Matrix Check:
How do I know if lessons are “open” and will help to disrupt the narrative? Use the following matrix to make sure that your lessons avoid centering or focusing on the following matrix categories:
Food and Fun
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Recognition Days
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Facts /One hit wonders
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Special Foods of the people
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Special Holidays
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One resource/fact/point of view
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Clothing of the group
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Annual days or months of celebration
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Culture, Songs, etc.
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Games
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Famous/
Widely accepted names
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Inventors / Firsts
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Goals/Learning Targets (Unless specifically noted within each lesson, the following objectives will apply to lessons):
- identify and analyze events in American History.
- identify and analyze the impact of the events on groupings of people of different races.
- identify and analyze the improprieties in the event
- identify and analyze the concept of power (social, economic, political)
- discuss the impact of the elimination or erasure of factual events from history books and educational resources
- develop or create solutions to counter the elimination or erasure of factual events from history books and educational resources
Suggested Activities
ERACE Search project-
Explanation: The title of the assignment was created to demonstrate that race is something that is seen while the dominant narrative claims colorblindness. With no logical way to erase race --there are many ways to learn about a group of people who do not share the same culture as you and their place in history. The word tolerance should not come up as students begin their learning or exploration.
What our students find should steer away from the dominant narrative’s spotlight or especially accepted majority focus or acceptance of the role of people in “slavery.” What students discover should dismantle and disrupt common stereotypes and the dominant narrative.
Activity One - Hidden Treasures
This project requires the students and teacher to work together to present possible research targets for students. A list of events and communities in your local area or across the United States will be the launching point for this assignment.
- Planning for the Research (Time needed 1 – 2 Days) - Develop the list for the ERACE search - Either the teacher or a set of students to compile the research target list well in advance of the assignment.
- Research Begins - New Haven’s Hidden Treasures - Students groups will research the following topics, events, and individuals from New Haven during the 1920s – 1970s and present their information to their school community.
- Research to be assigned by decade or sections of years
- Research to be assigned by topics
- Medicine
- Activists
- Social Justice / Issues of Race
- Gender Justice
- Local Heroes/Heroines
- Events
- Court / Law / Government
- Architects
- The information discovered should be kept in a digital repository, website, etc. Students will be responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the digital repository. When the class of students promote to the next grade the incoming class of students will maintain and upgrade/upload new information. The teacher will serve as the coordinator of the project.
- Community forum - Community Forum for students to present their ERACE research to leaders in the community (the mayor, university leaders, state and local political leaders, board of education members, etc.)
Lesson: The early 1900s and Thriving Black Communities
Objectives:
- Students will identify and analyze the impact violence in American society
- Students will identify and analyze the history or foundations of violence in America
- Students will identify and analyze the impact of the dominant narrative.
Activity One
- Question and Prediction Parking Lot - Setting a purpose for research – Use the topics The Greenwood Massacre or Red Summer of 1919 –
- Ask students design and perform a newscast of what it might have been about.
- Students will write a group short story about what the event might have been about
- Students will design a poster about what the event might have been about
- Students will design a news article or editorial about what the event might have been about
- KWL - Communities of Color Post Civil War KWL – Activity – Introduction to your lesson - It can be beneficial to expose students to topics of study via videos or news clippings followed by student discussions on the video.
Videos for the KWL Activity:
Greenwood/ Tulsa, Oklahoma 1921 Videos
VIDEO: “Footage of the Prosperous Greenwood and the Tulsa Massacre” Smithsonian Channel May 20, 2021 (1 minute 48 seconds) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca7lI6wT9MI
VIDEO: "Tulsa 1921: An American Tragedy" June 2, 2021 (43 minutes 55 seconds) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptbuPdkI434
VIDEO: “The Tulsa Race Massacre; Then and now” June 1, 2018 (8 minutes 43 seconds) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhoAGJUDEvc
Additional Video Resources for this lesson
Videos and artifacts of thriving black communities no longer in existence
LOCATION: Springfield, Illinois
On August 14, 1908, The Springfield Massacre also known as the Springfield race riot of 1908 was committed by a mob of about 5,000 white people against African Americans in Springfield, Illinois. The tragedies associated with this event happened over a three-day period between August 14–16, 1908.
