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During the month of February, Teaching for Change will promote the importance of teaching Black History all year with Ask me about: Freedom Schools  commemorative buttons. Why Freedom Schools? Teaching for Change advocates for the type of learning and pedagogy used in Freedom Schools. Why the buttons? Because Black History is U.S. History and should not be reduced to the few names and events that are recycled in classrooms and the media every year during Black History Month. 

Make a donation to Teaching for Change in the month of February and receive this one-of-a-kind button commemorating Freedom Schools and the importance of teaching Black History all year long.

For a gift of $10 or more, receive your very own Ask me about: Freedom Schools commemorative button. Each button comes with a brief description of these schools for liberation so you can share your knowledge with others.

Help us give teachers and parents the tools to teach Black History and multicultural education every month of the year -– not just in February. Donate today!

More information and resources about Freedom Schools are available at teachingforchange.org/askmeabout/freedomschools

Daisy Bates became a household name in 1957 when she fought for the right of nine black students to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. As head of the Arkansas NAACP and advocate for the nine students, Bates would achieve instant fame as the drama played out on national television and in newspapers around the world. But that fame would prove fleeting and controversial. A new film, Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock takes viewers from her childhood to newspaperwoman to national Civil Rights figure to her last days in Little Rock. 

Teaching for Change was honored to co-host the community film screenings in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 21 at Busboys and Poets and Jan. 22 at the Jewish Community Center of Sharon La Cruise’s Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock in support of ITVS’s Women and Girls Lead Initiative.  

The film was introduced by the co-editors of Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching Deborah Menkart (executive director, Teaching for Change) and Jenice View (assistant professor, George Mason University); and Julian Hipkins, history teacher, Capital City Public Charter School.

The film showing was sponsored by Independent Television Service (ITVS), WHUT, the Institute for Policy Studies, Busboys and Poets, Washington DC Jewish Community Center, and the Center for Social Media at American University.

-- Text of this post is adapted from the ITVS press release.

On a chilly, rainy Wednesday evening in October, more than 50 parents filled the Orr Elementary School library in Southeast Washington, D.C. to have an open dialogue with their children’s teachers about academics and expectations. The premise was simple: bring parents and teachers together to learn from each other and discuss strategies to support student learning at home and in the classroom. The event was a Grade Level Dialogue, a tool from the Tellin’ Stories Project, Teaching for Change’s nationally recognized approach to meaningful family-school engagement. Over the course of two days, nearly 100 parents attended dialogues for their children at Orr ES in D.C.’s Ward 8. 

Grade Level Dialogues are conversations between parents and teachers regarding shared expectations, classroom rules, school procedures, parent and school academic goals and standards, and other issues relevant to the academic success of the children. These dialogues are preceded by a 6-week quilting session where parents share stories about their aspirations for their children and surface questions they have about their child(s)' formal education. [Photo above: Orr's principal with the quilt made by Orr families.]

Traditionally, parent and teacher interactions are mostly one-sided – Back to School Night and parent-teacher conferences are prime examples – with the teacher’s voice leading and often dominating the conversation. Grade Level Dialogues are unique in that they create an informal but structured opportunity to improve relationships between parents and teachers where they can listen to concerns and find solutions to support each other. Family engagement experts Anne T. Henderson and Karen L. Mapp note that: “Effective connections embrace a philosophy of partnership where power is shared—the responsibility for children’s educational development is a collaborative enterprise among parents, school staff, and community members” (SEDL, 2002).

Parents and teachers at Orr ES began the dialogues by sharing what made their educational experiences positive, challenging, emotional, sad, and hopeful. The stories were powerful – parents’ triumphs and struggles included earning multiple masters’ degrees, being homeless, moving away for college, receiving their GEDs, and going back to school to earn bachelors’ degrees. Teachers’ stories ranged from being in the Olympics to coming from an abusive home, and from getting pregnant at an early age to advocating for siblings  to learn despite their disability. Community building is at the heart of the Tellin’ Stories approach, and the relationships formed that evening helped teachers and parents build trust and form stronger relationships.

After the education stories were shared, the teachers discussed what students were doing in the classroom. Mrs. Jefferson, a Kindergarten teacher, showed parents a typical day in her classroom through photographs. Parents saw their children reading books to one another, writing, listening to a read aloud and going through their daily routines. One parent stated the best part of the evening was seeing what her child was doing academically during the school day.

