“Which Truck is the Best Choice?” A story of Authentic Motivation to do an Inquiry Project

By: Priscila J.B.M. Costa and Felipe Costa

The Ignition

It was September, a couple of months into the outbreak of COVID-19, and school buildings were closed for in-person learning. My son was beginning his 5^th grade year and working on schoolwork virtually through daily Google Meets and several other learning platforms. We also decided to give him a smartphone to help develop better digital literacy skills. One day, while I was driving and running errands, he blurted from the backseat, “Mom, I don’t understand! This website says the Ford F-450 is the best, but at the end, it says that GMC 3500HD is better than the Ford. It doesn’t make any sense.”

As an educator and language teacher, I saw a teaching opportunity. His elementary school was a school of choice created as a national demonstration site for inquiry-based instruction. Souto-Manning et al. (2010) describe well the vision of the school and how teachers approach self-motivated inquiry. Felipe attended this particular school for two years and already learned how to take agency over his own inquiry projects. His interest in the topic of trucks was a motivating factor to use his inquiry skills on a real-life problem. It was also an opportunity to build a new digital literacy skill.

I said, “I can’t read what is on the website because I am driving now, but you can tell me more about what you are reading.”

“I’m searching which truck is the best, but in this website sometimes they say one thing, and then they say the opposite. Why don’t they make up their minds?” he asked.

“I agree. That does not make sense. Is it the same person writing the whole article, or are there several people sharing their opinions about various trucks?”

He described what he saw on the screen of his phone, “I think there is a question at the top, and people write their answers. One person wrote the Ford F-450 is better because it has more torque. It is a stronger work truck. Then, I continued reading, and there is this other person who said that the GMC 3500HD is better because it has more internal space and it is more comfortable.”

The Road to Learning

He was engaged in reading and motivated to find an answer. I pictured a Quora style forum. Reading that kind of multimodal genre requires specific literacy skills. The New London Group (1996) proposed the concept of multiliteracies, which expands the conventional definition of literacy to encompass reading texts in many other modalities beyond print. It includes new media such as all the digital resources offered by mobile devices and the Internet (Kalantzis & Cope, n.d., 2015). Jones and Hafner (2012) explain that “digital literacies involve not just being able to ‘operate’ tools like computers and mobile phones, but also the ability to adapt the affordances and constraints of these tools to particular circumstances” (p. 13).

In this circumstance, I replied to him, “That sounds like a discussion forum. It is a website where anyone can ask questions about any topic, and people who know about that topic can join and give their answers. Some answers are better than others. Some are based on facts, like scientific research, and others are just their opinions based on experience. Are those answers about the trucks based on truck facts?”

“Well, there are some facts. Like, the first one says that the Ford F-450 has 1050 lb-ft of torque. That is a fact. The other says that the GMC 3500HD has a softer suspension and it rides smoother, and that is also a fact,” he answered.

I continued asking, “Look at those facts. I don’t know much about trucks, but it sounds like they are not about the same features. I believe they are comparing apples to oranges. Why is that?”

Parking for a Lesson

He explained, “I think it depends on their opinion on what makes a good truck. Some people want a heavy-duty truck to use for work or to pull a big trailer. Other people prefer comfort and space when they use the truck to travel. So, at the end, when you read these answers, you can make your own decision depending on what you prefer for a truck.”

“And what is your conclusion?” I finally asked.

He concluded, “For me, the Ford F-450 is better because I want to have more power than comfort.”

Great! He built a literacy skill then and there. In this micro inquiry, he was able to make a critical analysis of the data he collected from the online forum. His engagement with the topic gave him motivation to read critically from a digital source and address his question. All those skills can be transferred to his academic work now that he is in middle school, because they help him read in search of information.

References

Jones, R. H., & Hafner, C. A. (2012). Understanding digital literacies: A Practical introduction. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (n.d.). Kalantzis and Cope on New Media Literacies: Technology’s Impacts on Communication [Com]. New Learning Online. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://newlearningonline.com/literacies/chapter-2/kalantzis-and-cope-on-new-media-literacies

Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2015). Learning and New Media. In D. Scott & E. Hargreaves (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Learning (pp. 373–387). SAGE.

New London Group. (1996). A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–92.

Souto-Manning, M., Mills, H., & O’Keefe, T. (2010). Teacher as Researcher: Collaborative Inquiry: From Kidwatching to Responsive Teaching. Childhood Education, 86(3), 169–171. https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2010.10523141

About the Authors

Priscila J.B.M. Costa is an international doctoral student in Language and Literacy, a Holmes Scholar Alumna, and an adjunct instructor in the First Year English program at the University of South Carolina.

Felipe Costa is a bilingual 6th-grader and a truck expert.

Which Came First – Motivation or Engagement?

Teaching

By: Charlene Aldrich, retired literacy instructor

To be or not to be.

Which came first – the chicken or the egg?

Do motivated students engage in learning more often and/or at higher levels?

Does active engagement result in highly motivated students?

Rhetorical questions? Maybe not! Because it’s every teacher’s desire to instruct highly engaged and motivated students, let’s look at how to achieve this outcome!

Engagement and Motivation

Human engagement begins at birth. Motivation to survive is instinctual; crying demands engagement. Survival is assured. John Bowbly writes that a newborn’s “need for attachment” motivates the demand for engagement. Engagement/attachment is achieved through proximity which fosters personal security. Similarly, Abraham Maslow theorizes that physiological and safety needs must be met prior to love and belonging needs. These are prerequisite for esteem and self-actualization to develop. Innate needs motivate engagement prior to high order needs.

