Rethinking our Classrooms

258 Pages·2001·24.399 MB·English

by  Bill Bigelow, Brenda Harvey, Stan Karp

RETHINKING OUR CLASSROOMS
EDUCATION
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RETHINKING OUR CLASSROOMS, VOLUME 2 K
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Teaching for Equity and Justice

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With over 175,000 copies in print, the first volume of Rethinking Our
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Classrooms broke new ground, providing teachers with hands-on ways to L
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promote values of community, justice, and equality — and build S
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students’ academic skills.
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This companion volume continues in that tradition, presenting a rich new O
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collection of from-the-classroom articles, curriculum ideas, lesson plans,
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poetry, and resources — all grounded in the realities of school life.

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Rethinking Our Classrooms, Volume 2 is an essential book for every V
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educator who seeks to pair concerns for social justice with students’ L
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academic achievement. M
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“Brimming with respect for the intelligence and integrity 2

of teachers as well as for students of all ages, this second
volume of Rethinking Our Classrooms continues in the same
proud tradition as its predecessor. In its pages, teachers will
find hope, energy, and renewal.”
— Sonia Nieto
Professor Emerita of Language, Literacy, and Culture at the School of Education,
University of Massachusetts
“A vital, useful, and empowering anthology of some of the
best stuff about schools I have read in 30 years. I hope it
reaches the vast audience it deserves.”
— Jonathan Kozol
author of Savage Inequalities and The Shame of the Nation
“With Volume 2, Rethinking Schools continues its bold,
unflinching confrontation of vital school issues and actions.
Honest and clear treatments by great authors go to the
core of matters of equality and justice. Rethinking Schools
continues to set the standard for advocacy for our children.”
— Asa G. Hilliard III
Nana Baffour Amankwatia II, (1933-2007) was the Fuller E. Callaway R
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Professor of Urban Education, Georgia State University T
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RETHINKING SCHOOLS
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800-669-4192 C RETHINKING
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www.rethinkingschools.org
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RETHINKING OUR CLASSROOMS, VOLUME 2
Teaching for Equity and Justice
A Rethinking Schools Publication
Rethinking Our Classrooms, Volume 2
Edited by Bill Bigelow, Brenda Harvey, Stan Karp, and
Larry Miller.

Rethinking Schools, Ltd. is a nonprofit educational
publisher of books, booklets, and a quarterly journal
on school reform, with a focus on issues of equity and
social justice. To request addtional copies of this book
or a catalog of other publications, or to subscribe to the
Rethinking Schools journal, contact:
Rethinking Schools
6737 W. Washington St. Suite 3249
Milwaukee WI 53214
800-669-4192
www.rethinkingschools.org
Rethinking Our Classrooms, Volume 2: Teaching for Equity “In Response to Executive Order 9066,” by Dwight
and Justice Okita, reprinted with permission of the author from
© 2001, Rethinking Schools, Ltd. Crossing With the Light, by Dwight Okita. Tia Chucha
Press, 1992.
Cover illustration by Ann Shearer; based on an image by
Skjold Photographs. “One Size Fits Few,” by Susan Ohanian, reprinted with
permission from One Size Fits Few: The Folly of Educational
Book and cover design by C.C. Krohne. Standards, by Susan Ohanian. Copyright © 1999 by Susan
Ohanian. Published by Heinemann, a division of Reed
Layout by Jeff Hansen Elsevier, Inc., Portsmouth, NH.
Project Coordinator: Leon Lynn “We Had Set Ourselves Free,” by Doug Sherman,
reprinted with permission. This article first appeared in
Editorial Assistance: Joanna Dupuis, Carol Ringo, Oregon English, Vol. XII, No. 2, Fall 1990, pp. 15-17.
Malaka Sanders.
“at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, south
Proofreaders: Elizabeth Dahlk, Joseph Hahn, Beth carolina, 1989,” by Lucille Clifton, copyright ©
Murray, Danah Opland-Dobs, Kitty Ptacek, Dale Weiss. 1991 by Lucille Clifton, reprinted with permission
from quilting: poems 1987-1990 by Lucille Clifton,
BOA Editions, Ltd.
Special thanks to the Joyce Foundation for its generous
support of this project. “Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits/Por Fin
Renuncia Jorge el Onserje de la Iglesia,”by Martín
Special thanks to Linda Christensen, Beverly Cross, Espada, reprinted with permission from Rebellion is
Kelley Dawson, David Levine, Robert Lowe, Barbara a Circle of a Lover’s Hands/Rebellión es el Giro de Manos
Miner, Bob Peterson, Kathy Swope, Rita Tenorio, Mike del Amante, by Martín Espada, Curbstone Press, 1980,
Trokan, and Stephanie Walters. Special thanks also to distributed by Consortium.
