Nickname: Snowflake
By: Aubrey Fox
What if I offend someone??
Social justice can be such a daunting topic to cover in any classroom, but especially with elementary aged students. However, it is so crucial to have students experience and discuss social justice issues in the classroom! When we first started having diversity courses within our blocks I know it definitely made me anxious to learn how to be open with my students about such controversial topics. However, after all of our courses and reading articles like this one I feel more and more equipped to tackle these kinds of conversations with students!
It is important to teach your students about all social justice issues, but the ones that are most relatable are...
- equity: measure of achievement, fairness, and opportunity in education (edglossary, N.d).
- privilege: a set of unearned benefits given to people who fit into a specific social group (everyday feminism, 2014).
- oppression: prolonged cruel or unjust treatment (dictionary.com, N.d.).
How do I do this?!
- Have books that reflect your classroom demographic!
- Students want to see themselves in the texts you are reading to them and within the texts you are having them read. When you walk into a store and see nothing that is catered to you, you don't want to shop there. So don't make your students read books that they cannot relate too!
- Have decorations within your classroom that are culturally relevant!
- When you have posters or labels that are diverse and positive, it allows your students to see that their cultures are valued! This will make your classroom climate a lot more open and make your students feel more comfortable to share about their lives!
- Invite people from the community to come talk or just volunteer!
- The school should not be separate from the community it caters to, it should be in partnership with it! It is so important for your students to see that you people in the community are valued and can be utilized as resources.
But they are so innocent?!
Is it important to teach our students about social justice issues even though they may be young? The answer is, YES! Allowing your students to explore these controversial topics will help them become more well-rounded and WOKE humans. Isn't this what we all want???
How can I do this within curriculum?
- Valuing Multiple Perspectives:
- You can do this is many ways within your daily lessons. For example, you can implement book clubs with a selection of critical texts for your students to choose from.
- Student-Led Social Action:
- You can initiate student-led social action activities by framing your writing lessons about writing letters or persuasive essays to help change a social issue! Not only will your students be able to work on their skills, but they will be able to feel like they are making a difference and using their voice!
- Exploring Sociopolitical Issues:
- Have conversations with your students in community circle about current events. This way your students know that no topic is off limits, and that your classroom is a safe space!
Ponder about dis'...
- Can you think of other ways to make sure that you aren't "sugar-coating" social justice issues for your students without being too explicit?
- How do you plan to integrate social justice issues into your ordinary instructional lessons?
- How often do you think social justice should show up in your classroom? Daily? Weekly? Monthly?
- How will you approach parents or administrators that disagree with your thoughts on social justice issues being a part of the classroom?
"During this politically divisive time, it is imperative we create spaces for valuing multiple perspectives, engaging in sociopolitical topics, interrupting the status quo, and moving toward social action."
Aubrey,
ReplyDeleteI like how in-depth and specific you were in your blog! I appreciated the examples and definitions that you gave for everything you wrote about. When it comes to including social justice in our lessons, I think something that is important to consider is how important it is that students don't feel like we are "forcing" it into the curriculum. Whenever we do talk about social justice, it should be about topics or issues that are relevant to what we are learning or experiences that people in our class may be going through. These issues also can't become just another assignment to students, so I think it's important to have discussions that emphasize that these are real-life problems and that our students can do things outside of the classroom to make an impact. With that being said, I don't know if there is a perfect number of times that social issues should be brought up in a classroom. I think the end goal should just be to make it a normal occurrence to discuss social issues in the classroom whenever they come up (in the same way that we discuss the current news each week in class), but again if a social issue doesn't "fit" in a lesson, it shouldn't be forced. I don't know that I would be able to say that there should be a specific weekly, monthly, or daily pattern for social justice lessons to take place.
Sam, thank you for your thoughtful response! I totally agree on the fact that we should talk about social justice issues that actually pertain to our students. These kinds of conversations are crucial because it allows your students to see you as a person that cares about their individual lives rather than just an educator. It is also very important that we don't overwhelm our students like you said it shouldn't be a forced discussion! I like that you included that you think it should just come naturally! I think that is key in order for our students to truly trust us with their opinions on these hard topics.
