Lesson Overview: This activity could be used as a debrief lesson after a day such as "Asking For Courage." It might have particular relevance for math and science teachers, as students will use various graphs to both practice literacy skills and grapple with issues related to social (in)justice.
Lesson Overview: Through this beginning-of-the-year assignment, each student writes a resume to introduce themselves to their teacher. The resume includes information about the student's education, language(s) at home, math interest, and references (who already knows this student well at BHS?).
Overview: Each student creates a visual representation in response to the question: "In what ways are ordinary objects imbued with a sense of preciousness through personal experience, cultural significance, and emotional attachment?"
Student Reflection:
In response to her piece above, the student artist wrote: "The smell of lemons via lemonade and lemon meringue pies always reminded me of the hot summer when I turned 7, the first summer I experienced in America. I wanted to capture the nostalgia of struggling to make new American friends, and the "American Childhood" that I experienced in a way, but never fully lived (hence a better sweet sepia hue)." Assignment Overview: Students read various essays from the book American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures edited by America Ferrara. Using the book's essays as models, students then write their own narrative essay that reflects on their own experience being between cultures (American or living in America).
Project Overview: Using this assignment description, each student creates a family garden, based upon interviews and interactions with family members. Students are encouraged to broaden their definition of family (see below).
Student Reflections:
“I really enjoyed this interview with my grandma. I was supposed to talk with her for about 20 minutes, but it turned into an hour long conversation. I learned so much about her childhood and family.” “When I received this assignment I thought it was going to be one of those long and tedious projects. Instead it turned out to be a wonderful experience being able to interview my family members on their lives and learn more about my family history.” “I had a better understanding of the lifestyles my relatives lived in Russia as well as the differences between American and Russian cultures.” This 2-3 day lesson includes activities and written reflection, some of which use data for interpretation. It begins with exercises about exclusion and leads to a lesson about the impact of students using the phrase “that’s so gay.” Specifically, students examine data about suicide and depression rates among LGBTQ youth. As a social studies lesson, it would fit well in a unit on Japanese Exclusion and the Holocaust. Click here for slides.
Activity Overview: Introduce your family to the class -- in Japanese!
Activity: Explore the diversity of family structures by looking at works of art from a photography exhibit at the MFA called “(un)expected families.” Next, pick someone from your own life who makes you feel a sense of family to honor. Turn a photo of this person or people in a type of print called a collagraph.
Activity: Design a shoe that reveals 10 things your classmates and teacher would never know about you... unless we walked in your shoes.
Activity: One of the themes of the graphic novel American Born Chinese is that connecting to your roots can give you power. This short story assignment asks students to connect to their own roots by researching a character from the mythology, religion, or literature of their culture(s) and then bringing this character to life in their own, original short stories -- just like Gene Luen Yang did with the Monkey King in his graphic novel.
Student Reflection:
"I liked learning about an aspect of my culture I didn't even know existed and being able to make it my own!" |
AuthorsThe content showcased here is very much the work of a large, diverse group of BHS teachers. Categories
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