Ms. Mercer, a fourth and fifth grade teacher, discussed reading levels. Diverging from a simplistic explanation, Ms. Mercer showed parents the difference between a 2^nd grade level book – which some students were currently reading – and a 5^th grade level book, which the whole class should be reading by the end of year. Parents noticed the difference in pictures, text size and the amount and length of pages in each book. Ms. Mercer gave parents refrigerator magnets with questions and strategies for parents to ask their children while reading at home. 

In other dialogues, parents and teachers worked through math problems, explored the new pre-K and Kindergarten curriculum, reviewed homework expectations, shared helpful websites, played math games, and enjoyed raffles, food and laughter. Ninety percent of parents surveyed said, “I learned strategies to help my child at home.”

Parents also had questions for the school. One parent asked, “Why doesn’t my child know her own history, especially since she lives and goes to school in Washington D.C.?” In each dialogue, parents inquired about enriching field trips. They requested more exploratory learning, geography, and hands-on science. Parents also raised concerns about penmanship and cursive handwriting.

Orr’s principal, Michelle Edwards, took the parents’ concerns seriously. As parents voiced their questions and concerns in each session, Edwards vowed to implement changes.

In the end, over 100 parents attended Grade Level Dialogues at Orr ES to converse with their children’s teachers and many liked the unique format of the dialogues, in which parents and teachers are equals as participants. One veteran teacher said that in the past she was surprised if more than five parents attended a parent-teacher conference. Of the parents who were surveyed, 94% reported, “I enjoyed coming to today’s dialogue with my child’s teacher,” and 83% of parents said, “This meeting helped me form relationships with my child’s teachers.”

Orr’s teachers also gained important knowledge, comfort, and understanding from the parents to foster student success. From the teachers surveyed, 80% percent said “I received information from parents that will help me serve my students and their needs for academic success,” and “This dialogue helped me strengthen relationships with parents.”

Over the course of two days in Ward 8 the bottom line was clear: neither teachers nor parents can do it alone. But, as partners, they can make student success a reality.

The Tellin’ Stories Project at Benjamin Orr Elementary School is funded in part through generous grants made by the Gwendolyn and Morris Cafritz Foundation, the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation, and an anonymous foundation.

“John Carlos was just so inspiring. Out of all the important people that have come to speak to us—he’s the only one who kept me awake. After hearing him speak and his story, I want to be somebody better in life. I don’t even really like to read, but I want to read his book, and capture all the important parts of it, and rethink myself, how I can be a better person, and how I can make a change.” —Gwendolyn, 11th grade

Gwendolyn’s enthusiasm was echoed by the more than 100 students and teachers at Capital City Public Charter School who had the opportunity to hear from 1968 Olympic icon and political activist John Carlos and sportswriter Dave Zirin on Oct. 3, 2011. As part of the national book tour to launch The John Carlos Story (Haymarket Books, 2011), Carlos and Zirin spoke to the students about that moment in history, the limited explanations given in textbooks, and its continued significance.

Dave Zirin began the 60-minute session at the school with a description of the demands made by the Olympic Project for Human Rights, the symbolism of the photo, and the threats faced by John Carlos and Tommie Smith during and after the Olympics due to the stand they took. John Carlos followed with stories from his life and encouraged students to learn the true history of the United States and the world.

Carlos pointed out that textbooks include the famous photo of Tommie Smith and himself with their fists in the air because those in power “cannot ignore the power of that picture, that demonstration. So they take it and they put it in the textbook for the students to see. But yet and still, they give you no more than two lines to explain what that picture’s worth. They would never express the why, where, and whats, and the necessity of this demonstration. So that’s why it’s imperative that you guys push yourselves to learn your history. . . . Because this world, I’m leaving it to you. I did mine. It’s time for you guys to get ready to step up and do yours. Remember, I wasn’t 57 or 58 or 60. I had just turned 23 years old.”

After the presentation, students had the opportunity to ask questions.

Why did you do it?

“Why did I do it? Because so many individuals that were in positions of power chose just to lay back. I heard individuals make statements like, ‘It’s just the way it is.’ But because it’s just the way it is, is that the right way? I could never accept it. I could never accept that fact that some of my fellow students didn’t have food in their iceboxes or didn’t have clothes to go to school. Or the fact that their fathers was dope fiends because somebody came and put dope on them. . . . Those things were totally wrong and somebody had to step up to the plate and say we have to deal with this as a society. What I’m saying is, you students, you have to really get a chance to observe something and look at it from every perspective. Turn it upside down, turn it sideways, turn it backwards and look at it, because you have a right to come to your own conclusions, and then what you do is you sit down and have some sort of intellectual discussion about it and find out who the shakers and the bakers are.”

