Lindsay Lyons
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5/29/2023

117. Hard Histories in ELA Units with Christy Chang and Dr. Alison McMonagle

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I met today’s guests at the 2022 NCSS Conference when I attended their session on elevating and prioritizing teaching hard histories in the ELA classroom. Both curriculum specialists for the school district of Philadelphia—which includes about 250 schools—Christy primarily works with middle schools and Alison primarily works with high schools.  

The Big Dream 

Christy’s dream is that all students can access grade level texts, and they are on the way to achieving that dream soon! 

In addition to Christy's dream, Alison’s dream is autonomy for students and teachers to make the best choices for their needs. 


Alignment to the 4 Stages: Mindset, Pedagogy, Assessment, and Content

The culture of partnership seems to be in place in many places. Leaders share the vision of partnership. Sometimes it doesn’t happen in the way it’s envisioned. 

Paraphrasing Dr. Ibram Kendi, Christy shared that racist policies lead to individual racism, not the other way around. The hope is personal mindsets will shift when we introduce new curriculum and have honest conversations as educators wrestle with it. 

There is a legacy of heavy-handedness around pedagogical practices, so there is a bit of fear around having the autonomy to do things differently than they’ve been done in the past. Another tension is due to emergency certifications and the larger context of teacher training, teachers may not have been equipped with the tools they need to be culturally responsive to the needs of their students. 

Christy shared an analogy: We’re not trying to give people overwhelm with a bunch of dieting recommendations, we’re saying eat nourishing meals and eat a walk every day. We’re not inventing something brand new. We’re trying to take away some things that were added to teachers’ plates that were not helping teachers and students. 


Action Steps  

The simplified goal: Read good books. Talk about them. Write about them. 

Curriculum Created: For each unit, we share a core text and provide daily lesson guidance documents, which includes core components of a reading or writing lesson. Each unit comes with an overview, which includes Essential Questions, big ideas, and alignment to Dr. Gholdy Muhammad’s HILL model (5 pursuits). 

Step 1. Try to align ELA novels and texts to grade-level History units and content. 

Step 2. Choose culturally relevant texts. Choose one canonical text and teach it critically. 

Step 3. Develop lesson guidance, not lesson plans. (This enables teacher autonomy and offers opportunities for personalization in response to students’ identities in each classroom.) Lesson guidance includes things like: an opening, mini lesson, shared reading, discourse, write in response to reading). 

Step 4. Develop a writing-based summative assessment (multimodal writing or traditional writing). 


Recommendations for Leaders Doing Similar Work 

An Approach to Implementation Challenges: Particularly in high school, teachers are often attached to the texts they’re teaching. There’s some sticky spaces around that. They’ve pushed it back to schools to determine what they were comfortable with and what their students needed with the lens of Am I just falling back on what I know? Am I pushing myself? They’ve learned to trust schools and leaders to make those decisions and honestly communicate when that’s a struggle. Being open to the conversation is critical. 

Not Starting From Scratch? If you’re working with existing resources, there is still room for shifts. ”We think that novel-based units are the way to go…We start with the premise that there is no wrong text to teach in a classroom. It’s how you teach it.” We have to work within our locus of control. For example, if there’s a short story with problematic messaging, relate it to the identities present in the classroom (the teacher’s and the students’ identities), and determine how to talk about the text. 

Positive Deviance: Parable of the Sower and Sula units were made and previously taught by teachers prior to this district-wide curriculum design work. These units were already received well, so it became part of the standard curriculum. In fact, all units were designed by teachers and coaches in the district, which helped build trust in the curriculum. 

Book “Home Runs” for Students: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo and Born a Crime by Trevor Noah  


One Step to Get Started 
Shift conversations about ELA instruction to building knowledge. Books teach us about the world. What knowledge are we choosing to build? How is that built by the books we teach? 

Skills are very important to reading and writing, but without knowledge, they are kind of useless. There’s a lot of research on this coming out now! 


Stay Connected

You can connect with Christy via email at cchang@philasd.org. You can find Alison on LinkedIn. 

You can also find the School District of Philadelphia’s secondary ELA curriculum here. 


To help you begin to think about leading teams to create new curriculum, I’m sharing my Curriculum Boot Camp Planner with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 117 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. 