If you have disengaged students, are they missing attachment, sustenance, safety, love, and belonging? And is it possible that Erik Erikson implies that instructional engagement as a result of motivation to learn stems from trust and autonomy needs being met?

Motivational factors: survival, protection, love, belonging – all before esteem and self actualization resulting from education

Engagement strategies: tears, proximity, physical contact – these preface acting out, poor academic performance, and feigned illness behaviors in students.

I’ve not told you anything that you haven’t already studied as educators; it’s just that the silo you live in has been built around the here and now. You may have lost access to vital background knowledge that enables you to discern students’ missing needs that stifle motivation and interfere with engagement. But it’s never too late to adopt new instructional practices and classroom language!

Dr. Timothy Shanahan says that challenging texts are motivating! Struggling students may be struggling readers who lack motivation as a result of “baby text” assignments that require no effort. Audio-visual instruction is passive learning; audio books are not a substitute for individual, independent, active reading. Students must be actively engaged in reading and writing to learn, retain, and apply content. Reading and writing processes require active engagement; changing groups every ten minutes is not active engagement.

Challenging, complex texts demand grit. Teachers who engage students with literacy process practices empower them to accept challenges, persevere, and experience success! Angela Duckworth says grit is the best indicator of future earnings and happiness – factors connected with success and a satisfying life. Accomplishments as the result of hard work are motivating! Participation ribbons are not. Carol Dweck says that the word ‘yet’ is amazing to motivate continued engagement in learning. When teachers believe that more is possible, striving students believe it as well!

The Impact of Open-Ended Questions

My personal favorite way to engage students in challenging reading and writing assignments is with open-ended questions. Every answer has value as a way to shape discussion where the teacher wants it to go. There are no wrong answers! Teachers adapt, reframe, and ask additional leading questions. Each student can experience a place of belonging in an atmosphere that builds corporate knowledge.

“What do you know about…?” opens the discussion on a new topic or introduces a complex text.

“What do you recognize in this word…?” enables students to use visual clues to construct meaning from unfamiliar words.

“What did you read about?” paves the way for main ideas, details, and outlines.

“What happened?” is the foundation for summaries.

And when we follow-up with HOW and WHY questions, we lead students onto the path of critical thinking. “Prove it” is like a double-dare to students. “I don’t know; find out and tell us.” shows our humanness and need to continue OUR education as well. You will probably have to throw in bonus points as tangible reinforcement on the way to inherent satisfaction from learning.

Listen to yourself asking questions. I think you’ll find that “Does anyone know……” is the phrase of choice. This is not an open-ended question; it is binary. That begs a yes or no answer. Striving students and striving readers disengage from the lesson because their head voice says “no.”

Open-ended quick-writes such as bell-ringers and exit tickets allow students to become agents of their own learning:

“What was interesting to you about our topic today?”
“What was confusing?”
“How does today’s topic connect to our lessons earlier in the week?”
“What is something good about today?” “How did you spend your weekend?” “What are you looking forward to this weekend?”
“How does this relate to your career plans?”

Questions don’t always have to be about content! But they DO need to be thought-provoking, sincere, and unpredictable.

You see at the end of the day, ‘correct’ answers and written responses are not as valuable as an answer that a student can support from reading and then, communicate freely in a written response. Correct answers can be found online; students’ answers are found in their brains as a result of active engagement in learning, motivated by successful prior experiences.

And when all else fails, offer chocolate…..

References (in order)

https://www.simplypsychology.org/bowlby.html
https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html
https://shanahanonliteracy.com/publications/teaching-with-complex-text-1
Duckworth, A. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, 2016, Simon & Schuster
Dweck, C. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, updated edition 12/26/2007, Ballentine Books

About the Author

After 20 years of growing literacy in under-prepared college students, Charlene retired to focus on state-wide literacy initiatives such as LiD, 6-12 and her R2S approved literacy courses at College of Charleston. She lets her life speak by empowering teachers to have the confidence and competence to implement a literacy model of instruction in any content area and at every grade level. Her best Covid-19 memory is teaching her grandson Algebra 1 via phone calls, Zoom, text messaging, and FaceTime. It was online instruction at its best – synchronously and interactively.

Fostering a Love of Reading

Teaching

By: Kim Ferrari, South Carolina High School English Teacher

“I hate reading.”

“I don’t read.”

“Books are boring.”

“I’d rather watch the movie.”

These are all statements that I have heard from my high school students throughout my time as an English teacher. At first, I would get disappointed when I heard a statement like that from one of my students, but now I smile and nod at them when they say that because I know that by the end of their semester with me, they won’t have such strong feelings against reading.

What once felt like pulling teeth now feels more like cheering. What is the secret to getting students to not hate reading and maybe actually even fall in love with it? Well, it’s not so much a secret and more just a matter of taking the time to help students find the right book for them. For some students this is done in a matter of minutes, while other students might take a little longer.

Host a Book Tasting

One of my favorite ways of helping students find books that interest them is by holding a book tasting (also known as a book pass or book speed dating). Early in the semester, I work with my media specialist to pull a wide variety of mostly YA novels in different genres: action/adventure, romance, realistic fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, dystopian, historical fiction, graphic novels/comics, sports, and mystery/thriller. We sort the books onto different tables by genre and students rotate through the stations. At each station, students choose one book to sample for 3 minutes, and they are instructed to read the front and back covers, the inside cover, and begin the first chapter. After the 3 minutes has ended, students decide whether the book is a yes, a no, or a maybe, and record it on their graphic organizer. They then rotate to the next table with the next genre and the process repeats.