Len Mitnaul.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted below, no part
of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
means, including electronic, without the express prior
written permission of the publisher, except for brief
quotation in an acknowledged review. Individuals may
photocopy excerpts from Rethinking Our Classrooms,
Volume 2 for use in educational settings (physical settings
only; Internet use is not permitted), as long as such
material is furnished free to students or workshop par-
ticipants. For sale of any portion of this book as part of
course packets, contact the Copyright Clearance Center
for permissions and appropriate fees. If you have any
questions, contact the publisher at the address above.
ISBN 978-0-942961-27-0
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TABLE OF CON TENTS
INTRODUCTION ................................1 “Race” Discovering the Truth
by Cang Dao .........................................15 About Helen Keller
by James Loewen ...............................42
THE POWER OF WORDS ..........5 For My People
Where I’m From: by Linda Christensen .........................16 On the Road to Cultural Bias
Inviting Students’ Lives by Bill Bigelow .....................................45
What Color Is Beautiful?
into the Classroom
by Alejandro Segura-Mora ..............18 Fiction Posing as Truth
by Linda Christensen ..........................6
by Debbie Reese, et al. .....................57
Ebonics and Culturally
“Where I’m From” Responsive Instruction Rethinking the U.S. Constitutional
by George Ella Lyon ............................6 by Lisa Delpit .....................................22 Convention: A Role Play
“I Am From Soul Food by Bob Peterson ................................63
Exploring Black Cultural Issues
and Harriet Tubman”
by Bakari Chavanu ..............................27 A New U.S. Bill of Rights
by Lealonni Blake .................................8
by Larry Miller .....................................70
“Ode to Writing”
“I Am From Pink Tights
by Jessica Rawlins .............................31 “Waiting at the Railroad Cafe”
and Speak Your Mind”
by Janet Wong .....................................72
by Djamila Moore ..................................9 “I Am Proud to Be Bilingual”
by Monica Thao ..................................32 A Lesson on the
“I Am From . . .”
Japanese-American Internment
by Oretha Storey ................................10
by Mark Sweeting ..............................73
THE POWER
“I Am From Swingsets
“In Response to
and Jungle Gyms” OF THE PAST ................................33
Executive Order 9066”
by Debby Gordon ................................10 Unsung Heroes
by Dwight Okita ..................................75
An International Proverbs Project by Howard Zinn ...................................34
What the Tour Guide Didn’t Tell Me
by Jim Cummins Teaching About Unsung Heroes
by Wayne Au ........................................76
and Dennis Sayers ...............................11 by Bill Bigelow .....................................37
TABLE OF CONT ENTS A Mother Speaks Out
CONTINUED by Leslie Sadasivan .........................167
Teaching the Whole Story
THE POWER
by Kate Lyman ..................................168
OF CRITIQUE ...................................81
Playing Favorites
Ten Chairs of Inequality
by Mara Sapon-Shevin ....................176
by Polly Kellogg ...................................82
Black Teachers on Teaching
Teaching Math Across
by Michele Foster ..............................181
the Curriculum
by Bob Peterson ................................84 School System Shock
by Melony Swasey ...........................186
Percent as a Tool
for Social Justice Arranged Marriages,
by Bob Peterson ................................89 Rearranged Ideas
by Stan Karp.....................................188
The Human Lives
Behind the Labels M Out Front
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by Bill Bigelow ......................................91 il by Annie Johnston ..........................194
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“The Stitching Shed” no Staying Past Wednesday
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by Tho Dong .......................................100 t by Kate Lyman ..................................199
Bias and CD-ROM Encyclopedias “Earth’s Last Cry”
A Bill of Rights for Girls
by Bob Peterson ................................101 by Rachel M. Knudsen ...................202
by Mary Blalock ................................138
Where’s the R-Word?
