Teaching Tolerance through Social Justice Activism!
My students need a Canon EOS digital camera, a portable screen projector, instant film and six books of historical literature, including A is for Activist and Child of The Civil Rights Movement coupled with DVDs including Cesar Chavez and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, that celebrate activists that took a stand for tolerance.
Albert Einstein quotes, "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." Thus, my goal is to provide my students from low-income African-American and Latino families with resources that will challenge their growth mindset both academically and creatively. Social ills such as high crime rates, illiteracy and unemployment may plague my students' community; however, it does not deter how my students learn when provided with resources and experiences that connect critical contexts with the arts which allows them to take on the role of an engineer-giving students the unique opportunities to learn, build, design, problem-solve and create innovative ideas!
In spite of the negativity that surrounds my students and is re-lived through the daily reporting in the news media, my students are inquisitive, hopeful and eager to come to school- their safe haven.
They are middle schoolers who received special education services with reading and math skills four years or more below grade level, yet they are able to grasp concepts through a combination of visual stimuli and usage of hands-on materials. They have individualized education plans to address needs that impede their learning such as Attention-Deficit-Disorder, Dyslexia and Autism and tend to respond to interactive, arts-infused, project-based learning.
My Project
My students need a Canon EOS digital camera, a portable screen projector, instant film and six books of historical literature, including A is for Activist and Child of The Civil Rights Movement coupled with DVDs including Cesar Chavez and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, that celebrate Activists that took a stand for tolerance. The adages, 'If you do not know your history, you do not know yourself," and "If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything," helped in the creation of my project as my students seem to believe that history is simply the past and has no bearing on their future. Yet, they are both surprised and disgruntled by how people are treated in the world. We study history as we know that history repeats, however, we also study history to better our responses when negativity presents itself in acts of inhumanity.
In my diverse learning classroom, my students are more tolerant of each other's disability; however, when it comes understanding ethnicity and culture, my students need support in understanding how the world lacks tolerance and how they can use activism to take a stand for tolerance!
Mexican-American students poses questions about why their race is opposed so much by the government and African-American students poses questions about why the police views them as a threat and kill teenage boys without cause. These very concerns were similar during the Civil Rights Movement, the Holocaust and even how Cesar Chavez noticed the lack of equality in his childhood. There are no clear-cut answers; however, learning about how others handled social injustice is a great place for my class to start.
Reading literature such as A is for Activism and Separate Is Never Equal introduces students to youth who have taken a stand against adverse situations. The DVDs - historical events of injustice-Holocaust/Civil Rights/Cesar Chavez, will take my students back in time to compare and contrast tolerance issues of the past and the present. The Canon Digital Camera will create video learning logs, instant film to capture our learning and the portable projector ensures visibility of the historical movies for the entire class.
More than half of 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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