9/29 - Class Recap

The flag of the United States during the National Anthem at the 2011 BCS College Football National Championship Game between Oregon and Auburn.

Dear class,

Thanks for checking in on the blog and doing your homework! We continued with our opening unit of the year on Race in class. 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: "Just Fine" by Mary J. Blige. Selected for today because it always puts Ms. Labossiere in a good mood. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/29/17:
Check In/Review Agreements
Debrief Socratic Seminar
Current Event - Student Rights
Conversation About Race

Homework: Read the blog! Make sure you are up to date with all assignments/readings in class!
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The PowerPoint we went through during class to guide the day can be found here:

Google Drive - 9/29 DSJ Class PowerPoint

Check In/Review Agreements: At the beginning of class, we went over the Courageous Conversations Agreements, as always, to begin our work together for the day.

Debrief Socratic Seminar: What a super interesting conversation we had with Jordan last class! We asked everyone to talk about what they took away from the conversation - again, my notes from what was said are in the last blog post, recapping class on Wednesday. We will aim to continue having these sorts of great conversations, hopefully with more guest speakers, as well!

Current Event - Student Rights: Since this came up on Monday, and we did not have time to debrief together on Wednesday, I wanted to talk about student rights regarding protests during patriotic events. We showed this email from Westview's Athletic Director, which was a forward from the Beaverton School District administration:

The link referenced in the email is this article: EdWeek.org - Students Have a Right to Protest During National Anthem, Pledge of Allegiance. A very interesting read, for sure!

We talked in class about our thoughts surrounding the protests and the message that it sends to various groups of people, as well as the original intent. We also asked about the message it sends when owners and coaches are protesting with the players.

Next, we talked about two recent acts of defacing our shared property here at Westview that really concerned us. We shared about the letters KKK being written on a desk in our DSJ room (we have no idea if it was someone from this class or another one), and what that brought up for us. I shared about a swastika being drawn on a poster that was in my room last year of British pilots who helped save the country from German attack during the Blitz that my grandmother survived (though she went into shock and has very few memories from that time).

Again, the point here was not the drawings or the intent behind them. It was more about the feelings it left use with: scared, sad, ashamed, worried, etc.

Conversation About Race: This was deliberately vague in the introduction, as we had a lot to say here. In fact, so much, that we did not even come close to finishing our planned lesson today. Ms. Labossiere read from her recently published article in Rethinking Schools (so awesome!):

RethinkingSchools.org - Who Do I Belong To?: A Black Teacher's Dilemma

This was meant as an introduction to the next reading we are having the class do, but it actually ended up as the final activity of the class today, as there were a TON of questions, comments, and stories about the use of the 'n' word in society. The resulting conversation lasted the entire rest of the class.

We know that it was pretty much an entire class period of one big group talking about these issues, and that those conversations (not always a bad thing) tend to have some students who are more comfortable in wanting to share out in response. Obviously, it will continue to be a balance for us in terms of the different activities we do and ways to encourage everyone to stay engaged with what we are doing in class. Thank you, everyone, for sticking with it and finding ways to buy in to what we are talking about! Have a great weekend.

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!
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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.
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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!