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"slug": "14-poems-by-living-poets-to-teach-in-english-class-right-now",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hanif Abduraqqib. Sarah Kay. Elizabeth Acevedo. Clint Smith. Do any of these names sound familiar? How about Amanda Gorman? All of these writers are part of America’s thriving contemporary poetry scene. But you won’t find them in many text books, because high school poetry units tend to focus on dead poets, like Robert Frost, Walt Whitman and Edgar Allen Poe. North Carolina teacher \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/MelAlterSmith\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melissa Alter Smith\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/64621/why-poetry-is-making-a-comeback-in-schools\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">working to change that\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For the last seven years, she’s been diversifying the canon in her classroom, and encouraging other teachers to do the same with the hashtag #teachlivingpoets.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The shift has inspired teachers across the country to get creative with how they teach students things like tone, rhythm and structure in poetry. “I love being creative. So if I love being creative and learning in creative ways, why wouldn’t I expect my students to want the same thing?” Smith said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MindShift asked Smith and other educators to share some of the poems by living poets that have resonated with their students. Here are their highlights.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“It Is Maybe Time to Admit That Michael Jordan Definitely Pushed Off” by Hanif Abdurraqib\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By referencing a legendary basketball player and iconic (if debated) \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.si.com/nba/bulls/off-the-court/as-the-wifi-network-shows-the-utah-jazz-are-still-not-over-the-1998-nba-finals\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">moment in sports history\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the title of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://poets.org/poem/it-maybe-time-admit-michael-jordan-definitely-pushed\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> immediately interests students and nets buy-in before they’ve begun reading, said Smith. But the poem is about more than Jordan’s title-winning shot. It’s also about the death of a loved one and processing grief.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith uses the poem to teach her students about structure, pacing, allusion, metaphor and point of view. They learn by going outside and “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://teachlivingpoets.com/2023/11/30/exploring-structure-in-hanif-abdurraqibs-poem-it-is-maybe-time-to-admit-that-michael-jordan-definitely-pushed-off/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">walking the poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.” They read the poem out loud as they walk, making turns at every ampersand (there are more than 20) and pausing at every stanza break, comma or period (there are fewer than 10).\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith said it’s one her favorite lessons because “it’s such an unfolding of understanding that happens” as the students walk. “What this does is it allows the students to get a physical understanding of the pacing and the movement of the poem … that they did not get upon their initial reading, just sitting in their desk reading the poem out loud.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“\u003c/b>\u003cb>New Day’s Lyric\u003c/b>\u003cb>” \u003c/b>\u003cb>by Amanda Gorman\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith teaches \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVfyaRLVvpY\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> right after winter break. “Since Gorman wrote it as a poem to ring in the new year, it’s perfect for kicking off the new semester and resetting ourselves with purpose and hope while interrogating the mistakes of our past,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The poem deals with themes of reckoning with the past, coming together, hope and healing, and it features a range of literary devices. “This poem provides students the opportunity to witness a master of word play and language,” Smith said. “By asking students to notice the nuances of Gorman’s craft, they witness how a poem ‘works.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith asks her students to highlight specific literary devices in designated colors and then \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://teachlivingpoets.com/2022/01/06/amanda-gorman-lesson-for-teaching-new-days-lyric/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">create a work of art based on the poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Gorman herself has \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/TheAmandaGorman/status/1479240141910659078\">praised the lesson on X\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“Hair” by Elizabeth Acevedo\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Acevedo manages to teach history and ancestral wisdom with this poem about her own hair and the hair (and experiences with it) that is part of the inheritance belonging to every woman of African descent,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/juliaerin80\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Julia Torres\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a librarian in the Denver Metro Area. “Her poem is both intimate and universal, a reclamation of self in a world that constantly tries to get Black women to betray themselves in the pursuit of ‘beauty.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Torres said the poem is valuable for teaching metaphor and symbolism, “abstract language that can be difficult for students to grasp.” Acevedo also uses juxtaposition in the poem. Torres shared two examples of her students’ reactions to the poem:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Personally I am not a person of color, but I know how important hair is to this culture. With this being such a big part of her, she takes a lot of pride in her hair. It’s curly and has so much volume and texture to it. Making it, in my mind, beautiful. I feel as though she shouldn’t have to hide it.” – K.A. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“When people have self-confidence, they will always be proud of their state of life.” – D.N.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“This Is Not a Small Voice” by Sonia Sanchez\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/MrNeibauer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adrian Neibauer\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’s fifth grade students in Colorado have loved this “short and powerful” \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://poets.org/poem/not-small-voice\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. As not-quite-tweens, Neibauer said his students “are often seen as young children without opinions of their own.” The poem’s themes of voice and activism inspire them to find their own voices. “Students are able to easily relate to themes of humanity, the power of one’s voice and activism,” Neibauer said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The poem also provides examples for teaching anaphora. “I love how Sanchez uses repetition, which helps students with their poetic fluency,” Neibauer said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“Wild Horses” by Paisley Rekdal\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another one with an activism theme, Neibauer said “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://poets.org/poem/wild-horses\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wild Horses\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” is “a great introduction to more challenging themes of suffrage and protest.” It is written from the point of view of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://utahwomenshistory.org/the-women/seraph-young/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Seraph Young Ford\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the first woman to vote in Utah and the modern nation, and requires some pre-teaching about her, as well as suffrage and Indigenous history.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This is a more challenging poem, but students respond well to the historical significance embedded in the poem,” said Neibauer, who pairs it with the Rolling Stones’ \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQTHB4jM-KQ\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">song of the same name\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and enjoys discussing the imagery in both. The poem is also rich with vocabulary words, like “acculturation,” for young readers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“A Bird Made of Birds” by Sarah Kay\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The heart, care and precision of this poem’s images has always stayed with me,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://caesura.nu/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">R.A. Villanueva\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a Sarah Lawrence College professor and middle school teacher. “There’s a genuine devotion to the strangeness and sublime beauty of the world — and a trust in bewilderment as a spark for creativity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Villanueva, who is also a poet himself, shares with students \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_kay_a_bird_made_of_birds?subtitle=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a TED Talk\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in which Kay describes her inspiration and performing the poem. “Listening to her storytelling flow into her performance has inspired amazing conversations about the catalytic specifics that power poems,” Villanueva said. “And since ‘A Bird Made of Birds’ is also an array of personal responses to diverse kinds of knowledge and visuals, I’m able to introduce [students] to ekphrasis / ekphrastic poetry.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Two of the visuals in Kay’s talk and poem are the anatomical heart of a blue whale and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/animals/birds/starling-murmurations/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">starling murmurations\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Villanueva’s students view diagrams showing the scale of whale hearts and watch a video of starling murmurations. “After they see all those varied layers together, wonderful things happen: They’re able to free write through the connections they discover, practice annotation and note-taking skills, and apply some essential craft vocabulary,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“For Estefani Lora, Third Grade, Who Made Me A Card” by Aracelis Girmay\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This poem “pulses with mystery and playfulness,” said Villanueva. In it, the writer tries to decipher an unrecognizable word in a hand drawn card given to her by a young child. “It’s not just description or mere reporting on a memory; she’s able to convey the tumbling of her imagination and her genuine, child-like joy at connecting with her former student’s affirmations. It’s a hopeful, tender poem,” Villanueva said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">His students – those in sixth grade and those in graduate school – first encounter the poem in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcIYMCC0M1w\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">an animated video recitation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “Listening to Aracelis Girmay’s own voice, her own crescendos and pauses, helps enliven their experience with the poem. They’re free to join in the suspense and then celebrate the epiphany along with the speaker,” Villanueva said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After that, students read a printed copy in small groups, analyzing Girmay’s unusual arrangement of lines and stanzas, her stretching of punctuation conventions, and the changing rhythms. “We talk about how \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/enjambment\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">enjambment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> works like musical notation, how onomatopoeia helps the poet tussle with sounds and meanings of the words she loves,” Villanueva said. “The admixture of laughter and close reading analysis is incredible to hear.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“One Vote” by Aimee Nezhukumatathil\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This poem makes an allusion to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/local/history/tennessee-19-amendment-letter-harry-burn-mother-febb/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the letter\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that Harry T. Burn received from his mother just before his vote tipped the Tennessee General Assembly in favor of ratifying the 19th Amendment. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/susangbarber\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Susan Barber\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a high school English teacher in Atlanta, Georgia, teaches the poem during election season. Her students are all seniors, many of whom have the opportunity to vote for the first time. For them, the poem “reinforces the idea that each vote – their vote – makes a difference,” Barber said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Barber encourages students to notice the poet’s use of enjambment and stanza breaks, and to unpack the metaphor of an eagle and an eaglet learning to fly. “I love the way that Nezhukumatathil turns to nature imagery as a means to understanding ideas and daily occurrences,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With its descriptions of the many life experiences that occur around a kitchen table, Barber said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49622/perhaps-the-world-ends-here\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is full of juxtapositions and contrasts for students to unpack.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I love the way Harjo sizes up life through a common object,” Barber said of the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/09/07/1034751793/poet-laureate-warrior-joy-harjo\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">former United State Poet Laureate\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> who was the first Native American to hold that title. “Everyone can relate to the table and experiences around the table, so students always enjoy this poem.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Barber said the poem connects to the idea of “breaking bread” and can lead to discussions of the intimacy of eating together. She loves to teach it close to Thanksgiving break, when students are anticipating family gatherings at kitchen tables.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“A New National Anthem” by Ada Limón\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/CzaiaZach\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Zach Czaia\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an English teacher in Minneapolis, Minnesota, said he loves that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147506/a-new-national-anthem\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “talks back to a ‘classic’ text” – the national anthem. “It empowers students in a college prep course to exercise their own voices, and feel like they, too, belong. Their voice, too, matters,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Czaia focuses on diction with this poem, using an exercise from the Teach Living Poets website that asks students to make concentric circles on butcher paper and choose the most important word from the poem to place in the center. In the middle circle they list images and personal connections to the central word, and in the outer circle they write about the overall meaning and theme of the poem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Students have definitely responded positively to this poem, and appreciated its connection to history that they have studied in the past,” Czaia said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>“America Is Loving Me To Death” by Michael Kleber-Diggs\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this poem, Kleber-Diggs lays bare the pains of being Black in America. And he does amid what Czaia called “two very accessible but also formally interesting strategies.” The first letters are an acrostic, spelling out the poem’s title. The last word in each line comes from another text – the pledge of allegiance. This latter form is called a “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/golden-shovel-poetic-form\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">golden shovel poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” and was created by poet Terrance Hayes and inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This attentiveness to structure and pattern allows students ways to consider Kleber-Diggs’ deep critique of systemic American racism,” Czaia said of the combination of an acrostic and golden shovel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Czaia uses “America Is Loving Me To Death” as a mentor text for students to write their own golden shovel poems. He said his students love the poem and some have written letters to Kleber-Diggs, who lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota,\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “just across the river” from Czaia’s school. Czaia said Kleber-Diggs has responded to those letters his students also visited his class – something only living poets can do.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“Camaro” by\u003c/b> \u003cb>Phil Kaye\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/theVogelman\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Brett Vogelsinger\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an English teacher in Pennsylvania and author of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Poetry Pauses: Teaching With Poems to Elevate Student Writing in All Genres\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, said his classroom goes quiet after watching Kaye perform \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://buttonpoetry.com/phil-kaye-camaro/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this spoken word poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “Kaye’s delivery adds extra dimension to the words that are already wonderful,” Vogelsinger said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The poem weaves through memories from a childhood crush, a long ago road trip, and a later encounter after a breakup. “It speaks to how moments stick with us for a long time, and reminds us of how sadness and fondness can interact in our memories,” Vogelsinger said. “Students love talking about the way the past elementary school memory and the more recent Camaro memory interact to impact the present moment, and how and why two people can remember (or forget) the same moment differently.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students also can dissect the poet’s use of repetition, flashback, imagery, and figurative language. And, Vogelsinger said, “There will always be at least one student in class who will recognize the sly allusion to E. T. as well!”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“Burning the Old Year” by Naomi Shihab Nye\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the name might suggest, this is another good \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48597/burning-the-old-year\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to teach after winter break. “The imagery is crisp and beautiful and the idea of what we hold onto and let go of is important,” said Vogelsinger. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Metaphors shine in this poem,” Vogelsinger said. After reading the poem, his students discuss the meaning of the two metaphors in the lines “So much of a year is flammable” and “so little is stone.” Then he asks them to respond in their notebooks to two questions:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What do you hope is flammable from last year?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What do you hope is stone? \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“No one has to share what they write, as this is a more personal prompt, but I close by reminding them how poetry can be a catalyst for reflection like this, to make us slow down and think about our hopes, our priorities and our longings – the things that make us human!” Vogelsinger said. “It’s a potent moment to share together as we reunite in January, and so much more interesting than resolutions.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "13 Poems By Living Poets to Teach in English Class Right Now | KQED",
"description": "Hanif Abduraqqib. Sarah Kay. Elizabeth Acevedo. Clint Smith. Do any of these names sound familiar? How about Amanda Gorman? All of these writers are part of America’s thriving contemporary poetry scene. But you won’t find them in many text books, because high school poetry units tend to focus on dead poets, like Robert Frost, Walt Whitman and Edgar Allen Poe. North Carolina teacher Melissa Alter Smith is working to change that. For the last seven years, she’s been diversifying the canon in her classroom, and encouraging other teachers to do the same with the hashtag #teachlivingpoets. The shift has inspired",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hanif Abduraqqib. Sarah Kay. Elizabeth Acevedo. Clint Smith. Do any of these names sound familiar? How about Amanda Gorman? All of these writers are part of America’s thriving contemporary poetry scene. But you won’t find them in many text books, because high school poetry units tend to focus on dead poets, like Robert Frost, Walt Whitman and Edgar Allen Poe. North Carolina teacher \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/MelAlterSmith\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melissa Alter Smith\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/64621/why-poetry-is-making-a-comeback-in-schools\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">working to change that\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For the last seven years, she’s been diversifying the canon in her classroom, and encouraging other teachers to do the same with the hashtag #teachlivingpoets.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The shift has inspired teachers across the country to get creative with how they teach students things like tone, rhythm and structure in poetry. “I love being creative. So if I love being creative and learning in creative ways, why wouldn’t I expect my students to want the same thing?” Smith said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MindShift asked Smith and other educators to share some of the poems by living poets that have resonated with their students. Here are their highlights.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“It Is Maybe Time to Admit That Michael Jordan Definitely Pushed Off” by Hanif Abdurraqib\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By referencing a legendary basketball player and iconic (if debated) \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.si.com/nba/bulls/off-the-court/as-the-wifi-network-shows-the-utah-jazz-are-still-not-over-the-1998-nba-finals\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">moment in sports history\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the title of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://poets.org/poem/it-maybe-time-admit-michael-jordan-definitely-pushed\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> immediately interests students and nets buy-in before they’ve begun reading, said Smith. But the poem is about more than Jordan’s title-winning shot. It’s also about the death of a loved one and processing grief.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith uses the poem to teach her students about structure, pacing, allusion, metaphor and point of view. They learn by going outside and “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://teachlivingpoets.com/2023/11/30/exploring-structure-in-hanif-abdurraqibs-poem-it-is-maybe-time-to-admit-that-michael-jordan-definitely-pushed-off/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">walking the poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.” They read the poem out loud as they walk, making turns at every ampersand (there are more than 20) and pausing at every stanza break, comma or period (there are fewer than 10).\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith said it’s one her favorite lessons because “it’s such an unfolding of understanding that happens” as the students walk. “What this does is it allows the students to get a physical understanding of the pacing and the movement of the poem … that they did not get upon their initial reading, just sitting in their desk reading the poem out loud.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“\u003c/b>\u003cb>New Day’s Lyric\u003c/b>\u003cb>” \u003c/b>\u003cb>by Amanda Gorman\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith teaches \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVfyaRLVvpY\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> right after winter break. “Since Gorman wrote it as a poem to ring in the new year, it’s perfect for kicking off the new semester and resetting ourselves with purpose and hope while interrogating the mistakes of our past,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The poem deals with themes of reckoning with the past, coming together, hope and healing, and it features a range of literary devices. “This poem provides students the opportunity to witness a master of word play and language,” Smith said. “By asking students to notice the nuances of Gorman’s craft, they witness how a poem ‘works.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith asks her students to highlight specific literary devices in designated colors and then \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://teachlivingpoets.com/2022/01/06/amanda-gorman-lesson-for-teaching-new-days-lyric/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">create a work of art based on the poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Gorman herself has \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/TheAmandaGorman/status/1479240141910659078\">praised the lesson on X\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“Hair” by Elizabeth Acevedo\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Acevedo manages to teach history and ancestral wisdom with this poem about her own hair and the hair (and experiences with it) that is part of the inheritance belonging to every woman of African descent,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/juliaerin80\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Julia Torres\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a librarian in the Denver Metro Area. “Her poem is both intimate and universal, a reclamation of self in a world that constantly tries to get Black women to betray themselves in the pursuit of ‘beauty.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Torres said the poem is valuable for teaching metaphor and symbolism, “abstract language that can be difficult for students to grasp.” Acevedo also uses juxtaposition in the poem. Torres shared two examples of her students’ reactions to the poem:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Personally I am not a person of color, but I know how important hair is to this culture. With this being such a big part of her, she takes a lot of pride in her hair. It’s curly and has so much volume and texture to it. Making it, in my mind, beautiful. I feel as though she shouldn’t have to hide it.” – K.A. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“When people have self-confidence, they will always be proud of their state of life.” – D.N.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“This Is Not a Small Voice” by Sonia Sanchez\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/MrNeibauer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adrian Neibauer\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’s fifth grade students in Colorado have loved this “short and powerful” \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://poets.org/poem/not-small-voice\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. As not-quite-tweens, Neibauer said his students “are often seen as young children without opinions of their own.” The poem’s themes of voice and activism inspire them to find their own voices. “Students are able to easily relate to themes of humanity, the power of one’s voice and activism,” Neibauer said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The poem also provides examples for teaching anaphora. “I love how Sanchez uses repetition, which helps students with their poetic fluency,” Neibauer said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“Wild Horses” by Paisley Rekdal\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another one with an activism theme, Neibauer said “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://poets.org/poem/wild-horses\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wild Horses\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” is “a great introduction to more challenging themes of suffrage and protest.” It is written from the point of view of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://utahwomenshistory.org/the-women/seraph-young/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Seraph Young Ford\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the first woman to vote in Utah and the modern nation, and requires some pre-teaching about her, as well as suffrage and Indigenous history.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This is a more challenging poem, but students respond well to the historical significance embedded in the poem,” said Neibauer, who pairs it with the Rolling Stones’ \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQTHB4jM-KQ\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">song of the same name\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and enjoys discussing the imagery in both. The poem is also rich with vocabulary words, like “acculturation,” for young readers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“A Bird Made of Birds” by Sarah Kay\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The heart, care and precision of this poem’s images has always stayed with me,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://caesura.nu/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">R.A. Villanueva\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a Sarah Lawrence College professor and middle school teacher. “There’s a genuine devotion to the strangeness and sublime beauty of the world — and a trust in bewilderment as a spark for creativity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Villanueva, who is also a poet himself, shares with students \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_kay_a_bird_made_of_birds?subtitle=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a TED Talk\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in which Kay describes her inspiration and performing the poem. “Listening to her storytelling flow into her performance has inspired amazing conversations about the catalytic specifics that power poems,” Villanueva said. “And since ‘A Bird Made of Birds’ is also an array of personal responses to diverse kinds of knowledge and visuals, I’m able to introduce [students] to ekphrasis / ekphrastic poetry.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Two of the visuals in Kay’s talk and poem are the anatomical heart of a blue whale and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/animals/birds/starling-murmurations/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">starling murmurations\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Villanueva’s students view diagrams showing the scale of whale hearts and watch a video of starling murmurations. “After they see all those varied layers together, wonderful things happen: They’re able to free write through the connections they discover, practice annotation and note-taking skills, and apply some essential craft vocabulary,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“For Estefani Lora, Third Grade, Who Made Me A Card” by Aracelis Girmay\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This poem “pulses with mystery and playfulness,” said Villanueva. In it, the writer tries to decipher an unrecognizable word in a hand drawn card given to her by a young child. “It’s not just description or mere reporting on a memory; she’s able to convey the tumbling of her imagination and her genuine, child-like joy at connecting with her former student’s affirmations. It’s a hopeful, tender poem,” Villanueva said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">His students – those in sixth grade and those in graduate school – first encounter the poem in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcIYMCC0M1w\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">an animated video recitation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “Listening to Aracelis Girmay’s own voice, her own crescendos and pauses, helps enliven their experience with the poem. They’re free to join in the suspense and then celebrate the epiphany along with the speaker,” Villanueva said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After that, students read a printed copy in small groups, analyzing Girmay’s unusual arrangement of lines and stanzas, her stretching of punctuation conventions, and the changing rhythms. “We talk about how \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/enjambment\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">enjambment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> works like musical notation, how onomatopoeia helps the poet tussle with sounds and meanings of the words she loves,” Villanueva said. “The admixture of laughter and close reading analysis is incredible to hear.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“One Vote” by Aimee Nezhukumatathil\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This poem makes an allusion to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/local/history/tennessee-19-amendment-letter-harry-burn-mother-febb/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the letter\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that Harry T. Burn received from his mother just before his vote tipped the Tennessee General Assembly in favor of ratifying the 19th Amendment. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/susangbarber\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Susan Barber\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a high school English teacher in Atlanta, Georgia, teaches the poem during election season. Her students are all seniors, many of whom have the opportunity to vote for the first time. For them, the poem “reinforces the idea that each vote – their vote – makes a difference,” Barber said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Barber encourages students to notice the poet’s use of enjambment and stanza breaks, and to unpack the metaphor of an eagle and an eaglet learning to fly. “I love the way that Nezhukumatathil turns to nature imagery as a means to understanding ideas and daily occurrences,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With its descriptions of the many life experiences that occur around a kitchen table, Barber said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49622/perhaps-the-world-ends-here\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is full of juxtapositions and contrasts for students to unpack.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I love the way Harjo sizes up life through a common object,” Barber said of the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/09/07/1034751793/poet-laureate-warrior-joy-harjo\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">former United State Poet Laureate\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> who was the first Native American to hold that title. “Everyone can relate to the table and experiences around the table, so students always enjoy this poem.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Barber said the poem connects to the idea of “breaking bread” and can lead to discussions of the intimacy of eating together. She loves to teach it close to Thanksgiving break, when students are anticipating family gatherings at kitchen tables.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“A New National Anthem” by Ada Limón\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/CzaiaZach\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Zach Czaia\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an English teacher in Minneapolis, Minnesota, said he loves that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147506/a-new-national-anthem\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “talks back to a ‘classic’ text” – the national anthem. “It empowers students in a college prep course to exercise their own voices, and feel like they, too, belong. Their voice, too, matters,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Czaia focuses on diction with this poem, using an exercise from the Teach Living Poets website that asks students to make concentric circles on butcher paper and choose the most important word from the poem to place in the center. In the middle circle they list images and personal connections to the central word, and in the outer circle they write about the overall meaning and theme of the poem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Students have definitely responded positively to this poem, and appreciated its connection to history that they have studied in the past,” Czaia said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>“America Is Loving Me To Death” by Michael Kleber-Diggs\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this poem, Kleber-Diggs lays bare the pains of being Black in America. And he does amid what Czaia called “two very accessible but also formally interesting strategies.” The first letters are an acrostic, spelling out the poem’s title. The last word in each line comes from another text – the pledge of allegiance. This latter form is called a “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/golden-shovel-poetic-form\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">golden shovel poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” and was created by poet Terrance Hayes and inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This attentiveness to structure and pattern allows students ways to consider Kleber-Diggs’ deep critique of systemic American racism,” Czaia said of the combination of an acrostic and golden shovel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Czaia uses “America Is Loving Me To Death” as a mentor text for students to write their own golden shovel poems. He said his students love the poem and some have written letters to Kleber-Diggs, who lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota,\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “just across the river” from Czaia’s school. Czaia said Kleber-Diggs has responded to those letters his students also visited his class – something only living poets can do.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“Camaro” by\u003c/b> \u003cb>Phil Kaye\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/theVogelman\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Brett Vogelsinger\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an English teacher in Pennsylvania and author of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Poetry Pauses: Teaching With Poems to Elevate Student Writing in All Genres\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, said his classroom goes quiet after watching Kaye perform \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://buttonpoetry.com/phil-kaye-camaro/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this spoken word poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “Kaye’s delivery adds extra dimension to the words that are already wonderful,” Vogelsinger said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The poem weaves through memories from a childhood crush, a long ago road trip, and a later encounter after a breakup. “It speaks to how moments stick with us for a long time, and reminds us of how sadness and fondness can interact in our memories,” Vogelsinger said. “Students love talking about the way the past elementary school memory and the more recent Camaro memory interact to impact the present moment, and how and why two people can remember (or forget) the same moment differently.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students also can dissect the poet’s use of repetition, flashback, imagery, and figurative language. And, Vogelsinger said, “There will always be at least one student in class who will recognize the sly allusion to E. T. as well!”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>“Burning the Old Year” by Naomi Shihab Nye\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the name might suggest, this is another good \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48597/burning-the-old-year\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to teach after winter break. “The imagery is crisp and beautiful and the idea of what we hold onto and let go of is important,” said Vogelsinger. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Metaphors shine in this poem,” Vogelsinger said. After reading the poem, his students discuss the meaning of the two metaphors in the lines “So much of a year is flammable” and “so little is stone.” Then he asks them to respond in their notebooks to two questions:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What do you hope is flammable from last year?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What do you hope is stone? \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“No one has to share what they write, as this is a more personal prompt, but I close by reminding them how poetry can be a catalyst for reflection like this, to make us slow down and think about our hopes, our priorities and our longings – the things that make us human!” Vogelsinger said. “It’s a potent moment to share together as we reunite in January, and so much more interesting than resolutions.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Why Poetry Is Making a Comeback in Schools",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On a spring afternoon last year, students in \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/MelAlterSmith\">Melissa Alter Smith\u003c/a>’s class bustled around the room, filling 16 ounce plastic bottles with hot water, food dye, glitter and glue.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You can mix colors if you want. Just use one whatever you think represents the theme of your poem,” Smith instructed as students moved between stations.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This was English, not art class, and the goal was not just to make a pretty, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instructables.com/Calm-Bottle-aka-Glitter-Jar/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">calming\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> bottle. Each student had selected a contemporary poem to analyze, and they chose food coloring and glitter that would represent the tone of the poem. When finished with their bottles, they wrote a paragraph on an index card, explaining their choices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One student, Christina, chose a poem called, “Like When Passing Graveyards” by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9780803296381/reliquaria/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">R.A. Villanueva\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In it, the poet recalls holding his breath when riding past cemeteries as a child. “The sparkles are for nostalgia and your childhood and looking back when you have like, you’re growing up with your siblings,” Christina said as she held up her bottle. “But then also the dark color is the whole point of the poem is it’s about a childhood fear. So I wanted to do something that shows the darkness of a graveyard and the fear behind it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://teachlivingpoets.com/2019/05/31/tone-bottles-explore-tone-in-poetry-with-this-engaging-hands-on-activity/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tone bottles\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” exercise, which was created by teacher Valerie A. Person, is one of dozens on Smith’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://teachlivingpoets.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Teach Living Poets\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> website. Smith created the website as a place for teachers to share lesson plans as her hashtag, #teachlivingpoets, took off on social media in the late 2010s. The idea behind both the website and the hashtag is to encourage teachers to diversify the literary canon and expose students to the vibrant world of contemporary poetry. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64741\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-64741\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman in a polka dot dress holds a pen and pad of sticky notes. She stands in front of a white board.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">High school teacher Melissa Smith is the creator of the #teachlivingpoets hashtag and website. \u003ccite>(David Boraks for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith began using the #teachlivingpoets hashtag about eight years ago, after seeing how actively her students tuned in when she invited real poets to class to give readings and talk about their craft. After a few students asked to borrow her poetry books over spring break, she tweeted about it, and tagged the poets. One of them, Kaveh Akbar, replied: “Thank you for teaching living poets.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I was like, that has a real ring to it, doesn’t it? And so that’s how the hashtag was born,” Smith said. “So every time I would share then, anything I was doing in my classroom regarding living poets, I included that hashtag with it, and teachers were liking it. They were sharing it, they were replying to it, they were eating it up.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the idea and hashtag grew, so, too, did the need for lesson plans to teach the work of living poets. “You can easily find a curriculum guide for Robert Frost’s work or for Shakespeare’s sonnets, right? But if you’re going to teach a poem that was just published a month ago, there’s no SparkNotes for that,” Smith said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Filling that gap meant getting creative, even weird, Smith said, whether that means asking students to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://teachlivingpoets.com/2023/11/30/exploring-structure-in-hanif-abdurraqibs-poem-it-is-maybe-time-to-admit-that-michael-jordan-definitely-pushed-off/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“walk a poem”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to feel the rhythm and patterns, having them \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://teachlivingpoets.com/2024/03/06/shoe-design-as-poetry-analysis/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">design shoes based on a poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or facilitating a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://teachlivingpoets.com/2024/03/07/new-march-madness-poetry-bracket-2024/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">March-Madness-style poetry smackdown\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/StanfillKristin/status/1791633632274055590\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Christina, making the tone bottle reminded her of kindergarten – in a good way. “It makes it honestly a little bit more fun,” she said. “When you notice the colors and you’re able to point out more techniques and, like, the smaller details of a poem, especially when we’re looking for certain lines and certain words, rather than just ‘Oh, what’s the theme? What’s the tone?’ You’re looking for more specifics.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to Smith and former students, teaching and studying living poets not only makes poetry more fun; it also makes it more accessible and relevant to current generations and empowers them to find themselves as readers and writers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Opening up the canon\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aaliyah Farmer, a former student of Smith’s and recent college graduate, remembers loving poetry as a kid – when her classes read whimsical poetry by Shel Silverstein. “In elementary school and middle school, we’re so used to reading poetry like that. And then whenever we got to, like, ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, it was immediately like, oh, you’re reading Shakespeare or like Shakespeare-esque poets from previous, before, like, way before we could even think about.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Farmer said that when she read centuries-old poetry, the language and the themes felt disconnected from her life. But things changed when she took Smith’s AP literature class at Lake Norman Charter High School. Reading books by contemporary poets, like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.clintsmithiii.com/about\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clint Smith\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://aimeenez.net/bio\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aimee Nezhukumatathil\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, reminded Farmer of her early love for the form. “18-year-old, 17-year-old Aaliyah, reading Clint Smith and Aimee, I’m so excited to read it because I just understand it better than other poets I had read before,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Farmer, Clint Smith’s writing did something the classics did not: It reflected the world she was growing up in. “For me and I would say my other friends that I had the class with that were also African-American, we had a pride in what he was saying in the book,” she explained. “If he was talking about, like his father or his grandfather or influential people in his life, we all have like that same person in our lives, so we were just able to build that pride and then also … how there’s also duality between slavery, but also everything that everything else that we’ve overcome, we were able to connect. And I think the pride for me came out in that sense as well.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64739\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-64739\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Students in desks and on a couch in a classroom take notes. A person appears on smartboard screen at the front of the room.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students in Melissa Smith’s class at Lake Norman Charter High School take notes while watching Rudy Francisco recite “My Honest Poem.” \u003ccite>(David Boraks for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Giving students a chance to see themselves in the literary canon is one of the biggest benefits of teaching living poets, according to Smith. She has a lot of stories about her students finding personal connections to living poets. Like when she gave a blog writing assignment and two transgender students chose to write about the trans poet H. Melt. With permission from her students, Smith shared the blog posts with H. Melt, who in turn sent signed book copies to the students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of Kaveh Akbar’s poems about addiction resonated with another student. “One of my students’ father was struggling with alcoholism, and the way that the poem hit her was very different than how I took in the poem,” Smith said. “Hers was just more raw and emotional and personal, and really beautiful, actually, in the way that she processed it, and tied it to her own experiences with her family.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Latina student told Melissa that her class was the first time in her entire schooling she’d been assigned a book by a Latino writer. “And she’s a senior. So it’s moments like that that make all of this – the Teach Living Poets hashtag, movement, website, all the things happening in the classroom – worth it,” Smith said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Farmer said Clint Smith’s \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Counting Descent\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has stuck with her. “A lot of the books from high school, I’m not going to lie, I did not keep. But that one I did keep.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Empowering young writers\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another powerful effect of teaching living poets, according to Smith, is empowering students as writers. Every spring, she organizes a big workshop where guest poets visit in person to give readings and discuss their craft with her students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It was probably one of my favorite days of high school. It was like a full day and we had lunch with them,” said Jenna Johnson, another of Melissa’s former students. “I sat at a table with R.A. Villanueva and I was just, like, freaked out the whole time, like kind of starstruck.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Johnson started writing poetry around age 15. “It felt important in the moment. But looking back, it’s like reading your embarrassing diary. Like a lot of just melodramatic high school love poems, breakup poems, all that stuff,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Early in high school, Johnson planned to become a nurse. But when she didn’t like AP bio and loved AP lit, she started rethinking her path. “One of the big things that I didn’t realize until I read contemporary poets is kind of like the lawlessness of poetry. You don’t have to adhere to strict forms or rhyme schemes or – kind of knowing that you can literally just write a poem and there’s so many different forms, you can do literally anything with it. That was a huge thing to me that felt like that made it something I could do,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The workshop in Smith’s class was Johnson’s first time hearing poets read their work live. “That just changes how you can approach someone’s work completely. Kind of hearing the tone and the voice that they intend for it to be read.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Johnson is now in a creative writing master’s program at New York University. She wants to continue writing poetry and become a professor. This fall, she’s teaching a writing class for undergraduates. Heading into the semester, Smith’s influence was still present.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I felt like I had a really good education in poetry because of her. And I felt really well prepared going into undergrad and grad school that I knew of these contemporary poets,” Johnson said. “So when I was writing my syllabus, I was thinking a lot about it, and including as many living poets as possible that I felt like my students will be able to feel close to and feel like they can relate to a lot more.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Embracing joy and rigor\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"http://caesura.nu/\">Villanueva\u003c/a> – the writer whose poem Christina analyzed and who Johnson met during the workshop – is not only a living poet. He’s also a middle school English teacher and a professor at Sarah Lawrence College. He met Smith on Twitter, around the time she started the #teachlivingpoets hashtag. He said it was inspiring to see that conversation spread among teachers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Melissa’s pedagogy really continues to vivify and bring to life over and over again, the fact that poetry is not some ancient, antiquated form for us to to be archeologists and dig around in. But it’s that and something else. It’s something contemporary, it’s something modern. It’s something that people do because they love and are frustrated by language,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Villanueva is a recurring guest at Melissa’s poetry workshop. He said her classroom is special because of the way she challenges students academically while also centering joy. He thinks teachers are too often told that joy and rigor can’t co-exist.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What if rigor is not just pain?” He asked. “What if … what you’re actually trying to say is there’s a certain intensity? But intensity can also be imagination. And that’s what her classroom feels like. … There are skills that are being tested, muscles that are being stretched. But it’s not done only through trauma or grief or like rote memorization and then regurgitation. It’s something else. It’s something weirder. And I think that is what we should allow teachers to have space to try.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith said teaching living poets has transformed not only what she teaches, but how she teaches. “It has re-sparked my passion for teaching in general. I have loosened up my sense of the need for control over the lesson and the learning and giving some of that control over to my students,” she said. “I have come to realize for me in my classroom that the best learning happens when I actually don’t say a thing, right? Where I allow my students to have a conversation, to collaborate and to explore a poem together, and then to share it with me.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC7494279697\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Shel Silverstein: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I cannot go to school today!” / Said little Peggy Ann McKay / “I have the measles and the mumps / A gash, a rash, and purple bumps / My mouth…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s the voice of Shel Silverstein, who’s been one of the most popular poets for elementary schoolers – for multiple generations now. Recent college graduate Aaliyah Farmer remembers loving Silverstein’s poems when she was young.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Aaliyah Farmer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In elementary school and like middle school, we’re so used to reading poetry like that. And then whenever we got to, like, ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, it was immediately like, oh, you’re reading Shakespeare or like Shakespeare-esque poets from previous, before, like way before we could even think about.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aaliyah says that when she read poetry from several centuries ago, the language and the themes felt disconnected from her life. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But things changed during her senior year of high school. That’s when Aaliyah took AP literature, and her teacher assigned books by contemporary poets, like Clint Smith and Aimee Nezhukumatathil.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Aaliyah Farmer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was like a comparable experience, like five-year-old or six year old Aaliyah reading Shel Silverstein, like, I was so excited to read poetry. 18-year-old, 17-year-old Aaliyah, reading Clint Smith and Aimee, like, I’m so excited to read it because I just understand it better than other poets I had read before.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Aaliyah, Clint Smith’s writing did something older poetry did not: It reflected the world she was growing up in. Here’s an excerpt from Smith’s poetry collection, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Counting Descent\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">explores themes of lineage, tradition and Black humanity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Clint Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My grandfather is a quarter century / older than his right to vote & two / decades younger than the president / who signed the paper that made it so. / He married my grandmother when they / Were four years younger than I am now / & were twice as sure about each other / As I’ve ever been about most things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Aaliyah Farmer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For me and I would say my other friends that I had the class with that were like also African American, we like, had a pride in what he was saying in the book. If he was talking about, like his father, or his grandfather, or influential people in his life, we all have like that same person in our lives, like so we were just able to build that pride and then also, like, how there’s, like, also duality between slavery, but also everything that everything else that we’ve overcome, um, we were able to connect. And I think the pride for me came out in that sense as well.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aaliyah says \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Counting Descent\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has stuck with her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Aaliyah Farmer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of the books from high school, I’m not going to lie, I did not keep. But that one I did keep.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This is MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aaliyah Farmer read Clint Smith’s book in a class at Lake Norman Charter High School in North Carolina. Her teacher, Melissa Smith, has made it her mission to bring vibrant contemporary poetry into her classroom. She encourages other teachers to do this too – through the social media hashtag #teachinglivingpoets. She’s written a book and created a website with the same name.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I say teach living poets, I don’t mean to completely cut off those traditional canonical poets. To discover how they’re in conversation with poets today is actually really brilliant and amazing. It’s just we need to open the door wider to let more voices into our classrooms and who we’re teaching in our poetry curriculum.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melissa first observed the power of teaching living poets about eight years ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s when she found out that Pulitzer Prize finalist Morri Creech taught at a university not far from her school. She invited him to visit her classes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He was like, here, sitting in front of us and having conversation with us about his poems. And I distinctly remember one of my boys, he was decked out in his soccer uniform because he had a game later that day, and at the end of that class he said, ‘Miss Smith, that was the coolest class I ever had.’ And I was like, by golly, I’ve unlocked some sort of secret, right? I was like, I need to do this more and more.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So she reached out to poets who were active online. She invited them to speak with her students in person and on Skype.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I saw just the energy change in my classroom. I saw their eyes light up. I saw them actually being interested. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When some of Melissa’s students wanted to borrow her poetry books over spring break, she was thrilled. She tweeted about it, and tagged the poets.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And Kaveh Akbar, one of my favorite, most favorite poets ever retweeted and said, ‘Thank you for teaching living poets.’ And I was like, huh, that has a real ring to it, doesn’t it? And so that’s how the hashtag was born, was out of his, retweet, ‘Thank you for teaching living poets.’ And so every time I would share then, anything I was doing in my classroom regarding living poets, I included that hashtag with it, and teachers were liking it, they were sharing it, they were replying to it. They were eating it up.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the #teachlivingpoets hashtag grew, Melissa realized there weren’t a lot of materials for teaching contemporary poetry in high school English.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can easily find a curriculum guide for Robert Frost’s work or for Shakespeare’s sonnets, right? But if you’re going to teach a poem that was just published a month ago, there’s no SparkNotes for that. Right? And so I think a lot of teachers are – I don’t want to use the word fearful, but for lack of a better word, nervous or uncomfortable with teaching contemporary poetry, because it’s, they feel like they have to have all the answers. And that’s really not the case. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melissa created the Teach Living Poets website\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to fill the gap. She and other English teachers share free lesson plans there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Sometimes as a teacher it can be a very isolating job, especially in our current climate, with teachers being attacked by angry parents and, you know, trying to ban books at school board meetings and whatnot. To have a community that you feel supported by and included in can be a game changer for some teachers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One activity Melissa’s students enjoy is a March Madness Poetry Bracket.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s like the March Madness basketball tournaments. But instead of athletes competing, it’s poetry.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to watch the poems one last time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Each day Melissa’s classes watch two poetry videos. Students decide which poem they think is best and try to persuade their classmates in an informal debate. Then they vote.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melissa tallies the votes across all periods. The winners from one week go head-to-head the next week, and so on. Until only two remain for the final round.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s where things stand today. The students are going to vote for the big winner.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">OMG. A true battle of champions.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first contender is “My Honest Poem” by Rudy Francisco. It’s an exploration of his fears and flaws. Here’s an excerpt.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rudy Francisco: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m still learning how to whisper\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> / \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m often loud in places where I should be quiet, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> / \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m often quiet in places where I should be loud.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> / \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was born feet first and I’ve been backwards ever since.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The other finalist in today’s showdown is called “Touchscreen” by Marshall Davis Jones. It’s about how technology is reshaping our lives.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Marshall Davis Jones: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Introducing the new Apple iPerson / complete with multitouch and volume control / doesn’t it feel good to touch? / doesn’t it feel good to touch? / doesn’t it feel good to touch? / my world is so digital / that I have forgotten what that feels like\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some of Melissa’s students take notes at desks around the edge of the room. Others lounge on comfy chairs in the middle, using lap pads to write on. When the second poem finishes playing, they dive into discussion.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Xuting: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s this one line where he says, ‘We used to be in the trees. We swung down, and then someone slipped a disc, and now we’re hunched over touchscreens.’ Right. And if you think of that image of, like, the human evolution, right. What is hunched over is the ape, the primates. And what is standing up is the human. And if we’re hunched over again, then, I mean, does that mean we’re going backwards? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They debate how well each poem conveys its message.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Collin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some of the quotes, for example, ‘I wonder what my bedsheets say when I’m not around.’ I feel like that’s kind of one of those things when you don’t know your own identity. So it’s kind of a broader message that Rudy is speaking, and I feel like that makes it where it’s easier to relate to.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And they reflect on bigger issues raised by the poets.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Emma: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I, I think that, um, the fact that technology is such a prevalent problem, like everybody knows. You are constantly told not to be on your phone, to limit your screen time, over and over and over. What isn’t talked about is how all of us face our own, like internal issues. That’s and I think that’s what makes, like ‘My Honest Poem’ more impactful because nobody really talks about that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sam: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’d like to say that I think a lot of these internal issues, at least in modern society, are being intensified by the technology talked about in ‘Touchscreen.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These high school seniors are identifying literary devices, citing evidence to support their arguments, and connecting what they’ve heard to their own lives. These are all the things English teachers want to hear in class. They’re also laughing and being playful with each other. Melissa says that’s typical.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At first, the kids are like, oh, yeah, this is fine. This is cool. But once we get down to, like, the Final Four and especially the last two poems, they start arguing. They start getting really, you know, invested in the poem that they like better. They, they try to convince their neighbor like, ‘no man, vote for the other one.’ \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After 15 minutes of discussion, it’s time to pick a winner.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All right. Heads down. Secret vote. Raise your hand if you want to vote for Rudy Francisco, ‘My Honest Poem.’ Raise your hand if you want to vote for Marshall Jones, ‘Touchscreen.’\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The students won’t hear the winner until the next day, but when Melissa counts votes across all her classes, “Touchscreen,” the poem about technology, comes out on top.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After the vote, they move on to an activity called tone bottles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so, one of your glitter choices is going to represent the tone before the shift.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This lesson plan was created by another teacher, Valerie A. Person. She shared it on Melissa’s Teach Living Poets website.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s meant to help students capture the tone of a poem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right, so what is the author’s attitude towards his subject before the shift? And then the other type of glitter you’re adding into your bottle is the tone after the shift, right? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each student has picked a poem to analyze. They fill a 16-ounce bottle with hot water and glue. Then add food dye, glitter and sequins.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can mix colors if you want, just use one, whatever you think represents the theme of your poem.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When they’re finished, Melissa adds mineral oil and hand soap to the bottles to create viscosity. Students shake up their bottles to see the glitter and sequins swirl around. They also write a paragraph on an index card, explaining how their tone bottle reflects their poem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A student named Dean based his bottle on “Looking for the Golf Motel” by Richard Blanco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And why did you pick orange for your liquid? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dean: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because it reminds me of, like, the sunset that he was describing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And what what glitter do you have in there? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dean: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I have, like, a mixture of red and yellow to go, like, counteract the orange. But then I also like black describing his feelings when he couldn’t find it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aw, that’s really good. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dean: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nice job, Dean.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another student, Christina, chose a poem called, “Like When Passing Graveyards” by R.A. Villanueva. In it, the poet recalls holding his breath when riding past cemeteries as a child.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christina: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So the sparkles are for nostalgia and your childhood, but then also the dark color is the whole point of the poem is like it’s about a childhood fear. So I wanted to do something that shows, like, the darkness of a graveyard and the fear behind it. But it’s also like the nostalgia of growing up with your siblings and, like, having these connections and these little fears that you like, create off each other.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Christina says she enjoys this approach to analyzing a poem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christina: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I feel like it makes it honestly a\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> little bit more fun. It’s like kindergarten, but also it makes it more visual, because a lot of the time when you’re just writing what you feel from a poem or what you imagine, it’s when you notice, like, the colors and, like, you’re able to point out more techniques and, like, the smaller details of a poem, especially when we’re looking for certain lines and certain words, rather than just oh, what’s the theme? What’s the tone? Like, you’re looking for more specifics. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With these activities, students are practicing the same academic skills as when they study any other piece of literature. But Melissa says focusing on living poets does two things that studying dead poets does not.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first is that it diversifies the literary canon. We heard a little about that from Aaliyah, the former student who identified with Clint Smith’s poems about his experiences as an African American.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melissa has a lot of stories about her students finding personal connections to living poets. Like when she gave a blog writing assignment and two transgender students chose to write about the trans poet H. Melt. Here’s an excerpt from H. Melt.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>H. Melt: \u003c/b>When they say “we are all trapped in the wrong body” / Imposter, impossible / No. / We are on the bus next to you / In the cubicle next to you…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">H. Melt sent signed book copies to Melissa’s two students after she shared their blogs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it was really special that now they have this signed copy of a, of a poet that they studied in class and, and just fell in love with and felt that common bond with because that’s like part of their identity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kaveh Akbar’s poem about addiction resonated with another student. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kaveh Akbar: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Fort Wayne I drank the seniors / Old Milwaukee Old Crow / in Indianapolis I stopped / now I regret / every drink I never took \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of my students’ father was struggling with alcoholism, and the way that the poem hit her was very different than how I took in the poem. Hers was just more raw and emotional and personal, and really beautiful, actually, in the way that she processed it and tied it to her own experiences with her family. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Latina student told Melissa that her class was the first time in her entire schooling she’d been assigned a book by a Latino writer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And she’s a senior. So it’s moments like that that are – make all of this, the Teach Living Poets hashtag, movement, website, all the things happening in the classroom, worth it.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The second big thing Melissa says teaching living poets can do is empower students as writers. Every spring, she organizes a big workshop where guest poets visit in person to give readings and discuss their craft with her students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jenna Johnson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was probably one of my favorite days of high school. I sat at a table with R.A. Villanueva and I was just, like, freaked out the whole time, like kind of starstruck.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Jenna Johnson, another of Melissa’s former students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jenna Johnson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I started writing when I was about 15. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And,\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> like, it felt important in the moment. But looking back, it’s like reading your embarrassing, like, diary. Like a lot of just, like, melodramatic, like high school love poems, breakup poems, all that stuff.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The workshop was her first time hearing poets read their work live.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jenna Johnson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That just, like, changes how you can approach someone’s work completely. Hearing, like, the tone and like the voice that they intend for it to be read.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Early in high school, Jenna planned to become a nurse. But when she didn’t like AP bio and loved AP lit, she started rethinking her path.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jenna Johnson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the big things that, like I didn’t realize until I read contemporary poets is kind of like the lawlessness of poetry. Like, you don’t have to like, um, adhere to, like, strict forms or rhyme schemes or – kind of knowing that you can literally just write a poem and there’s so many different forms, you can do literally anything with it. That was a huge thing to me that felt like that made it something I could do. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jenna is now in a creative writing master’s program at New York University. She wants to continue writing poetry and become a professor. This fall, she’s teaching a writing class for undergraduates.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jenna Johnson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve been thinking a lot about Miss Smith, because I know that, like, I felt like I had a really good education in poetry because of her. And like, I felt really well prepared going into undergrad and grad school that I knew of these contemporary poets and stuff. So when I was writing my syllabus I was thinking a lot about it. And like including as many living poets as possible, that I felt like my students could or will be able to, like, feel close to and feel like they can relate to a lot more. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Remember how Jenna said she felt starstruck sitting next to a guest writer at the poetry workshop?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I spoke with that poet – R.A. Villanueva, whose first name is Ron.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ron Villanueva: \u003c/strong>We open class with still images where / by the thousands above Costa Brava / starlings flock and tumble, swirl in answer / to some unseen danger, their looping dark / against that bonfire sky, shifting\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b> Ron is not only a living poet. He’s also a middle school English teacher and a professor at Sarah Lawrence College. He met Melissa on Twitter, around the time she started the #teachlivingpoets hashtag. He says it was inspiring to see that conversation spread among teachers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ron Villanueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melissa’s pedagogy really continues to vivify and bring to life over and over again, the fact that poetry is not some ancient, antiquated form for us to to be archeologists and dig around in. But it’s it’s that and something else. It’s something contemporary, it’s something modern. It’s something that people do because they love and are frustrated by language.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ron is a recurring guest at Melissa’s poetry workshop. He says her classroom is special because of the way she challenges students academically while also centering joy. He thinks, too often, teachers are told that joy and rigor can’t co-exist.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ron Villanueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What if rigor is not just pain? And like, what if rigor is what you’re actually trying to say is like – there’s a certain intensity. But intensity can also be imagination. And that’s what her classroom feels like. There are skills that are being tested, muscles that are being stretched. Um, but it’s not done only through trauma or grief or like rote memorization and then regurgitation.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s something else. It’s something weirder. And I think that is what we should allow teachers to have space to, to try. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melissa says teaching living poets has transformed not only what she teaches, but how she teaches.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It has re-sparked my passion for teaching in general. I have loosened up my sense of the need for control over the lesson and the learning and giving some of that control over to my students. I have come to realize for me in my classroom that the best learning happens when I actually don’t say a thing. Right? Where I allow my students to have a conversation, to collaborate and to explore a poem together, and then to share it with me.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The contemporary poetry scene is full of innovative and diverse writers. By inviting those voices into their classrooms, teachers can open doors for students to connect with the rhythms and rhymes of poetry. And that can help them grow as readers, writers, and people.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode would not have been possible without Melissa Smith. To learn more, you can read the book she wrote with Lindsay Illich. It’s called \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Teach Living Poets.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The students you heard in this episode were: Xuting, Collin, Emma, Sam, Dean and Christina.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks also to Aaliyah Farmer, Jenna Johnson and Ron Villanueva.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The rest of the MindShift team includes Ki Sung, Marlena Jackson-Retondo, Nimah Gobir and Jennifer Ng.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Seth Samuel is our sound designer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad and Holly Kernan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">David Boraks provided field recording.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you love MindShift, and enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. We really appreciate it. You can also read more or subscribe to our newsletter at K-Q-E-D-dot-org-slash-MindShift.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you for listening to Season 9 of the MindShift podcast. That’s it for these deep dive episodes. MindShift will be back soon with new episodes featuring conversations about big ideas in education. Be sure to follow the show so you don’t miss a thing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>*Editor’s note: R.A. Villanueva’s poem ‘We open class with still images where’ first appeared in the fall 2024 issue of Mānoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On a spring afternoon last year, students in \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/MelAlterSmith\">Melissa Alter Smith\u003c/a>’s class bustled around the room, filling 16 ounce plastic bottles with hot water, food dye, glitter and glue.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You can mix colors if you want. Just use one whatever you think represents the theme of your poem,” Smith instructed as students moved between stations.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This was English, not art class, and the goal was not just to make a pretty, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instructables.com/Calm-Bottle-aka-Glitter-Jar/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">calming\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> bottle. Each student had selected a contemporary poem to analyze, and they chose food coloring and glitter that would represent the tone of the poem. When finished with their bottles, they wrote a paragraph on an index card, explaining their choices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One student, Christina, chose a poem called, “Like When Passing Graveyards” by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9780803296381/reliquaria/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">R.A. Villanueva\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In it, the poet recalls holding his breath when riding past cemeteries as a child. “The sparkles are for nostalgia and your childhood and looking back when you have like, you’re growing up with your siblings,” Christina said as she held up her bottle. “But then also the dark color is the whole point of the poem is it’s about a childhood fear. So I wanted to do something that shows the darkness of a graveyard and the fear behind it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://teachlivingpoets.com/2019/05/31/tone-bottles-explore-tone-in-poetry-with-this-engaging-hands-on-activity/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tone bottles\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” exercise, which was created by teacher Valerie A. Person, is one of dozens on Smith’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://teachlivingpoets.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Teach Living Poets\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> website. Smith created the website as a place for teachers to share lesson plans as her hashtag, #teachlivingpoets, took off on social media in the late 2010s. The idea behind both the website and the hashtag is to encourage teachers to diversify the literary canon and expose students to the vibrant world of contemporary poetry. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64741\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-64741\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman in a polka dot dress holds a pen and pad of sticky notes. She stands in front of a white board.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6337-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">High school teacher Melissa Smith is the creator of the #teachlivingpoets hashtag and website. \u003ccite>(David Boraks for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith began using the #teachlivingpoets hashtag about eight years ago, after seeing how actively her students tuned in when she invited real poets to class to give readings and talk about their craft. After a few students asked to borrow her poetry books over spring break, she tweeted about it, and tagged the poets. One of them, Kaveh Akbar, replied: “Thank you for teaching living poets.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I was like, that has a real ring to it, doesn’t it? And so that’s how the hashtag was born,” Smith said. “So every time I would share then, anything I was doing in my classroom regarding living poets, I included that hashtag with it, and teachers were liking it. They were sharing it, they were replying to it, they were eating it up.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the idea and hashtag grew, so, too, did the need for lesson plans to teach the work of living poets. “You can easily find a curriculum guide for Robert Frost’s work or for Shakespeare’s sonnets, right? But if you’re going to teach a poem that was just published a month ago, there’s no SparkNotes for that,” Smith said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Filling that gap meant getting creative, even weird, Smith said, whether that means asking students to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://teachlivingpoets.com/2023/11/30/exploring-structure-in-hanif-abdurraqibs-poem-it-is-maybe-time-to-admit-that-michael-jordan-definitely-pushed-off/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“walk a poem”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to feel the rhythm and patterns, having them \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://teachlivingpoets.com/2024/03/06/shoe-design-as-poetry-analysis/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">design shoes based on a poem\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or facilitating a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://teachlivingpoets.com/2024/03/07/new-march-madness-poetry-bracket-2024/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">March-Madness-style poetry smackdown\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Christina, making the tone bottle reminded her of kindergarten – in a good way. “It makes it honestly a little bit more fun,” she said. “When you notice the colors and you’re able to point out more techniques and, like, the smaller details of a poem, especially when we’re looking for certain lines and certain words, rather than just ‘Oh, what’s the theme? What’s the tone?’ You’re looking for more specifics.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to Smith and former students, teaching and studying living poets not only makes poetry more fun; it also makes it more accessible and relevant to current generations and empowers them to find themselves as readers and writers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Opening up the canon\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aaliyah Farmer, a former student of Smith’s and recent college graduate, remembers loving poetry as a kid – when her classes read whimsical poetry by Shel Silverstein. “In elementary school and middle school, we’re so used to reading poetry like that. And then whenever we got to, like, ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, it was immediately like, oh, you’re reading Shakespeare or like Shakespeare-esque poets from previous, before, like, way before we could even think about.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Farmer said that when she read centuries-old poetry, the language and the themes felt disconnected from her life. But things changed when she took Smith’s AP literature class at Lake Norman Charter High School. Reading books by contemporary poets, like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.clintsmithiii.com/about\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clint Smith\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://aimeenez.net/bio\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aimee Nezhukumatathil\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, reminded Farmer of her early love for the form. “18-year-old, 17-year-old Aaliyah, reading Clint Smith and Aimee, I’m so excited to read it because I just understand it better than other poets I had read before,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Farmer, Clint Smith’s writing did something the classics did not: It reflected the world she was growing up in. “For me and I would say my other friends that I had the class with that were also African-American, we had a pride in what he was saying in the book,” she explained. “If he was talking about, like his father or his grandfather or influential people in his life, we all have like that same person in our lives, so we were just able to build that pride and then also … how there’s also duality between slavery, but also everything that everything else that we’ve overcome, we were able to connect. And I think the pride for me came out in that sense as well.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64739\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-64739\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Students in desks and on a couch in a classroom take notes. A person appears on smartboard screen at the front of the room.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/DSC_6260-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students in Melissa Smith’s class at Lake Norman Charter High School take notes while watching Rudy Francisco recite “My Honest Poem.” \u003ccite>(David Boraks for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Giving students a chance to see themselves in the literary canon is one of the biggest benefits of teaching living poets, according to Smith. She has a lot of stories about her students finding personal connections to living poets. Like when she gave a blog writing assignment and two transgender students chose to write about the trans poet H. Melt. With permission from her students, Smith shared the blog posts with H. Melt, who in turn sent signed book copies to the students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of Kaveh Akbar’s poems about addiction resonated with another student. “One of my students’ father was struggling with alcoholism, and the way that the poem hit her was very different than how I took in the poem,” Smith said. “Hers was just more raw and emotional and personal, and really beautiful, actually, in the way that she processed it, and tied it to her own experiences with her family.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Latina student told Melissa that her class was the first time in her entire schooling she’d been assigned a book by a Latino writer. “And she’s a senior. So it’s moments like that that make all of this – the Teach Living Poets hashtag, movement, website, all the things happening in the classroom – worth it,” Smith said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Farmer said Clint Smith’s \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Counting Descent\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has stuck with her. “A lot of the books from high school, I’m not going to lie, I did not keep. But that one I did keep.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Empowering young writers\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another powerful effect of teaching living poets, according to Smith, is empowering students as writers. Every spring, she organizes a big workshop where guest poets visit in person to give readings and discuss their craft with her students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It was probably one of my favorite days of high school. It was like a full day and we had lunch with them,” said Jenna Johnson, another of Melissa’s former students. “I sat at a table with R.A. Villanueva and I was just, like, freaked out the whole time, like kind of starstruck.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Johnson started writing poetry around age 15. “It felt important in the moment. But looking back, it’s like reading your embarrassing diary. Like a lot of just melodramatic high school love poems, breakup poems, all that stuff,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Early in high school, Johnson planned to become a nurse. But when she didn’t like AP bio and loved AP lit, she started rethinking her path. “One of the big things that I didn’t realize until I read contemporary poets is kind of like the lawlessness of poetry. You don’t have to adhere to strict forms or rhyme schemes or – kind of knowing that you can literally just write a poem and there’s so many different forms, you can do literally anything with it. That was a huge thing to me that felt like that made it something I could do,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The workshop in Smith’s class was Johnson’s first time hearing poets read their work live. “That just changes how you can approach someone’s work completely. Kind of hearing the tone and the voice that they intend for it to be read.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Johnson is now in a creative writing master’s program at New York University. She wants to continue writing poetry and become a professor. This fall, she’s teaching a writing class for undergraduates. Heading into the semester, Smith’s influence was still present.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I felt like I had a really good education in poetry because of her. And I felt really well prepared going into undergrad and grad school that I knew of these contemporary poets,” Johnson said. “So when I was writing my syllabus, I was thinking a lot about it, and including as many living poets as possible that I felt like my students will be able to feel close to and feel like they can relate to a lot more.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Embracing joy and rigor\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"http://caesura.nu/\">Villanueva\u003c/a> – the writer whose poem Christina analyzed and who Johnson met during the workshop – is not only a living poet. He’s also a middle school English teacher and a professor at Sarah Lawrence College. He met Smith on Twitter, around the time she started the #teachlivingpoets hashtag. He said it was inspiring to see that conversation spread among teachers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Melissa’s pedagogy really continues to vivify and bring to life over and over again, the fact that poetry is not some ancient, antiquated form for us to to be archeologists and dig around in. But it’s that and something else. It’s something contemporary, it’s something modern. It’s something that people do because they love and are frustrated by language,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Villanueva is a recurring guest at Melissa’s poetry workshop. He said her classroom is special because of the way she challenges students academically while also centering joy. He thinks teachers are too often told that joy and rigor can’t co-exist.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What if rigor is not just pain?” He asked. “What if … what you’re actually trying to say is there’s a certain intensity? But intensity can also be imagination. And that’s what her classroom feels like. … There are skills that are being tested, muscles that are being stretched. But it’s not done only through trauma or grief or like rote memorization and then regurgitation. It’s something else. It’s something weirder. And I think that is what we should allow teachers to have space to try.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smith said teaching living poets has transformed not only what she teaches, but how she teaches. “It has re-sparked my passion for teaching in general. I have loosened up my sense of the need for control over the lesson and the learning and giving some of that control over to my students,” she said. “I have come to realize for me in my classroom that the best learning happens when I actually don’t say a thing, right? Where I allow my students to have a conversation, to collaborate and to explore a poem together, and then to share it with me.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC7494279697\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Shel Silverstein: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I cannot go to school today!” / Said little Peggy Ann McKay / “I have the measles and the mumps / A gash, a rash, and purple bumps / My mouth…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s the voice of Shel Silverstein, who’s been one of the most popular poets for elementary schoolers – for multiple generations now. Recent college graduate Aaliyah Farmer remembers loving Silverstein’s poems when she was young.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Aaliyah Farmer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In elementary school and like middle school, we’re so used to reading poetry like that. And then whenever we got to, like, ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, it was immediately like, oh, you’re reading Shakespeare or like Shakespeare-esque poets from previous, before, like way before we could even think about.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aaliyah says that when she read poetry from several centuries ago, the language and the themes felt disconnected from her life. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But things changed during her senior year of high school. That’s when Aaliyah took AP literature, and her teacher assigned books by contemporary poets, like Clint Smith and Aimee Nezhukumatathil.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Aaliyah Farmer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was like a comparable experience, like five-year-old or six year old Aaliyah reading Shel Silverstein, like, I was so excited to read poetry. 18-year-old, 17-year-old Aaliyah, reading Clint Smith and Aimee, like, I’m so excited to read it because I just understand it better than other poets I had read before.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Aaliyah, Clint Smith’s writing did something older poetry did not: It reflected the world she was growing up in. Here’s an excerpt from Smith’s poetry collection, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Counting Descent\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">explores themes of lineage, tradition and Black humanity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Clint Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My grandfather is a quarter century / older than his right to vote & two / decades younger than the president / who signed the paper that made it so. / He married my grandmother when they / Were four years younger than I am now / & were twice as sure about each other / As I’ve ever been about most things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Aaliyah Farmer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For me and I would say my other friends that I had the class with that were like also African American, we like, had a pride in what he was saying in the book. If he was talking about, like his father, or his grandfather, or influential people in his life, we all have like that same person in our lives, like so we were just able to build that pride and then also, like, how there’s, like, also duality between slavery, but also everything that everything else that we’ve overcome, um, we were able to connect. And I think the pride for me came out in that sense as well.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aaliyah says \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Counting Descent\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has stuck with her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Aaliyah Farmer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of the books from high school, I’m not going to lie, I did not keep. But that one I did keep.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This is MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aaliyah Farmer read Clint Smith’s book in a class at Lake Norman Charter High School in North Carolina. Her teacher, Melissa Smith, has made it her mission to bring vibrant contemporary poetry into her classroom. She encourages other teachers to do this too – through the social media hashtag #teachinglivingpoets. She’s written a book and created a website with the same name.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I say teach living poets, I don’t mean to completely cut off those traditional canonical poets. To discover how they’re in conversation with poets today is actually really brilliant and amazing. It’s just we need to open the door wider to let more voices into our classrooms and who we’re teaching in our poetry curriculum.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melissa first observed the power of teaching living poets about eight years ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s when she found out that Pulitzer Prize finalist Morri Creech taught at a university not far from her school. She invited him to visit her classes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He was like, here, sitting in front of us and having conversation with us about his poems. And I distinctly remember one of my boys, he was decked out in his soccer uniform because he had a game later that day, and at the end of that class he said, ‘Miss Smith, that was the coolest class I ever had.’ And I was like, by golly, I’ve unlocked some sort of secret, right? I was like, I need to do this more and more.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So she reached out to poets who were active online. She invited them to speak with her students in person and on Skype.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I saw just the energy change in my classroom. I saw their eyes light up. I saw them actually being interested. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When some of Melissa’s students wanted to borrow her poetry books over spring break, she was thrilled. She tweeted about it, and tagged the poets.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And Kaveh Akbar, one of my favorite, most favorite poets ever retweeted and said, ‘Thank you for teaching living poets.’ And I was like, huh, that has a real ring to it, doesn’t it? And so that’s how the hashtag was born, was out of his, retweet, ‘Thank you for teaching living poets.’ And so every time I would share then, anything I was doing in my classroom regarding living poets, I included that hashtag with it, and teachers were liking it, they were sharing it, they were replying to it. They were eating it up.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the #teachlivingpoets hashtag grew, Melissa realized there weren’t a lot of materials for teaching contemporary poetry in high school English.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can easily find a curriculum guide for Robert Frost’s work or for Shakespeare’s sonnets, right? But if you’re going to teach a poem that was just published a month ago, there’s no SparkNotes for that. Right? And so I think a lot of teachers are – I don’t want to use the word fearful, but for lack of a better word, nervous or uncomfortable with teaching contemporary poetry, because it’s, they feel like they have to have all the answers. And that’s really not the case. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melissa created the Teach Living Poets website\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to fill the gap. She and other English teachers share free lesson plans there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Sometimes as a teacher it can be a very isolating job, especially in our current climate, with teachers being attacked by angry parents and, you know, trying to ban books at school board meetings and whatnot. To have a community that you feel supported by and included in can be a game changer for some teachers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One activity Melissa’s students enjoy is a March Madness Poetry Bracket.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s like the March Madness basketball tournaments. But instead of athletes competing, it’s poetry.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to watch the poems one last time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Each day Melissa’s classes watch two poetry videos. Students decide which poem they think is best and try to persuade their classmates in an informal debate. Then they vote.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melissa tallies the votes across all periods. The winners from one week go head-to-head the next week, and so on. Until only two remain for the final round.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s where things stand today. The students are going to vote for the big winner.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">OMG. A true battle of champions.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first contender is “My Honest Poem” by Rudy Francisco. It’s an exploration of his fears and flaws. Here’s an excerpt.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rudy Francisco: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m still learning how to whisper\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> / \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m often loud in places where I should be quiet, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> / \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m often quiet in places where I should be loud.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> / \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was born feet first and I’ve been backwards ever since.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The other finalist in today’s showdown is called “Touchscreen” by Marshall Davis Jones. It’s about how technology is reshaping our lives.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Marshall Davis Jones: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Introducing the new Apple iPerson / complete with multitouch and volume control / doesn’t it feel good to touch? / doesn’t it feel good to touch? / doesn’t it feel good to touch? / my world is so digital / that I have forgotten what that feels like\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some of Melissa’s students take notes at desks around the edge of the room. Others lounge on comfy chairs in the middle, using lap pads to write on. When the second poem finishes playing, they dive into discussion.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Xuting: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s this one line where he says, ‘We used to be in the trees. We swung down, and then someone slipped a disc, and now we’re hunched over touchscreens.’ Right. And if you think of that image of, like, the human evolution, right. What is hunched over is the ape, the primates. And what is standing up is the human. And if we’re hunched over again, then, I mean, does that mean we’re going backwards? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They debate how well each poem conveys its message.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Collin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some of the quotes, for example, ‘I wonder what my bedsheets say when I’m not around.’ I feel like that’s kind of one of those things when you don’t know your own identity. So it’s kind of a broader message that Rudy is speaking, and I feel like that makes it where it’s easier to relate to.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And they reflect on bigger issues raised by the poets.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Emma: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I, I think that, um, the fact that technology is such a prevalent problem, like everybody knows. You are constantly told not to be on your phone, to limit your screen time, over and over and over. What isn’t talked about is how all of us face our own, like internal issues. That’s and I think that’s what makes, like ‘My Honest Poem’ more impactful because nobody really talks about that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sam: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’d like to say that I think a lot of these internal issues, at least in modern society, are being intensified by the technology talked about in ‘Touchscreen.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These high school seniors are identifying literary devices, citing evidence to support their arguments, and connecting what they’ve heard to their own lives. These are all the things English teachers want to hear in class. They’re also laughing and being playful with each other. Melissa says that’s typical.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At first, the kids are like, oh, yeah, this is fine. This is cool. But once we get down to, like, the Final Four and especially the last two poems, they start arguing. They start getting really, you know, invested in the poem that they like better. They, they try to convince their neighbor like, ‘no man, vote for the other one.’ \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After 15 minutes of discussion, it’s time to pick a winner.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All right. Heads down. Secret vote. Raise your hand if you want to vote for Rudy Francisco, ‘My Honest Poem.’ Raise your hand if you want to vote for Marshall Jones, ‘Touchscreen.’\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The students won’t hear the winner until the next day, but when Melissa counts votes across all her classes, “Touchscreen,” the poem about technology, comes out on top.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After the vote, they move on to an activity called tone bottles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so, one of your glitter choices is going to represent the tone before the shift.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This lesson plan was created by another teacher, Valerie A. Person. She shared it on Melissa’s Teach Living Poets website.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s meant to help students capture the tone of a poem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right, so what is the author’s attitude towards his subject before the shift? And then the other type of glitter you’re adding into your bottle is the tone after the shift, right? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each student has picked a poem to analyze. They fill a 16-ounce bottle with hot water and glue. Then add food dye, glitter and sequins.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can mix colors if you want, just use one, whatever you think represents the theme of your poem.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When they’re finished, Melissa adds mineral oil and hand soap to the bottles to create viscosity. Students shake up their bottles to see the glitter and sequins swirl around. They also write a paragraph on an index card, explaining how their tone bottle reflects their poem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A student named Dean based his bottle on “Looking for the Golf Motel” by Richard Blanco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And why did you pick orange for your liquid? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dean: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because it reminds me of, like, the sunset that he was describing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And what what glitter do you have in there? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dean: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I have, like, a mixture of red and yellow to go, like, counteract the orange. But then I also like black describing his feelings when he couldn’t find it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aw, that’s really good. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dean: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nice job, Dean.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another student, Christina, chose a poem called, “Like When Passing Graveyards” by R.A. Villanueva. In it, the poet recalls holding his breath when riding past cemeteries as a child.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christina: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So the sparkles are for nostalgia and your childhood, but then also the dark color is the whole point of the poem is like it’s about a childhood fear. So I wanted to do something that shows, like, the darkness of a graveyard and the fear behind it. But it’s also like the nostalgia of growing up with your siblings and, like, having these connections and these little fears that you like, create off each other.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Christina says she enjoys this approach to analyzing a poem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christina: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I feel like it makes it honestly a\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> little bit more fun. It’s like kindergarten, but also it makes it more visual, because a lot of the time when you’re just writing what you feel from a poem or what you imagine, it’s when you notice, like, the colors and, like, you’re able to point out more techniques and, like, the smaller details of a poem, especially when we’re looking for certain lines and certain words, rather than just oh, what’s the theme? What’s the tone? Like, you’re looking for more specifics. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With these activities, students are practicing the same academic skills as when they study any other piece of literature. But Melissa says focusing on living poets does two things that studying dead poets does not.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first is that it diversifies the literary canon. We heard a little about that from Aaliyah, the former student who identified with Clint Smith’s poems about his experiences as an African American.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melissa has a lot of stories about her students finding personal connections to living poets. Like when she gave a blog writing assignment and two transgender students chose to write about the trans poet H. Melt. Here’s an excerpt from H. Melt.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>H. Melt: \u003c/b>When they say “we are all trapped in the wrong body” / Imposter, impossible / No. / We are on the bus next to you / In the cubicle next to you…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">H. Melt sent signed book copies to Melissa’s two students after she shared their blogs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it was really special that now they have this signed copy of a, of a poet that they studied in class and, and just fell in love with and felt that common bond with because that’s like part of their identity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kaveh Akbar’s poem about addiction resonated with another student. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kaveh Akbar: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Fort Wayne I drank the seniors / Old Milwaukee Old Crow / in Indianapolis I stopped / now I regret / every drink I never took \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of my students’ father was struggling with alcoholism, and the way that the poem hit her was very different than how I took in the poem. Hers was just more raw and emotional and personal, and really beautiful, actually, in the way that she processed it and tied it to her own experiences with her family. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Latina student told Melissa that her class was the first time in her entire schooling she’d been assigned a book by a Latino writer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And she’s a senior. So it’s moments like that that are – make all of this, the Teach Living Poets hashtag, movement, website, all the things happening in the classroom, worth it.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The second big thing Melissa says teaching living poets can do is empower students as writers. Every spring, she organizes a big workshop where guest poets visit in person to give readings and discuss their craft with her students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jenna Johnson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was probably one of my favorite days of high school. I sat at a table with R.A. Villanueva and I was just, like, freaked out the whole time, like kind of starstruck.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Jenna Johnson, another of Melissa’s former students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jenna Johnson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I started writing when I was about 15. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And,\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> like, it felt important in the moment. But looking back, it’s like reading your embarrassing, like, diary. Like a lot of just, like, melodramatic, like high school love poems, breakup poems, all that stuff.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The workshop was her first time hearing poets read their work live.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jenna Johnson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That just, like, changes how you can approach someone’s work completely. Hearing, like, the tone and like the voice that they intend for it to be read.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Early in high school, Jenna planned to become a nurse. But when she didn’t like AP bio and loved AP lit, she started rethinking her path.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jenna Johnson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the big things that, like I didn’t realize until I read contemporary poets is kind of like the lawlessness of poetry. Like, you don’t have to like, um, adhere to, like, strict forms or rhyme schemes or – kind of knowing that you can literally just write a poem and there’s so many different forms, you can do literally anything with it. That was a huge thing to me that felt like that made it something I could do. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jenna is now in a creative writing master’s program at New York University. She wants to continue writing poetry and become a professor. This fall, she’s teaching a writing class for undergraduates.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jenna Johnson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve been thinking a lot about Miss Smith, because I know that, like, I felt like I had a really good education in poetry because of her. And like, I felt really well prepared going into undergrad and grad school that I knew of these contemporary poets and stuff. So when I was writing my syllabus I was thinking a lot about it. And like including as many living poets as possible, that I felt like my students could or will be able to, like, feel close to and feel like they can relate to a lot more. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Remember how Jenna said she felt starstruck sitting next to a guest writer at the poetry workshop?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I spoke with that poet – R.A. Villanueva, whose first name is Ron.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ron Villanueva: \u003c/strong>We open class with still images where / by the thousands above Costa Brava / starlings flock and tumble, swirl in answer / to some unseen danger, their looping dark / against that bonfire sky, shifting\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b> Ron is not only a living poet. He’s also a middle school English teacher and a professor at Sarah Lawrence College. He met Melissa on Twitter, around the time she started the #teachlivingpoets hashtag. He says it was inspiring to see that conversation spread among teachers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ron Villanueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melissa’s pedagogy really continues to vivify and bring to life over and over again, the fact that poetry is not some ancient, antiquated form for us to to be archeologists and dig around in. But it’s it’s that and something else. It’s something contemporary, it’s something modern. It’s something that people do because they love and are frustrated by language.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ron is a recurring guest at Melissa’s poetry workshop. He says her classroom is special because of the way she challenges students academically while also centering joy. He thinks, too often, teachers are told that joy and rigor can’t co-exist.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ron Villanueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What if rigor is not just pain? And like, what if rigor is what you’re actually trying to say is like – there’s a certain intensity. But intensity can also be imagination. And that’s what her classroom feels like. There are skills that are being tested, muscles that are being stretched. Um, but it’s not done only through trauma or grief or like rote memorization and then regurgitation.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s something else. It’s something weirder. And I think that is what we should allow teachers to have space to, to try. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melissa says teaching living poets has transformed not only what she teaches, but how she teaches.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Melissa Smith: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It has re-sparked my passion for teaching in general. I have loosened up my sense of the need for control over the lesson and the learning and giving some of that control over to my students. I have come to realize for me in my classroom that the best learning happens when I actually don’t say a thing. Right? Where I allow my students to have a conversation, to collaborate and to explore a poem together, and then to share it with me.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The contemporary poetry scene is full of innovative and diverse writers. By inviting those voices into their classrooms, teachers can open doors for students to connect with the rhythms and rhymes of poetry. And that can help them grow as readers, writers, and people.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode would not have been possible without Melissa Smith. To learn more, you can read the book she wrote with Lindsay Illich. It’s called \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Teach Living Poets.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The students you heard in this episode were: Xuting, Collin, Emma, Sam, Dean and Christina.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks also to Aaliyah Farmer, Jenna Johnson and Ron Villanueva.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The rest of the MindShift team includes Ki Sung, Marlena Jackson-Retondo, Nimah Gobir and Jennifer Ng.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Seth Samuel is our sound designer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad and Holly Kernan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">David Boraks provided field recording.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you love MindShift, and enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. We really appreciate it. You can also read more or subscribe to our newsletter at K-Q-E-D-dot-org-slash-MindShift.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you for listening to Season 9 of the MindShift podcast. That’s it for these deep dive episodes. MindShift will be back soon with new episodes featuring conversations about big ideas in education. Be sure to follow the show so you don’t miss a thing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>*Editor’s note: R.A. Villanueva’s poem ‘We open class with still images where’ first appeared in the fall 2024 issue of Mānoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To an outside observer, there’s nothing particularly special about the beige rug at the front of Miranda Lyle’s fourth grade classroom. But for Lyle, it’s the best spot in the room. It’s where students gather for morning meetings, read-alouds, and when Lyle wants to facilitate an intimate learning conversation instead of a lecture. Lyle compared the feeling on the rug to that of gathering around a campfire. “They’re all kind of sitting in a relaxed, comfortable place, there’s proximity, but there’s also, you know, just like a shared comfort level of having the rug,” she said. That makes it easier for her students to test new ideas, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62501/want-your-kids-to-be-happier-and-healthier-start-talking-with-them-about-uncomfortable-emotions\">express emotions\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/52590/why-debate-may-be-the-best-way-to-save-constructive-disagreement\">disagree civilly\u003c/a>. “It’s been a very intentional place for us every year to see each other as equals and see each other as people,” Lyle said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last spring, her students gathered on the rug as they kicked off a social studies unit on school desegregation in Virginia, where they live. Lyle projected vocabulary words, like segregation, prejudice and integration on the smartboard above their heads, and the class practiced saying them together. Then Lyle clicked forward to a \u003ca href=\"https://motonmuseum.org/learn/moton-school-story-digital-exhibit/\">black and white photo of a group of teenagers\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Lyle asked the fourth graders to study the image closely. “I want you to observe and see as many things as you can before we even start today,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The teenagers in the photo were students at R.R. Moton High School – a segregated school in Farmville, Virginia, just over two hours southeast of where the fourth graders attended school.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In 1951, the Moton students \u003ca href=\"https://motonmuseum.org/about/the-moton-story/\">went on strike to demand better school conditions\u003c/a>, which the white school board denied them. Their activism led to them becoming the only student plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education – the Supreme Court case that found school segregation unconstitutional \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/63692/5-takeaways-on-school-segregation-70-years-after-brown-v-board\">70 years ago\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead of reading about the Moton student strike in a textbook, fourth graders in Rockingham County Public Schools, where Lyle teaches, learn about it through photographs, diary entries and stories of the young people involved. These first-hand accounts of history are called primary sources. “A primary source at its very core is the raw material of history,” said Lee Ann Potter, the Director of Professional Learning and Outreach Initiatives at the Library of Congress.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many students today are \u003ca href=\"https://www.socialstudies.org/tps\">learning history through primary sources\u003c/a>. That shift, according to Potter, arose in the last two decades as museums and archival institutions began digitizing their collections, making them accessible to teachers and students online. At the Library of Congress, Potter and her team develop resources to help teachers use primary sources in their classrooms. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64657\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-64657\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An exit ticket for a fourth grade lesson on segregation and integration at Rockingham County Public Schools. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Rockingham County, Lyle and a team of teachers designed a fourth grade civil rights unit\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> using the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://c3teachers.org/inquiry-design-model/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Inquiry Design Model\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an instructional approach that encourages students to explore and investigate topics, rather than being passive recipients of information. In the civil rights unit, primary sources prompt that inquiry and exploration. That’s possible because, according to Lyle and her colleagues, primary sources can make \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62588/how-two-teachers-spark-a-love-of-history-with-their-wardrobes\">people and events from history\u003c/a> feel more real and more textured for students. They can also help kids learn to think critically about the information they’re consuming. That’s increasingly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/63390/ai-images-and-conspiracy-theories-are-driving-a-push-for-media-literacy-education\">necessary\u003c/a> as young people \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/63681/how-do-you-counter-misinformation-critical-thinking-is-step-one\">navigate a digital world\u003c/a> filled with misinformation and disinformation from both humans and artificial intelligence.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Building empathy with historical figures\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the first day of the civil rights unit last spring, Lyle didn’t tell her students all the details about the Moton student strike. That would come later. Looking at the photo of the students was a preview amid a broader introduction to racial segregation. After answering some initial questions, Lyle clicked through slides that included background information on the Jim Crow era and more black and white photos of segregated water fountains, buses and neighborhoods. With each slide, the fourth graders pointed out details and asked questions. As the images marched on, their frustration with the injustices of the past rose.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64640\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-64640\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-1020x1360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fourth graders in Miranda Lyle’s class sort through historical photos trying to identify which ones reflect segregation and which ones reflect integration. The activity was part of a lesson on the Civil Rights Movement in Virginia. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So far, are you guys feeling like ‘separate but equal’ is fair?” Lyle asked.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Nooo! No!” The students shouted before she even finished the question.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think that’s a lie,” said one student, Alex.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lyle said their reactions illustrated how photographs can help students empathize with people and events of the past. “Giving kids primary sources is one of the biggest signs of respect we can show the kids and the story,” she said. “I think it tells [them] we trust them. We know they can do it. And it gives them the opportunity to not just sit back and listen, but to become detectives, to uncover the story that might be deeper than what we were going to present them to begin with.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Examining agency and decision making\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At another fourth grade classroom in Rockingham County, students know teacher Carrie Lillard as a history buff who will occasionally bust out a rap from \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hamilton\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. On one wall of her room, a bulletin board says “History is storytelling” and features over a dozen cards highlighting notable people and events in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61095/how-a-virginia-educator-teaches-black-history-with-joy\">Virginia history\u003c/a>. By framing history as storytelling, Lillard said she wants students to see that the past is composed of people who made choices. And to be able to analyze the consequences – good, bad or complicated.