Who did you look up to?

“First and foremost was my father. My father taught me quite a bit. Paul Robeson. . . . Paul Robeson and my father, they were the two biggest role models for me. And then once I started getting into school, I had a lot of admiration and respect for Frederick Douglass. These individuals kind of molded me. I had the opportunity to meet Malcolm X—went down the street, jogged down the street—as he would be tearing to the next location, I’d be jogging with him, trying to pick his brain, get the knowledge. I always had admiration for any individual who said, ‘Man, I’m going against the grain,’ because it didn’t seem like they were hypnotized going downstream not knowing the prize was really upstream, so I admire all of those individuals. . . . But my dad is probably the biggest inspiration in my life.”

Here is a link to a video clip of Gwendolyn, quoted at the top of this page. More student reflections on the presentation: Tiffany and Raymond.

This school visit was coordinated by 11th-grade U.S. history teacher Julian Hipkins III, Dave Zirin of Edge of Sports, Teaching for Change, and the Zinn Education Project.

A full tape of the presentations and Q&A can be seen here: Part 1 and Part 2. For more information about the book and national tour, visit: The John Carlos Story. Thanks to intern Jozi T. Zwerdling for the transcription. 

Melissa Harris-Perry delivered a riveting presentation on her latest book, Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America, to a full house at Busboys and Poets (14th and V) on September 19, 2011. So many people came for her presentation that seats were added to the stage behind the speaker. The event was co-sponsored by Busboys and Poets, Teaching for Change, and the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.

Harris-Perry began by citing Black History Month as the quintessential expression of fictive kinship because it claims to celebrate all African Americans by focusing on the achievements of a few token individuals. Black History Month is fictional by virtue of its claim to represent a heterogeneous group of people, and by confining the achievements of said group within a single month. While black achievement gets recognized as a source of pride in February, the media’s vigilant attention to the “shortcomings” of African Americans – e.g. having highest rate of unemployment, highest rate of home foreclosures, highest rate of incarceration – keeps the members of the group in a psychological state of unease.

All of this may seem rather self-evident, but this was mere preamble to her stunning comparison of the political performances of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. She argues (following Toni Morrison and others) that Clinton inserted himself into the fictive kinship of blackness because of his flawless racial performance. He seemed to understand and respect black suffering, so African Americans forgave an entire roster of regressive and punitive measures he signed into law.

Obama does not possess Clinton’s effortless racial performance, but Harris-Perry cited more significant demonstrations of kinship that remain unacknowledged. For Harris-Perry, Obama’s relationship with Michelle displays a kinship with blackness that surpasses merely knowing the words to the Black National Anthem. Obama has dedicated himself to a relationship that does not need to be validated by public opinion, does not elevate his professional stature, and does not downplay their equally impressive educational and professional accomplishments. However, Obama is not forgiven his professional shortcomings, and his efforts to redress the wrongs of the previous administrations (Clinton’s included) are rarely celebrated. Harris-Perry encourages fictive kinship to be meaningfully used as a demand for real engagement with the most economically and politically salient gains for the community.

After a rich presentation, Harris-Perry fielded questions from a captivated and appreciative audience before signing over 100 books.

More photos from the event. Photos courtesy of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.

Story submitted by LaTissia Mitchell, Teaching for Change’s Busboys and Poets Bookstore Assistant Manager.

There is a museum in Washington, D.C., in which the exhibits do not include the voices of any scholars. “If you were not there in the making of the history, you do not get a quote in our exhibit,” proclaims Hari Jones, curator of the African American Civil War Museum. “We tell the story from the perspective of these American history makers.”

On Oct. 25, Teaching for Change hosted an after-hours event at the newly reopened African American Civil War Museum (AACWM.) In a warm and convivial atmosphere, Teaching for Change staff and board members welcomed funders and supporters to view the permanent exhibit at AACWM, Glorious March to Liberty: The Contributions of African Americans in the Civil War. Attendees strolled through the museum, conversed with colleagues and friends, and learned about the invaluable efforts of under-sung soldiers. (Photos above: [top] Museum founder and director Dr. Frank Smith and attendees; [bottom] Teaching for Change board members.)

During a brief formal presentation, veteran high school history teacher Kevin Fox vocalized the sentiments of the evening when he juxtaposed the three lines in his U.S. history textbook that mention African American soldiers in the Civil War against the breadth and depth of the museum exhibit. Charles County middle school principal Robert Babiak shared why he donates to Teaching for Change and Birmingham native Amber Massey explained why she volunteers on our CivilRightsTeaching.org website.

