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In this episode, I’m sharing the K-12 book list from one of my favorite podcasts, Pod Save the People. Each year, they share their book recommendations for their Blackest Book Club on the podcast. This list is fantastic and they also have a dedicated section to books written for K-12 audiences. I’m talking about those today, but I highly recommend getting the full list here (and of course, subscribing to their amazing podcast).
Why? Here’s an image from the Cooperative Children's Book Center summarizing statistics about the racial diversity of the authors, characters, and contents of childrens’ books in 2022. (Note that there are fewer books with BIPOC main characters than with main characters who are animals.) 
Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop explains, “When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, or when the images they see are distorted, negative, or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part.” A lack of racial representation in books also harms white children as it distorts their understanding of the world and impairs their ability to learn from and be in community with racially diverse people.
What are the books? Books for Grades K-2:
Books for Grades 3-5:
Books for Grades 6-8:
Books for Grades 9-12:
Final Tip Once you fall in love with one (or more!) of these books, brainstorm ways to put it into your curriculum. If you need help structuring your ideas into a unit, check out the resource linked below. To help you jump start your thinking on how to design a unit around one of these books, I’m sharing my Unit Dreaming Outline Template with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 169 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 below. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Educational justice coach Lindsay Lyons, and here on the time for Teacher podcast, we learn how to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice design curricula grounded in student voice and build capacity for shared leadership. I'm a former teacher leader turned instructional coach. I'm striving to live a life full of learning, running, baking, traveling, and parenting because we can be rockstar educators and be full human beings if you're a principal assistant superintendent, curriculum director, instructional coach or teacher who enjoys nering out about core curriculum of students. I made this show for you. Here we go. Hello, everyone and welcome to another episode of the Time for Teachers podcast. This is episode 169 and we are talking about book recommendations from the host of my favorite podcast or one of my favorites. I have a few, but this is definitely a weekly lesson pod. Save the people. Look at that. You got a podcast recommendation and you're gonna get a bunch of book recommendations. Here we go. In this episode, I am sharing the K 12 book list. So it's a section of a larger book list from the podcast pod. 00:01:05Edit Save the people each year they share book recommendations for their Blackest Book club on the podcast. I'm gonna link to this in the show notes as well because you're gonna want to subscribe to the podcast. You're gonna want to get the full blackest book club list. The list is absolutely fantastic. And they have a dedicated section to books written for K 12 audiences, which I'll talk about today. I also may weave in some others because it was really good. But I highly recommend doing all the things to get directly to those resources. So why are we talking about this specifically? Why are we bringing in the Black As Blackest Book Club list? It is because you may already be aware. But if you're not, let me tell you the lack of racial diversity and representation in particularly children's books is abysmal. Um It has gotten slightly better over the years. The co-operative Children's Book Center summarizes their statistics of books they publish each year. Their most recent one is based on 2022. That's what's accessible online. I will share one of their visual representations and their graphics on the pod, the podcast episode blog post. 00:02:08Edit That's gonna be at Lindsay, Beth lions.com/blog/one 69. If you're interested in following along or accessing that later. One of the things that we want to be aware of um the things that they track when we're looking at books and thinking about the publishing industry and whose books and whose voices are represented. There are all sorts of data points on here. One of which being the racial diversity and ethnic diversity of the authors, also the characters, the main characters, particularly as well as the content areas that relate to race and ethnicity. So one of the big things that has been highlighted as stuff like this has been published in wider media spaces and shared online is that for example, there are fewer books with bi apo main characters than with main characters who are animals. The representation racially and ethnically is abysmal and it needs to be better. And so the voices and the stories that exist have been published should be more centralized in our curricula. 00:03:13Edit And I've talked about this a lot on the podcast. So we are censoring these recommendations and I'm really excited to help you build units and lessons and instruction around these recommendations. So feel free to peruse all of that data online. Another piece of this, like the kind of the why of why we're doing this, Doctor Rine Sims Bishop, who I've referenced before on the podcast talks a lot about windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors. And she says, quote, when Children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read or when the images they see are distorted, negative or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part end quote. And so we need diverse books censors this quote from Doctor Sims in their website because that's, that's all of what they do. I'd love to get those books on the podcast as well working on it. Uh But they also talk about how, you know, a lack of racial representation in books, really does harm white Children as well. It distorts their understanding of the world. It impairs their ability to learn from and be in community with racially diverse people. 00:04:18Edit Um Doctor Shree Bridges Patrick often talks about like the racial injustice and white supremacy being like a, a kind of a, a soul harm. And I think we, we initially, I think of doctor um Patrick like as, as thinking about this work because that's what we collaborate on together. But I believe initially that comes from res meum. So when we think about, you know, the value and the fact that a lot of the books in our traditional curricula probably follow the publishing industry data, they underrepresent um by authors, characters, content areas. And so we're looking at these books today, these are referenced by grade band. So initially, uh we're gonna start with K two and then we're gonna move on up from there. So books for K 280 twist Scientist, I just recently read this upon this recommendation. It is by Andrew Beatty. It is also a Netflix series I learned in my research for this episode. Incredible. It is short. It is sweet. I liked it, even for my two year old, I think it's really good. 00:05:23Edit It is perfect for Children. Right. It's about curiosity and asking questions and investigating and just like all sorts of beautiful kid energy. Right? Um Such a good one. The next one in this great band of K two I have not read. I'm gonna assume that it's more for like maybe your 1st, 2nd grade, like slightly older. Um, I, but I don't know because I haven't read it. So this is called sit in how four friends stood up by sitting down by Andrea Davis Pinkney. And mhm. I can imagine so many instructional units, um particularly on social studies, but also anything related to sel related to um the act of supporting community and being a community member, which is really popular. KP two. I think this would be huge books for grades three through five. I am smart. I am blessed. I can do anything by Alyssa Holder and Zika Holder Young who I learned in my research are sisters, which is super cool. 00:06:30Edit Um This is about Ian and Ian has woken up on the wrong side of the bed where nothing quite feels right. Um What if he doesn't know an answer at school? We messed this up. But it just takes a few reminders from his mom and some friends that day to remind him that a new day is a good day because he's smart. He's lost and he can do anything. So a really nice positive message can situate itself in sel context. It can I think be, be something that integrates into any content area could also be used for like an el a course um or classroom. The next one is the 1619 project born on the water. So we have this book, uh this is by Nicole Hannah Jones and Renee Watson. You may already know as well as a podcast series and a hulu mini documentary series. So I think there's a lot of content there for the like educator. So you can do a lot of learning. And then this is like the student accessible book, I will say for Massachusetts, for example, fifth grade is a US history content focus. 00:07:35Edit Um I believe that's the same for New York State as well. Those are the states that I'm most familiar with. So I do think that it fits nicely in fifth grade. It also is hard content. So I do think you wanna prepare our students for it and it's important to talk with students about it. I think it's, it's um a wonderful companion to either a social studies unit or an el a unit that is happening simultaneously. If you are not the teacher of both that happened simultaneously and in conjunction with uh a unit on um enslavement on the founding of the United States of kind of that time period um that genre of, of conversations. So really the 1619 project just in case anyone's unfamiliar with it. Um It chronicles the consequences of slavery in the history of Black resistance in the United States. So I think that span again of thinking of investigating history, which is uh Massachusetts state recommended curriculum now for fifth grade, uh social studies. 00:08:39Edit And there is a unit that is about slavery and resistance. And then there's also uh like that's like unit two, I think of the year. So like quarter two and then quarter four is civil rights movement and resistance in that lens. So it would be a nice uh thread of resistance throughout. Um to kind of like if you, if your curriculum is following the arc of um oppression resistance. Now, I I also want to just like just add a thought in here. Um that a lot of the work I've been doing in the work with social studies. Teachers in particular has been to kind of problem size, the oppression resistance dynamic. Um And really thinking about those things certainly because we need to talk about them, right? We need to learn a factual history, but also thinking about centering healing and the healing piece being the piece that even as adults, we haven't found yet. And so thinking about this is an important component of perhaps designing a unit around. 00:09:43Edit This is like, where do we go from here? With this information? It is challenging to sit with, I think for all audiences nuanced, of course, for different audiences of students based on their racial identities and experiences. But I think that it also is from an instructional lens helpful to think about what do we do in the last and after or in the discussion following reading this book. So just kind of some consideration there. Uh I don't have time to go into an entire piece in one episode. Maybe that will be a separate episode. But I think that is something I would be aware of as I'm planning unit. Hello, this is Leah coming in to talk about today's freebie. And if you listen to the show, you know, a lot about unit dreaming, so be sure to get the unit dreaming outline template at www dot Lindsay, Beth lines.com/one 69, enjoy. Ok. The next grade band is grades six through eight. So we have the Harlem Hell Fighters by Max Brooks. I have not read this book. Um But this is a term that the Germans called um uh US Army unit, um that was fighting to make America what was safe for democracy in the description. 