Peace talk in the Classroom

Ok, I finally got it. Wiggling?

2005-10-05T23:24:00.000-07:00

I am very intersted in issues of social justice and as an adult have had many opportunities to explore this topic in many ways and many places But how do you "bring up" this topic as a sourc of inquiry to a group of 5th graders. They have a natural sense of fairness. How do we tap into this.

It came to me today, an advantage of driving 40 min. to school... price of gas: $3/ gallon...thinking time.. priceless.

First we model the inquiry process. Then we intoduce the topic... Fairness and What to do When something is not fair. We have all experienced things we didn't think were fair, in the classroom, on the athletic field, decisions by out parents, etc. These are personal connections with fairness. We know when things are unfair. But what can you do about it? We must acknowlege unfair situations in our history. How and who took action to make a change? Unfair things are still happening. How and who is taking action to make these changes?

So the shape this is taking makes connections between personal feelings of unfairness and a connection between past and current glogal exapmles of unfairness.

The preentation to the students will cause them to think about larger issures of fairness/justice and several examples of ordinary people who stood up to make things fair. The student writing project could be an issue that the student take a position to challenge fairness, researches his or her postion and makes a presentation in a format of his or her choice. The student writing project may be an examination of an individual who acted in the interest of fairness. And the project may include an idea that the collaborating teachers may not have considered but is driven by student interest

List of subtopics for social justice

2005-10-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

this is a list of subtopics for investigation for the topic of social justice. These are the areas of focus of the World Peace Orgianization's Youth division..

Education
Employment
Hunger and poverty
Health
Environment
Drug abuse
Juvenile delinquency
Leisure-time activities
Girls and young women
Participation

I am thinking of taking each of these and providing examples for elementary student exploration.

Pamela

More great websites for information about peace projects

2005-10-04T07:42:00.000-07:00

Awesome Libary.org

Multicultural Pavillion

Using the Internet and multiple intellegences

2005-10-03T06:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.ncrel.literacy.smartlibrary.info/NewInterface/segment.cfm?segment=2327&table_of_contents=1654

I don't want to forget why we use the Internet to access information. The idea that we march a classroom of thirty children into the computer lab with a list of questions to answer by looking on the Internet reminds me of my own 7th grade trip to the media center for research. My topic was China and I looked it up in the encyclopedia and copied word for word out of it to answer the question. The difference between that accomplishment and todays Internet searching is the ability to "cut and paste". (in 1977 this would rated right up there with being able to talk on the phone while riding in the car)

Two things: not only does nothing "happen" for the learner in each of the above examples, but also this may not be the best way for the learner to take in knowlege. Today we have so many resources available to us because of the Internet, but that does not mean that every Internet source is the most appropriate way for a learner to experience information. And sometimes books, photographs, peices of art, and models that can be maniupulated provide better ways for students to experience information.

websites for equity in diverse classrooms

2005-10-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

Two important websites to utilize include:
Integrating technology in the classroom
and equity sources.
Pamela

Ah, the search process

2005-10-01T06:01:00.000-07:00

This is the point when I begin to web together my search stategy for my inquiry process. I am realizing as I am doing this that I am a lot more organized at this point than I would expect to be because of the amount of time I spent getting to this point. Typicically I would quickly select a topic and search strategy and spend most of my time looking for information, being redirected by new search terms, and distracted by ideas that I hadn't considered before related to my topic. Now I am realizing this is exactly what we have been asking our students to do. In many ways my search trategy has not evolved too much since fourth grade, my resources are just more sofisticated. I am now prepared for the process of webbing and compare this to Kuhlthau's stage of "forming focus." I am predicticting an outcome of a student research project centered around the issue of social justice. I am considering a theme of "Issues of Social Justice" and introducing through powerpoint pictures combined with storytelling. The introduction will include modeling of a discussion between collaborating teacher and I, where students will be active listeners.

My take off point for "webbing" includes the following areas: looking for other elementary lesson plans related to social justice, looking for stories about ordinary (not famous) people who take action in social justice, looking for specific issues related to social justice thinking about ways to give students lot of examples, thinking about providing time for discussion before topic selection as well as during the research process and how those discussions will be modeled, organized, and guided.

I have been collecting resources and thinking about them and am exited to begin usin them to develop a project in "examining social justice in a fifth grade classroom".

