Music to Keep Going: Playlist

Music is procrastination's mistress, but motivation's lifelong partner.

Just sharing some tunes that I have been sapping up as I embrace some of the more stressful moments of graduate school.

Lesson Plans: Harlem Renaissance Source Analysis and Gallery Walk

I just realized that I've never shared my lesson plans. These lessons are apart of a week long unit that I am doing on the Harlem Renaissance. This unit is a sub-unit of a larger unit titled Art, Power, and Jim Crow. Thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated. These are my lesson plans in their raw form and execution. Perhaps I will post a follow up post to discuss how they went. Anyway, enjoy!

Rationale for Unit: In this Unit, we will explore the relationship between art and identity. Examining depictions of African American identity in the past and in the present, we will consider the multidemensionality of art in terms of its purpose, mediums, and interpretations.  By using the Jim Crow Era as a reference point, we will look at the ways in which artistic expression is use to both oppress and uplift. In this unit, students will be encouraged to draw parallels between past events, current events, and anticipated trends. This unit will  entail a mix of abstract and practical thought and approach. Students will be encouraged to examine the role of art in their own lives and in the lives of others; students will also be pushed to establish connections between structures/institutions and art. This unit will include a group-based critical, empathetic analysis of contemporary mediums of Black artistic expression. 

Kevin Beckford African American History 1 hour 5 min

Science Leadership Academy

Harlem Renaissance

Source Analysis Lesson

Student Understandings:

Students will understand that…

• Art entails many mediums, interpretations, and purposes.
• Art has historically been a means of oppression, reflection, and uplift.

Students will know

• Art is a vehicle for expression as well as a vehicle for change.
• Art and interpretations of it are not static; our approach and understandings of art are very much influenced by our own individual and collective experiences.

Students will be able to…

Students will be able to independently utilize academic databases and online primary source databases.

Students will be able to analyze primary sources.

Students will be able to utilize technology in their examination, research and critique of art.

Enduring Questions

• Does the media create or reflect images of Black Americans?
• What type of artistic mediums were reflected in the Harlem Renaissance?
• How do I, as an individual, understand art?

Sources:

For classwork assignment: Document Analysis Worksheets

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/

Materials

Laptops, Paper, Pen/Pencil, Headphones, Flash Drive, Moodle (online database), Speakers, Projector, DVDs, converted video clips, Document Analysis Sheet, Comprehensive Document of Images, Art, and Photographs

STANDARDS

U.S. HISTORY 8.3.U.A.

Compare the role groups and individuals played in the social, political, cultural, and economic development of the U.S.

8.3.U.C.

Evaluate how continuity and change have impacted the United States.

• Belief systems and religions
• Commerce and industry 
• Technology
• Politics and government 
• Physical and human geography
• Social organizations

Humanities Arts 9.4.8. D

Describe to what purpose philosophical ideas generated by artists can be conveyed through works in the arts and humanities.

Science Leadership Academy

9^th Grade African American History Standards

Sources: Student can analyze a variety of source documents including visual representations of information.

Research: Student is making progress in producing independent research-based projects

Perspective: Student seeks to understand and fairly present the ideas of others, even when they disagree with the point(s) being made.

STUDENT SKILLS AND DEVELOPMENT

Students will be able to independently utilize academic databases, online primary source databases

Students will be able to analyze primary sources.

Students will be able to connect historical events to the contemporary.

Students will be able to critically analyze examples of artistic expression.

PROCEDURES 

Hook- I will begin class by showing clips from Live at the Apollo. We will watch a clip of Lauryn Hill getting boo'd, a clip of "And I Am Telling You," and a clip that features the 'Sandman." We will then have a short discussion about the Sandman and minstrelsy? (Some guiding questions: Is the Sandman an example of minstrelsy? Is the Sandman reflective of a 'reverse' cultural appropriation? What are your thoughts about the Sandman)- 10-15 minutes total

I will introduce the Benchmark Assignment: go through each of the options and solicit necessary feedback/ answer questions (10-15 minutes)

Remaining 40 Minutes

At the start of class, the room will be organized in its normal set up.

I will then sign on to Moodle and show students the comprehensive document; I will take the students through the Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes document. 

