teaching inequality to encourage students to speak about ... · to teach a raisin in the sun...

Teaching Inequality to Encourage Students to Speak about Justice

NJEA

November 9, 2018 9:45-11:15

#njeaconvention

AudreyFischandSusanChenelle

Who we are

�  Audrey A. Fisch is Professor of English and former Coordinator of Secondary English Education at New Jersey City University. Audrey currently serves as President of the New Jersey Council of Teachers of English.

�  Susan Chenelle is Supervisor of Curriculum and

Instruction at University Academy Charter High School in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Tweet us @UsingInfoText #njeaconvention

What we’ve done

We are the authors of the Using Informational Text to Teach Literature series from Rowman & Littlefield.

Using Informational Text to Teach To Kill a Mockingbird (2014), Using Informational Text to Teach A Raisin in the Sun (2016), and Using Informational Text to Teach The Great Gatsby (2018)

Connecting Across Disciplines: Collaborating with Informational Text (2016) uses an article about aggression in fruit flies in connection with Lord of the Flies to explore how teachers across the disciplines can collaborate.

tweet us @usinginfotext #njeaconvention

A response to the Common Core and the focus on informational text


Let’s discuss: Inequality

� When you think of inequality, what words come to mind?

� How often/successfully are we making

space for conversation about inequality and justice in our classrooms?


Why canonical literary texts?

�  the most commonly taught texts in high school in the United States (we are already teaching many of these texts, but are we doing so meaningfully and with purpose?)

�  engage many of the most common, basic American themes: the American Dream, justice and fair play

tweet us @usinginfotext ##njeaconvention

Are we teaching these texts meaningfully and with purpose?

THE RISK:

�  For us: chock-full of the kind of literary symbols and literary language that so many English teachers find compelling

�  The reality for students: “Yes, we studied it my junior year of high school. Yes, I read the novel, but I do not remember much of it. It was pleasurable in some areas, but difficult to read alone at first. I enjoyed discussing it in class. There was the American dream theme, chasing lost dreams, and the wealthy upper class society. We also talked about there being a lot of symbolism. Other than that, I don't recall much.”


Or worse:

“Honestly, I never finished Gatsby. I read half of it and then gave up because I just did not enjoy it. I sparknoted the rest of the novel to get by in class. I did not like the hype surrounding it at the time either, because the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio had just come out and everyone was making it out to be something amazing and it just fell short for me. The only theme that I can vaguely remember about Gatsby was the green light across the water holding a meaning deeper than it just being a green light. But, I do not remember what the deeper meaning was.” tweet us @usinginfotext #njeaconvention

Purpose and essential questions

�  As Cris Tovani notes (2000), it is all too common that without a clear purpose for reading, even relatively diligent and well-intentioned students learn to “fake-read” early on, as she did, and are able to get by doing so all the way through high school (4-5).

�  Unless we foreground the big ideas and essential questions we hope to address in relation to the text (Wiggins & McTighe 2014; Burke 2010), students are likely to have little sense of the purpose of their reading.

�  Now, more than ever, we need to find ways to make the classroom a safe space for difficult but critical conversations (Chadwick 2016) about the troubling world we live in.


Purpose and essential questions

�  As teachers, we want our students to discover their own voices.

�  Our students deserve stories that impact who they are and who they can become.

�  Our classrooms can be places where our students discover who they are, who they might become, and the issues that they care about.

(from NJEA Convention call for proposals)


What concerns or obstacles come to mind?

What concerns do you have about finding purpose in the classroom, helping students engage in difficult conversations, and creating space for student voices?


Yes, this can be scary, but we need to do it

�  If students don't learn how to engage in thoughtful, evidence-based, civil discussions about topics in class with actual peers they have to relate with in the room, then the only place they likely see or hear discourse about such issues is via social media or 2nd or 3rd hand from family or friends.

�  How can we use the classroom to ameliorate the lack of civil discourse in our society?


Our plan for today: Finding ways to create space for discussion of inequality and justice

�  Step 1: Unpacking examples of injustice and inequality in these canonical texts

�  Step 2: Looking out for connections/including more challenging contextualizing texts

�  Step 3: Writing prompts that encourage critical thinking, creativity, and student voice


White nationalism jumps right out of Gatsby

“You make me feel uncivilized, Daisy,” I confessed …. I meant nothing by this remark, but it was taken up in an unexpected way. “Civilization’s going to pieces,” broke out Tom violently. “I’ve gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things. Have you read `The Rise of the Colored Empires’ by this man Goddard?” … “Well, it’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved....” “This fellow has worked out the whole thing. It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.”


