Step 1: Warmup

Duration: 15 minutes

Implementation:

Students discuss the prompt: In your opinion, what are some qualities of an ideal school?

To probe students, you can provide further questions for brainstorm:

• How should students be treated in school?

• What is the relationship between school and students’ culture?

• What should be done to make students feel welcome?

• How can schools work toward justice?

This can be done in small groups, a whole class discussion, or an independent journal writing before sharing out to the class.

Resources/Materials:

• Slides 1-4 (intro slides, skip if appropriate)

• Slide 5

Assessment: Class discussion

Step 2: Spoken word poetry analysis

Duration: 30 minutes

Purpose: Provide a broad overview of problems in school from a contemporary youth’s perspective. With such a wide range of experiences described in the poem, students will be able to easily relate to the poem and gain investment in the lesson.

Implementation:

Spoken word poetry

• Introduce the poem “Somewhere in America” and the context of the poem (slide 7)

• Play the video of the poem for students. Tell students not to annotate upon the first listen, but just to appreciate the poem and focus on being present, as they will have time to annotate later.

• Give students about 10 minutes to silently re-read the transcript and annotate the poem.

• Students will share their annotations in partners, small groups, or with the class.

Resources/Materials:

• Poem transcript

• Slides 6-9

Assessment: N/A

Step 3: Learn about Ben Menor’s Experience in school (Next Day)

Duration: 15 minutes

Implementation:

• Students will watch Ben Menor’s interview (4:50 >> 6:30)

• Prompt students to think about, write, and/or discuss the following questions:

  • How did this impact Ben Menor and his family?

  • What groups or systems of power are being upheld by the school’s actions?

Resources/Materials:

• Slides 9-10

• Ben Menor’s interview

Assessment: N/A

Jigsaw group work (expert group):

Duration: 35 minutes

Implementation:

• Students will be given a different article about the history of American schooling

• Each student will create a presentation, and can collaborate with other students who have the same topic (expert group)

• The next day, students will be presenting to a group of about 5 other students (each student will present about a different topic)

• Each presentation should include:

  • What group/demographic is being impacted in your article?

  • How are students being treated (verbally, physically, emotionally, etc.)? How did this impact them?

Resources/Materials:

• Slides 11-14

• Education of Black Americans in the early 1900s

• American Schooling in the Philippines

• Education of Mexican Americans in the 1900s

• Native American Boarding Schools

• LGBTQ+ Education Today

Assessment: N/A

Step 5: Students share their presentations with study groups (Next Day):

Duration: 30 minutes

Implementation:

Form new groups so that students are mixed up in a way that everyone in the group has a different topic. Students will present their topics to each other.

Resources/Materials: Slide 15

Assessment: N/A

Step 6: Class Discussion:

Duration: 20 minutes

Implementation:

• What similarities and/or differences did you notice across the schooling experiences of the different groups?

• How did schooling create/perpetuate conditions of oppression for various communities?

• What systems of power (heterosexism, English dominance, white supremacy, etc.) are being upheld in these examples of schooling and how?

• What would a liberatory schooling experience look like?

Resources/Materials: Slides 16-17

Assessment: N/A

Possible Extension:

Show clips of the Vickie Taketa interview and discuss questions about gendered and racialized treatment at home and at school.

Resources/Materials:

• Slides 18-20

• Vickie Taketa Oral History 2