After students have rotated through all the genres, I pull aside anyone who still needs help finding a book and work with them to look for options that might interest them. Before we leave the media center, students check out one book, though I always have several students asking if they can check out more than one. Depending on how long your class periods are and how many students you have in each class, you can modify how this is set up, but I have found that exposing students to different genres helps them to realize that just because they don’t like a specific type of book doesn’t mean that they don’t like all books.

The Importance of Modeling

Modeling reading for students is important, so while they are reading, I spend the first few rounds circulating the room and “tasting” books. After a few rounds though, I start to look for students who have yet to find a “yes” book and use what I already know about them and what they have rated the books they have already previewed to help me suggest titles at their next station.

Prioritizing Reading

Once students all have books to read, we begin every class with independent reading. The first few days are usually a bit of a struggle as students learn the procedures and expectations for this part of class, but after a week or so, independent reading becomes a regular part of our daily schedule and students know what is expected of them. Our daily schedule is built around independent reading to ensure that no matter what, we have time to read. While students are reading, I walk around the room reading my book. This allows me to model independent reading for them because they can see all the different books I read and it allows me to quietly redirect students who may be off-task or distracted. Modeling reading for students helps to encourage them to read and motivates them to continue reading. Because I am reading when my students are reading, I am able to read a lot of books every year, which helps me recommend titles that I think students will enjoy based on their interests. Independent reading is a skill that needs to be developed over time, so we begin with reading for 7 or 8 minutes and build up to around 15 minutes as students’ stamina increases. The more students are engaged in their books, the longer they will read for, which is another reason helping students find books that interest them is so important. If I notice a student appears to be disengaged with their book, I keep an eye on them and if a day or two later, they’re still not engaged, I have a conversation with them and recommend a different book.

Making independent reading a priority in my classroom has led to increased reading stamina, higher engagement with books, and significantly fewer groans when I announce it’s time to read. At the end of each semester, I ask students to reflect on their experience and every year, there are positive comments that remind me why I put so much effort into helping students find the right books and making independent reading such a focus. Students share that this is the first time in years that they’ve finished an entire book, that they found themselves looking forward to independent reading each day, that they didn’t know reading could be fun, and that our independent reading time gave them a chance to relax. Some students even come back after they leave my class asking for book recommendations or if they can borrow one of my books, so I get to continue to foster their love for reading. When students come back to me years after graduating high school and tell me about the books they’ve read lately, I know I have done my job of creating lifelong readers, which to me is the ultimate goal.

About the Author

Kim Ferrari is an English Teacher at Manning High School in Manning, SC. She received her Bachelor of Science in Secondary English Education from the University of Maine at Farmington and is working on her Master’s in Literacy from Clemson University.

Treating Ourselves How We Treat Others

Teacher Self-Care

By: Victoria Young, South Carolina High School Social Studies Teacher

For about nine months every year we provide a form of childcare for dozens to hundreds of children that are not our own. We teach formulas, literary devices, manners, and life lessons. We watch friend groups change and look out for who has a crush on who. We see the highs and lows of their lives and are ready to support them every step of the way. We care. So, why can’t we do the same for ourselves?

The concept of self-care usually involves an at-home spa day with bath bombs and candles, and if that is something that makes you happy then by all means relax into that bubble bath! However, as the year goes on and we continue to pour out so much of ourselves into the next generation. We often try to fix our burnout with a night of Netflix or a good book, and claim we are fine because yesterday I managed to fit in some “me time” whenever that time of selfishness isn’t meant to be a hallmark event.

As teachers we try to meet the social-emotional needs of our students whether it pertains to school or not, but neglect to see that we actually have a lot of the same needs. Sure, hopefully you do not need to be comforted because Johnny stole your favorite blue pen and now you two aren’t friends anymore, but we still come into our jobs carrying hurt from our own relationships. While we have developed more emotional control as adults, we still have our inner child that is just as hurt, and we don’t have an awesome teacher to see us every day and tell us that it will all be okay and help us work through it. So, we carry these burdens of hurt, of bills, responsibilities, plans, etc. into our classrooms and try to lock them away.

While none of us would like to carry these burdens and we definitely don’t want them to impact who we are with our students, these things are what help us empathize with our kids when they are hurting! However, that doesn’t mean we should have to hang onto these burdens.

Self-care is a tool that is meant to be used every day to meet our social-emotional needs. While it may not get rid of the internet bill (and isn’t that the self-care we all need?) it does help to alleviate the pressure we allow the burdens of life to put on us; it helps us prioritize ourselves over our worries. So, how do you practice self-care without having to sit in a bubble bath?

Self-Care Ideas

1) Do what you want to do!

Now I’m not talking about total social anarchy. What I’m saying here is when you have an hour in the evening with nothing pertinent to do, ask yourself “what do I want to do?” Be the kid that just got home from school and plays their favorite video game for an hour, takes a nap, or goes on a walk for some fresh air. It’s okay to check in with yourself and acknowledge that you need to do something for yourself, even if it is stopping by your favorite ice cream shop after work.

2) Don’t just pencil in time for yourself, write it in ink!