DeleteAubrey,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post and reading what you offer as a way to bring social justice education into the classroom. I agree with every strategy you mentioned of how we can bring this in the classroom. Answering your second question, I plan to integrate social justice education in my curriculum through providing multiple perspectives of individuals in lessons as opposed to one perspective. For example, when we are talking about history I would have the students consider others point of view as opposed to a single point of view of history. Going off of history I would definitely have students bring in current events of the week in my classroom to spark some conversation and so students are aware of whats going on outside of the classroom. I would also do the same thing with language and reading. As you mentioned I would have culturally relevant texts in my classroom and decorations on my walls so students see themselves in my classroom.
I would like social justice to be in my classroom daily. This can be accomplished through texts provided in the classroom, adapting lessons to fit in a social justice issue and through providing community circle time. Weekly students would do a current event so that they are all informed of whats going on in the world. If parents or administrators disagree with social justice being a part of the classroom I would let them know that it is important for every student to feel welcomed and safe in the classroom and it is also important for students to know what is going on in the world around them.
Maddy, thank you for your comment! I love how you are planning to make sure that you are providing multiple perspectives. This is a key component to having a culturally relevant classroom, because you have to be able to discuss hard topics without having a clear bias. You can definitely do this by showing the multiple perspectives. I think having your students bring in current events is a great idea because then you will be able to see what interests them, and you can plan your discussions that way!
DeleteAubrey,
ReplyDeleteI loved your blog, it really evoked a lot of thought that could lead to a great discussion. I also am going to implement those strategies you talked about putting into the curriculum!
I think social justice issues should happen daily inside the classroom. It can easily be implemented in community circles and reading time daily but it should always just come natural as well. I think one should always be willing to adjust their schedule if a student wants to address a social justice issue that is bothering them or that they seeing in the community.
I think I am going to approach parents and administrators with research based evidence. I feel as if the only way that someone can become more accepting and understanding is for them to become educated over social justice issues. So I hope I can use it to educate and therefor they will agree with social justice issues being implemented in class.
Dani, thank you for your comment! I love your idea about having social justice issues being discussed during community circle. I think that this is probably one of the easier ways to see how your students are being affected by these issues. This is also a good way to see what is going on within the community your students are from, because I know the majority of the time teachers do not live in the same area that their students do. Therefore, this is a good way for you to keep up to date with what is going on within your students home lives. I love that you are going to approach parents and administrators with research to back up your claims, I think that this would be the best way for them to see that it is crucial for students to partake in these kinds of conversations!
DeleteFirst of all, loved your blog! I can definitely relate to you in the fact that initially going into the course i felt very apprehensive about having to bring up controversial topics with our students. I know I never had these conversations personally in elementary school but times are changing and it really is important for students to critically think and be aware of whats going on in the world around them. I love how specific you were in the ways to incorporate social justice in your classroom as well as in the curriculum! Answering the question about how often we should discus social justice I think we should do it enough for our students to be comfortable with talking about it. Getting them used to having these type of discussions is key but not pushing them too hard that they are feeling forced. Introducing it less frequently at first and then slowly moving into more frequently would be the way I would think is best to do it.
ReplyDeleteAlexis, thank you for your comment! I really like you comment on how we should talk about social justice issues to the point where our students feel comfortable enough to bring it up on their own. If they bring up these issues on their own that means that our students feel comfortable and safe with us, which is the most important thing because if they feel this way they are more likely to be more successfully! Introducing these things slow and steady is key!
DeleteHey Aubrey!
ReplyDeleteI wanted to answer your 3rd question here! I think social justice should show up in our classrooms daily! I think in order to get comfortable talking about it, we have to get through our uncomfortable feelings about it. Experience will make it less uncomfortable, but I ask myself why are we uncomfortable in the first place? Well, it is because no one in our lives made it a daily conversation, so it never became "a norm" in our conversational vocabulary. I feel that if we want to raise the next generation to be social justice advocates, then it starts with us integrating it into our classrooms daily in a confident way! Love this post, Aubrey! Awesome job!
Dani- thank you for your response! I totally agree with you on why we are uncomfortable on talking about these controversial topics! If we are not introduced to these things in our own classrooms, it is expected that we would be apprehensive about discussing these topics in our own classroom. Also, like you said we have to talk about these things in a confident manner that way our students feel secure when they are sharing their opinions! Thanks!
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