My students need a class set of Ta-Nehisi Coates' memoir "Between the World and Me" to read as a part of our literary study of conceptions of masculinity and justice in the United States.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Zieve's classroom raised $802
This project is fully funded
My Students
My students are some of the most engaged, thoughtful, creative, and funny people I have ever met. They also attend school within a district that has been chronically underfunded and understaffed for years. This hasn't stopped our school and myself from holding them to the highest of possible standards academically. Our 11th and 12th graders take a full load of International Baccalaureate courses, typically only offered to the top performing students at the top performing high schools in the country.
Despite the challenges this presents, my students bring intellectually stimulating and fresh perspectives to class each day.
They jump into challenging texts and topics with poise and thoughtfulness and aren't afraid to consider controversial topics. Their greatest successes come when they are able to delve into work that reflect them and their lives as mainly Black students in a Title I school in Philadelphia. As an English department, we work to have a diverse and updated reading list for students in these IB courses. However, we typically have a limited or non-existent budget for new books, which puts our students at a disadvantage.
My Project
Our goal as English teachers is to create a curriculum that will challenge students to think critically as readers, engage them in literature, and explore material that they can connect back to their own lives. To do this, my colleagues and I have designed a curriculum for our 11th graders that first allows them to explore conceptions of masculinity in the world we live in, before our second unit dives into the women who take the patriarchy into their own hands and exact revenge on the men who cause them harm.
We are asking you to help us purchase a class set of "Between the World and Me," Ta-Nehisi Coates' memoir and letter to his son about life as a Black man in today's America.
This will be taught in the first half of the year in tandem with "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and "No Country for Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy. Each of these will require students to think critically about the ways in which various forms of masculinity are constructed, and how that masculinity intersects with other aspects of identity and culture.
"Between the World and Me" is particularly relevant for my students given its emphasis on coming of age while Black in our current society. As a teacher, I strive to teach using both culturally relevant pedagogy and material, and this book is a fantastic way to connect students' lives to their literary work.
Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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