Museum curator and tour guide par excellence Hari Jones (pictured on left) delivered a rousing presentation about how mainstream media and histories misrepresent the contribution of U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) to the Civil War. The exhibit reflects only the voices of soldiers and support personnel that were drawn from primary sources in the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and private collections (such as the Gladstone Collection). AACWM tells the unheard story of USCT commitment to freedom and heroism in battle. (Video of the presentation below.)

Attendees were also privileged to meet the founder of the African American Civil War Memorial Freedom Foundation and Museum, Dr. Frank Smith, who spoke with guests throughout the evening. AACWM offers the kind of fully realized history that we champion at Teaching for Change, and “History After Hours” proved to be an enjoyable and uplifting event.

In addition to many special guests from the D.C. area, we were honored to be joined by visitors from out of town. The staff of the Margaret Walker Center (MWC) at Jackson State University were in town for meetings about museums and African American history. Former D.C. teacher Waahida Mbatha was in town for meetings about the new school she is opening in South Africa. (In photo below from left to right: Heather Civil-Ayres, JSU graduate student; Robert Luckett, MWC Director; Frank Smith, AACWM director; Chester Hartman, PRRAC research director; Angela Stewart, MWC archivist; and Marlin King, JSU architect.)

We thank AACWM staff members for their generosity and support. AACWM is an essential ally in public education because of their commitment to presenting the contributions of everyday people in history. We also appreciate the local establishments that graciously donated food and drink for the event: Chix, The Greek Spot, Italian Kitchen on U, Oohhs and Aahhs Soul Food Restaurant, and Yes! Organic Markets. Photography courtesy of Anthony C. Njoku, Blue Lightning Photography: www.facebook.com/BlueLightningPhotography 

See more photos from the event.

Below is a video clip of the presentation by curator Hari Jones. Watch it and we know you will want to visit to the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum soon!

Rita Dove, editor of the recently released Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry read at Busboys and Poets on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 for one of Teaching for Change's and Busboys and Poets' free author events.

To cover an entire century of U.S. poetry, she read from a great array of poets included in the new anthology. Her selections were diverse in all areas: races, cultures and styles of poetry. When asked if her choice to include many writers of color and women was deliberate, she responded with a resounding "Yes."

As she put it, her heroes of poetry were often not included in many anthologies, and as times changed, they were still marginalized to anthologies focusing on specifically race and gender. Ms. Dove said she wanted everyone to enjoy the stories and poems of her heroes, and she took great pains to really mix and match up poets whose work she felt stood out in the 20th century or didn’t get its deserved acclaim.

Interestingly enough, Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s ex-wife, Alice Dunbar Nelson is among the pages, as well as poems by a gumbo of other unsung poets, who rub shoulders among the pages with Derek Walcott, Sonia Sanchez, W.S. Merwin, Robert Creeley, Elizabeth Bishop, and Amiri Baraka. Even more special, Ms. Dove revealed that she included poems that were more like B-Sides to some poets' usual and commonly anthologized poems.

During the Q + A session, many chose to sing Dove's praises, while others asked about her time as the National Poet Laureate, advice for aspiring poets, how she crafts her poems, and even more provocative, how she feels about the spoken word movement. As an introduction to her reading, two teenage members of the DC Youth Slam Team, which co-sponsored the event along with Teaching for Change and Busboys and Poets, opened with spoken word poetry performances that impressed Ms. Dove.

Lauryn, a 17-year-old student at Duke Ellington School of the Arts (pictured left) read a new poem of hers about romance, and Alexis, a 17-year-old student at National Collegiate Preparatory Public Charter School performed a powerful piece about slavery and prisons. Repeatedly throughout the night, Ms. Dove remarked on the quality and importance of these young voices.

The DC Youth Slam Team (a program of Split This Rock) is coached by Teaching for Change's very own Jonathan B. Tucker, who served as host for the reading and moderator for the Q + A. Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal attended the event and was vocal about the need to support independent, nonprofit bookstores like ours. From high school and college students to local teachers, English professors and poets of all stripes, the audience was as diverse as Ms. Dove's selections in the anthology. Other attendees included Teaching for Change staff member and Busboys and Poets Poet-in-Residence Derrick Weston Brown, Carolivia Herron, Lisa Pegram, and Joshua Gray.

Full audio recording of this reading will be available online soon.
You can purchase the book securely online through our webstore.

Jonathan B. Tucker and Derrick Weston Brown contributed to this article.