Pamela

Wondering

2005-09-29T05:51:00.000-07:00

The "Wondering" could also be thought of as "wandering" as well. The begining of my inquiry was a kernel of a sense that there is a lack of exploration of issues of social justice in schools. What I broadly defined as "peace" encompasses lots of ideas and terminologies. I am trying to figure out what it all means and trying to identify one definition or meaning on which I wish to focus. In terms of Kuhlthau's model of inquiry I would describe this stage as inititiation, however I feel more overwhelmed by the topic selection than apprehensive, and for sure a bit of uncertainty. I have another feeling as well,that I havent seen addressed in the models I have explored so far, that of confidence of the success of past inqiries. In the meantime here is a list of the ideas and terms associated with a possible peace project:

peace, social justice, anti-bias education, anti-racist education, tolerance, peaceful problem solving, conflict resolution, civil rights, civil rights movement, biographies of peacemakers, diversity, multicultural education.

See what I mean?

Where on the 8Ws

2005-09-28T05:27:00.000-07:00

The evolution of my inquiry into peace truly began with the number of experiences I traveling and talking to people in different parts of the world as well as the United States. In addition to my traveling I also referee soccer. Because of the international nature of the game I have developed personal relationships with a people from a wide diversity of cultures and backgrounds. If I applied Pappas and Tepe's Pathways model I would consider these activities Appreciation and Enjoyment through examining my world. According to Lamb, I have been "Watching". While watching may connote a passive interaction with the world, one can be an active "watcher" through reading, writing, and dialog with others. I have been watching for a while now and over the last two years have transitioned to Wondering.

Pamela

Teacher collaboration for peace project

2005-09-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

I am trying to conceive this collaborative inquiry project. Here is today's correspondence with a teacher with whom I have worked with on inquiry based projects in the past.

Carol,
I am still ruminating about how to implement a peace project with your class. Ultimately, I think what I would like to do is to talk about social justice with the kids, do a media presentation like I do sometimes, discuss the topic, and let them formulate a question, and then decide what to do as a project. Here is my blog with some resources; http://pamela4peace.blogspot.com/

I think it makes sense to break this project up into digestable pieces like creating small project that when added together equal a final product. I have a colleague who does this...let me pick her brain.

Finally, it would be great if each child could produce a finished piece in the format of his or her own choosing given a set of criteria. A final piece could be a short video, a powerpoint, a typed report with pictures, a poster.

The two biggest problems that come to my mind are..1) lack of ablility for most students to think critically about information and 2) 30 freaking kids to work with.

What are you thinking?

Pamela

Teaching for Change

2005-09-16T15:28:00.000-07:00

Build social justice starting in the clasroom.
Teaching for Change

Lesson Plans for peace education

2005-09-16T15:19:00.000-07:00

Teaching for Tolerance
Here are some exciting lesson plans that incorporate media literacy.

Looking for Grants to support your peace project?

2005-09-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

Teaching for Tolerance

Here is a website that provides granting information for peace projects.

Website for Exploration

2005-09-13T04:38:00.000-07:00

Biographies of Peacemakers

Collection of Websites for Peacemakers

Good morning

2005-09-11T06:04:00.000-07:00

I am thinking about where I was 4 years ago at this time. I was getting ready to leave for work at the public library and my boyfriend called to tell me about an airplane hitting the first tower. On the way to work, I was listening to some stupid radio coverage. (they were suggesting that all of the new foreign language radio programming had jammed the airwaves and fouled up air traffic control) I haven't listened to that station since. At work, we found a TV and rolled it into the foyer of the library. Patrons came in off the street and were joined soon by library personel, abandoning their reference and readers' advisory posts, as we watched in horror as the second plane hit and the devestation that followed.

The ensuing years since have brought me a wide range of experiences and emotions from depths of dispair, distrust and betrayal, to the euphoria of triumph. Yea, pretty much up and down like everyone else. But a constant and growing force in my life has become the need to educate myself and talk to others about the need for tolerance through understanding (and interest) especially at the early childhood and primary school ages. My adult friends (and certainly some unfortunate strangers) have come to realize that they are not spared this passion. I am interested in what others have done in the field of elementary education to this end and the path those folks traveled to pursue this goal.

Talk to you soon,
Pamela