9/27 - Class Recap

Here's the class picture with Jordan Thierry at the end of our discussion today!

Hello everyone,

What a great day in Diversity and Social Justice! We had an awesome Socratic Seminar. Here's what happened in class today:

Learning Targets Addressed:

I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

I can explain the process of change and continuity in a society, place, or region.

Soundtrack: "Space Jam" by Quad City DJs. Selected for today because our guest speaker, Jordan Thierry, played basketball in his documentary with his dad! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/27/17:
Check In/Review Agreements
Socratic Seminar
Q and A with Jordan

Homework: Read the blog! Make sure you are up to date with all assignments/readings in class!
----
Check In/Review Agreements: At the beginning of class, we went over the Courageous Conversations Agreements to set the stage for our discussion about The Black Fatherhood Project and the Ta-Nehisi Coates article in the Atlantic.

Socratic Seminar: This was so cool! Thank you so much for participating and for welcoming Jordan into the discussion circle! We appreciate your willingness to adapt to the structure today. Here is the Socratic Seminar model that we used in class:

Google Drive - Socratic Seminar Pilot/Co-Pilot Model

As a part of this model, we started with students who had read sections 1, 2, or 3 in The Atlantic reading, then had the other members of the small groups be "co-pilots" in the discussion, by helping with sending notes. This was followed by the inside circle being students who read sections 4, 5, and 6, then a final discussion with students who read sections 7, 8, and 9. We only had enough time to have each of the three discussions be about 8 minutes each.

Here are my (Mr. Fritz's) notes from the conversation, by group number, if it helps in remembering what we talked about:

Group 1:
Patriarchy - women as leaders? --> both roles at home
One parent as head of the household
Divorced parents?
Moynihan Report as a product of his time
How does it differ if parent is in prison?
Father lays the law down? --> Not always the case
Different stigmas
Emotional trauma from jail + parent at home now as 2x as much work
Government is not providing enough services

Group 2:
First war on drugs - 1910s to 1980s --> seeing the same things
Nixon and heroine (reference to article), as part of re-election campaign
Jordan: coded language that is used to this day, to identify poor people/drug addicts/black --> tough on crime
80% of crimes are non-violent
Need to break the poverty cycle
Work on the stigma
Free labor with prison inmates
Justification for using black labor has not changed --> society and black criminality
Make time to understand the argument

Group 3:
10 years in Europe is considered a harsh sentence - why are we (U.S.) so harsh on non-violent crime?
Privately owned prisons
Pay under minimum wage
Large corporations --> a form of business to use these incentives
Too much incentive/monetary value within the system
Why is solitary confinement still used to much, then?
Significant portion of inmates with mental health/drug problems
Drug addiction is a social health issue --> prison takes away support structure --> escape oppressive reality
Prison as a traumatic experience
"We need justice!" --> the narrative in the United States as to why such long/harsh prison sentences are needed

All it all, it was a really good conversation and I'm so glad we were able to have Jordan with us to help process these topics. I wish it had been longer, for sure! Thank you to everyone!

Q and A with Jordan: At the end of class, we gave a little time for Q and A with Jordan with a class wide discussion. Many of the questions had to do with how students could effect change in the world and our own communities. These were great questions, for sure. We will definitely continue to investigate this and students will be working on a related project at the end of the semester!

Thanks again for all of your effort, focus, and participation today! We are looking forward to debriefing with you on Friday!

9/25 - Class Recap

Today's documentary was about family - here's my family at my wedding last year! - Luke

Hello everyone,

Today, we continued with our unit on The Black Fatherhood Project, which will culminate next class with a visit by the filmmaker as we have a discussion about the film and what it brings up. Here's what happened in class today:

Learning Targets Addressed:

I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

I can explain the process of change and continuity in a society, place, or region.

Soundtrack: "Family Affair" by Mary J. Blige. Selected for today because of the connection to family. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/25/17:
Check In/Review Agreements
The Black Fatherhood Project
Review Atlantic Article

Homework: Read the blog! Complete your section of the Atlantic article by Ta-Nehisi Coates (read, annotate/mark the text, and come up with at least two discussion questions for a Socratic Seminar next class). Jordan Thierry will be here and there will likely be people from the district.
----
Check In/Review Agreements: With this section, we talked a bit about what is going on outside of class, especially with the national anthem protests in sports this weekend. We also agreed the Courageous Conversations Agreements and Conditions.