Every teacher has their methods of staying organized. Some have planners with pretty pens and stickers, some are digital agenda pros, and some of us have sticky notes and pieces of paper hidden everywhere. We have busy lives and busy jobs with meetings always changing or friends planning dinners – things we don’t necessarily want to, or can say “no” to. And for those of us who are also parents, that’s multiple schedules you are responsible for! Find one or two days a month that you can block off for yourself and make it non-negotiable, even if it is only for half the day it can make a huge difference. Plan something that you will look forward to – seeing a new movie, going to the zoo with a friend, or even just a day to lay in bed and be lazy. You know what you need, so make time for it and give yourself something to look forward to while you make your sixth parent phone call for the week.

3) Be open to new things.

I don’t know about you, but after this last year of teaching I know I need some consistency in my life. The past 16 months have been full of new things (remember the murder hornets!?) and many of us took to baking bread and learning how to hoard toilet paper. Most of us probably haven’t touched our quarantine hobbies in almost a year, but that time retaught us to try new things, and try again. It also taught us to let go of activities that once brought us joy, but no longer are fulfilling. All of this to say, just because you do something for self-care once and like it, doesn’t mean it will be what works for you always. Eventually you will finish writing that book of poems or the weather will no longer be enjoyable for bike rides with your family. It’s okay to appreciate those things and then move on to something new.

As we enter a new school year with new students and new problems to solve, remember that you are what makes your classroom great. When you open up that new 2021-2022 planner (or that new pack of sticky notes) and start to organize your lessons for the year, remember that a lot of the meaningful lessons we model as teachers have nothing to do with state standards and have so much to do with how to be human. So, in the meantime, draw that bubble bath, turn on your Xbox, or see what time your local ice cream shop closes, and as you rest and prepare for a new school year ask yourself: how can I treat myself with the kindness I treat others?

About the Author

Victoria Young, B.A. Secondary Education/Social Studies, is a geography and world history teacher at Greenville Technical Charter High School in South Carolina.

The Importance of Self-Care

Teacher Self-Care

By: Antoinetta J. Rogers, a South Carolina High School ELA Teacher

The Importance of Self-Care is a simple title one would think requires little effort, but it is a very complex issue for teachers. Within the educational system there is an unspoken hierarchy. This is not to be confused with the official Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The hierarchy that is being referred to consists of first year teachers, experienced teachers, and then the beloved veteran teachers. Once upon a time, before the world changing pandemic COVID-19 occurred, the issue of self-care would mainly be engrossed upon first year teachers. This was of course implemented to make sure that first year teachers would not burn out. The promoting and encouraging of self-care also assisted with turnover rates and teacher retention. As teachers model, demonstrate, and simply provide so many daily life lessons to students; it is anodyne to say that the 2020-2021 school year taught teachers worldwide that regardless of the years of experience; self-care is essential, vital, and indispensable.

What is Self-Care?

Self-care is self-dependent. Teachers should take advantage of two things. Realizing when to practice self-care and recognizing when the body is in need of self-care. According to Google, self-care is the “individual practice of health management without the aid of a medical professional.” In health care, self-care is “any human regulatory function which is under individual control, deliberate and self-initiated, for the purpose of the maintenance of health and wellbeing.” Teachers give of themselves every single day inside and outside of the classroom. The countless hours of planning and anticipating how lessons flow requires not only a lot physically, but mentally and emotionally as well.

Learning to Disconnect

It is essential that teachers disconnect. This means time specifically set aside for not checking emails, leaving work at work, and setting reasonable and realistic goals. Teachers, instructional coaches, curriculum leaders, administrators, etc. have to be on the same level across the board when it comes to self-care. Most of the time, being on one accord looks like displaying compassion and empathy towards counterparts that are in need of self-care.

Why Now?

Self-care became vital for me at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year. In my school district, we began teaching in a phase 1 model due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Phase 1 was completely virtual. While I can adapt to technology, teaching completely online was very new and required a lot of planning. I had to rely strictly on technology, and honestly relying stringently on technology can limit plans, but this was the new reality that most teachers had to become accustomed to and rather quickly. Working remotely, I found that my work day would not end until around 9 p.m. nightly for about a month. Needless to say, at the end of the month, I was exhausted. One weekend, I forced myself to make sure that my work was completed by Friday evening and to simply relax on Saturday and Sunday, and it made a huge difference.

Always Remember

Self-care looks differently to every individual. So, my advice to teachers and others in the educational arena is to leave work at work and this has to not only be implemented physically, but mentally as well. As a teacher, I am genuinely connected to my students and their well-being. While I am a professional in every aspect as possible, I still care deeply for my students. Sometimes, it is hard to disconnect from that at the end of the day. There are countless times when my body is tired and in need of rest, but my mind is wondering about what needs to be done for each individual child as well as my class as a whole. It is easier said than done, but it is vital to do most of the time and when it is possible.

Self-care is an obligation. Teachers give time, care, advice, knowledge, and simply themselves daily. It is important to remember that in order to be the best, we must be at our best and take care of ourselves regularly.

About the Author

Antoinetta J. Rogers has seven years of teaching experience and currently teaches Secondary English at Richland Northeast High School.

For Teachers Desiring to Be Anti-Racist

Student Contribution

By: Amber Burton, Addison Lee, Nicole Mesimer, Kathleen Pennyway, and Eliana Pinckney

This list was developed by several students and teachers at Dreher High School. The students involved led a series of community gatherings called “Get Woke Talks” that centered around issues such as racism, gender identity, and activism. These recommendations come from the lived experiences of the writers. We hope you find them useful.

DO’s

1) Demonstrate care and compassion for your students’ identities.