Quotes: 
  • “An analogy…if someone wanted to lose weight and they were told ‘Follow this diet and that diet and wear this belt and do this exercise…’There’s so much information overload…they feel very frazzled and nothing quite works. We’re just saying ‘Eat nourishing meals and take a walk every day.’...That simplification of it is what the shift is…We’re really not inventing something new.”  
  • “We struggle with this question of opt out if certain teachers were like ‘I don’t feel comfortable teaching that book.’ Is it more harmful to students to have teachers teaching a book they don’t feel comfortable teaching? Is that an excuse to not push yourself to teach a new book?”   
  • “Being open to those conversations and not being like this is absolutely what you’re doing because we said you’re doing this because then you lose that open conversation because frankly, they’re probably going to do it anyway.” 
  • ”We think that novel-based units are the way to go…We start with the premise that there is no wrong text to teach in a classroom. It’s how you teach it.”
  • “The books and texts we traditionally teach kids. What is that showing them about what we think they deserve to know and not know? Are we telling them about the whole world in which they live or just a very specific slice of the world? And if we are just telling them about that slice of the world, why are we doing that?” ​
get the curriculum boot camp planner here
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where I explain how to talk about current events with your staff:

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5/22/2023

116. RESOURCE DIVE: DESE's Investigating History Curriculum

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DESE is releasing their new (free) Investigating History curriculum for grades 5, 6, and 7 in the 2023-24 school year. In this episode, I walk you through what’s in the curriculum and how you can support your teachers to engage with the curriculum and prepare to teach it to their students in a relevant, personalized way. 

Why I Like It and the Research It’s Based On:

It’s grounded in justice-centered research and frameworks.
  
The 4 Instructional Principles: 
  • Inquiry
  • Affective Dimensions
  • Current Events, Civic Engagement
  • Cultural Competence and Sociopolitical Awareness 

The 3 Pillars: 
  • 7 Practices of Social Science
  • Content (supported an understanding of the world)
  • Literacy: reading, writing, speaking, and listening 

Content Covered in Each Grade: 
*Note: This curriculum is constantly evolving based on feedback from students and teachers, so this is the outline as of this episode’s recording (March 27, 2023). 
Grade 5:
  • Unit 1: Early Colonization
  • Unit 2: Revolution and Principles of US Government
  • Unit 3: Growth of the Republic
  • Unit 4: Civil War and Civil Rights for All  
Grade 6: 
  • Unit 2: Human Origins
  • Unit 2: TBD
  • Unit 3: Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Unit 4: The Americas
Grade 7: 
  • Unit 1: South and Central Asia
  • Unit 2: East Asia
  • Unit 3: TBD
  • Unit 4: TBD

How to prepare teachers to engage with this curriculum and prepare to teach it?

Suggested outcomes for a professional learning experience: 

  • A system for preparing to teach Unit 1 of the Investigating History curriculum 
  • Your “why” for focusing on one of the 4 core principles of the IH framework
  • A list of summative assessment “essentials” students will need to know/be able to do
  • A “GPS” outline of the unit that identifies the most important content understanding, skill or activity, and source for each lesson. 
  • The materials you need to actually teach this unit with detailed attention to a focus inquiry routine (i.e., launch, investigate, put it together) and focus pursuit from Dr. Gholnecsar Muhammad’s HILL model (specifically: identity, criticality, joy).

Leading Curriculum Implementation Tip: Co-create ongoing structures of coaching support, success shares, and resource banks.  

For reference: DESE’s Design Specifications document for the Investigating History curriculum. 


To help you get started with preparing teachers to teach this curriculum, I’m sharing my Investigating History PD Agenda with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 116 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. 

Quotes: 
  • “The history and social science curriculum should engage students in contributing to and reimagining our democracy; the core of this concept is their ability to practice taking informed civic action (Levinson & Levine, 2013).” (as cited in DESE’s design specifications document)  
  •  “We want to learn about the past, but we want to learn about it so that it can inform the present…What can we learn from the past to inform civic engagement currently? How do we take stock of the different strategies?” 
  • “I love any connection you can make and have students make to the decision-making structures of the school itself. Apply these same things we’re talking about in the curriculum about larger government structures to the government structure of the thing they experience daily—the thing that’s happening in their school.” ​
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where I reveal an instructional strategy and how to build community:

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5/15/2023

115. Ask "Who's Doing That Well?" with Dr. Darrin Peppard

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Dr. Darrin Peppard is a leadership coach, consultant, and speaker focused on organizational culture and climate. He’s the author of Road to Awesome and continues to be an educator at heart. 

The Big Dream 

Every adult and kid in a school feels seen and valued and heard. Every single kid has an opportunity for a better tomorrow and to figure out what they’re interested in. No one gets put in a box. 

Mindset Shifts Required

Develop portraits of a learner instead of portraits of a graduate! 

We can lead from the middle or the back. We don’t always need to lead from the front. 