Writing task: Writing from the margins

While Gatsby is a novel concerned with the lives of wealthy white people, it is also populated along the margins with characters who are specifically identified as different in terms of race, ethnicity, and class. Consider these marginal characters and the ways in which they are represented and identified: �  What sort of language is used to describe them? What do they add to

the novel? �  Why, especially for the marginal characters, do you think Fitzgerald

includes them and chooses to describe and identify them as he does? �  How does attention to them and to their race, ethnic, or class identity

add to your understanding of the world of white privilege at the center of Gatsby?


Goddard is Lothrop Stoddard

•  well-known advocate of white supremacy in the 1920s •  ideas were widely spread by the media •  cited by President Harding tweet us @usinginfotext #njeaconvention

And/or Henry H. Goddard

•  Prominent psychologist and intelligence researcher

•  Coined the term “moron” in order to categorize with more scientific precision those he considered cognitively disabled

•  Conducted tests in 1913 of immigrants (Italians, Jews, Hungarians, and Russians) at Ellis Island

•  Claimed “that half of such a group of immigrants [is] feeble-minded” and that this group of immigrants “is of a decidedly different character from the earlier immigration … we are now getting the poorest of each race”

•  The year after Goddard presented his findings, deportation numbers for “feeble-mindedness” doubled


Stoddard and The Rising Tide of Color

One fact should be clearly understood: If America is not true to her own race-soul, she will inevitably lose it…. If we cheat our country and the world of the splendid promise of American life, we shall have no one to blame but ourselves, and we shall deserve, not pity, but contempt…. Out of the prehistoric shadows the white races pressed to the front and proved in myriad ways their fitness for the hegemony of mankind. Gradually they forged a common civilization; then, …they spread over the earth, filling its empty spaces with their superior breeds…. All these marvellous achievements were due solely to superior heredity, and the mere maintenance of what had been won depended absolutely upon the prior maintenance of race-values….


Writing tasks: De-centering Gatsby

Like all powerful writers, Stoddard uses language carefully to influence his readers. Write a short essay in which you describe and analyze how Stoddard’s rhetoric frames his ideas. Consider, then, how powerful language can serve ugly ideas.


De-centering Gatsby: A student response

Words are organic; constantly redefining themselves, but their power- whether it be to destroy or restore, remains stable. The duality of words is exemplified in Lothrop Stoddard’s The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy. Instead of using words to uplift people in the 1920s, Stoddard utilizes the power of words to advocate oppression and devaluation of anyone not belonging to the Nordic race. He addresses the danger the Nordic race could undergo if they continue to allow people of different races to emigrate into the United States.


Another student voices her strong response

In all, Stoddard’s powerful use of language in order to successfully deliver ugly ideas to the people belonging to the 1920s mirrors the Republican candidate Donald Trump, during the 2016 Presidential Campaign. Throughout his campaign, he left an imprint on the American people because of his arrogance and insensitive comments directed to immigrants. Similar to Stoddard, Trump accuses immigrants of being a burden and of possessing personal flaws such as being involved in horrific crimes like rape and drugs, which have the potential to mutilate the American society rather than advance it, thus, sharing mutual feelings on the importance of preventing immigrants from entering the country illegally. In addition, according to history.com, during the 1920s it was estimated that there was a total of 4 million members making up the Ku Klux Klan (K.K.K), proving that Stoddard’s manipulation of words hypnotized people to believe and therefore accuse immigrants of being a threat. This can also be said for Donald Trump, who won the majority of votes and was declared President of the United States because of his “beautiful” deliverance of ugly ideas.


Here’s another way to start this conversation

Discuss these different covers for The Rising Tide of Color. What does the cover art suggest to you about this text?


Writing outside the box: Analyzing cover art

Review the different cover images for Stoddard’s volume and select the one you think best suits a new film version of Gatsby. Think about whether you would use the same cover image for Tom’s copy of The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy as for Gatsby’s copy of Stoddard’s work. How will you use this image of the Stoddard cover in your film? For example, will you simply have the book on display on a coffee table in the New York City apartment in chapter 2?


