Embedded Files
Original mural by Ruth Artiga de Paz and Fatima Pineda Amaya
Frontier School staff and faculty are engaged in a multi-year professional development examination of culturally relevant teaching and learning with a focus on anti racism. This work comes at a critical juncture given the national focus on equity, social justice and racism. As educators we know that long term goals are accomplished through the lessons that we share with our students and the subsequent changes that they make in our world. This is how young activists are developed, this is how systemic racism is dismantled. While professional development will take place over several years it does not mean that teachers are not already making adjustments to what and how they teach. Some of our educators are new to this work and some have embraced the concepts of social justice and culturally relevant teaching throughout their careers. This curriculum update is a celebration of this work both new and established. The journey does not end here, if we are truly honest with ourselves this work will not be completed in our lifetime. It is a long road to equality and it is important to pause, reflect and recognize accomplishments along the way. The systemic injustices that we face today took more than a lifetime to develop, the changes we make now will ripple through our student body and out into the world one lesson at a time. Thank you for taking the time to read about some of our lessons.
Sarah Mitchell Ed. D.
Director of Education- Secondary Focus
Grade 7 Science
Environmental Justice
Amy Wells: A lesson from grade 7 science: "This lesson helps students understand how pollution disproportionately affects people who are poor and members of racial and ethnic minorities. The lesson also provides students with an opportunity to use maps to locate environmental injustice." Lesson source:
https://www.learningforjustice.org/classroom-resources/lessons/analyzing-environmental-justice
Original artwork by Elise Friedrichs FRS student
Original artwork by Elise Friedrichs FRS student
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Alison Walters, Current Events
In this 10 week unit, grade 11 and 12 students explore the concepts in the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Guided questions based on the reading, and student facilitated class discussions help students to grapple with the social hierarchy in existence in the United States today. “A renowned writer, Isabel Wilkerson considers the social divisions in American Society, many of them unacknowledged, using comparisons with India and Nazi Germany.” A book review by The Guardian You can listen to an NPR interview with the author here.
Original artwork by Tia Gottschalk FRS student
Racial Slavery in the Americas: Resistance, Freedom, and Legacies
Racial Slavery in the Americas: Resistance, Freedom, and Legacies
Ken Ekstien World History I: Massachusetts curriculum frameworks the age of exploration. A Choices Program Unit.
Ken Ekstien World History I: Massachusetts curriculum frameworks the age of exploration. A Choices Program Unit.
In this unit students examine how and why the system of racial slavery developed in the Americas. Using readings and lessons, students learn about the experiences of enslaved people as they navigated and resisted a violent and oppressive system designed to dehumanize them. Students explore how the legacies of racial slavery continue to affect the lives of people today.
In this unit students examine how and why the system of racial slavery developed in the Americas. Using readings and lessons, students learn about the experiences of enslaved people as they navigated and resisted a violent and oppressive system designed to dehumanize them. Students explore how the legacies of racial slavery continue to affect the lives of people today.
Kevin Murphy Computer Science Research Project
Software engineers are increasingly gaining awareness of the problems in machine learning of bias in algorithms from data. Machine learning software learns from data examples, but the data in our world is often biased, and machines can then learn these biases.
Automated systems are not inherently neutral. They reflect the priorities, preferences, and prejudices—the coded gaze—of those who have the power to mold artificial intelligence.
Student assignment:
Watch and discuss the full length documentary https://www.codedbias.com/ which explores the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini’s discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all.
Research: Choose a software application that has social and ethical implications around bias. Discuss the beneficial and harmful effects of this bias in the software application. Discuss the ethical problems that may arise and how programmers can try to avoid them.
Share: Present your findings in a short slide presentation or video.
Original artwork by Cordelia Hale FRS Student
This is What it Means to Say Phoenix Arizona and other stories by Sherman Alexie
“Sherman Alexie is a preeminent Native American poet, novelist, performer and filmmaker. He has garnered high praise for his poems and short stories of contemporary Native American reservation life” (Poetry Foundation)
In order to reflect and represent all the discussions, reading, researching and writing we’ve done exploring Sherman Alexie and this first glimpse into the topic of identity and society, you’ll be creating an original one pager today. This is one of several assignments that students encounter in this grade 10 English Language Arts unit.
Lynette Varnon Grade 10 English
Government and Politics
A required grade 12 Social Studies Course
Throughout the course students study race and antiracism from both historical and modern day perspectives. Some examples include:
Students engage in discussions based on Eyes on the Prize. This site provides students with meaningful information about the african-american struggle during the Civil Rights movements.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder, (2013) are examined when we discuss/debate the recent issues surrounding voting access, and some states’ focus on making it more difficult for many to access the ballot box.
Students read and reflect on an excerpt from Cornel West’s book Race Matters. “In eight brief but powerful essays, West, director of Afro-American Studies at Princeton, delivers innovative analyses of our nation's racial dilemmas.”
Laura Moore
Band, Music and Social Justice
Band Units, Max Sherrill
Band Unit: Social Justice Anthems
Students work with Social Justice Anthems including "We Shall Overcome," "Blowin' in the Wind," "Lift Every Voice And Sing," and "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round". We play the melodies on our instruments, discuss the history of the songs/associated social causes (ending Jim Crow, anti-war, labor rights, civil rights, and others). Students write a reflection assignment describing which song and which version/arrangement feels most effective and why. Students create additional verses to songs including messages relevant to today. Students also create a recording of themselves performing their chosen anthem.
Additional Topics: Anti-Racism in Band
Established definitions according to the endorsed school platform of bigotry vs. racism
Discussion of "racist" elements in the world of classical music and band repertoire (massive underrepresentation of BIPOC and women)
Frank discussion of racist elements within our band curriculum
Celebration of inclusivity and anti-bigotry among membership
Created a Padlet where students shared their thoughts on how band could become "actively anti-racist"
Stamped
Racism, Antiracism and You by Jason Rynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
Grade 8 Teams:
“In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti–Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. Stamped from the Beginning uses the lives of five major American intellectuals to offer a window into the contentious debates between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and anti-racists.” Goodreads Recommendation.
Eighth grader students make connections across subject areas as they study and analyze historical primary documents referenced throughout the book, Stamped.
Latin
In Carla Nelson’s Latin classes, the Cambridge Latin Course has been the primary textbook for many years. Like its parent entity, Cambridge University, these books have long offered a curriculum that is cognizant of the fact that the study of ancient cultures should include constant opportunities for comparison with our own and a catalyst for talking about cultural values and change. As part of the course’s overarching examination of the social dynamics of the ancient Mediterranean, Latin 4x students are currently studying early Imperial Rome, with its many problems and many achievements. Under discussion are topics such as the culture of slavery, the extremes of privilege and social stratification, food and job insecurity, the violence of the amphitheater, the alternating of religious syncretism and intolerance, gender roles and expectations, political propaganda, multicultural tendencies, and overt imperialism. Ironically, one of the very oldest subjects one can study has always been (but is more so now) a treasure trove for tracing the cultural legacies of the Western world and then turning the magnifying glass upon our current concerns and potential solutions. The local and national organizations available to Latin teachers have also provided focused curriculum supplements during this particular year, with teacher seminars and web-based lessons offered by the Classical Association of New England, the American Classical League, and the Cambridge University Classics Project.
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