Essential Questions

1. What motivates people to try to change the world?

2. How do people find connections with individuals who live and think differently than themselves? 

3. How can storytelling build trust and empathy?

4. Is history progress or patterns? Are we doomed to repeat history or does learning history lead to progress and change?

Learning Intentions Upon completing this Module, students will:

1. Be more aware and supportive of those different than themselves;

2. Understand the importance of using humility when interacting with a diversity of others;

3. Listen with empathy;

4. Recognize patterns of discrimination;

5. Understand how art can raise awareness, and promote action toward positive change;

Success Criteria

1. I can write poetry to take action against discrimination and racism.

2. I will use the windows and mirrors strategy to engage in direct discussion with people different from me.

Learning Outline

This 4-hour module is on the Marian’s Story: Callings Toward Equity video presentation by Marian Howe-Taylor. It can be taught as a whole learning experience, or in chosen sections as time allows:  

• 75 minutes: Launch Activity– Exploring Identity: Window Or Mirror?

• 15 minutes: While Viewing– Listening With Empathy.

• 15 minutes: Post-Viewing– Safe To Brave.

• 75 minutes: Demonstration– Poetry As A Pathway To Positive Change.

75 minutes: Making Connections–Speaking Out With Spoken Word Poetry.

Launch Activity–Pre-Viewing: Exploring Identity: Window Or Mirror?

[75 min]

[Learning Intentions 1, 2, 5]

Procedures:

1. Hook: 1 min chatstorm. Ask students, “What does our class/ group have in common?” Tell them to put their answers in the chat. Read some of them out loud and acknowledge their responses.

2. Tell Students: Just as we have things in common, all of us have things that are different, making us diverse. We are going to explore diversity by honoring each other’s lived experiences.

3. We’re going to call the things we have in common - that reflect our own identities and experiences “Mirrors.” The ways in which we are different, things that provide insight into the identities, experiences and motivations of others we will call “Windows.” This will help us practice understanding multiple points of view.

4. Explain that practicing “Humility” is critical when learning about diversity. It pushes us to recognize that our own ideas and opinions are only part of the story and that other people may have access to pieces of the puzzle that we don’t know about. (Refer to Appendix A for definitions of racism, discrimination, humility, etc.)

5. Activity: Introduce the activity by telling students: We are going to share our own identity and also learn about our peers’ identities by doing an art project. (It would be beneficial to create your own mask, shoebox, or padlet wall to model the activity.)

   1. Low Tech Modality: Have students decorate the outside of a shoebox or plastic mask with images, words or phrases that represent their culture and community. Examples can include things like “french ancestry,” “family of actors,” ``first-generation American citizen.” Inside the box or next to the mask can be real artifacts, images, or descriptions of objects that have shaped them and represent their unique background and experience. 

   2. High Tech Modality: In the Padlet platform, select the canvas template. Ask them to generate a representation of their culture and community using text, links, images, drawings, voice memos, etc.  Once they have a collection of ideas, they can rearrange as desired. 

   3. Explain that they are about to share their box, mask, or padlet canvas with their peers in small groups.  Peer Feedback: After each person has shared, the others will share things that were “Windows” for them (things they have not experienced and presented a new perspective) and things that were “Mirrors”(things they share with the presenter and too have experienced). 

   4. Put students into small breakout groups to share their identity art.

   5. After sharing have students answer the following questions

      1. What were the “Windows?” What did you learn about your classmates that you didn’t know before?

      2. What were the “Mirrors?” What do you have in common with your classmates?

      3. How are your classmates different from each other?

      4. Did you learn anything about them that might affect how you interact with or treat them? Why?

6. Tell students: When people don’t understand others and don’t exercise humility when interacting with people who are different from them, discrimination is often the result. 

7. Tell them we are going to watch a 15 min film called Marian’s Story: Callings Toward Equity.  Read the following out loud: Salt Lake activist and co-founder of Black Social Change Utah, Marian Howe-Taylor takes us on a personal journey of discovering what it means to be a black female in the United States.  Her awareness of the inequalities between blacks and whites began during the desegregation of the Boston public schools in the 1970s, and racism followed her to Utah where she moved in 1998. Now one of Utah's prominent change leaders and storytellers, Marian shares her harrowing tales of discrimination, using them as a call to action, with a message that these things are still happening and positive change requires that we all do our part.

While Viewing: Listening With Empathy.

[15 min]

[Learning Intentions 3,4]

Procedures:

1. Tell students that while watching Marian’s Story: Callings Toward Equity, they are to practice listening with empathy:. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. 

2. Give students “Marian’s Story- Worksheet.” Tell them: In the first column record any acts of racism and discrimination you hear while watching Marian’s Story. In column 2, record whether what the act is a “Mirror,” something in your lived experience,  or a “Window,” something that is new and giving you a new perspective. In column 3, imagine being in Marian’s shoes and record your feelings. Try to understand how Marian felt, and how you would feel if you were in her shoes.