Help teachers see what’s possible and give themselves permission to teach in innovative ways. 


Action Steps  

Hand over the curriculum decisions to teachers (e.g., to align curriculum and instruction to their three academies: Health, Energy, and Fire, Law, and Leadership). Dr. Peppard had three incredible leaders leading those academies, and just let them go. Of course, he was still in their classrooms all the time, but they led them. 

Protect and shield your staff from outside (and sometimes even inside) forces so they can do their work.

Build a groundswell of interest. It can’t just come from just you; it’s gotta come from staff. Put a team together and invite someone who’s not an early adopter. 

Visit other schools doing great work with teachers. Ask: Who’s doing that well? 

Invite students from other schools doing the work you want to do to talk to your students and families. 


One Step to Get Started 

Have a vision. Be clear about that vision. What’s the shift in reality you want to see in your school for your kids? You can then make decisions about where to allocate your time and resources to make it happen. 
 

Stay Connected

You can find this week’s guest on www.roadtoawesome.net or @DarrinMPeppard on social media. You can get the revised edition of Dr. Peppard’s book here.  



To help you be the best leader you can be, Dr. Peppard is sharing his free ebook on 5 mindsets to level up your leadership. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 115 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. 

Quotes: 
  • “It was this lightbulb moment for them—Oh, I can do that?” 
  • “Talk to other people who have done that work. Don’t try to do it alone. The roadmap exists for whatever it is you’re trying to do…go find those people and learn from the roadmap.  
  • “We had kids on the stage…from California…telling our kids their stories. We don’t have to tell the stories. Let those kids tell the stories. And even better, that night, the parents got to hear those stories from the kids…I’m getting goosebumps right now, Lindsay, telling you this story, and this was in 2009, 2010.” 
  • “You go into those schools. Oh, man!...Those mid- and late-adopter people in the room…They feel it. They feel the energy. They hear the stories from the kids. Unless you have a heart made of stone, in which case, you’re probably not an educator, that’s what gets you to say, ‘I have a dream for my school now. I have a dream for my classroom.” ​
Click here for Dr. Peppard's ebook
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where I explain how to co-create community values and agreements:

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5/8/2023

114. PRACTICE: Leading for Justice When Half the Staff Voted for Trump

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Leaders, if you need to navigate challenging staff and/or larger community contexts or disagreements. 

Origins of this Episode 

Leadership Coaching Question: How can we work with differing opinions among staff or between administrators and families? (How do you arrive at a common understanding?)

Another Leadership Coaching Question : How can we bring our DEI team’s “theory” work to the  whole staff in a practical way?  


What Can We Do?

First, some grounding context: Upholding the dignity of all people and advancing justice are the goals. We can’t lose sight of those. Facts matter. Scholars, Diana Hess and Paula McAvoy distinguish between settled empirical issues (these are factual realities and we don’t debate them) and policy issues (we can debate what’s the best way forward). 

Action Step: Ground the work and discussions in shared values. In processing injustices and conflict, center human emotions and “BASE” needs (i.e., (belonging, autonomy, survival, and enjoyment) instead of personal opinions.  

When we disagree, if we can identify the underlying value that’s the reason that we take our specific position, it’s more likely we can connect and hear the other person. For example, if someone says the value that underlies my position is that I am afraid for me or my family’s safety. That is something we can likely all resonate with to some degree.   

Tip: If you haven’t already identified shared values as a staff, I recommend doing this as your next meeting activity! (You can get a sample agenda for such a meeting here.)  

Action Step: Collect data on students’ experiences and center staff conversations in “street data.” (Check out the book, Street Data, by Jamila Dugan and Shane Safir!) 

Action Step: Invite students to staff meetings and have students on leadership teams as much as possible. 

Action Step: Use staff meetings to practice via protocols staff can also use with students, families, teams, and/or community members, depending on their role.


What’s in the 4 Staff Meeting Agendas Freebie? 
. 
  • Co-Creating Community Values and Agreements
  • Build Community via Circle (Story of My Name) 
  • How to Talk About Race + Current Events with Your Staff
  • Bonus: #UnitDreaming 

Tip: Check out the 5-minute videos for each of these available on YouTube.


Sneak Peek: Next month on the podcast, we’ll be starting a brand new #UnitDreaming series featuring educators who create a justice-centered unit outline right on the show! 


To help you do this work with your staff, I’m sharing my Staff Meeting Agendas with you for free. (You’ll get one agenda per week for a month. Yes, slide decks and live links to all related resources are included!) And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 114 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. 