Reflections on creative work

In 1-2 pages, write a reflection in which you explain why your treatment best reflects your understanding of Stoddard’s ideas and their relevance to Gatsby. Be sure to explain how your choices reflect Tom’s views about “civilization” as evidenced in Gatsby and as reflective of ideas about white supremacy circulating broadly in the world of Gatsby.


Moving to the present day with easy-to-find newspaper articles

�  Trump (7/18): “Allowing the immigration to take place in Europe is a shame,” Trump said. “I think it changed the fabric of Europe and, unless you act very quickly, it’s never going to be what it was and I don’t mean that in a positive way.”

�  “So I think allowing millions and millions of people to come into Europe is very, very sad,” he continued. “I think you are losing your culture. Look around. You go through certain areas that didn’t exist ten or 15 years ago.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/07/13/trumps-

comments-on-european-immigration-mirror-white-nationalist-rhetoric/


Creating a space in the classroom or private writing for students to think about and discuss current issues

�  Pat Buchanan (6/18): “The existential question . . . remains: How does the West, America included, stop the flood tide of migrants before it alters forever the political and demographic character of our nations and our civilization?”

�  “We are truly dealing here with an ideology of Western suicide. If Europe does not act, its future is predictable. The population of Africa, right across the Mediterranean, is anticipated to climb to 2.5 billion by midcentury. And by 2100, Africa will be home to half of all the people of the planet.”

https://www.creators.com/read/pat-buchanan/06/18/trump-and-the-invasion-of-the-west


Connecting to discourse on social media


Congressional Representative Steve King of Iowa:

Similarities and differences: Tom Buchanan and Roseanne Barr

�  What could have provoked Roseanne, at the peak of her comeback in 2018, to offer her racist comments about Valerie Jarrett? Her eponymous show was rated third most popular on network television and had been picked up for another season.

�  Yet she chose to lash out at Jarrett, a former senior adviser to President Obama.

�  How, at this moment, was Jarrett a threat? Why would Jarrett have merited attack? Why did Roseanne need to bully someone and what made Jarrett a worthy target?


In response to a tweet that accused Valerie Jarrett of helping to cover-up alleged misdeeds by the Obama administration

Similarities and differences: Tom Buchanan and Roseanne Barr

�  As we read the opening pages of Gatsby, we meet Tom Buchanan, who would seem to be on top of his world. He is wealthy and powerful: Yale, a heroic football background, “one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven,” and enormous family wealth.

�  Yet, Tom is cruel: He has “a rather hard mouth,” “arrogant eyes,” and “a cruel body.”

�  The object of Tom’s cruelty in chapter 1 of Gatsby is people of color. For reasons that are never explained by Fitzgerald, Tom is obsessed by “The Rise of the Colored Empires” by Goddard and the idea that “if we don’t look out the white race will be – will be utterly submerged.”

�  To be clear, Tom, at the very top of the food chain, is worried that his kind are in danger of being utterly submerged by people of color. What? Why? Why the paranoia and cruelty, why the insecurity and gratuitous vitriol from someone at the pinnacle of power?


Paul Piff: “Does money make you mean?”

Discussion of a series of fascinating social psychology experiments that explore how wealth, power, and privilege breed greed, a diminution of empathy, and unethical behavior


Let’s listen: “Does money make you mean?”


Discuss

�  What do you notice?

�  What connections can you make with this bit of text?


Paul Piff: Okay, so it was quickly apparent to players that something was up. One person clearly has a lot more money than the other person, and yet, as the game unfolded, we saw very notable differences and dramatic differences begin to emerge between the two players. The rich player started to move around the board louder, literally smacking the board with his/her piece as he/she went around. We were more likely to see signs of dominance and nonverbal signs, displays of power and celebration among the rich players.

A Detour from Gatsby?

Paul Piff and Roseanne may seem like a detour from your usual reading of Gatsby, but these connections offer an important opportunity to help your students use their critical thinking: �  to make insightful connections between the past and

the present; �  to better understand the impacts of the various cultural

and political discourses across the range of media – from Fitzgerald’s novel to social media – they encounter on a daily basis.

tweet us @usinginfotext #PCTELA18

What are you seeing here?

Discuss!

A window into A Raisin in the Sun

In the photo on the left, Betty and Donald Howard put up plywood in their home to protect against objects thrown through their windows. The photo on the right shows the number of police outside the Trumbull Park Homes. What do these images suggest about the situation the Howards faced? What do they suggest about what the Youngers might face in moving to Clybourne Park?