00:10:58Edit So thinking, I think I'm I'm assuming here that this book goes into a lot of this idea of fighting for democracy and freedom across the water right across the Atlantic in Europe and the treatment of black soldiers as they come back to the United States following service. And that kind of like, um disparity of like, hey, we're supposed to be fighting for this thing and we're supposed to be fighting for freedom and like, look at it not represented here. Like I literally put my leg up on the line for this country and this country is treating me in this way. So I think there's uh a lot of interesting racial justice components to explore here. Um But again, I haven't read the full book, so I'm thinking that this could live in again, a social studies unit, an el A unit, um an interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary space. For sure. The next one I read upon recommendation of, of getting this book list. So it's called My Life As An Ice Cream Sandwich by the boy. I actually listen to this audio book which is read by the author. It was absolutely fantastic. 00:12:03Edit I just want to experience all the things that s boy has to offer. It was so good. Um So this is a 12 year old black girl, Ebony Grace Norfleet, that's her name. And so she actually grew up with her grandfather and her mom in Huntsville, Alabama. But then she moved for a summer to spend time with her dad because something was going on with her grandfather. And so her grandfather is actually one of the first black engineers to integrate NASA. So her and her grandfather have had this dynamic of kind of like thinking about space and kind of pretending or at least the grandfather, you know, thinks that pretending, um, he calls it her imagination location, uh, which is kind of this pretend space of imagining that she is, um, you know, I, I person who is in space and, uh, cadet starkly I believe is what she calls herself. 00:13:10Edit Um, and so she, she brings that into a lot of spaces. This is kind of used as a, um, a, a mechanism for coping when things get really hard she's picked on in Harlem. Um She's, the book does not say this or address this pointedly, but it's kind of, I think it, there's kind of an inference being made that socially, she is probably not um on interacting socially in the same way that her peers are. And so one could imagine she is like on the autism spectrum or exhibiting behavior that someone on the spectrum maybe exhibit. So there's kind of like that dimension as well and it's, it's, it's such a good book like it is, it's really good, it is longer. So I, I definitely see why it's in the middle grades um and not, you know, an earlier elementary um grade which the content might be OK for. But I think the uh length is definitely, you know, this might be like an el a book that you, that you would explore. 00:14:13Edit Um I do think that there are opportunities for an interdisciplinary thing here with science. There is a lot of space exploration and they kind of talk a little bit about that there. But I, I actually envision this as like a transdisciplinary thing um where maybe they're reading the book in EL A but there are definitely components and extensions that you could use as different points in the books, could jump off into science lessons and then different points in the book, jump off into social studies lessons. I think that could be really, really cool. Um Maybe even math, there were a couple like potentially math adjacent things or things that you could certainly pull in if you wanted to do a full transdisciplinary thing um as well as like some design or engineering things, for sure, for sure. Ok, let's get to the grades nine through 12 books. So in these books, I have read both of them, I read Just Mercy. I've read the adult version. This is an adapted for young adults version. They're recommending phenomenal book by Bryan Stevenson. It's also a movie I think currently as of this recording, it's only accessible on Amazon Prime or other like paid options, but I have not seen the movie. 00:15:16Edit Um It is really good. It is a glimpse into the justice system. So Bryan Stevenson is an acclaimed lawyer and social justice advocate and really talks about, you know, folks who have been wrongfully imprisoned, um what his efforts have been to kind of get justice and fight for the release. Um Just I think a really good commentary on our our justice system or injustice system. And I think the fact that it, there's a movie with that as well, I think could be a really nice pairing and el a social studies potentially. Uh But I also think there's a lot of opportunity here for digging into like the mathematical statistics of justice and uh things that maybe wouldn't be immediately recognizable, the subjects you'd want to bring in, but definitely potential for with, of course, a lot of thought and planning um an opportunity to dig into that. And then finally, uh 12th, ninth through 12th grade book, which I know my, our 12th graders when I was teaching in the last school, I taught that they read this in 12th grade as part of their 12th grade portfolio project in their el A class. 00:16:22Edit But as a social studies teacher I was invited to or a person with social studies background and literacy background was invited to um give feedback on. It is Kindred by Octavia E Butler. It is also currently or was I think last year um A Hulu series. So this I think also works like I said, I've seen it done in El A in Multiple El A Spaces. I think it could also be a nice transdisciplinary opportunity um particularly with social studies being uh an opportunity to work in. Um so a little bit of time travel, I do love Octavia Butler so much. There's so much you could do a whole Octavia butler units on um you know, like Black Futures and Space and sci fi and like all the things, right. So there's some time travel, if you're not familiar with the story. Um in this book, sorry, I'm getting, I'm getting all Octavia butler enough. So in this book, there is time travel. It follows Dina who lives in 1976 as a black woman who is through some sort of magic or something. 00:17:26Edit I can't remember exactly how she gets there, but she is transported to the Anti South. Uh Rufus is the white son of a plantation owner who is drowning, Dana, save him. And so it is like processing a lot about race, about um time, about a lot of these like very intense themes. Um And there is, there are, there is trauma in there as there I think are in a lot of these books. So just to be really reflective of that and intentionally design instructional experiences and discussions around that to be mindful of, of your students. OK. Those are all of the books they recommended for K 12. They also recommended some amazing other books that I think were geared for adults but are great as well. So I'm just gonna like drop a couple of these in. So like sister outsider by a Lord. Oh my goodness, what a beautiful transdisciplinary thing, but also Audrey Lord's writing for sure uh can house itself in an el a class I think. 00:18:29Edit Um but exploring so many social justice issues in there that I think could also fit really nicely in a social studies unit. Uh There's a book by Stacy Abram. They talk about our time is now really thinking about like voter suppression, economic inequality education. And I think a lot of these things fit nicely in a social studies classroom legacy. A black physician reckons with racism and medicine by Chip Blackstock. Doctor Blackstock was on the podcast, they interviewed about the book and this is the fascinating conversation. So if you listen to that podcast episode, it'll give you a little bit more. But I'm thinking there um you know, deep dive into science um particularly also a nice transitionary with perhaps um a health class with perhaps a math class would be super cool. I absolutely adore the Children of Virtue and Vengeance book and the series, Children of Blood and Bone was the first one. This is the second one. This is one of Jm Cason's picks and it is so good to ami is brilliant as described by the in the in the podcast. 00:19:31Edit She intentionally designs this black universe, right? Like this intentionally black universe and it is just one of the coolest books I've ever read. The third book comes out soon. I wanna say like this year or next year or something, I'm very excited about it. Miles recommended Trisha Hersey's Resistance, which I think on the podcast they were having a conversation relating it to like the Nap Ministry. And I just think, oh, there would be so many cool things there. I uh Henderson recommended a bunch of them including cultivating genius by Goldie Muhammad, which I absolutely love um pleasure activism by Adrian Mary Brown, which is recommended to me uh Hunger by Roxanne Gay, which is on my list. Oh Miles also recommends Bell Hooks all the time. I absolutely love about Hooks as well. This one that Miles recommended was the will to change, which I have not read, which I definitely want to. Those are the ones that I really wanted to shout out as just being awesome. Oh, Dr Allinger was the one who recommended Sister Outsider and the Stacy E rooms book. Our time is now. 00:20:33Edit So I wanted to shout out to Darra, my final call to you is that once you fall in love with one or more of these amazing books, feel free to reach out if you wanna help brainstorm some ways to put it into your curriculum, to really structure these ideas into a concrete unit. I'm going to link in the blog post for this episode. My unit dreaming outline template. This is when I did that unit dreaming series with guest. This is the outline tablet that we would use to core units in like 30 minutes live on the podcast, quote unquote live. So if you were interested, grab that for free in the blog post for this episode. That's at Lindsay, Beth lion.com/blog/one 69 and I'll catch you next time if you like this episode. I bet you'll be just as jazz as I am about my coaching program for increasing student led discussions in your school, Shane Sapper and Jamila Dugan talk about a pedagogy of student voice in their book Street Data. They say students should be talking for 75% of class time. Do students in your school talk for 75% of each class period? I would love for you to walk into any classroom in your community and see this in action. 00:21:37Edit If you're smiling to yourself as you listen right now, grab 20 minutes on my calendar. It's a brainstorm how I can help you make this big dream a reality. I'll help you build a comprehensive plan from full day trainings and discussion protocols like circle and Socratic seminar to follow up classroom visits where I can plan witness and debrief discussion based lessons with your teachers. Sign up for a nerdy no strings attached to brainstorm. Call at Lindsay, Beth lions.com/contact. Until next time, leaders think big act brave and be your best self. This podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better Podcast Network better today, better tomorrow and the podcast to get you there. Explore more podcasts at teach better.com/podcasts and we'll see you at the next episode
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In this episode, Adrian Gordon shares how music education serves as a vital tool for community building and personal connection. He talks about fostering strong bonds through shared interests, the power of vulnerability and humor in creating a welcoming classroom environment, and organically supporting students to compose their own music. We also discuss the underrepresentation of Black composers within the music industry and the urgent need for content that reflects our diverse society and enables Black students to see themselves as composers.
