Heroes

This post is not about the bureaucracy of education or lack of public support for education or about the countless other issues educators face day in and day out.  No this post is about the students and the work we do in our classroom.  We just completed a non-fiction reading unit focused on reading about social justice heroes.  The unit was built around the following two essential questions:

1) What qualities do heroes have?  Who is someone you consider a hero and why?
2) Why is it important to connect what you read to your prior knowledge?

Connecting what you read to your prior knowledge is a well researched strategy that good readers use to deepen their comprehension.  I'll quote from Mosaic of Thought, a teacher book, "We know that children are far more likely to retain and reapply information if they think about what they already know related to the new information (p. 72)."  And because I believe so strongly in the importance of  teaching for social justice - especially for the population in my classroom who face social justice issues related to poverty, immigration, language, and race - I planned the unit so the students would read about heroes who fought for social justice.  I collected books about numerous social justice heroes from well known heroes like Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez to lesser known heroes like Claudette Colvin (if you haven't heard of her check out the book Twice Toward Justice, a really fascinating read www.nationalbook.org/nba2009_ypl_hoose.html).

Everyday the students wrote about their connections to their prior knowledge and how those connections helped them understand the texts better.  The students focused on writing about new ideas they are having, new information they learned, or how their thinking is changing.  Below are some highlights (I made made some minor grammatical and spelling edits):

•  "I can connect Rachel Carson to Eleanor Roosevelt because they both did their best to save people or nature.  One thing I learned today is that if they can follow their own dreams we can follow and try to accomplish our dreams too." - EJ
• "Mohandas Gandhi was an important person because India was ruled by a country called Britain.  Gandhi believed India should be free.  British people in India did not treat Indians as equal.  I connect this book to Claudette Colvin and Martin Luther King Jr.  This helps because I know what the problem is and the problem is that British people did not treat the Indian people equally." - J
• "One think I learned is that if you want something you really have to work to get it.  Especially if is equality." - AF
• "I think this is text to self because I had to be taken from my parents for two years and now I live with one of them.  So I connect the boy to me because it happened to me before.  One thing I learned in reading today is because I've been through it all so I've been through that life just like that boy in the story.   I can add to my file cabinet that even though this has happened between us we still got through it." - MS

The culminating projects for this unit were an illustration where the students had to show their thinking about the two essential questions and an essay with the following prompt: Write an essay describing your favorite hero.  Be sure to describe what the hero accomplished, what character traits that person has, and what you learned by reading about that person. Be sure to include a thesis statement and details to support your thesis.

I selected a few quotes from these essays:

• "Ruby Bridges is my hero because she showed the value of education by standing up to white people." - MS
• "Martin  Luther King Jr. is my hero because he was really brave and fought for social justice." - MT
• "My favorite hero is Martin Luther King Jr. because he fought for social justice and people's rights." - JBB
• "I learned that violence is never the answer to anything." - DJ
• "My favorite hero is Gandhi.  He is my favorite hero because he fought and protested peacefully." - D

Below are some pictures of the students' illustrations showing their thinking about the two essential questions.

Grow your brain...

Notice the qualities that heroes have in the upper left.

I agree.  We all need to fight for justice.

It is important to keep your knowledge organized!

I think Ruby Bridges and Rosa Parks belong in the same file.

Model student

Better put the new idea in the right place!

Your schema is your prior knowledge.

A filing cabinet of heroes...