I normally allow students to listen to music/ video or audio files of the document with their headphones. 

Students will spend the class period working on completing one source analysis sheet. They will pick one form of artistic expression from the document and analyze it (40 Minutes). 

Day 2

Resisting Jim Crow through Art, Music, and Intellectual Creativity

Living in the Harlem Renaissance

Kevin Beckford African American History 1 hour 5 min

Enduring Understandings

The Harlem Renaissance (as a time period noted by Historians) was a time of relatively great progress; racial, heteronormative, and gender norms were muddled and questioned during this time.

Enduring Questions

What is the relationship between artistic expression and institutional racism?

How can art explain societal ailments?

How can art rectify societal ailments? 

GOALS/OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to analyze primary sources.

Students will be able to critically analyze examples of artistic expression through dialogue and writing.

Standards

Subject Area: Historical Analysis and Skill Development

8.1.9.B.

Compare the interpretation of historical events and sources, considering the use of fact versus opinion, multiple perspectives, and cause and effect relationships

9.4.8. D

Describe to what purpose philosophical ideas generated by artists can be conveyed through works in the arts and humanities. 

Science Leadership Academy

9^th Grade African American History Standards

Sources: Student can analyze a variety of source documents including visual representations of information.

Perspective: Student seeks to understand and fairly present the ideas of others, even when they disagree with the point(s) being made.

Discussion:  Student consistently presents his/her own idea(s) in a constructive and useful manner.

MATERIALS

Laptops, Paper, Pen/Pencil, Headphones, Flash Drive, Moodle (online database), Speakers, Projector, DVDs, converted video clips; Twitter

PROCEDURES 

As students enter the classroom, I will play John Coltraine’s “Naima.” (Engagement) I will also bring in food for the class to enjoy. I would really like to set the mood in this class; I will play around with the environment by moving the desks in quads at the sides of the rooms. I will also dim the lights (have one of the lights in the room turned on). 

BODY OF THE LESSON/ PROJECT

Part I (30 Minutes total)- Part 1 (Gallery Walk)

The class will convene in the center of the room. Music clips, art clips, film clips will be portrayed on the screen. Students will be asked to watch the material and also, discuss their source analysis sheets with each other. Students will be able to move around the classroom, talk to each other, eat food. 

Harlem Renaissance (Video Biography of the Harlem Renaissance) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVnEd9S1Drw

Duke Ellington

“Black Beauty” 

“I’m Just Wild About Harry” from the play Shuffle Along

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwNDy1RFSsM

Broadway and the Cotton Scene (feat. Paul Robeson)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8gTBSGwb2M

Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit.”. - 1939/ not quite during the Harlem Renaissance, but relevant. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs

Mahalia Jackson “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPZuWzZvoYQ

Paul Robeson “Ol’ Man River”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9WayN7R-s

National Negro Anthem (Howard University Gospel Choir); Use the song to give context about John Weldon Johnson. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk3zXi8WVqk

While the video material plays, students will walk around the room and read/analyze the following poems/ writings: 

Langston Hughes, “I Too, Am America” (Poem)

Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die.” (Poem)

(While watching the clips, students will be able to use their Twitter accounts to give a live update about their  thoughts on the clips. I will go back and assess the tweets after the class; the SAT will monitor Twitter updates as this discussion occurs. This will give students, who do not normally participate vocally, the opportunity to participate and engage with their peers).

Discussion (Possible questions: what is the message in the piece? Why might it have been employed during the time in which it was created What is the legacy of each piece? Are these pieces relevant today?) Extension

Part 2-  Journal Entry (10 Minutes)

Which art piece do you like the most and why?

CLOSURE

I will play four minutes of a video from Being and Becoming: Black Womanhood in the 21^st Century. Kelly Simone, daughter of Nina Simone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W5FaKdE4Ow

ACCOMMODATIONS

I will post links to the videos on Moodle just in case students are absent. 

I will post the article to Moodle for additional review.

Supplemental Reading (will already be posted on Moodle, but will be referred to during this class):

Toward an Aesthetic of Black Musical Expression Author(s): Jane Duran and Earl Stewart. Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Spring, 1997), pp. 73-85 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3333473 .

