It concludes with a discussion of the role of a critical literacy framework within the boundaries of the Common Core State Standards to address early literacy needs. After a brief literature review, this paper will describe a rationale and methodology for conducting an independent study. This unit was modified over several weeks as the needs of the lived curriculum changed.
These reflections are based on daily journals and self-reflections done during the self-study. There is hope at the end of the tunnel, and I hope that this paper succeeds in convincing others that this path is worth walking. The production of meaning derived from the text is linked to the social and cultural constructs of the reader.
The first two, code breaker and meaning maker, have been hallmarks of the early elementary classroom. This resource has also been a staple of the early elementary curriculum, despite the recent push from the Common Core. The following section outlines the first unit of study presented to my first grade students at the start of the school year.
This line of questioning seeks to get to the root of the central message hidden within the text of the book.
Assessment Evidence
Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, John Lewis and Diane Nash were leaders of the Civil Rights Movement in Nashville and the country. Students will compose their story with the one Ruby Bridges remembers in Through My Eyes. I Have a Dream” writing assignment: After they read Martin Luther King Jr. heard and reflected on his famous speech, students will begin writing their own “I Have a Dream” speech that will be published in a school-wide magazine.
Letter Writing: Students will work collectively to write a letter to an influential person to get something changed. Students will later identify a problem they would like to see changed and write a letter to the person they think can best help them solve it. Teacher Asking Questions: The teacher will emphasize asking small and individual questions during work time so that ALL students have the opportunity to think and process the big ideas of the unit.
Teacher observation: Through extensive journaling and self-reflection, the teacher will consider how students' thinking is changing.
Build Learning Plan
Discovering Identity, Culture, and Human Rights
Students will examine issues of skin color and culture as they consider who they are and why they see themselves the way they do. The class will brainstorm problems they see and students will consider the actions of The Lady in the Box, as well as other stories such as Something Beautiful, to find a solution to this societal problem. Over the following weeks of study, students will use these lessons to begin analyzing key points in the Civil Rights Movement (using the Civil Rights Movement as a primary vehicle for discussing issues of rights, laws, justice, and equality).
Students will learn about key figures in the movement: Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, John Lewis, Diane Nash, as well as children like Ruby Bridges to see how this movement is portrayed in a variety of texts. Students will begin by examining the role of human rights around the world and within our country. During this investigation, students will be asked to think more deeply about our differences and our identities as they seek to formulate a working understanding of equal rights for all people.
Students will be introduced through the reading of I Have the Right to Be a Child, in which they will be confronted with the fact that the United States has failed to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child . After this lecture, students will research equal rights in school desegregation, beginning with the story of first-grader Ruby Bridges. Students compare and contrast Ruby Bridges' struggles with Sylvia Mendez's struggles in the story Separate is Never Equal.
Students will problematize texts when they think about who wrote the text and for what purpose. Students will also be asked to think deeply about the role of laws in our country. Students will begin to think about protests and how people can solve the problems they see through non-violent means.
Students will return to the book they have already read, The Back of the Bus, to begin to think about the different narratives that exist in telling the story of Rosa Parks. Students will then be presented with a different perspective and asked to consider the merits of both perspectives as they think through the words of Malcom X. At the conclusion of the final week of study, students will develop a community problem they want to solve.
Unit Bibliography of Selected Texts
As students continue to problematize the role of laws in protecting the rights of the people, they will begin to study what happens when a law is unjust. Back of the Bus by Aaron Reynolds Malcom X by Walter Dean Meyers Boycott Blues by Andrea Pinkney If a Bus Could Talk by Faith Ringgold Sit-in by Andrea Pinkney. They tried to make sense of the multiple colors they saw in the room and aligned each other according to perceived light or darkness.
I did my best to remain outside the decision-making process while the children reflected on their own identities and allowed the discussion to lead to a decision. After reading Sharon Wyeth's Something Beautiful (2002), my students and I began to investigate what appeared to be honest representations in the book. At a very young age, they had become painfully aware of the sometimes hidden segregation that still seems to have a grip on cities in the South, and perhaps the entire country.
Although the students could not articulate the depth of the reasons for this segregation, they were nevertheless aware that it was happening. We decided it was best to write a letter to the President of the United States. This was an important step towards moving students to the center of an activist community of practice.
We just finished reading Back on the Bus and the students were responding to the concepts of justice and equality. At the conclusion of this first unit, I am still struggling with my role in the classroom. I find that I have to play two roles, the teacher "in" the classroom and the teacher "outside" the classroom.
Yes, they are only in first grade, but they are capable, brave and confident. I look forward to sharing and critiquing some of my favorite counternarratives with students: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, Cinder Edna, and The Stinky Cheese Man all expect to provide some great discussion after the kind of conversation that I have seen so far from my students. This goes far beyond the requirements of the Common Core State Standards, in addition to sending a message to students that they are valued in classroom discourse.
The four corners are not enough: critical literacy, education reform, and the shifting educational sands of common state standards. Samaras and Freese (2009) Looking back and looking forward: a historical overview of the self-study school.