The Black Fatherhood Project: This was the documentary we prepared for last class by passing out a timeline for vocabulary and defining these words:

Chattel slavery and colonialism
Introduction of Christianity
Sharecropping / Jim Crow
Menial jobs
Welfare
Redlining
War veterans
Drug use
Drug trafficking

We tried to pause for notes during the film. Here is the film again if you would like to watch it (password was given out in class - or you can email us to ask for it, as we would like to protect Jordan's intellectual copyright to his work):

Vimeo - The Black Fatherhood Project documentary (Educational Version)

Hopefully you found this interesting and insightful as to many of the issues in the black community surrounding fathers today! Again, we will discuss the film in connection with the Atlantic article next class.

Review Atlantic Article: At the end of class, there was a bit of time to keep reviewing/reading your assigned section of the Ta-Nehisi Coates article on black families in The Atlantic:

TheAtlantic - The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration

Remember to come prepared next class with at least two discussion questions from your section of the article! As promised in class, here is the grading rubric for the Socratic Seminar discussion in class:

Google Drive - Socratic Seminar Grading Rubric

It will be great to have Jordan with us (even for such a short class, given it is a Wednesday). Please know in advance that it is likely the Beaverton School District will have representatives in the classroom and cameras to film Jordan's visit. See you then!

9/21 - Class Recap

Today, we started a mini-unit on The Black Fatherhood Project documentary. The filmmaker is Jordan Thierry, who is a Beaverton School District graduate. Photo credit: Ifayni Bell/OPB.

Dear class,

It is nice to feel a bit more in the swing of things with what we are doing with such a big class of students! Here's what happened today in class:

Learning Targets Addressed:

Communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Explains the process of change and continuity in a society, place or region.

Soundtrack: "A Change Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke. Selected for today because this song is about the Civil Rights movement during the 1960s. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/21/17:

Review of Four Agreements & Six Conditions

Debrief Implicit Bias Test

Family Structure

Moynihan Report

Vocabulary Timeline

Atlantic Article

Homework: Read the blog! Post a comment if you have not. Start reading the Atlantic article on the Black Family in the Age of Incarceration.

---

For in class work and activities today, please see the PowerPoint we went through together, here:

Google Drive - 9/21 Lesson PowerPoint

To recap:

Review of Four Agreements & Six Conditions: We will always do this at the beginning of class, as it sets the foundation for how we want class to approach the issues we are studying.

Debrief Implicit Bias Test: The first part of class was devoted to trying to understand the results of the implicit bias test we took at the end of last class.

Harvard.edu - Project Implicit

As we defined Implicit Bias last class, it is really unconscious attitudes and stereotypes - basically, there's not a ton we can do to counteract them, aside from knowing more about how we perceive others and adjusting our filters to compensate.

Family Structure: The essential question for our unit on the Black Fatherhood Project is: “How has family structure changed though conflict, power, and policy?" We will be investigating this by looking at the history of black families in America and governmental policies that have impacted black families.

Moynihan Report: To start this section of class, we asked students within small groups to read the abstract of the Moynihan Report (without actually saying what it was or when it was made) and to try and find current event articles that relate to the topics addressed.

The full Moynihan Report is here:

BlackPast.org - The Moynihan Report (1965)

When this came out, it was ULTRA controversial that the government of the United States was saying that black people were in this position of structural inferiority in American society. Of course, as we know, this has continued to result in inequitable outcomes to this day. Basically, we wanted to start the unit by linking the past to the present.

Vocabulary Timeline: Continuing this theme, we handed out a fill in the blank timeline for some vocabulary that we wanted students to define in small groups. The vocabulary words/terms that will be used in The Black Fatherhood Project that we will watch next class are:

Chattel slavery and colonialism

Introduction of Christianity

Sharecropping / Jim Crow

Menial jobs

Welfare

Redlining

War veterans

Drug use

Drug trafficking

The goal here was to get ready for next class in watching the documentary, so we know some of the key terms addressed. Then, next Wednesday, Jordan Thierry will (hopefully!) be joining our class for a discussion of his film, during a Socratic Seminar breakdown!

Atlantic Article: At the end of class, we had students start reading/breaking up into sections this article by Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic in 2015:

TheAtlantic.com - The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration

This is a very lengthy article, so that is why we are starting to deconstruct it now - by the start of class next Wednesday, you will be responsible for reading a section of the article (it is split up into nine chapters) and coming to class with annotations and discussion questions ready.

That was class for the day! Lots to get into, for sure. Have a great weekend, everyone!