Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Civil Rights, Day 9 - Class Recap


These are all of the 9th grade students on their first day at Westview last year (current students are likely in this photo!). Imagine how different it would be to enter high school as one of the Little Rock Nine?

Dear class,

Welcome back from Thanksgiving break! As such, we continuing looking at civil rights issues, including school integration after the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Here's what happened in class:

Learning Targets Addressed:
Behavior LT 1: I can self direct my learning.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain the process of change and continuity in a society, place, or region.
Knowledge LT 19: I can explain the role and impacts of social hierarchies.

Soundtrack: "Blackbird" by The Beatles. Selected for today because the song was partially inspired by the Little Rock Nine. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 12/4/19:
News Brief – Bopi
Finish Lift Ev'ry Voice
Little Rock Nine
Activism Project
Work Time

Homework: Read the blog. Complete and turn in the Little Rock Nine response on Google Classroom. Continue working on your Activism Project! Next news brief: Henry.

News Brief: Bopi had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: CNN.com - North Korea warns US to prepare for 'Christmas gift,' but no one's sure what to expect. After discussing the story, we also checked in to see if anyone was up to anything interesting or fun outside of class over the weekend.

Henry was selected to do the next news brief.

As part of the news brief, we also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):


 Finish Lift Ev'ry Voice: Due to the unexpected fire drill right before Thanksgiving break, we still had about 6 minutes left in this documentary about Portland's Civil Rights history. We finished watching the documentary and went through the questions on the worksheet together, before students turned it in for a behavior target grade.

Little Rock Nine: To begin this part of class, I showed students where Little Rock, Arkansas is, and then we went through this lesson:


As a part of this, we watched this introductory video:


We then read some of the accounts from history texts about the Little Rock Nine, which are linked to here:


After the readings, students worked on the following response, which is graded (also available on Google Classroom to submit there):


If you did not finish this in class today, please turn it in ASAP!

Poster Slogans: After going through the Little Rock Nine readings, we started looking at the Activism Project in more depth.


Hopefully this helped a bit in thinking about what you might do as your Activism Project!

Work Time: Last week, I introduced the main project for the Civil Rights unit, which is where students choose to identify a cause that they care about and create a poster or brochure explaining why and how people could be involved. Here's the assignment sheet that I passed out in class:


This assignment will be due the last day we meet before break, December 20th. If you are leaving before that day for break, you will need to turn it in before.

Generally, students can choose almost anything that they want to, but I do want to hear about the issue before embarking on too much work. We will set aside a fair amount of class time before the break to do this, and I will provide large sheets of paper, but if a student wants to go above and beyond in working on the project at home or with a poster board, that is obviously great as well.

Some examples of student choices are:

Climate Change
Animal Rights
Gun Issues
Immigration/Border Issues
Human Trafficking 

Thanks for your continued work and engagement with the Civil Rights unit! We will keep at it next week. Here's our tentative schedule for our next few classes until break:

December 4: Little Rock Nine (graded) / Work Time on Activism Project (poster analysis activity)

6: Children’s March (What Would You Do?) / Work Time on Activism Project

10: Music as Activism (graded) – partner assignment

12: Share Music/Work time on Activism Project

16: MLK vs. Malcolm X – Whose Ideas Were Best?

18: Activism Project Work Time (final day)

20: Activism Project presentations/gallery walk/Unfinished Business with Civil Rights
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Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Civil Rights, Day 8 - Class Recap


Me and my friends Scott and Clarke, in 2009 at a Portland Trail Blazers Playoff game. The Moda Center (then the Rose Garden) was built on land that was formerly part of the Albina neighborhood.

Hi everyone,

Today in class we wrapped up our viewing of Lift Ev'ry Voice and I introduced the Activism Project, before students headed off to Thanksgiving Break. Here's what happened in class:

Learning Targets Addressed:
Behavior LT 1: I can self direct my learning.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain the process of change and continuity in a society, place, or region.
Knowledge LT 19: I can explain the role and impacts of social hierarchies.

Soundtrack: "We Shall Overcome" by Pete Seeger. Selected for today because it became a song that rallied many people together during the Civil Rights Movement. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 11/25/19:
News Brief – Brandon
Finish Lift Ev'ry Voice
Discussion
Activism Project

Homework: Read the blog. Continue working on your Activism Project! Next news brief: Bopi.

News Brief: Brandon had the news brief today, but was absent from the start of class, so I filled in and selected an article about this story to talk about: CNN.com - Judge tells Trump he's not a king -- the President is not so sure. After discussing the story, we also checked in to see if anyone was up to anything interesting or fun outside of class over the weekend.