Synopsis of Shuffle Along: http://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/02/10/musical-month-shuffle-along

ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION

Journal entries will be assessed (students will be told that journals are due for the next class)

Discussion will be accessed

TABA charts will be checked by the SAT

Thoughts on Employment, Career Fair, and Charter Schools

The University of Pennsylvania's Career Services office hosted an education and social services career fair this past Wednesday. I found the event to be informative. I also found the event to be psychologically confusing and unnerving. With 2-3 exceptions, all of the school representatives that attended hailed from charter schools. And while I made my rounds and asked questions/ pitched my credentials, I struggled with just being there because the event was an indicative of the state of public schools in Philly. It's all about charter schools these days and to be frank, I did not sign up for this.

I decided to pursue a career in education because I think that it is a critical means to fight against modern day oppressions and bring about advancement for many communities. My desire to teach is not so much to instruct and assess via skills tests (although, I do love curriculum development and implementation a lot). I want to teach because I had some inspiring PUBLIC SCHOOL teachers who provided me mentorship, support, and encouragement when very few outside of my family, did. My hope in becoming a public school teacher of the humanities/social studies is to do what other teachers did for me. I want to encourage students to think outside of the box and to do something with content. My hope in being a social studies teacher was to bring cool material and questions to the classroom and let the students apply learning in a meaningful, relevant way. 1. I'm not sure I could do that in a charter school. 2. Even if I could be the educator that I want to be in a charter school setting, I'm not even sure that I want to join a (what I think is a flawed) operation.

The thought of working for a charter school elicits the most vile, visceral response within my spirit. Joining the enemy- working within the flawed system- seems counterproductive and antithetical to everything that I believe. When I visited all of the charter school representatives at the Career Fair and signed my name on their email/contact list, it felt like a piece of me had sold out to enemy. While it was interesting to listen to some of the really cool things that some of the schools were doing with regards to inquiry-driven learning or social justice, I couldn't absorb all of the great things that the representatives were saying because I am well aware that charter schools are not producing better results that public schools. The job fair was cool because I had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people and recognize that there some great teachers in charter schools that are doing dynamic things. With that said, they faced a ton of challenges or were blessed to secure jobs at very very unique schools. Additionally, one representative told me that s/he struggled with the decision to join the school that s/he is currently attached to and still has a political beef with what s/he is currently working.

Philadelphia schools are all transforming into charter schools, so I know that in order to ensure some type of job security in the city of Philadelphia, I'll have to 'turn to the bad side.' Knowing this is forcing me to make some careful considerations and ask some critical questions. As someone who has familial responsibilities, financial responsibilities, and a personal commitment to stay in this immediate area for at least the next 4-5 years, I'm thinking that I might have to sacrifice my convictions if 440 (the Phil. public school district) isn't hiring. At the same time, I'm also thinking whether or not I should pursue another (but associated) route in regards to career, even if it is just in the short term. I can't help but reflect on the time when I applied for consulting gigs; if I was going to compromise my convictions, I might as well did so and got paid well to do it. I wish there was someway where I could remain committed to my beliefs and get a check. All of this just to serve my community as an educator... it's such a shame, especially when so many other career opportunities are accessible.

Not losing hope, BUT raising a critical side eye at prospective employment,
Kevin

February has been the Month of Conferences

The past couple of weekends have entailed participating in conferences. Two weekends ago, I went to New Haven to attend the Black Solidarity Conference. Taking place over the span of three days, the Black Solidarity Conference provides undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to fellowship and discuss important issues within the Black community. The theme of this year's BSC was "From the Pulpits to the Polls: Ushering in a New Era of Activism." As you can infer, the focus for the conference this year was education and religion as mechanisms to bring about advancement for African Americans. The event was incredibly positive and I learned a lot. The first event that I attended was a panel on education. The panel session featured educators that represented different elements of educators. I thought the panelists themselves had very thoughtful things to say on their own, but I was particularly struck by their responses to the very thoughtful, but challenging questions, launched at them by some students. One student asked the TFA panelist about his experience as a person of color, working within the overwhelmingly white context of TFA that reflects a particular brand of college grad (for those of you who may not know, TFA employs many ivy-league/ liberal arts graduates). I felt like his response to the question reflected a necessary nuance; he was honest yet appropriately political.

