It was the last night of class that we are engaging in readings. We had a lot to discuss. We clarified the criteria for the literature review presentations. It went smoothly. The students have all done this type of thing before so they were pretty straight forward in what they wanted to see. So that was all hammered out.
I did a minilecture on the Miner (Nacerima) Yosso and McDermott & Varenne readings. Just to clarify some of the main points, then set them to discuss the other readings. It was fascinating to see the different groups dig into the different readings. Some groups really got into Recitatif (my personal favorite) whereas others spent time on the Young book (also powerful, but very different) and then another spent time on the grocery shopping activity (shopping using SNAP allowance). Each used a different text and approach, but each got to an interesting place.
We then spent a brief time workshopping the personal narratives they’ll be performing in two weeks. There were a lot of questions as to what those should look like. Several students asked if they could do a multimodal type of presentation rather than an oral presentation. I thought about it and remembered my digital story, so I said yes and showed them mine. Luckily I still have it in my file space. I hadn’t watched it in quite some time, and realized it’s a bit too fast, but I’m still proud of it. It serves its purpose. Sometimes I wonder if it’s a little self indulgent, but I think it serves its purpose. I realize doing it served a particular purpose, but I’ve moved on from it. But it remains a decent example of a digital story and I think I’ll include it in the syllabus next time I teach this class.
We then headed over to the Golisano gateway for a presentation by the Teen Empowerment group. Wow. knock my socks off. They started out with some introductory work, explained who they are and what they do, and then several members presented oral works or just talked about their lives. Mindblowing. The rawness of their emotion and their pleas for teachers to be advocates and activists is powerful. I am so impressed by their willingness to put themselves on the line – to be vulnerable in front of strangers. What an incredible group of people.They took my breath away and in the short hour we were with them they probably had more effect on the students than my whole semester with them did.
They also showed a movie about the school to prison pipeline. It was eye opening for me. I was unaware of the connections between school suspensions and kids winding up in juvenile detention and jail. I’ll be a little less flippant about suspension issues from now on. Following the movie they did a fishbowl where the youth first brainstormed what stood out in their minds about the movie and then went into deeper detail. I had to leave at that point, but it was fascinating watching the students work through the film. It reinforces my belief in the power of the fish bowl and of discussion for understanding a text.
I wish I had known about this in advance. I would have changed my syllabus to include it so that the students could stay for the whole thing. In fact, a few of my students did.
So the TE folk owned the night. I was fortunate to have attended, and I think my students felt the same.
April 2, 2009 at 8:43 pm
I am so glad we were able to attend Teen Empowerment night. I was sad I had to leave when class time ended. I would suggest to the organizers that they invite members of the School of Education in advance next time and publicize the event. If the group comes again, I will defintely be there! I agree, these young speakers were AMAZING. I pride myself on being a fairly good speaker and having a presence when I talk, but they brought it to a whole other level. It was also great to see Elliot perform his speech “live”. It was just as powerful the second time. Thanks Gloria!