Help me give my students the books The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks young readers edition and Crow so that we can provide them with high quality literature and incorporate social issues into my science and advisory teaching.
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
My upcoming students are vivacious, curious learners. When we did have in person school, they would often stop by to ask me questions and try to learn about what we were learning in my class. At home, students have been pretty active online, due to our district providing computers and hotspots.
The largest thing missing, beside in person teaching, is the students' access to physical books and their chance to process difficult situations with a trusted adult outside of their family.
Our libraries have just opened on a limited basis however, most of my students' neighborhood libraries are still closed. Kids are really desperate for books.
My Project
I am planning to give each of my science students a copy of the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to incorporate into our study of cells and the human body. Henrietta's story takes place at nearby John's Hopkins, which is pretty close to DC and all of my students are familiar with. It is really important to show kids what happened to Henrietta and her family, and the scientific community as a result of her amazing HeLa Cells. We will talk meet in small groups on our distance learning platform to discuss this book an the ethics or lack of ethics of it. While reading, students will engage in the study of the human body and the cells.
Students will make connections from the book to what is happening today in both the COVID-19 pandemic and the pandemic of systemic racism.
Students will be challenged to create a social change project as a result of what they learned from this book.
In addition, I will work with my advisory group to read Crow, which is about the Wilmington massacre in Wilmington NC. This is a huge piece of black history and is very rarely taught. The Wilmington massacre was the countries only Coup D’État to date, where a very progressive southern black government was overthrown. Students will work with me to process this history and to come up with an advisory project for social justice.
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