Teaching for Change bilingual parent organizer América Calderón has been selected as one of five national committee members for the Américas Book Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature.  The Américas Award was the first award for Latino Children's Literature in the United States. The award was created in 1993 by the national Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP) to highlight the unity of cultures throughout the Americas as well as identify key works that celebrate the diversity of the Americas.  The Américas committee consists of five members from across the country that work in diverse fields from librarians to teachers, to faculty, to educational and community coordinators like Ms. Calderón.

"I feel honored to participate as a member of the América’s Award committee," said Ms. Calderón. "As a native Guatemalan working in schools with large immigrant populations, I have a particular interest in ensuring that the stories of the immigrant Latino communities are given visibility. I also hope to see authors and illustrators from those communities honored. The América’s Award program plays a vital role in alerting teachers and parents to quality books. At Teaching for Change we prepare bilingual teams of parents to read in their children's schools. We see how the parents and children appreciate the stories that reflect their culture and experiences."

The Américas Award is given in recognition of U.S. works of fiction, poetry, folklore, or selected non-fiction (from picture books to works for young adults) published in the previous year in English or Spanish that authentically and engagingly portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States. By combining both and linking the Americas, the award reaches beyond geographic borders, as well as multicultural-international boundaries, focusing instead upon cultural heritages within the hemisphere.

Learn more about the award at http://www4.uwm.edu/clacs/aa/

Jennifer Holladay's excellent critique of the Ranger Rick Magazine is just one more reason why Teaching for Change is a proud co-sponsor of the Teaching About Africa K-12 Conference on November 19, 2011.

Holladay wrote, "The February 2011 issue [of Ranger Rick] is promoted as a 'Special Valentine Issue!' — but that alone doesn’t explain all of the pinkish tones that fill the magazine’s pages this month.

"The February edition features an abundance of white people — both real-life human beings whom the editors chose to spotlight, and illustrated characters who appear in feature stories and departments. Indeed, the only place where images of people (and children) of color appear is in a feature story about eating bugs — an exotic (eeewwwwwwww!) activity undertaken primarily by brown people in exotic lands like Papua New Guinea, South Africa and Indonesia."

We encourage everyone to read Jennifer Holladay's blog, Race in "Ranger Rick" Magazine, which includes the image (left) and more from the February 2011 issue of the magazine. The slide show offers an informative caption with each image.

As is documented in an article in Teaching Tolerance, "I Didn't Know There Were Cities in Africa!," the Ranger Rick stereotypes are sadly not the exception in children's books, cartoons, movies, and the media. See the Teaching Tolerance article and recommended resources for challenging stereotypes about Africa here.

Better yet, register for and spread the word about the November 19 Teaching About Africa K-12 Conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by the African Studies Association and Africa Access Review.

 “[Teaching for Change] did not just increase the numbers of parents involved – it literally changed the face of who we saw coming in the door and advocating for their children.” – Michelle Molitor, E.L. Haynes Principal

October 4, 2011 - Teaching for Change's Tellin’ Stories Project has been recognized by the Harvard Family Research Project as one of the most effective approaches in the country for breaking barriers to school engagement for traditionally marginalized parents. Recently, Teaching for Change received grants to support a professional evaluation of the Tellin’ Stories approach from the Cafritz Foundation, the Flamboyan Foundation, and an anonymous foundation interested in bringing our approach to building parent power and family engagement to the forefront of education policy and practices. 

We are using that funding to contract with Policy Studies Associates (PSA). They began with a survey of parents, teachers and staff members at several Tellin’ Stories partner schools in D.C. The initial findings were promising:

• More than half of the parent respondents reported that the Tellin’ Stories project helped them learn to become advocates for their child’s school (55%), learn how they can helped their child’s class or school (55%), and learn strategies to help their child succeed in school (52%).

• 80% of respondents to the staff survey reported that the Tellin’ Stories Project helped them better understand their students’ family cultures.

• 83% of school staff members reported that collaboration between parents and school staff has increased as a result of the work of the Tellin’ Stories project, while 67 percent of respondents reported that staff members are more aware of the importance of parent engagement in their schools.

PSA also documented the Tellin’  Stories approach to family engagement in our first year partnering with E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington, DC. The report notes:

“The openness in communication between parents and staff members and observations of the positive impact of parent engagement have encouraged more parents to share their thoughts and concerns with school staff. One parent explained:  

Parents are more willing to share their ideas because they see that the school is moving in a direction that respects their opinion.  

School staff members have also begun to think of new ways to share information with parents, including the involvement of students and parents with the delivery of morning announcements to share information about events and volunteer opportunities at the school.”

Click here to read the complete documentation report.