Adrian Gordon is an internationally performed composer and seasoned music educator. As a composer with Alfred Music and founder of Leap Year Music Publishing, he specializes in publishing string music for diverse school ensembles. His compositions appear on Orchestra Association Music Performance Reading Lists across multiple states, including California, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, and Texas. Adrian is a sought-after clinician and conductor, sharing his expertise with diverse audiences. He also authored the insightful book Note to Self: A Music Director’s Guide for Transitioning to a New School and Building a Thriving Music Program. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, he currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife and two sons, serving as the Director of Orchestras at Providence Day School. The Big Dream The profession of education is valued and funded as much as professional sports in our society. Adrian references the excellent Key and Peele sketch, “If We Treated Teachers Like Pro Athletes” to make this point. He highlights the lifelong impact of music and the transformative role of music in community and personal development. Action Steps Idea 1: Engage in regular community events, such as communal pizza nights, to foster a sense of belonging and investment among students. Idea 2: Incorporate personal touches in teaching, like sharing 'dad jokes', personal interests, or personal compositions to humanize educators and establish rapport with students to encourage student engagement and retention. Idea 3: Intentionally include the work of underrepresented composers in curricula to accurately reflect the diverse society in which we live and provide relatable role models for all students. Idea 3: Nurture students' interest in composition, and literally “hand the baton” to students so they can conduct their original compositions for public performances. Challenges? Black composers are severely underrepresented in traditional orchestral curricula, especially at the beginner level, which impacts the ability of students to see themselves reflected in the music they learn and play. Adrian has done research to find Black composers and intentionally include their compositions at beginner levels. He is also actively involved in mentorship programs to address this racial inequity and foster a new generation of racially and culturally diverse composers. One Step to Get Started Engage in personal and professional development activities such as attending conferences, networking, seeking mentorship, and learning from experienced educators. Stay Connected You can find Adrian Gordon on his website, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also check out his book and publishing company at Leap Year Music Publishing. To help you implement the ideas from this episode, Adrian is sharing his Composition Mind Map resource with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 168 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 below. Quotes:
TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Everyone. Today's episode is with Adrian Gordon who is an internationally performed composer and seasoned music editor as a composer with Alfred music and founder of Leap Year music publishing. He specializes in publishing string music for diverse school ensembles. His compositions appear on orchestra, association, music, performance, reading lists across multiple states including California, Florida, Georgia Maryland, North Carolina and Texas. Adrian is a sought after clinician and conductor, sharing his expertise with diverse audiences. He also authored the insightful book Note to Self, a music director's guide for transitioning to a new school and building a thriving music program. Born and raised in Miami Florida. He currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife and two sons, serving as the Director of Orchestras at Providence Day School, educational justice coach, Lindsay Lyons. And here on the time for teacher podcast, we learn how to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice design curricula grounded in student voice and build capacity for shared leadership. 00:01:04Edit I'm a former teacher leader turned instructional coach. I'm striving to live a life full of learning, running, baking, traveling and parenting because we can be rockstar educators and be full human beings if you're a principal assistant superintendent, curriculum director, instructional coach or teacher who enjoys nering out about core curriculum of students. I made this show for you. Here we go. Adrian Gordon. Welcome to the time for teacher podcasts. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate the time. Yeah, I appreciate your time and I'm excited today to talk about all, all things that you do, which is a lot in your new book, which is super exciting. Is there anything you want listeners to either know about you think about just to kind of situate the conversation before we dive in? Well, um I guess I have my tentacles and uh just about everything, education, publishing, uh composing um conducting, performing. You know, I do quite a bit because I love it. And um yeah, that's, that's basically I have a, a portfolio career is what I, I like to say. 00:02:11Edit So I do quite a bit and, and I really am passionate about music and music education. And uh yeah, I'm just happy to share that with you guys today. Excellent. I'm so excited. OK. So I like to ground the episodes in kind of a, a freedom dream. So Doctor Bettina Love talks about the concept of freedom dreaming as dreams grounded in the critique of injustice, which I just love. And so what is that big dream that you hold as you think about music education, as you think about the spaces that you're in, what is that dream for you? Um You know, this, it comes across as kind of goofy, but there's this comedy skit on. Um I think it's a key and peele and they have this teacher draft and the way they do it, it's very similar to like a sports uh trading, you know, players. But you think about it, you're like, man, these are teachers who are shaping the future, shaping our Children. Why don't they get that kind of respect and gratitude? Um So I guess my big wish was to have that kind of seriousness um in, in relationship to the way we treat our educators, literature, our teachers. 00:03:25Edit Um and also the way music education is treated again up against the backdrop of sports and athletics. There's a ton of money. I know there's not money that goes into the arts, but it's nowhere near um what you see in, in sports and on all athletics. So a and you know, I think with athletics, you can do that and it's a great discipline for several years. But once your body hits a certain, you know, stopping point, you, it's like you can't continue to do those kinds of things, but you can always play, you can always make music and you can always be in community with others and uh contribute beautiful sounds to the people around you. So I, I think it's so important and I just wish sometimes that it had that same um gravitas that UC athletic programs having. Wow, love the cane reference. Also love situating music against sports to think about that like difference in funding in hype and just like our general culture and society. 00:04:30Edit And I love that you just named like music, you can literally do forever. I'm thinking about my um my grandma who was like, who had dementia and music was the thing that like grounded her and the thing that brought her back, right? And like that music therapy is, is so popular with the elderly. And I just think about all of the uses and, and also it with my toddler, right? Like music is just this joyous space, like birth to death. Like this is it, right? This is beautiful and an opportunity to engage in whatever way you can like. Oh, so cool. Thank you for that. I know that you've done so much and I know that you also talk about like the role of community in music, which I, I just find a fascinating concept and idea. And so I'm curious to know about what you have done in, in the context or category of like community and music that you wanna share with us, like a kind of a success share if you will. Well, I think first for me, it kind of started with a mindset shift. I, I had to, you know, in my book, uh Not off, I talk about how you kind of have to remember your why versus your what? 00:05:39Edit So what are we doing? Yeah, we are teaching, we are educating. Um But why are we doing it? You know, we do develop those relationships with these kids and influence them in a positive way, help them guide them. Um And then we understand that music happens to be the vehicle in order to do that. Um So I had to kind of wrap my head around that and think to myself that, you know, yes, I am teaching, but I do first and foremost, need to develop those relationships with the kids. And the by-product of that is a really cohesive program, a really strong program that there's more investment for the kids. They feel accountable to each other, they feel connected to each other. Um And you know, so for me, what did that look like? For me, it looked like sharing the appropriate parts of my life with them. So for example, I'm, I'm very big into composing. So I talk a lot about composing with my students and trying to include them and it's kind of related to what we do in the field of music. Um You know, I'll bring pieces in that they can play and see like the sketches and, and actually play through them. 00:06:49Edit Um I've been able to help uh students with compositions of their own, which is really special to me. Um Yeah, we do and then other things where we can really get everybody together. So I'll do like, um, pizza nights, uh, with my students. We, we're not focused on anything pedagogical. It's just, hey, let's come in, let's have some pizzas and watch a movie together and we do it after school. So we're not, you know, interrupting any, um, instruction time and what we'll do, like some of the fun things that it's been really successful is we will do pizzas from all over the place and the kids love this and it's so it doesn't cost a ton, especially if you have one person bringing one another person, a person bringing another. Um, so you just get all these pizzas in the room and we do these taste tests and the, the kids feel so invested in it. It's just a cool thing to watch and, you know, it's just part of that community building and, and that's what I think every program needs to have if you really want to make some great music together. Um, because they really, it's hard for them to play well together as an ensemble if they don't really get along. 