What is your lens?
Maureen Wilson, from Hamilton, Ontario shares her experiences at the Women’s March of Washington
We had to be ready to change our pre-planned lesson…Students wanted to talk about what was happening in the world. The following posts describes why we altered our plan and shares the alternate lesson!
Critical literacies involve people using language to exercise power, to enhance everyday life in schools and communities, and to question practices of privilege and injustice. (Comber, 2017)
Huge events unfolded across the world over the past two weeks which prompted our teaching team to change a “pre-planned lesson” to focus on current issues of Social Activism – locally and globally. On January 20th, Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration took place. The next day, January 21st, together, over 60 countries – men, women, and children, joined in solidarity to March for human rights – “The Women’s March on Washington” was declared the largest global protest – ever. Then, on January 28th a Mosque in Quebec, Canada was brutally attacked and many innocent people were killed. January 30th – Thousands join together to show support and to honour the victims of the Mosque shooting.
It is difficult for the most well-rounded, emotionally and socially strong of people to handle the immense mix of emotions resulting from these events. Regardless of your point of view of Trump (or the platform), or if you are a woman or Muslim – we are all impacted – not just by injustice, hate and fear – but also by the joy, and relief that comes with solidarity and community actions. We are affected by the conflicting and confusing media.
Our young people are especially affected.
People in positions of respect and power have made accusations about journalists not being truthful and Journalists have made accusations of people in power not being truthful to the people. The idea of “fake news” has been spread across the inter-webs like wildfire. Twitter, Instagram and Facebook feeds are overwhelmed with political posts and emotions are high.
After watching the powerful poem by Royce Mann, we started our INQUIRY through a discussion of “Privilege and Power”.
The following lesson is an overview of how we approached these topics as an Inquiry:
We started with the “Big Idea/Inquiry Question”:
- How can global events impact local/community action and local/community events impact Global action?
- What is my lens when approaching these issues?
- How am I privileged?
- What does it mean to be “in Solidarity?”
We shared the “Culminating task” what will students do by end of lesson?:
- Complete a Blog post that focuses on an idea or concept that uses the Women’s March on Washington as a prompt. Write through an optimistic lens, utilize a variety of media and provide questions for further thinking/discussion
- Create a short podcast that focuses on one aspect of Social Justice and Solidarity and the impact of positive activism.
- Create a video that uses a specific lens/perspective showcasing the positive aspects of humanity, people, and social activism.
We used the Curriculum Standards as a guide:
- Critical Literacy: Opportunities to relate knowledge and skills in language learning to wider contexts, both across the curriculum and in the world beyond the school, motivate students to learn and to become lifelong learners. (The Ontario Curriculum, Language, p. 12)
- Students must be able to differentiate between fact and opinion; evaluate the credibility of sources; recognize bias; be attuned to discriminatory portrayals of individuals and groups, including women and minorities; and question depictions of violence and crime. (The Ontario Curriculum, Language, p.13)
- Reading – Point of View identify the point of view presented in texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts; give evidence of any biases they may contain; and suggest other possible perspectives (e.g., determine whether an author’s choice of voices to include seems justified and suggest how the meaning would change if different voices were chosen) (The Ontario Curriculum, Language, Grade Seven, p.128)
- Point of View – Demonstrate understanding that different media texts reflect different points of view
- Making Inferences/ Interpreting Messages -Interpret increasingly complex or difficult media texts, using overt and implied messages as evidence for their interpretations
We made connection to UN Sustainable Development Goals:
- Goal 5 – Reduced Inequalities
- Goal 10 – Gender Equality
- Goal 16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
We made connections to ISTE Standards and 21st Century Learning: https://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students-2016
- Knowledge Constructor: Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.
- Digital Citizen: Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.
- Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.
We invited community members to join our class and share their experiences:
Mary-Louise Pigott shares her experience attending the March on Washington
For the lesson…. Read on!! Continue reading When it is time to drop your lesson and talk about world events….
As a classroom teacher, I would not let this go. I would want my students to engage in conversation, to analyze and synthesis the news stories, to compare perspective and opinions. I would want them to understand why the front of the newspapers show burning buildings, why they hear words like “revolution”, “dictatorship”, “democracy” and “human rights” on the radio. I would want them to connect this to their own lives and why it matters.