Kim just sent us this great link to a recent article and video that Linda Christensen (author of our study group book) updated on the NWP site....below you will find a link to both resources:


Linda Christensen: Social Justice, Teaching Writing, and Teaching Teachers

"We teach our students not only by what we say in the classroom but also by what we do in the world," says Linda Christensen, director of the Oregon Writing Project.


http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3076

Big, Bigger, Biggest Fish Protocol

Big Fish Bigger Fish Biggest Fish Protocol

Complex text can offer many ideas and issues, but sometimes we need to address the foundational ideas, warrants of arguments, assumptions underlying a text, and make connections and take on those over-riding concepts.

Set-up/Identify - Time :

Read text, marking issues and concepts which seem to be, represent and/or imply the most important, controlling ideas and/or underlying assumptions.

Focus/Evaluate - Time:

Mark one or two ideas you think seem to include or subsume the others that address conditions or possibilities of teaching and learning.

Discussion/Critique & Synthesize - Time:

In small groups, ideally no larger than four, share your ideas and then prioritize or put into a hierarchy according to encompassing, critical or foundational idea.

Optional: create an illustrative poster showing your collective thinking and rationale.

Share/Social Critique - Time:

Each group explains their thinking: the Biggest Fish and their rationale.

Our Student Work Site

I've posted the new student samples that we received from Janet today to our drop.io site.

Please feel free to upload your own student work to the site anytime:

http://drop.io/teachingforjoyandjustice/blog

Student Art Collaboration with Victor Ochoa

Thank you to Callie for sharing her student's collaborations with artist, Victor Ochoa, at MAAC:

New TED Talks

I am sending out a new feature if you are a fan of Global TED Talks that I believe is pertinent to our group:

Dear Global TED Community,

Over the past couple weeks, we've been introducing a significant new feature on TED.com.

It's called "Best of the Web". Essentially we have begun linking to the best talks out there that were NOT recorded at a TED event.

Today, for example, to celebrate Martin Luther King Day, we are posting his world-changing "I have a dream" speech given back in 1963. No matter how many times you may have seen it, it always inspires and provokes. And we're proud to have a page dedicated to it, to facilitate a conversation around the searing issues he raises, all still so relevant today.

You can see a few other early selections here (in the 'Show by Event' selector on the left, scroll down to the bottom to "Best of the Beb"), including:

Michael Sandel: What is the Right Thing to Do?
Robert Sapolsky: The Uniqueness of Humans
Edwidge Danticat: Stories of Haiti (Which Margit Boyeson was kind enough to recommend to SDAWP too!)
...and the famous "last lecture" of Randy Pausch

Rethinking Schools Edition

Thank you to Makeba Jones who sent us a reminder that the new issue of Rethinking Schools is out and it is aptly titled "Reading For Justice"

Here is a taste of some of their cover stories:

Cover stories:
"Save the Muslim Girl!"
by Özlem Sensoy and Elizabeth Marshall
In the years since 9/11, books like The Breadwinner and Broken Moon have become staples in many English classes. But does this young adult literature about Muslim girls build understanding or reinforce stereotypes?

Baghdad Burning Heats Up World History
by Jody Sokolower
It's always a struggle to work current events into history classes. A blog by a young Iraqi woman about her day-to-day life in Baghdad provides an opportunity to connect the medieval Abbasid Empire to today's news.

Breaking the Silence on War
by the editors of Rethinking Schools.
In our editorial, we probe the silence in classrooms, as in the streets, on the escalating U.S. war in Afghanistan, now in its ninth year, and the continuing war in Iraq. As teachers struggle with increasing pressures and scripted curriculum, there is little critical discussion of these events—they have become part of the wallpaper of life. Why has this happened? How can we break the silence?

Do's And Don'ts of Teaching Black History

Thanks to Kim who sent us a link from the Teaching Tolerance website on the "Do's & Don'ts of Teaching Black History"

http://www.tolerance.org/activity/dos-and-donts-teaching-black-history

If you are not already familiar with this website it also offers classroom lessons and activities for every grade level K-16. It also has teacher toolkits and professional development opportunities.