00:07:56Edit So, first and foremost, I, like I said, I'd have that mindset shift and then think about ways I could do that. And that's one of the big successes I've had scheduling these really, um, regular community events throughout the school year. I love the grounding in the sense of belonging and community and just like, not even necessarily music. But I also love the pieces that you're bringing in. Like, I'm just thinking like curricular that are music. Like, so they, you're sharing your parts of your life that connects deeply with me. When I was teaching in my second year, I participated in like a slam poetry competition. And so I would like view my pieces, like, test them out with the students who were like, yeah, but then it's like, but now there's space for you. Like, i it's a nice vulnerable piece as the educator when you can say, hey, I'm doing this thing. But that vulnerability really is in service of like the connection and to open you up to do the original composition yourself, which is so cool that you them do that like that is awesome. I'm, I'm, I'm curious to know actually like, how is there a particular way you sequence those? 00:08:59Edit I'm thinking about, you know, a person who's listening to this like, oh, that actually sounds really cool and I kind of want to do that, but I just don't even know where to start. Like, how, how do you bring that in? Like, what does that look like in your class with helping students compose? You're talking about? Yeah, like a a any of the sequence of things like, do you spend a certain time with like community building first? And then you share and then then you help them in a particular way, share theirs or What's the process? Yeah. Yeah. So when I do stuff like that, the one that I just finished, which I'm really proud of, uh, this, the student, he approached me probably early, early on in the school year. And he said I have been working on this piece. I'd love to show it to you and I, I didn't think he thought anything of it. He showed it to me and I was like, hey, this is really good. Why don't you continue to work on it? I'll kind of coach you through it, some of the aspects of, of composing at the end of the semester at our winter concert. Why don't you perform? Why we perform this, the entire orchestra, the high school orchestra will perform this. 00:10:03Edit And then on top of that, I think you should conduct it and I should play your instrument. So I'll be in the ensemble and you're conducting and we're literally, I'm passing the baton. So I thought that was really cool. So it was a really cool educational moment where I got to coach him uh through the composition process, coach him through the conducting process and have the students watch uh were observing that learning what goes into uh conducting. It was just like a, a multifaceted uh lesson for everybody. And for me, me too, how to kind of communicate those ideas about composition and then why I'm doing the things up on the podium that I'm doing because I do them, but I don't necessarily think about them because it's, it's just so ingrained in me and to be able to communicate that and pass that along. Um and watch a student develop, you know, compositionally and conducting. It was just, it's fascinating. So there's that element and then I get to bring in my own piece too and really show them, hey, I, I work through things, the things that I'm doing are perfect at first. 00:11:06Edit But I'm, these are my sketches. I do revisions and edits and, and then I get to bring in the final product. Um So I, uh for example, like last year I showed my students a project that I, I worked on as a composition project with this um youth orchestra out in um New York. And the theme had been Stop Violence, Show Kindness. And I had brought the sketches in and I showed my students. Um and we finally performed it out in New York. But this year I wanted to bring it in and have my, my uh current students play it. And the cool thing about that is I'm able to talk about some of the music theory elements like, you know, some points, I'll just say, hey, all my music theory, kids, what do you see here between, you know, the violin line and the cello line? And they'll say, oh, for music theory, I see contrary motion, you know, and those are really cool connections that they're making. Um So, you know, any way I can connect the dots for them. I, I try and do it. I love that grounding in like the personal like this, this was yours. And they also love like the student leadership element that you're building a lot. 00:12:15Edit Like there's so many different, like, just very personal things in, in, in this but also just that were, I, I think sometimes in, in any course, in any educational space, sometimes we too divorced that the skills are too divorced from the thing we're trying to do and like the final product and to be able to say, hey, I wrote this thing, we composed this thing we, or, or we played this thing like let's use this for a music theory, like let's just let's use this thing that's super cool. We're already invested in to dive deeper and explore as opposed to, you know, we have to use this thing that's typically used or is this traditional thing or, you know, whatever it's like, no, this is the thing we care about. Let's just use this. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's a really cool feeling. Um And then I've done other things, like just talk about um personal life. Like I had this one student in my last school and he was a very tough kid, um great kid, but he had, you know, school wasn't his forte. 00:13:16Edit Um But he was in the orchestra, he stuck with it. I thought he'd quit. I thought he'd give up on orchestra. But I think one of the things that got him hooked was, um, I just would ask him about fishing because he would wear fishing shirts and, and I love fishing too. So I would talk to him about fishing and he would bring me pictures of his weekend fishing and, oh, yeah. Yeah, I caught the same kind of fish, you know, I lived in Florida. That's a peacock bass or that's a slid and he's like, you know, about fishing. I'm like, yeah, I fish all the time. So we would trade our fishing pictures um, and talk about great spots where we go fishing. And I think that really, it, it kind of humanized me and made him see me as, hey, this is an ally, this is somebody who's here to care about me and, and not just be this figurehead, this teacher who's, uh, you know, wagging a finger in your face. Um And this, this kid he stuck with it and which I was very surprised this happened to be, I think one of his favorite classes and I don't think it had anything to do with the music. I just think it had to do with the connection that he made. 00:14:21Edit So that human element I think goes a long way. And we, we don't even realize how much, um those small, small details can touch a student and really change. And alter their path. Um, like I said, I thought this kid would definitely be long done with music but I think that's that little connection hooked him. Uh, oh, I love that story and it makes me think too about, you know, just like new teacher overwhelmed, for example. So a new teacher is in the same role that you were in and it's just like, how do I even possibly make connections? But I have, you know, so many students or so little time, you know, all the things that often are barriers to doing exactly what you did. Is there some either structure or approach or mindset that you use and have valued in being able to do that kind of stuff because I think some people see it as like an ideal but not like something they can put into practice. No, it's practical. Um And I think the first part is vulnerability, vulnerability. I think you have to have that, um that mindset. 00:15:25Edit So one of the things that I do that's free, absolutely free. Every class I walk into the class and I say, ok, guys, it's joke of the day and I give him the worst dad joke I can think of or that I can find and the kids, I mean, they roll their eyes. They're like, oh my gosh, you just, you just pierced my heart with how bad that was. But you know what? It's, it's a, it's a way to break the ice. It's a way to let them know. Hey, we're here to have fun. Um, and there's time and place. We can have fun, but we can also do the learning part too. Uh, and I'm here to talk to you like a human being. Not just your teacher again, wagging that finger at you. So that's a real practical thing that I do every single day. Joke of the day. And, um, it works and the kids, you know, at first they're like, no, no joke, joke of the day. But as we progress throughout the school, you know, like, where, where's the joke of the day? You forgot? Hm. I love it. Oh, that's so good. So, as, as I'm thinking about like, you know, being a, a member of the orchestra, for example, or, or just like a per a person in your class, I'm thinking about, ok, so we have like this belonging that is built and, and it seems like it's ongoing, right? 