Curriculum in Context
Over the course of my two-week unit I will be focusing on the Civil Rights Movement, and teaching specifically on the Freedom Riders. I want the students to understand their goals, motivations, and results of their efforts. The overarching goal is for students to feel a personal connection or identification with the Freedom Riders by addressing the questions: How and when do you draw on courage in your own life? Would you have the courage to become politically involved today?
This unit will be taught to a fifth grade class at Russell Byers Charter School. The school is located at 19th and Arch Street, in the middle of the business district of Center City. The school follows an Expeditionary Learning model, and the fifth grade is about to embark on an expedition about the Civil Rights Movement. The students will learn about the Lunch Counter Sit-Ins, Little Rock 9, and the Freedom Riders. While my teacher asked me to focus on the Freedom Riders, and it would not have been my topic of choice, I feel that discussing the historic events of the movement is both important and pertinent to students’ lives. By emphasizing the aspects of human connections, coming together for a necessary cause, and delving into the character traits of the Freedom Riders, I see teaching this unit as a way to create connections to students’ lives inside and outside of the classroom. As Freire suggests in his Pedagogy of Freedom, “Why not establish an ‘“intimate”’ connection between knowledge considered basic to any school curriculum and knowledge that is the fruit of the lived experience of these students as individuals?” (Freire,1998, p. 36). Like Freire, I believe that the best way to create meaningful connections to students’ lives is to acknowledge one’s surroundings and establish relationships between students’ lived experiences and what they are learning in school. Although my students’ lived experiences might not contain as much fear and violence as those of the Freedom Riders, the Freedom Riders’ fight for social justice is still a reality for many individuals today. By addressing this country’s past, we can better understand the present, and students can be better positioned to understand how the connection between the two influences the ever-evolving facets of social justice.
Earlier this year during Crew, as I listened to a conversation that briefly took place among a group of fifth grade girls, I became acutely aware that they were interested in discussing their race, and particularly the ways in which they identified themselves racially. At the time, the class had been learning about the first settlers in America and about Native Americans. One student asked my teacher what it meant to be Native American, and my teacher included an example of her own heritage in her explanation to illustrate where bloodlines originate. The girls went around and said where their parents or grandparents were from. Most of the students are African American, and my teacher explained to them that their ancestors most likely came to America at some point from Africa. Two of the girls in the class do not appear African American. One of the girls asked the other where she was from, and said that she had been discussing her race with her parents. The student then shared what she knows of her ethnicity with the class.
Though the Crew that I lead each morning is only with the female students, the conversation I witnessed led me to believe that the idea of racial identities and learning about race and its historic implications would be fascinating to all of the students in the class. When talking about the Civil Rights Movement, my classroom teacher said, “It’s their history. They deserve to know what happened.” This history is applicable to everyone in the classroom, and not to an individual background. One of the most interesting elements to the story of the Freedom Riders movement is that the riders were of all different ethnicities and ages. They all came together for sociopolitical change because they believed in a common goal. At Russell Byers, the students live all over the city and are bused in each day, coming together to learn. “We aren’t just a school; we are a family at Russell Byers,” the school counselor says. Explaining the meaning of Crew meetings, one student explains, “At Crew, we can say what we want, and we are a family. What we say in Crew stays in Crew.” Through creating safe spaces and encouraging students to express how they feel, the school fosters a sense of community and belonging to a family.
In the same manner that Freedom Riders of all backgrounds came together to alleviate racial stress, the students at Russell Byers come together from all over the city each school day for the purpose of education. Although the premise is different, coming together for a common cause supports the importance of community representation in the Freedom Riders movement. Teachers and students come together in this space and “make meaning of each others’ actions and intentions. It is this kind of mutual meaning making that allows students to make their needs and desires known, that assists teachers in reading students’ cues and invites both teachers and students to take action that facilitates the learning process” (Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006, p. 275-276). While the notion of mutuality and interpretation of thought can take place in many settings, the preexisting foundation of support that the school fosters will allow this notion of mutual meaning making to blossom. I will be able to collaborate with the students, “working to understand them…and [to] see students whose life experiences differ significantly” from mine (Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006, p. 276). Through the process of learning about the Freedom Riders and their role in the Civil Rights Movement, I will be able to work alongside students to make meaning of difficult subject matter together.
Another aspect that I want students to connect with is understanding the character traits that would make someone want to be a Freedom Rider. I will present students with case studies of individual activists, photographs, documentary clips, and hold discussions as a group. My hope is that by closely studying the experiences of Freedom Riders, students will have visceral reactions that can be discussed to better understand the emotions and motivations of the riders. A lot of the information that students will be presented with is difficult to digest. I have experienced a strong sense of community and empathy within the school and classroom. To give an example, a teacher passed away unexpectedly earlier in the semester. Students were very supportive of each other, and comforted one another in their sadness. Though the teacher’s death and the Civil Rights Movement have no correlation to one another, the students coming together during a hard time might serve to ameliorate discomfort and emotions that surface while studying this unit. These actions present a sense of family and connection among students that will provide a supportive foundation for discussing this topic of the Civil Rights Movement.