Quotes: 
  • “We’re not debating facts…we are debating what’s the way forward. The way forward, the ultimate goal of that, is justice. On the way, we will uphold all people’s dignity. That’s the grounding…Think about the language that works best for you and your community. You can co-create that language.”  
  • “Those 3 pieces: values, emotions, and needs that underlie a situation…those are all things that we can empathize more deeply with versus ‘I need to put myself mentally in your shoes…we can connect to the humanity of the other person”  
  • “We need to center student voice more often. Bring students to those staff meetings. Have students on the leadership teams. Make sure that we’re constantly inundated with student voices and student experiences. It’s often a game-changer in terms of the things that faculty and staff will think about, will say, will advocate for if students are in the room.” 
  • “We want to see staff meetings as the hub for practice. We want to constantly and consistently practice, and we want that practice to be housed in a container or a protocol…that they can take back in their roles in the school…and actually practice there.” ​
Click here for the staff meeting agendas freebie
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where I explain how to diagnose an adaptive challenge:

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5/1/2023

113. Who Are Your People? with Afrika Afeni Mills

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Author of Open Windows, Open Minds: Developing Antiracist, Pro-Human Students, Afrika Afeni Mills is back on the podcast! Afrika wants to build community and help folx keep their chins up through this challenging work.
Chin Up Cheer Up GIFfrom Chin Up GIFs
The Big Dream 

For us as educators to be courageous and strategic. (The kids are doing it, but they shouldn’t be alone doing it!) 


Mindset Shifts Required

White-identifying people should do antiracist work for themselves. All people want to be whole and healed. We can look to white antiracist role models as guides and for motivation and encouragement to do this work.   

Many white folx have heard they need to decenter themselves, and so they may lean back. Instead, we can offer an alternative way to be. There’s a nuance to decentering. It doesn’t mean silence or to not be represented at all. It means what’s beautiful should be represented. 

Young white-identifying children don’t have great books to learn about people who look like them that have been doing antiracist work (both in the past and the present).

Caterpillar to Butterfly Metaphor: The hard transformation happens in the chrysalis, and we can’t open it up early or the caterpillar will die.   


Actions Educators—Specifically White Educators—Can Take 

Pause and reflect. (Engage in these activities as you read Afrika’s book!) 

Write an obituary of the way we used to believe something. It’s hard to face this stuff! 

Write a letter to your younger self as part of your racial healing. Maybe even create a story to share with your students based on your story.    

Do these things to understand our own foundations and how things got to be the way they are before taking action. This will sustain the work. 

Leaders: Make space for teachers to 1) Do racial healing and identity work, and 2) Take action with students. Do this work yourself too!  


One Step to Get Started 

Use a framework. A great, free example is the CARE Framework! 

Also: Give teachers space to do this. Partner with families. Have the will to do it, have a plan for how we’ll keep this work going in the face of inevitable resistance.


Stay Connected

You can find this week’s guest on www.afrikaafenimills.com, on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. 


Referenced Links: 
  • Sharif El-Mekki: Reviving the legacy of the Black teaching tradition TED Talk video
  • Teaching While White’s White Antiracist Activists
  • Lynn Burnett’s Site (click the White Antiracism section for the drop down) 
  • Not My Idea book
  • Nettie’s Trip South book 

To help you do anti-racist, pro-human, healing work, Afrika is sharing an amazing resource-packed Padlet with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 113 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. 


Quotes: 
  • “When it came time for nonviolent resistance and civil rights and things like that, we were really very strategic about…how are we going to make sure that people can?...We need to make sure we are—in tangible ways, supporting one another to keep the work going.” 
  • “I understand that you’ve been told to decenter, but that does not mean silence. It does not mean not participating. When we’re talking about decentering something, we’re trying to decenter the thing that takes away from our humanity.”  
  • “The natural thing that will happen with a human being if you don’t see yourself, you’re going to constantly look for that, and there are…folx who have ill motives who are waiting to recruit those children…and what they’re offering them is something very toxic.” 
  • “When we’re isolated and doing this work in pockets, it’s easier to stop it, but when we’re unified and in solidarity with one another, we can get a lot more done. The stakes are so high. We’re talking about children, and we’re talking about our country.” 
  • “It’s not pausing the learning to do this. It’s part of the learning…It’s all integrated.”  ​
Get the Padlet freebie here
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where I explain how to revolutionize behavior management in school:

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    Lindsay Lyons (she/her) is an educational justice coach who works with teachers and school leaders to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice, design curricula grounded in student voice, and build capacity for shared leadership. Lindsay taught in NYC public schools, holds a PhD in Leadership and Change, and is the founder of the educational blog and podcast, Time for Teachership. ​

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