00:16:40Edit It's the same joke as day, every day. Um, you know, and, and this pizza party like it happens often, right? And so we have this kind of belonging. I hear um your musical compositions, right? I have the space to make my own musical compositions, participate in, in, in playing with the team that I belong to. I'm wondering also from your own. I don't know if it's like, how much of your own or, or, you know, I don't know exactly how to phrase my question. I imagine in, as a musical composer yourself composing something has a process to it. Right. So there's like, I imagine like a spark and then there's like the, the literal steps that you go through to compose the, the music before it is final. And I'm wondering, does that inform how you coach others to like students to compose theirs or does it, um does that process that you have used personally kind of translate to how you coach students to even play the composition? I'm wondering just from a curricular lens, how that personal connection that you have with the content that that you're teaching um connects to your instructional decisions. 00:17:45Edit Does that question make sense? Yeah, I, well, I think they all inform one another and I've talked about this before where I think I'm a better conductor because I am a better because I compose and I'm a better composer because I teach, I'm better teacher because I conduct and it's just kind of circular and each one informs the other. Um So for example, if I'm writing something and this can be very hard for someone who's not in the classroom. And I think that's what kind of gives me an advantage. I understand the exact developmental um pedagogy for each ensemble at each stage. And I know for example, hey, if I'm writing a grade one piece, I can't throw, for example, like for the violins I can't throw a C# in there, high three G string that's not gonna work. They're not there yet. I gotta give it another year or so. And I understand that because I'm in the classroom and, and I'm intimately aware of what they're capable of doing at each developmental stage. So that all, they all kind of inform one another and make me a better musician, make me a better composer and make me a better conductor. 00:18:51Edit I'm more sensitive to those things. I, you know, if I see something like that, um let's say it's for the next level up, I understand that OK, this is something that's new to them. It's not something that they've been doing yet. So as a conductor now, I need to slow down and figure out ways that we can reinforce this uh and make sure that they're, they're grasping this concert because they haven't had this for that long. So, you know, it, it's all connected to me. Wow, I just love that so much even as like the, the musical metaphor for any content area that you're teaching, right? It's like the idea of there is this developmental progression. I need to know that I need to know where my students are in the developmental progression. And I need to make sure that as I kind of create my original compositions, whether that's musical compositions or like even thinking of the metaphor of musical compositions for like unit development, right? Or something like I am scaffolding it in that way that students are able to move forward and if they're not at the level that they need to be at that, they're not ready for that next step. I need to slow it down so that they are able to get it. 00:19:55Edit Like, wow, what a cool, what a cool metaphor for even like non musical educators and super Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, I imagine that you have faced many uh a challenge in the classroom space or even in the compositional space. I'm curious to know like, what is one of those challenges that you faced? And how did you deal with that? How did you overcome it? I'm thinking of particularly the listeners who are maybe in a similar position and trying to do big things like you are and just wondering what we, what you can teach them and, and kind of inspire them with is like challenge, but also here's how I worked through it. Hi, this is Leah from the podcast team. In this episode, Adrian Gordon is sharing their free resource, a composition mind map to help you develop your own music ideas. You can get it at Lindsay, Beth laws.com/blog/one 68. Now, back to the episode. Wow, that's a, that's a deep question. Well, no, it's OK. I mean for someone like me, um you know, you know, I'm a black man, so it's been hard, I think particularly in the instrumental world. 00:21:03Edit Um, and it's mainly classical music to find my footing. You know, I remember, uh, when I first started teaching, I never forget I had, I started teaching as just general music and I remember I had a parent who came up to me and I was like, what's, who's your favorite composer? And it wasn't in a way of interest in getting to know me. It was a almost like AAA litmus test, like uh you know, who, who are you bringing into the classroom to teach to my kid? And I just, you know, from that point, I've always felt like there's always gonna be that little bit of a barrier. Um So I have never felt fully accepted in this realm and, you know, just being instrumental music, classical music, string music, there's not that many um black players, black composers. Um Right now I'm, I'm about to present a session on diversity in the orchestra and underrepresented composers. And one of the things that I'm learning right now is how, how few um composers of color there are particularly at the beginning stages. 00:22:16Edit So you think about, for example, football, you have students who are so engrossed in football because they can see their reflection in those players. You know, it's something that they can connect with. You don't really have that in, particularly in my discipline with strings beginners really can't see themselves, young black students, young Latino students, they can't really see themselves in, in, in the composers that they're playing, they make that similar connection and sorry to bring it back to athletics again, but they can't see their reflection there and latch on the same way you would, you would envision a kid latching on in, you know, football or basketball or whatever. So I'm learning right now that there's just AAA real big need to have um more, more unrepresented composers, particularly the beginning stages. So these kids can latch on and you can really have a complete kind of tapestry of what the country looks like. 00:23:20Edit Um So that's been really difficult and, you know, off of just a, a unofficial count that I'm doing right now. I've found about, you know, when you think about graded music. So the way we play music and the way you see it in curriculum is at a beginner stage, you'll see it at a grade zero, which is something straight out of their method book and then they kind of move up to a grade half, then a grade one, maybe grade 1.5 grade two, grade three, grade, grade four. By the time they get to high school, they're hitting about a grade four, grade five. for the most part, not everybody, but that's what progressively happens. So at the grade zero, grade half and grade one and grade 1.5 from the little bit of research I've done, I found about maybe five composers in the country that are doing what I'm doing and um creating content, creating music for these beginning stages, which that's been really hard to hard pill to swallow and see that there's a, there's a big need uh for more music from unrepresented composers out there. 00:24:30Edit Um So that's, that's something that I'm hoping to see change and, and something that I'm passionate about. And I'm happy to be working with um the New Canon project where they are actually putting their money where their mouth is. And uh having people like me, other composers who are out there mentor younger composers of color and get those people. She is in the hands of students and, you know, I, I'm walking through the process with the, with my uh my mentee, I guess and uh helping her understand what's appropriate at this level, how to, how to phrase things in, you know, a cello section or in a base section. Why we can't do this, why we can't do that. So I'm happy to see those things happening. Um And I'm just hoping to see more of that in the next um couple of years, I would say incredible, thank you for sharing that. And I think there's, there's so many pieces in there that we can have like so like four separate podcast on it. 00:25:32Edit And I, I think one of the things that I'm hearing is like the structural change needs to happen, right? The systems of how we get folks in positions of like being composers and being um you know, I don't know all the musical terms but in positions where that, that work is used and valued. Um And then also being able to, to say, as the, as the educator, I can be individually like a composer that, that my students can look at and see a mirror for and I can in the classroom, as you said before, like really uh support and whether it's a formal mentorship role or it's like a kind of informal, this student just created their original composition that we now happen to be doing and performing, right? For everyone, there's like these multiple levels all the way from like classroom instructional practice to structural inequities that need to be righted, right? That, that there are so many opportunities for change and calls for change and even if you're listening and you're a person who's like, well, the structure needs to change. Like, but there are still things that you can do in the classroom level to make that a priority. 00:26:36Edit And like you're saying, you've done all of the, the research to figure out like how many, how many folks are in those spaces that are doing the agreed I think I wrote this down, right? 0.511 0.5. Right? Yeah. So like, so to be able to say like, well, then I'm, that's who I'm using, right? Like that, that's like I'm centering that and de centering the stuff that, that parent or whoever was asking about. Right. Like, no, like we get enough of that. Like, no, no, no. Like this is what is becoming central and not that we don't perform music. Some of the master works and, and, um, teach about, about those things because I do, I do owe a lot of my own training to those. But I think, um, you know, there's room for everything, there's, there's room on the table for everything and I just, I would hope to see more uh diversity in there. Um And again, I don't think that means that you completely throw out the baby with the bathwater. It's just including everything um, to make a complete tapestry if that makes sense. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. 00:27:39Edit Thank you for, for clarifying that and for, for sharing the, all of the stuff today. I think one of the things that I think is so interesting about podcast episodes in general and like our conversation today is there's, there's so much in the conversation and there's so many directions to take a, a nugget of something that you shared and the listener is like, I'm gonna go in this direction or this direction. I'm wondering if you had some advice to give to a listener right now as they stop the episode and they go try to like, implement something or take action on something that you shared. What would you say is the place to start. Like, what's the one thing that they could do next and see a big return on? Hm, I would say, you know, invest in yourself and you can do that pretty, I mean, not easily, but there's resources out there. I'd say professional development is a good place to start. I'm a big fan, big proponent of heading to um conferences. If you can, um, you know, state conferences, sometimes they have district or regional conferences where you can get a lot of professional development. 00:28:45Edit And also when you're there, you tend to network with people and just pick up things that other people are doing, learning about their practices in the classroom. Just the uh just the conversations that happen uh at random, they're so valuable and they are great, great tools to bring back to your own teaching. So I think if, you know, if you're really serious about improving yourself, see if you can go out and be a part of a professional development. Um and just start networking with people talking with more experienced educators. Um And see if you can find a mentor. You know, I, I, that was a big blessing for me when I first started, I would say the biggest influences that I had were not necessarily music teachers, they were classroom teachers. I, I mean, I was with a uh a group of kindergarten teachers who I tell you they were so spot on like I learned. So much from these ladies there, four of them and they were so good. 00:29:46Edit And I, I just remember every week I would soak in something new about classroom management, the way to interact with kids, the the standard that we hold them to the professionalism. So look around do observations in your own school if you know there's master teachers or in your county, um reach out to them. So, yeah, those are some of the things I would say to someone who's starting out um just really invest that time into yourself so that you can bring that back to your students. I love that. And so one of the, the next questions that I usually ask is, is fun, can relate to all the things we've been talking about can be something totally different. Like fishing is an example of someone, something said, someone said once. And so I think about uh you know, as educators and, and people in education, we're always passionate about learning, we're always learning stuff. So question typically is like, what have you been learning about lately? Feel free to answer that. But I also know you've been working on a lot of stuff. So you have your publishing company, you have your compositions, you have all sorts of your book. Like if there is something that you want to share that folks can learn from, that's another way to answer this question if you'd like. 00:30:55Edit Oh wow. So uh yeah, I've been Well, like I said, I've been learning a lot about, um, I guess the, the stats for composers underrepresented composers, which is just kind of, you know, I knew it was kind of bleak and I knew, but to see the number put a number of value to it, you're like, oh, man, so, you know, there's just a lot of work to be, to be done in that, in that regard. Um, so that's one of the things that I'm learning about right now. Um I guess I'm also, I'm stretching myself with composition, you know, I'm, I'm doing um this really cool project for a school out in, um Seattle and I'm doing something kinda different than I'm used to. I'm, I'm composing something for strings but it's strings and drum set. So, uh you know, it's uh not a typical combination that you would see a string orchestra and a drum set, but the sound works and I think the kids that I'm uh writing this for are really, really gonna enjoy it. 00:31:56Edit So I'm looking forward to putting it in front of them and seeing their faces hopefully light up when they get to play it. Hear it all come together. But then on, on the, yeah, on the other side, like, what am I doing? Maybe outside of music? Um, you know, I'm a big nerd, like I love, I love uh cooking shows. I'm learning a lot about cooking. I, I, you know, I could watch, like, uh, Gordon Ramsay. I could, I could watch, like, top chef, like all those shows. I could watch all that stuff, you know, and just soak it all in. I'm a big foodie so I love good food and I love trying to cook when I have time. Um, so I'm learning a lot about that. Like, I, the other day I just experimented with how to cook, like a really nice piece of salmon, how you go about doing that. And I was watching and, um, you know, that's just something kind of nerdy about me that I love to do and it's outside of music. So I love it. Oh my gosh. I love the things that are both related to the topic and then also not so good. 00:33:02Edit It just pains. I think it paints all of us as like full human beings, right? Like we have, we're multifaceted. Yeah, that's so good. Also, if you have like a audio recording at some point, once those students play that composition you're working on with the strings and the drums, we can link it to the blog post for this episode because I would love to hear that. Yeah. Well, uh I'm supposed to hand it to them and put it in their hands on. Well, probably like April 1st or so, April 2nd. So we're on there and they need to work, they need time to work on it and then we're gonna do the premiere. I'm flying out there to uh be with them for a couple days in June for the premiere. So once I get that I can shoot it your way. Absolutely amazing episode is probably going to air in June. So that'll be perfect. Yeah. Awesome. So good. All right. So finally, where are people going to find stuff like this? Connect with you, learn from, you continue to like, you know, get all the stuff, read your book. Where online are you and how do people get in touch? 00:34:07Edit Well, you can find me online on my website which is Adrian Gordon Music, music.com. So all my stuff there, my schedule, my calendar, which is crazy right now. I'm kind of traveling all over the place and um my book which is also up there and it's also available on Amazon. It's called Note to Self uh music Director's Guide for transitioning to a new school and building a thriving music program. So that's it. Oh my gosh. I love it. Do you want to give us like a preview of like, what is the most exciting part of your book so that people could just get like a tiny taste of what's in there? Yes, I will. That's a big question to you. So feel free to be like, no Lindsay, I will not. So in the book, I talk about um kind of building those boundaries and what you should prioritize and part of that is your personal health, you know, your mental health, your emotional health, but your family time is a part of that too. So, you know, I'm about to present and I'm gonna be reading this little excerpt from my book and it, it goes like this because you have a unique role in your family that can only be filled by you. 00:35:17Edit Whether it's your smile, your jokes, your stories, your affection, your singing, your dancing, you're laughing, you're playing your attention, your hugs, your encouragement or whatever it is that makes you special to your family. But your family members get the best parts of you, no matter what your family looks like. Remember that you need your family and your family needs you. That's so good. Thank you for sharing that. What an important reminder. Yeah. Yeah. It's really important, especially as new teachers and transitioning teachers. We gotta remember. Our family comes first and busy teachers like yourself. Yeah, busy teachers too. Yeah, family comes first. Absolutely amazing. What a wonderful way to add Adrian. Thank you so so much for your time today. This has been a pleasure. Yeah. Thank you. It's been a real, real pleasure to be with you and, and chat about all things music related. If you like this episode. I bet you'll be just as jazz as I am about my coaching program for increasing student led discussions in your school, Shane, Sapir and Jamila Dugan. Talk about a pedagogy of student voice in their book Street Data. They say students should be talking for 75% of class time. 00:36:25Edit Do students in your school talk for 75% of each class period? I would love for you to walk into any classroom in your community and see this in action. If you're smiling to yourself as you listen right now, grab 20 minutes on my calendar to brainstorm. How I can help you make this big dream a reality. I'll help you build a comprehensive plan from full day trainings and discussion protocols like circle and Socratic seminar to follow up classroom visits where I can plan witness and debrief discussion based lessons with your teachers. Sign up for a nerdy no strings attached to brainstorm. Call at Lindsay, Beth lions.com/contact. Until next time leaders think big act brave and be your best self. This podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better Podcast network, better today, better tomorrow and the podcast to get you there, explore more podcasts at teach better.com/podcasts and we'll see you at the next episode.
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In this episode, I’m brainstorming how my latest favorite books could become engaging units. You’ll learn 7 of my favorite books that I’ve read in the last year as well as a subject area, theme to explore, and possible activities for a unit based on each book.
