Pedagogy Discussed: 

• Reflecting on your upbringing and biases and listening to students

• Educating yourself with anti-racist literature 

• Informing yourself on the diversity in your curriculum, the books you choose for your class, and analyzing the lack of diversity or the groups that may be unrepresented in the text

• Advocate for changes in your school to make students of color more comfortable, add social justice into the standards, empower your students to find their voice, include or remove specific literature in your class, and become knowledgeable of your language in the classroom so that people of color feel respected/comfortable

Implementing this in the Classroom:

•  Creating "people-first language" posters with my class & creating a journal system for students and giving them to option to let me read them and listen to them or keeping them in a locked drawer 

• Offer diverse literature like "New Kid" by Jerry Craft with joy and important discussions about the culture shock POC face, not just struggle stories

• Incorporate literature with people of color in every lesson every month not just Black History Month, don't use the N-word, highlight the progress that movements like the Civil Rights have created, and refrain from hyper-focusing on traumatizing images

Pedagogy Discussed:

• Cultural Response Teaching & Awareness: Have authentic conversations with students to help diversify you and your classes views

• Reshape your leadership curricula to include social change and not leave students of color behind

• Become culturally aware of your classroom:  respect the student's wishes, their likes/dislikes, and treat your students as educators as to dismantle the hierarchy within the classroom

Implementing this in the Classroom:

• To promote cultural awareness, a good strategy would be discussing current events biweekly for 10 minutes before or after class to discuss everything from town issues to state issues (like army recruiters recruiting poc towns and how it affects students) and how it affects students to connect students with potential mental health resources

• Leadership curricula can be changed by including a multitude of intersectional identities in literature and films and dismantling the white savior complex through analyzing films like "Freedom Writers" and "The Help" through a critical lens

• Promote usage of pronouns in the classroom by asking students their pronouns and again offering a class journal as said earlier for 10 minutes in the beginning of class, and offering "teach the class days" where students get to present about a theme they enjoy within our novel or film

  • 1. Another way to promote pronouns is to create and carry a poster with my student's names for each class and making removable pronouns stickies just in case students want to change them at any time

Pedagogy Discussed:

• Understanding the oppression and prejudices that students face from school "teachers, administrators, and counselors" before blaming "at-risk" students for their grades and for falling off the tightrope and being pushed into suspension or other schools  (Sheri 521) 

• Explore critical youth literacies with students discussing  "identity exploration related to privilege, power, and oppression" (Sheri 525)

• Evolve Borders & Form Student Critical Consciousness: allow students to share their personal stories and bring in speakers/teachers 

• Discuss pathways for youth through theory, concept, and methodology through creating programs implementing change

Implementing This in the Classroom:

• Have strategic mental health days in the class during or after exam weeks where students do not write a journal but instead write a one-pager on how they feel they are doing academically and mentally,  put on a film related to our last class/ book, and have snacks to destress to better understand and support students in their oppressions or struggles

• Incorporate the fact-based novel "When the Heart Turns Rock Solid" which discusses the intersectional issues of three Puerto Rican brothers and the struggles they face into their adulthood because of their skin color and poverty 

• To shape student critical consciousness it is essential to allow students to have discussions and form questions about inequalities in literary pieces through Socratic seminars 

  • 1. Alongside Socratic seminars, ask admin, staff, or educators to speak about their experiences with privilege or oppressions inside of the classroom to understand and see first-hand real-life examples of both

• Urge and advocate for your school to create programs through advocating in board meetings for disadvantaged students when students face disparities with: afterschool tutoring programs,1-period tutoring classes, or creating classes like "La Raza Studies" to discuss the prejudices that people of color face

Pedagogy Discussed

• Implement the usage of current and past media in the classroom when creating lessons to better connect with students

• Promote the critical analysis of media by having students analyze media

• Influence students to connect intersectional identities together when engaging and consuming media literacy 

Implementing This in the Classroom:

• Engage the class by having creative projects and allowing free range for presentations ranging from songs, rapping, and acting, to creating Tiktoks or using social media for their projects

• In order to make class assignments more interactive, create assignments involving bringing online articles, social media posts, and Tiktoks about our topic 

  • 1. After going over the lesson for the day ask students if they felt their source related to our lesson or not to not in order to teach students the importance of trusted sources and create a more interesting dialogue of the topic

• First, ask questions like this in class for interactive media assignments : 

1. Does this post have people that look like you as the consumer? 

2. Does this video discussing the college you want to go align with your ideals? Are you aware of culture shock?

3. Does this news channel exclude people of your religion, skin color, or sexuality? 

Then, proceed to ask students to come up with their own conclusions and questions about how the media we are seeing can harm or aid people of different races, sexes, genders, religions, etc!