Strategies
Lessons would begin by hearing songs from YouTube clips, quotes, memes, gifs, art pieces, or Instagram posts. Because my district has chosen to attend school virtually and students will join me for class through zoom links, it will be easier to show clips and songs, as I can simply share my screen with them.
After that content is presented, they will go into breakout rooms and discuss what they liked or noticed, what was the author’s purpose (how did it make them feel), and what did they notice. These casual conversations or “vir-chats” as I have named them, will assist students when making connections to texts. One of the Texas state standards says that students have to connect to texts three ways:
- Text to self-connections (how does it relate to you specifically)
- Text to world-connections (how does it relate to the world around you)
- Text to text-connections (how does it relate to another story you know)
After connections have been made and vir-chats have been completed, students will listen to me read in real time to them, or be given a link of me reading a story to them. The stories will begin with books that expose them to different styles and textures of hair. These first two books will serve as a springboard for introducing academic language, which is crucial to being taught either first, or in tandem to the start of the curriculum unit. Some of the academic vocabulary that must be taught consists but is not limited to these words:
- Neutrality
- Colorblindness
- Antiracist
- Texture
Consider this unit to be a living document, that more than likely will be updated as the world around us changes during this pandemic.
Once the story has been heard, students will again go into vir-chats to discuss how it relates to them, to form connections to the story.
This will segue into students collecting pictures of themselves, which showcases different hairstyles and hair textures. As students collect these photos, we will begin to form timelines which will aid in discussing the history of the hairstyles they have adorned, and the history of the hairstyles in the two books/stories that they have heard. The first two stories are Cool Cuts and Happy Hair by Mechal Renee Roe.
Each day of the unit will build on the next, while maintaining structure that students thrive on. It is my hope to have a pattern start to be recognized by students as they begin to form and make connections. When hearing a story, students will either research the art depicted in the illustrations, the history of the hairstyles and textures of those illustrations, the political power of the hairstyles and textures, or the musicians’ hairstyles and textures. As virtual field trips are taken to art museums, more research will be done with regards to the hairstyles and textures of the artist themselves or of the images being depicted.
Students will be able to at the end of the unit, explain through their research why we have chosen this area of study, and how it relates specifically to them. Students will be able to understand the need for building and maintaining not only our classroom culture, but that of the school. It is my hope that students and teachers alike can learn and grow as positive agents of change for our world.
Mentor text
Musician study
Author/Illustrator study
Picture walks
Timelines
Book reports
Videography reports (recorded with their own personal devices) **the district will be a one-to-one district when school resumes
Art projects
Personal photo timelines
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