Why? I get most of my To Be Read list ideas from podcast episodes about books. Eventually, I’d love to crowd source or interview experts like the folx at We Need Diverse Books for book recommendations for K-12 courses. Until then, I’ll start with my ideas! Book-Based Unit Ideas This is by no means an amazing or perfect list. As a starting point, I used the StoryGraph filter for books I rated 5 stars in the year 2023 and the first two months of 2024. As I selected these books and put these ideas into words, I was thinking about interesting topics, application ideas, and racial, gender, national, and geographic diversity with regards to author and character identity and setting. A Deadly Education (Book #1 in The Scholomance series) by Naomi Novik Set in a magical school that is way deadlier and darker than Harry Potter, the characters are racially, linguistically, and geographically diverse. Could be an interdisciplinary History/ELA unit. Theme to explore: Is it ever okay to sacrifice a life if it saves an entire community?. Could pair well with a classic text like The Lottery. Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger Set in a magical, alternative America, the “novel featur[es] an asexual, Apache teen protagonist, Elatsoe combines mystery, horror, noir, ancestral knowledge, haunting illustrations, fantasy elements.” (authorsoutloud.com) Could be an interdisciplinary History/ELA unit. Themes to explore: racial justice, national/political justice, and family/ancestors, comparison between real horrors and fictional/fantasy horrors. Could pair well with a clip from the television show Lovecraft Country. There are many opportunities to conduct research into the real, historical events mentioned and alluded to throughout the story. One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle I liked this one for the interesting (fantastical) concept of going back in time to meet and spend time with a younger version of one of your parents. I like this as a non-academic, SEL unit, but it could work for ELA. Activities could involve writing—or creating in some other way—a “historical fiction” account of an important figure that exists today or in the recent past. I also enjoyed the emotional components of the story—mostly how we cope with grief. This could offer some SEL-based conversation or journal prompts for students to reflect on their own coping strategies and ways of dealing with emotion. The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay Short, beautiful essays the author wrote nearly every day for a year. Themes addressed include: racial justice, environmental justice, grief, and joy. Students could unpack specific essays in depth for content and/or artistic style. They could also write their own Book of Delights. This could be an ELA unit or part of an SEL curriculum/space. Walkable City by Jeff Speck A research- and experience-based handbook for how to make cities thrive. (In short, the answer is to make them walkable.) Great for Environmental Science, but could work for a Design or Social Justice/Youth Leadership course. Themes include environmental and socio-economic justice. Lots of opportunities to research further into many of the scientific phenomena and studies cited throughout the book. Could culminate in an advocacy project in which students use evidence from the book to argue for implementing a specific idea(s) in their community. Firekeeper’s Daughter (#1 in the Firekeeper's Daughter series) by Angeline Boulley The main character of this fictional novel is a biracial, unenrolled tribal member who witnesses a murder and agrees to go undercover in a federal investigation. The audiobook is excellent. The author is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. She writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Themes include: identity and belonging; racial and national justice; gender-based violence; generational trauma, grief, and healing; the importance and complexities of family and community; matriarchy and the importance of elders. Could be an interdisciplinary History/ELA unit. Ink and Bone (#1 in The Great Library Series) by Rachel Caine Dystopian future imagining what the world would be like if the Great Library of Alexandria had not been destroyed (which started with Caesar’s troops setting it on fire in 48 CE). Themes: Should access to information be controlled and by whom?; What’s the ideal balance of control and freedom? In an interdisciplinary ELA/History project, students could write their own alternative fictions centered around a major turning point in history. They could use the same structure—artifacts (ephemera) between each chapter—choosing relevant historical documents to include or developing slight adaptations to historical documents based on the fictional alternate reality. For More Ideas Consider the books you and your students have loved reading lately. For new book recommendations, check out the website We Need Diverse Books or listen to an episode of What Should I Read Next or a text-based episode of Brave New Teaching. To help you support students to select their own books to read, I’m sharing my Independent Reading Selection Guide with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 167 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 below. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:01 Educational justice coach, Lindsay Lyons, and here on the time for Teacher podcast, we learn how to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice design curricula grounded in student voice and build capacity for shared leadership. I'm a former teacher leader turned instructional coach. I'm striving to live a life full of learning, running, baking, traveling, and parenting because we can be rockstar educators and be full human beings if you're a principal assistant superintendent, curriculum director, instructional coach or teacher who enjoys nering out about core curriculum of students. I made this show for you. Here we go. Welcome to episode 167 of the time for teacher podcast. Today, I am really excited to talk about some book based unit ideas. So in this episode, I'm gonna brainstorm how my latest favorite books is like 2023 or 2024 could become engaging units. So we're actually gonna unpack seven of my recent favorite books that I have read in the last year as well as which subject area or areas this might work with in terms of a course, possible themes to explore and possible activities for a unit that would be based on each of these books. 00:01:14Edit Let's get to it. So, why am I doing this episode? So, you may have noticed I've been doing curriculum mini series and they fall into four buckets. One of those is curriculum. So that's a big piece of the work that I do as an educational justice coach. And I'm really excited about books in my personal life. I read a lot of fiction. I read the nonfiction too, but I generally tend to listen to podcasts and audio books but nonfiction, reading a physical book or an ebook. And I get most of my to be red list ideas from podcast episodes about books. So I love things like what should I read next with Anne Bogle, which is awesome. Um The folks at BNT Brave New Teaching, they do some episodes since that's very education focused. They do some episodes that are very like here's a unit about this text and here's the complimentary text and I love stuff like that. I also love different reading lists that we will see online or curated selections based on theme or identity. I do love the folks that we need diverse books and all of the resources that they put out and create. 00:02:20Edit I would love to have them on the podcast. I'd love to have any of those folks on the podcast, any of the folks affiliated with any of those shows. So if you are listening or you know, someone who is at those places. Please connect me. I would love to do a theory all with recommendations from other folks. So until I'm the old two ground sources or interview experts, uh like I just listed for recommendations for K through 12 horses or units around books like that. I'm gonna start with my own idea. So that's why we're diving in today and really just kind of testing the waters with this type of episode. I would love to get your feedback on if it feels helpful to you in either as a curriculum planner yourself, a a teacher or um a director of curriculum instruction, an instructional coach, someone who's like co creating the curriculum or from the perspective of a leader who is not directly tied to the creation of curriculum, but is more abstractly or more kind of at a distance coaching, the process of curriculum development and really searching for some ideas for how to spark that innovation and curriculum design from something that actually may be of personal interest or maybe of a student's interest. 00:03:29Edit Like, what could that pathway look like? I think so much of coaching is about painting the possible and brainstorming what it could be. And so what I, I think would be really cool for this is to just think through, you know, listen as, as we kind of go and, and take it in as you are thinking about the realities of that curriculum design dynamic, whether that's you yourself or coaching someone else and think through what are the questions I might ask, what are the prompts? I might offer to get to the place where you know, I'm I'm listing what is possible and you might come up with a ton that I have missed. So please feel free to share with me any of those additional prompts. Questions. Thoughts about this. All right, here we go. So here are some book based unit ideas. This is by no means an amazing or perfect list. There are many imperfections, as I said, this is a test episode. And so as a starting point, here's where I went, I went to the Story Graph app which I am now using as of 2024 100% of the time. And I did the filter for books that I rated five stars. 00:04:34Edit I all good reads has that. But I do love the story graph has that. And I specifically looked at the year 2023 because it was a little overwhelming to look at all of the books that I've rated five stars in the history of me rating books. So for the first two months of 2024 as a recording on March 6th, 2024 I just looked at uh January and February's books as well and included those as I selected the books and I started putting kind of these ideas that I'm gonna share with you into words, I was thinking about interesting topics. So what were the kind of topics of the book that really piqued my interest, unique application ideas? Like what are the actual activities students could do with this? How might this relate to traditional curriculum or not traditional curriculum? But um subject specific curriculum and standards I think is what I wanted to say and also racial, gender, national and geographic diversity. Ideally with regards to author and character, identity and setting, as I look through these books, specifically, not so much author there is, it's, it's very white, mostly female authorship here. Uh but character identity and setting was a factor. 00:05:37Edit And so I think again as a test episode for this, I think this is why I want to look into um additional books go beyond just like what I read in 2023 that I liked. I have so many ideas uh for young adult fiction, particularly over the years, that would, would be a better list and maybe I'll make that podcast episode next. Um I also want to, for that reason, crowdsource authors and crowdsource recommendations from folks like Winnie diverse books to make sure that it is. Uh we have lists and suggestions that do have more racial gender, national linguistic geographic diversity with regards to authorship. OK. With those notes, let's head into the first book I read A Deadly Education, which is book number one in the Sulman series by Naomi Novik, who it has a video game development past which I found fascinating. Um And this is, I heard it described, I want to say on the, what should I read next podcast by a team as they were recommending books to buy for the December holiday season for younger kiddos. 