Essential Question: Do people have the right to live wherever they want, even if they are not wanted?

A report by the Chicago Commission on Human Relations detailing the daily violence and harassment endured by African-American families who moved into the Trumbull Park Homes in Chicago beginning in August 1953.

Do people have the right to live wherever they want, even if they are not wanted?

discrimination has become less blatant? Why and how do you think housing discrimination continues, despite laws like the not changed in the United States since that time. Use evidence from Raisin and the HUD report in your response.

Extend thinking: Put texts into dialogue

Bombs in Raisin? A Raisin in the Sun contains one reference to a bombing. In the very beginning of the play, Walter references an item in the Chicago newspaper, The Tribune: “Set off another bomb yesterday.” Hansberry has Ruth respond, “(Maximum indifference) Did they?” Given what you’ve read about the prevalence of housing violence directed at African-American families in this moment, what do you think of this brief exchange between Walter and Ruth? What do you think of Ruth’s indifference? Do you think Hansberry is suggesting a bomb of the type directed at the Trumbull Park homes discussed in the Commission Report? Why or why not? Why do you think Hansberry would leave this reference deliberately vague and non-specific?

Some writing prompts

Task: The Younger family has moved into their new home in Clybourne Park. Based on their apprehensions as well as events detailed in the “Trumbull Park Home Disturbances” report, what will happen in that first night?

¡  Write a brief report of the Younger family’s first night in the neighborhood as an appendix to the Trumbull Park commission report.

¡  Write a brief new scene for Raisin, in which you describe events inside and outside the Youngers’ Clybourne Park home on the first night of their occupancy of the house.

¡  Write a newspaper editorial for The Daily Calumet about the Younger’s first night in Clybourne Park.

Is America the Land of Opportunity?

�  A short YouTube video called “The Racial Wealth Gap in America,” produced and based on research by the Urban Institute, uses snazzy but super-fast graphics to review the wealth gap in America.

�  This video lays out the issues quickly; students will likely need multiple viewings to take in all the information presented.


Is America the Land of Opportunity?


Discuss!

1.  What connections might you make with a video like “The Racial Wealth Gap in America”?

2.  How might you use it? 3.  What challenges does it pose?


Our model for using informational texts

•  Find an engaging informational text and some kind of multimedia clip

•  Cut! Use excerpts

•  Front-load key vocabulary words (not too many!) and concepts

•  Use sidebar reading prompts to promote active reading

•  Use multiple-choice questions informally to check for understanding and practice test-taking skills

•  Use open-ended questions to extend thinking and develop literacy skills across the disciplines

•  End with a class activity that gives students opportunities to use content area knowledge for authentic purposes


Find an outline of this model as well as our suggestions for where to find compelling nonfiction on our website: www.usinginformationaltext.org

Informational texts allow students to see why these literary texts matter and provide ways to think and talk about difficult issues

In our work with A Raisin in the Sun, where we put Hansberry’s play into conversation with an account of the violence associated with desegregating the Trumbull Park Homes in Chicago, students wrote:

�  the informational text “made the play more relevant … to understand racial discrimination.”

�  “My favorite part was when we got to understand real discrimination, facts, and actual stories.”


What the students said about the challenge of informational text Do you find informational texts challenging?

Do you find informational texts easy? Not sure or no response

15% 66% 19%

Did you find the Chicago Commission Report more challenging than Raisin?

Did you find the Chicago Commission Report less challenging than Raisin?

Not sure or no response

63% 36% 1%

Did reading the Chicago Commission Report make reading Raisin more challenging?

Did reading the Chicago Commission Report make reading Raisin less challenging?

Not sure or no response

0% 66% 34%

Informational texts build intellectual curiosity and confidence

�  89% of the students indicated that they found Mockingbird “more interesting”

�  63% reported that our study had made Mockingbird somewhat or much easier to understand

�  58% indicated a desire to read more of Watchman �  47% wanted to read more about the conditions of

domestic workers


We taught a cluster of texts to a group of 9th graders around domestic workers in connection with To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman.

THANK YOU!

Audrey Fisch [email protected]

Susan Chenelle

[email protected]

www.usinginformationaltext.com @usinginfotext


teaching inequality to encourage students to speak about ... · to teach a raisin in the sun...

Documents