LOCATION: Forsyth County, Georgia
Lynching and racial cleansing in 1912 in Forsyth County, GA.
LOCATION: Knoxville, Tennessee, 1919
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwT-VrQVlOU, “The Red Summer,” June 18, 2020 (5 minutes 3 seconds)
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qI2cUkhGEY “Knoxville's Red Summer: The Riot of 1919” chronicles the unrest that occurred in Knoxville following the murder of a white woman, Bertie Lindsay and the attempted lynching of the accused, Maurice Mays, a black man of mixed race.
- Final Task – Community Action Group Project – As a class develop a set of actions, events or and suggestions to remedy this situation. Students can create solutions:
videos /PSAs /social media campaigns/ using the arts and more
Lesson: Discovering History with the Social Studies Curriculum
Purpose -Students will analyze events in history and identify them within their school’s / curricular resources. Students will be asked to make judgements about historical events and the resources students have access to.
Key vocabulary and terms for this lesson
Critical Race Theory (CRT) - is a movement started by the late Derek Bell, civil-rights attorney, who was the first Black professor to earn tenure at Harvard Law School. The movement was originally started as a way to show how white supremacy has foundations in law, culture and politics and continues to be replicated in America. It is part of American life and society –this foundational racism cannot be legislated. With CRT’s tenets is that any given culture creates its own reality in its own self-interest. Because of this minorities needs, or interests are not acknowledged or come after the needs of the dominant group. This system created by and for white elites, will allow racial advancement for minorities if they benefit from it.
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy – a model that centers on numerous points of student achievement and supports students to uphold their cultural identities while allowing them to develop multiple perspectives to address and challenge racial and societal disparities.
Racial Stratification - Racial and ethnic stratification is hierarchy or systems of inequality that benefit fixed groups based on membership of race or national origin. It also produces social ranking and degrees of rewards for belonging to that fixed member group
Positive Racial Identity – According to Carnegie Library, positive racial identity is the positive beliefs and attitudes about belonging to one’s racial group. Positive racial and ethnic identity has been linked to higher resilience, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and school grades.
White Supremacy- the belief that the white race is inherently superior to other races and that white people should have control over people of other races (Merriam-Webster)
White Privilege- special treatment or advantages possessed or experienced by a white person because of their race in a society characterized by racial inequality and discrimination. (Oxford Dictionary)
White Fragility- discomfort and defensiveness on the part of a white person when confronted by information about racial inequality and injustice. (Merriam-Webster)
Hidden curriculum – the unwritten, unsaid, lessons, values, and perspectives that students learn in school or work communities follow.
Key vocabulary and terms for students
White Supremacy - the belief that the white race is inherently superior to other races and that white people should have control over people of other races (Merriam-Webster)
Racism - unfair treatment of people of a particular race in a society especially to the benefit of people of another race; the belief that certain races of people are superior to others
Ethnicity - group that shares a common and distinctive culture, religion, or language
Teacher Resource for this lesson
Change the Narrative - World renowned Novelist Chimamanda Adichie in her TED Talks, “The danger of a single story,” discussed how important it is for more than one narrative, story, source to be told or used. Adichie talked about using or writing about the things that our students (population) recognize. Having the single impression or understanding of a group a people can be detrimental resulting in a default patronizing outlook of pity or unconsciously identifying people with a sub-standard view of their humanity.
Activity one
Using the title of one of the videos, for example, “Tulsa 1921: An American Tragedy,” ask students to make predictions about contents of the video.
Material: T-Chart photocopy or use computers
Directions: In a T-chart on the left side have students write their predictions. Next show the video,” Tulsa 1921: An American Tragedy,” and ask students to document their observations using words, symbols and pictures or drawings on the right side of the T-chart.
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptbuPdkI434 "Tulsa 1921: An American Tragedy" June 2, 2021 (43 minutes 55 seconds)
- After viewing the video(s) each student will be asked to share or post one question or one word that represents the student’s observation on stickies and post in the classroom “parking lot.”
- Next, students will find pictures or references to those events in their Social Studies books or the school district’s curriculum. Discuss the results of their search.
