COURSE OVERVIEW

Exploring Humanity

I can think back to a moment in middle school where I felt this emotion of belonging; I might even call it a feeling of purpose. It was a new feeling that wasn't present in elementary school. My English teacher had asked us to write what we felt passionate about and to write for an audience. To me, it seemed that he believed in us. Our words meant something to the world. The question that I have been asking my whole life is: does this drive for purpose have to do with our humanity? Is this a link to one another across the globe? I still don't have an answer. And so I want to explore humanity with my students, but I also want my students to know that their words mean something to the world. Together, we will explore different elements to being human and how they connect with each other. And while they are questioning a changing world, they will be questioning a changing self. We humans exist in a continuum of change that requires us to reflect.

The process of reflection takes place in a lot of different forms and can go in a lot of different directions. Even though I have mapped out specific topics that I think are important to exploring humanity, I also want to take into account what students believe are big elements of being human. Weekly journaling will be a vital player in an independent space for thinking in new realms, or at least mapping out thinking in general. I have two main goals: validating students in their personal role and facilitating conversations that welcome all voices. I will bring in community members, school personnel, global perspectives, and more to expand the walls of this course. Humanity is big. But, my students are each an important piece to the puzzle.

SEMESTER OVERVIEWS

Semester One is all about Transformation. The students and I are asking where we have been, where we are now, and where we

are going. We are all getting to know each other and more importantly, ourselves. We know that we cannot do outward change

without inward change, or at least inward understanding. Many parents ask why challenging the status quo is important for our

students and I want to clarify that my number one purpose is believing in my students. Youth are the fresh eyes to our world and if

they are recognizing areas of improvement, then we have to listen to them. My job in the classroom is to give the leaders of tomorrow a

chance to be critical reflectors and be confident in their abilities to make a better world. We first have to start by thinking about our world.

Our humanity. There are heavy topics to unpack and there are also uplifting ones to celebrate.

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Semester Two is all about Sustainability. The students and I just got done analyzing some negative symptoms of human behavior

while practicing positive, radical change. It is important that we ask ourselves how to sustain humanity that is good. The absence

of violence can be peace and if we are able to recognize peace, is it possible to prevent violence? A common cycle appears in history:

we don't learn from our mistakes. Humans often hurt other humans, but we also tend to hurt the planet and ourselves--which are fears

many of our students face each day. As educators, we should provide a learning space that allows them to inform themselves

and to reflect upon their roles.

2 UNIT OVERVIEWS

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Storytelling

3 Weeks

Questions: Whose stories get told? How are they told? When are they told? How does storytelling connect to humanity?

My students will explore different types of storytelling from all over the world while discovering what story they want to tell the world (Mirra). They will also be discussing these essential questions about how storytelling impacts the way we interact with our environments, especially when there are the same stories being hidden. There are diverse ways to communicate and listen to stories if we give space to respect differing global styles. And in the end, most of us have contributions to tap into if we're given the opportunity and validation. My classroom will require a community of storytellers to support one another in their endeavors to discover humanity.

Reading: Young Adult Choice Book

Writing: Personal Narrative

TRANSFORMATION

Inequity

4 Weeks

Questions: How does the system maintain inequity? What does it look like over time? How does it connect to humanity?

My students will explore what inequity means in the United States as it morphs into different areas of our lives over time. They will utilize small groups to unpack what their identities are and how privilege impacts each day. We introduced the concept of inequity in the storytelling unit without using the word, but now we will read specific circumstances through stories and research about injustice being ingrained into the political and psychological system. Throughout the unit, we will keep inquiring what it means to be human on this Earth and what that entails when humans are treated differently than others (Minor).

Reading: Young Adult Book About Identity

Writing: Persuasive Letter

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Violence

4 Weeks

Questions: What is culture? How does violence look like in different cultures? Why does violence exist in humanity?

My students will explore a negative human behavior that is a consistent existence in human history. They will look back in time, will look into the science of reaction, and critically think about present violence. It will be their choice about which type of violence to analyze, but the class will have time to reflect as a large group to decipher a common link if there is one. Along the way, they will be keeping a private log about times they felt anger, an avoidable emotion, and how they reacted (Teaching Tolerance). This self-reflection can be relevant to their lives as try to understand humanity in all its forms.

Reading: Literary Canon Class Book

Writing: Literary Analysis Paper

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Activism

5 Weeks

Questions: What does productive change look like? What does your community need? Are humans natural advocates?

My students will explore the stages of activism in order to address the prospect of change for all the topics explored up to this point. They will end this semester with round-table presentations about a community need of their choice and an effective plan of action for implementing positive change (Donhauser). We will talk about the importance of civic engagement in educational spaces and discuss symptoms of a lack of citizen-centered community engagement. The concept of democracy will be the through-line in discussions as we unpack why participation matters in Western culture and whether that connects to humanity overall.