3. In the space below the chart, have them write 2-3 things they found most surprising, disturbing, confusing, or memorable. 

Post-Viewing: Safe To Brave.

[15 min]

[Learning Intentions 3,4]

Procedures: 

1. You just heard Marian share some very intimate and brave stories of times when she was discriminated against.

2. Have students share (by raising their hand)

   1. How did you practice listening with empathy? 

   2. What did you find most disturbing, surprising, confusing, or memorable?

3. Ask students to pick one of the scenarios Marian described and discuss a resolution. Was there was a teaching moment in any of Marian’s stories of discrimination?  Discussion prompts (optional):

   1. What happened on the rioting streets in Boston during the public school desegregation? 

   2. What happened at Dillards after the woman mistook Marian for ‘the help’?

   3. What happened after Marian’s house got destroyed before moving in?

4. Tell students: Marian is very brave to tell these stories. We often try to sweep racism and discussing racism under the rug because it feels unsafe, makes us feel uncomfortable, or feels inappropriate. But being too safe can lead to an environment that is too polite, where we can’t ask difficult questions for fear they will hurt someone’s feelings or be labeled as racist, sexist, or homophobic. We need to be brave enough to discuss these issues, while actively listening to opposing views, practicing humility, and sharing lived experiences. 

5. (Optional) For more strategies you can share with students on how to discuss controversial issues in the classroom:

   1. Choosing a Teaching Strategy for Teaching Controversial IssuesTeaching Strategies- Facing History and Ourselves

   2. Educational Equity Resource- Utah State Board of Education

   3. How to Hold A Classroom Debate- TeachHub

   4. Community Inquiry Teaching Strategies- Learning For Justice

   5. Teaching Controversial Issues: Taking Classrooms from Safe to Brave

Would You Rather Questions- iCivics

6. Practice:  Practice with current events, or use this question as a discussion prompt: Is history progress or patterns? Are we doomed to repeat history or does learning history lead to progress and change?

Demonstration: Art As A Pathway To Positive Change.

[75 min]

[Learning Intention 5]

Procedures:

1. Tell the students: For our arts integration project we are going to write a spoken word poem. What about Marian’s Story and learning more about your classmates’ identities inspires you? 

2. Tell students: I am going to share a few spoken word poems with you, for inspiration.  We will start with Amanda Gorman’s, The Hill We Climb (5:52 min- this link includes a full transcript of the poem). She wrote and recited this poem to celebrate the 2021 inauguration of Joe Biden as 46th President of the United States. The poem celebrates the U.S. not as a "perfect union," but as a country that has the grit to struggle with its all-too-real problems. (Optional Discussion Questions) 

   1. What does she mean when she says, “History has its eyes on you.”? 

   2. Do you see yourself represented (Mirrored) within the lines of this poem? If so, where? *Note: Go to the “Dig Deeper” section in this module to access a full lesson plan (grades 6-12) based on this poem. 

3. In Marian’s Story: Callings Toward Equity video you heard Marian recite a poem called Midway, by Naomi Long Madgett that spoke to Marian at 14 years old and still inspires her today. Let’s revisit the poem again. (Optional: play the segment of Marian reciting Midway starting at 10 min).

Naomi Long Madgett: Midway (1959)

I've come this far to freedom and I won't turn back

I'm climbing to the highway from my old dirt track

     I'm coming and I'm going

     And I'm stretching and I'm growing

And I'll reap what I've been sowing or my skin's not black 

I've prayed and slaved and waited and I've sung my song

You've bled me and you've starved me but I've still grown strong

     You've lashed me and you've treed me 

     And you've everything but freed me

But in time you'll know you need me and it won't be long. 

I've seen the daylight breaking high above the bough

I've found my destination and I've made my vow;

     So whether you abhor me 

     Or deride me or ignore me

Mighty mountains loom before me and I won't stop now. 

4. Discuss the poem by asking students: 

1. What is the central message of the poem?

2. After hearing Marian's experience, why do you think this poem spoke to her that day she found it in the school library?

3. Read a note out loud from Naomi Long Madgett: ["Midway was first published in Freedomways in 1959, but I think I wrote it in 1958. The poem grew out of a discussion with a friend that acknowledged that the Supreme Court desegregation ruling, which legalized racial justice for the first time, led to the determination of Black people to move forward and never again accept the status quo."]

5. Tell students: For our arts integration activity you are going to write a spoken word poem connected to the issues of identity, membership, and belonging. To inspire you, we are going to listen to two poems, written and delivered by youth.

6. Ask students to get out a blank piece of paper and a pen to be prepared for the “rapid-fire writing” exercise right after they listen to each poem. This exercise will help them process the poems.

7. Play Jonathan Lykes’ award-winning spoken word poem, Perception (4:08), which explores how prejudice influences our decisions about helping others. 