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64658\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-64658\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bulletin board in Carrie Lillard’s fourth grade classroom at Mountain View Elementary School in Rockingham County, Virginia. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the historical characters the fourth graders learn the most about in the civil rights unit is \u003ca href=\"https://motonmuseum.org/learn/biography-barbara-rose-johns-powell/\">Barbara Johns\u003c/a>, the quiet 16-year-old\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> who led her \u003ca href=\"https://motonschoolstory.org/home/\">Moton High School classmates\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in the strike for better school facilities and resources. According to the \u003ca href=\"https://motonmuseum.org/\">Robert Russa Moton Museum\u003c/a>, Moton High School was constructed for about 200 students. But by the 1950s it held more than 450.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And that wasn’t the only challenge. The roofs of the buildings leaked. Students had to hold umbrellas over their heads on rainy days. The only heat was from a potbelly stove. Anyone who sat near it got too hot, and kids who sat far away shivered in their winter coats.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">None of these problems existed at the nearby high school attended by white students. But despite lobbying by parents, the school board refused to build a new school for Black students. When Johns and her classmates went on strike, they wrote to the NAACP for help\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and eventually sued the school board. Their case became one of five that made up Brown v. Board of Education.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“For a nine and ten year old, it’s hard to wrap your head around the idea that someone their age, or slightly older, or sometimes slightly younger, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62224/student-activists-go-to-summer-camp-to-learn-how-to-help-institute-a-green-new-deal-on-their-campuses\">can change the world\u003c/a> and with just one small decision. And that’s exactly what she did. So kids really grasp onto that,” said Lillard. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64647\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-64647\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/BarbaraJohns1-800x500.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white photo of a smiling woman shown from shoulders up. Grass, bushes and a house are in the background.\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/BarbaraJohns1-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/BarbaraJohns1-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/BarbaraJohns1-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/BarbaraJohns1.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Barbara Johns led classmates at Moton High School in a fight for better school facilities that they took all the way to the Supreme Court. She is shown here as an adult. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Robert Russa Moton Museum)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition to photos, the Rockingham County fourth graders learn about Johns’ motivations through another primary source: her diary. They read entries that Johns wrote later in life, recounting her time in high school. In one entry, she recalled missing the school bus one morning and trying to hitch a ride.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“One morning I was so busy rushing my brothers and sister down the hill to school that I forgot my own lunch and had to rush back up the hill to retrieve it. In the meantime, the bus arrived, picked them up and left me standing there by the roadside waiting to thumb a ride with whomever came by. About an hour later, I was still waiting when the white school bus drives by half empty on its way to Farmville High School. It would have to pass by my school to get to that school, and I couldn’t ride with them. Right then and there, I decided, indeed, something had to be done about this inequality – and I still didn’t know what.”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Emery, a fourth grader in Lillard’s class, reading Johns’ own words brought this history to life. “I liked how it was, in particular, how it was [the story of] a young girl,” Emery said. “Normally we learn about older people. But no, we learned about a 16-year-old, still a teenager.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although the Moton students and other Brown v. Board plaintiffs were successful, school segregation didn’t end immediately in Virginia. Local and state officials there actively defied the court ruling, even closing schools in several counties instead of integrating.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It took more protests\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and more court cases,\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for schools to actually integrate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lillard said her emphasis on viewing historical figures as people who had agency and made choices helps her students process this complex history. “I’m like, OK, so, you know, think about the same people who weren’t just automatically okay with the Civil War being over? They still harbor a lot of anger and resentment the same way, just because you’re forced to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62290/teaching-kids-the-right-way-to-say-im-sorry\">apologize to a friend\u003c/a> doesn’t automatically fix it,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Fostering critical thinking skills\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lillard and Lyle said that their former students still bring up Barbara Johns even when they leave fourth grade. For Lyle, that’s different from when she covered this topic without primary sources. “They knew her role. They knew her name. That was really it,” she said of earlier students. “I’m not even sure if they remember her story at all. Because they were passive in that process.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The goal of social studies isn’t just to memorize a list of names and dates. It’s also to help kids learn skills like analyzing information sources, using evidence to distinguish fact from opinion, and comparing and contrasting people, places and events.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> An example of that kind of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54470/why-content-knowledge-is-crucial-to-effective-critical-thinking\">critical thinking\u003c/a> occurred as Lyle’s students studied old photos of segregation. While examining a photo of a sign for a whites-only neighborhood, a student named Lily raised her hand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What makes me mad is that when the sign says, ‘We want white tenants in our white community,’ it has American flags on it,” Lily said. “And the Black people … are a part of America. So why do the white people say they’re usually more a part of America than the Black people?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lyle said that Lily’s observation and question impressed her: “I was kind of sitting back there like, ‘Oh my goodness, that’s brilliance.’ And that’s because she had the opportunity to just stare at a picture and stare long enough to see the little details that otherwise could be missed.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Potter, the Library of Congress educator, agreed that giving students opportunities to study primary sources can foster critical thinking. “The fact that you can go to the source where the information originated and get the context of the source and the rest of the story – if you can get kids interested and excited about that, then what we’re going to do is train a generation of young people to constantly question where information is coming from,” she said. “That is absolutely what primary sources can do for young people. And goodness knows we need more of that.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For teachers \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">new to primary sources\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Potter recommended picking one item or document that complements the secondary sources in the curriculum. Teachers can invite students to observe, reflect and ask questions about the primary source using a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/documents/Primary_Source_Analysis_Tool_LOC.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">one-page worksheet\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> developed by her team. The library’s website also contains \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/?fa=partof_type:primary+source+set\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">curated sets of primary sources\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> related to popular curriculum topics, such as \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/new-deal/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the New Deal\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/womens-suffrage/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">women’s suffrage\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/rosa-parks/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rosa Parks\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blog posts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> offer tips for how to use those resources.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC8008383152\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Welcome to MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Nimah, do you like to make pancakes?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I do! They’re one of my favorite foods.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Have you ever put peanut butter in your pancakes?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No. It sounds delicious, but Kara, why do you ask?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I recently learned that civil rights icon Rosa Parks put peanut butter in her pancake batter. Her recipe is handwritten on the back of a bank envelope.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lee Ann Potter: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And the recipe itself is terrific. It really is. If you need a good pancake recipe, add some peanut butter to it, and you will love them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s Lee Ann Potter. She’s the Director of Professional Learning and Outreach Initiatives at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, where the Rosa Parks papers are held.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Library of Congress is home to all sorts of documents from America’s past. They range from legal records\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to items that reflect the daily life of historical figures.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Rosa Parks collection includes a date book\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, photos of her with family,\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> birthday cards sent to her by admiring children\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and more. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lee Ann Potter: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s a series in her papers of her membership cards. And, you know, you see her membership card for AARP. And it’s like, never occurred to me that Rosa Parks might be a member of AARP. But her membership card is in her papers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Lee Ann and her team develop resources\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to help teachers use Library of Congress materials like these\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in their classrooms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lee Ann Potter:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is not a day that goes by when I don’t stumble on something in the collection that either catches my breath or makes me think, oh, who can I tell about this cool thing? And\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the former classroom teacher in me is always thinking about, what is the thing that might have captured student attention or gotten students to think differently or deeply about something?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The materials at the Library of Congress are what we call primary sources. Unlike textbooks, they are first-hand accounts of the past.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lee Ann Potter: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A primary source at its very core is the raw material of history. They can be newspapers. They can be photographs, maps, architectural drawings, sound recordings. They can be receipts. They can be memos. They can be scribbles. They can be doodles. They can be, truly, objects.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many students today are learning history through primary sources. That wasn’t always the norm.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In the past two decades, museums and archival institutions started digitizing their collections and putting them online.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lee Ann Potter: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think as soon as the materials became available and more and more of these organizations worked in partnership with educators to really start building some pedagogy and tools around using these materials as classroom tools, as exercises, as opportunities for students, that’s when everything started to change.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Primary sources can make people and events of the past feel more real and more textured for students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They can also help kids learn to think critically about the information they’re consuming. That’s increasingly necessary as young people navigate a digital world filled with misinformation and disinformation from both humans and artificial intelligence.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lee Ann Potter:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The fact that you can go to the source where the information originated and get the context of the source and the rest of the story – if you can get kids interested and excited about that, then what we’re going to do is, is train a generation of young people to constantly question where information is coming from and constantly wonder, what is the original source for this bit of information that someone is trying to convey to me? And I think that is absolutely what primary sources can do for young people. And and goodness knows we need more of that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this episode of MindShift, we’re going to hear how primary sources can bring history to life and deepen students’ understanding of the past.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’ll do that by visiting two schools in Virginia where students are learning about the Civil Rights Movement. Stay with us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> What happened after the Civil war?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Whole class:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Reconstruction!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To dig into the power of learning with primary sources, we’re visiting a fourth grade classroom in Rockingham County, Virginia.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So what are the words we’re gonna talk about today?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Whole class:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amendment, segregation, and pre-\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Prejudice.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amendment, segregation and prejudice. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Whole class:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Prejudice.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Those are the vocab words that students are learning in Miranda Lyle’s fourth grade class. The class is gathered on a beige rug at the front of the room.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You think you know what segregation means? What do you think it means?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is the start of a social studies unit about school desegregation. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">White and Black people were separated from each other based on race, right?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Next, Miranda projects a black and white photo of a group of teenagers onto the smart board.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’re going to read this picture. I want you to observe and see as many things as you can before we even start today. What do you, what do you notice? Why don’t you have a quiet thumb up. Keep looking at the screen. See if you can give me more than one idea.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The photograph is from 1951. It shows about 40 African-American teenagers standing outside looking at the camera. The boys wear collared shirts and in some cases ties. The girls wear dresses or long skirts and blouses. Many also wear long coats. In the background there are two buildings and a sidewalk flanked by mud and puddles.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Levi: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They look like they’re going to school.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They look like they’re going to school. What makes you think they’re going to school?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Levi: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because they have, like, uniforms on. Well, like they have clothes that look school-y.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They have clothes that look kind of professional, kind of ready for school, I like that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> These teenagers were students at R.R. Moton High School.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That was a segregated school in Farmville, Virginia – just over two hours southeast of where the fourth graders are sitting now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Miranda’s students don’t know it yet, but the young people they’re looking at were some of the plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education – the Supreme Court case that found school segregation unconstitutional 70 years ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Abigail.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abigail: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It looks like, like, in the background those are like schools. Like the schools that they were in, like those small buildings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like cabins.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It looks like schools, smaller buildings, you notice they kind of look like cabins. What makes you think cabins when you look at that?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like they’re made out of, like, wood and, like, it doesn’t really look like somewhere you’d want to live.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The buildings they’re discussing were temporary classrooms made with cheap tar paper siding. Some people in Farmville said they looked like chicken coops. County officials built them to deal with overcrowding at Moton High School.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The school was constructed for about 200 students. But by the 1950s it held more than 450.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And that wasn’t the only challenge. The roofs of the buildings leaked. Students had to hold umbrellas over their heads on rainy days.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The only heat was from a potbelly stove. Anyone who sat near it got too hot, and kids who sat far away shivered in their winter coats.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">None of these problems existed at the nearby high school attended by white students. But despite lobbying by parents, the school board refused to build a new school for Black students.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> To protest the disparities, a quiet 16-year-old named Barbara Johns led her classmates in a two-week\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> strike in 1951.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The students wrote to the NAACP for help\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and eventually sued the school board. Their case became one of five that made up Brown v. Board of Education.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Miranda’s fourth grade class will learn about all of that during this social studies unit. For now, this photo of the R. R. Moton students is just a teaser. Today is all about understanding the historical context of the Jim Crow era.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We’re going to keep going because today we’re going to be looking at a lot of different pictures and a lot of different primary sources like this one.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Miranda clicks through slides that include background info and more black and white photos depicting segregated water fountains, buses and neighborhoods. The fourth graders point out details and ask questions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As they study the photos, they’re getting a strong sense of what racial segregation looked like. And they are not happy about it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, so far, are you guys feeling like separate but equal …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alex: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Is really a lie.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Is fair?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Whole class: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No. No!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What are you feeling so far, Alex?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alex: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s like, I think that’s a lie.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You think that separate but equal is a lie.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Miranda says, these photographs help students empathize with people and events of the past.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Actually giving kids primary sources is one of the biggest signs of respect we can show the kids and the story. I think it tells us we trust them. We know they can do it. And it gives them the opportunity to not just sit back and listen, but to become detectives, to uncover the story that might be deeper than what we were going to present them to begin with.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s one student, Lily, responding to a photo of a sign for a whites-only neighborhood.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lily: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What makes me mad is that when the sign says ‘We want white people in our white community,’ it has American flags on it. And the Black people are a part of America. So why do the white people say they’re usually more a part of America than the Black people?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’re angry because those flags are for the United States, right? And you’re saying all races live in the United States. And at this point, remember, this is after that 15, 13, 14, the 15th amendment. So the Constitution says, yeah, these people are Americans, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Miranda and a team of teachers in Rockingham County designed this civil rights unit using inquiry-based teaching. That’s a method that encourages students to ask questions about the world and develop analytical thinking skills.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lily’s observation about the flag is an example of how primary sources can drive inquiry.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was really impressed. I was I was kind of, like, sitting back there like, oh my goodness, that’s brilliance. And that’s because she had the, you know, like, had the opportunity to just stare at a picture and stare long enough to see the little details that otherwise could be missed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Learning with primary sources has some great benefits, but it also comes with challenges.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the big ones is that documents from the past may use language we wouldn’t use today. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For instance, some of the photos that Miranda’s students were looking at included signs referring to Black people as “colored.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Which is a sign that we’re going to see in a lot of different primary sources we look at. But remember, we talked last week about that Maya Angelou quote in, um, growth mindset that said, ‘know better and do better.’ Remember how we talked about how that’s something that was on those signs, but are we going to use that term? No, because we know better than that, so we’re going to do better than that. So using terms like African-American, even saying things like Black people or brown people, that’s allowed. But we want to stray away from using words that aren’t used anymore.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even with the upfront discussion about appropriate language, these are fourth graders. They’re still learning. And things can come up that require gentle correction.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> … that the Blacks are not getting treated very nicely because they have like —\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Black people – we want to make sure we have that ‘people’ word at the end there. The Black people.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Mmhm.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Miranda tries to model the “know better, do better” idea herself, too. During their Civil War study, she had a slide that used the term “runaway slaves.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I was talking with my class one day. I was like, I don’t like how that sounds, because, you know, and they’re like, ‘Well, yeah, runaway sounds like it’s a bad thing.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She went online and looked for alternate terms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And one that I found that my kids have really attached to was freedom seekers, because we talked about how ‘runaway’ sounds like they’re doing something wrong and they’re not doing anything wrong. They’re trying to, you know, gives them just a different way of looking at the entire situation.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s not just language that can be hard in social studies. Topics like slavery and segregation reveal difficult truths about violence and injustice in American history. These topics have also become politicized in recent years.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to the news outlet Education Week, 17 states have passed bills or other policies that limit teachers’ ability to discuss racism in school.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That includes here in Virginia, where the governor issued an executive order that bans so-called “divisive concepts,” such as critical race theory – which is an academic and legal framework.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proponents of such policies often say that talking about racial injustice will make white children feel guilty. Miranda’s school is predominantly white\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and that hasn’t been her experience.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I had a student put on a study guide, ‘Which side did Virginia support?’ It was like ‘Virginia,’ he outlined in a heart, and then ‘supported the Confederacy’ and then had a broken heart. So they’re able to see, like, it’s not ‘you’re the problem’ or ‘Virginia today is the problem.’ They’re able to kind of see these, yeah, that was a big mistake people made for a long time. That was actually really detrimental. Why? Because kids, I think even our age, when we were children would have had the same, ‘That’s not fair’ had it been presented as, look at these primary sources. Look at these actual pictures.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Miranda also makes sure her students know that even though the R.R. Moton facilities were unequal, the students there were smart and had teachers who maintained high expectations for them. She doesn’t want her students to unconsciously equate bad conditions with people being downtrodden.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just because they had more supplies or they had better buildings or things like that, does that mean that the students weren’t as good?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Whole class: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Does it mean that the teachers weren’t as good?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Whole class: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No, no.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Remember we talked about at one of the schools we’re going to discuss, at R.R. Moton high school, one of the teachers would go on to work for NASA. Does that sound like somebody who’s going to be a good science teacher? Somebody who goes to NASA?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A good math teacher?\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. So we’re going to keep talking about these things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After this introduction to segregation, the fourth graders will learn about Barbara Johns, the 16-year-old I mentioned earlier. She led her classmates in a fight for equal education that they took all the way to the Supreme Court.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That story is the beating heart\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">of this unit.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carrie Lillard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the coolest things about Barbara Johns is that she was one, a student. She was not the same age as my own kids that I teach, but she was still a student who saw a problem in her school, which was in Virginia.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Carrie Lillard. She’s another fourth grade teacher in Rockingham County. She was on the same team as Miranda that created this unit about Barbara Johns and her classmates.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carrie Lillard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For a nine and ten year old, it’s hard to wrap your head around the idea that someone their age or slightly older, or sometimes slightly younger, can change the world and with just one small decision. And that’s exactly what she did. So kids really grasp onto that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One way the fourth graders learn about Barbara Johns is from another primary source: her diary.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lily: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One morning I was so busy rushing my brothers and sister down the hill to school that I forgot my own lunch and had to rush back up the hill to retrieve it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s one of Carrie’s students, Lily. She’s reading a diary entry that Barbara Johns wrote later in life recounting her time in high school. In it, Barbara recalls missing the school bus one morning and trying to hitch a ride.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lily: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About an hour later, I was still waiting when the white school bus drives by half empty on its way to Farmville High School. It would have to pass by my school to get to that school, and I couldn’t ride with them. Right then and there, I decided, indeed, something had to be done about this inequality.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s another student, Emery, recalling what Barbara did after the day she missed the bus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Emery: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She went up to her music teacher and said, ‘Hey, I have a problem’. And the teacher and she told her the problem. And the music teacher said, ‘If you have a problem, why don’t you fix it?’ And she gathered all these people in the auditorium and said, ‘If you want to be with me, you can be with me.’ And then she led a strike.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading the diary entries helped Emery connect with Barbara Johns and the Brown v. Board case on a personal level.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Emery: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I liked how it was, in particular, how it was a young girl. Normally when we, we learn about, like, older people. But no, we learned about a 16 year old. Still a teenager.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why did that stand out to you?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Emery: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because usually to teenagers, like these days in 2024, do some dumb stuff.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">laughs\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Barbara Johns wasn’t doing dumb stuff?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Emery: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No, she was doing brilliant stuff.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Rockingham County teachers told me that their former students still bring up Barbara Johns even when they leave fourth grade. Miranda says that’s different from when she covered this topic without primary sources.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They knew her role. They knew her name. That was really it. And if they held onto it, what I could say about it now. I’m not even sure if they remember her story at all. Because it was more, they were passive in that process.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The goal of social studies isn’t just to memorize a list of names and dates. It’s also to help kids learn skills like analyzing information sources, using evidence to distinguish fact from opinion, and comparing and contrasting people, places and events.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I heard examples of all of those skills as the fourth graders discussed photos and diary entries from Virginia’s history.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They’re not just sitting back and being passive listeners to a story. They’re seeing the actual actions and the consequences of those actions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Those critical thinking skills also help students wrestle with the complexity of the past. Like the fact that schools did not immediately integrate after Brown v. Board of Education.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Virginia, local and state officials actively defied the court ruling. They even closed schools in several counties instead of integrating.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It took more protests\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and more court cases,\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for schools to actually integrate in Virginia.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Carrie says the fourth graders learn about all of that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carrie Lillard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Approaching history from ‘we are we are a combination of all of the choices we make’ helps when we get to this point. I’m like, OK, so, you know, think about the same people who weren’t just automatically okay with the Civil War being over, they still harbor a lot of anger and resentment the same way, just because you’re forced to apologize to a friend doesn’t automatically fix it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For their final assignment, the fourth graders write a letter to Barbara Johns’ sister, Joan Johns Cobbs. She participated in the Moton student strike and is still alive today.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Leigha: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Mrs. Johns Cobbs. We have been learning about your sister Barbara Johns’ legacy in my history class and the impacts she has made in our lives. She was brave by doing what is right because she felt like she had to do something.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s Leigha, now a fifth grader. She’s reading the letter she wrote a year earlier in Carrie’s class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Leigha: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">… I’m going to defend girls because she inspired me to say ‘no’ when boys say girls can’t run or play sports, but they can. Barbara Johns has inspired me to stand up for what I believe in. Thank you for making the USA what it is today. Thanks for everything.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We just heard about an entire social studies unit centered around primary sources. But teachers don’t have to overhaul the whole curriculum to get started teaching this way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Lee Ann Potter’s team at the Library of Congress recommends picking one primary source that complements the secondary sources schools are using.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Teachers can invite students to observe, reflect and ask questions about the primary source.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Library of Congress’s website for teachers has a one-page worksheet to walk students through that observe-reflect-question cycle.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The website also has curated sets of primary sources related to popular curriculum topics.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And lots of tips for how to use those resources.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">History is rich with stories. Primary sources can unlock those stories by humanizing the people who came before us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When young people form connections with the past, it helps them understand our world today and determine the future they want to create.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Thank you to Miranda Lyle, Carrie Lillard and all of their fourth grade students. The students you heard in this episode were:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Levi, Abigail, Alex, Lily D., Lilly J., Emery and Leigha.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks also to Lee Ann Potter at the Library of Congress and Beau Dickenson at Rockingham County Public Schools.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you want to learn more about Barbara Johns, you can visit the Robert Russa Moton Museum in Farmville, Virginia\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The rest of the MindShift team includes Ki Sung, Marlena Jackson-Retondo and Jennifer Ng.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Seth Samuel is our sound designer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, and Holly Kernan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you love MindShift, and enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. We really appreciate it. You can also read more or subscribe to our newsletter at K-Q-E-D-dot-org-slash-MindShift.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks for listening!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To an outside observer, there’s nothing particularly special about the beige rug at the front of Miranda Lyle’s fourth grade classroom. But for Lyle, it’s the best spot in the room. It’s where students gather for morning meetings, read-alouds, and when Lyle wants to facilitate an intimate learning conversation instead of a lecture. Lyle compared the feeling on the rug to that of gathering around a campfire. “They’re all kind of sitting in a relaxed, comfortable place, there’s proximity, but there’s also, you know, just like a shared comfort level of having the rug,” she said. That makes it easier for her students to test new ideas, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62501/want-your-kids-to-be-happier-and-healthier-start-talking-with-them-about-uncomfortable-emotions\">express emotions\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/52590/why-debate-may-be-the-best-way-to-save-constructive-disagreement\">disagree civilly\u003c/a>. “It’s been a very intentional place for us every year to see each other as equals and see each other as people,” Lyle said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last spring, her students gathered on the rug as they kicked off a social studies unit on school desegregation in Virginia, where they live. Lyle projected vocabulary words, like segregation, prejudice and integration on the smartboard above their heads, and the class practiced saying them together. Then Lyle clicked forward to a \u003ca href=\"https://motonmuseum.org/learn/moton-school-story-digital-exhibit/\">black and white photo of a group of teenagers\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Lyle asked the fourth graders to study the image closely. “I want you to observe and see as many things as you can before we even start today,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The teenagers in the photo were students at R.R. Moton High School – a segregated school in Farmville, Virginia, just over two hours southeast of where the fourth graders attended school.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In 1951, the Moton students \u003ca href=\"https://motonmuseum.org/about/the-moton-story/\">went on strike to demand better school conditions\u003c/a>, which the white school board denied them. Their activism led to them becoming the only student plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education – the Supreme Court case that found school segregation unconstitutional \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/63692/5-takeaways-on-school-segregation-70-years-after-brown-v-board\">70 years ago\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead of reading about the Moton student strike in a textbook, fourth graders in Rockingham County Public Schools, where Lyle teaches, learn about it through photographs, diary entries and stories of the young people involved. These first-hand accounts of history are called primary sources. “A primary source at its very core is the raw material of history,” said Lee Ann Potter, the Director of Professional Learning and Outreach Initiatives at the Library of Congress.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many students today are \u003ca href=\"https://www.socialstudies.org/tps\">learning history through primary sources\u003c/a>. That shift, according to Potter, arose in the last two decades as museums and archival institutions began digitizing their collections, making them accessible to teachers and students online. At the Library of Congress, Potter and her team develop resources to help teachers use primary sources in their classrooms. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64657\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-64657\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/exit-ticket-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An exit ticket for a fourth grade lesson on segregation and integration at Rockingham County Public Schools. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Rockingham County, Lyle and a team of teachers designed a fourth grade civil rights unit\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> using the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://c3teachers.org/inquiry-design-model/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Inquiry Design Model\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an instructional approach that encourages students to explore and investigate topics, rather than being passive recipients of information. In the civil rights unit, primary sources prompt that inquiry and exploration. That’s possible because, according to Lyle and her colleagues, primary sources can make \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62588/how-two-teachers-spark-a-love-of-history-with-their-wardrobes\">people and events from history\u003c/a> feel more real and more textured for students. They can also help kids learn to think critically about the information they’re consuming. That’s increasingly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/63390/ai-images-and-conspiracy-theories-are-driving-a-push-for-media-literacy-education\">necessary\u003c/a> as young people \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/63681/how-do-you-counter-misinformation-critical-thinking-is-step-one\">navigate a digital world\u003c/a> filled with misinformation and disinformation from both humans and artificial intelligence.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Building empathy with historical figures\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the first day of the civil rights unit last spring, Lyle didn’t tell her students all the details about the Moton student strike. That would come later. Looking at the photo of the students was a preview amid a broader introduction to racial segregation. After answering some initial questions, Lyle clicked through slides that included background information on the Jim Crow era and more black and white photos of segregated water fountains, buses and neighborhoods. With each slide, the fourth graders pointed out details and asked questions. As the images marched on, their frustration with the injustices of the past rose.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64640\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-64640\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-1020x1360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/asa-alex-best-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fourth graders in Miranda Lyle’s class sort through historical photos trying to identify which ones reflect segregation and which ones reflect integration. The activity was part of a lesson on the Civil Rights Movement in Virginia. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So far, are you guys feeling like ‘separate but equal’ is fair?” Lyle asked.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Nooo! No!” The students shouted before she even finished the question.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think that’s a lie,” said one student, Alex.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lyle said their reactions illustrated how photographs can help students empathize with people and events of the past. “Giving kids primary sources is one of the biggest signs of respect we can show the kids and the story,” she said. “I think it tells [them] we trust them. We know they can do it. And it gives them the opportunity to not just sit back and listen, but to become detectives, to uncover the story that might be deeper than what we were going to present them to begin with.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Examining agency and decision making\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At another fourth grade classroom in Rockingham County, students know teacher Carrie Lillard as a history buff who will occasionally bust out a rap from \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hamilton\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. On one wall of her room, a bulletin board says “History is storytelling” and features over a dozen cards highlighting notable people and events in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61095/how-a-virginia-educator-teaches-black-history-with-joy\">Virginia history\u003c/a>. By framing history as storytelling, Lillard said she wants students to see that the past is composed of people who made choices. And to be able to analyze the consequences – good, bad or complicated.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64658\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-64658\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/historystorytelling-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bulletin board in Carrie Lillard’s fourth grade classroom at Mountain View Elementary School in Rockingham County, Virginia. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the historical characters the fourth graders learn the most about in the civil rights unit is \u003ca href=\"https://motonmuseum.org/learn/biography-barbara-rose-johns-powell/\">Barbara Johns\u003c/a>, the quiet 16-year-old\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> who led her \u003ca href=\"https://motonschoolstory.org/home/\">Moton High School classmates\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in the strike for better school facilities and resources. According to the \u003ca href=\"https://motonmuseum.org/\">Robert Russa Moton Museum\u003c/a>, Moton High School was constructed for about 200 students. But by the 1950s it held more than 450.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And that wasn’t the only challenge. The roofs of the buildings leaked. Students had to hold umbrellas over their heads on rainy days. The only heat was from a potbelly stove. Anyone who sat near it got too hot, and kids who sat far away shivered in their winter coats.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">None of these problems existed at the nearby high school attended by white students. But despite lobbying by parents, the school board refused to build a new school for Black students. When Johns and her classmates went on strike, they wrote to the NAACP for help\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and eventually sued the school board. Their case became one of five that made up Brown v. Board of Education.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“For a nine and ten year old, it’s hard to wrap your head around the idea that someone their age, or slightly older, or sometimes slightly younger, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62224/student-activists-go-to-summer-camp-to-learn-how-to-help-institute-a-green-new-deal-on-their-campuses\">can change the world\u003c/a> and with just one small decision. And that’s exactly what she did. So kids really grasp onto that,” said Lillard. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64647\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-64647\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/BarbaraJohns1-800x500.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white photo of a smiling woman shown from shoulders up. Grass, bushes and a house are in the background.\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/BarbaraJohns1-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/BarbaraJohns1-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/BarbaraJohns1-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/09/BarbaraJohns1.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Barbara Johns led classmates at Moton High School in a fight for better school facilities that they took all the way to the Supreme Court. She is shown here as an adult. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Robert Russa Moton Museum)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition to photos, the Rockingham County fourth graders learn about Johns’ motivations through another primary source: her diary. They read entries that Johns wrote later in life, recounting her time in high school. In one entry, she recalled missing the school bus one morning and trying to hitch a ride.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“One morning I was so busy rushing my brothers and sister down the hill to school that I forgot my own lunch and had to rush back up the hill to retrieve it. In the meantime, the bus arrived, picked them up and left me standing there by the roadside waiting to thumb a ride with whomever came by. About an hour later, I was still waiting when the white school bus drives by half empty on its way to Farmville High School. It would have to pass by my school to get to that school, and I couldn’t ride with them. Right then and there, I decided, indeed, something had to be done about this inequality – and I still didn’t know what.”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Emery, a fourth grader in Lillard’s class, reading Johns’ own words brought this history to life. “I liked how it was, in particular, how it was [the story of] a young girl,” Emery said. “Normally we learn about older people. But no, we learned about a 16-year-old, still a teenager.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although the Moton students and other Brown v. Board plaintiffs were successful, school segregation didn’t end immediately in Virginia. Local and state officials there actively defied the court ruling, even closing schools in several counties instead of integrating.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It took more protests\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and more court cases,\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for schools to actually integrate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lillard said her emphasis on viewing historical figures as people who had agency and made choices helps her students process this complex history. “I’m like, OK, so, you know, think about the same people who weren’t just automatically okay with the Civil War being over? They still harbor a lot of anger and resentment the same way, just because you’re forced to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62290/teaching-kids-the-right-way-to-say-im-sorry\">apologize to a friend\u003c/a> doesn’t automatically fix it,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Fostering critical thinking skills\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lillard and Lyle said that their former students still bring up Barbara Johns even when they leave fourth grade. For Lyle, that’s different from when she covered this topic without primary sources. “They knew her role. They knew her name. That was really it,” she said of earlier students. “I’m not even sure if they remember her story at all. Because they were passive in that process.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The goal of social studies isn’t just to memorize a list of names and dates. It’s also to help kids learn skills like analyzing information sources, using evidence to distinguish fact from opinion, and comparing and contrasting people, places and events.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> An example of that kind of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54470/why-content-knowledge-is-crucial-to-effective-critical-thinking\">critical thinking\u003c/a> occurred as Lyle’s students studied old photos of segregation. While examining a photo of a sign for a whites-only neighborhood, a student named Lily raised her hand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What makes me mad is that when the sign says, ‘We want white tenants in our white community,’ it has American flags on it,” Lily said. “And the Black people … are a part of America. So why do the white people say they’re usually more a part of America than the Black people?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lyle said that Lily’s observation and question impressed her: “I was kind of sitting back there like, ‘Oh my goodness, that’s brilliance.’ And that’s because she had the opportunity to just stare at a picture and stare long enough to see the little details that otherwise could be missed.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Potter, the Library of Congress educator, agreed that giving students opportunities to study primary sources can foster critical thinking. “The fact that you can go to the source where the information originated and get the context of the source and the rest of the story – if you can get kids interested and excited about that, then what we’re going to do is train a generation of young people to constantly question where information is coming from,” she said. “That is absolutely what primary sources can do for young people. And goodness knows we need more of that.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For teachers \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">new to primary sources\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Potter recommended picking one item or document that complements the secondary sources in the curriculum. Teachers can invite students to observe, reflect and ask questions about the primary source using a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/documents/Primary_Source_Analysis_Tool_LOC.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">one-page worksheet\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> developed by her team. The library’s website also contains \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/?fa=partof_type:primary+source+set\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">curated sets of primary sources\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> related to popular curriculum topics, such as \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/new-deal/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the New Deal\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/womens-suffrage/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">women’s suffrage\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/rosa-parks/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rosa Parks\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blog posts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> offer tips for how to use those resources.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC8008383152\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Welcome to MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Nimah, do you like to make pancakes?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I do! They’re one of my favorite foods.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Have you ever put peanut butter in your pancakes?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No. It sounds delicious, but Kara, why do you ask?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I recently learned that civil rights icon Rosa Parks put peanut butter in her pancake batter. Her recipe is handwritten on the back of a bank envelope.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lee Ann Potter: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And the recipe itself is terrific. It really is. If you need a good pancake recipe, add some peanut butter to it, and you will love them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s Lee Ann Potter. She’s the Director of Professional Learning and Outreach Initiatives at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, where the Rosa Parks papers are held.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Library of Congress is home to all sorts of documents from America’s past. They range from legal records\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to items that reflect the daily life of historical figures.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Rosa Parks collection includes a date book\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, photos of her with family,\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> birthday cards sent to her by admiring children\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and more. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lee Ann Potter: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s a series in her papers of her membership cards. And, you know, you see her membership card for AARP. And it’s like, never occurred to me that Rosa Parks might be a member of AARP. But her membership card is in her papers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Lee Ann and her team develop resources\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to help teachers use Library of Congress materials like these\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in their classrooms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lee Ann Potter:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is not a day that goes by when I don’t stumble on something in the collection that either catches my breath or makes me think, oh, who can I tell about this cool thing? And\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the former classroom teacher in me is always thinking about, what is the thing that might have captured student attention or gotten students to think differently or deeply about something?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The materials at the Library of Congress are what we call primary sources. Unlike textbooks, they are first-hand accounts of the past.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lee Ann Potter: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A primary source at its very core is the raw material of history. They can be newspapers. They can be photographs, maps, architectural drawings, sound recordings. They can be receipts. They can be memos. They can be scribbles. They can be doodles. They can be, truly, objects.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many students today are learning history through primary sources. That wasn’t always the norm.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In the past two decades, museums and archival institutions started digitizing their collections and putting them online.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lee Ann Potter: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think as soon as the materials became available and more and more of these organizations worked in partnership with educators to really start building some pedagogy and tools around using these materials as classroom tools, as exercises, as opportunities for students, that’s when everything started to change.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Primary sources can make people and events of the past feel more real and more textured for students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They can also help kids learn to think critically about the information they’re consuming. That’s increasingly necessary as young people navigate a digital world filled with misinformation and disinformation from both humans and artificial intelligence.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lee Ann Potter:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The fact that you can go to the source where the information originated and get the context of the source and the rest of the story – if you can get kids interested and excited about that, then what we’re going to do is, is train a generation of young people to constantly question where information is coming from and constantly wonder, what is the original source for this bit of information that someone is trying to convey to me? And I think that is absolutely what primary sources can do for young people. And and goodness knows we need more of that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this episode of MindShift, we’re going to hear how primary sources can bring history to life and deepen students’ understanding of the past.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’ll do that by visiting two schools in Virginia where students are learning about the Civil Rights Movement. Stay with us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> What happened after the Civil war?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Whole class:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Reconstruction!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To dig into the power of learning with primary sources, we’re visiting a fourth grade classroom in Rockingham County, Virginia.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So what are the words we’re gonna talk about today?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Whole class:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amendment, segregation, and pre-\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Prejudice.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amendment, segregation and prejudice. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Whole class:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Prejudice.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Those are the vocab words that students are learning in Miranda Lyle’s fourth grade class. The class is gathered on a beige rug at the front of the room.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You think you know what segregation means? What do you think it means?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is the start of a social studies unit about school desegregation. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">White and Black people were separated from each other based on race, right?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Next, Miranda projects a black and white photo of a group of teenagers onto the smart board.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’re going to read this picture. I want you to observe and see as many things as you can before we even start today. What do you, what do you notice? Why don’t you have a quiet thumb up. Keep looking at the screen. See if you can give me more than one idea.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The photograph is from 1951. It shows about 40 African-American teenagers standing outside looking at the camera. The boys wear collared shirts and in some cases ties. The girls wear dresses or long skirts and blouses. Many also wear long coats. In the background there are two buildings and a sidewalk flanked by mud and puddles.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Levi: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They look like they’re going to school.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They look like they’re going to school. What makes you think they’re going to school?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Levi: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because they have, like, uniforms on. Well, like they have clothes that look school-y.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They have clothes that look kind of professional, kind of ready for school, I like that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> These teenagers were students at R.R. Moton High School.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That was a segregated school in Farmville, Virginia – just over two hours southeast of where the fourth graders are sitting now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Miranda’s students don’t know it yet, but the young people they’re looking at were some of the plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education – the Supreme Court case that found school segregation unconstitutional 70 years ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Abigail.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abigail: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It looks like, like, in the background those are like schools. Like the schools that they were in, like those small buildings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like cabins.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It looks like schools, smaller buildings, you notice they kind of look like cabins. What makes you think cabins when you look at that?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like they’re made out of, like, wood and, like, it doesn’t really look like somewhere you’d want to live.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The buildings they’re discussing were temporary classrooms made with cheap tar paper siding. Some people in Farmville said they looked like chicken coops. County officials built them to deal with overcrowding at Moton High School.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The school was constructed for about 200 students. But by the 1950s it held more than 450.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And that wasn’t the only challenge. The roofs of the buildings leaked. Students had to hold umbrellas over their heads on rainy days.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The only heat was from a potbelly stove. Anyone who sat near it got too hot, and kids who sat far away shivered in their winter coats.