Allow students to attend Black History Month Celebrations and other celebrations of their history and culture. These celebrations are not “extra,” they are essential.
Find books and materials that resonate with your students’ cultural identities. Cover them in class if possible or offer them to students who you know will be interested.
Show up for your students. If your student is a member of the dance team, or the volleyball team, or the debate team, support them and their interests.

2) Make a consistent effort to correctly pronounce a student’s name.

Names represent culture. Correctly pronouncing a student’s name can strengthen the relationship with that student, making them feel accepted and included.
Taking the time to learn a student’s name correctly also shows them that you believe they matter. If you say “it’s too hard” or “I’m never going to learn it,” you are really saying that you do not want to take the time to learn it.
Don’t give them or ask if they have a nickname, unless they tell you first. By asking your students for an alternate name, you continue the pattern of asking students of color to assimilate to white culture. You are renaming them to make you and/or others more comfortable.

3) Show your students that you are human too.

Let students know about your failures as well as your successes.
One of the things discussed in our group was trying to get a banned book approved for the classroom and getting pushback from other stakeholders in the community. This failure led to honest conversations about what teachers can and cannot do in the classroom.
If you make a mistake or cause harm, apologize, do what you can to repair the harm, and don’t make the mistake again. Expect the same from your students.

4) Be brave enough to take a stand.

When you encounter injustice, think about the consequences of staying silent, not just the consequences of speaking up.
Your students of color are watching how you handle racism in the classroom.
If a student makes a racist comment in your classroom and you say nothing, you are choosing your own comfort over the safety of your BIPOC students.

5) Call things what they are.

Call racism and other forms of oppression by their names.

6) Be intersectional.

Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” which is a theory describing how all our identities work together and intersect to create different areas of privilege and discrimination.
Understand that both you and your students interact with the world through various identities.
When someone speaks from a different lived experience, do not question their truth because you haven’t experienced it.

7) Treat all students of color the same, regardless of the type of classes they take.

A student who takes all AP and honors classes should be treated the same as a student who only takes CP classes.

8) Include authors from different backgrounds, and not just for work regarding their identity

BIPOC authors do not just write about racism and racial trauma. There are amazing books that highlight the joy and resilience of BIPOC. Make sure you are including those books as well as ones about racism.
You don’t have to just use a Black author for books about race; authors create stories for every aspect and concept of life.

9) Make additional efforts to build relationships with students of color and their families.

Realize that your knowledge of family and cultures is specific, not universal.

DON’Ts

1) Don’t try to be comfortable.

This work doesn’t end, and if you are comfortable then you are accepting the status quo.

2) Don’t assume that parents are talking to their kids about racism and cultural history.

Students have different needs and backgrounds.
Many historical textbooks used in classrooms were written by white authors. Only recently has the erasure of histories of BIPOC been made widely available and accessible.

3) Don’t ask a student of color to speak on behalf of their entire race.

Communities of color are not monolithic.
Putting your students of color on the spot and asking them to speak for their race is harmful and unfair.

4) For white teachers: Do not be a white savior. Don’t extend help based on what you assume a student of color needs. This feeds into the assumption all students of color undergo the same issues.

The white savior complex is ego-driven. It comes from the belief that students of color need “fixing” and that you have the power to do so. This is harmful.
If a student of color is having a bad day, don’t assume it’s because of the stereotypes associated with BIPOC. (Not all students of color come from low-income households or live with a single-parent, etc.) These students are affected by the same issues non-students of color are affected by.
A great example of a white savior in the classroom is the movie Freedom Writers.

Learn More About Antiracist Work

This list is not intended to be a complete list of everything you need to know about antiracist teaching, but hopefully this can give you some things to think about as you move forward in your journey. Some other resources you may find useful are listed below.

Ibram X Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped from the Beginning
Zaretta Hammond’s Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain
Ijeoma Oluo’s So You Want to Talk About Race

About the Authors

Pictured left to right are Nicole Mesimer, Kathleen Pennyway, Addison Lee, Eliana Pinckney, Amber Burton.

Amber Burton is 18. In the fall, she will be attending North Carolina A&T State University. She plans to double major in political science and African American studies, with aspirations of becoming a civil rights attorney and a political analyst.
Addison Lee is 17 and will be attending the University of South Carolina to major in public health. She hopes to minor in Women and Gender Studies in order to work on policy making and advocating for underserved communities.
Eliana Pinckney is 17. She will be attending Temple University in the fall to major in musical theatre and public relations.
Nicole Mesimer teaches Spanish at Dreher High School.
Kathleen Pennyway teaches Theatre at Dreher High School.

Don’t Be Afraid to be Anti-Racist

Teaching

By: Nikki Griffin, North Carolina High School Social Studies Teacher

Many times in my career, as a classroom history teacher, I have come across colleagues who are fearful of being anti-racists. These mostly well-meaning teachers are by no means racists, but sometimes lack the courage to be ANTI-RACIST. Here is an important distinction to make for ourselves and for our students – being an anti-racist requires more of us than simply not being racist. Being anti-racist requires action, not just a disposition. Being anti-racist moves us to actively address issues of systemic racism in our schools and in our society. Being anti-racist demands expression of anti-racist ideas that directly challenge racist ideas.

