson-Jordan
With credit to Joan Livingston-Webber and Beverly Braniff who wrote and/or tried earlier versions of this assignment
This assignment, which requires field research and is fairly demanding, asks students to observe and analyze the conversation in a chosen discourse community. I thought the James Baldwin essay might be dated because of the term “Black English,” but you should have seen the faces and heard the voices when I asked them to discuss James Baldwin’s points about how coded language can protect those who use it, such as (even) from the police. Sparks were flying! The project was excited and produced good results.
095 One Word Argument Guidelines
Shared by Elizabeth Baldridge
In this paper, students expand their analysis to concepts. This paper also introduces synthesis and documentation. Using scenes from season 4 of The Wire, students examine different presentations/understandings of one little word (like home, school, justice) and argue for a complex definition of the term.
People of Color Experiences — Book List
Shared by Elizabeth Baldridge
This is a portion of the book list students choose their first joy reading text from. It hasn’t been updated for over a year, but it may prove a useful starting point for representation in assigned texts.
Shared by Elizabeth Baldridge
This is the first version of a handout I’m using to try to equip students with a vocabulary and shared understanding of race from which our discussions of The Wire can grow.
Shared by Sarah Alexander Tsai
By investigating the origins and meanings of their own names, students learn how to blend primary research (especially personal interviews) with focused personal narrative. Since this fairly low-stakes assignment also functions nicely as a community builder, I like to assign it early on. Recommended accompanying readings for this assignment are as follows:
-
- Bonnie Wach’s “What’s in a Name?”
- Tom Rosenberg’s “Changing My Name after Sixty Years”
- Sandra Cisneros’ “My Name”
CBW Resource Share 