Teaching Situation and Rationale
My school, the Barack Obama Academy of International Studies (or simply Obama Academy), is an International Baccalaureate magnet school in the Pittsburgh Public School District. Seventy-two percent of the student body identifies as African American; 18 percent as white; 7 percent as multi-racial; 2 percent as Hispanic; and 1 percent as Asian. No entry exam or essay is required to gain admission, but students must maintain a 2.5 average GPA to attend. While some families are attracted by an IB education, many families enroll their children because they believe my school provides a safer environment than their assigned neighborhood schools. Under my school’s full inclusion model, students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) learn alongside regular education students of widely varying ability ranges, as well as students with documented Gifted Individualized Education Plans (GIEPs).
Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean is a great core text to meet the large range of needs in my Grade 11 English classes. Immediately, my African American students say, these characters “talk like us.” Although the play is set in 1904, Wilson’s use of language, meaningful conflict, and relevant themes draw my students in. The play’s main conflict and plot line offer students plenty to analyze and discuss, while Wilson’s layered use of history and culture give readers even more nuance and complexity to wrestle with. This unit’s art pairings will help all learners gain the tools of analysis and contextual understanding to create deeper meaning out of the play’s rich symbols and allusions.
Before I move on to the content of this unit, I must reflect on how my identity as a white educator impacts my teaching of this unit. In 1987, Wilson told the New York Times, “Blacks in America want to forget slavery—the stigma, the shame. That’s the wrong move. If you can’t be who you are, who can you be?”2 Wilson, as a Black man, has authority to express this blunt opinion, but as a white educator, I must approach this subject matter with respect and sensitivity. My African American students are well-aware of their ancestry’s painful past with slavery, and it is a difficult topic for some of them. The study of such difficult history could be a source of racial trauma that I do not want to inflict. I will strive to teach this unit in a way that does not fixate on the painful past of slavery but acknowledges it with opportunity for an abundance of student voice and a celebration of the triumph, richness, and resilience in African American culture and history.
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