Works cited
Freire, P. (1998). There is No Teaching Without Learning. In Pedagogy of freedom: Ethics, democracy, and civic courage. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Rodgers, C., & Raider-Roth, M. (2006). Presence in teaching. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 12(3), 265-287.
This unit will be taught to a fifth grade class at Russell Byers Charter School. The school is located at 19th and Arch Street, in the middle of the business district of Center City. The school follows an Expeditionary Learning model, and the fifth grade is about to embark on an expedition about the Civil Rights Movement. The students will learn about the Lunch Counter Sit-Ins, Little Rock 9, and the Freedom Riders. While my teacher asked me to focus on the Freedom Riders, and it would not have been my topic of choice, I feel that discussing the historic events of the movement is both important and pertinent to students’ lives. By emphasizing the aspects of human connections, coming together for a necessary cause, and delving into the character traits of the Freedom Riders, I see teaching this unit as a way to create connections to students’ lives inside and outside of the classroom. As Freire suggests in his Pedagogy of Freedom, “Why not establish an ‘“intimate”’ connection between knowledge considered basic to any school curriculum and knowledge that is the fruit of the lived experience of these students as individuals?” (Freire,1998, p. 36). Like Freire, I believe that the best way to create meaningful connections to students’ lives is to acknowledge one’s surroundings and establish relationships between students’ lived experiences and what they are learning in school. Although my students’ lived experiences might not contain as much fear and violence as those of the Freedom Riders, the Freedom Riders’ fight for social justice is still a reality for many individuals today. By addressing this country’s past, we can better understand the present, and students can be better positioned to understand how the connection between the two influences the ever-evolving facets of social justice.
Earlier this year during Crew, as I listened to a conversation that briefly took place among a group of fifth grade girls, I became acutely aware that they were interested in discussing their race, and particularly the ways in which they identified themselves racially. At the time, the class had been learning about the first settlers in America and about Native Americans. One student asked my teacher what it meant to be Native American, and my teacher included an example of her own heritage in her explanation to illustrate where bloodlines originate. The girls went around and said where their parents or grandparents were from. Most of the students are African American, and my teacher explained to them that their ancestors most likely came to America at some point from Africa. Two of the girls in the class do not appear African American. One of the girls asked the other where she was from, and said that she had been discussing her race with her parents. The student then shared what she knows of her ethnicity with the class.
Though the Crew that I lead each morning is only with the female students, the conversation I witnessed led me to believe that the idea of racial identities and learning about race and its historic implications would be fascinating to all of the students in the class. When talking about the Civil Rights Movement, my classroom teacher said, “It’s their history. They deserve to know what happened.” This history is applicable to everyone in the classroom, and not to an individual background. One of the most interesting elements to the story of the Freedom Riders movement is that the riders were of all different ethnicities and ages. They all came together for sociopolitical change because they believed in a common goal. At Russell Byers, the students live all over the city and are bused in each day, coming together to learn. “We aren’t just a school; we are a family at Russell Byers,” the school counselor says. Explaining the meaning of Crew meetings, one student explains, “At Crew, we can say what we want, and we are a family. What we say in Crew stays in Crew.” Through creating safe spaces and encouraging students to express how they feel, the school fosters a sense of community and belonging to a family.
In the same manner that Freedom Riders of all backgrounds came together to alleviate racial stress, the students at Russell Byers come together from all over the city each school day for the purpose of education. Although the premise is different, coming together for a common cause supports the importance of community representation in the Freedom Riders movement. Teachers and students come together in this space and “make meaning of each others’ actions and intentions. It is this kind of mutual meaning making that allows students to make their needs and desires known, that assists teachers in reading students’ cues and invites both teachers and students to take action that facilitates the learning process” (Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006, p. 275-276). While the notion of mutuality and interpretation of thought can take place in many settings, the preexisting foundation of support that the school fosters will allow this notion of mutual meaning making to blossom. I will be able to collaborate with the students, “working to understand them…and [to] see students whose life experiences differ significantly” from mine (Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006, p. 276). Through the process of learning about the Freedom Riders and their role in the Civil Rights Movement, I will be able to work alongside students to make meaning of difficult subject matter together.
Another aspect that I want students to connect with is understanding the character traits that would make someone want to be a Freedom Rider. I will present students with case studies of individual activists, photographs, documentary clips, and hold discussions as a group. My hope is that by closely studying the experiences of Freedom Riders, students will have visceral reactions that can be discussed to better understand the emotions and motivations of the riders. A lot of the information that students will be presented with is difficult to digest. I have experienced a strong sense of community and empathy within the school and classroom. To give an example, a teacher passed away unexpectedly earlier in the semester. Students were very supportive of each other, and comforted one another in their sadness. Though the teacher’s death and the Civil Rights Movement have no correlation to one another, the students coming together during a hard time might serve to ameliorate discomfort and emotions that surface while studying this unit. These actions present a sense of family and connection among students that will provide a supportive foundation for discussing this topic of the Civil Rights Movement.
Works cited
Freire, P. (1998). There is No Teaching Without Learning. In Pedagogy of freedom: Ethics, democracy, and civic courage. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Rodgers, C., & Raider-Roth, M. (2006). Presence in teaching. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 12(3), 265-287.