8. Think, Write, Read, Repeat- Using a timer, lead students through this series of steps:

1 min: Quiet thought; no writing.

3 min: Write (try not to stop writing the entire time).

1 min: Read and circle three main ideas (words or phrases) from what you have written. No writing during this time. You can read, reread, and think, but do not start writing again.

2 min: Write.

30 sec: Read and put a square around one word or phrase.

1 min: Write.

9. Wraparound (if you are in a classroom)/Chatstorm (if you are online): Tell students you would like to hear the single word or phrase that they boxed. Either have students say what they boxed around in a round robin rapid response; or invite them into a chatstorm with one minute to type their boxed word into the chatroom.

10. Play spoken word poem (3:19) by Amina Iro and Hannah Halpern who confront Muslim and Jewish stereotypes. They recited this poem onstage at the 2013 Brave New Voices quarter finals. Repeat the Think, Write, Read, Repeat exercise. Repeat Wraparound/or Chatstorm.

11. Tell students they are now going to create their own spoken word poetry.

Speaking Out With Spoken Word Poetry.

[75 min]

[Learning Intention 5]

Procedures:

1. Tell students they are going to write their own spoken word poems.  Give students the Spoken Word Poetry worksheet and ask them to write a journal entry that responds to a line from Naomi Long Madgett’s Midway poem. 

2. (Optional) Replay the poems from the ‘Demonstration’ section or go to the Dig Deeper section and under poetry there are links to other poems.

3. Students can then use their journal entries as a starting place for their poems. You might include mini-lessons about literary devices such as imagery, figurative language, alliteration, consonance, dissonance, assonance, and repetition. 

4. After students have written, workshopped, and revised their poems, celebrate with an “author’s chair,” where students share their poems with the class. Other options to share:

   1. Publish them in a class book.

   2. Start a private YouTube channel and record and post students reciting their poetry.

   3. Hold a poetry slam (online or with a live audience).

Invite students to “dig deeper” on these topics by providing additional options for research and reflection about identity, membership, belonging and poetry as a pathway for change.

Try-it-Out: Learning about others and understanding more about who they are and what they identify with is a great pathway to truly appreciating diversity. Try taking the time to learn about the grocer on the corner, or the restaurant owner in your neighborhood. What do “Windows” (things you learn that are new to you)  and “Mirrors” (things you share in your lived experiences) do for you? Does learning about other people who are different front you make you more distant; or does it do the opposite? Try it out. 

Blog Posts

How Two Teenagers Created a Textbook For Racial Literacy

Videos

Malala Fund YouTube Channel Featuring Amanda Gorman

Poetry

Poetry Foundation- for additional poems to bring into your classroom. Check out Poems of Protest, Resistance, and Empowerment.

Lesson Plans

Hill To Climb- by 826 Digital. Students discuss the inaugural poem by Amanda Gorman and then write their own in response to it. 

Articles (A few of these articles require a sign-in to Newsela but they are worth it!) 

National Youth Poet Laureate Finalists 2021

Urban Word- Founded in 1999, Urban Word NYC is one of oldest and most comprehensive youth literary arts organizations in the United States. Home to the largest teen poetry slam in NYC and the National Youth Poet Laureate program 

Maya Angelou To Appear on U.S. Quarter

Websites

Victor Valley College Learning Resource Center- The information on this site will assist you with choosing a controversial topic and finding research materials presenting both sides of an issue. 

Newsela - Pro/Con section A great way for teachers and students to explore issues and look at multiple sides of an argument

Pro/Con.org- promotes civility, critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting the pro and con arguments to debatable issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan, freely accessible way.

Middle Ground School Solutions helps educators face the challenges of a polarized society. Curriculum and programming position students to navigate lines of ideological divide, and customized workshops equip teachers to model the attitudes and behavior they wish to instill in students. Ultimately, Middle Ground School Solutions helps today’s young people grow into the tolerant, curious, and cooperative citizenry of tomorrow.

Facing History and Ourselves is a global educational organization that reaches millions of students worldwide every year. Using the lessons of history — and history in the making — Facing History equips teachers to provide students with the skills to think critically and wrestle with difficult issues. 

The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the most important challenges facing the United States and the world. 

Documentary Films

(Political films that are about moments of change have most defined the country’s evolution) 

• Crip Nation- On the heels of Woodstock, a group of teen campers are inspired to join the fight for disability civil rights. This spirited look at grassroots activism is executive produced by President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. 

• Selma- (Trailer)Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 legally desegregated the South, discrimination was still rampant in certain areas, making it very difficult for blacks to register to vote. In 1965, an Alabama city became the battleground in the fight for suffrage. Despite violent opposition, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his followers pressed forward on an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, and their efforts culminated in President Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Dolores- (Trailer) Raising 11 children while wrestling with gender bias, union defeat and victory, and nearly dying after a San Francisco Police beating, Dolores Huerta bucks 1950s gender conventions to co-found the country's first farmworkers' union.