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High School Mathematics Lessons to Explore, Understand, and Respond to Social Injustice was written by Robert Q. Berry III, Basil M. Conway IV, Brian R. Lawler, and John W. Staley along with many other contributors. This book discusses what Social Justice Mathematics is, how to implement it in the classroom, instructional tools for teaching, and many, many social justice math lessons. The link will bring you to the publisher's website where you can learn more about the book!
The lessons in this book are broken down and explained very well. They are clear, easy to follow as a teacher, and most importantly are all focused on social justice. The book separates the lessons by math topic, which is extremely helpful.
If you want or need social justice math lessons, but do not know where to start, this is your book. It will help you understand the fundamentals of teaching social justice mathematics and then will equip you with more lessons than you could imagine!
The link above is to a PDF created by NCTM, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. The PDF includes a comparison between the unproductive and productive beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics, a breakdown of the different levels of demands of mathematical tasks, a productive struggle reflection survey, and a multitude of tasks and activities for the classroom.
I found the charts comparing the unproductive and productive beliefs and breaking down the different level of demands of tasks to be very helpful. It was insightful to be able to identify where my beliefs fell before, where they fall now, and where my students' beliefs fall. It is also helpful to check the level of demand my tasks fall under.
If you are looking for high demand math tasks and activities, this PDF if the place to go. There are pre-made worksheets, solutions, and assessments for your own beliefs!
This is Frances Harper. She is the creator of Solving World Problems - Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education (link to website above). She states on her website, "Solving world problems is a pun on the way that word problems in math often have little to do with the real world." She exemplifies this in the resources provided on her website. From complex instruction to social justice, she has overviews, tasks, lesson plans, and so many resources available.
I used a lesson from this website for a Social Justice Resource Share (found in the tools section) and it was one of the best math lessons I have ever seen. The lesson was so detailed and focused on the social justice issue of speeding. You can find lesson plans by math topic, which I found to be super helpful!
If you are looking for complex instruction and/or social justice math lessons, this is your website. It is easy to navigate and full of resources upon resources. These word problems most definitely have to do with the real world, which is so refreshing in the math classroom.
This website is a part of the culmination of Dr. Bettina Love's work. She's the Author of We Want to Do More than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom. She defines abolitionist teaching as a practice of working in solidarity with communities of color while drawing on the imagination, creativity, refusal, (re)membering, visionary thinking, healing, rebellious spirit, boldness, determination, and subversiveness of abolitionists to eradicate justice in and out of schools
Not just the book, but this resource helped me, and can give people a better idea about what abolitionist teaching is. The website was easy to navigate, and there are links to other websites such as the Abolitionist Teaching Network and Hip Hop Civics to gain even more resources. There are videos as well as Dr. Love's publications as a researcher. Then, there are lesson plan resources for creating social justice hip hop lessons and civics lessons. Even if teachers are not teaching on hip hop or civics, they can gain inspiration for how they can use social justice within their curriculum to allow for all students to see themselves in their education.
Youcubed is created and inspired by Jo Boaler (pictured above). Jo Boaler is the author of Mathematical Mindsets. This website gives an overview of the beliefs and ideas about how mathematics education should be about exploration and developing a growth mindset.
I find this resource helpful because it counters the notions of traditional mathematics classrooms. The research Dr. Boaler has done has helped show speed should not matter in mathematics. Also, mathematics should be an exploration with cognitively demanding tasks rather than memorizing procedures.
This resource contains videos discussing growth mindset and what it means as well as some of the research Jo Boaler has done. Also, the resource contains ideas of cognitively demanding tasks with lesson plans and assessing/advancing questions teachers could use in their lessons to help students come up with the ideas on their own. Even if students aren't doing these tasks in school, if parents found this resource, they could work with their children on the task at home, too!
This website is a depiction of the work of Resmaa Menakem, author of several books including My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies. The website is a promotion of his works as well as identifying what he coins as "Somatic Abolitionism."
Somatic Abolitionism is living, embodied anti-racist practice and cultural building —a way of being in the world. It is a return to the age-old wisdom of human bodies respecting, honoring, and resonating with other human bodies.
A friend of mine had me read the first chapter of My Grandmother's Hands, and based on conversations I've had, this book takes a different look at white-body supremacy in America. Menakem makes the argument white-bodied supremacy doesn't live in our brains, instead, it lives in our bodies as an embodied experience of trauma. Instead of focusing on what we think about race, we need to look into our physiological reactions regarding race that has been traumatically passed down through generations (for everyone).
This resource puts a difference spin on white-body supremacy in America. In regards to My Grandmother's Hands, there are healing practices embedded within the book. Also, the end of each chapter has re-memberings which are the key insights of the chapter as well as opportunities to examine your body in relation to trauma to possibly build space to grow and heal.
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