My Journey to Being Anti-Racist

Last year, following the horrific murder of George Floyd and the proliferation of protests across the United States and the world in support of Black Lives Matter, I decided to put my own beliefs about being racist into action and to NOT hide behind my role as a teacher to remain on the sidelines of “teaching history” so I could avoid the more uncomfortable role of being anti-racist. Many of my students sent me messages expressing their sense of frustration that there was nothing they could do to be anti-racist or that they did not know how to show action to express their anti-racist views. My answer to them was almost always the same, “Let your voice be heard” or “Counter racist ideas with getting your own anti-racist ideas out there!” Very often, I would remind these students that they had spent a whole year or more studying history with me and that they had the arsenal of knowledge with which to arm their anti-racist actions. Finally, I decided to take my own advice, step out of my role as classroom teacher, and publish a video called “Opportunity Lost.” Actually, this is a video series that I am still working on and intend to finish this summer.

My message to teachers is that being a teacher does not mean you can not express your own views to the wider world. Just as you expand understanding of anti-racism in your classroom, your unique knowledge of your subject area, students, and community put you in a unique position to share ideas to the broader world to pursue the goal inspiring anti-racism in the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea8ULb42vvU&t=7s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvq3WJ7f0BM&t=31s

About the Author

Nicki Griffin has taught high school social studies in North Carolina for 29 years with a focus on AP History and AP Art History Teacher. She attended East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.

Supercharging our Content Teaching with Language Objectives

Teaching

By: Samantha Rainwater, South Carolina High School English Teacher

Back to the Basics

Like every teacher during March of 2020, life threw me quite a difficult curveball: in the course of a few days, I needed to scrap all of the plans and dreams I established with my students and reimagine the rest of the year virtually. I don’t know how y’all handled it, but I was at a complete loss. My very organized book clubs, the brand new unit on The Kite Runner we had just launched, the highly-technical argument unit and Convince Me project we were in the thick of, all of it, upended. I had to start thinking about what—with my very limited time—I would focus on with my students. Ultimately, I decided that literacy through interesting and meaningful reading and writing would be my primary focus for the rest of the year.

I bring this up specifically to discuss how, even as an English teacher, I have a lot of content that doesn’t fall under the “reading skills” category. However, literacy is the key to our students’ ability to access our content. If I wanted my students to be prepared for the next school year, the task was not to continue my content-heavy units or teach all the figurative terms they would encounter in English 3, but to make sure that students’ literacy skills continued to develop.

We’ve heard it all before, maybe from a district official or an administrator at the beginning of the year: We are all reading teachers. But let’s be real. We have standards and pacing guides and benchmark assessments and end-of-course tests and the list goes on. For content-area teachers, how can we possibly add on the task of developing students’ literacy? After all, they take ELA.

The Case for Disciplinary Literacy

I had a major revelation this year when it came to literacy, and I think in many ways my background as an English teacher kept me from this revelation sooner. Secondary education relies on literacy skills as a means of accessing content knowledge; however, literacy isn’t just literacy. There are two major theories regarding how literacy works: content-area literacy, which suggests reading strategies transfer between content areas (Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz 2011), and disciplinary literacy (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2012), which suggests and “acknowledges that different disciplines contain different purposes for language, ways of communicating, and requirements for precision” (Croce, 2017). While it’s important to understand that some reading strategies do transfer, it is also important to acknowledge the merits of disciplinary literacy. It’s not like kids learn to read, then immediately their literary lives are unlocked, and they can henceforth access all written knowledge presented in all subject areas. Each academic discipline has its own discourse styles and structures that students have to learn and master because they are so unique and different from the typical ways we engage and use language socially. The literacy and discourse structures that are taught in the ELA classroom might not be sufficient for students dealing with the very specific types of literacy present in the science or math classrooms. For this reason, the very best teachers of literacy in content-area classes are the content-area teachers themselves! I know, what does an English teacher have to say about literacy in other disciplines? But hear me out. It might even make teaching your content more effective.

An Example: Disciplinary Literacy in the Science Classroom

Science teaching, for example, depends on informational texts to communicate content knowledge, to teach facts to students. However, what happens when a student’s observations of the world around them do not match the facts being presented in the scientific texts they are reading? What understandings of the scientific method and peer review process do students have to understand in order to comprehend and learn from these texts? Consider the words of Croce (2017):

“According to conceptual change theory, a number of conditions need to be met in order for a student to change his or her mind about a science concept. Would a student be considered a poor reader if those conditions were not met and the student did not change his mind (in other words, learn a concept) after reading the text? I would argue that a student is not a poor reader if he or she does not immediately change his or her mind about a science topic after reading a text. This is because when we assess students as readers of science, it is impossible to separate who a student is as a scientist from who he or she is as a reader (emphasis added) (Croce, 2015).”

Being an effective scientist depends on being literate in scientific discourse styles, specifically. If we expect students to learn how hurricanes are formed through reading a text, we have to approach the reading of that text as scientists, which requires different literacy foundations than what is required in their English class (and reading in science, math, and social studies often has different goals than in ELA). Scientific texts also have unique language patterns (i.e. cause and effect relationships in scientific sequences) that need to be explicitly taught to students. Students reading in their literature classes may never encounter those specific language patterns. When students are taught these discourse styles, they are then able to make sense of the content presented in these texts.

First Steps: Introducing Language Objectives

I don’t think that we necessarily have to be reading specialists on top of our content-area and pedagogical expertise. I do think, though, that we need to be aware of how our disciplines use language and provide instruction for our students so language isn’t a barrier to learning the content. One of the most meaningful ways that I’ve started doing this in my own classroom is through language objectives. Language objectives are similar to content objectives in that they articulate what students’ will be able to achieve by the end of a lesson or period of time. The only difference is that while content objectives describe what students will know and be able to do, language objectives describe how students need to use language in order for the content to be accessible. If you need a place to start in terms of understanding how language should be used at different proficiency levels, I recommend viewing WIDA’s Can Do statements.