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">None of these problems existed at the nearby high school attended by white students. But despite lobbying by parents, the school board refused to build a new school for Black students.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> To protest the disparities, a quiet 16-year-old named Barbara Johns led her classmates in a two-week\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> strike in 1951.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The students wrote to the NAACP for help\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and eventually sued the school board. Their case became one of five that made up Brown v. Board of Education.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Miranda’s fourth grade class will learn about all of that during this social studies unit. For now, this photo of the R. R. Moton students is just a teaser. Today is all about understanding the historical context of the Jim Crow era.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We’re going to keep going because today we’re going to be looking at a lot of different pictures and a lot of different primary sources like this one.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Miranda clicks through slides that include background info and more black and white photos depicting segregated water fountains, buses and neighborhoods. The fourth graders point out details and ask questions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As they study the photos, they’re getting a strong sense of what racial segregation looked like. And they are not happy about it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, so far, are you guys feeling like separate but equal …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alex: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Is really a lie.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Is fair?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Whole class: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No. No!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What are you feeling so far, Alex?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alex: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s like, I think that’s a lie.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You think that separate but equal is a lie.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Miranda says, these photographs help students empathize with people and events of the past.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Actually giving kids primary sources is one of the biggest signs of respect we can show the kids and the story. I think it tells us we trust them. We know they can do it. And it gives them the opportunity to not just sit back and listen, but to become detectives, to uncover the story that might be deeper than what we were going to present them to begin with.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s one student, Lily, responding to a photo of a sign for a whites-only neighborhood.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lily: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What makes me mad is that when the sign says ‘We want white people in our white community,’ it has American flags on it. And the Black people are a part of America. So why do the white people say they’re usually more a part of America than the Black people?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’re angry because those flags are for the United States, right? And you’re saying all races live in the United States. And at this point, remember, this is after that 15, 13, 14, the 15th amendment. So the Constitution says, yeah, these people are Americans, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Miranda and a team of teachers in Rockingham County designed this civil rights unit using inquiry-based teaching. That’s a method that encourages students to ask questions about the world and develop analytical thinking skills.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lily’s observation about the flag is an example of how primary sources can drive inquiry.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was really impressed. I was I was kind of, like, sitting back there like, oh my goodness, that’s brilliance. And that’s because she had the, you know, like, had the opportunity to just stare at a picture and stare long enough to see the little details that otherwise could be missed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Learning with primary sources has some great benefits, but it also comes with challenges.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the big ones is that documents from the past may use language we wouldn’t use today. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For instance, some of the photos that Miranda’s students were looking at included signs referring to Black people as “colored.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Which is a sign that we’re going to see in a lot of different primary sources we look at. But remember, we talked last week about that Maya Angelou quote in, um, growth mindset that said, ‘know better and do better.’ Remember how we talked about how that’s something that was on those signs, but are we going to use that term? No, because we know better than that, so we’re going to do better than that. So using terms like African-American, even saying things like Black people or brown people, that’s allowed. But we want to stray away from using words that aren’t used anymore.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even with the upfront discussion about appropriate language, these are fourth graders. They’re still learning. And things can come up that require gentle correction.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> … that the Blacks are not getting treated very nicely because they have like —\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Black people – we want to make sure we have that ‘people’ word at the end there. The Black people.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Mmhm.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Miranda tries to model the “know better, do better” idea herself, too. During their Civil War study, she had a slide that used the term “runaway slaves.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I was talking with my class one day. I was like, I don’t like how that sounds, because, you know, and they’re like, ‘Well, yeah, runaway sounds like it’s a bad thing.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She went online and looked for alternate terms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And one that I found that my kids have really attached to was freedom seekers, because we talked about how ‘runaway’ sounds like they’re doing something wrong and they’re not doing anything wrong. They’re trying to, you know, gives them just a different way of looking at the entire situation.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s not just language that can be hard in social studies. Topics like slavery and segregation reveal difficult truths about violence and injustice in American history. These topics have also become politicized in recent years.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to the news outlet Education Week, 17 states have passed bills or other policies that limit teachers’ ability to discuss racism in school.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That includes here in Virginia, where the governor issued an executive order that bans so-called “divisive concepts,” such as critical race theory – which is an academic and legal framework.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proponents of such policies often say that talking about racial injustice will make white children feel guilty. Miranda’s school is predominantly white\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and that hasn’t been her experience.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I had a student put on a study guide, ‘Which side did Virginia support?’ It was like ‘Virginia,’ he outlined in a heart, and then ‘supported the Confederacy’ and then had a broken heart. So they’re able to see, like, it’s not ‘you’re the problem’ or ‘Virginia today is the problem.’ They’re able to kind of see these, yeah, that was a big mistake people made for a long time. That was actually really detrimental. Why? Because kids, I think even our age, when we were children would have had the same, ‘That’s not fair’ had it been presented as, look at these primary sources. Look at these actual pictures.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Miranda also makes sure her students know that even though the R.R. Moton facilities were unequal, the students there were smart and had teachers who maintained high expectations for them. She doesn’t want her students to unconsciously equate bad conditions with people being downtrodden.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just because they had more supplies or they had better buildings or things like that, does that mean that the students weren’t as good?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Whole class: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Does it mean that the teachers weren’t as good?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Whole class: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No, no.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Remember we talked about at one of the schools we’re going to discuss, at R.R. Moton high school, one of the teachers would go on to work for NASA. Does that sound like somebody who’s going to be a good science teacher? Somebody who goes to NASA?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A good math teacher?\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. So we’re going to keep talking about these things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After this introduction to segregation, the fourth graders will learn about Barbara Johns, the 16-year-old I mentioned earlier. She led her classmates in a fight for equal education that they took all the way to the Supreme Court.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That story is the beating heart\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">of this unit.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carrie Lillard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the coolest things about Barbara Johns is that she was one, a student. She was not the same age as my own kids that I teach, but she was still a student who saw a problem in her school, which was in Virginia.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Carrie Lillard. She’s another fourth grade teacher in Rockingham County. She was on the same team as Miranda that created this unit about Barbara Johns and her classmates.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carrie Lillard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For a nine and ten year old, it’s hard to wrap your head around the idea that someone their age or slightly older, or sometimes slightly younger, can change the world and with just one small decision. And that’s exactly what she did. So kids really grasp onto that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One way the fourth graders learn about Barbara Johns is from another primary source: her diary.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lily: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One morning I was so busy rushing my brothers and sister down the hill to school that I forgot my own lunch and had to rush back up the hill to retrieve it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s one of Carrie’s students, Lily. She’s reading a diary entry that Barbara Johns wrote later in life recounting her time in high school. In it, Barbara recalls missing the school bus one morning and trying to hitch a ride.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lily: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About an hour later, I was still waiting when the white school bus drives by half empty on its way to Farmville High School. It would have to pass by my school to get to that school, and I couldn’t ride with them. Right then and there, I decided, indeed, something had to be done about this inequality.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s another student, Emery, recalling what Barbara did after the day she missed the bus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Emery: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She went up to her music teacher and said, ‘Hey, I have a problem’. And the teacher and she told her the problem. And the music teacher said, ‘If you have a problem, why don’t you fix it?’ And she gathered all these people in the auditorium and said, ‘If you want to be with me, you can be with me.’ And then she led a strike.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading the diary entries helped Emery connect with Barbara Johns and the Brown v. Board case on a personal level.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Emery: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I liked how it was, in particular, how it was a young girl. Normally when we, we learn about, like, older people. But no, we learned about a 16 year old. Still a teenager.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why did that stand out to you?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Emery: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because usually to teenagers, like these days in 2024, do some dumb stuff.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">laughs\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Barbara Johns wasn’t doing dumb stuff?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Emery: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No, she was doing brilliant stuff.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Rockingham County teachers told me that their former students still bring up Barbara Johns even when they leave fourth grade. Miranda says that’s different from when she covered this topic without primary sources.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They knew her role. They knew her name. That was really it. And if they held onto it, what I could say about it now. I’m not even sure if they remember her story at all. Because it was more, they were passive in that process.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The goal of social studies isn’t just to memorize a list of names and dates. It’s also to help kids learn skills like analyzing information sources, using evidence to distinguish fact from opinion, and comparing and contrasting people, places and events.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I heard examples of all of those skills as the fourth graders discussed photos and diary entries from Virginia’s history.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Miranda Lyle: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They’re not just sitting back and being passive listeners to a story. They’re seeing the actual actions and the consequences of those actions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Those critical thinking skills also help students wrestle with the complexity of the past. Like the fact that schools did not immediately integrate after Brown v. Board of Education.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Virginia, local and state officials actively defied the court ruling. They even closed schools in several counties instead of integrating.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It took more protests\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and more court cases,\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for schools to actually integrate in Virginia.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Carrie says the fourth graders learn about all of that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carrie Lillard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Approaching history from ‘we are we are a combination of all of the choices we make’ helps when we get to this point. I’m like, OK, so, you know, think about the same people who weren’t just automatically okay with the Civil War being over, they still harbor a lot of anger and resentment the same way, just because you’re forced to apologize to a friend doesn’t automatically fix it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For their final assignment, the fourth graders write a letter to Barbara Johns’ sister, Joan Johns Cobbs. She participated in the Moton student strike and is still alive today.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Leigha: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Mrs. Johns Cobbs. We have been learning about your sister Barbara Johns’ legacy in my history class and the impacts she has made in our lives. She was brave by doing what is right because she felt like she had to do something.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s Leigha, now a fifth grader. She’s reading the letter she wrote a year earlier in Carrie’s class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Leigha: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">… I’m going to defend girls because she inspired me to say ‘no’ when boys say girls can’t run or play sports, but they can. Barbara Johns has inspired me to stand up for what I believe in. Thank you for making the USA what it is today. Thanks for everything.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We just heard about an entire social studies unit centered around primary sources. But teachers don’t have to overhaul the whole curriculum to get started teaching this way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Lee Ann Potter’s team at the Library of Congress recommends picking one primary source that complements the secondary sources schools are using.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Teachers can invite students to observe, reflect and ask questions about the primary source.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Library of Congress’s website for teachers has a one-page worksheet to walk students through that observe-reflect-question cycle.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The website also has curated sets of primary sources related to popular curriculum topics.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And lots of tips for how to use those resources.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">History is rich with stories. Primary sources can unlock those stories by humanizing the people who came before us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When young people form connections with the past, it helps them understand our world today and determine the future they want to create.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Thank you to Miranda Lyle, Carrie Lillard and all of their fourth grade students. The students you heard in this episode were:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Levi, Abigail, Alex, Lily D., Lilly J., Emery and Leigha.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks also to Lee Ann Potter at the Library of Congress and Beau Dickenson at Rockingham County Public Schools.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you want to learn more about Barbara Johns, you can visit the Robert Russa Moton Museum in Farmville, Virginia\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The rest of the MindShift team includes Ki Sung, Marlena Jackson-Retondo and Jennifer Ng.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Seth Samuel is our sound designer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, and Holly Kernan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you love MindShift, and enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. We really appreciate it. You can also read more or subscribe to our newsletter at K-Q-E-D-dot-org-slash-MindShift.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks for listening!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"slug": "how-to-get-kids-thinking-instead-of-mimicking-in-math-class",
"title": "How to Get Kids Thinking Instead of Mimicking in Math Class",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In many math classes, students are ready to bolt as soon as the bell rings. Not in \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/staci_durnin\">Staci Durnin\u003c/a>’s room. “A lot of times I hear kids say, ‘that was two periods of math already?’ And you know, when I hear that, it just makes me so happy,” said Durnin, who teaches sixth grade math at Mineola Middle School in New York. “Now I’m almost running out of time because, when the bell rings, they don’t want to leave the boards.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It wasn’t always that way. After 29 years of teaching, Durnin last year adopted a new instructional approach called “thinking classrooms.” The model was developed by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfu.ca/education/faculty-profiles/pliljedahl.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Simon Fraser University professor\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and researcher \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/pgliljedahl\">Peter Liljedahl\u003c/a> and laid out in his book, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://us.corwin.com/books/building-thinking-classrooms-268862\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Liljedahl said that his work is “a reaction to an observed and documented reality that the majority of students spend the majority of their time in math classrooms not thinking.” What are they doing instead? Mimicking.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://ascd.org/el/articles/you-do-we-do-i-do-a-strategy-for-productive-struggle\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I do, we do, you do”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> approach is a common teaching strategy in math classrooms. In it, a teacher demonstrates how to solve a certain type of problem, the class practices as a whole, and students practice independently. But Liljedahl said, “There’s nothing about that environment that prepares students for all of a sudden me saying, ‘Well, here, let me show you this property. Now figure out what this is,’ because all of their habits are around mimicking. And this is a problem because if students are not thinking, they’re not learning.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The thinking classrooms model shakes up the norms of math class to create \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edutopia.org/article/independent-critical-thinking-math/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a different culture\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> around problem-solving. It draws on 15 years of Liljedahl’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275953429_Building_Thinking_Classrooms_Conditions_for_Problem_Solving\">research\u003c/a> about how teaching practices affect different outcomes, such as, how quickly students start a math task, their eagerness to try a problem, how much they persist in a task, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">and other behaviors related to engagement\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The model involves students working in small, randomly chosen groups; solving problems standing up at whiteboards; building on small bits of knowledge as they go; and consolidating their discoveries as a class after working through problems. As teachers of all subjects have struggled to get students engaged in the years after pandemic shutdowns, many in math have turned to these routines as a solution.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/staci_durnin/status/1793378687976636754\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Durnin, it’s been transformative. “I’ve always looked forward to going to work, but even more so now because I know that there’s so much going on,” she said. “It’s just a lot of up out of the seats talking, collaborating. The kids are walking around the room, they’re working and they’re having fun.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Visibly random groups\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Education leaders often tout collaboration as a “21st century skill.” But in the daily reality of classrooms, group work doesn’t always go well. Liljedahl has \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter-Liljedahl/publication/275953522_The_Affordances_of_Using_Visibly_Random_Groups_in_a_Mathematics_Classroom/links/554abf040cf29752ee7c332b/The-Affordances-of-Using-Visibly-Random-Groups-in-a-Mathematics-Classroom.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">studied how to improve it\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, starting with a basic question: How are groups formed?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He describes two common approaches to creating student groups: teacher-assigned groups or student-selected groups. Teachers might prefer to choose groups based on academic or social goals, while students often like getting to work with their friends. It turns out, however, that neither approach is great for math engagement. Liljedahl found through interviews and surveys that regardless of who picks the groups, students go into their groups expecting to play a passive role. What works better for engagement are random groups, which break students’ expectations for how the group will act.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64546\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-64546\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sixth graders convert fractions and decimals into percents with support from teacher Heather Hazen at Mineola Middle School in New York on March 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But there’s a catch – students have to witness the groups being randomly assigned. They’ve had too many years of experience trying to decipher the logic behind teacher-assigned groups. They need to see the random assignment to believe it. Liljedahl calls this approach “visibly random grouping.” He suggests creating visibly random groups by having students pull from a deck of playing cards, but teachers who follow this approach have created their own methods, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Melissa, Texas, ninth–grade math teacher Amber McMellan chose UNO cards to serve the purpose. She fans out the cards, and students pick one as they enter her room. Desks are clustered in threes with a jumbo UNO card at each to signal where each group will sit. McMellan said that the first year she tried visibly random groups, she wasn’t consistent with it, and students pushed back. The second year, she made it a daily routine, and students got on board. “Now my kids don’t even think twice about getting a card from me on the way into my classroom,” she said. “If I’m not standing over by the entryway with the cards out, they’ll walk up to me and just stand waiting for me to put the cards out. It’s pretty awesome.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Durnin’s classroom in New York, students pick groups via popsicle sticks with names written on them. According to Jena, one of Durnin’s students, at first it was disappointing not getting to team up with friends every day. “But now we know it’s a lot more helpful to be with other people,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Asked why it’s more helpful, Jena’s peers chimed in:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Becoming friends with other people,” said Suraj.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Probably you can communicate with others better,” said Sami.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Different ways to help you learn,” said Roel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Maybe some people are better at the skill than you, so they can help you find strategies,” added Isabella.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Across more than a dozen of Durnin’s students in two different periods, a chorus emerged: The sixth graders liked working in random groups because they liked \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62436/how-listening-to-students-stories-can-improve-math-class\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">learning about each other\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and helping each other learn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s no surprise to Liljedahl. “In thinking classrooms one of the things that we started to see emerge very naturally was empathy appearing among students,” he said. “What we noticed was that real collaboration doesn’t actually begin until students care as much about their partners’ learning as their own learning. And when empathy is unlocked, so many things work better in a classroom.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Vertical whiteboards\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the thinking classrooms model, when students work in small groups, they don’t write in notebooks or on worksheets. Instead, they tackle math tasks on whiteboards or other \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ri1vNQBk6I\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">vertical learning\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> surfaces. This means they’re \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58051/how-movement-and-gestures-can-improve-student-learning\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">up out of their seats\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> – another thing kids tend to like – and that their work is visible to each other and their teachers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64545\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-64545 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2048\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-768x615.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-2048x1639.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-1920x1536.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students from two small groups discuss their problem solving strategies during math class at Mineola Middle School in New York on March 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This also makes it easier to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60104/how-to-structure-academic-math-conversations-to-support-english-learners\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">differentiate instruction\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. McMellan, the Texas teacher, said that while students are at the whiteboards, she moves around the room, listening to how students explain their problem-solving strategies and watching for students who are hanging back from their group. “That right there tells me that they’re not confident in what the group is doing,” she said. “So I’ll try to get in there and ask questions, and try to get them involved a little more like, you know, hey, why don’t you write while (the others are) talking?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When groups are already connecting and collaborating, it’s powerful. “They get excited when they figure stuff out, and they literally celebrate,” McMellan said. “I’m more energized as a teacher because they’re energized.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Thin slicing\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last March, Durnin started class with a quick launch question: “You have 75% battery life on your phone or your iPad, and somebody else has one half of their battery life left. Who has more battery life? And how do you know?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students scribbled individually on their erasable table tops. After a few minutes discussing the solution as a whole class, they split into their random groups.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This was their first time working with percentages in math class, but there was no big lecture at the start. Liljedahl recommends that teachers only pre-teach a topic for three to five minutes, max. In his research, he found that students do a lot more thinking when they get started on math problems quickly. When students start the lesson in a passive mode, it’s hard to switch into a more active mental state.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64542\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-64542\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-800x1040.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"325\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-800x1040.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-1020x1326.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-160x208.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-768x998.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-1181x1536.jpg 1181w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-1575x2048.jpg 1575w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-1920x2496.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-scaled.jpg 1969w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sixth grader Tyler converts fractions and decimals into percents at Mineola Middle School in New York on March 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Durnin’s class, each group copied a table with three columns onto the whiteboard. They needed to convert fractions and decimals into percentages, and vice versa. Some rows in the chart were already filled out, giving them examples. They worked row-by-row, with one student using the marker to write their peers’ ideas before switching roles. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The task was what Liljedahl calls a “thin slicing” task. Thin slicing is when students move through a series of problems that get slightly harder each time. Students start with something they know how to do, and the next problem has a very small variation. Instead of getting all the information up front, students \u003ca href=\"https://www.hmhco.com/blog/just-in-time-vs-just-in-case-scaffolding-how-to-foster-productive-perseverance\">build their knowledge as they go\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Using the rows that were already completed as guides, students noticed patterns – like how changing a fraction’s denominator can help with conversions. “Now I understand that any number – if you turn the denominator into 100, it’s easy to get a percent,” said Jena as her group finished their chart. “Because then it’s just the top number basically. It’s out of 100.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Consolidation\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61581/how-a-debate-over-the-science-of-math-could-reignite-the-math-wars\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">math wars\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> possibly \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61712/do-math-drills-help-children-learn\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">making a resurgence\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, some educators who favor explicit instruction have \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://educationhq.com/news/dont-buy-into-building-thinking-classrooms-in-maths-its-a-fad-school-leader-166705/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">criticized\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the thinking classrooms model as new packaging on old ideas of inquiry-based learning. But while the practices may \u003ca href=\"https://bhcommunitywatch.com/2022/11/01/thinking-classroom-or-sinking-classroom/\">not always be \u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">implemented with fidelity\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, explicit instruction does play a role in a thinking classroom.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64544\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-64544 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Math teacher Staci Durnin discusses one group’s problem solving strategies during the “consolidation” portion of class at Mineola Middle School in New York on March 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While students work at the boards, Durnin and her co-teacher — Heather Hazen, a special education teacher — visited the groups. They asked questions and gave students vocabulary or other information to extend their learning.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then the whole class gathered together for what’s called “consolidation.” This is when Durnin helps everyone bring together the pieces of what they discovered into a bigger picture understanding. Durnin picked one group’s board to use as a model and highlighted the things they got right and mistakes that everyone could learn from. Instead of front loading concepts and vocabulary, she used this conversation to connect the key ideas to what students had discovered themselves.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64543\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-64543\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One group’s board work after being marked up by teacher Staci Durnin during the “consolidation” portion of class at Mineola Middle School in New York on March 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Liljedahl said consolidation matters because “meaning making is messy,” but “meaning made can be really neat.” In other words, when students are at the whiteboards they’re in the thick of figuring out how math works. That’s really valuable. But it’s also disorganized. Consolidation helps students organize and formalize the chaos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After consolidation, or for homework, students do something called “check your understanding” – individual practice with options to choose between difficulty levels of “mild,” “medium” or “spicy.” Liljedahl’s book also includes recommendations for how to approach assessments and grading in a thinking classrooms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Resetting the culture\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Liljedahl’s research, when teachers tried to apply the thinking classrooms routines by starting with the regular curriculum, students resisted. Even if students don’t like math class, they have certain expectations for it. Liljedahl found that it helps to learn the new norms through what he calls non-curricular highly engaging tasks. These are math problems and puzzles that are not linked to a learning objective. They can introduce a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/63556/high-school-math-can-be-playful-too\">playful energy\u003c/a> to the classroom.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What that does is it makes math fun, and it makes math feel achievable and enjoyable. And it can be very disarming for students,” Liljedahl said. He recommends that teachers spend three to five lessons on non-curricular highly engaging tasks at the start of the year to prime students’ brains for active learning. Durnin said she also found them useful coming back from holiday breaks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/staci_durnin/status/1785740630758510593\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s a great way to enculture [students] into a new way of being,” Liljedahl said. “They might perceive that mathematics is different. They might perceive that you as a teacher is different, and that this is a safe space to engage in thought and collaboration. So we’ve just created sort of an aside — a safe space where students can be different and become different.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the usual culture of math class, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62436/how-listening-to-students-stories-can-improve-math-class\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">where hierarchy is pervasive\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, it’s common to hear kids say they’re “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54389/3-ways-to-shape-math-into-a-positive-experience\">not a math person\u003c/a>.” But seven months into their thinking classrooms experience, Durnin’s students had no problem identifying their strengths in math. Here’s what a few of them said:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I’m good at factor puzzles and proportions and dividing fractions because I feel like I worked on those the most. So I’m really confident with those.” – Alexis\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think I’m good at math ’cause I can teach people like this certain strategy, or if they’re having trouble with the question. But sometimes I do struggle, like everybody else.” – Thayla\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I just love problem solving. If I really want to do something, I’ll just focus my mind on only that and then block out everything else I’m working on.” – Chloe\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the school year wrapped up in June, Durnin said that her classes showed a deeper understanding of sixth grade math than students did in her many years teaching with more traditional methods.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Durnin also said it took a lot of work to for her to adapt her lesson plans but that the change in student engagement was worth it. Along the way, she sought help from a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/buildingthinkingclassrooms\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Facebook group\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> where educators ask questions and share stories about thinking classroom practices every day. The group has over 66,000 members.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I don’t think this is one of those teacher trends or a fad,” said McMellan, the Texas teacher. “It’s just good practices. And I think that’s what we’re all trying to find.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC8519622712\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: What does percent mean?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Welcome to MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It would be an understatement to say that teachers have a lot on their plates right now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> From book bans to chronic absenteeism to phone distractions, the list of challenges is long. And a lot of teachers are feeling the burnout.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Which is why I was surprised when I started hearing a different refrain from math teachers. They were telling me that they’re more excited to go to work than ever – because their students are more excited than ever.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s just a lot of up out of the seats talking, collaborating. The kids are walking around the room, they’re working and they’re having fun. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Amber McMellan:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it’s really powerful to, to, to be able to walk around and, and just hear the conversations that the students have. It’s it it’s like food for the teacher heart, you know. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These teachers are talking about a new approach to math called “thinking classrooms.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In this model, students work standing up at whiteboards in different small groups every day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s centered around a core idea: getting kids to \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">think\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> instead of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">mimic\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in math class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Liljedahl: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What teaching math so often has become is let me show you how to do it, and then you do it. Right. It’s sort of this ‘I do, we do, you do.’ And you’re going to learn to mimic these sorts of routines and practices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s Peter Liljedahl, the researcher who created the thinking classrooms model. Peter says that problem solving is “what we do when we don’t know what to do.” And we don’t usually let kids hang out in that space.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Liljedahl: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s been an agenda around teaching math through problem solving and teaching problem solving for 35 years now. But in order to do that, to really embrace that, to, if we really want to have students learning through problem solving, then they have to get stuck, and they have to think, and they have to get unstuck. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Peter’s book, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, was published in 2020. It couldn’t have come at a better time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Getting kids excited about math has never been easy. And COVID didn’t help. Even now, a few years after distance learning, teachers of all subjects are struggling to get students engaged.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So what makes thinking classrooms different? In this episode, we’ll visit a Long Island school where you’ll hear some of the key practices in action. And we’ll examine how these practices get kids thinking instead of mimicking in math. That’s all after the break. Stay with us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">OK. If you could take out a marker.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Staci Durnin’s grade six math classroom at Mineola Middle School in New York. Today students are learning about percentages. They start with a question that puts percentages in a familiar context.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, so you have 75% battery life on your phone or your iPad, and somebody else has one half of their battery life left. Who has more battery life? And how do you know? Can you show the work on your tabletop?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Staci and her co-teacher read \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Building Thinking Classrooms \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">over the summer. They decided to try out the practices from the book in the new school year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Luke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Um, half of 100 is 50, making 75% more.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why did you choose to use this percent?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Luke:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, because, for your phone, the max percent is 100%.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So half of 100% is 50%? And clearly, this is greater than this. Good. Anybody want to explain it differently? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This opening problem only takes a few minutes. There’s no big lecture. Instead, students are going to try working with percentages right away. In his research, Peter Liljedahl has found that students do a lot more thinking when they get started on math problems quickly.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s because when students start the lesson in a passive mode, it’s very hard to switch into a more active mental state.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Peter recommends that teachers only pre-teach a topic for three to five minutes, max. Then students work on math problems standing up at whiteboards, in groups of 3. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All right. So we’re going to hear our groups right now. Go find your board space and get working.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In Staci Durnin’s classroom, groups are selected using popsicle sticks with students’ names written on them. A student draws the names.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jack. Vanessa. Nick. … \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Luke, Aleena and Akira.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This way of picking groups is called \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">visibly random groups\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. It’s one of the key practices of thinking classrooms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Kara, let’s break that phrase down. Random groups means that students don’t pick their best friends to work with. It also means teachers don’t group students based on perceived ability.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Peter’s research, he found that when teachers pick the groups or allow students to choose who to work with, the majority of students go into the groups expecting to play a certain role. And that role is usually passive.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But when groups are randomly assigned and change every day, students don’t get locked into roles. Different perspectives get shared, and more students offer their ideas for problem solving.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As for the “visibly” part of visibly random groups – that means that students actually \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">see\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the groups being selected. It turns out that unless it happens in front of them, students don’t believe the groups are truly random.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Heather Hazen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All right, everyone hear their groups? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I got the marker. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Get some calculators. One marker per group. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In their groups, the students copy a chart with 3 columns onto the whiteboards. They’re working to convert fractions and decimals into percentages, and vice versa.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, first, it’s 30 over 100.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Roel:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 30.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Because it’s a percent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Roel:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 100.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then you do — \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nicole: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Three over —\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Equals, there should be —\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Roel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Three tenths?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nicole:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Three tenths.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, three tenths.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Remember, this is the first time these students are seeing percentages in math class. The way they’re learning is what Peter Liljedahl calls “thin slicing.” Thin slicing is when students move through a series of problems that get slightly harder each time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So they start with something they know how to do, and the next problem has a very small variation. Instead of getting all the information up front, students build their knowledge as they go.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Here’s one student, Roel, explaining how his group converted a fraction into a percentage.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Roel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So it’s 6/8, right? That’s six quarters out of eight quarters. That means it’s actually like at 100%, but it’s just a different type of fraction which can get you there. And if you do six divided by eight, which it will get, it will get, it will give you 75%.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You can hear that he’s starting to make sense of the different types of conversions, even if he doesn’t have all the vocabulary nailed down yet.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Roel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So now this is your basic ratio.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Thin slicing allows students to notice patterns and make meaning from math instead of memorizing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And by working in small groups, students can easily share what they’re noticing to help each other learn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I spoke with Jena – who was in the same group as Roel – she felt she had a good grasp on the lesson.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Had you learned anything about percents before today? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Roel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well yeah —\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like I got a gist, but now I really understand it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What do you understand now that you didn’t before? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, now I understand that, like any number, if you turn the, uh, the denominator into 100, it’s easy to get a percent. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why does that help? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because it, because then it’s just the top number basically. It’s out of 100. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students are encouraged to share ideas between groups. That’s easy to do because their work is visible on the whiteboards.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Seeing the whiteboards also helps the teacher. Peter Liljedahl points out that when students are working in notebooks at their desks, it’s pretty hard to see their thinking.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Liljedahl: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But if all of a sudden all the groups are vertical working on whiteboards, me as a teacher, standing in the middle of the room, I can see exactly where I need to be. And so it’s easier for me to differentiate now, because I can see that that group needs an extension, and that group needs a hint, and that those two groups actually just need to talk to each other, because one group has the knowledge and the other group needs it. And so differentiation becomes easier because everything is made visible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, just because students are immersed in problem solving in a thinking classroom, it doesn’t mean there’s no teacher talk.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While students work at the boards, Staci Durnin and her co-teacher visit the groups. They ask questions and give students vocabulary or other information to extend their learning.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Heather Hazen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So what was that divisible by?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then, after board work, the whole class gathers together for what’s called \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">consolidation\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Why is this an easy way to get to a hundred? I like your thinking. Go ahead, finish it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is when Staci helps everyone bring together the pieces of what they discovered into a bigger picture understanding.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Staci picks one group’s board to use as a model – for both the things they got right and mistakes that everyone can learn from.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So let’s talk about some patterns that you noticed here. Let’s look at this board work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Who wants to start? Tell me about these two fractions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They’re multiplied by ten so they’re equivalent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Good.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When I asked Peter Liljedahl why consolidation matters, he said that meaning making is messy, but meaning made is neat.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In other words, when students are at the whiteboards they’re in the thick of figuring out how math works. That’s really valuable. But it’s also disorganized.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b> \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Consolidation\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> helps students organize the chaos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, you want to see a common mistake? If this wasn’t here, and this was the fraction 5/20, I often see this: oh, it’s 5%. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Percent has “cent” in and cent means 100.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Ooh.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> After consolidation, and for homework, students do something called Check Your Understanding, or CYUs. Instead of everyone doing the same worksheet, students choose between easy, medium and extreme challenges. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s another way to differentiate their learning. And it develops student agency.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All of these things we heard – students standing up at whiteboards, visibly random groups, thin slicing and consolidation – they’re totally different from how Staci Durnin used to teach.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So if I taught this lesson two years ago, it would have been me up at the front of the room, showing the kids how to set up the proportion. How do you change this fraction into a percent? Let’s get the denominator into 100. Now, with the thin slicing, they’ve discovered all of that, right? They discovered that ‘Oh the denominator has to be 100 because percent is out of 100.’ And ‘Oh this fraction is equivalent to this. So this must also equal the same percent.’ So it’s getting them to discover, then you consolidate and talk about the important pieces to the lesson. And then they practice on their own.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not only has Staci’s teaching method changed, but the way her students are showing up has changed. In most math classes I remember taking, my classmates and I were just … silent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Crickets sound effect\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Part of the engagement comes from being up out of their seats. Movement can help generate problem-solving ideas and improve memory consolidation. And kids just like it more.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What’s your favorite thing about this class? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Luke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The stand up activities you get to do every single day. Because I don’t like classrooms where all we do is sit down and look up at the board. I like classrooms where we’re involved in something and we get to do something. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Staci’s students also told me they really like working in small groups at the whiteboards.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, I think it helps me more, actually, because there’s other people who might explain it better for me and I can understand it better.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Hafsa: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Also you’re working with different people, so then they might have different methods that you didn’t already learn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Working in small, random groups feeds students’ social needs, which we know is really important for the adolescent brain. But Kara, in season eight, we talked about the needs of introverted students. How does the thinking classrooms model work for them? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I talked to one student who said the noise at the whiteboards can be a lot. And depending on who’s in her group, sometimes she feels less comfortable sharing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucia: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes I don’t like working up at the boards because, like, it shows everybody what you’re doing. But like, you sometimes want to keep in your own answers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of her classmates had a different take, though. She said that asking a question in front of the whole class can be scary.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I like small groups because at the boards, because it’s not like, as, not really embarrassing, but kind of, like when you get something wrong and like, your other partners can help you.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Small, random groups can lower the social risk for making mistakes. That’s something that Staci’s co-teacher, Heather Hazen, noticed, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Heather Hazen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So actually, when we started this the first few weeks of school, I said to Staci, like, this is so weird, but the kids are doing better.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Heather is a special education teacher. She’s in the classroom with Staci to help out with students who need extra support.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Heather Hazen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And what I find for most of the kids – most, not all of them, but most of them – it gives them a chance to sit back and look, and in the small group, they ask questions to their peers more often than they would, I guess, in class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Heather also said the thinking classrooms model allows different mathematical strengths to be seen.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Heather Hazen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If we’re asking how many squares you see in this larger grid of squares, sometimes our struggling students are the ones that are doing best with that task. Or they may notice the pattern differently, or see it differently, or come up with another method that somebody else wasn’t thinking about. So they have chances to shine.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I visited Staci and Heather’s classroom in March. By then, students were very accustomed to random groups and working at the whiteboards. But learning those norms takes work at the start of the year. That’s done through what Peter Liljedahl calls \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">non-curricular highly engaging tasks.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> These are math problems and puzzles that are not linked to a learning objective. They can introduce a playful energy to the classroom.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Liljedahl:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And what that does is it makes math fun, and it makes math feel achievable and enjoyable. And it can be very disarming for students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In Peter’s research, when teachers tried to apply the thinking classrooms practices by starting with the regular curriculum…the students weren’t having it. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Liljedahl: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, students come into the, into a math classroom already sort of believing what math is and who they are in relation to mathematics. And then they enact those, those, those beliefs in the way they engage with a new teacher and new content.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Highly engaging non-curricular tasks essentially jolt students out of their expectations for math class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Liljedahl: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a great way to enculture them into a new way of being. They’ve re-constructed an identity for themselves. They have maybe re- rebuilt a relationship with mathematics. They might perceive that mathematics is different. They might perceive that you as a teacher is different, and that this is a safe space to, to engage in, in thought and collaboration. So we’ve just created sort of an aside – a safe space where students can be different and become different. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This investment ends up paying off for the rest of the year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Liljedahl:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When they’re not actively engaged in the learning in that way, everything is difficult. But when they are thinking anything is possible, like we’re tearing through Pythagoras in 55 minutes. Solving one- and two-step equations has never taken more than 45 minutes. Right. Factoring quadratics, which is a unit that can take anywhere from three to five days, we do it in 60 minutes.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Staci Durnin, the evidence that thinking classrooms works is not how quickly her students get through the math, but that her students don’t want to stop.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of times I hear kids say, that was two periods of math already? And you know, when I hear that, it just makes me so happy. So I know, you know, in the past, the double period, even for me, it’s like I have another period of this, you know, this is tough. Now I’m almost running out of time because, when the bell rings, they don’t want to leave the boards.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Nimah, I’ve never heard as many kids talking about the real substance of math as I did in just a few periods at Mineola Middle School. Not even when I was in the math club at my own middle school.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s pretty remarkable. But you know what we DO hear a lot? Kids and grownups who say, “I’m not a math person.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The idea of people being inherently good or bad at math is often baked into the culture of school. But when I asked Staci’s students about their strengths in math, they answered easily.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, I’m good at, like, factor puzzles and, like, proportions and dividing fractions because I feel like I worked on those the most. So I’m really confident with those. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Thayla: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think I’m good at math ’cause, like, I can teach people like this certain strategy, or like, if they’re having trouble with with the question. But sometimes I do struggle with, like everybody else. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chloe: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I just, like, love problem solving. It’s just like if I really want to, like, do something, I’ll just like focus my mind on only that and then block out everything else I’m working on. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I checked in with Staci again as her school year wrapped up. She told me that her students this year showed a deeper understanding of grade six math than students did in her many years teaching with more traditional methods.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When math class focuses on getting students to think instead of mimic, their confidence and their problem solving skills grow.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And what that adds up to is a very bright future.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Big thanks to Staci Durnin and Heather Hazen at Mineola Middle School in New York. The students you heard in this episode were:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Roel, Jena, Nicole, Luke, Sami, Lucia, Alexis, Olivia, Hafsa, Thayla and Chloe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Peter Liljedahl’s book is called \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks also to Amber McMellan and Julie Frizzell.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The rest of the MindShift team includes Ki Sung, Marlena Jackson-Retondo and Jennifer Ng.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Seth Samuel is our sound designer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldaña , Maha Sanad and Holly Kernan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you love MindShift, and enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. We really appreciate it. You can also read more or subscribe to our newsletter at K-Q-E-D-dot-org-slash-MindShift.