Reading: Independent Research

Writing: Research Paper

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Peace

4 Weeks

Questions: What does peace look like? Is it possible for humans to be peaceful? How do we sustain peace?

My students will explore the concept of peace in model communities around the world and ideal communities in our heads. The reason each student will read a biography of choice is because they will reflect on how this person found peace in their life in different circumstances. Their own weekly journals will be rooted in their feelings about peace in their lives and what patterns they are observing in the readings and class conversations (Kittle). We talked about one side of the coin in humanity: violence. This time they will gather claims about the other side of the coin. In order to stay rooted in the course purpose, we will revisit the progression of topics so far.

Reading: Biography Choice Book

Writing: Blog Posts

SUSTAINABILITY

Health

5 Weeks

Questions: How does health affect daily life? How does health affect relationships? Are everyone's needs met?

My students will explore the various sectors of health and be thinking about the nuances of decision-making when it comes to well-being. One of their goals will be to interview someone about the type of health they're interested in (i.e. cognitive, emotional, physical, behavioral, etc.). We will conference about which route they want to, whether it's narrative, informational, persuasive, or another (Kittle). Overall, we will be questioning the interpersonal connection health has to humanity. Practicing empathy as we listen to other people's perspectives can be a healthy avenue for reflecting on our own health practices.

Reading: Story Corps

Writing: Art

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Earth

4 Weeks

Questions: What is humanity's relationship to the Earth? What is our discourse around nature? How is nature symbolic?

My students will explore how nature shows up in what we read, how we look at the world, and how we could implement it in our writing. American literature expresses a lot of different perspectives about the Earth, including Native American nations, Theodore Roosevelt, and Henry David Thoreau (Mirra). They will look deeper into how all the topics up to this point might converge with nature, especially in poetry (Dungy). Students all have different relationships with nature, but don't often get time to reflect on this part of their life. Humanity has many intersections, but a big part of life is that we share our home with other life. We will end the unit with a slam poetry session with treats and community members.

Reading: American Literature

Writing: Poetry Anthology

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You

5 Weeks

Questions: What is humanity? What is your role in humanity?

My students will explore their own passions when facing humanity. They will write their own goals and explicitly outline a plan (Westman). We will help each other stay accountable to meet the overall outcomes. This will require even more self-reflection about all we have talked about this year. Maybe they think we missed a major part of being human or wanted to expand upon something. They will have to use reading and writing to better understand their role in the world.

Reading: Students' Choice

Writing: Students' Choice

COMPLETE YEARLONG PLAN

TEACHING CONTEXT

Community

Fort

Collins

Colorado State University is a big part of this town. It brings in a lot of passionate young adults that are dedicated to educating themselves and involving themselves with the community. Fort Collins is a majority white community and has many privileged families in the suburban area. This Northern Colorado city is part of the Front Range landscape and lies West of oil fields and ranches.

School

Kinard Middle

School

Kinard resides in the Poudre School District as a choice middle school only and does not provide transportation to its families. It is a core knowledge school - with a focus on literacy - known for its academic excellence. The teachers are asked to collaborate in PLCs in order to best support all students. Sports are also not offered to students, but there are other extracurriculars.

Classroom

8th Grade

English

My classroom is a spunky group of teenagers who are getting ready for the next stage of life. I have a couple of IEP and 504 students who I get to work with to accommodate a better learning space. Many of my students are white, but a mix of backgrounds is present. And the culture is that we rely on brains as much as possible.

SOURCES

Student-Driven Differentiation

Lisa Westman

Students had complete autonomy as to the product they would create. This vision drove their research process, and students were responsible for determining what resources they needed, and teachers helped students solicit the information they needed.

Educating for Empathy

Nicole Mirra

English teachers have the opportunity to use imaginative texts as catalysts for learning, which can provide a springboard to the development of empathy...Once students can imagine a range of possible worlds, they are better prepared to begin building the ones they want to see.

Dungy, Camille. Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry. 2009.
Kittle, Penny. Write Beside Them: Risk, Voice, and Clarity in High School Writing. 2008.
Minor, Cornelius. We Got This. Equity, Access, and the Quest to Be Who Our Students Need Us to Be. 2019.
Teaching Tolerance. 2020. Web.

Letting Go

Donhauser, Stutzman, Hersey

One of the biggest questions from students was, "Why can't you just teach us?" To increase their perseverance, we had to learn how to communicate our reasons very clearly to help students understand that, though this type of learning might feel different, we are still actually teaching.