As you are planning a lesson, ask yourself a few questions: What discipline-specific and general academic vocabulary do my students need to know to meet the content objectives? How is language functioning in this lesson (Are we listening to a speech made by an historical figure? Recording observations in a science experiment? Describing? Predicting? Comparing? What language styles and structures do we need to employ to do these things?) What language structures or grammatical features are common in this lesson? (Are we reading an academic text with frequent passive voice? Imperatives? Does the organization of the text need to be understood for students to comprehend it better?) What functional language is used during this lesson? What do I observe about my students’ needs when it comes to language?

By doing this, we will become more aware how language works in our disciplines, and we can then work to lower the linguistic hurdles students need to overcome to understand and excel in our content. We can also take the answers to these questions and design focused objectives and direct instruction related to the language of our disciplines. The beauty of designing language objectives is that it occurs alongside the teaching of our content objectives; we don’t pause our instruction to teach language and grow literacy. This can happen with small mini-lessons embedded in the larger instruction for the day. For example, in a high school chemistry lesson, the language objective might be that “Students will be able to use adverbs of time in their lab report to describe their observations (first, next, later)” (Echevarria et. al, 2011). Maybe, in a math lesson, students need to understand the language of conditionality in order to solve a word problem. From there, you would design a language objective. This might take all of 10 minutes, but it will enable students to meet the task of writing their scientific observations within their lab reports.

Developing and strengthening literacy specific to our disciplines is not a separate, full-time job. Instead, we can use language objectives to make our content teaching even more effective.

About the Author

Samantha Rainwater is the current English department chair at Richland Northeast High School in Columbia, South Carolina. She has eight years of teaching experience in the ELA classroom and is currently working to complete her ESOL certification.

How I’m Surviving The Earthquake of 2019

Teaching

By: Kimberly Dunbar, Social Studies Teacher at Cane Bay Middle School

There was an 8.2 intensity earthquake rippling through upper elementary and middle schools classrooms in the summer 2019. After years of wrangling, new social studies standards were adopted by our State Department of Education, and there were substantial changes in content for grades 3 – 7. As usually happens, it was now up to the teachers of South Carolina to make everything work. For sixth grade teachers like me, the changes were exactly what we knew were coming but had long been dreading – we were supposed to teach all of human history in 180 days. It was difficult enough to complete when we stopped after the Age of Exploration. The task now felt unattainable.

Part of what has made teaching this content so difficult is that very few students have any background knowledge about the earliest civilizations. If they do, that knowledge is usually limited (Egypt’s pyramids and mummies) or inaccurate (Greece according to Percy Jackson or 300). It’s hard for my students to make connections to material when there is no foundational information to attach to. My dilemma was how to present enough content so learners can connect the dots without overwhelming them.

Introducing Historical Fiction in the Social Studies Classroom

Wendy Garrett, a friend and mentor, introduced me to the idea of using historical fiction to build my students’ background knowledge. She had students participate in a class reading of a book she selected in addition to their daily warm-up questions. The thought was to kindle an enjoyment of reading AND sneak a little historical context in at the same time. Many of our students were academically below grade level and reluctant to attempt a typical novel study. We chose to scrap the usual process and keep things focused on the reading – no vocabulary, no character studies, no plot diagrams. If students ask about the meaning of a word, we’ll discuss it, try to decipher it. If students wanted to discuss things or had questions about the plot or theme, we would talk. Our intent was to present some details about ancient civilizations and historical events while we remind students how enjoyable reading could be. We let student interest guide our actions and activities. Everything was low stakes.

As I included daily readings into my lessons, what I found was encouraging. The first 2-3 weeks were long as I had to demonstrate and promote expected behavior during the read aloud time. When students accepted and started living into these new expectations, all of us could focus more on the information in the book. We were able to take a few minutes to practice using context clues to determine the meaning of new words. Afterwards, it became a game – who could find an appropriate time and place to use these new words. If an actual person was mentioned in our book, a student would give us a 60 second biography of the character. When an historical event was involved in the story, someone gave us a quick recap of what happened. The payoff came when students saw these same people and events in our regular class discussions and were able to recall information we had covered before. I could take another minute and help students put together the cause-and-effect of concepts we were learning. Lots of wins on multiple fronts!!!

Useful Tips when Integrating Historical Fiction into the Classroom:

Explicitly teach your expectations for this reading time. If you are part of a teaching team and your ELA partner has procedures for this activity, try to mirror it. Consistency will make implementation easier. Have an anchor chart to use as a visual reminder of what you want to see and hear during this time.
Save your voice and use an audio reader system when possible.
Befriend your media center person. They are often the keeper of class sets. They know what’s available, what’s on order, what’s popular. They may have connections with other media centers and can arrange a loan of a class set from another school.
Give your students some input about what your class reads. I get single copies of books and let my students “test drive” them. All I want to know is, “Did you enjoy it? Would you recommend it to a friend?” If a student can give you more details, write it down. These details are an invaluable resource in determining what will grab your students’ attention and can guide future choices.
Get comfortable with looking for additional sources of funding. Until schools are better funded, it is hard to get class sets of the “latest and greatest titles” that are more likely to hold students’ attention. I have purchased several class sets through Donors Choose. I have several grant portals bookmarked. I’m always looking for ways to keep my classroom library fresh.

