Talking About it

What I have in mind for this project. 

 The activity in mind is a student and educators conversation about Equity, Race & Privilege. Among the articles, I want to use Johnson’s Power & Privilege; The Four I’s & Delpit’s Other People’s Children. What most resonated with me is Delpit’s cynical work because it is about much of the struggles we faceas educators, wanting to change what’s unjust but, going with the flow or “status quo” instead because we don’t know how to effectively change what's unjust. Lisa Delpit's great stance is that "if we are truly to effect societal change, we cannot do it from the bottom up [administration or educational systems to teachers of children and students themselves], but we must push and agitate from the top down" (p. 40). Delpit's strong argument for thus change is to focus more consideration of other's cultural assets to then consider how to teach effectively. "I suggest that the differing perspectives on the debate over "skills" versus "process" approaches can lead to an understanding of the alienation and miscommunication, and there to an understanding of the "silenced dialogue" (p.24). Not considering the other's culture is a main "Issue of power in the classrooms" one of the five aspects that Delpit refers to in what she calls "the culture of power." 

 Thus is whom I want to interest 

I have been in discussion groups with other educators from the Providence Schools District; and gave volunteered to be the Equity Ambassador at my school to meet with other Equity Leadership/Ambassadors to grow conversations about Equitable Education in Providence (and beyond) by bringing PDs to staff. I plan to discuss with a group of students (SBG) and regulars at Book Club to bring up good texts to build better conversations that will include the students’ thoughts and concerns about Equity. 

 Format I think will work. 

 I will be working with a class of about 20-25 students to discuss Equity. From my own readings of texts, from this course, Mark Anthony Gooden’s Five Practices for Equity-Focused School Leadership; and Gholdy Muhammad's literature on the 5 Pursuits of teaching which is just a guide to teaching to students' strengths as people with backgrounds and community understanding so that they can express their natural intelligences while sharpening academic skills.

 I will produce a slide deck to distribute to a Google Classroom where I will post excerpts for this student body to read and answer the essential question, What is Equity in Education? And other guiding questions about each piece. The passages won’t be long (considering Ss’ attention spans) but they will be a few (@ 10).

 From our conversations about the texts, we will draw a slide deck (my thoughts will be the Ss’ guide for them to add/edit) and add small group activities using Human race (to do some kinesthetic visual with S.C.W.A.A.M.P.) & Jamboard to discuss excerpts from the research authors’ texts. I liked the way Lesley collaged the excerpts on a slide last week; so I may borrow that instead of just the Jamboard frames per group, or do both. 

To start, the Take A Stand activity is great. I also really like the idea of doing a Start & finish line to separate Ss (then they’ll do it with the teachers, compare finish line ) each acronym of S.C.W.A.A.M.P. The participants move to a new line if they relate to the term. ex, Move up one line if you are American" and have “What does it mean in Education & life in America?” conversations. 

How I want to end, is by having the students listen to each groups’ takeaways from the readings & activities to post on a shared document for the school body.

 After the PD, I’ll have to celebrate the students’ with a dinner party.