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks for listening!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In many math classes, students are ready to bolt as soon as the bell rings. Not in \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/staci_durnin\">Staci Durnin\u003c/a>’s room. “A lot of times I hear kids say, ‘that was two periods of math already?’ And you know, when I hear that, it just makes me so happy,” said Durnin, who teaches sixth grade math at Mineola Middle School in New York. “Now I’m almost running out of time because, when the bell rings, they don’t want to leave the boards.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It wasn’t always that way. After 29 years of teaching, Durnin last year adopted a new instructional approach called “thinking classrooms.” The model was developed by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfu.ca/education/faculty-profiles/pliljedahl.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Simon Fraser University professor\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and researcher \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/pgliljedahl\">Peter Liljedahl\u003c/a> and laid out in his book, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://us.corwin.com/books/building-thinking-classrooms-268862\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Liljedahl said that his work is “a reaction to an observed and documented reality that the majority of students spend the majority of their time in math classrooms not thinking.” What are they doing instead? Mimicking.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://ascd.org/el/articles/you-do-we-do-i-do-a-strategy-for-productive-struggle\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I do, we do, you do”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> approach is a common teaching strategy in math classrooms. In it, a teacher demonstrates how to solve a certain type of problem, the class practices as a whole, and students practice independently. But Liljedahl said, “There’s nothing about that environment that prepares students for all of a sudden me saying, ‘Well, here, let me show you this property. Now figure out what this is,’ because all of their habits are around mimicking. And this is a problem because if students are not thinking, they’re not learning.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The thinking classrooms model shakes up the norms of math class to create \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edutopia.org/article/independent-critical-thinking-math/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a different culture\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> around problem-solving. It draws on 15 years of Liljedahl’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275953429_Building_Thinking_Classrooms_Conditions_for_Problem_Solving\">research\u003c/a> about how teaching practices affect different outcomes, such as, how quickly students start a math task, their eagerness to try a problem, how much they persist in a task, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">and other behaviors related to engagement\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The model involves students working in small, randomly chosen groups; solving problems standing up at whiteboards; building on small bits of knowledge as they go; and consolidating their discoveries as a class after working through problems. As teachers of all subjects have struggled to get students engaged in the years after pandemic shutdowns, many in math have turned to these routines as a solution.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Durnin, it’s been transformative. “I’ve always looked forward to going to work, but even more so now because I know that there’s so much going on,” she said. “It’s just a lot of up out of the seats talking, collaborating. The kids are walking around the room, they’re working and they’re having fun.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Visibly random groups\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Education leaders often tout collaboration as a “21st century skill.” But in the daily reality of classrooms, group work doesn’t always go well. Liljedahl has \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter-Liljedahl/publication/275953522_The_Affordances_of_Using_Visibly_Random_Groups_in_a_Mathematics_Classroom/links/554abf040cf29752ee7c332b/The-Affordances-of-Using-Visibly-Random-Groups-in-a-Mathematics-Classroom.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">studied how to improve it\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, starting with a basic question: How are groups formed?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He describes two common approaches to creating student groups: teacher-assigned groups or student-selected groups. Teachers might prefer to choose groups based on academic or social goals, while students often like getting to work with their friends. It turns out, however, that neither approach is great for math engagement. Liljedahl found through interviews and surveys that regardless of who picks the groups, students go into their groups expecting to play a passive role. What works better for engagement are random groups, which break students’ expectations for how the group will act.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64546\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-64546\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc5-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sixth graders convert fractions and decimals into percents with support from teacher Heather Hazen at Mineola Middle School in New York on March 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But there’s a catch – students have to witness the groups being randomly assigned. They’ve had too many years of experience trying to decipher the logic behind teacher-assigned groups. They need to see the random assignment to believe it. Liljedahl calls this approach “visibly random grouping.” He suggests creating visibly random groups by having students pull from a deck of playing cards, but teachers who follow this approach have created their own methods, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Melissa, Texas, ninth–grade math teacher Amber McMellan chose UNO cards to serve the purpose. She fans out the cards, and students pick one as they enter her room. Desks are clustered in threes with a jumbo UNO card at each to signal where each group will sit. McMellan said that the first year she tried visibly random groups, she wasn’t consistent with it, and students pushed back. The second year, she made it a daily routine, and students got on board. “Now my kids don’t even think twice about getting a card from me on the way into my classroom,” she said. “If I’m not standing over by the entryway with the cards out, they’ll walk up to me and just stand waiting for me to put the cards out. It’s pretty awesome.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Durnin’s classroom in New York, students pick groups via popsicle sticks with names written on them. According to Jena, one of Durnin’s students, at first it was disappointing not getting to team up with friends every day. “But now we know it’s a lot more helpful to be with other people,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Asked why it’s more helpful, Jena’s peers chimed in:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Becoming friends with other people,” said Suraj.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Probably you can communicate with others better,” said Sami.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Different ways to help you learn,” said Roel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Maybe some people are better at the skill than you, so they can help you find strategies,” added Isabella.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Across more than a dozen of Durnin’s students in two different periods, a chorus emerged: The sixth graders liked working in random groups because they liked \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62436/how-listening-to-students-stories-can-improve-math-class\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">learning about each other\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and helping each other learn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s no surprise to Liljedahl. “In thinking classrooms one of the things that we started to see emerge very naturally was empathy appearing among students,” he said. “What we noticed was that real collaboration doesn’t actually begin until students care as much about their partners’ learning as their own learning. And when empathy is unlocked, so many things work better in a classroom.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Vertical whiteboards\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the thinking classrooms model, when students work in small groups, they don’t write in notebooks or on worksheets. Instead, they tackle math tasks on whiteboards or other \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ri1vNQBk6I\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">vertical learning\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> surfaces. This means they’re \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58051/how-movement-and-gestures-can-improve-student-learning\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">up out of their seats\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> – another thing kids tend to like – and that their work is visible to each other and their teachers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64545\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-64545 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2048\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-768x615.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-2048x1639.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc4-1920x1536.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students from two small groups discuss their problem solving strategies during math class at Mineola Middle School in New York on March 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This also makes it easier to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60104/how-to-structure-academic-math-conversations-to-support-english-learners\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">differentiate instruction\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. McMellan, the Texas teacher, said that while students are at the whiteboards, she moves around the room, listening to how students explain their problem-solving strategies and watching for students who are hanging back from their group. “That right there tells me that they’re not confident in what the group is doing,” she said. “So I’ll try to get in there and ask questions, and try to get them involved a little more like, you know, hey, why don’t you write while (the others are) talking?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When groups are already connecting and collaborating, it’s powerful. “They get excited when they figure stuff out, and they literally celebrate,” McMellan said. “I’m more energized as a teacher because they’re energized.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Thin slicing\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last March, Durnin started class with a quick launch question: “You have 75% battery life on your phone or your iPad, and somebody else has one half of their battery life left. Who has more battery life? And how do you know?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students scribbled individually on their erasable table tops. After a few minutes discussing the solution as a whole class, they split into their random groups.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This was their first time working with percentages in math class, but there was no big lecture at the start. Liljedahl recommends that teachers only pre-teach a topic for three to five minutes, max. In his research, he found that students do a lot more thinking when they get started on math problems quickly. When students start the lesson in a passive mode, it’s hard to switch into a more active mental state.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64542\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-64542\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-800x1040.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"325\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-800x1040.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-1020x1326.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-160x208.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-768x998.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-1181x1536.jpg 1181w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-1575x2048.jpg 1575w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-1920x2496.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc1-scaled.jpg 1969w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sixth grader Tyler converts fractions and decimals into percents at Mineola Middle School in New York on March 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Durnin’s class, each group copied a table with three columns onto the whiteboard. They needed to convert fractions and decimals into percentages, and vice versa. Some rows in the chart were already filled out, giving them examples. They worked row-by-row, with one student using the marker to write their peers’ ideas before switching roles. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The task was what Liljedahl calls a “thin slicing” task. Thin slicing is when students move through a series of problems that get slightly harder each time. Students start with something they know how to do, and the next problem has a very small variation. Instead of getting all the information up front, students \u003ca href=\"https://www.hmhco.com/blog/just-in-time-vs-just-in-case-scaffolding-how-to-foster-productive-perseverance\">build their knowledge as they go\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Using the rows that were already completed as guides, students noticed patterns – like how changing a fraction’s denominator can help with conversions. “Now I understand that any number – if you turn the denominator into 100, it’s easy to get a percent,” said Jena as her group finished their chart. “Because then it’s just the top number basically. It’s out of 100.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Consolidation\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61581/how-a-debate-over-the-science-of-math-could-reignite-the-math-wars\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">math wars\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> possibly \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61712/do-math-drills-help-children-learn\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">making a resurgence\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, some educators who favor explicit instruction have \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://educationhq.com/news/dont-buy-into-building-thinking-classrooms-in-maths-its-a-fad-school-leader-166705/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">criticized\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the thinking classrooms model as new packaging on old ideas of inquiry-based learning. But while the practices may \u003ca href=\"https://bhcommunitywatch.com/2022/11/01/thinking-classroom-or-sinking-classroom/\">not always be \u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">implemented with fidelity\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, explicit instruction does play a role in a thinking classroom.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64544\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-64544 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc3-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Math teacher Staci Durnin discusses one group’s problem solving strategies during the “consolidation” portion of class at Mineola Middle School in New York on March 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While students work at the boards, Durnin and her co-teacher — Heather Hazen, a special education teacher — visited the groups. They asked questions and gave students vocabulary or other information to extend their learning.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then the whole class gathered together for what’s called “consolidation.” This is when Durnin helps everyone bring together the pieces of what they discovered into a bigger picture understanding. Durnin picked one group’s board to use as a model and highlighted the things they got right and mistakes that everyone could learn from. Instead of front loading concepts and vocabulary, she used this conversation to connect the key ideas to what students had discovered themselves.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64543\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-64543\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/08/btc2-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One group’s board work after being marked up by teacher Staci Durnin during the “consolidation” portion of class at Mineola Middle School in New York on March 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Liljedahl said consolidation matters because “meaning making is messy,” but “meaning made can be really neat.” In other words, when students are at the whiteboards they’re in the thick of figuring out how math works. That’s really valuable. But it’s also disorganized. Consolidation helps students organize and formalize the chaos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After consolidation, or for homework, students do something called “check your understanding” – individual practice with options to choose between difficulty levels of “mild,” “medium” or “spicy.” Liljedahl’s book also includes recommendations for how to approach assessments and grading in a thinking classrooms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Resetting the culture\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Liljedahl’s research, when teachers tried to apply the thinking classrooms routines by starting with the regular curriculum, students resisted. Even if students don’t like math class, they have certain expectations for it. Liljedahl found that it helps to learn the new norms through what he calls non-curricular highly engaging tasks. These are math problems and puzzles that are not linked to a learning objective. They can introduce a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/63556/high-school-math-can-be-playful-too\">playful energy\u003c/a> to the classroom.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What that does is it makes math fun, and it makes math feel achievable and enjoyable. And it can be very disarming for students,” Liljedahl said. He recommends that teachers spend three to five lessons on non-curricular highly engaging tasks at the start of the year to prime students’ brains for active learning. Durnin said she also found them useful coming back from holiday breaks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s a great way to enculture [students] into a new way of being,” Liljedahl said. “They might perceive that mathematics is different. They might perceive that you as a teacher is different, and that this is a safe space to engage in thought and collaboration. So we’ve just created sort of an aside — a safe space where students can be different and become different.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the usual culture of math class, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62436/how-listening-to-students-stories-can-improve-math-class\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">where hierarchy is pervasive\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, it’s common to hear kids say they’re “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54389/3-ways-to-shape-math-into-a-positive-experience\">not a math person\u003c/a>.” But seven months into their thinking classrooms experience, Durnin’s students had no problem identifying their strengths in math. Here’s what a few of them said:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I’m good at factor puzzles and proportions and dividing fractions because I feel like I worked on those the most. So I’m really confident with those.” – Alexis\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think I’m good at math ’cause I can teach people like this certain strategy, or if they’re having trouble with the question. But sometimes I do struggle, like everybody else.” – Thayla\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I just love problem solving. If I really want to do something, I’ll just focus my mind on only that and then block out everything else I’m working on.” – Chloe\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the school year wrapped up in June, Durnin said that her classes showed a deeper understanding of sixth grade math than students did in her many years teaching with more traditional methods.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Durnin also said it took a lot of work to for her to adapt her lesson plans but that the change in student engagement was worth it. Along the way, she sought help from a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/buildingthinkingclassrooms\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Facebook group\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> where educators ask questions and share stories about thinking classroom practices every day. The group has over 66,000 members.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I don’t think this is one of those teacher trends or a fad,” said McMellan, the Texas teacher. “It’s just good practices. And I think that’s what we’re all trying to find.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC8519622712\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: What does percent mean?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Welcome to MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It would be an understatement to say that teachers have a lot on their plates right now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> From book bans to chronic absenteeism to phone distractions, the list of challenges is long. And a lot of teachers are feeling the burnout.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Which is why I was surprised when I started hearing a different refrain from math teachers. They were telling me that they’re more excited to go to work than ever – because their students are more excited than ever.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s just a lot of up out of the seats talking, collaborating. The kids are walking around the room, they’re working and they’re having fun. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Amber McMellan:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it’s really powerful to, to, to be able to walk around and, and just hear the conversations that the students have. It’s it it’s like food for the teacher heart, you know. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These teachers are talking about a new approach to math called “thinking classrooms.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In this model, students work standing up at whiteboards in different small groups every day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s centered around a core idea: getting kids to \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">think\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> instead of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">mimic\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in math class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Liljedahl: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What teaching math so often has become is let me show you how to do it, and then you do it. Right. It’s sort of this ‘I do, we do, you do.’ And you’re going to learn to mimic these sorts of routines and practices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s Peter Liljedahl, the researcher who created the thinking classrooms model. Peter says that problem solving is “what we do when we don’t know what to do.” And we don’t usually let kids hang out in that space.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Liljedahl: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s been an agenda around teaching math through problem solving and teaching problem solving for 35 years now. But in order to do that, to really embrace that, to, if we really want to have students learning through problem solving, then they have to get stuck, and they have to think, and they have to get unstuck. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Peter’s book, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, was published in 2020. It couldn’t have come at a better time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Getting kids excited about math has never been easy. And COVID didn’t help. Even now, a few years after distance learning, teachers of all subjects are struggling to get students engaged.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So what makes thinking classrooms different? In this episode, we’ll visit a Long Island school where you’ll hear some of the key practices in action. And we’ll examine how these practices get kids thinking instead of mimicking in math. That’s all after the break. Stay with us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">OK. If you could take out a marker.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Staci Durnin’s grade six math classroom at Mineola Middle School in New York. Today students are learning about percentages. They start with a question that puts percentages in a familiar context.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, so you have 75% battery life on your phone or your iPad, and somebody else has one half of their battery life left. Who has more battery life? And how do you know? Can you show the work on your tabletop?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Staci and her co-teacher read \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Building Thinking Classrooms \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">over the summer. They decided to try out the practices from the book in the new school year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Luke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Um, half of 100 is 50, making 75% more.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why did you choose to use this percent?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Luke:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, because, for your phone, the max percent is 100%.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So half of 100% is 50%? And clearly, this is greater than this. Good. Anybody want to explain it differently? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This opening problem only takes a few minutes. There’s no big lecture. Instead, students are going to try working with percentages right away. In his research, Peter Liljedahl has found that students do a lot more thinking when they get started on math problems quickly.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s because when students start the lesson in a passive mode, it’s very hard to switch into a more active mental state.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Peter recommends that teachers only pre-teach a topic for three to five minutes, max. Then students work on math problems standing up at whiteboards, in groups of 3. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All right. So we’re going to hear our groups right now. Go find your board space and get working.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In Staci Durnin’s classroom, groups are selected using popsicle sticks with students’ names written on them. A student draws the names.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jack. Vanessa. Nick. … \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Luke, Aleena and Akira.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This way of picking groups is called \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">visibly random groups\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. It’s one of the key practices of thinking classrooms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Kara, let’s break that phrase down. Random groups means that students don’t pick their best friends to work with. It also means teachers don’t group students based on perceived ability.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Peter’s research, he found that when teachers pick the groups or allow students to choose who to work with, the majority of students go into the groups expecting to play a certain role. And that role is usually passive.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But when groups are randomly assigned and change every day, students don’t get locked into roles. Different perspectives get shared, and more students offer their ideas for problem solving.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As for the “visibly” part of visibly random groups – that means that students actually \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">see\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the groups being selected. It turns out that unless it happens in front of them, students don’t believe the groups are truly random.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Heather Hazen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All right, everyone hear their groups? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I got the marker. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Get some calculators. One marker per group. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In their groups, the students copy a chart with 3 columns onto the whiteboards. They’re working to convert fractions and decimals into percentages, and vice versa.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, first, it’s 30 over 100.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Roel:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 30.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Because it’s a percent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Roel:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 100.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then you do — \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nicole: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Three over —\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Equals, there should be —\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Roel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Three tenths?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nicole:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Three tenths.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, three tenths.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Remember, this is the first time these students are seeing percentages in math class. The way they’re learning is what Peter Liljedahl calls “thin slicing.” Thin slicing is when students move through a series of problems that get slightly harder each time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So they start with something they know how to do, and the next problem has a very small variation. Instead of getting all the information up front, students build their knowledge as they go.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Here’s one student, Roel, explaining how his group converted a fraction into a percentage.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Roel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So it’s 6/8, right? That’s six quarters out of eight quarters. That means it’s actually like at 100%, but it’s just a different type of fraction which can get you there. And if you do six divided by eight, which it will get, it will get, it will give you 75%.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You can hear that he’s starting to make sense of the different types of conversions, even if he doesn’t have all the vocabulary nailed down yet.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Roel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So now this is your basic ratio.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Thin slicing allows students to notice patterns and make meaning from math instead of memorizing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And by working in small groups, students can easily share what they’re noticing to help each other learn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I spoke with Jena – who was in the same group as Roel – she felt she had a good grasp on the lesson.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Had you learned anything about percents before today? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Roel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well yeah —\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like I got a gist, but now I really understand it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What do you understand now that you didn’t before? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, now I understand that, like any number, if you turn the, uh, the denominator into 100, it’s easy to get a percent. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why does that help? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jena: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because it, because then it’s just the top number basically. It’s out of 100. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students are encouraged to share ideas between groups. That’s easy to do because their work is visible on the whiteboards.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Seeing the whiteboards also helps the teacher. Peter Liljedahl points out that when students are working in notebooks at their desks, it’s pretty hard to see their thinking.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Liljedahl: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But if all of a sudden all the groups are vertical working on whiteboards, me as a teacher, standing in the middle of the room, I can see exactly where I need to be. And so it’s easier for me to differentiate now, because I can see that that group needs an extension, and that group needs a hint, and that those two groups actually just need to talk to each other, because one group has the knowledge and the other group needs it. And so differentiation becomes easier because everything is made visible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, just because students are immersed in problem solving in a thinking classroom, it doesn’t mean there’s no teacher talk.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While students work at the boards, Staci Durnin and her co-teacher visit the groups. They ask questions and give students vocabulary or other information to extend their learning.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Heather Hazen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So what was that divisible by?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then, after board work, the whole class gathers together for what’s called \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">consolidation\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Why is this an easy way to get to a hundred? I like your thinking. Go ahead, finish it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is when Staci helps everyone bring together the pieces of what they discovered into a bigger picture understanding.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Staci picks one group’s board to use as a model – for both the things they got right and mistakes that everyone can learn from.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So let’s talk about some patterns that you noticed here. Let’s look at this board work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Who wants to start? Tell me about these two fractions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They’re multiplied by ten so they’re equivalent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Good.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When I asked Peter Liljedahl why consolidation matters, he said that meaning making is messy, but meaning made is neat.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In other words, when students are at the whiteboards they’re in the thick of figuring out how math works. That’s really valuable. But it’s also disorganized.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b> \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Consolidation\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> helps students organize the chaos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, you want to see a common mistake? If this wasn’t here, and this was the fraction 5/20, I often see this: oh, it’s 5%. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Unidentified student: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Percent has “cent” in and cent means 100.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Ooh.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> After consolidation, and for homework, students do something called Check Your Understanding, or CYUs. Instead of everyone doing the same worksheet, students choose between easy, medium and extreme challenges. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s another way to differentiate their learning. And it develops student agency.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All of these things we heard – students standing up at whiteboards, visibly random groups, thin slicing and consolidation – they’re totally different from how Staci Durnin used to teach.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So if I taught this lesson two years ago, it would have been me up at the front of the room, showing the kids how to set up the proportion. How do you change this fraction into a percent? Let’s get the denominator into 100. Now, with the thin slicing, they’ve discovered all of that, right? They discovered that ‘Oh the denominator has to be 100 because percent is out of 100.’ And ‘Oh this fraction is equivalent to this. So this must also equal the same percent.’ So it’s getting them to discover, then you consolidate and talk about the important pieces to the lesson. And then they practice on their own.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not only has Staci’s teaching method changed, but the way her students are showing up has changed. In most math classes I remember taking, my classmates and I were just … silent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Crickets sound effect\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Part of the engagement comes from being up out of their seats. Movement can help generate problem-solving ideas and improve memory consolidation. And kids just like it more.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What’s your favorite thing about this class? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Luke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The stand up activities you get to do every single day. Because I don’t like classrooms where all we do is sit down and look up at the board. I like classrooms where we’re involved in something and we get to do something. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Staci’s students also told me they really like working in small groups at the whiteboards.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, I think it helps me more, actually, because there’s other people who might explain it better for me and I can understand it better.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Hafsa: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Also you’re working with different people, so then they might have different methods that you didn’t already learn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Working in small, random groups feeds students’ social needs, which we know is really important for the adolescent brain. But Kara, in season eight, we talked about the needs of introverted students. How does the thinking classrooms model work for them? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I talked to one student who said the noise at the whiteboards can be a lot. And depending on who’s in her group, sometimes she feels less comfortable sharing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucia: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes I don’t like working up at the boards because, like, it shows everybody what you’re doing. But like, you sometimes want to keep in your own answers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of her classmates had a different take, though. She said that asking a question in front of the whole class can be scary.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I like small groups because at the boards, because it’s not like, as, not really embarrassing, but kind of, like when you get something wrong and like, your other partners can help you.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Small, random groups can lower the social risk for making mistakes. That’s something that Staci’s co-teacher, Heather Hazen, noticed, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Heather Hazen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So actually, when we started this the first few weeks of school, I said to Staci, like, this is so weird, but the kids are doing better.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Heather is a special education teacher. She’s in the classroom with Staci to help out with students who need extra support.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Heather Hazen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And what I find for most of the kids – most, not all of them, but most of them – it gives them a chance to sit back and look, and in the small group, they ask questions to their peers more often than they would, I guess, in class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Heather also said the thinking classrooms model allows different mathematical strengths to be seen.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Heather Hazen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If we’re asking how many squares you see in this larger grid of squares, sometimes our struggling students are the ones that are doing best with that task. Or they may notice the pattern differently, or see it differently, or come up with another method that somebody else wasn’t thinking about. So they have chances to shine.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I visited Staci and Heather’s classroom in March. By then, students were very accustomed to random groups and working at the whiteboards. But learning those norms takes work at the start of the year. That’s done through what Peter Liljedahl calls \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">non-curricular highly engaging tasks.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> These are math problems and puzzles that are not linked to a learning objective. They can introduce a playful energy to the classroom.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Liljedahl:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And what that does is it makes math fun, and it makes math feel achievable and enjoyable. And it can be very disarming for students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In Peter’s research, when teachers tried to apply the thinking classrooms practices by starting with the regular curriculum…the students weren’t having it. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Liljedahl: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, students come into the, into a math classroom already sort of believing what math is and who they are in relation to mathematics. And then they enact those, those, those beliefs in the way they engage with a new teacher and new content.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Highly engaging non-curricular tasks essentially jolt students out of their expectations for math class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Liljedahl: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a great way to enculture them into a new way of being. They’ve re-constructed an identity for themselves. They have maybe re- rebuilt a relationship with mathematics. They might perceive that mathematics is different. They might perceive that you as a teacher is different, and that this is a safe space to, to engage in, in thought and collaboration. So we’ve just created sort of an aside – a safe space where students can be different and become different. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This investment ends up paying off for the rest of the year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Liljedahl:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When they’re not actively engaged in the learning in that way, everything is difficult. But when they are thinking anything is possible, like we’re tearing through Pythagoras in 55 minutes. Solving one- and two-step equations has never taken more than 45 minutes. Right. Factoring quadratics, which is a unit that can take anywhere from three to five days, we do it in 60 minutes.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Staci Durnin, the evidence that thinking classrooms works is not how quickly her students get through the math, but that her students don’t want to stop.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Staci Durnin: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of times I hear kids say, that was two periods of math already? And you know, when I hear that, it just makes me so happy. So I know, you know, in the past, the double period, even for me, it’s like I have another period of this, you know, this is tough. Now I’m almost running out of time because, when the bell rings, they don’t want to leave the boards.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Nimah, I’ve never heard as many kids talking about the real substance of math as I did in just a few periods at Mineola Middle School. Not even when I was in the math club at my own middle school.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s pretty remarkable. But you know what we DO hear a lot? Kids and grownups who say, “I’m not a math person.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The idea of people being inherently good or bad at math is often baked into the culture of school. But when I asked Staci’s students about their strengths in math, they answered easily.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, I’m good at, like, factor puzzles and, like, proportions and dividing fractions because I feel like I worked on those the most. So I’m really confident with those. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Thayla: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think I’m good at math ’cause, like, I can teach people like this certain strategy, or like, if they’re having trouble with with the question. But sometimes I do struggle with, like everybody else. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chloe: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I just, like, love problem solving. It’s just like if I really want to, like, do something, I’ll just like focus my mind on only that and then block out everything else I’m working on. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I checked in with Staci again as her school year wrapped up. She told me that her students this year showed a deeper understanding of grade six math than students did in her many years teaching with more traditional methods.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When math class focuses on getting students to think instead of mimic, their confidence and their problem solving skills grow.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And what that adds up to is a very bright future.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Big thanks to Staci Durnin and Heather Hazen at Mineola Middle School in New York. The students you heard in this episode were:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Roel, Jena, Nicole, Luke, Sami, Lucia, Alexis, Olivia, Hafsa, Thayla and Chloe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Peter Liljedahl’s book is called \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks also to Amber McMellan and Julie Frizzell.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The rest of the MindShift team includes Ki Sung, Marlena Jackson-Retondo and Jennifer Ng.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Seth Samuel is our sound designer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldaña , Maha Sanad and Holly Kernan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you love MindShift, and enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. We really appreciate it. You can also read more or subscribe to our newsletter at K-Q-E-D-dot-org-slash-MindShift.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks for listening!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"slug": "5-ways-to-teach-disability-history-in-social-studies-class",
"title": "5 Ways to Teach Disability History in Social Studies Class",
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"headTitle": "5 Ways to Teach Disability History in Social Studies Class | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A few years ago, curriculum specialist Richard Cairn showed a photo from the World War II era to two young men he was working with on \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.easterseals.com/ma/get-involved/advocacy/teach-disability-history/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a campaign\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to promote teaching disability history. The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/item/2017693399/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">image\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> shows a man with multiple disabilities processing airplane parts in an American defense plant. Cairn said the two volunteer leaders, who live with multiple disabilities, were surprised by the image. “They were excited to learn that people with disabilities had been involved in helping to fight fascism during World War II and upset that this had not been discussed in their high school history class,” Cairn said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The young men’s excitement turned the photo into Cairn’s favorite image from disability history — and he has many to choose from. Cairn is one of the creators of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.emergingamerica.org/disability-history-curriculum\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reform to Equal Rights\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a free K-12 disability history curriculum that features 250 primary sources in its lesson plans. The curriculum is a project of the nonprofit \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.collaborative.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Collaborative for Educational Services\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, where Cairn works, and was supported by grants from the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/about-this-program/teaching-with-primary-sources-partner-program/tps-regional-grant-program/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Library of Congress\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://masshumanities.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mass Humanities\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cairn often speaks with teachers about disability history at educator events, such as the National Council for the Social Studies annual conference. When he asks teachers how disability history comes up in their courses, he usually gets two responses: Helen Keller or Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In other words, if disability history comes up at all in K-12 social studies, it’s usually a passing mention. That approach neglects the richness of disability history, which is part of every major era in social studies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Katherine Anderson Benson is a special education administrator. In her classroom teaching days, she often taught aspects of disability history to her students in a residential treatment facility for teens with mental illness and multiple disabilities. “All kids should know this history, and all kids should value the disability community and what it has to offer,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Benson is one of about a dozen educators who advised on the Reform to Equal Rights curriculum. According to Cairn, teachers don’t need to create entirely new units or courses to cover disability history. The curriculum offers lessons and primary sources to incorporate into commonly taught subjects from the Civil War to civics.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>1. The U.S. Civil War\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The American Civil War left about half a million veterans injured or disabled and without systems to support them. According to Emerging America, veterans organizations “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.emergingamerica.org/exhibits/how-civil-war-veterans-transformed-disability/disabled-civil-war-veterans-background\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">demanded and won\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the creation of a national system of hospitals and soldiers homes, and payment of pensions to disabled veterans.” These events are important precursors to the ways Americans and the government viewed and responded to disability since then.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lessons from Reform to Equal Rights and an accompanying \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.emergingamerica.org/exhibits/how-civil-war-veterans-transformed-disability\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">online exhibit\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> introduce students to this aspect of the Civil War through photos and writing by civil war soldiers and nurses. The lessons also examine the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.emergingamerica.org/exhibits/how-civil-war-veterans-transformed-disability/civil-war-nurses-and-disabled-veterans-biographies\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">institutions\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that were created to serve disabled veterans and encourage students to consider the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/collections/veterans-history-project-collection/serving-our-voices/impact-of-service/disabled-veterans/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">experiences of disabled veterans today\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>2. Immigration\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/stereo.1s46118/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1913 photograph from Ellis Island\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> shows a line of immigrants waiting as a U.S. inspector conducts eye exams. According to Cairn, this photo is often used in teaching immigration history without acknowledging that it’s also a disability story. Pointing that out can spark discussions that strengthen students’ historical thinking skills. “Why would they keep people out? Because they have an eye disease,” Cairn explained. “And so, tracing that back and saying, well, where was the where did that come from? How was that set up? Then you can go back to the legislation.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Reform to Equal Rights \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Wm3bCt1EVj13x4-3gTZ_Rcol3soYjVXvUZWU5f4hciM/edit\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lesson\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that includes this photo recommends that students also analyze a photo of immigrants traveling by ship, a political cartoon, an excerpt from the 1882 Immigration Act, and a photo of the chalk marks used by Ellis Island inspectors to identify physical or mental health issues.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>3. Eugenics in the Progressive Era\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the 20th century, state agencies \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/03/07/469478098/the-supreme-court-ruling-that-led-to-70-000-forced-sterilizations\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">forcibly sterilized 70,000 people\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> with mental illness or disabilities, though those labels were often dubious. Forced sterilization came into practice through efforts of the American eugenics movement and was upheld as legal in the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/274us200\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1927 Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Eugenicists used flawed science to promote the idea of societal “improvement” by controlling who could reproduce. These practices continued into the 1970s in some states. A Reform to Equal Rights lesson for high school students \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YQqnosK2F-SJResVUr-2s7T8E2qV6jgVmRsTp7gWSAQ/edit\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">explores eugenics history\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> through news articles and other historical documents with arguments for and against forced sterilization. It also touches on North Carolina’s recent program to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.doa.nc.gov/about-doa/special-programs/welcome-office-justice-sterilization-victims\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">compensate victims\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of forced sterilization.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cairn said these resources have been used by teachers who hadn’t been teaching about eugenics when covering the Progressive Era, as well as teachers who wanted to add information about resistance to eugenics. “I don’t expect teachers to be adding a whole bunch of content,” he said. “But thinking about, ‘OK, can I tweak what I do on the Progressive Era and come at it from this perspective?’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ross Newton is a history teacher who advised on the Reform to Equal Rights curriculum. He has taught his students at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.collaborative.org/youth-and-families/hec-academy/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">HEC Academy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a special education high school in Massachusetts, the eugenics movement.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Newton acknowledged that some parts of disability history, like this one, “can be rather bleak.” But that doesn’t mean young people don’t want to learn it. “I think the students were really intrigued to learn kind of the hard history and the connection to the present,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Making connections to the present can include reading about ongoing efforts to memorialize victims, some of whom are still alive, as well as what Newton called “student-led civic and research projects.” These projects, which can be done for any topic in disability history, can explore such questions as:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">– Where did this occur in my community?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">– How did activists and allies respond?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">– How does this history relate to ongoing struggles for civil rights by persons with disabilities?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">– How can we share these stories?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After teaching his students about the eugenics movement, Newton asks them why it’s important to learn. Many respond that the policies and practices were dehumanizing or that they don’t want history to be repeated. “It’s this emotional response for students,” Newton said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>4. Civics\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Civics presents many opportunities to teach disability history. Wendy Harris, a teacher at Metro Deaf School in Minnesota and advisor on the Reform to Equal Rights curriculum, teaches her civics students about a month-long sit-in known as the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/504-protest-disability-community-and-civil-rights.htm\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">504 protest\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In her classroom, it’s part of larger discussions on how people make change in society.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In April 1977, people with various disabilities occupied federal office buildings to demand action on section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. That law required federally funded programs to ensure equal access to employment and education for individuals with disabilities. But three years later, regulations for enforcing the law had not been published. The 504 protest started in multiple cities, and in San Francisco it lasted 26 days before the Carter Administration signed the regulations.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Harris has used photos, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13877373/now-playing-crip-camp-recalls-coming-of-age-through-activism\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">video\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and newspaper clips to help bring the 504 protest to life for students. They ask questions like: How did people shower during the sit-in? How did they get food? (The Black Panther Party \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://disabilityhistory.org/2021/12/19/the-504-protests-and-the-black-panther-party/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">helped\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> with that one.) Learning those kinds of details can lead to deeper connections for her students. “There are some video clips [where] there’s Deaf people, and they’re like, ‘Wait a minute, they’re signing,’” Harris said. “It didn’t occur to them because I didn’t say it was a Deaf protest. I said it was people who couldn’t access the building, couldn’t access jobs. But it’s the intersectionality. It’s the cross-identity movement that sometimes surprises students.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Newton agreed that primary sources bring stories of disability activism to life in the classroom. “It’s really powerful to read the words. It’s really powerful to look at images of people in a sit-in and ask, what are they doing? Why are they doing this?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That perspective also allows students to see the agency of individuals with disabilities throughout history, according to Cairn. “There are so many great stories of people with disabilities who have taken the leadership in their communities on all kinds of levels to help make the world a better place for people with disabilities,” he said. “For [students] to be able to see that … really enriches an understanding of civic life.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>5. Education history\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Rights to Equal Reform curriculum includes lessons about the 19th century \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oRmMM75faqa63eXgERnuETu4Ze0FApp0BYy3OKtBlM4/edit\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">origins\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YUOWRvwdKDy5D_hDjMlRQZy69J9n5Apxp0YbVrF46cc/edit\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">criticisms\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of four types of institutions: asylums for people with mental illness, schools for people with developmental disabilities, schools for the Deaf and schools for the blind.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Benson, the special education administrator, that history was very present when she started her career teaching in a residential facility, which had a connection to a former state hospital. Though she taught English, Benson loved history. She began researching the institutions that had previously housed and educated people with disabilities in her community and shared what she learned with students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It was important for them to understand why we were where we were, how we got there, and what things had been like prior for kids who had the same issues that they did and what things could have looked like,” Benson said. “That gave them a better understanding of how to relate to their own disability and how to advocate for themselves.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In her early teaching years, Benson’s students often weren’t aware that they had individualized education plans or what that meant. So she taught them about each section of the plans and what resources were available to them. “They were teenage boys, so they responded like teenage boys,” Benson recalled. But years later, many of them came back to her and said the resources she taught them about helped them go to college, get on-the-job training or ask for disability accommodations at work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Benson is now \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bssfriends.org/about\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">president\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of a historical preservation nonprofit connected to a former state school for disabled students. She said that seeing students advocate for themselves or others is a big motivator for preserving and sharing disability history: “That’s part of the push to teach disability history is normalizing that conversation about disability and what that means to everyone, whether you have a disability or not, and how knowing the history can then support how you move forward with individuals who have a disability.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A few years ago, curriculum specialist Richard Cairn showed a photo from the World War II era to two young men he was working with on \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.easterseals.com/ma/get-involved/advocacy/teach-disability-history/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a campaign\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to promote teaching disability history. The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/item/2017693399/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">image\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> shows a man with multiple disabilities processing airplane parts in an American defense plant. Cairn said the two volunteer leaders, who live with multiple disabilities, were surprised by the image. “They were excited to learn that people with disabilities had been involved in helping to fight fascism during World War II and upset that this had not been discussed in their high school history class,” Cairn said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The young men’s excitement turned the photo into Cairn’s favorite image from disability history — and he has many to choose from. Cairn is one of the creators of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.emergingamerica.org/disability-history-curriculum\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reform to Equal Rights\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a free K-12 disability history curriculum that features 250 primary sources in its lesson plans. The curriculum is a project of the nonprofit \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.collaborative.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Collaborative for Educational Services\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, where Cairn works, and was supported by grants from the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/about-this-program/teaching-with-primary-sources-partner-program/tps-regional-grant-program/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Library of Congress\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://masshumanities.