- Extended Learning Option: You can also choose to have students research the information on the internet and create data charts of the information/validity and number of “hits” they have
- Ask students to share their feelings about the events the discuss and locate information the information in their textbooks
- Students will compare / contrast information from the videos to their classroom textbooks/resources
- Students will identify the impact of their research (videos vs. textbooks /district’s Social Studies curriculum)
Activity two
- Reflection with Evidence Assignment - Students will respond to the following question: How do the marginalization or elimination of this information/event from your resources (history books, curriculum, etc.) depict various groups of people in our society?
- Students’ choice to present the answer to the question
- Written
- Editorial
- Argumentative Essay
- Oral
- Artistic Representation of any medium
- Digital creation
- Students will discuss or present their answers possible solutions
Lesson: Anti-Racist Curriculum-Disrupting the Dominant Narrative
Students will make predictions about a little-known event/time in history that was not included in their Social Studies books textbooks and or curriculum. Students will discuss their observations and feeling about the event as well as its elimination from student resources. Students will develop their own definition and understanding of anti-racist curriculum. Lastly, students will develop activities and possible solutions to counter the effects of the dominant narrative or racist curriculum.
- Introduction - Definition scramble – Using the definitions of anti-racist curriculum / social justice/ racism - Students must organize their word cards in the correct definition without talking.
- Students can work with schools across the district to form an awareness group
- Students will create their own definition of anti-racist curriculum
- Students at schools across the district can meet over Zoom to discuss the process of developing anti-racist activities, a district academic showcase for activities or projects that best exemplify anti-racist strategies
Lesson: Table Talk Series
This series can start in the classroom or be used at a district-wide event, involving schools inside or outside of the district. Students can broadcast the discussions over Zoom or Google Classroom.
- Students can serve as the moderators
- Teacher is the guide/coordinator
Questions to consider for the table talk series. (The table talk process will take several class periods):
Who/ what group of people made the decisions that led to the events mentioned in the video?
What group of people were in power during the time of the historical events that were viewed on the videos? What group of people have influence today?
Who more than likely made decisions about eliminating the information from the books?
Why do you think this information was kept secret or people were told not to mention the massacre?
How can actions like erasing or not mentioning important historical events like this impact society?
How does this dominant narrative erasure (from Social Studies textbooks, curricula, and resources) impact learning for students?
Have students discuss what they feel the meaning of the term anti-racist curriculum means? Next, the teacher reveals/shares several definitions of anti-racist curriculum.
How can you as students use your voice to create change or counter the impact of things like this?
Suggested questions including the following questions from the Connecticut Social Studies Frameworks:
- How do Americans define freedom and equality and how have American conceptions of freedom and equality changed over the course of U.S. history for members of various racial, ethnic, religious, and gender minority groups?
- Is America a land of political, economic, and social opportunity?
- What was the significance of Connecticut’s contribution to America’s story?
- Is the United States a “just” society and how has the concept of justice evolved over time?
- Is there an American national identity; what does it mean to be an American?
Lesson: Hidden Treasures in New Haven’s History
Use of art, pictures, and other artifacts for students to use to assist in their research as they begin to research and discover the rich history of New Haven and the thriving black community of New Haven.
Images and artifacts of the following important people, places, events in the history of New Haven’s thriving black community will be researched and placed in a space at the public libraries as well as online to provide the public with information about these, little known figures, places and events.
Activities
- Students will provide the narration either in writing near the displays or via audio recording, such as Vocaroo.
- Culminating performance project of arts, technology, music and more to tell the narrative (story) of what students found.
Suggested topics for the collection of images and artifacts are below:
- Immanuel Baptist – the oldest church of color and one of the wealthiest congregations
- I. N. Porter – attended Yale Medical School and became a well-known surgeon
- George W. Crawford - earned a law degree at Yale and Probate Court clerk in New Haven
- William Lanson - architect
- Twentieth Century Women’s Club-New Haven’s African American women’s club, founded in 1900
Lesson: Living Ties / Current Connections Locally and nationally –
This can be an additional lesson or a standalone lesson. The next part of the project involves living ties to those events in history. Research and interview descendants of people involved in the events or witnesses from that period.
- The creation and logging of those stories in a collection which will become a resource for other students and teachers across the nation and world.
Lesson: Timeline and Footprints- Assign students to research and map the location of communities of blacks and indigenous peoples that were formed or establishment during the time of the early 1900s – 1970.