Kenneth B. Hilliard
Alschuler, A.
School Discipline
, New York: McGraw Hill Book Co, 1980.
Benjamin, R.
Making Schools Work: A Reporters Journey Through Some of America’s Most Remarkable Classrooms
, New York: Continuum Books, 1981.
Bunzel, J.
Challenge To American Schools: The Case For Standards And Values
, New York: Oxford Press, 1985.
Clarizio, H.
Toward Positive Classroom Discipline
, New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1971.
Hirsch, E.
Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs To Know,
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1987.
Kluger, R.
Simple Justice: The History Of Brown v. Board of Education And Black America’s Struggle For Equality
, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976.
Lucas, J.
Common Ground
, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.
Morris, A.
The Constitution And American Public Education,
Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, 1989.
Schwartz, B.
Affirmative Education
, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1972.
Sedlacek, W.
Racism In American Education: A Model For Change
, Chicago, Nelson-Hall, 1976.
Simonson, R.
Multicultural Literacy
, Saint Paul, Minnesota: Graywolf Press, 1988.
Yarmolinsky, A.
Race And Schooling In The CitY
, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981.
Student Activity I.
Cultural Share Day/week
Procedure
About two weeks before the start of this activity students will be given instructions on what is to occur.
The students are to either bring in to class or design an example of an artifact that is germane to their culture. This article could be an example of song, dance, art, clothing, literature, or any other aspect of life in their culture.
The students should prepare an oral presentation to accompany their example. Students who choose not to participate in the share part of the project are still required to complete a written report or a visual presentation.
The subject matter can be adjusted to fit the ethnic heritage of students in your class. Class presentation guidelines should also be discussed prior to this activity.
If there are more students than time will allow for in one period, then the activity could carryover into the next day(s). This will be determined before the start of the presentations.
Evaluation
The oral presentations along with any written material will be used in determining the grade. For those students who only present written material their grade will be based on that aspect only.
Student Activity II
Role Playing: Values/ Race
Background/Procedure
Values
This activity has the potential to be the most challenging for students. During this activity students will be ask to role play a situation that is much different from their own background.
Students will be divided into groups and will be able to:
choose their own topic,
write their own script, and
produce original skits for presentation.
Prior discussion should have taken place concerning rules and guidelines along with suggested topics to be explored. These suggestions should be written down by students in their notebooks or journals.
Some suggested topics could be:
moral issues including human sexuality, drug/alcohol abuse, AIDS, teenage pregnancy or others,
social issues such as education, rights of students/parent/teachers or others or,
any other previously discussed and approved topic.
All students in the group should be assigned a part in the role play.
The role plays will be presented and graded according to content and presentation.
After their presentation a discussion could follow to debrief what had just transpired.
Race
For this activity the students will be asked to role play a situation involving the issue of race.
For example students of one ethnic background could assume the role of a member of another ethnic (minority) group member to understand the depth of the problems that some students face in their daily lives.
Some possible suggestion could be:
have non-hispanic students role play situations in which language could present a barrier in communication.
This situation could represent a problem from home, from the community, or from the school.
Another possible situation could be to have non-black students role play a problem concerning racial attitudes or race discrimination. This situation could be an example of a situation encountered in daily life or a problem created just for instructional purposes.
Another variation could be to have a non-Asian student assume the role of an Asian student in American public schools. By assuming this role students may better understand the difficulty that this minority group encounters in our society.
It is anticipated that the situations presented are resolved by the performers (if possible).
Goal
The goal of this activity would be to make students sensitive to the issues surrounding race in the hopes that they are better able to understand the over all concepts involved.
Evaluation
As mentioned previously grades will be determined by the quality of the presentation. It may be helpful once again to debrief this situation for instructional purposes.
As a variation to this situation role plays could also be created involving attitudes or values involving gender. However, this activity should only be attempted with mature and capable classes.
Student Activity III
Parent Information Day
Background
The goal of this activity will be to get parents into their child’s classroom.
Procedure
One of the ways to get parents involved in their child’s education is to have a parent information day.
Parents will be invited into the classroom to view some of the activities and projects that the students have been working on in this unit. These activities include:
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role playing
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oral presentations
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written presentations
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visual presentations and
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any other student activity
Prior to this activity notices would be sent home to invite parents into class on a specific day and time. Parents would be able to see some of the activities that have taken place in the social development class. The activities presented for parents should all center around the topic of culture.
As a suggestion this activity could be presented after the previous activities as a showcase of some of the better projects that have been presented during this unit.
For variety the school auditorium or other suitable room could be used for presentations.
Evaluation
Since the goal of this activity is to get parents into the classroom, a good measuring device would be the number of parents that are able to attend. As a follow up to this activity a parent newsletter could be sent to those parents that were unable to attend this presentation with the hope that the next time this activity occurs they may be able to attend (schedule permitting).