The Trial
by Bob Peterson ..............................105
by Kate Lyman ..................................140 RETHINKING
Girls, Worms, and Body Image
Students Blow the Whistle ASSESSMENT ..........................203
by Kate Lyman ...................................107
on Toxic Oil Contamination
Failing Our Kids: What’s Wrong
Math, Maps, and by Larry Miller with the Testing Craze
Misrepresentation and Danah Opland-Dobs ................144 by the Editors
by Eric Gutstein ................................112 “Garbage” of Rethinking Schools ....................204
by Bill Steele, Mike Agranoff, Basketball and Portfolios
THE POWER and Pete Seeger ..............................146 by Linda Christensen ......................207
OF SOCIAL ACTION ..................115 AIDS — “You Can Die From It” One Size Fits Few
“We Had Set Ourselves Free” by Kate Lyman ..................................149 by Susan Ohanian .............................211
by Doug Sherman ..............................116 “at the cemetery, Tracking and
From Snarling Dogs walnut grove plantation, the Project Method
to Bloody Sunday south carolina, 1989” by Bob Peterson ...............................214
by Kate Lyman ....................................119 by Lucille Clifton ................................154
Motivating Students
Mississippi Freedom Schools to Do Quality Work
RETHINKING
by David Levine .................................126 by Bob Peterson ...............................219
SCHOOL CULTURE ...................155
Improvs and Civil Rights
When Things Turn Ugly
by Bill Bigelow ....................................134 RESOURCES ................................225
by Donn Harris..................................156
The Poetry of Protest
by Linda Christensen ......................135 Rethinking Discipline POETRY
by Jehanne Helena Beaton ...........160 TEACHING GUIDE
“Jorge the Church Janitor
Finally Quits” Creating Classroom Community by Linda Christensen .....................240
by Martín Espada ............................136 by Beverly Braxton ..........................163
INDEX ................................................242
Introduction
Teaching for Equity and Justice
Like its predecessor, Volume 2
of Rethinking Our Classrooms
begins from the premise that
schools and classrooms should be
laboratories for a more just society
than the one we now live in. After
more than a decade of high-profile
national debate on school reform, we
think this proposition is more central
than ever to the success, perhaps even
the survival, of public education.
Schools have crucial obligations
not only to individual students and
families, but to our society as a
whole. Their success or failure is tied
not just to personal well-being, but
to the prospects of creating a multi-
racial democracy capable of address-
ing the serious social and ecological
problems that cloud our future. We
live in a world plagued by economic
inequality, endemic violence, and
racial injustice. A me-first, dollar-
driven culture undermines democrat-
ic values, and seems to invent daily
new forms of alienation and self-
destruction. Over the long term, the
production and consumption patterns
of industrially overdeveloped and
under-planned economies like ours
threaten global ecological disaster.
Given such unpleasant but ines-
capable realities, education reform
must be driven by a far broader vision
than it has been in recent years. What
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the larger social currents that define la
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who we are as a society and where de
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we are headed. Accordingly, to be e
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truly successful, school reform must u
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be guided by democratic social goals
and values that provide a deeper many, especially in poor areas, pro- students or to connect with their
context for more traditional academic vide a dismal experience based on communities. Too many schools fail
objectives. tests, tracking, and a sanitized cur- to confront the racial, class, gender,
Unfortunately, too many schools riculum that lacks the credibility or and homophobic biases woven into
foster narrowly self-centered notions sense of purpose needed to engage our social fabric.
of success and “making it.” Too
A RETHINKING SCHOOLS PUBLICATION 1
Years of classroom experience and critical skills needed to make it efforts at classroom transformation.
have convinced us that these short- a reality.” A common social and pedagogical
comings are intimately connected to This effort to rethink our class- vision still unites the collection. We
low student achievement, including rooms must be both visionary and continue to believe, as we wrote in
poor performance on standardized practical: visionary, because we need our first volume, that curriculum and
tests. The problems many schools to go far beyond the prepackaged classroom practice must be:
have in teaching children to read, formulas and narrow agendas now • Grounded in the lives of our
write, and think are, to a large extent, being imposed on our schools and students. All good teaching begins
symptoms of the inequality that per- classrooms; and practical, because with a respect for children, their
meates our educational system. In the work of reshaping educational innate curiosity and their capacity to
fact, we would argue that unless our practice and countering the agendas learn. Curriculum should be rooted
schools and classrooms are animated imposed from above requires daily, in children’s needs and experienc-
by broad visions of equity, democ- school-based efforts at learning, es. Whether we’re teaching science,
racy, and social justice, they will teaching, organizing, and educational mathematics, English, or social stud-
never be able to realize the widely activism by those with the most at ies, ultimately the class has to be
proclaimed goal of raising about our students’ lives
educational achievement for as well as about a par-
all children. ticular subject. Students
Historically, efforts to should probe the ways
expand the reach of public edu- their lives connect to the
cation or to democratize cur- broader society, and are
riculum have been accompa- often limited by that soci-
nied by extensions of the sort- ety.
