Resources

Spring 2009

Curriculum Resources

Compiled by Wayne Au, Bill Bigelow, and Bob Peterson.

Conscious Women Rock the Page:
Using Hip-Hop Fiction to Incite Social Change
Created by Black Artemis, E-Fierce, JLove, and Marcella Runell Hall
(Lulu/Sister Outsider Entertainment, 2008)
164 pp. $29.95

This curriculum revolves around three hip-hop young adult novels: E-Fierce's The Sista Hood On the Mic, Black Artemis' Picture Me Rollin', and JLove's That White Girl, and seamlessly integrates activities across seven sections that incorporate the novels' themes, issues of self-reflection, and identity, as well as aspects of hip-hop culture and critical literacy. It is feminist, it is social justice, and it is hip-hop, with no apologies.

Seeing Through Maps, Many Ways to See the World
By Denis Wood, Ward L. Kaiser, and Bob Abramms
(ODT, 2006)
152 pp. $24.95

A wonderful guide for any social studies teacher at any grade level to help show the inherent biases in how maps are made, and the social power expressed through those perspectives. These three map experts share their deep understanding of the history and nature of cartography in an easy to understand way. If teachers use this book, their students will never see the world in the same way.

Democracy Now!
www.democracynow.org
Daily hour-long newscast

"Democracy Now!" is not new, but we include it here in the Resources section because it is simply the best daily news show in the country, and an indispensable resource for teachers. Many segments on this hour-long broadcast—available as a video or audio podcast, and broadcast on radio and TV stations around the country—have lots of uses in the classroom. Recent segments have featured student activists at the Powershift climate change lobbying summit in Washington, D.C., a critical look at U.S. drug laws, the impact of the Israeli attacks on Gaza, and coverage of the "Winter Soldier" hearings about the Iraq war. Hosted by the venerable journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, "Democracy Now!" offers essential background for teachers to understand the world, and valuable material to use with students.

The Herb Kohl Reader: Awakening the Heart of Teaching
By Herb Kohl
(The New Press, 2009)
336 pp. $19.95

Few individuals have had the kind of impact on teaching and learning that Herb Kohl has had. Long before there was a Rethinking Schools, Kohl was offering vivid examples of what it means to teach for social justice and against stupidity. Jonathan Kozol writes that Herb Kohl's work "brings out all the sweetness, passion, and...mischief-making humor of an infinitely vulnerable and honest human being who has made it his vocation to peddle hope in the face of despair." Indeed. What a wonderful introduction to teaching this book is.

Creating Critical Classrooms:
K-8 Reading and Writing with an Edge
By Mitzi Lewison, Christine Leland, and Jerome C. Harste
Foreword by Linda Christensen
(Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2008)
360 pp. $41.95

This book by three renowned literacy experts articulates a powerful theory of critical literacy instruction, providing models that encourage K-8 students to question their everyday world, interrogate the relationship between language and power, and analyze popular culture. As Linda Christensen notes in the foreword, "Creating Critical Classrooms provides a curricular conscience to teachers. The collection of vignettes, thought pieces, and invitations pulls out a chair at the table as teachers and professors discuss classroom practice in light of critical theory. ... This work ... demonstrates exemplary literacy practices, but also demonstrates education that 'liberates' instead of 'domesticates' or 'alienates.' ... [It] is culturally sensitive, critically astute—and absolutely essential for teachers and teacher educators today."

Where Am I Wearing?
A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories and People that Make Our Clothes
By Kelsey Timmerman
(John Wiley & Sons, 2009)
248 pp. $24.95 Hardback

A freelance journalist traveled to Honduras, Cambodia, Bangladesh and China to find the story of the people who make some of his favorite clothing—pants, underwear, flip flops, and shorts. His stories reveal the human impact of globalization. His interviews with child laborers and family members provide material that will awaken students and teachers alike to some of our intimate connections with people around the world.

Videos

Witness to Hiroshima
A documentary film by Kathy Sloane
www.witnesstohiroshima.com
(2008)
16 min., $20 for personal use, $50 for high schools and nonprofits; $100 for universities, government entities, corporations

Witness to Hiroshima is one of those small-story films that reveals a much bigger picture. Long after the bombing of Hiroshima, which Keiji Tsuchiya witnessed and survived, Tsuchiya begins remembering details and starts turning his memories into watercolors. The enormity of the Hiroshima bombing unfolds through these watercolors, gradually but powerfully. The link the film draws between Tsuchiya's experiences following the bombing and his later horseshoe crab preservation work is a startling connection. Teachers will find lots of use for this fine, short film.

Paradise Lost
Reported by Mona Iskander
www.pbs.org/now/shows/449/
60 min.

This episode of the PBS series "NOW" offers students an intimate look at one of the consequences of global warming: the loss of island nations throughout the world. Kiribati, in the South Pacific, is being "drowned" by the rising seas caused by global climate change. Paradise Lost puts students face-to-face with people who are becoming some of the world's first climate refugees. And it confronts them with the ugly irony that the people with the world's smallest carbon footprint are the ones who are suffering the most. Global warming is often presented as some kind of off-in-the-future science fiction scenario. Paradise Lost allows students to see that this is a here-and-now issue. Although it is available for purchase, it can be downloaded at the PBS website.

Picture Books

Nobody Gonna Turn Me 'Round
Stories and Songs of the Civil Rights Movement
By Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Shane W. Evans
(Candlewick Press, 2008)
64 pp. $9.99

Nobody Gonna Turn Me 'Round is a strikingly illustrated, deftly written chronicle of several of the key players in the Civil Rights Movement. An excellent book to introduce students to the notion that it wasn't only the Martin Luther Kings and Rosa Parks who made the movement, but many of the lesser-known but equally extraordinary people like Mose Right, Jo Ann Robinson, Diane Nash, and more.

Chapter Books

Operation Redwood
By S. Terrell French
(Amulet Books, 2009)
352 pp. $16.95 Hardback

A kid-friendly plot-driven adventure in which a Chinese American boy and a home-schooled white girl team up through a set of unusual circumstances to embark on a fight to save some of the oldest trees in the world. Angry email messages, a greedy uncle, and creative thinking on the part of the teenagers will keep readers turning the pages. The book offers valuable opportunities to raise serious questions about profit versus humans' responsibility to this planet, and the role of social activism in ensuring ecological justice.