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mass Humanities\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cairn often speaks with teachers about disability history at educator events, such as the National Council for the Social Studies annual conference. When he asks teachers how disability history comes up in their courses, he usually gets two responses: Helen Keller or Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In other words, if disability history comes up at all in K-12 social studies, it’s usually a passing mention. That approach neglects the richness of disability history, which is part of every major era in social studies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Katherine Anderson Benson is a special education administrator. In her classroom teaching days, she often taught aspects of disability history to her students in a residential treatment facility for teens with mental illness and multiple disabilities. “All kids should know this history, and all kids should value the disability community and what it has to offer,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Benson is one of about a dozen educators who advised on the Reform to Equal Rights curriculum. According to Cairn, teachers don’t need to create entirely new units or courses to cover disability history. The curriculum offers lessons and primary sources to incorporate into commonly taught subjects from the Civil War to civics.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>1. The U.S. Civil War\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The American Civil War left about half a million veterans injured or disabled and without systems to support them. According to Emerging America, veterans organizations “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.emergingamerica.org/exhibits/how-civil-war-veterans-transformed-disability/disabled-civil-war-veterans-background\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">demanded and won\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the creation of a national system of hospitals and soldiers homes, and payment of pensions to disabled veterans.” These events are important precursors to the ways Americans and the government viewed and responded to disability since then.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lessons from Reform to Equal Rights and an accompanying \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.emergingamerica.org/exhibits/how-civil-war-veterans-transformed-disability\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">online exhibit\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> introduce students to this aspect of the Civil War through photos and writing by civil war soldiers and nurses. The lessons also examine the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.emergingamerica.org/exhibits/how-civil-war-veterans-transformed-disability/civil-war-nurses-and-disabled-veterans-biographies\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">institutions\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that were created to serve disabled veterans and encourage students to consider the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/collections/veterans-history-project-collection/serving-our-voices/impact-of-service/disabled-veterans/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">experiences of disabled veterans today\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>2. Immigration\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/stereo.1s46118/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1913 photograph from Ellis Island\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> shows a line of immigrants waiting as a U.S. inspector conducts eye exams. According to Cairn, this photo is often used in teaching immigration history without acknowledging that it’s also a disability story. Pointing that out can spark discussions that strengthen students’ historical thinking skills. “Why would they keep people out? Because they have an eye disease,” Cairn explained. “And so, tracing that back and saying, well, where was the where did that come from? How was that set up? Then you can go back to the legislation.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Reform to Equal Rights \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Wm3bCt1EVj13x4-3gTZ_Rcol3soYjVXvUZWU5f4hciM/edit\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lesson\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that includes this photo recommends that students also analyze a photo of immigrants traveling by ship, a political cartoon, an excerpt from the 1882 Immigration Act, and a photo of the chalk marks used by Ellis Island inspectors to identify physical or mental health issues.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>3. Eugenics in the Progressive Era\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the 20th century, state agencies \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/03/07/469478098/the-supreme-court-ruling-that-led-to-70-000-forced-sterilizations\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">forcibly sterilized 70,000 people\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> with mental illness or disabilities, though those labels were often dubious. Forced sterilization came into practice through efforts of the American eugenics movement and was upheld as legal in the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/274us200\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1927 Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Eugenicists used flawed science to promote the idea of societal “improvement” by controlling who could reproduce. These practices continued into the 1970s in some states. A Reform to Equal Rights lesson for high school students \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YQqnosK2F-SJResVUr-2s7T8E2qV6jgVmRsTp7gWSAQ/edit\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">explores eugenics history\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> through news articles and other historical documents with arguments for and against forced sterilization. It also touches on North Carolina’s recent program to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.doa.nc.gov/about-doa/special-programs/welcome-office-justice-sterilization-victims\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">compensate victims\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of forced sterilization.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cairn said these resources have been used by teachers who hadn’t been teaching about eugenics when covering the Progressive Era, as well as teachers who wanted to add information about resistance to eugenics. “I don’t expect teachers to be adding a whole bunch of content,” he said. “But thinking about, ‘OK, can I tweak what I do on the Progressive Era and come at it from this perspective?’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ross Newton is a history teacher who advised on the Reform to Equal Rights curriculum. He has taught his students at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.collaborative.org/youth-and-families/hec-academy/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">HEC Academy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a special education high school in Massachusetts, the eugenics movement.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Newton acknowledged that some parts of disability history, like this one, “can be rather bleak.” But that doesn’t mean young people don’t want to learn it. “I think the students were really intrigued to learn kind of the hard history and the connection to the present,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Making connections to the present can include reading about ongoing efforts to memorialize victims, some of whom are still alive, as well as what Newton called “student-led civic and research projects.” These projects, which can be done for any topic in disability history, can explore such questions as:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">– Where did this occur in my community?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">– How did activists and allies respond?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">– How does this history relate to ongoing struggles for civil rights by persons with disabilities?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">– How can we share these stories?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After teaching his students about the eugenics movement, Newton asks them why it’s important to learn. Many respond that the policies and practices were dehumanizing or that they don’t want history to be repeated. “It’s this emotional response for students,” Newton said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>4. Civics\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Civics presents many opportunities to teach disability history. Wendy Harris, a teacher at Metro Deaf School in Minnesota and advisor on the Reform to Equal Rights curriculum, teaches her civics students about a month-long sit-in known as the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/504-protest-disability-community-and-civil-rights.htm\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">504 protest\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In her classroom, it’s part of larger discussions on how people make change in society.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In April 1977, people with various disabilities occupied federal office buildings to demand action on section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. That law required federally funded programs to ensure equal access to employment and education for individuals with disabilities. But three years later, regulations for enforcing the law had not been published. The 504 protest started in multiple cities, and in San Francisco it lasted 26 days before the Carter Administration signed the regulations.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Harris has used photos, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13877373/now-playing-crip-camp-recalls-coming-of-age-through-activism\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">video\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and newspaper clips to help bring the 504 protest to life for students. They ask questions like: How did people shower during the sit-in? How did they get food? (The Black Panther Party \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://disabilityhistory.org/2021/12/19/the-504-protests-and-the-black-panther-party/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">helped\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> with that one.) Learning those kinds of details can lead to deeper connections for her students. “There are some video clips [where] there’s Deaf people, and they’re like, ‘Wait a minute, they’re signing,’” Harris said. “It didn’t occur to them because I didn’t say it was a Deaf protest. I said it was people who couldn’t access the building, couldn’t access jobs. But it’s the intersectionality. It’s the cross-identity movement that sometimes surprises students.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Newton agreed that primary sources bring stories of disability activism to life in the classroom. “It’s really powerful to read the words. It’s really powerful to look at images of people in a sit-in and ask, what are they doing? Why are they doing this?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That perspective also allows students to see the agency of individuals with disabilities throughout history, according to Cairn. “There are so many great stories of people with disabilities who have taken the leadership in their communities on all kinds of levels to help make the world a better place for people with disabilities,” he said. “For [students] to be able to see that … really enriches an understanding of civic life.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>5. Education history\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Rights to Equal Reform curriculum includes lessons about the 19th century \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oRmMM75faqa63eXgERnuETu4Ze0FApp0BYy3OKtBlM4/edit\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">origins\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YUOWRvwdKDy5D_hDjMlRQZy69J9n5Apxp0YbVrF46cc/edit\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">criticisms\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of four types of institutions: asylums for people with mental illness, schools for people with developmental disabilities, schools for the Deaf and schools for the blind.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Benson, the special education administrator, that history was very present when she started her career teaching in a residential facility, which had a connection to a former state hospital. Though she taught English, Benson loved history. She began researching the institutions that had previously housed and educated people with disabilities in her community and shared what she learned with students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It was important for them to understand why we were where we were, how we got there, and what things had been like prior for kids who had the same issues that they did and what things could have looked like,” Benson said. “That gave them a better understanding of how to relate to their own disability and how to advocate for themselves.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In her early teaching years, Benson’s students often weren’t aware that they had individualized education plans or what that meant. So she taught them about each section of the plans and what resources were available to them. “They were teenage boys, so they responded like teenage boys,” Benson recalled. But years later, many of them came back to her and said the resources she taught them about helped them go to college, get on-the-job training or ask for disability accommodations at work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Benson is now \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bssfriends.org/about\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">president\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of a historical preservation nonprofit connected to a former state school for disabled students. She said that seeing students advocate for themselves or others is a big motivator for preserving and sharing disability history: “That’s part of the push to teach disability history is normalizing that conversation about disability and what that means to everyone, whether you have a disability or not, and how knowing the history can then support how you move forward with individuals who have a disability.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003cem>View the full episode transcript\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Walking into her sophomore year math class, Taylor Paris was nervous. She’d had a rocky relationship with the subject ever since long division showed up in elementary school. “I knew I didn’t understand math concepts very well. I knew that it was something that took me a longer time (than classmates),” she recalled.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So she was pleasantly surprised when one of the first assignments from teacher Sarah Strong required no calculating. Instead, Strong asked the class to write a letter to math – as if it were a person. These \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60108/using-dear-math-letters-to-overcome-dread-in-math-class\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Dear Math” letters\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are a tool that Strong developed as a way to understand students’ relationship to math, which researchers call \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/jmetc/article/view/9187/4897\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">mathematical identity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. What Strong learns from these letters informs how she teaches individual students and whole classes throughout the year. Often that means working to disrupt the negative beliefs that students hold about their math abilities, which tend to revolve around comparisons to classmates, like “fast” vs. “slow” or “math person” vs. “not a math person.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong models the Dear Math activity by reading her own letter to math. Then she gives students prompts, such as:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is one of your greatest mathematical strengths?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you plan to engage with math in the future?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What would you like more of in math classrooms?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, who is now 20, was excited to apply her writing skills in math, but also to unpack some of her deeply rooted emotions about math. “I was finally able to write all of the things that made me sad and things that made me mad, like everything into one letter, addressing math directly,” she said. Here’s what she wrote in 10th grade: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, do I have some things to say to you. You’ve followed me through every school year, caused me the worst headaches, and given me numerous counts of anxiety just thinking about you … The memories of my seventh grade math teacher telling me ‘maybe you’re just not a math person’ still ringing in my head and the constant Bs and Cs are still imprinted in my mind. You’ve been a never ending challenge and struggle, and it’s always been hard to understand you. No matter how many times my friends and teachers explain you, I never grasp you completely.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Paris, having a teacher acknowledge emotions in math class was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54980/why-teachers-want-math-with-more-human-ties\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">humanizing\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “She recognized my experience as a part of this really big experience that so many other people have. And that was really validating,” Paris said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong devotes a few hours to reading the letters, making notes about broad patterns and individual details. “It’s the beginning of an ongoing story between you and the students and their math experience for that semester or year, and it’s really important to start by listening to them well,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Hierarchy in math education\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong teaches at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.hightechhigh.org/about/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">High Tech High\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and its Graduate School of Education in San Diego. She developed the Dear Math routine almost a decade ago, and she published a book about it, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.10publications.com/dear-math\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math: Why Kids Hate Math And What Teachers Can Do About It\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, co-authored by her former\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">student Gigi Butterfield. In it, the teacher and former student reflect on the themes across hundreds of letters. One pervasive theme is hierarchy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Kids as young as kindergarten and first grade are defining themselves as good at math or not good at math,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/amynoelleparks\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amy Parks\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an elementary math education researcher at Michigan State University. Much of that definition comes from how they rank among classmates – from timed tests, to ‘high’ and ‘low’ groups, to subtle cues in teachers’ language. “I’ve been in classrooms where teachers have had kids line up by how many questions they answered or how many things they got right,” Parks said. “These hierarchies get reinforced so often and in so many different ways it’s almost overwhelming.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many kids, the comparisons add up to a negative self-perception around math. And by the time they reach high school, that mathematical identity can feel immutable. But math class doesn’t have to be this way. “Teachers and parents can affect the way kids think about these things,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mathematizing4all.com/about-the-author/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel Lambert\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a professor and researcher at University of California, Santa Barbara.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s a stubborn cultural \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54389/3-ways-to-shape-math-into-a-positive-experience\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">myth that some of us are “math people” and some of us aren’t\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This idea gets repeated explicitly all the time, and often \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aah6524\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">implicitly with gendered and racialized associations\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. But neuroscience shows that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youcubed.org/resources/brain-science/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">everyone is capable of learning math\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and Lambert said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/57997/how-to-build-students-math-confidence-with-culturally-sustaining-teaching-practices\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">it matters that kids hear that\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “Students connect subjects to teachers in a pretty intense way that I think as adults we often forget. So if they feel their math teacher believes in them as a human being and believes in their competence in mathematics, that can make a huge difference,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Strong’s classroom, listening to students’ stories is the first step toward disrupting those hierarchies. She also looks for ways to highlight students’ mathematical thinking on a daily basis. One way she does this is by having multiple students write their problem-solving ideas on the whiteboard and asking other students to comment on what they like about the strategies they see. Another routine is an exit ticket that asks students to share something they learned from a classmate that day. She might share the details the next day with a student who was mentioned or with the whole class if there’s a bigger lesson in it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Math is for everyone\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Isabela Avila, another of Strong’s former students, said these kinds of practices created a sense of community: “It was never even like a question of did you get it right or wrong. It just seemed like we were always just all learning together as a class.” She had Strong as a teacher twice and wrote Dear Math letters both times. In her letter as a sophomore, her self-doubts showed up in the first sentence:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math, I really like you, but you don’t come naturally to me. I have to work extra hard to understand and fully conceptualize what you have to offer.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In her letter as a senior, Avila wrote about her math growth over the prior two years:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I developed a sense of patience and open mindedness for the first time ever. … I know this will help me a lot in college and beyond, and I look forward to using it in the future.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Avila got to the highly competitive environment of Johns Hopkins University, however, the usual order of things returned. “I really struggled a lot with comparing myself, especially in math,” she said, discussing her freshman year. “And I just found that to be super, super counterproductive for both my learning and my self esteem.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong said her own math story has had a lot of highs and lows, too. Though she can’t protect students from the ways math is taught and talked about beyond her classroom, her hope is that before they leave high school, “they start to see themselves as mathematicians in new ways and that they start to see their peers as mathematically brilliant in new ways.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Avila, the persistence she developed in high school did pay off in the long, emotionally tough hours of college calculus. “I feel like how you think about yourself and how fast you are to get back up and keep trying is really, truly so much more important than if you can actually do the math,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fast and slow\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, Strong’s former student who liked expressing her emotions in a Dear Math letter, still remembers the heart-racing stress that accompanied \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61712/do-math-drills-help-children-learn\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">timed multiplication tests\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in third grade. In Strong’s classroom, she said, there was never a timer. When Paris needed extra support, Strong brought out old algebra textbooks to reinforce foundational concepts. She designed projects where Paris could make connections between math and art – a subject that she already loved. Most importantly, Strong helped Paris learn how to break down complex problems into smaller steps. “Which is such a simple concept, but it didn’t even cross my mind that I could do that in math,” said Paris. “And that taking my time in math meant that I was being a mathematician.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Many students have this conception that they’re the only one who’s taking time to understand this concept, that everybody around them has already got it,” said Lambert, the UC Santa Barbara professor. Lambert suggested that teachers can reduce the rush of the pacing calendar by thinking of it not as going slowly but choosing where to invest time. “You can’t do every standard every year with your students. You have to figure out what is worth investment, and then spend more time with those topics so that students feel that they have enough time learning those things,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Strong’s view, this requires shifting away from math instruction that is built around the ideas the teacher wants to get to in a given period. Student-centered instruction requires a lot more listening, she said: “Listening first off to their stories and how they’re showing up to class, and then second off (listening to) the ways that they are thinking of and understanding and making sense of mathematical ideas.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, who had Strong as a teacher for three years, said that time transformed her. She now works at a bridal shop, where she was recently promoted from stylist to sales manager – a role that involves a lot of math. “If I want to teach my stylists how to increase their productivity in their sales, then I need to think like a mathematician and come up with the ways that I can do that,” she explained. In tenth grade, that would have scared her. Not now. “There’s no reason for me to be afraid of math because I’ve proven to myself time and time again that I can do it,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC8301605465&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Welcome to MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today we’re talking about math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Because it involves numbers and formulas, we often think of math as straightforward and objective.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But learning math is actually packed with emotions. I met a high school teacher who starts the year with an unusual assignment. She has her students write a letter to math, describing their feelings about the subject. Here’s that teacher, Sarah Strong.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Dear Math letter is a letter that students write to math as if math were personified sitting across the table from them. … And it really helps inform teachers better understand the students stories and experiences that they’re coming to class with so that teachers can better design math experiences for students to thrive and flourish in math class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We’ll hear more from Sarah later in the episode. First, here’s part of a Dear Math letter from one of her former students, Taylor Paris.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] Dear math, Oh, do I have some things to say to you. You’ve followed me throughout every school year, caused me the worst headaches, and given me numerous counts of anxiety just thinking about you … The memories of my seventh grade math teacher telling me, ‘Maybe you’re just not a math person’ still ringing in my head, and the constant Bs and Cs are still imprinted in my mind. You’ve been a never ending challenge and struggle, and it’s always been hard to understand you. No matter how many times my friends and teachers explain you, I never grasp you completely.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The anxiety and frustration that Taylor described in her letter are familiar feelings for many young people. And by the time students get to high school, it can feel like if they don’t understand math now, they never will.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But math doesn’t have to be this way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When we get back from the break, we’ll hear more about Dear Math letters and how they help students like Taylor strengthen their mathematical identities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taylor Paris graduated high school a few years ago, but she still remembers the first week of tenth grade math with her teacher Sarah Strong. That’s when students wrote letters to math, as if it were a person.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I remember being so excited because basically you’re writing in math, and that’s never the case.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Interdisciplinary learning allows students to think about a subject from new perspectives. For Taylor, writing the Dear Math letter gave her a chance to reflect on how her early school years shaped her relationship to math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I remember, my first, like, scariness of math was long division, because it was like so abstract to me, and everyone around me understood it and was just like, ‘Yeah, well that’s just the way it is and that’s totally fine.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Writing about those memories was cathartic. It also helped Taylor feel connected to her teacher.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I have never had a math teacher talk about emotions behind math ever. Like, truly ever … She recognized my experience as a part of this really big experience that so many other people have. And that was really validating.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her teacher, Sarah Strong, also made it clear that it was okay for those feelings to surface throughout the year. Which made it possible for Taylor to focus on actually learning math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She did a great job at making me feel like I could take a really complex problem and break it down to the bare bones of it, which is such a simple concept. But it didn’t even cross my mind that I could do that in math and that taking my time in math meant that I was being a mathematician. And that’s what mathematicians did, was take their time and work on problems slowly to really understand every aspect.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I met Taylor, she had just been promoted from a stylist to a sales manager at a bridal shop in San Diego. That’s a fashion job that involves a lot of math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So stylists are responsible for obviously, you know, the customer service side of things, but on the sales side, there is a certain goal that you need to meet or would ideally meet day to day and kind of week to day, month to day. …\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so when you think about it, sales is like one big math problem every day because there’s a question, there’s an answer that you have to get to, and then there’s variables that go into, you know, the answer to your problem, essentially.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taylor is 20. Not that long ago, doing a math-related job would have been unimaginable to her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you told sophomore year Taylor that I would be doing something that was directly correlated with math and numbers all the time, I would be terrified and probably laugh.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor had Sarah Strong as a math teacher from 10th grade through 12th grade. She said that those years totally changed her view of math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so while I may have been scared to take a sales manager position at, you know, in my sophomore year, it makes a ton of sense for me now because what I do is help people find their wedding dress. And who would have thought that math was in finding a wedding dress?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor now sees herself as a doer of math. This is what’s called mathematical identity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We did an episode featuring Chris Emdin, who talked about students’ STEM identities. Mathematical identity is one form of a STEM identity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mathematical identity is a way that students see themselves as a mathematician, and therefore it connects to the ways that they enter into mathematical spaces and connect with other mathematicians around them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s teacher Sarah Strong again. She created the Dear Math activity during a bigger project where students were exploring their mathematical identities. They were using different types of math as metaphors for their experiences. And Sarah wanted to add a writing component to that project.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And one of my colleagues shared with me the idea of writing letters to a thing like books or basketball, and how she’d heard of that practice. And she thought I could do Dear Math letters, and I thought that was an amazing idea. So I ran with it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The letters were powerful. And Sarah realized that having students write them at the beginning of the year could help her teach each class better. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s how she does it now. She introduces the assignment during the first week of school. She reads her own Dear Math letter as a model, because most students aren’t used to writing in math class. Hearing her letter also lets them know that even though she teaches math, it hasn’t always been easy for her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After reading her letter, Sarah gives her students prompts for writing their own. Questions like…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is one of your greatest mathematical strengths?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you plan to engage with math in the future?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What would you like more of in math classrooms?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They spend 15 to 30 minutes writing in class. Anyone who wants to write more can finish at home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then Sarah reads the letters on her own. She says this is the most important step.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">‘Cause it’s the beginning of an ongoing story between you and the students and their math experience for that semester or year, and it’s really important to start by listening to them well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She first looks for broad patterns across the class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If I’ve got a disproportionate amount of students that hate math, don’t think they’re mathematicians, that I have to be really intentional about my class design, where I am regularly noticing and calling out their mathematical strengths and giving them opportunities to see themselves as mathematicians and see each other as mathematicians.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or do I have a lot of students who, who feel like ‘I am a really strong mathematician. Ever since I was young, I get all the right answers. I’m really fast.’ Then I can note that that’s a trend in the class and be thinking how I can continue to push those students while also broadening their understanding of how they are mathematical and how important it is to also listen to other students’ ways of being mathematical.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She also reads the letters for individual details about things students love and things that trip them up. She might make a few notes and …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Check in with students like, ‘Gosh, I remember you said that you had a really hard time with the idea of percents and like whenever percents come up, you panic. Well, tomorrow we’re going to need some percents in our work with exponential functions. And so I wanted to make sure that you knew that I believe that you’ve got this. If you want to do a little practice beforehand, we can do that because I want you to feel confident. I don’t want some story from sixth grade impacting your confidence in what we’re working on right now.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah said that getting to know students was always important to her. Even before she created the Dear Math assignment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I would often try to connect with them in a variety of ways and I would hear their comments here and there that were both positive and negative. And I always tried to be a really good listener and understand my students’ feelings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But she wasn’t always getting a full picture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes I think I was being a little delusional before I got to hear their whole stories because I would think, ‘Oh, they had really negative experiences. They don’t like math, but now that they’re in my class, everything’s going to be fine.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The letters helped her take off her rose-colored glasses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It wasn’t until I started having them write Dear Math letters that I got to hear more complete stories and gain a bigger picture for their previous experience and how those experiences were informing the ways they were showing up to my class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That knowledge enables her to help students grow as math learners throughout the year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My biggest hope is that they start to see themselves as mathematicians in new ways and that they start to see their peers as mathematically brilliant in new ways.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nimah, it would be great if writing a Dear Math letter helped all students see themselves as capable of doing math – the way it did for Taylor Paris.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It would. But of course not every student’s math story is linear.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No… Some math stories go up and down over time, like a periodic function. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey, nice math analogy! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I got that one from Sarah Strong. She described her own math story that way. It also applies to another of her former students, Isabela Avila. Here’s the start of a Dear Math letter Isabela wrote in tenth grade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] Dear Math, I really like you, but you don’t come naturally to me. I have to work extra hard to understand and fully conceptualize what you have to offer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In previous math classes, Isabela felt pressure to always be fast and have the right answer. But she told me that expectation wasn’t there in Sarah Strong’s class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was never even like a question of like, did you get it right or wrong? It was just seemed like we were always just all learning together, as a class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That sense of togetherness mattered. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And like, I think that really helped me like number one, like, think highly of myself as like a problem solver and also … be confident in my ideas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Isabela had Sarah Strong as a teacher twice, and she wrote a Dear Math letter both times. You can hear her increased confidence in the letter she wrote as a senior.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] The most mathematical growth I feel I have ever experienced was during my junior year. I felt confident in my algebra skills for the first time ever. … My mindset also shifted drastically. I developed a sense of patience and open mindedness for the first time ever. … I know this will help me a lot in college and beyond, and I look forward to using it in the future. Sincerely, Isabela Avila.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Isabela actually got to college, the transition was rocky. She’s a pre-med major at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our like math department is known for being like notoriously hard.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All around her, Isabela saw classmates who had come from elite high schools and seemed to understand calculus more easily than she did.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I really struggled a lot with like comparing myself, especially in math. And I just found that to be super, super counter-productive for both my learning and like my self esteem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes she would break down crying while doing homework, which could take eight hours to complete. In class, she didn’t participate as much as she had hoped to.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I just really didn’t want to sound like I didn’t know what I was talking about or like, not that I don’t belong there, but I don’t know. It was just, everyone around me was so smart. And I know, like, tests don’t define you, but everyone around me, like, even if they were starting in calc one, they, like, got fives on like the AP calc exams and did exceptionally well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Back in high school, Isabela had written in one of her letters that she’d had a lot of highs and lows with math. Freshman year of college was definitely another low.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I talked to her during her sophomore year at Johns Hopkins, being a premed major was still very stressful. Something that helped, though, was making friends who didn’t talk about grades.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We don’t talk about, like, what score we got. We don’t talk about how we’re doing in the class. We don’t talk about — honestly we don’t talk that much about like our actual like school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And she said the persistence that she developed in high school did help her get through calculus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Especially in math here in college, like, I feel like how you think about yourself and like how fast you are to like, get back up and keep trying is really, truly so much more important than if you can actually do the math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Kara, the way Isabela compared herself to her calculus classmates isn’t unique to being at a university full of high achievers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s right. Sarah Strong said those comparisons have been pervasive in students’ Dear Math letters. And according to experts, this kind of thinking starts early.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Researchers say even kindergarteners start to notice their spot in the pecking order of math ability.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It often starts with those one-minute math quizzes that so many of us remember.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sound of pencils scribbling and slamming down\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students might hear their classmates furiously scribbling answers and slamming their pencils down when they finish. They equate that with being “good” at math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And there are lots of other ways in school that students are ranked and sorted. In younger grades, teachers often group students by ability when they’re practicing math. In upper grades, students may get tracked into ‘regular’ and ‘advanced’ classes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some teachers will even publicly display kids’ progress in certain math skills. This can look like a bulletin board that uses paper ice cream scoops to represent how many multiplication facts each student knows.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One researcher I talked to had a lot of ideas about how to disrupt hierarchies in math education. This is Rachel Lambert, from University of California, Santa Barbara.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think if there’s one one thing I’d like to communicate, it’s that teachers and parents can affect the way kids think about these things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel shared five tips that teachers can use to help kids stop comparing themselves to others in math. The first tip is to change the narrative about who can do math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students would tell me how much it mattered to them to hear their teacher say, ‘There is no difference in who can be good at math.’ Like very clear messages around race and gender and the clear message that there is no one group of people that is better in math than other people, those students told me that was helpful to them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Changing the narrative isn’t just about what we say to kids. It’s also about how teachers talk to each other. And how they group students in class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We might think as teachers – and I was a teacher for over 10 years – that kids don’t know that we might be calling them low kids or high kids when we’re having lunch with other teachers. … But they know, they always know and they know how they’re being grouped and classified and seen. … If we decide that kids are going to do well in mathematics, we do a lot of things in our teaching to set them up for success day after day. If we think kids will fail when we hand them a mathematical task, we’re doing subtle things to set them up for failure every single time we do that. So if we put them in groups that never change, we’re teaching them who they are and we’re also affecting who they become, because we’re only allowing them opportunities to do things quote-unquote at their level. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel’s second tip for teachers is to stop focusing on speed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Think of it not as a matter of going slow. Think of it as investing in certain things. So you can’t hit everything on your pacing calendar. You can’t do every standard every year with your students. You have to figure out what is worth investment and what is worth extra time, and then spend more time with those topics so that students feel that they have enough time learning those things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her third tip is to normalize mistakes. It can help students learn from each other’s thinking when you have them share their mistakes. Rachel told me about a teacher who did this.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She would even put a little heart next to a mistake and she’d be, ‘This was my favorite mistake of the day.’ And she drew a little heart next to it. And the kids would go, ‘awww.’ It’s adorable.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Tip number four is to give students problems that can be approached from multiple angles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I see that some kids really love to engage in the visual aspect of a problem. Other students like to make, say, an organized list. And that doesn’t mean – there’s no such thing as learning styles; it doesn’t mean that that’s the way they’re going to approach every problem, but it does mean that a problem that draws on multiple ways of engaging can be more rich mathematically and also disrupt ideas of who’s the best at math and who isn’t.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel Lambert’s fifth and final tip is to make supports available to everyone.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That is the one of the simplest interventions you can do in math to make it more equitable … And it doesn’t send any negative messages to kids because they are choosing if they want to use a calculator. They are choosing if they want to hear the directions a second time. They are choosing if they use manipulatives.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Making these resources available to everyone takes the teacher’s assumptions out of the equation. And it helps kids develop the skills to recognize what they need to succeed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kara, there are some people who say math teachers should just focus on content. That activities like writing letters to math are more about self-esteem than learning.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These goals don’t have to be separate. Direct instruction and problem-solving practice are essential parts of math education. But like we said at the beginning, doing math involves emotions. Although we’ve heard a lot about the frustrating parts of math, it can also evoke positive emotions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kids who are absorbed in math problem-solving often express wonder and excitement.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Listening to young people’s stories and honoring all of these emotions allows students to be more human in math class. And that doesn’t just make them \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">believe \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in their math abilities, it empowers them to learn math and to do math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode would not have been possible without Sarah Strong. To learn more about Dear Math letters, you can read the book she wrote with her former student, Gigi Butterfield. The book is called, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math: Why Kids Hate Math and What Teachers Can Do About It.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks also to Taylor Paris, Isabela Avila, Rachel Lambert and Amy Parks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The MindShift team includes Nimah Gobir, Ki Sung, Marlena Jackson-Retondo and me, Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Chris Hoff engineered this episode.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldaña and Holly Kernan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you love MindShift, and enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. We really appreciate it. You can also read more or subscribe to our newsletter at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/mindshift\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">kqed.org/mindshift\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Thank you for listening to Season 8 of the MindShift podcast. That’s it for these deep dive episodes. We’re taking a little break, but we’ll be back soon with new episodes featuring conversations about big ideas in education. Be sure to follow the show or subscribe so you don’t miss a thing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003cem>View the full episode transcript\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Walking into her sophomore year math class, Taylor Paris was nervous. She’d had a rocky relationship with the subject ever since long division showed up in elementary school. “I knew I didn’t understand math concepts very well. I knew that it was something that took me a longer time (than classmates),” she recalled.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So she was pleasantly surprised when one of the first assignments from teacher Sarah Strong required no calculating. Instead, Strong asked the class to write a letter to math – as if it were a person. These \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60108/using-dear-math-letters-to-overcome-dread-in-math-class\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Dear Math” letters\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are a tool that Strong developed as a way to understand students’ relationship to math, which researchers call \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/jmetc/article/view/9187/4897\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">mathematical identity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. What Strong learns from these letters informs how she teaches individual students and whole classes throughout the year. Often that means working to disrupt the negative beliefs that students hold about their math abilities, which tend to revolve around comparisons to classmates, like “fast” vs. “slow” or “math person” vs. “not a math person.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong models the Dear Math activity by reading her own letter to math. Then she gives students prompts, such as:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is one of your greatest mathematical strengths?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you plan to engage with math in the future?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What would you like more of in math classrooms?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, who is now 20, was excited to apply her writing skills in math, but also to unpack some of her deeply rooted emotions about math. “I was finally able to write all of the things that made me sad and things that made me mad, like everything into one letter, addressing math directly,” she said. Here’s what she wrote in 10th grade: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, do I have some things to say to you. You’ve followed me through every school year, caused me the worst headaches, and given me numerous counts of anxiety just thinking about you … The memories of my seventh grade math teacher telling me ‘maybe you’re just not a math person’ still ringing in my head and the constant Bs and Cs are still imprinted in my mind. You’ve been a never ending challenge and struggle, and it’s always been hard to understand you. No matter how many times my friends and teachers explain you, I never grasp you completely.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Paris, having a teacher acknowledge emotions in math class was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54980/why-teachers-want-math-with-more-human-ties\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">humanizing\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “She recognized my experience as a part of this really big experience that so many other people have. And that was really validating,” Paris said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong devotes a few hours to reading the letters, making notes about broad patterns and individual details. “It’s the beginning of an ongoing story between you and the students and their math experience for that semester or year, and it’s really important to start by listening to them well,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Hierarchy in math education\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong teaches at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.hightechhigh.org/about/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">High Tech High\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and its Graduate School of Education in San Diego. She developed the Dear Math routine almost a decade ago, and she published a book about it, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.10publications.com/dear-math\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math: Why Kids Hate Math And What Teachers Can Do About It\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, co-authored by her former\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">student Gigi Butterfield. In it, the teacher and former student reflect on the themes across hundreds of letters. One pervasive theme is hierarchy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Kids as young as kindergarten and first grade are defining themselves as good at math or not good at math,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/amynoelleparks\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amy Parks\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an elementary math education researcher at Michigan State University. Much of that definition comes from how they rank among classmates – from timed tests, to ‘high’ and ‘low’ groups, to subtle cues in teachers’ language. “I’ve been in classrooms where teachers have had kids line up by how many questions they answered or how many things they got right,” Parks said. “These hierarchies get reinforced so often and in so many different ways it’s almost overwhelming.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many kids, the comparisons add up to a negative self-perception around math. And by the time they reach high school, that mathematical identity can feel immutable. But math class doesn’t have to be this way. “Teachers and parents can affect the way kids think about these things,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mathematizing4all.com/about-the-author/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel Lambert\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a professor and researcher at University of California, Santa Barbara.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s a stubborn cultural \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54389/3-ways-to-shape-math-into-a-positive-experience\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">myth that some of us are “math people” and some of us aren’t\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This idea gets repeated explicitly all the time, and often \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aah6524\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">implicitly with gendered and racialized associations\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. But neuroscience shows that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youcubed.org/resources/brain-science/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">everyone is capable of learning math\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and Lambert said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/57997/how-to-build-students-math-confidence-with-culturally-sustaining-teaching-practices\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">it matters that kids hear that\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “Students connect subjects to teachers in a pretty intense way that I think as adults we often forget. So if they feel their math teacher believes in them as a human being and believes in their competence in mathematics, that can make a huge difference,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Strong’s classroom, listening to students’ stories is the first step toward disrupting those hierarchies. She also looks for ways to highlight students’ mathematical thinking on a daily basis. One way she does this is by having multiple students write their problem-solving ideas on the whiteboard and asking other students to comment on what they like about the strategies they see. Another routine is an exit ticket that asks students to share something they learned from a classmate that day. She might share the details the next day with a student who was mentioned or with the whole class if there’s a bigger lesson in it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Math is for everyone\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Isabela Avila, another of Strong’s former students, said these kinds of practices created a sense of community: “It was never even like a question of did you get it right or wrong. It just seemed like we were always just all learning together as a class.” She had Strong as a teacher twice and wrote Dear Math letters both times. In her letter as a sophomore, her self-doubts showed up in the first sentence:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math, I really like you, but you don’t come naturally to me. I have to work extra hard to understand and fully conceptualize what you have to offer.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In her letter as a senior, Avila wrote about her math growth over the prior two years:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I developed a sense of patience and open mindedness for the first time ever. … I know this will help me a lot in college and beyond, and I look forward to using it in the future.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Avila got to the highly competitive environment of Johns Hopkins University, however, the usual order of things returned. “I really struggled a lot with comparing myself, especially in math,” she said, discussing her freshman year. “And I just found that to be super, super counterproductive for both my learning and my self esteem.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong said her own math story has had a lot of highs and lows, too. Though she can’t protect students from the ways math is taught and talked about beyond her classroom, her hope is that before they leave high school, “they start to see themselves as mathematicians in new ways and that they start to see their peers as mathematically brilliant in new ways.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Avila, the persistence she developed in high school did pay off in the long, emotionally tough hours of college calculus. “I feel like how you think about yourself and how fast you are to get back up and keep trying is really, truly so much more important than if you can actually do the math,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fast and slow\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, Strong’s former student who liked expressing her emotions in a Dear Math letter, still remembers the heart-racing stress that accompanied \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61712/do-math-drills-help-children-learn\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">timed multiplication tests\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in third grade. In Strong’s classroom, she said, there was never a timer. When Paris needed extra support, Strong brought out old algebra textbooks to reinforce foundational concepts. She designed projects where Paris could make connections between math and art – a subject that she already loved. Most importantly, Strong helped Paris learn how to break down complex problems into smaller steps. “Which is such a simple concept, but it didn’t even cross my mind that I could do that in math,” said Paris. “And that taking my time in math meant that I was being a mathematician.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Many students have this conception that they’re the only one who’s taking time to understand this concept, that everybody around them has already got it,” said Lambert, the UC Santa Barbara professor. Lambert suggested that teachers can reduce the rush of the pacing calendar by thinking of it not as going slowly but choosing where to invest time. “You can’t do every standard every year with your students. You have to figure out what is worth investment, and then spend more time with those topics so that students feel that they have enough time learning those things,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Strong’s view, this requires shifting away from math instruction that is built around the ideas the teacher wants to get to in a given period. Student-centered instruction requires a lot more listening, she said: “Listening first off to their stories and how they’re showing up to class, and then second off (listening to) the ways that they are thinking of and understanding and making sense of mathematical ideas.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, who had Strong as a teacher for three years, said that time transformed her. She now works at a bridal shop, where she was recently promoted from stylist to sales manager – a role that involves a lot of math. “If I want to teach my stylists how to increase their productivity in their sales, then I need to think like a mathematician and come up with the ways that I can do that,” she explained. In tenth grade, that would have scared her. Not now. “There’s no reason for me to be afraid of math because I’ve proven to myself time and time again that I can do it,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC8301605465&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Welcome to MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today we’re talking about math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Because it involves numbers and formulas, we often think of math as straightforward and objective.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But learning math is actually packed with emotions. I met a high school teacher who starts the year with an unusual assignment. She has her students write a letter to math, describing their feelings about the subject. Here’s that teacher, Sarah Strong.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Dear Math letter is a letter that students write to math as if math were personified sitting across the table from them. … And it really helps inform teachers better understand the students stories and experiences that they’re coming to class with so that teachers can better design math experiences for students to thrive and flourish in math class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We’ll hear more from Sarah later in the episode. First, here’s part of a Dear Math letter from one of her former students, Taylor Paris.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] Dear math, Oh, do I have some things to say to you. You’ve followed me throughout every school year, caused me the worst headaches, and given me numerous counts of anxiety just thinking about you … The memories of my seventh grade math teacher telling me, ‘Maybe you’re just not a math person’ still ringing in my head, and the constant Bs and Cs are still imprinted in my mind. You’ve been a never ending challenge and struggle, and it’s always been hard to understand you. No matter how many times my friends and teachers explain you, I never grasp you completely.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The anxiety and frustration that Taylor described in her letter are familiar feelings for many young people. And by the time students get to high school, it can feel like if they don’t understand math now, they never will.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But math doesn’t have to be this way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When we get back from the break, we’ll hear more about Dear Math letters and how they help students like Taylor strengthen their mathematical identities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taylor Paris graduated high school a few years ago, but she still remembers the first week of tenth grade math with her teacher Sarah Strong. That’s when students wrote letters to math, as if it were a person.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I remember being so excited because basically you’re writing in math, and that’s never the case.