ing and labeling mechanisms • Critical. The cur-
schools use to preserve pockets riculum should equip stu-
of privilege. (See for example dents to “talk back” to
the role play activity on the ori- the world. From an early
gins of tracking in Rethinking age, students must learn
Our Classrooms Volume 1, p. to pose essential critical
133). Today the standardization questions: Who makes
and testing movements threaten decisions and who is
to play a similar role. They left out? Who benefits
profess to raise the bar for all and who suffers? Why
children, yet without dramatic is a given practice fair
increases and more equity in or unfair? What are its
resources and without radical origins? What alterna-
improvements in teaching and tives can we imagine?
learning inside classrooms, What is required to cre-
they are more likely to create M ate change? Through
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a new credentialing maze that ril critiques of advertising,
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continues to channel some stu- n cartoons, literature, legis-
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dents to lives of privilege and o lative decisions, foreign
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others to educational oblivion. policy choices, job struc-
Teachers typically have tures, newspapers, mov-
little individual control over many stake — teachers, students, parents, ies, consumer culture, agricultural
of the factors that shape the condi- and local communities. practices, and/or school life itself,
tions of schooling. But in their class- We’ve drawn the articles, stories, students should have opportunities
rooms they often have a measure of poems, and lessons in this second vol- to question social reality. Wherever
autonomy to create a space that can ume of Rethinking Our Classrooms possible student work should also
profoundly affect the lives of young from different academic disciplines move outside the classroom walls,
people. As we wrote in our ear- and grade levels. We hope they will so that academic learning is linked to
lier volume, despite many obstacles, offer insights and useful examples that real-world issues and problems.
“teachers can create classrooms that can be adapted in classrooms of all • Multicultural, anti-bias, pro-
are places of hope, where students levels and disciplines and in diverse justice. A social justice curricu-
and teachers gain glimpses of the social settings. Our goal is to provide lum must strive to include the lives
kind of society we could live in and frameworks and identify resources of everyone in our society and to
where students learn the academic that can support teachers in their examine critically their histories and
2 RETHINKING OUR CLASSROOMS, VOLUME 2
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interconnection. With some 40% of gays and lesbians, and working peo- • Hopeful, joyful, kind, vision-
the students in public schools from ple. Nevertheless, we need to push ary. The ways we organize class-
communities of color, while more this effort further and deeper. We room life should seek to make chil-
than 90% of the teachers are white, must resist attempts by state tests and dren feel significant and cared about
we need to address directly and standards to push multicultural cur- — by the teacher and by each other.
constructively the racial, class, and riculum reform to the margins. Unless students feel emotionally and
gender dimensions of educational • Participatory, experiential. physically safe, they won’t share real
inequity and school failure. We need Traditional classrooms often leave lit- thoughts and feelings; discussions
to move from what anti-racist edu- tle room for student involvement and will be artificial and dishonest. We
cator Enid Lee calls the “soft stuff” initiative. They encourage a passivity need to design activities that help stu-
to the “hard stuff.” This means not that is reinforced by fragmented, test- dents learn to trust and care for each
only “celebrating our diversity,” but driven curriculum, and which dis- other. Classroom life should, to the
also helping ourselves and our stu- courages students from taking more greatest extent possible, pre-figure
dents understand why some differ- responsibility for their own education. the kind of democratic and just soci-
ences translate into access to wealth In a “rethought” classroom, concepts ety we envision, and thus contribute
and power, while others become a need to be experienced first-hand, to building that society.
source of discrimination and injus- not just read about or heard about. • Activist. We want students to
tice. Only when we face honestly the Through projects, role plays, simula- come to see themselves as truth-
truths about our past and our present tions, mock trials, or experiments, tellers and change-makers. If we
will we be able to uncover the com- students need to be mentally, and ask children to critique the world
mon ground that public schools in often physically, active. They need but then fail to encourage them to
a multiracial society need in order to be involved as much as possible act, our classrooms can degenerate
to thrive. in explicit discussions about the pur- into factories for cynicism. Part of
There is already a backlash against poses and processes of their own a teacher’s role is to suggest that
the unfinished efforts of recent years education. Our classrooms also must ideas have real consequences and
to revise traditional versions of his- provoke students to develop their should be acted upon, and to offer
tory, literature, and other subjects, democratic capacities: to question, to students opportunities to do just that.