Bopi was selected to do the next news brief.

As part of the news brief, we also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):


Lift Ev'ry Voice: Next, we finished watching an excellent documentary from OPB, called Lift Ev'ry Voice. If you want to watch again, share, or get caught up, it is here:


Here is the worksheet that goes along with the documentary:


As students were watching, I tried to pause and explain more of what was going on with maps and background information. I hope this was helpful in understanding!

Discussion: Due to the unexpected Fire Drill in the middle of class, we did not finish the film today (we are 1:16:50 in), so we will do so after the weekend.

Activism Project: Finally, I introduced the main project for the Civil Rights unit, which is where students choose to identify a cause that they care about and create a poster or brochure explaining why and how people could be involved. Here's the assignment sheet that I passed out in class:


This assignment will be due the last day we meet before break, which is December 20 for your class. If you are leaving before that day for break, you will need to turn it in before.

Generally, students can choose almost anything that they want to, but I do want to hear about the issue before embarking on too much work. We will set aside a fair amount of class time before the break to do this, and I will provide large sheets of paper, but if a student wants to go above and beyond in working on the project at home or with a poster board, that is obviously great as well.

Thanks for your continued work and engagement with the Civil Rights unit! We will keep at it next week. Here's the schedule for our next few classes until break:

November 26: Finish Lift Ev’ry Voice / Assign Activism Project (graded)

December 4: Little Rock Nine (graded) / Work Time on Activism Project (poster analysis activity)

6: Children’s March (What Would You Do?) / Work Time on Activism Project

10: Music as Activism (graded) – partner assignment

12: Share Music/Work time on Activism Project 

16: MLK vs. Malcolm X – Whose Ideas Were Best?

18: Activism Project Work Time (final day)

20: Activism Project presentations/gallery walk/Unfinished Business with Civil Rights
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Friday, November 22, 2019

Civil Rights, Day 7 - Class Recap


The famous "White Stag" building sign in downtown Portland. Photo taken over Winter Break, 2015.

Hi everyone,

We continued our Civil Rights unit today by investigating and learning about some specifics about how our own city of Portland (and the surrounding area) has been impacted by struggles for civil rights. Here's what happened in class:

Learning Targets Addressed:
Behavior LT 1: I can self-direct my learning.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain the process of change and continuity in a society, place, or region.
Knowledge LT 19: I can explain the role and impacts of social hierarchies.

Soundtrack: "Come Rain or Come Shine" by Billie Holliday. Selected for today because of the rainy weather over recently and the desire to keep a positive attitude about coming to school! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 11/22/19:
News Brief – Jon
Brown v. Board of Education
Oregon's Racist History
Lift Ev'ry Voice

Homework: Read the blog. Know your grade and how to improve it, if possible! Next news brief: Brandon.

News Brief: Jon had the news brief today and selected an article about this story: ESPN.com - Myles Garrett's indefinite ban upheld; Maurkice Pouncey now suspended 2 games. We talked about this story for a bit in class, before moving on.

We also checked in to see if anyone was up to anything interesting or fun outside of class over the weekend.

Brandon was selected to do the next news brief.

As part of the news brief, we also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):

BBCNews.com - One-minute World News

Brown v. Board of Education: I introduced the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson in the realm of public schools (which was eventually extended to most other areas of public life), Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954). Here's the case:


And here's an overview video that I showed in class to help students understand context and impact:


We spent the first part of class reading through the case and answering the questions on the back side, on your Civil Rights note sheet. We then answered the questions as a class.

Oregon's Racist History: As I tried to point out today, there is a LOT of history in our own community of racism, that I think students do not typically know about. But, there is a reason that Portland is one of the whitest major cities in the United States. A few links for curious students to check out:




I also wanted to be sure that we talked about the laws that prevented people of color from owning property in places like Lake Oswego and throughout Oregon. Here is an example:


We also watched the first 4 minutes or so of this video, to help set the stage for the main documentary I wanted to show in class:



Lift Ev'ry Voice: For the rest of class, we started watching an excellent documentary from OPB, called Lift Ev'ry Voice, and ended class about 22:30 minutes in. If you want to watch again, share, or get caught up, it is here:


Here is the worksheet that goes along with the documentary:


I think it is super important that we understand our own history regarding race in Portland, especially as I think there are some common assumptions that are just not true. As such, I was glad to see that almost everyone was glued to this in class. Thanks for your focus and willingness to learn about our own history! We will continue to watch this next class!
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