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Interdisciplinary learning allows students to think about a subject from new perspectives. For Taylor, writing the Dear Math letter gave her a chance to reflect on how her early school years shaped her relationship to math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I remember, my first, like, scariness of math was long division, because it was like so abstract to me, and everyone around me understood it and was just like, ‘Yeah, well that’s just the way it is and that’s totally fine.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Writing about those memories was cathartic. It also helped Taylor feel connected to her teacher.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I have never had a math teacher talk about emotions behind math ever. Like, truly ever … She recognized my experience as a part of this really big experience that so many other people have. And that was really validating.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her teacher, Sarah Strong, also made it clear that it was okay for those feelings to surface throughout the year. Which made it possible for Taylor to focus on actually learning math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She did a great job at making me feel like I could take a really complex problem and break it down to the bare bones of it, which is such a simple concept. But it didn’t even cross my mind that I could do that in math and that taking my time in math meant that I was being a mathematician. And that’s what mathematicians did, was take their time and work on problems slowly to really understand every aspect.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I met Taylor, she had just been promoted from a stylist to a sales manager at a bridal shop in San Diego. That’s a fashion job that involves a lot of math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So stylists are responsible for obviously, you know, the customer service side of things, but on the sales side, there is a certain goal that you need to meet or would ideally meet day to day and kind of week to day, month to day. …\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so when you think about it, sales is like one big math problem every day because there’s a question, there’s an answer that you have to get to, and then there’s variables that go into, you know, the answer to your problem, essentially.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taylor is 20. Not that long ago, doing a math-related job would have been unimaginable to her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you told sophomore year Taylor that I would be doing something that was directly correlated with math and numbers all the time, I would be terrified and probably laugh.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor had Sarah Strong as a math teacher from 10th grade through 12th grade. She said that those years totally changed her view of math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so while I may have been scared to take a sales manager position at, you know, in my sophomore year, it makes a ton of sense for me now because what I do is help people find their wedding dress. And who would have thought that math was in finding a wedding dress?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor now sees herself as a doer of math. This is what’s called mathematical identity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We did an episode featuring Chris Emdin, who talked about students’ STEM identities. Mathematical identity is one form of a STEM identity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mathematical identity is a way that students see themselves as a mathematician, and therefore it connects to the ways that they enter into mathematical spaces and connect with other mathematicians around them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s teacher Sarah Strong again. She created the Dear Math activity during a bigger project where students were exploring their mathematical identities. They were using different types of math as metaphors for their experiences. And Sarah wanted to add a writing component to that project.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And one of my colleagues shared with me the idea of writing letters to a thing like books or basketball, and how she’d heard of that practice. And she thought I could do Dear Math letters, and I thought that was an amazing idea. So I ran with it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The letters were powerful. And Sarah realized that having students write them at the beginning of the year could help her teach each class better. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s how she does it now. She introduces the assignment during the first week of school. She reads her own Dear Math letter as a model, because most students aren’t used to writing in math class. Hearing her letter also lets them know that even though she teaches math, it hasn’t always been easy for her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After reading her letter, Sarah gives her students prompts for writing their own. Questions like…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is one of your greatest mathematical strengths?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you plan to engage with math in the future?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What would you like more of in math classrooms?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They spend 15 to 30 minutes writing in class. Anyone who wants to write more can finish at home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then Sarah reads the letters on her own. She says this is the most important step.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">‘Cause it’s the beginning of an ongoing story between you and the students and their math experience for that semester or year, and it’s really important to start by listening to them well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She first looks for broad patterns across the class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If I’ve got a disproportionate amount of students that hate math, don’t think they’re mathematicians, that I have to be really intentional about my class design, where I am regularly noticing and calling out their mathematical strengths and giving them opportunities to see themselves as mathematicians and see each other as mathematicians.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or do I have a lot of students who, who feel like ‘I am a really strong mathematician. Ever since I was young, I get all the right answers. I’m really fast.’ Then I can note that that’s a trend in the class and be thinking how I can continue to push those students while also broadening their understanding of how they are mathematical and how important it is to also listen to other students’ ways of being mathematical.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She also reads the letters for individual details about things students love and things that trip them up. She might make a few notes and …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Check in with students like, ‘Gosh, I remember you said that you had a really hard time with the idea of percents and like whenever percents come up, you panic. Well, tomorrow we’re going to need some percents in our work with exponential functions. And so I wanted to make sure that you knew that I believe that you’ve got this. If you want to do a little practice beforehand, we can do that because I want you to feel confident. I don’t want some story from sixth grade impacting your confidence in what we’re working on right now.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah said that getting to know students was always important to her. Even before she created the Dear Math assignment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I would often try to connect with them in a variety of ways and I would hear their comments here and there that were both positive and negative. And I always tried to be a really good listener and understand my students’ feelings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But she wasn’t always getting a full picture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes I think I was being a little delusional before I got to hear their whole stories because I would think, ‘Oh, they had really negative experiences. They don’t like math, but now that they’re in my class, everything’s going to be fine.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The letters helped her take off her rose-colored glasses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It wasn’t until I started having them write Dear Math letters that I got to hear more complete stories and gain a bigger picture for their previous experience and how those experiences were informing the ways they were showing up to my class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That knowledge enables her to help students grow as math learners throughout the year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My biggest hope is that they start to see themselves as mathematicians in new ways and that they start to see their peers as mathematically brilliant in new ways.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nimah, it would be great if writing a Dear Math letter helped all students see themselves as capable of doing math – the way it did for Taylor Paris.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It would. But of course not every student’s math story is linear.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No… Some math stories go up and down over time, like a periodic function. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey, nice math analogy! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I got that one from Sarah Strong. She described her own math story that way. It also applies to another of her former students, Isabela Avila. Here’s the start of a Dear Math letter Isabela wrote in tenth grade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] Dear Math, I really like you, but you don’t come naturally to me. I have to work extra hard to understand and fully conceptualize what you have to offer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In previous math classes, Isabela felt pressure to always be fast and have the right answer. But she told me that expectation wasn’t there in Sarah Strong’s class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was never even like a question of like, did you get it right or wrong? It was just seemed like we were always just all learning together, as a class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That sense of togetherness mattered. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And like, I think that really helped me like number one, like, think highly of myself as like a problem solver and also … be confident in my ideas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Isabela had Sarah Strong as a teacher twice, and she wrote a Dear Math letter both times. You can hear her increased confidence in the letter she wrote as a senior.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] The most mathematical growth I feel I have ever experienced was during my junior year. I felt confident in my algebra skills for the first time ever. … My mindset also shifted drastically. I developed a sense of patience and open mindedness for the first time ever. … I know this will help me a lot in college and beyond, and I look forward to using it in the future. Sincerely, Isabela Avila.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Isabela actually got to college, the transition was rocky. She’s a pre-med major at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our like math department is known for being like notoriously hard.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All around her, Isabela saw classmates who had come from elite high schools and seemed to understand calculus more easily than she did.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I really struggled a lot with like comparing myself, especially in math. And I just found that to be super, super counter-productive for both my learning and like my self esteem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes she would break down crying while doing homework, which could take eight hours to complete. In class, she didn’t participate as much as she had hoped to.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I just really didn’t want to sound like I didn’t know what I was talking about or like, not that I don’t belong there, but I don’t know. It was just, everyone around me was so smart. And I know, like, tests don’t define you, but everyone around me, like, even if they were starting in calc one, they, like, got fives on like the AP calc exams and did exceptionally well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Back in high school, Isabela had written in one of her letters that she’d had a lot of highs and lows with math. Freshman year of college was definitely another low.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I talked to her during her sophomore year at Johns Hopkins, being a premed major was still very stressful. Something that helped, though, was making friends who didn’t talk about grades.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We don’t talk about, like, what score we got. We don’t talk about how we’re doing in the class. We don’t talk about — honestly we don’t talk that much about like our actual like school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And she said the persistence that she developed in high school did help her get through calculus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Especially in math here in college, like, I feel like how you think about yourself and like how fast you are to like, get back up and keep trying is really, truly so much more important than if you can actually do the math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Kara, the way Isabela compared herself to her calculus classmates isn’t unique to being at a university full of high achievers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s right. Sarah Strong said those comparisons have been pervasive in students’ Dear Math letters. And according to experts, this kind of thinking starts early.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Researchers say even kindergarteners start to notice their spot in the pecking order of math ability.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It often starts with those one-minute math quizzes that so many of us remember.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sound of pencils scribbling and slamming down\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students might hear their classmates furiously scribbling answers and slamming their pencils down when they finish. They equate that with being “good” at math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And there are lots of other ways in school that students are ranked and sorted. In younger grades, teachers often group students by ability when they’re practicing math. In upper grades, students may get tracked into ‘regular’ and ‘advanced’ classes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some teachers will even publicly display kids’ progress in certain math skills. This can look like a bulletin board that uses paper ice cream scoops to represent how many multiplication facts each student knows.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One researcher I talked to had a lot of ideas about how to disrupt hierarchies in math education. This is Rachel Lambert, from University of California, Santa Barbara.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think if there’s one one thing I’d like to communicate, it’s that teachers and parents can affect the way kids think about these things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel shared five tips that teachers can use to help kids stop comparing themselves to others in math. The first tip is to change the narrative about who can do math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students would tell me how much it mattered to them to hear their teacher say, ‘There is no difference in who can be good at math.’ Like very clear messages around race and gender and the clear message that there is no one group of people that is better in math than other people, those students told me that was helpful to them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Changing the narrative isn’t just about what we say to kids. It’s also about how teachers talk to each other. And how they group students in class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We might think as teachers – and I was a teacher for over 10 years – that kids don’t know that we might be calling them low kids or high kids when we’re having lunch with other teachers. … But they know, they always know and they know how they’re being grouped and classified and seen. … If we decide that kids are going to do well in mathematics, we do a lot of things in our teaching to set them up for success day after day. If we think kids will fail when we hand them a mathematical task, we’re doing subtle things to set them up for failure every single time we do that. So if we put them in groups that never change, we’re teaching them who they are and we’re also affecting who they become, because we’re only allowing them opportunities to do things quote-unquote at their level. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel’s second tip for teachers is to stop focusing on speed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Think of it not as a matter of going slow. Think of it as investing in certain things. So you can’t hit everything on your pacing calendar. You can’t do every standard every year with your students. You have to figure out what is worth investment and what is worth extra time, and then spend more time with those topics so that students feel that they have enough time learning those things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her third tip is to normalize mistakes. It can help students learn from each other’s thinking when you have them share their mistakes. Rachel told me about a teacher who did this.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She would even put a little heart next to a mistake and she’d be, ‘This was my favorite mistake of the day.’ And she drew a little heart next to it. And the kids would go, ‘awww.’ It’s adorable.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Tip number four is to give students problems that can be approached from multiple angles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I see that some kids really love to engage in the visual aspect of a problem. Other students like to make, say, an organized list. And that doesn’t mean – there’s no such thing as learning styles; it doesn’t mean that that’s the way they’re going to approach every problem, but it does mean that a problem that draws on multiple ways of engaging can be more rich mathematically and also disrupt ideas of who’s the best at math and who isn’t.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel Lambert’s fifth and final tip is to make supports available to everyone.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That is the one of the simplest interventions you can do in math to make it more equitable … And it doesn’t send any negative messages to kids because they are choosing if they want to use a calculator. They are choosing if they want to hear the directions a second time. They are choosing if they use manipulatives.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Making these resources available to everyone takes the teacher’s assumptions out of the equation. And it helps kids develop the skills to recognize what they need to succeed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kara, there are some people who say math teachers should just focus on content. That activities like writing letters to math are more about self-esteem than learning.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These goals don’t have to be separate. Direct instruction and problem-solving practice are essential parts of math education. But like we said at the beginning, doing math involves emotions. Although we’ve heard a lot about the frustrating parts of math, it can also evoke positive emotions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kids who are absorbed in math problem-solving often express wonder and excitement.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Listening to young people’s stories and honoring all of these emotions allows students to be more human in math class. And that doesn’t just make them \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">believe \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in their math abilities, it empowers them to learn math and to do math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode would not have been possible without Sarah Strong. To learn more about Dear Math letters, you can read the book she wrote with her former student, Gigi Butterfield. The book is called, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math: Why Kids Hate Math and What Teachers Can Do About It.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks also to Taylor Paris, Isabela Avila, Rachel Lambert and Amy Parks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The MindShift team includes Nimah Gobir, Ki Sung, Marlena Jackson-Retondo and me, Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Chris Hoff engineered this episode.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldaña and Holly Kernan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you love MindShift, and enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. We really appreciate it. You can also read more or subscribe to our newsletter at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/mindshift\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">kqed.org/mindshift\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Thank you for listening to Season 8 of the MindShift podcast. That’s it for these deep dive episodes. We’re taking a little break, but we’ll be back soon with new episodes featuring conversations about big ideas in education. Be sure to follow the show or subscribe so you don’t miss a thing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"slug": "teaching-kids-the-right-way-to-say-im-sorry",
"title": "Teaching Kids the Right Way to Say 'I’m sorry'",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a common scenario – one that plays out in schools and homes all the time. A child hurts another child, physically or emotionally. Grownups are called in to arbitrate. The adult tells one – or perhaps all – of the kids to say, “I’m sorry.” Those two words are uttered, and all is supposed to be well. But the resolution is often lopsided. “When you just do that quick apology, you feel better, you move on,” said fifth grade teacher Rayna Freedman. “But oftentimes the other person is still left with a bucket of feelings.” She remembers that from her own childhood, and she sees it all the time in her classroom at Jordan Jackson Elementary School in Mansfield, Massachusetts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s why, for the last few years, she’s been teaching her students how to give more meaningful apologies. During these lessons, the fifth graders practice not only saying “I’m sorry,” but acknowledging why their actions were wrong, offering to repair harm, and promising not to repeat the behavior.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Effective apologies require empathy, perspective-taking, honesty and courage – all \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58790/why-kindness-and-emotional-literacy-matters-in-raising-kids\">qualities that schools and parents try to cultivate in children\u003c/a>. Freedman has seen that teaching how to apologize well changes her students’ interactions with each other and with her for the better. “These types of lessons really build empathy in kids because now they’re able to clearly understand that even though I don’t [or] might not realize I did something wrong, I still hurt this other human being somehow,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Role-playing apologies\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Explicit lessons on giving good apologies are rare for kids, and they live in a world full of adults who aren’t great at the task, either. “I think there are lots of people who just think of an apology as something that mean people force you to do,” said Susan McCarthy, co-author of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/19/1150075861/authors-explain-how-and-why-to-apologize-the-right-way\">Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “Now they’re a grown up, nobody can make them apologize and they’re not going\u003c/span> to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">McCarthy and her co-author, Marjorie Ingall, are also the pens behind \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sorrywatch.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">SorryWatch\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a website that analyzes apologies in the news, pop culture and history. SorryWatch is full of examples of bad apologies, such as actors who \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sorrywatch.com/no-it-is-not-the-tradition-to-sacrifice-a-sound-guy/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tweet “I’m sorry \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">if\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> athletes who \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sorrywatch.com/5370/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">make excuses with their apologies\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and corporations that issue apology statements \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sorrywatch.com/a-horrid-apology-from-lufthansa-right-out-of-the-gate/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">without ever naming what happened\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sorrywatch.com/sweet-glittery-apologies-in-the-real-world/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Good apologies\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are rare, but they don’t have to be. “The nice thing about good apologies is that the form is actually really simple. It’s the doing it that is hard, not the steps themselves,” said Ingall.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like most hard things, apologizing is easier when you’ve had practice. In Freedman’s fifth grade class, she teaches seven steps to a meaningful apology. Her lessons were inspired by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/rlfreedm/status/1343305366449369092\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a sketchnote by educator Sylvia Duckworth\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, ideas about ‘brave spaces’ from educator \u003ca href=\"https://www.kennethshelton.net/\">Kenneth Shelton\u003c/a>,\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and a podcast episode with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://brenebrown.com/podcast/harriet-lerner-and-brene-im-sorry-how-to-apologize-why-it-matters-part-1-of-2/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">psychologist Harriet Lerner and author Brené Brown\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Thanks @sylviaduckworth \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/BreneBrown?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BreneBrown\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/HarrietLerner?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@HarrietLerner\u003c/a> 4 inspiring this conversation 2 have w/Ss. I’ve been planning a lesson on how to apologize & \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> post gave me the kick I needed. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/SlidesManiaSM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SlidesManiaSM\u003c/a> TY for your template! \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/remotelearning?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#remotelearning\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/ditchbook?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ditchbook\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/etmeZxl4em\">https://t.co/etmeZxl4em\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/V39R9KADAg\">https://t.co/V39R9KADAg\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Rayna Freedman, Ed.D (@rlfreedm) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/rlfreedm/status/1343305366449369092?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 27, 2020\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Freedman teaches the lessons during morning meetings, a period when her class does community-building activities. She covers one step per day, and students role-play with made-up scenarios, such as tripping a classmate at recess or plagiarizing their homework.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For most students, steps like saying why their behavior was wrong and asking “How can I make this better?” are new terrain. “Just getting them to talk and have a conversation about it and be in that driver’s seat to practice is huge because you can’t just teach them a step and then not actually have them practice it and use it,” Freedman said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition to role-playing, students discuss why the steps matter, what bad apologies sound like, and how it feels to receive good and bad apologies. They also talk about the difference between when they want to apologize and when they’re told to apologize. For Freedman, that’s important because there’s no point in apologizing if they haven’t truly accepted responsibility. It’s also important because not every instance someone demands or expects an apology from another person is valid. Freedman can still remember the injustice of being required to apologize for things she didn’t do as a kid or where her feelings weren’t being heard.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There are times where the adults do need to listen to kids and what they’re saying and what they’re feeling. And kids need to be empowered and know that they have a voice and be able to share that voice,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">McCarthy and Ingall said that not listening to kids is one of several common mistakes adults make when teaching (or telling) kids to say “I’m sorry.” Others include:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Not modeling good apologies.\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This can mean giving bad apologies or just doing their apologies in private where kids don’t get to see and hear them.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Scolding children \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>after \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>they’ve apologized. \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This creates an association in the child’s memory between apologizing and being reprimanded, making them less inclined to apologize in the future.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Requiring kids to kiss or hug after an apology.\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “Apologies are with words, not with touching,” said Ingall.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Showing up with bravery\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Throughout her lessons, Freedman shares apology examples from her own life. She said that hearing her stories and each others’ experiences is validating for students. It also normalizes screwing up sometimes while building skills to move forward from those mistakes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think the whole thing with going through this is [that] it’s humbling, right?” she said. “It’s teaching people to accept responsibility for something they’ve done. And not everybody can do that.” After these lessons, her fifth graders can. Freedman has seen students put the steps into practice in her classroom and on the playground. She’s also heard about her students teaching other kids or family members how to apologize better.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Samantha Huffenus, mom to one of Freedman’s recent students, said she’d noticed the difference in her son. “Caleb has actually gotten much better about apologizing just in the very, very recent past,” she said a few months after the lessons. “He used to send text messages when he felt like he owed an apology to one of us, usually his dad or I. And the other day he came downstairs and he apologized [for something] and he accepted it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The face-to-face acknowledgement made the apology feel more genuine, Huffenus said. For his part, Caleb said that the steps he learned in class feel better than a hasty, two-word apology. “I feel like the person appreciates it much more, that I actually care about saying sorry,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s one step in the seven from Freedman’s lessons that McCarthy and Ingall, the SorryWatch writers, disagree with. It’s asking forgiveness, which they leave out of their own \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sorrywatch.com/louder-for-the-folks-in-the-back-the-6-5-steps-to-a-good-apology/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">guidance for a good apology\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “We think forgiveness is a gift to be granted. And it’s rude to ask for a gift,” Ingall explained. That difference aside, the authors find it encouraging to see teachers bringing apologies lessons into classrooms. “Apologies are an essential part of building the world we want to live in,” Ingall said. “And I would hope that parents and teachers can work together on creating this kind of much more civilized, beautiful world.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That sentiment echoes Freedman’s vision for her classroom. Her apologies lessons are part of a year-long effort to prompt students to reflect on how they show up in school, at home and in their community. She models showing up in brave and honest ways by sharing her own mistakes and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/teachers-apologizing-students_n_60ae80d0e4b0d45b7531b0d3\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">apologizing to students\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> when necessary. And she hopes the effects of these lessons will carry on when students leave her classroom.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I feel that I am teaching kids life skills beyond how to solve a math problem or how to read and decode a text,” she said. “Those are the things that – state standards, Common Core – that we have to teach. But I teach humans.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Humans make mistakes. And to make things better, humans apologize.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC6212545512&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Welcome to MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Today we’re talking about something that isn’t usually in school curriculum: how to say “I’m sorry.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Students don’t get graded for it, but apologizing is a learned skill. And it can be hard.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fonzie\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Richie, I am sincerely ssss … [\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Laughter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Richie:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Fonz, you don’t have to say ‘I’m sorry.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fonzie\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Good. I won’t.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That was Fonzie in the classic sitcom \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Happy Days\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In the show, his inability to say “sorry” was a running joke. But it’s true that a lot of people have trouble saying those words.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And that’s not the only way to mess up an apology.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We’ve all heard bad apologies. Someone might say they’re sorry but never say what for…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Justin Timberlake:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> What occurred was unintentional…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They might apologize for someone else’s feelings, instead of their own actions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Brittany Dawn Davis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I apologize to anyone who feels like they got scammed from me.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They might try to justify their actions. Or soften their admission of responsibility by saying this isn’t really who they are.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Brown: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I have tried to live my life in a way which can make those around me proud of me, and until recently, I think I was doing a pretty good job.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Those clips were from apologies by pop singer Justin Timberlake, fitness influencer Brittany Dawn and R&B singer Chris Brown. Kids hear bad apologies on TV, in the news, and in their own lives all the time. And they aren’t usually taught how to do it better.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But there’s hope. In today’s episode we’ll learn the elements of a good apology, and we’ll meet a fifth grade teacher who’s helping her students learn the right way to say “I’m sorry.” That’s all after the break.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Psychologists and researchers have developed a variety of models for how to give a good apology.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They all have a few things in common.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Acknowledging what happened and the harm it caused. Actually saying “I’m sorry.” Offering a way to repair harm. And committing to not repeat the behavior.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Kara, we already heard some examples of what bad apologies sound like. Let’s hear a good example.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I talked to Eva Lewis, who works in public engagement for state government. She told me about a pretty big mistake she made as a senior in college. She was supposed to write an honors thesis analyzing foreign aid to developing countries.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Eva Lewis:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I thought I had a resource that had the data I needed for those 40 countries. But then when I got into the data, it did not. It only had like 28 of the countries and there was missing data.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> She told her professor. The professor notified the academic dean that Eva was at risk of not finishing her thesis. Eva was … stressed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Eva Lewis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So my sister gave me a good point. She’s like, ‘Hey, go talk to the academic dean, apologize and talk about how you’re going to rectify it.’ And me, I would have never thought about this. So I made an appointment with the academic dean, and as soon as I sat down with her, I said, ‘Hey, I just wanna apologize. Like, I didn’t do what I needed to do. I should have looked at the data before – completely – before saying I was going to do this and that, this and that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The dean was surprised. She’d heard plenty of excuses from students in her career. But apologies? Not so much.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Eva Lewis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And she just stared at me. She was like. No one’s ever. No one’s ever done that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Eva worked out a plan to narrow the focus of her thesis and find some additional data.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Did you graduate?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Eva Lewis:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yes, I did. With honors.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">laughter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Kara, that does sound like a pretty good apology. She acknowledged what she’d done wrong, actually said ‘I’m sorry,’ and made a plan to fix the problem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The other thing I love about Eva’s story is that her sister suggested she apologize AND gave her tips for how to do it. Most of us don’t get models like that as kids or even as young adults.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susan McCarthy: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think there are lots of people who just think of apology as something that, that mean people force you to do. Now they’re a grown up. Nobody can make them apologize and they’re not going to.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s Susan McCarthy. She’s one of the creators of SorryWatch, a website that analyzes apologies in the news, pop culture and history.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susan McCarthy: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We take them apart and we say, ‘This is good and here’s why. This is bad and here’s why.’ It turns out that there’s a big appetite out there for ‘Why did that apology not leave me feeling good?’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Susan and her SorryWatch partner, Marjorie Ingall, also wrote a book. It’s called \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In one chapter, Susan and Marjorie write about the things grown-ups get wrong when dealing with children and apologies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Sometimes when a parent or a teacher just wants kids to stop fighting, they’ll tell everyone involved to say “sorry” without finding out what really happened.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It takes longer, but when adults make time and space to listen to children who are fighting, the kids can feel heard. That makes it more likely that when they do say “I’m sorry,” they’ll mean it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another thing that grown-ups often do is lecture kids after they’ve already apologized.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Susan compared this to a mistake new dog owners make. Imagine you’ve got an energetic puppy running around, and it doesn’t come when you call it. You call its name a few times, and when it finally comes…you yell “bad dog!”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susan McCarthy: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’re not rewarding the dog for coming. You’re punishing it for coming. So the next time the dog goes, ‘ehh, she’s calling me, but she’s just going to get mad at me, so I’ll just stay out of arm’s reach.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So when an adult scolds a child after they’ve apologized, it creates a link in the child’s brain between saying “sorry” and that negative reaction.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Marjorie, Susan’s co-author, suggested a better way to respond.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Marjorie Ingall:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When a kid apologizes to you, even though you’re angry for the thing that the kid is apologizing for, you know, I think we have to take a step back and have the first response be, ‘Thank you for apologizing. I know that was difficult. Where do you think we go from here?’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kara, everything we’ve talked about so far is about how to respond after a problem occurs. What can we do to proactively teach kids about apologies before they need to give one?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Nimah, we don’t usually think about it this way, but learning social-emotional skills is like playing a sport or an instrument. You need to learn some basics and practice in a supportive setting before you can apply it when the stakes are higher.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I met a fifth grade teacher who is creating that kind of learning space for her students. Because it’s hard to teach this sort of lesson in the heat of the moment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I hear a lot of “I’m sorry.” And then they move on. But the other person’s still sitting there like, “What is happening?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Dr. Rayna Freedman teaches at Jordan Jackson Elementary School in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Since fifth grade is the final year before middle school, it’s her job to prepare students for that. She sees this goal as more than just academic.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I feel that I am teaching kids life skills beyond how to solve a math problem or how to read and decode a text. Those are the things that state standards, right, Common Core, that we have to teach. But I teach humans.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the ways this idea of “teaching humans” comes into play is during morning meetings. That’s when the class does activities that Dr. Freedman designed to help her fifth graders figure out who they want to be in the world.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We do a lot of talking about what a brave space is. We read this poem from Facing History & Ourselves that talks about how there’s no such thing as a safe space, that there’s only brave spaces, and standing up and being honest and reflective in those spaces.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Dr. Freedman’s students explore topics like kindness and community. They share their passions and their dreams. And for two weeks in January, they learn how to say “I’m sorry” in a meaningful way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We really start off with discussing like when you’re told to apologize and then when you want to apologize, which are two different things that are – the kids are taken aback when we start.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Dr. Freedman uses a seven step model for apologies. One of her students, Caleb Huffenus, got a lot out of the lessons, so he’ll help share the steps.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We start off with saying what you’re sorry for.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I’m sorry for…”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before moving on to\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">step two, which is saying why it was wrong.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was wrong because…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then we go on to the third step, which is accepting full responsibility. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I accept full responsibility for what I did/said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then asking how to make amends is step four, which gets into having a conversation with the person, because you recognize that that other person’s hurt.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How can I make this better?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The fifth step is committing to not doing it again.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Moving forward, I promise to…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The sixth step is asking for forgiveness.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Will you accept my apology?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The seventh step is to thank the person they’re talking to about validating the other person for bringing whatever it was to their attention.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you for bringing this to my attention.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The students role-play each step with scenarios, like tripping a classmate at recess or plagiarizing their homework.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just getting them to talk and have a conversation about it is huge.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Dr. Freedman teaches one step per day. After all the role-playing, the class spends a few days discussing good and bad apologies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of them had no idea there was more to it than “I’m sorry.” In fact, all of them. And then when we got into what’s not an apology, you hear the snickers because you know that that’s what they’ve been doing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The students also write down some of their reflections. Here’s what one of them wrote.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Child actor [Nico Yuen]: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes I feel under pressure because I did something and I don’t want to accept full responsibility. I try to do it, but I don’t have the guts to do it sometimes. But from now on, I’m going to accept responsibility.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that’s out of the mouth of a fifth grader.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I talked to Caleb, who gave us the apology steps earlier, he said that before these lessons he’d never done most of the steps. Like number five, promising not to repeat the mistake. Now, he thinks that’s important.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because if you don’t commit to not doing this again, they might think that you would do that again to them and might not stay friends with you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Caleb noticed that when classmates used these steps, their apologies felt more sincere. It made a difference when he apologized to others, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I feel like the person appreciates it much more that I actually care about saying sorry. And not just saying sorry and being over with it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Caleb’s mom, Samantha Huffenus, noticed a difference in her fifth grader, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Samantha Huffenus:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Caleb has actually gotten much better about apologizing. Just in the very, very recent past. I’ve noticed a really big change. He used to send text messages when he felt like he owed an apology to one of us, usually his dad or I. And the other day he came downstairs and he apologized and he, he accepted it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Samantha Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It really made a huge difference because before it kind of just seemed like he did it because he felt like he should say something, either because he was in trouble and and knew he should apologize or whatever the case may be. But coming down and actually, you know, doing some of those steps that he learned really made a difference to me, receiving the apology and making it seem a lot more genuine.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So Kara, Caleb was able to do something a lot of adults don’t do – apologize face to face.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He’s not the only one. In the three years she’s taught these lessons, Dr. Freedman has heard from other parents who noticed their children using these steps with their siblings. She’s also heard from other teachers about her students apologizing to kids at recess. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Often when kids hurt someone or break a rule, they get caught up in the fear and shame that comes from knowing they did something wrong. They’re thinking “Am I going to get in trouble?” … And, “How can I avoid getting in trouble?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Learning how to apologize gives them a different path forward.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so these types of lessons really build empathy in kids because now they’re able to clearly understand that even though I don’t, I might not realize I did something wrong, I still hurt this other human being somehow.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Freedman has even heard about her students using what they learned to advocate for themselves when they’re being treated unfairly.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve heard it from families before where at the dinner table, the child is teaching them, ‘No, you don’t apologize like that.’ Like ‘That’s too rushed. You’re not listening to me and my feelings.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Good apologies require empathy, perspective-taking, honesty and courage – all things that schools and parents try to cultivate in children.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Freedman said that teaching these lessons has made her more intentional about her own apologies. She stopped saying sorry for things just because someone told her to, and she’s conscious of modeling true apologies to her students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve had to do some big apologies. Right? Like things even to kids. Like, ‘I did not know that this could have been taken this way. And let’s talk about what that means and how it makes you feel. And, you know, I’m going to accept responsibility and I am not going to use those words anymore.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Freedman created the apologies lessons in 2020, after going through several years of diversity, equity and inclusion training. That work helped her reflect on things she had said or done in the past that were hurtful or offensive, even if she didn’t know it at the time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If we could all apologize when we say things like that to people who are different than us, regardless of if it’s religion, political, sex, gender, whatever it is, we’d probably be in a better place. And that’s being in the brave space, right?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When grown-ups model humility and give kids tools to put apologies into action, they can help young people be in the brave space at school, at home, and as they grow into the future.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you to Rayna Freedman, Caleb and Samantha Huffenus, Susan McCarthy, Marjorie Ingall, and Eva Lewis. Thanks also to Nico Yuen for reading the student reflection. The MindShift team includes Nimah Gobir, Ki Sung, Marlena Jackson-Retondo, and me, Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Chris Hoff engineered this episode. Jen Chien is KQED’s director of podcasts. Katie Sprenger is Podcast Operations Manager. Audience Engagement Support from Cesar Saldaña. Holly Kernan is KQED’s Chief Content Officer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED. Thank you for listening!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a common scenario – one that plays out in schools and homes all the time. A child hurts another child, physically or emotionally. Grownups are called in to arbitrate. The adult tells one – or perhaps all – of the kids to say, “I’m sorry.” Those two words are uttered, and all is supposed to be well. But the resolution is often lopsided. “When you just do that quick apology, you feel better, you move on,” said fifth grade teacher Rayna Freedman. “But oftentimes the other person is still left with a bucket of feelings.” She remembers that from her own childhood, and she sees it all the time in her classroom at Jordan Jackson Elementary School in Mansfield, Massachusetts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s why, for the last few years, she’s been teaching her students how to give more meaningful apologies. During these lessons, the fifth graders practice not only saying “I’m sorry,” but acknowledging why their actions were wrong, offering to repair harm, and promising not to repeat the behavior.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Effective apologies require empathy, perspective-taking, honesty and courage – all \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58790/why-kindness-and-emotional-literacy-matters-in-raising-kids\">qualities that schools and parents try to cultivate in children\u003c/a>. Freedman has seen that teaching how to apologize well changes her students’ interactions with each other and with her for the better. “These types of lessons really build empathy in kids because now they’re able to clearly understand that even though I don’t [or] might not realize I did something wrong, I still hurt this other human being somehow,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Role-playing apologies\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Explicit lessons on giving good apologies are rare for kids, and they live in a world full of adults who aren’t great at the task, either. “I think there are lots of people who just think of an apology as something that mean people force you to do,” said Susan McCarthy, co-author of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/19/1150075861/authors-explain-how-and-why-to-apologize-the-right-way\">Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “Now they’re a grown up, nobody can make them apologize and they’re not going\u003c/span> to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">McCarthy and her co-author, Marjorie Ingall, are also the pens behind \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sorrywatch.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">SorryWatch\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a website that analyzes apologies in the news, pop culture and history. SorryWatch is full of examples of bad apologies, such as actors who \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sorrywatch.com/no-it-is-not-the-tradition-to-sacrifice-a-sound-guy/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tweet “I’m sorry \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">if\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> athletes who \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sorrywatch.com/5370/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">make excuses with their apologies\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and corporations that issue apology statements \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sorrywatch.com/a-horrid-apology-from-lufthansa-right-out-of-the-gate/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">without ever naming what happened\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sorrywatch.com/sweet-glittery-apologies-in-the-real-world/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Good apologies\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are rare, but they don’t have to be. “The nice thing about good apologies is that the form is actually really simple. It’s the doing it that is hard, not the steps themselves,” said Ingall.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like most hard things, apologizing is easier when you’ve had practice. In Freedman’s fifth grade class, she teaches seven steps to a meaningful apology. Her lessons were inspired by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/rlfreedm/status/1343305366449369092\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a sketchnote by educator Sylvia Duckworth\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, ideas about ‘brave spaces’ from educator \u003ca href=\"https://www.kennethshelton.net/\">Kenneth Shelton\u003c/a>,\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and a podcast episode with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://brenebrown.com/podcast/harriet-lerner-and-brene-im-sorry-how-to-apologize-why-it-matters-part-1-of-2/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">psychologist Harriet Lerner and author Brené Brown\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Thanks @sylviaduckworth \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/BreneBrown?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BreneBrown\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/HarrietLerner?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@HarrietLerner\u003c/a> 4 inspiring this conversation 2 have w/Ss. I’ve been planning a lesson on how to apologize & \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> post gave me the kick I needed. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/SlidesManiaSM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SlidesManiaSM\u003c/a> TY for your template! \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/remotelearning?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#remotelearning\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/ditchbook?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ditchbook\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/etmeZxl4em\">https://t.co/etmeZxl4em\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/V39R9KADAg\">https://t.co/V39R9KADAg\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Rayna Freedman, Ed.D (@rlfreedm) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/rlfreedm/status/1343305366449369092?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 27, 2020\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Freedman teaches the lessons during morning meetings, a period when her class does community-building activities. She covers one step per day, and students role-play with made-up scenarios, such as tripping a classmate at recess or plagiarizing their homework.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For most students, steps like saying why their behavior was wrong and asking “How can I make this better?” are new terrain. “Just getting them to talk and have a conversation about it and be in that driver’s seat to practice is huge because you can’t just teach them a step and then not actually have them practice it and use it,” Freedman said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition to role-playing, students discuss why the steps matter, what bad apologies sound like, and how it feels to receive good and bad apologies. They also talk about the difference between when they want to apologize and when they’re told to apologize. For Freedman, that’s important because there’s no point in apologizing if they haven’t truly accepted responsibility. It’s also important because not every instance someone demands or expects an apology from another person is valid. Freedman can still remember the injustice of being required to apologize for things she didn’t do as a kid or where her feelings weren’t being heard.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There are times where the adults do need to listen to kids and what they’re saying and what they’re feeling. And kids need to be empowered and know that they have a voice and be able to share that voice,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">McCarthy and Ingall said that not listening to kids is one of several common mistakes adults make when teaching (or telling) kids to say “I’m sorry.” Others include:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Not modeling good apologies.\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This can mean giving bad apologies or just doing their apologies in private where kids don’t get to see and hear them.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Scolding children \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>after \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>they’ve apologized. \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This creates an association in the child’s memory between apologizing and being reprimanded, making them less inclined to apologize in the future.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Requiring kids to kiss or hug after an apology.\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “Apologies are with words, not with touching,” said Ingall.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Showing up with bravery\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Throughout her lessons, Freedman shares apology examples from her own life. She said that hearing her stories and each others’ experiences is validating for students. It also normalizes screwing up sometimes while building skills to move forward from those mistakes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think the whole thing with going through this is [that] it’s humbling, right?” she said. “It’s teaching people to accept responsibility for something they’ve done. And not everybody can do that.” After these lessons, her fifth graders can. Freedman has seen students put the steps into practice in her classroom and on the playground. She’s also heard about her students teaching other kids or family members how to apologize better.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Samantha Huffenus, mom to one of Freedman’s recent students, said she’d noticed the difference in her son. “Caleb has actually gotten much better about apologizing just in the very, very recent past,” she said a few months after the lessons. “He used to send text messages when he felt like he owed an apology to one of us, usually his dad or I. And the other day he came downstairs and he apologized [for something] and he accepted it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The face-to-face acknowledgement made the apology feel more genuine, Huffenus said. For his part, Caleb said that the steps he learned in class feel better than a hasty, two-word apology. “I feel like the person appreciates it much more, that I actually care about saying sorry,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s one step in the seven from Freedman’s lessons that McCarthy and Ingall, the SorryWatch writers, disagree with. It’s asking forgiveness, which they leave out of their own \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sorrywatch.com/louder-for-the-folks-in-the-back-the-6-5-steps-to-a-good-apology/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">guidance for a good apology\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “We think forgiveness is a gift to be granted. And it’s rude to ask for a gift,” Ingall explained. That difference aside, the authors find it encouraging to see teachers bringing apologies lessons into classrooms. “Apologies are an essential part of building the world we want to live in,” Ingall said. “And I would hope that parents and teachers can work together on creating this kind of much more civilized, beautiful world.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That sentiment echoes Freedman’s vision for her classroom. Her apologies lessons are part of a year-long effort to prompt students to reflect on how they show up in school, at home and in their community. She models showing up in brave and honest ways by sharing her own mistakes and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/teachers-apologizing-students_n_60ae80d0e4b0d45b7531b0d3\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">apologizing to students\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> when necessary. And she hopes the effects of these lessons will carry on when students leave her classroom.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I feel that I am teaching kids life skills beyond how to solve a math problem or how to read and decode a text,” she said. “Those are the things that – state standards, Common Core – that we have to teach. But I teach humans.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Humans make mistakes. And to make things better, humans apologize.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC6212545512&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Welcome to MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Today we’re talking about something that isn’t usually in school curriculum: how to say “I’m sorry.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Students don’t get graded for it, but apologizing is a learned skill. And it can be hard.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fonzie\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Richie, I am sincerely ssss … [\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Laughter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Richie:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Fonz, you don’t have to say ‘I’m sorry.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fonzie\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Good. I won’t.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That was Fonzie in the classic sitcom \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Happy Days\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In the show, his inability to say “sorry” was a running joke. But it’s true that a lot of people have trouble saying those words.