ERIC ED468415: "It's Our World Too": Socially Responsive Learners in Middle School Language Arts.

252 Pages·2002·3 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 468 415
CS 511 381
Busching, Beverly; Slesinger, Betty Ann
AUTHOR
"It's Our World Too": Socially Responsive Learners in Middle
TITLE
School Language Arts.
National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, IL.
INSTITUTION
ISBN-0-8141-3833-0
ISBN
2002-00-00
PUB DATE
251p.
NOTE
National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Road,
AVAILABLE FROM
Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 38330-1659: $23.95 members,
$31.95 nonmembers). Tel: [phone] (Toll Free); Web Site:
http://www.ncte.org.
Classroom
Teacher (052)
Books (010) Guides
PUB TYPE
EDRS Price MF01/PC11 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
*Communication Skills; Learning Problems; Middle Schools;
DESCRIPTORS
*Reading Skills; *Social Attitudes; Social Problems; Student
Research; *Teaching Methods; World War II; *Writing Skills
Critical Literacy; Depression (Economic 1929); Holocaust
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
Grounded in the premise that students can learn about the
world, nurture the impulse to care about others, and still meet required
educational standards, this book outlines a middle school curriculum in which
students can learn to identify with, investigate, and then act on social
issues. It offers teachers the following resources: an extended discussion of
the Great Depression, World War II, and Holocaust; help on planning a social
issues curriculum that focuses on reading, researching, and writing skills,
along with advice on how to help struggling learners; guidance on how to
coach students to improve communication skills as they speak out on issues;
and lists of fiction, nonfiction, and other sources on a range of topics.
After an introduction, the chapters in this book are:
(1) The Curricular
(2) The World War II and
Stance: Active Learning into Active Citizenship;
(3) Classroom Life: Evolving Toward Democracy;
Holocaust Inquiry Unit;
(4)
(5) The Depression-Era
Inquiry: Noticing, Questioning, Searching, and Caring;
(6) Literature: Expanding the
Inquiry Unit: Expanding a Novel Study;
(7) Communication: A Public Voice; and (8)
Lifespace of Students;
Contributors and Critics: Students in the World. (Contains 116 references.)
(PM)
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
Learners
Socially Responsive
School
Middle
in
Arts
Language
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Office of Educational Research and Improvement
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND
This document has been reproduced as
received from the person or organization
DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS
originating it.
BEEN GRANTED BY
Minor changes have been made to
improve reproduction quality.
MyefS
M A
.
Points of view or opinions stated in this
document do not necessarily represent
official OERI position or policy.
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)
1
'ST-COPY AVAILABLE
p
"It's Our World Too"
NCTE Editorial Board:
Jacqueline Bryant, Kermit Campbell, Willie Mae
Crews, Colleen Fairbanks, Andrea Lunsford, Gerald R. Og lan, Jackie Swensson,
Gail Wood, Zarina M. Hock, Chair, ex officio, Kent Williamson, ex officio, Peter
Feely, ex officio
"It's Our World Too"
Socially Responsive Learners in
Middle School Language Arts
Beverly Busching
University of South Carolina
Betty Ann Slesinger
Lady's Island Middle School
Beaufort, South Carolina
National Council of Teachers of English
1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096
Staff Editor: Bonny Graham
Interior Design: Doug Burnett
Cover Design: Jenny Jensen Greenleaf
NCTE Stock Number: 38330-3050
©2002 by the National Council of Teachers of English.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copy-
right holder. Printed in the United States of America.
It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a forum
for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of En-
glish and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does
not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, or
the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorse-
ment is clearly specified.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Busching, Beverly A., 1937
"It's our world too" : socially responsive learners in middle school language
arts / Beverly Busching, Betty Ann Slesinger.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.
).
ISBN 0-8141-3833-0 (pbk.)
1. Language arts (Middle school)United StatesCurricula. 2. Citizenship
Study and teaching (Middle school)United States. 3. Active learningUnited
I. Slesinger, Betty Ann. II. Title.
States.
LB1631 .B794 2002
428' .0071'2dc21
2002005821
6
For Dixie Goswami
who started everything
and
the students
who helped us see it
7
Into the Darkness
You can douse the fire, Yet the flames still burn.
Blow the candle, Yet the light still shines.
Surrender to the music, Yet the melody lingers.
Lock the memory, Still it roams free.
Extinguish the passion, Yet it remains eternal.
Squelch the anger, But the pain dominates all.
Close your eyes, And the world still turns.
You can hide in the dark, But the shot can still be heard.
The blood can still be smelled, The fire can still be smelled.
The fire can still be seen, The emotion can still be felt.
Within the darkness, Where reality rushes,
Violent pangs of remorse. Search the solitude of the night
Into the depth of the dark,
Into the darkness.
Rina
ix
Contents
xi
Introduction
1. The Curricular Stance: Active Learning into Active Citizenship
1
24
The World War II and Holocaust Inquiry Unit
2.
50
3. Classroom Life: Evolving toward Democracy
91
Inquiry: Noticing, Questioning, Searching, and Caring
4.
5. The Depression-Era Inquiry Unit: Expanding a Novel Study
120
6. Literature: Expanding the Lifespace of Students
142
7. Communication: A Public Voice
174
8. Contributors and Critics: Students in the World
204
231
References
237
Authors
9
xi
Introduction
This book grew out of a sense of unease. The two of us, a middle school
teacher and a language arts professor, have worked together for many
years to bring active learning into our classrooms. We worked to bring
a stronger sense of author's craft into Betty's writing program, building
inquiry units around novels and text sets, and we introduced these ideas
and our teacher-researcher stance into Beverly's teacher education classes.
Yet each of us carried an unspoken underlying sense of regret that we had
not done more. We regretted that we had to leave an important part of
ourselves behind when we taught. We opposed our country's involvement
in repressive military actions and its unjust economic policies, but even
the liberal, whole language middle school classroom seemed far removed
from those concerns.
Betty was discouraged by cynical and irresponsible student behav-
ior at school. She remembers confronting a boy in her class about some
missing work: "You just lied to me about that," she said. "Yeah, so what?"
was his response. She worried about the boy's future and the society in
which his attitude is common, one in which so many youth feel alienated
due to a culture that focuses on power, privilege, and material wealth.
So when we found ourselves in the National Council of Teachers of
English (NCTE) Elementary Section meeting in November 1993 listening
to Carole Edelsky's rousing speech about critical literacy and the needs of
our democracy, we were primed to hear her message. She challenged us
to reexamine and restructure our language arts curriculum. The activities
and classroom experiences described in this book constitute our response
to that challenge.
Yevgeny Yevtushenko's searing indictment in the poem "Lies" of si-
lent adults who do not share their knowledge about injustice with the
younger generation seems to be spoken directly to us: "Telling lies to the
young is wrong" (p. 3). The young already sense much of what is wrong
with the world, and adults need to openly discuss these wrongs with them.
Many of us today believe that promoting this kind of openness is the right
thing to do, but much work has to be done before it will be clear how to
do it. We need the kind of vision that Maxine Greene (1995) calls social
imagination: "looking beyond the boundary where the backyard ends or
[to] where we might reach if we tried" (p. 26).
the road narrows
. .
.
Our collaborative teacher inquiry keeps pulling us forward and help-
ing us through the days when we are tired and overwhelmed. Betty re-
members one such time:
10