Classroom Activities
Beginning this lesson in a way that will set the framework for how students are going to participate is crucial. What I did with my students, and it turned out to be a massive success, as well as the perfect way to help students branch this lesson plan from year one to year four, was to have my kids do a “letter to my future self” assignment. I had friends and other co-workers donate scrapbooking material and fun things that they can use to decorate their envelopes and letters. We had 100% participation from all students. I gave them the option to either write a letter to themselves to open on the last day of freshman year, or the last day of their senior year. Either way, I would happily save them in my closet in my room in a box labeled with their class. When you are ready to give your students their letters, make it a “reunion” experience for them. My school has a rotunda that is like the central hub for my school. So we will be doing a “reunion in the rotunda” event where I will invite all of my former freshmen, who are all now seniors, to read their letters. Reflecting on how much they have changed in the last four short years. All of my students wanted to write a letter to themselves to open on their last day of high school. Our box of letters is absolutely a beautiful sight. My honest hope is that they forget about it. What a surprise that will be when they realize why we are there.
Every day in class, students should begin the day with their journal entry and end with an exit ticket which checks for mastery of the topic for each day. I will be providing a prompt, whether it be an open prompt idea to just write what they are feeling, or it will have a specific topic for them to journal on. This shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes. Things to remind students of is their writing style. Is it in street talk, or is it academic. Remind them that we will eventually be developing skills to enhance academic language. In the Freedom Writers’ diaries, you will see that all of the journal entries are revised to be perfected language. They are grammatically correct. In a common classroom today, there would be a low level of grammar and spelling. So, encourage academic writing and revising. You should also have an opener of vocabulary. Now I believe in quality over quantity when it comes to vocabulary. Limit vocabulary that will be utilized each day in your lessons. Allow students to listen for the vocabulary words within your unit so they can see how you use them in your sentences and life. This is part of your “I do” section. When you continue throughout, you should allow students to be able to use the new vocabulary words in their work (we do and you do). The repetition of being able to use these words throughout the day will increase their knowledge. Gallery walks are a great way to show different scenarios and to get students really talking. Placing different scenarios around the room and then allow them to respond to each scenario with it being either constructive resistance, which you will need to use the word constructive as vocabulary so they know the difference, and destructive resistance, uncertain how they should respond, and responding based on the situation will allow them to find how resistance can feel challenging. 13
I plan on having an image of an iceberg for one of my activities. It can either be drawn by your students, or it can be printed. Above the water, I want them to label the things that they notice about a person usually within the first ten seconds of meeting them. Things like clothing, appearance, language, age, how they act in public, etc. Below, they should put what kinds of things they don’t know until later. Things like: what are their fears, responsibilities, goals, talents… it doesn’t have to be all negative. It can still be positive, but it’s just not something they will know about that person until they actually get to know them. With this, you should add one of your excerpts about a character from the Freedom Writers book. You should have pulled an excerpt from a character where they were either affiliated with a gang, or judged based on their skin color, or financial status based on their clothing. With it comes discussion questions such as what labels were placed on the person, and how does writing allow the person to challenge the label that they were given by the outsider? All of your readings for each day should show a trend of profiling, discrimination, unfair suspicion, they need to see the trends. Find the causes and effects in some of your entries, this happened because of this. Was it based on assumption? Was it the behavioral response? Back to the power of a diary section of this unit, you could bring it to life by allowing students to identify the purpose in that excerpt. Anchor charts will help majorly here. I would want my students to write as many reasons around the word “diary” to help distinguish why someone would write a diary. In the reading that you choose, find one where a student was journaling about a time when someone didn’t understand what was going on. Students should identify what happened, what did the writer say publicly and privately, identify the types of emotions that were established, and what they want the readers to understand. 14
Finding Anne’s voice is one of my favorite assignments to do, because it allows for people to see a timeline of events. If they paid attention in previous years, they should know how long Anne Frank was in hiding. Personal testimonies can give perspective on the events happening. For this reading you should pick an entry where you see Anne talk about how even in isolation there is hope. Students need to hear this part out loud. From your voice. They should be able to describe Anne’s voice and annotate while listening.15
When choosing your assignments for your own, I encourage you to find a common theme. Match all themes together. From your journal entry prompt, to the reading, to the activity, and the exit ticket. All of it should be connected each day to where you are able to complete a fully rounded segment for that day. Eventually you should end your unit with a personal narrative. You should return to the prompt for the first day, and students should write a narrative on what resistance means to them now, and how their version of resistance has changed over the course of this unit. This is where the paradox of resistance comes into play.
When I began this unit, I wanted students to see their lives through resistance in education. I still want them to see that, but I want them to view hardships as something they shouldn’t run away from, but instead, find the reasons they need to go through hardships to change the fate of their own future. In their personal narrative, I want them to be able to choose an event in their own life to write about. It can be a time someone misunderstood them, or maybe they misunderstood someone, or maybe a time when they felt like they had to do a certain thing to be accepted.
Maybe it was an initiation into a gang, or just a group of friends doing truth or dare. Maybe a moment when they changed their mind. They can pick. Of course, you will have students that will say “I don’t know what to write about” so have some topics ready to go just in case. Create your rubric to where students can check off each section. I know my students work best visually, so a check list to make sure they have included all parts of the requirements is helpful. This narrative should be no less than 750 words.
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