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And that’s not the only way to mess up an apology.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We’ve all heard bad apologies. Someone might say they’re sorry but never say what for…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Justin Timberlake:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> What occurred was unintentional…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They might apologize for someone else’s feelings, instead of their own actions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Brittany Dawn Davis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I apologize to anyone who feels like they got scammed from me.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They might try to justify their actions. Or soften their admission of responsibility by saying this isn’t really who they are.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Brown: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I have tried to live my life in a way which can make those around me proud of me, and until recently, I think I was doing a pretty good job.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Those clips were from apologies by pop singer Justin Timberlake, fitness influencer Brittany Dawn and R&B singer Chris Brown. Kids hear bad apologies on TV, in the news, and in their own lives all the time. And they aren’t usually taught how to do it better.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But there’s hope. In today’s episode we’ll learn the elements of a good apology, and we’ll meet a fifth grade teacher who’s helping her students learn the right way to say “I’m sorry.” That’s all after the break.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Psychologists and researchers have developed a variety of models for how to give a good apology.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They all have a few things in common.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Acknowledging what happened and the harm it caused. Actually saying “I’m sorry.” Offering a way to repair harm. And committing to not repeat the behavior.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Kara, we already heard some examples of what bad apologies sound like. Let’s hear a good example.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I talked to Eva Lewis, who works in public engagement for state government. She told me about a pretty big mistake she made as a senior in college. She was supposed to write an honors thesis analyzing foreign aid to developing countries.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Eva Lewis:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I thought I had a resource that had the data I needed for those 40 countries. But then when I got into the data, it did not. It only had like 28 of the countries and there was missing data.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> She told her professor. The professor notified the academic dean that Eva was at risk of not finishing her thesis. Eva was … stressed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Eva Lewis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So my sister gave me a good point. She’s like, ‘Hey, go talk to the academic dean, apologize and talk about how you’re going to rectify it.’ And me, I would have never thought about this. So I made an appointment with the academic dean, and as soon as I sat down with her, I said, ‘Hey, I just wanna apologize. Like, I didn’t do what I needed to do. I should have looked at the data before – completely – before saying I was going to do this and that, this and that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The dean was surprised. She’d heard plenty of excuses from students in her career. But apologies? Not so much.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Eva Lewis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And she just stared at me. She was like. No one’s ever. No one’s ever done that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Eva worked out a plan to narrow the focus of her thesis and find some additional data.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Did you graduate?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Eva Lewis:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yes, I did. With honors.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">laughter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Kara, that does sound like a pretty good apology. She acknowledged what she’d done wrong, actually said ‘I’m sorry,’ and made a plan to fix the problem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The other thing I love about Eva’s story is that her sister suggested she apologize AND gave her tips for how to do it. Most of us don’t get models like that as kids or even as young adults.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susan McCarthy: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think there are lots of people who just think of apology as something that, that mean people force you to do. Now they’re a grown up. Nobody can make them apologize and they’re not going to.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s Susan McCarthy. She’s one of the creators of SorryWatch, a website that analyzes apologies in the news, pop culture and history.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susan McCarthy: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We take them apart and we say, ‘This is good and here’s why. This is bad and here’s why.’ It turns out that there’s a big appetite out there for ‘Why did that apology not leave me feeling good?’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Susan and her SorryWatch partner, Marjorie Ingall, also wrote a book. It’s called \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In one chapter, Susan and Marjorie write about the things grown-ups get wrong when dealing with children and apologies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Sometimes when a parent or a teacher just wants kids to stop fighting, they’ll tell everyone involved to say “sorry” without finding out what really happened.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It takes longer, but when adults make time and space to listen to children who are fighting, the kids can feel heard. That makes it more likely that when they do say “I’m sorry,” they’ll mean it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another thing that grown-ups often do is lecture kids after they’ve already apologized.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Susan compared this to a mistake new dog owners make. Imagine you’ve got an energetic puppy running around, and it doesn’t come when you call it. You call its name a few times, and when it finally comes…you yell “bad dog!”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susan McCarthy: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’re not rewarding the dog for coming. You’re punishing it for coming. So the next time the dog goes, ‘ehh, she’s calling me, but she’s just going to get mad at me, so I’ll just stay out of arm’s reach.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So when an adult scolds a child after they’ve apologized, it creates a link in the child’s brain between saying “sorry” and that negative reaction.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Marjorie, Susan’s co-author, suggested a better way to respond.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Marjorie Ingall:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When a kid apologizes to you, even though you’re angry for the thing that the kid is apologizing for, you know, I think we have to take a step back and have the first response be, ‘Thank you for apologizing. I know that was difficult. Where do you think we go from here?’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kara, everything we’ve talked about so far is about how to respond after a problem occurs. What can we do to proactively teach kids about apologies before they need to give one?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Nimah, we don’t usually think about it this way, but learning social-emotional skills is like playing a sport or an instrument. You need to learn some basics and practice in a supportive setting before you can apply it when the stakes are higher.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I met a fifth grade teacher who is creating that kind of learning space for her students. Because it’s hard to teach this sort of lesson in the heat of the moment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I hear a lot of “I’m sorry.” And then they move on. But the other person’s still sitting there like, “What is happening?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Dr. Rayna Freedman teaches at Jordan Jackson Elementary School in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Since fifth grade is the final year before middle school, it’s her job to prepare students for that. She sees this goal as more than just academic.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I feel that I am teaching kids life skills beyond how to solve a math problem or how to read and decode a text. Those are the things that state standards, right, Common Core, that we have to teach. But I teach humans.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the ways this idea of “teaching humans” comes into play is during morning meetings. That’s when the class does activities that Dr. Freedman designed to help her fifth graders figure out who they want to be in the world.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We do a lot of talking about what a brave space is. We read this poem from Facing History & Ourselves that talks about how there’s no such thing as a safe space, that there’s only brave spaces, and standing up and being honest and reflective in those spaces.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Dr. Freedman’s students explore topics like kindness and community. They share their passions and their dreams. And for two weeks in January, they learn how to say “I’m sorry” in a meaningful way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We really start off with discussing like when you’re told to apologize and then when you want to apologize, which are two different things that are – the kids are taken aback when we start.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Dr. Freedman uses a seven step model for apologies. One of her students, Caleb Huffenus, got a lot out of the lessons, so he’ll help share the steps.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We start off with saying what you’re sorry for.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I’m sorry for…”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before moving on to\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">step two, which is saying why it was wrong.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was wrong because…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then we go on to the third step, which is accepting full responsibility. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I accept full responsibility for what I did/said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then asking how to make amends is step four, which gets into having a conversation with the person, because you recognize that that other person’s hurt.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How can I make this better?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The fifth step is committing to not doing it again.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Moving forward, I promise to…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The sixth step is asking for forgiveness.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Will you accept my apology?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The seventh step is to thank the person they’re talking to about validating the other person for bringing whatever it was to their attention.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you for bringing this to my attention.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The students role-play each step with scenarios, like tripping a classmate at recess or plagiarizing their homework.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just getting them to talk and have a conversation about it is huge.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Dr. Freedman teaches one step per day. After all the role-playing, the class spends a few days discussing good and bad apologies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of them had no idea there was more to it than “I’m sorry.” In fact, all of them. And then when we got into what’s not an apology, you hear the snickers because you know that that’s what they’ve been doing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The students also write down some of their reflections. Here’s what one of them wrote.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Child actor [Nico Yuen]: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes I feel under pressure because I did something and I don’t want to accept full responsibility. I try to do it, but I don’t have the guts to do it sometimes. But from now on, I’m going to accept responsibility.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that’s out of the mouth of a fifth grader.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I talked to Caleb, who gave us the apology steps earlier, he said that before these lessons he’d never done most of the steps. Like number five, promising not to repeat the mistake. Now, he thinks that’s important.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because if you don’t commit to not doing this again, they might think that you would do that again to them and might not stay friends with you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Caleb noticed that when classmates used these steps, their apologies felt more sincere. It made a difference when he apologized to others, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Caleb Huffenus:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I feel like the person appreciates it much more that I actually care about saying sorry. And not just saying sorry and being over with it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Caleb’s mom, Samantha Huffenus, noticed a difference in her fifth grader, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Samantha Huffenus:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Caleb has actually gotten much better about apologizing. Just in the very, very recent past. I’ve noticed a really big change. He used to send text messages when he felt like he owed an apology to one of us, usually his dad or I. And the other day he came downstairs and he apologized and he, he accepted it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Samantha Huffenus: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It really made a huge difference because before it kind of just seemed like he did it because he felt like he should say something, either because he was in trouble and and knew he should apologize or whatever the case may be. But coming down and actually, you know, doing some of those steps that he learned really made a difference to me, receiving the apology and making it seem a lot more genuine.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So Kara, Caleb was able to do something a lot of adults don’t do – apologize face to face.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He’s not the only one. In the three years she’s taught these lessons, Dr. Freedman has heard from other parents who noticed their children using these steps with their siblings. She’s also heard from other teachers about her students apologizing to kids at recess. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Often when kids hurt someone or break a rule, they get caught up in the fear and shame that comes from knowing they did something wrong. They’re thinking “Am I going to get in trouble?” … And, “How can I avoid getting in trouble?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Learning how to apologize gives them a different path forward.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so these types of lessons really build empathy in kids because now they’re able to clearly understand that even though I don’t, I might not realize I did something wrong, I still hurt this other human being somehow.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Freedman has even heard about her students using what they learned to advocate for themselves when they’re being treated unfairly.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve heard it from families before where at the dinner table, the child is teaching them, ‘No, you don’t apologize like that.’ Like ‘That’s too rushed. You’re not listening to me and my feelings.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Good apologies require empathy, perspective-taking, honesty and courage – all things that schools and parents try to cultivate in children.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Freedman said that teaching these lessons has made her more intentional about her own apologies. She stopped saying sorry for things just because someone told her to, and she’s conscious of modeling true apologies to her students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve had to do some big apologies. Right? Like things even to kids. Like, ‘I did not know that this could have been taken this way. And let’s talk about what that means and how it makes you feel. And, you know, I’m going to accept responsibility and I am not going to use those words anymore.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Freedman created the apologies lessons in 2020, after going through several years of diversity, equity and inclusion training. That work helped her reflect on things she had said or done in the past that were hurtful or offensive, even if she didn’t know it at the time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rayna Freedman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If we could all apologize when we say things like that to people who are different than us, regardless of if it’s religion, political, sex, gender, whatever it is, we’d probably be in a better place. And that’s being in the brave space, right?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When grown-ups model humility and give kids tools to put apologies into action, they can help young people be in the brave space at school, at home, and as they grow into the future.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you to Rayna Freedman, Caleb and Samantha Huffenus, Susan McCarthy, Marjorie Ingall, and Eva Lewis. Thanks also to Nico Yuen for reading the student reflection. The MindShift team includes Nimah Gobir, Ki Sung, Marlena Jackson-Retondo, and me, Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Chris Hoff engineered this episode. Jen Chien is KQED’s director of podcasts. Katie Sprenger is Podcast Operations Manager. Audience Engagement Support from Cesar Saldaña. Holly Kernan is KQED’s Chief Content Officer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED. Thank you for listening!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Middle school English teacher \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/theVogelman\">Brett Vogelsinger\u003c/a> wasn’t always attuned to the needs of introverts. As an extrovert himself, he found it easy to raise his hand and be vocal in school. So when he \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61361/using-poetry-to-sharpen-students-claims-for-argument-writing\">became a teacher\u003c/a>, he believed those were the hallmarks of a good student.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I would even see a student in an honors class who wasn’t super participatory, and I’d think to myself, ‘What are they doing in an honors class?’ They don’t seem that into English class,” he said. “I don’t really like that I thought that, but I did.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_62135\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-62135\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-160x222.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"347\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-160x222.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-800x1109.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-1020x1414.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-768x1065.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-1108x1536.jpg 1108w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-1477x2048.jpg 1477w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-1920x2663.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-scaled.jpg 1846w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Brett Vogelsinger reads a passage from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vogelsinger has taught at Central Bucks School District – a large, suburban district outside Philadelphia – for 20 years. In that time, the concepts of introversion and extroversion have become more widely known. As author Susan Cain explained in a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">viral Ted Talk in 2012\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, “extroverts really crave large amounts of stimulation, whereas introverts feel at their most alive and their most switched-on and their most capable when they’re in quieter, more low-key environments.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In an education landscape where speaking up often \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://quietrev.com/class-participation-lets-talk-about-it-2/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">counts towards grades\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and collaboration is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58155/grades-have-huge-impact-but-are-they-effective\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">highly valued\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, today’s classrooms are sometimes noisy and stimulating places to learn. That can be draining for introverted students, who may do their best thinking solo or in calmer settings. Teaching strategies that build in think time, encourage students to listen to each other’s ideas, and include options for written responses can help make space for introverted voices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Those kinds of things help to move towards 100% participation without making introverts feel cornered,” said Vogelsinger, who uses all these methods.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While popular understanding of introversion was rising, Vogelsinger was getting a personal education. Because he married an introvert, he began to see the strengths that come from introverts’ propensity for quiet reflection. Just as importantly, he noticed that some of the most powerful writing assignments in his classes came from students who rarely spoke in class. These observations raised questions for how he structured classes in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61848/whats-the-best-way-to-teach-it-depends-on-the-subject\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a subject where conversation is king\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It took me a while to realize that someone can engage rigorously mentally with what’s going on in the classroom, and you might not hear it as a teacher,” Vogelsinger said. “So then how do we make that learning visible? How do we give them chances to share what they’re learning?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Summer Reading Series: “Quiet” by \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/susancain?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SusanCain\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/tZ8TNdLmU3\">pic.twitter.com/tZ8TNdLmU3\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Mr. John Curtis (@curtiswords) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/curtiswords/status/1676198396736991232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 4, 2023\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Adding more voices to the conversation with colored index cards\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last spring, Vogelsinger’s English class at Holicong Middle School was discussing whether fate or decision-making played a bigger role in the tragic outcome of Shakespeare’s \u003ci>Romeo and Juliet\u003c/i>. Each student had a white index card and a yellow index card on their desk. At the start, he reminded students that a white card “means a fresh new idea no one’s brought up yet,” and a yellow card means you’re building on someone’s line of thinking, “just like yellow snow means someone’s been there before.” He calls this discussion format “white snow/yellow snow.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As students spoke, classmates raised a white or yellow card to be called on, shuffling between cards after hearing peers’ comments. Vogelsinger devised this strategy to create more on-ramps to class discussions for introverted students, who might take a beat (or several) before volunteering, and by the time they do, their more voluble classmates have gone in a different direction.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_62136\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 160px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-62136\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-160x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a “white snow/yellow snow” discussion, students raise a white index card to share a new idea or a yellow index card to build on a classmate’s idea. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About halfway through the \u003ci>Romeo and Juliet\u003c/i> discussion, a student named Mary tentatively raised a yellow card about halfway. Another classmate took a turn, and Mary raised her card higher. Vogelsinger nodded to her, giving her the floor, and she softly shared a counterpoint to her classmates’ claims about Romeo’s bad choices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vogelsinger said his introverted students usually speak up more when using the index cards. Plus, his extroverted students are reminded to listen and reflect a little more than usual. “Instead of just raising your hand, which you’re doing all day, now you have this other element and you have to think about how [what you want to say] connects to other things with the white snow/yellow snow.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The index cards also help Vogelsinger monitor the flow of conversation and redirect when things go off track or one idea drags on too long. And they aren’t the only way Vogelsinger invites introverts to participate in class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Discussion boards and think time\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before classroom discussions start, Vogelsinger also builds in opportunities for students to engage with ideas on their own. Online message boards are one of those opportunities. Though some teachers used online discussion boards before the COVID-19 pandemic, their popularity surged during distance learning. Many teachers \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58377/unplanned-lessons-what-pandemic-education-has-taught-teachers\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">heard from new voices\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> through those forums.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Kids who had been really quiet were responding really well on discussion boards in that last part of the spring from March to June [2020],” Vogelsinger said of his classes. Now he uses message boards as an introvert-friendly form of participation throughout the semester. Sometimes he highlights comments from the boards in class before moving on to another activity. Other times, the message boards lead into a verbal discussion, like the white snow/yellow snow discussion of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Romeo and Juliet\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They’ve already done some thinking about it online. They’ve even interacted with [ChatGPT] and how it wrote about [the play’s themes],” Vogelsinger said. That preparation gives students “roots to the conversation.” Plus, he carved out several minutes before the discussion for students to revisit what they wrote and read each other’s responses. That “think time” is especially helpful for introverted students, who may not want to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://quietrev.com/encouraging-introverts-to-speak-up-in-school/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">speak on the spot\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as soon as a teacher throws out a question.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Introversion is not about being quiet, shy or reserved,” Vogelsinger said. “It’s about feeling recharged and energized by quiet time, reflective time. … And in English class that’s really valuable. And in learning, that’s really valuable.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">🕒 Wait time 🕒 between asking a question and calling on someone for an answer — as well as waiting to respond to an answer — is an important strategy to include all learners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sketchnote via \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ValentinaESL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ValentinaESL\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/I510pm7x5u\">pic.twitter.com/I510pm7x5u\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— MindShift (@MindShiftKQED) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED/status/1683090835917664258?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 23, 2023\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Engagement as a continuum\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Vogelsinger, learning about introversion helped him move from deficit thinking to tackling a creative challenge. “I’ve learned not to see an introverted student as someone who’s not engaging as much as I think they should, and rather to see my responsibility as giving a variety of ways to engage,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He uses the word “engage” intentionally. While “participation” when used in grading usually emphasizes talking in class, engagement encompasses a range of learning behaviors. Education researcher Amy Berry developed \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61926/reimagining-student-engagement-as-a-continuum-of-learning-behaviors\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a continuum of student engagement\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that illustrates this concept.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61940\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1816px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-61940 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/Figure-1.2-Berry_Reimagining-Student-Engagement-e1688161876432.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1816\" height=\"939\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/Figure-1.2-Berry_Reimagining-Student-Engagement-e1688161876432.png 1816w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/Figure-1.2-Berry_Reimagining-Student-Engagement-e1688161876432-800x414.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/Figure-1.2-Berry_Reimagining-Student-Engagement-e1688161876432-1020x527.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/Figure-1.2-Berry_Reimagining-Student-Engagement-e1688161876432-160x83.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/Figure-1.2-Berry_Reimagining-Student-Engagement-e1688161876432-768x397.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/Figure-1.2-Berry_Reimagining-Student-Engagement-e1688161876432-1536x794.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1816px) 100vw, 1816px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A continuum of student engagement, from Reimagining Student Engagement by Amy Berry. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Corwin Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Berry’s continuum, responding to teacher questions is considered a passive form of engagement, whereas more active engagement includes habits such as asking questions, setting goals, and seeking feedback. These behaviors can occur in both extroverted and introverted ways. What’s essential, according to Berry, is to find out from students themselves what these things look like. “That’s when you’re really going to get somewhere when both teacher and student are able to use the continuum as kind of a foundation and anchor for their conversations about engagement,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vogelsinger showed his students the engagement continuum for the first time last year. But he and the other English teachers at Holicong Middle School were asking students what engaged learning looks like well before that. A few years ago, as part of a rethinking process around grades, Vogelsinger and his colleagues created a quarterly self-reflection for students. Students are encouraged to look at patterns in their homework completion, class participation and assignment feedback before responding to several prompts. One of those prompts is: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Engagement and participation are vital to success, but can look different to different students. Explain how you participate and engage in class.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Questions like that can help teachers \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60088/using-a-strengths-based-approach-to-help-students-realize-their-potential\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">see strengths in all students\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> – and spark ideas for how to help them learn. Two decades into his career, it’s not just the idea of an extrovert as the model student that Vogelsinger has shed; it’s the entire concept of a model student.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Now I think I’m much better at seeing the individual students,” he said. “I’m looking more for growth.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC6014610124&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Taking a shot\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the same day as the white snow/yellow snow discussions of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Romeo and Juliet\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Vogelsinger took a different approach in one of his classes. For third period, he went with a basketball discussion. To kick things off, students ripped a page out of their notebooks and answered one question: \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you could tell one character one thing that might fix this whole play (apart from how it ends), what would it be?\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After several minutes of scribbling, Vogelsinger instructed students to crumple their page into a ball. The ideas they’d written would be the launching point for the discussion. The paper balls would be launched into a plastic blue crate at the front of the room.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students raised their hands to speak, and three times during the period, Vogelsinger paused the conversation. At those moments, everyone who’d spoken up so far could stand and take a shot with their paper ball. By the end, only three class members hadn’t participated. Vogelsinger collected the crumpled papers from those students before they exited.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the empty classroom, he smoothed the pages, and his eyes tracked over the penciled words. One student wrote: \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I would tell Romeo that Lady Capulet is sending an assassin after him, because she’s going to send someone with poison to Mantua to kill him\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_62134\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-62134\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-160x120.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students in Brett Vogelsinger’s English class at Holicong Middle School shoot paper balls into a basket during a discussion of Romeo and Juliet. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“That was a great observation. I kind of wish it would have come up in class, but I can still respond to the student now this way,” Vogelsinger said. That’s key. In the basketball discussion, the chance to shoot the ball may motivate kids who like to move, whether introverted or extroverted. But the written responses ensure that Vogelsinger gets a window into the thinking of students who opt out of speaking.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In just a regular classroom conversation, I wouldn’t have heard anything from them, so I wouldn’t have known they had these thoughts,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Middle school English teacher \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/theVogelman\">Brett Vogelsinger\u003c/a> wasn’t always attuned to the needs of introverts. As an extrovert himself, he found it easy to raise his hand and be vocal in school. So when he \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61361/using-poetry-to-sharpen-students-claims-for-argument-writing\">became a teacher\u003c/a>, he believed those were the hallmarks of a good student.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I would even see a student in an honors class who wasn’t super participatory, and I’d think to myself, ‘What are they doing in an honors class?’ They don’t seem that into English class,” he said. “I don’t really like that I thought that, but I did.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_62135\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-62135\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-160x222.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"347\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-160x222.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-800x1109.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-1020x1414.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-768x1065.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-1108x1536.jpg 1108w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-1477x2048.jpg 1477w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-1920x2663.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/brett-vogelsinger-scaled.jpg 1846w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Brett Vogelsinger reads a passage from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vogelsinger has taught at Central Bucks School District – a large, suburban district outside Philadelphia – for 20 years. In that time, the concepts of introversion and extroversion have become more widely known. As author Susan Cain explained in a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">viral Ted Talk in 2012\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, “extroverts really crave large amounts of stimulation, whereas introverts feel at their most alive and their most switched-on and their most capable when they’re in quieter, more low-key environments.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In an education landscape where speaking up often \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://quietrev.com/class-participation-lets-talk-about-it-2/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">counts towards grades\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and collaboration is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58155/grades-have-huge-impact-but-are-they-effective\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">highly valued\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, today’s classrooms are sometimes noisy and stimulating places to learn. That can be draining for introverted students, who may do their best thinking solo or in calmer settings. Teaching strategies that build in think time, encourage students to listen to each other’s ideas, and include options for written responses can help make space for introverted voices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Those kinds of things help to move towards 100% participation without making introverts feel cornered,” said Vogelsinger, who uses all these methods.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While popular understanding of introversion was rising, Vogelsinger was getting a personal education. Because he married an introvert, he began to see the strengths that come from introverts’ propensity for quiet reflection. Just as importantly, he noticed that some of the most powerful writing assignments in his classes came from students who rarely spoke in class. These observations raised questions for how he structured classes in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61848/whats-the-best-way-to-teach-it-depends-on-the-subject\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a subject where conversation is king\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It took me a while to realize that someone can engage rigorously mentally with what’s going on in the classroom, and you might not hear it as a teacher,” Vogelsinger said. “So then how do we make that learning visible? How do we give them chances to share what they’re learning?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Summer Reading Series: “Quiet” by \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/susancain?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SusanCain\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/tZ8TNdLmU3\">pic.twitter.com/tZ8TNdLmU3\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Mr. John Curtis (@curtiswords) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/curtiswords/status/1676198396736991232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 4, 2023\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Adding more voices to the conversation with colored index cards\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last spring, Vogelsinger’s English class at Holicong Middle School was discussing whether fate or decision-making played a bigger role in the tragic outcome of Shakespeare’s \u003ci>Romeo and Juliet\u003c/i>. Each student had a white index card and a yellow index card on their desk. At the start, he reminded students that a white card “means a fresh new idea no one’s brought up yet,” and a yellow card means you’re building on someone’s line of thinking, “just like yellow snow means someone’s been there before.” He calls this discussion format “white snow/yellow snow.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As students spoke, classmates raised a white or yellow card to be called on, shuffling between cards after hearing peers’ comments. Vogelsinger devised this strategy to create more on-ramps to class discussions for introverted students, who might take a beat (or several) before volunteering, and by the time they do, their more voluble classmates have gone in a different direction.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_62136\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 160px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-62136\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-160x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/white-snow-yellow-snow-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a “white snow/yellow snow” discussion, students raise a white index card to share a new idea or a yellow index card to build on a classmate’s idea. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About halfway through the \u003ci>Romeo and Juliet\u003c/i> discussion, a student named Mary tentatively raised a yellow card about halfway. Another classmate took a turn, and Mary raised her card higher. Vogelsinger nodded to her, giving her the floor, and she softly shared a counterpoint to her classmates’ claims about Romeo’s bad choices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vogelsinger said his introverted students usually speak up more when using the index cards. Plus, his extroverted students are reminded to listen and reflect a little more than usual. “Instead of just raising your hand, which you’re doing all day, now you have this other element and you have to think about how [what you want to say] connects to other things with the white snow/yellow snow.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The index cards also help Vogelsinger monitor the flow of conversation and redirect when things go off track or one idea drags on too long. And they aren’t the only way Vogelsinger invites introverts to participate in class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Discussion boards and think time\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before classroom discussions start, Vogelsinger also builds in opportunities for students to engage with ideas on their own. Online message boards are one of those opportunities. Though some teachers used online discussion boards before the COVID-19 pandemic, their popularity surged during distance learning. Many teachers \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58377/unplanned-lessons-what-pandemic-education-has-taught-teachers\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">heard from new voices\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> through those forums.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Kids who had been really quiet were responding really well on discussion boards in that last part of the spring from March to June [2020],” Vogelsinger said of his classes. Now he uses message boards as an introvert-friendly form of participation throughout the semester. Sometimes he highlights comments from the boards in class before moving on to another activity. Other times, the message boards lead into a verbal discussion, like the white snow/yellow snow discussion of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Romeo and Juliet\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They’ve already done some thinking about it online. They’ve even interacted with [ChatGPT] and how it wrote about [the play’s themes],” Vogelsinger said. That preparation gives students “roots to the conversation.” Plus, he carved out several minutes before the discussion for students to revisit what they wrote and read each other’s responses. That “think time” is especially helpful for introverted students, who may not want to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://quietrev.com/encouraging-introverts-to-speak-up-in-school/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">speak on the spot\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as soon as a teacher throws out a question.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Introversion is not about being quiet, shy or reserved,” Vogelsinger said. “It’s about feeling recharged and energized by quiet time, reflective time. … And in English class that’s really valuable. And in learning, that’s really valuable.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">🕒 Wait time 🕒 between asking a question and calling on someone for an answer — as well as waiting to respond to an answer — is an important strategy to include all learners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sketchnote via \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ValentinaESL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ValentinaESL\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/I510pm7x5u\">pic.twitter.com/I510pm7x5u\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— MindShift (@MindShiftKQED) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED/status/1683090835917664258?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 23, 2023\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Engagement as a continuum\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Vogelsinger, learning about introversion helped him move from deficit thinking to tackling a creative challenge. “I’ve learned not to see an introverted student as someone who’s not engaging as much as I think they should, and rather to see my responsibility as giving a variety of ways to engage,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He uses the word “engage” intentionally. While “participation” when used in grading usually emphasizes talking in class, engagement encompasses a range of learning behaviors. Education researcher Amy Berry developed \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61926/reimagining-student-engagement-as-a-continuum-of-learning-behaviors\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a continuum of student engagement\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that illustrates this concept.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61940\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1816px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-61940 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/Figure-1.2-Berry_Reimagining-Student-Engagement-e1688161876432.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1816\" height=\"939\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/Figure-1.2-Berry_Reimagining-Student-Engagement-e1688161876432.png 1816w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/Figure-1.2-Berry_Reimagining-Student-Engagement-e1688161876432-800x414.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/Figure-1.2-Berry_Reimagining-Student-Engagement-e1688161876432-1020x527.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/Figure-1.2-Berry_Reimagining-Student-Engagement-e1688161876432-160x83.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/Figure-1.2-Berry_Reimagining-Student-Engagement-e1688161876432-768x397.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/Figure-1.2-Berry_Reimagining-Student-Engagement-e1688161876432-1536x794.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1816px) 100vw, 1816px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A continuum of student engagement, from Reimagining Student Engagement by Amy Berry. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Corwin Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Berry’s continuum, responding to teacher questions is considered a passive form of engagement, whereas more active engagement includes habits such as asking questions, setting goals, and seeking feedback. These behaviors can occur in both extroverted and introverted ways. What’s essential, according to Berry, is to find out from students themselves what these things look like. “That’s when you’re really going to get somewhere when both teacher and student are able to use the continuum as kind of a foundation and anchor for their conversations about engagement,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vogelsinger showed his students the engagement continuum for the first time last year. But he and the other English teachers at Holicong Middle School were asking students what engaged learning looks like well before that. A few years ago, as part of a rethinking process around grades, Vogelsinger and his colleagues created a quarterly self-reflection for students. Students are encouraged to look at patterns in their homework completion, class participation and assignment feedback before responding to several prompts. One of those prompts is: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Engagement and participation are vital to success, but can look different to different students. Explain how you participate and engage in class.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Questions like that can help teachers \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60088/using-a-strengths-based-approach-to-help-students-realize-their-potential\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">see strengths in all students\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> – and spark ideas for how to help them learn. Two decades into his career, it’s not just the idea of an extrovert as the model student that Vogelsinger has shed; it’s the entire concept of a model student.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Now I think I’m much better at seeing the individual students,” he said. “I’m looking more for growth.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC6014610124&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Taking a shot\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the same day as the white snow/yellow snow discussions of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Romeo and Juliet\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Vogelsinger took a different approach in one of his classes. For third period, he went with a basketball discussion. To kick things off, students ripped a page out of their notebooks and answered one question: \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you could tell one character one thing that might fix this whole play (apart from how it ends), what would it be?\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After several minutes of scribbling, Vogelsinger instructed students to crumple their page into a ball. The ideas they’d written would be the launching point for the discussion. The paper balls would be launched into a plastic blue crate at the front of the room.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students raised their hands to speak, and three times during the period, Vogelsinger paused the conversation. At those moments, everyone who’d spoken up so far could stand and take a shot with their paper ball. By the end, only three class members hadn’t participated. Vogelsinger collected the crumpled papers from those students before they exited.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the empty classroom, he smoothed the pages, and his eyes tracked over the penciled words. One student wrote: \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I would tell Romeo that Lady Capulet is sending an assassin after him, because she’s going to send someone with poison to Mantua to kill him\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_62134\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-62134\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-160x120.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/07/basketball2-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students in Brett Vogelsinger’s English class at Holicong Middle School shoot paper balls into a basket during a discussion of Romeo and Juliet. \u003ccite>(Kara Newhouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“That was a great observation. I kind of wish it would have come up in class, but I can still respond to the student now this way,” Vogelsinger said. That’s key. In the basketball discussion, the chance to shoot the ball may motivate kids who like to move, whether introverted or extroverted. But the written responses ensure that Vogelsinger gets a window into the thinking of students who opt out of speaking.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In just a regular classroom conversation, I wouldn’t have heard anything from them, so I wouldn’t have known they had these thoughts,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "how-a-social-emotional-learning-book-club-can-cut-across-cliques-and-connect-kids",
"title": "How a Social Emotional Learning Book Club Can Cut Across Cliques and Connect Kids",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amy Whitewater didn’t start a book club with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/tag/social-emotional-learning\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">social emotional learning\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> goals in mind. It came from her own passion for reading. Whitewater taught English language arts for 10 years and later became a school counselor. When she got the idea for a student book club in 2013, she enlisted support from other staff members at her middle school, advertised the club to students, sought community donations and scheduled monthly meetings. She led the charge for six years until leaving for a new job.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over those years, the club did more than build \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edutopia.org/article/schoolwide-strategies-promoting-love-reading\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a culture of reading\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Whitewater, who spoke about the club’s success at an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.schoolcounselor.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">American School Counselor Association\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> conference, noticed the social and emotional benefits of the club, including:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Cutting across cliques. \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each year, 20 to 30 students joined the book club. “They were kids from all different backgrounds, all different socioeconomic statuses, kids who didn’t always interact with each other,” Whitewater said. “And so it was nice to bring them together and kind of see them connecting with each other in ways that they wouldn’t have.”\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cb>Creating a safe space for ideas, feelings and opinions. \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kids naturally have emotional responses to what they read. Teachers can tap into that, said Whitewater. Her book club did more than just discuss plot and literary attributes; they played games based on the books, listened to music from the time and setting, competed for prizes in Kahoot quizzes and did creative projects, such as making a Netflix watch list for a favorite character or a meme related to a character’s experiences. The variety of activities gave students different entry points to reflect on the books — and to listen to their classmates’ perspectives on what they’d read.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Fostering healthy relationships with adults. \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About six teachers and staff members joined Whitewater in leading the club. That gave students different adults with whom to connect. “They didn’t all respond to me all the time,” Whitewater said. “But some of them had a really great relationship with, you know, our school registrar, and so they were able to talk to her about things sometimes that maybe they wouldn’t talk to me about.” Research shows that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/57646/how-unconditional-positive-regard-can-help-students-feel-cared-for\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">positive relationships with adults\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> can help with kids’ \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1074877\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">academic motivation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0034654311421793\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">classroom engagement\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For educators verging on burnout, the idea of a student book club might sound great but exhausting. “No one wants another thing on their buffet,” Whitewater said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her advice? Assemble your army. Her first move in starting the club was a staff email asking, “Who wants in?” The colleagues who volunteered took turns picking books and planning activities — lightening the load for all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Those adults also brought their specific expertise to different books. The social studies teacher, for example, gave students helpful context on the Vietnam War when students read “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/okay-for-now\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay for Now\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” by Gary D. Schmidt. And when they read “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-scorpio-races\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Scorpio Races\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” by Maggie Stiefvater, the math teacher taught students about probability in relation to the book’s gambling plotline.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“That’s really what made (the book club) really special. We were able to have not just those different backgrounds, but also it kind of made it cross-curricular,” said Whitewater. Having a larger adult crew also meant that the book club lived on after she moved to her next job at the Oklahoma State Department of Education.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some popular book club picks during Whitewater’s time were \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/scythe-arc-of-a-scythe-book-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scythe\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/unwind-unwind-dystology-book-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Unwind\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Neal Shusterman, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-false-prince-the-ascendance-trilogy-book-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The False Prince\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Jennifer A. Nielsen and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/moxie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Moxie\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Jennifer Mathieu, but she said educators should “make sure it’s appropriate for your kids, your community.” She also recommended re-reading before selecting a book to make sure it’s age-appropriate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amy Whitewater didn’t start a book club with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/tag/social-emotional-learning\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">social emotional learning\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> goals in mind. It came from her own passion for reading. Whitewater taught English language arts for 10 years and later became a school counselor. When she got the idea for a student book club in 2013, she enlisted support from other staff members at her middle school, advertised the club to students, sought community donations and scheduled monthly meetings. She led the charge for six years until leaving for a new job.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over those years, the club did more than build \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edutopia.org/article/schoolwide-strategies-promoting-love-reading\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a culture of reading\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Whitewater, who spoke about the club’s success at an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.schoolcounselor.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">American School Counselor Association\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> conference, noticed the social and emotional benefits of the club, including:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Cutting across cliques. \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each year, 20 to 30 students joined the book club. “They were kids from all different backgrounds, all different socioeconomic statuses, kids who didn’t always interact with each other,” Whitewater said. “And so it was nice to bring them together and kind of see them connecting with each other in ways that they wouldn’t have.”\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cb>Creating a safe space for ideas, feelings and opinions. \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kids naturally have emotional responses to what they read. Teachers can tap into that, said Whitewater. Her book club did more than just discuss plot and literary attributes; they played games based on the books, listened to music from the time and setting, competed for prizes in Kahoot quizzes and did creative projects, such as making a Netflix watch list for a favorite character or a meme related to a character’s experiences. The variety of activities gave students different entry points to reflect on the books — and to listen to their classmates’ perspectives on what they’d read.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Fostering healthy relationships with adults. \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About six teachers and staff members joined Whitewater in leading the club. That gave students different adults with whom to connect. “They didn’t all respond to me all the time,” Whitewater said. “But some of them had a really great relationship with, you know, our school registrar, and so they were able to talk to her about things sometimes that maybe they wouldn’t talk to me about.” Research shows that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/57646/how-unconditional-positive-regard-can-help-students-feel-cared-for\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">positive relationships with adults\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> can help with kids’ \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1074877\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">academic motivation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0034654311421793\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">classroom engagement\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For educators verging on burnout, the idea of a student book club might sound great but exhausting. “No one wants another thing on their buffet,” Whitewater said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her advice? Assemble your army. Her first move in starting the club was a staff email asking, “Who wants in?” The colleagues who volunteered took turns picking books and planning activities — lightening the load for all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Those adults also brought their specific expertise to different books. The social studies teacher, for example, gave students helpful context on the Vietnam War when students read “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/okay-for-now\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay for Now\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” by Gary D. Schmidt. And when they read “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-scorpio-races\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Scorpio Races\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” by Maggie Stiefvater, the math teacher taught students about probability in relation to the book’s gambling plotline.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“That’s really what made (the book club) really special. We were able to have not just those different backgrounds, but also it kind of made it cross-curricular,” said Whitewater. Having a larger adult crew also meant that the book club lived on after she moved to her next job at the Oklahoma State Department of Education.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some popular book club picks during Whitewater’s time were \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/scythe-arc-of-a-scythe-book-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scythe\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/unwind-unwind-dystology-book-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Unwind\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Neal Shusterman, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-false-prince-the-ascendance-trilogy-book-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The False Prince\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Jennifer A. Nielsen and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/moxie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Moxie\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Jennifer Mathieu, but she said educators should “make sure it’s appropriate for your kids, your community.” She also recommended re-reading before selecting a book to make sure it’s age-appropriate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"masters-of-scale": {
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"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"morning-edition": {
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"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
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"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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"politicalbreakdown": {
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"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
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"order": 5
},
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
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