and to include the experience and challenge, to make real decisions, to Children can also draw inspiration
voices of people of color, women, solve problems collectively. from historical and contemporary
A RETHINKING SCHOOLS PUBLICATION 3
efforts of people who struggled for that white teachers will enter class- sustain the collective social obliga-
justice. A critical curriculum should rooms filled with children of color. tions that a democratic system of
be a rainbow of resistance, reflect- As African-American educator Lisa public schooling implies.
ing the diversity of people from all Delpit has written: “When teachers We know too that there will be
cultures who acted to make a differ- are teaching children who are dif- opposition from those who think crit-
ence, many of whom did so at great ferent from themselves, they must ical teaching for social justice is “too
sacrifice. Students should be allowed call upon parents in a collaborative political,” as if traditional teaching
to learn about, and feel connected to, fashion if they are to learn who their for the status quo were not equally
this legacy of defiance. students really are.” They must also “political” in its authoritarian prac-
• Academically rigorous. A call upon the cultural diversity of tice, its unequal outcomes, and its
social justice classroom equips chil- their colleagues and on community endorsement of the established order.
dren not only to change the world, resources for insights into the com- Some colleagues will resist calls
but also to navigate in the world that munities they seek to serve. What to take on greater responsibility for
exists. Far from devaluing the vital school failure. Others will succumb
academic skills young people need, to corrosive cynicism or force of
a critical and activist curriculum habit. At times, infuriatingly wrong-
speaks directly to the deeply rooted Without headed or counterproductive man-
alienation that currently discourages dates will be imposed upon us from
social justice
millions of students from acquiring above by bureaucrats or politicians.
those skills. By addressing directly teaching inside At other times the small steps we
the social context and social relation- manage to take may seem painfully
classrooms, even
ships that help create school failure, short of our grand visions, even iso-
critical classrooms seek to break the lated and utopian in the face of the
much-needed
cycle of remedial tedium and replace broader social changes needed.
it with more self-conscious, purpose- reforms in But the alternative to critical
ful student activity. teaching for social justice is to sur-
funding equity
A social justice classroom offers render to a system that, left to its own
more to students than do traditional or school logic, will never serve the common
classrooms, and expects more from good. Critical classroom practice is
governance will
students. Critical teaching aims to an indispensable, and much-neglect-
inspire levels of academic perfor- have limited ed, missing piece in the puzzle of
mance significantly greater than school improvement. Without social
those motivated or measured by impact. justice teaching inside classrooms,
grades and test scores. When children even much-needed reforms in fund-
write for real audiences, read books ing equity or school governance will
and articles about issues that really have limited impact.
matter, and discuss big ideas with For all its flaws, public education
compassion and intensity, “academ- can be said about racial and cul- exists because generations of people
ics” starts to breathe. Yes, we must tural differences between teachers have fought to improve the future
help students “pass the tests,” even and students also holds true for class for themselves and their children.
as we help them critique the harmful differences. Whether public education contin-
impact of test-driven education. But ues to exist, and whether it rises to
only by systematically reconstructing We know from our own experi- the challenges before it, remains an
how and what we teach do we have ence that creating successful critical open question. How we as teach-
any hope of cracking the cynicism classrooms is not easy. It is diffi- ers respond will help determine the
that lies so close to the heart of mas- cult, demanding work that requires answer.
sive school failure, and of raising vision, support, and resources. A classroom veteran once told
academic expectations and perfor- Finding groups and networks of sup- younger colleagues that teachers had
mance for all children. port is crucial for the long haul, as two choices: “We can teach for the
• Culturally sensitive. Critical is the need to build alliances for society we live in, or we can teach for
teaching requires that we admit we equity beyond the classroom among the one we want to see.” Rethinking
don’t know it all. Each class pres- parents, professional associations, Our Classrooms is for those with the
ents new challenges to learn from teachers’ unions, and community vision to reach for their dreams. n
our students, and demands that we groups. The success of our classroom
be good researchers and good lis- efforts is ultimately tied to efforts at — The Editors
teners. These days the demographic the district, state, and national levels
reality of schooling makes it likely to improve public education and to
4 RETHINKING OUR CLASSROOMS, VOLUME 2
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THE POWER OF WORDS
There are layers of meaning issues of culture, identity, and
in the language we use in our power that demand atten-
classrooms. Whether it’s the tion. In this section, teachers
vernacular our students bring discuss ways to explore those
with them or the literary issues and to put the power
classics enshrined in the of words in our students’
curriculum, language raises hands.
A RETHINKING SCHOOLS PUBLICATION 5