Our students are diverse, energetic and resilient. In our school, the total minority enrollment is 91%, and 64% of students are economically disadvantaged. I teach the ENL and Special Education English classes in the 11th and 12th grade.
Many of our students work after school, considered essential workers during the pandemic, and some became essential earners in their households.
In our ELA classes, we try to include materials that supplement and spark conversations that are directly related to our lives. We strive to make connections between the past to the present and include current events weekly. We talk about disparities in wealth, taxes, minimum wage, poverty lines and the role generational wealth takes in social mobility. We also acknowledge that self care is resistance and leads to political action; you have to take care of yourself to be an active , engaged citizen.
My Project
We read/discuss/write using our essential questions in our American Literature course as an anchor: How does law and policy shape access to the American Dream? How do different groups- immigrants/Native Americans/African Americans- experience access to the American Dream? How does historical trauma impact groups in present day America?
From the first week of school, we noted a shift in the first project in student responses being overwhelmingly angry, sad, even apathetic.
The prompt was to write the "My America Is" poem: what does America mean to you? From these poems we knew we had to address the intense feelings we are having about the pandemic, race and class in America in order to funnel that energy into action. We have to teach our students that it is OK to feel that way, and that self care can turn into political action. Stress, anxiety, depression, anger, fear are all very real, but we cannot let these feelings drive us , or let them take us over, in order to act for change.
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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