I also attended some sessions at the Ethnography Forum hosted by the University of Pennsylvania. I thought that the sessions were fairly delightful. I'll share some of my notes to give you a flavor of what the panel discussions and workshops featured. Check out the notes from an inquiry session that I attended.

-Structure is key to collabortive work

- It is imperative that teachers examine their own baises about students. Teachers must evaluate themselves- see what they do and do not like about students (more importantly why). Teachers must learn to like all students. 

-Teachers must find community- join forces with likeminded practitioners.

- Descriptive reviews of students can be monumental to teacher research- students can help teachers see the bigger picture. 

-You can not take the behavior of a student for face value. Sometimes there is a story behind their actions. Some students are not the same in every class. Descriptive reviews and continual observation help teachers better understand their students. 

-- You have to discover what matters to the student and why

- Be conscious of differentiated expectations that we (teachers) develop for students. Sometimes we expect more from students

- A panalist told a really great story about working for 440. He was sent to work on a project with the Philadelphia Writing Project. The findings of this project showed a correlation between teacher satisfaction and student performance. He showed his findings to 440. They were like, eh, we don't care- we need hard data about students (not teachers). He pushed for his research and within the confines of the Philadelphia school district, he was able to affect some change in favor of Philly teachers.

School Closings- School Openings- School Closings

The state of public schools in Philly is in limbo. When I heard that so many schools were closing in Philly, I felt like public schools were being done a disservice. While there are serious issues plaguing our schools, I do not think giving up on them is the way to go. Some of the arguments in favor of closing schools (i.e. many of these schools are underpopulated and underperforming) seem quite valid. Considering that the consequence of closing public schools is opening charter schools, one is inclined to raise an eyebrow.

I recall all of the anger and disgust held by many teachers and members of the community when school closings were announced about a month ago. Being that this is my first time formally living in Philadelphia, it was interesting to see (and feel) the emotions that I had read about in The Notebook or that I saw in protests on new programs. I found myself in solidarity with the students and teachers who challenged the decision to close schools. I also found myself upset with the mergers. I just thought it was interesting which closed schools and open schools are going to be merged... I will leave it at that.

The recent decision to keep some schools open made me slightly happy, but when I didn't see University City High School on the list, I still held mixed feelings. To an extent, my attachment with Philadelphia Schools (outside of SLA) is UC High School. I know that a lot of UC students are upset with the recent announcement because their school is not on the list. I really feel for these students, many of whom are losing the community that they had grew to love over the years.

Promoting Writing in a Social Studies Class

I am wondering how I, as a social studies teacher, can promote writing in a way that is both technically sound and clear in expressing content. One thing that I do (an idea I “stole” from my classroom mentor) is to use journals as the “hook.” For many classes, students will spend 10-15 minutes journaling in a free-write manner. They are then expected to go home and expound upon their entry based on the lesson that followed the journal entry. The question students address is often either a contemporary question, a point that is very theoretical and requires no background content knowledge, or something that the student brought up. There is a standard rubric which has presentation(i.e. writing skills) as one of the five categories, but it also includes process, application, knowledge, and design (expression of thought) (the standard rubric, which depending on the unit/lesson, has different categorical assessments. I think 

I think that journals are a great way to get students to write, but I'm wondering if I can and should be doing more. I've included writing elements for every project. I'm also trying to make myself assessable to students to review writing assignments. These things are a start; I am wondering how I can continue to push writing among my students. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

It's that time again- Bodybuilding Competition

I'm going to give it yet another try. Hopefully things will work out this time. 

I am planning to compete in a bodybuilding competition in May. Things did not work out so well last time, where I simply did not see results/ cheated when I went to Hotlanta in November. Hopefully I can keep it together for the next three months and get some solid results. 

I am taking this pretty seriously, believe it or not. I am working out with a trainer, I have a solid diet plan worked out, and I am making a serious effort to train 5-6 days a week. Its really hard to make it out to the gym given the lack of time I have outside of teaching and classes. I am confident that with the right mindset and perseverance, that I can do this. 

The dieting thing is going to be rough. As someone who loves to eat in times of business and stress,  am going to have toe execute serious will power. I think that this competition and the training process is going to be a great way to test myself and to really claim victory over a challenge.