The skills that building background knowledge allows your students to practice, are the ones that will make them more engaged citizens and more valuable employees. Recognizing links between people, events and ideas are a building block of critical thinking. Critical thinkers identify situations, gather information, analyze information, and present solutions. These are the people that will make a difference in the future, if we take the time to teach them to solve problems. Teaching these new and different skills won’t be easy, but giving our students those skills will be worth every ounce of that effort.

About the Author

Kim is a second-career teacher with 13 years of experience. She’s currently working to bring ancient history to life at Cane Bay Middle School in Summerville, SC.

Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and the Classroom Library

Teaching

By: Lexington Hendricks, South Carolina High School Teacher

As a classroom teacher, it is my job to make sure that my classroom is a safe space for students, a place where they can be who they are and not have to hide any aspect of their identity. This includes students’ individual backgrounds and cultures. Students come from many different backgrounds even if they grew up in the same town, and it is important to recognize that all students may think and view materials differently because of this.

Experience has shown me that not all students, no matter their backgrounds, enjoy reading. Most would even claim to hate it. Many times this stems from being forced to read novels that are dated and have no relation to students whatsoever. If students struggle to connect or relate to something, there is a good chance they will not gain knowledge from whatever they are attempting to read. Think about their social media; students choose to follow people or pages that they have some form of connection or relation to. This also varies from student to student because of their backgrounds and cultures. The same can be applied to what students read. This is why it is crucial not only to have a classroom library but also to create an intentional classroom library.

Creating my Classroom Library

Creating a classroom library is already a daunting task. I remember my first year teaching and buying the cheapest books I could find just so students would have the option to borrow books from me and to see them in my classroom. Throughout conversations with my students over the years, I have learned that many of them find the school library overwhelming because of the amount of books to choose from. Also, many libraries are organized by the author’s last name which can make finding books on topics students are interested in more difficult. When students are able to see books in their classrooms on a smaller scale, the overwhelming feeling of choosing one book out of hundreds disappears. When creating a classroom library, the first step is to thoughtfully organize books so that they are easily accessible to students. The second, and in my opinion, most important step is choosing the books that go into the library.

At first, I just bought whatever I had access to and what was easiest on the budget. There was no intentionality in what books I chose. I also did not have any organization at all. I just put them on bookshelves and hoped for the best and found myself frustrated when none of my students wanted to go to the shelves and pick out books to read−not my proudest classroom library moment. I think I realized that in order for my classroom library to be useful, I needed to do two things: organize the books in a more accessible way and add books that were culturally relevant to my students.

How to make your Classroom Library more Accessible

1) Sort by Genre

To make books more accessible to students, I sorted them by genre instead of the author’s last name. I had to remind myself that students probably care more about what the book is about than who wrote it. I chose the genres that our school librarian used so students would have consistency when choosing books. I color coded the genres and added that same color to the corresponding books so that students could easily put books back in their place when they were finished. That was actually the easy part.

2) Find Culturally Relevant Books

Finding culturally relevant books was a little more challenging. What did culturally relevant even mean? Thankfully, we live in an age where the internet and Google are both handy. I did my research and learned that I needed to find books that fit not only where my students come from physically but also mentally, meaning books students could relate to in regards of hobbies, identity, and what they believe.

3) Keep your Student Population in mind

Our school has a high population of English Language Learners (ELLs), so I added in books that brought in their cultures and made sure that some of these were Spanish versions for those who are still learning the basics of English. I also used conversations with my students to determine what other types of books I wanted to include. The images you see throughout this post include some of the books I bought when I first started intentionally buying culturally relevant books. It is important to note that each classroom is different; the best way to determine what books to buy for your classroom library is to have intentional conversations with students that allow you to get to know them beyond an academic level.

Students need to see themselves or parts of themselves in the books they read to make real connections. When this happens, they can see that you not only value them as students but also as who they are as human beings. This often means more to them than academics. On that same note, it means even more to students if you read the books that relate to their cultures. Students see that we care about them and want to know them, not just their academic abilities. I love to see students’ faces light up when I can introduce them to books that I know they will love and relate to because I have also read them myself.

4) Be Intentional in book Selection for your Library

I had one student who had some struggles about fitting in and being her true self, and she seemed down a lot in class on top of slacking when it came to school work, which was not at all like her. I asked her about it, and she told me about how she was struggling to figure out who she was and did not know what to do. I was able to recommend a book to her that I had just read. This book is light-hearted but also touches on a breakup and how to keep going, which I knew this student had recently gone through. I recommended the book What if it’s Us? by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera in hopes she would see that even when life is hard, good things can still come. As she was reading, she would note certain aspects of the novel that she could relate to and wanted to read more books like that one after. This led to me wanting to be able to recommend more books to not only her but my other students as well. I then decided that I not only need to build my classroom library intentionally, but also read the books I picked out as well. This student felt cared about and represented because I was able to give her a book that she could relate to and see parts of herself in. This mattered more to her than anything else.

You see, the bottom line is that when students feel they are represented, they are more likely to invest in whatever the activity is, and in this case, it is reading. Incorporating students’ backgrounds and cultures into the curriculum can be challenging. If you do not feel like you are ready for that challenge, start small. Be intentional with the books you put in your classroom library. Choose books that represent the students in your classroom. Let them know that you care about who they are and where they come from.

The more you show that you care about students, the more likely they are to read something if you ask them to, and the more students read, the more likely they are to improve overall academically, even if they are just reading books that they can relate to. They may even begin to enjoy reading. I always say, “Students don’t actually hate reading. They just haven’t found the right book yet.”

About the Author

Lexie Hendricks has been teaching for five years at Palmetto High School.