00:06:45Edit And I think it was described as kind of like Harry Potter but darker, like a deadly or darker version of the Harry Potter. So it is set in a magical school but definitely deadlier. And the characters are definitely more diverse, racially, linguistically geographically, particularly it is a and they get into this a little bit in the book but is a uh not perfect representation of the world's community. And for reasons, as I said, they'll, they'll go into, I don't want to use these spoilers here but far more uh diverse and representative of the world than a lot of books. And so that's an intentional um decision and it, it factors actually really closely into the plot of the book. So I think this could be an interdisciplinary history, el A unit. You'll see that that is my default because those are the things that I taught. I'm super excited to hear uh book recommendations and another idea for other curricular units, but I think the patterns still apply. So keep that in mind as you listen a theme to explore for this particular book. 00:07:49Edit But also honestly, all three books in the series are amazing. I don't think you're probably going to do all of them. But if you have those kiddos who want to continue on their own really good series to get them into. Um, but a theme to explore in this one and throughout the rest of the series is I question, is it ever OK to sacrifice a life if it saves an entire community? And actually just on my run this morning, I was listening to a pot save the People episode and they were talking about rugged individualism as this principle that the United States particularly holds up as this, you know, perfect thing. And, and they quoted Fannie Lou Hamer and I believe in 1971 speech where she is talking about how no one is free until everyone is free, right? And so this idea of, oh, that's what they were talking about. They were talking about uh current events again, this is being recorded March 6th, 2024 where Ghana had just passed legislation that was going to criminalize being gay. And you could spend like up to five years in jail for like particular things related to that. 00:08:54Edit And I, I was just thinking about that their conversation, the hosts of the podcast who were talking about, you know, can we um the host of the podcast being black? Can we as black individuals support and be excited for trips to Ghana, the support of Ghana if it's not for everyone, right? If it's not for queer black folks, right? And I think that that is a really interesting current event connection that you could use. But if you're reading this in or listening to this in, you know, a year from now, I do think that you can find another current event that relates to this. And as in, you could also pair it with, you know, the classic text such as like the lottery or other things that kind of think about that notion of rugged individualism. You could pair it with a lot of history events. Um That kind of think through the decisions maybe a government has made about few versus many so lots to unpack in there. It's also magical. I think I said so. Really fun. OK. The next one is I Lazzo by Darcy Little Badger. 00:09:58Edit And this is that in a magical alternative America, you'll see a lot of my uh fantasy preference for these books coming through. Um Alternative America. It's magical and I love this quote from authors Out loud.com that features the author Darcy Little Badgers. I'm just gonna read this. It. The novel features an asexuals Apache teen protagonist, Ela combines mystery, horror, noir, ancestral knowledge, haunting illustrations. Super cool that the illustrated illustration part of that is, is, is a piece um and to con to continue back to the quote fantasy elements. So I think this could be an interdisciplinary history el A unit. There's a lot of the uh artistic side of things that bring the el a component to life. It is, it is lyrical, it is just beautifully written. Uh The illustrations can make it a really fun art, interdisciplinary project as well. I think the themes to explore include racial justice, national and political justice because it is about indigenous nations and family ancestors. 00:11:00Edit Also the idea of a comparison between real horrors that exist in the world and also fictional and fantasy horrors. I'm thinking it could pair well with a clip from the TV. Show Lovecraft Country. And I know Lovecraft Country was a book. But I think the TV element is going to be a bit more of a pop culture reference for students and also a bit more engaging. But you could also pair it with the text. I think there are many opportunities with this book to conduct research into the real historical events that are mentioned and really alluded to, they're not mentioned in a ton of depth throughout the story. So having that inquiry based mind reading something and saying, hey, I want to know more about that. This is a wonderful opportunity to have students take on that initiative. And in el a class, maybe they're reading it and in history class, they are taking a deep dive into like, well, what was that actually about? What was the law actually passed and what you know, all that kind of thing? It is a beautiful kind of organic inquiry based frame and starting point for a ton of research into specifically the United States political decisions with regard to indigenous communities and the settler colonialism and the settler colonial past and present um that exists in the United States. 00:12:14Edit The next one seems even more uh frivolous I think than maybe some of my uh other choices here that I questioned. But this one, I do have a purpose for. So it's one Italian Summer by Rebecca. So, and actually I listened to Lauren Graham read it on audio book and I just, I was a Gilmore Girls fan. So Lauren Graham reading, it was just amazing. I liked it for in addition to the Lauren Graham reading. To me, the interesting and fantastical concept of going back in time to meet and spend time with be in space with a younger version of one of your parents. So I don't wanna give too much away, but that's already like a big piece. But this book is a fictional book. It does have that fantastical element and I, I like it as kind of a even a non-academic. Like if you have sel block or sel curriculum, this could be a super cool sel unit that is complementary to it or if you don't have a set curriculum, which I kind of love design your own everything. But if you're designing your own SDL block or you're a counselor who pushes in, this could be a super cool you know, you even give them just like a piece of this text or, or present to them the concept or let them listen to an author interview or something about the writing of it. 00:13:29Edit And um you could do it there. You could also work for eli to be more formal and structured. Now, activities that students could do, could involve writing or creating in some way, it could be like a video creation or whatever historical fiction account of an important figure that exists today or the recent past. So picking a person that, you know, close to you. Awesome. If you were doing this in a more historical lens, you could definitely say like, you know, I imagine this person, you know, that is in the spotlight, it's a celebrity, it's a person that has is big in politics, whatever and, and we're gonna go back and like see a formative experience that they had and what would that formative experience be like you can bring some fiction around that. But also there are many emotional components of the story mostly. I think that the idea of coping with one's grief that could be really helpful for students to talk about to compare their own coping strategies or, or grief moments with those of the character in the book, it could offer up some opportunities for sel conversations or journal proms where they are thinking through and learning about ways to deal with emotion that are healthy Hello, this is Leah coming in to talk about today's Freebie, the independent reading selection guide. 00:14:51Edit You can find it now at the blog post for this episode, www dot Lindsay, Beth lions.com/one 67. Now back to the show. All right. The next book is the Book of Delights Essays by Ross Guy. Oh, my gosh, beautiful book. These essays are gorgeous. They are short, they are filled with emotion. The author wrote almost one essay per day for a year, just kind of as a I think or like what would this experience be like themes addressed in this text are so many, I can't even list them, but predominantly what comes to mind a few months after reading it and what I most remember strong themes of racial justice, environmental justice, grief and joy. There is a wide variety of the human experience packed into these pages. In addition to just having a beautiful style, the author writes so beautifully, the author writes in big ways and small ways. So sometimes it'll be like this tiny little thing in their life that they are just noticing and they just want to write about it, right? 00:15:54Edit And then it might lead them to this really big discussion of this really heavy thing. And it all started with this just small noticing of, you know, what, whatever it is like a plant and and side of the road. So there's so much potential there again, I think really could be part of the L A unit because it is so lyrical and they are essays, but they are really poetic and just the writing style and the authorship. Oh, it's so good. You could unpack pieces um for, for the artistic style, you could also unpack p pieces for the, the depth of content and actually bring it into more of the history or the science space with the racial justice, environmental justice pieces. You could make it again part of an sel or curriculum space where you're really dedicated to the emotional development of your students. And that's the f the lens you use to focus on it. I think there's so much you could do there. Um written by a black man. Ross Gay has been interviewed on many podcasts, I'm sure, but I listened to his interview on, we can do hard things and I fell in love with a book before I even read the book. 00:17:06Edit So that's actually a really good listen. If you want to hear how it impacted um the folks, the hosts of we can do hard things and how they've been putting this concept of the light into practice in their everyday lives. It was super cool. OK. Next book Walkable City by Jeff Spec. Now this book, I don't know if I've mentioned this on the podcast before, but I have been talking about this. People in my personal life are just like, would you like stop talking about Walkable City, please. It is probably my most referenced book of any, any book I've ever read. It is something that I think I think about often because it relates so closely in such detail with how I experience daily life living in a small city. It is. Let me tell you about the book. Here we go. So it is a research and experience this really like a handbook almost for how to make cities thrive. So the author Jeff Stack is I don't remember the name of this, but like a a city planner person. 00:18:14Edit And in short, he has found in his research and all of the things that he has advised and the projects that have been completed by the cities he's worked with. But the answer is to make cities star if you make them more walkable. And so environmental science would an absolutely great fit subject wise, but it could honestly work for like a design class or a social justice youth leadership or advocacy course. There's so much potential in here for not just learning about the things he's referencing, but for taking action. And I think really they listen to an author interview and what should I read next with spec and it was really good because I think it also illuminated his desire for the book to really be uh a template for folks to actually put it into action. It's not just information for information's sake, themes that are included in here. Of course, environmental justice, also socio-economic justice. I think his second revision of the books, if you're looking at multiple editions, go for the second one or the most recent one because those dive into more socio-economic factors as well as the environmental pieces. 00:19:16Edit I think the first version he notes in in the book, in the revised version that there was kind of an absence of that or it didn't go into as much depth. In the first version, there are lots of opportunities here to research further into the scientific phenomena and the studies that he cites throughout the book. So that's a great opportunity there. But it could also culminate as I said in an advocacy project. This is where the students would literally use evidence from the book to argue for implementing something. So one of the many ideas in the book that he references as ways to get the cities to be more walkable to be thriving, literally choose a location, a part of their community, find the appropriate, you know, whatever it is the town council, whatever to go advocate for that change in their community and using kind of like a claim evidence, reasoning skill block where they're saying this is what we need to change. And here is why because this book cites this research, whatever lots of potential there for some really cool stuff. OK. Next we have fire keeper's daughter. Now this is actually at least a du technology. 00:20:17Edit I'm not sure how long this series is projected to go. But the second one either just came out, it's recently coming out, um, or soon to come out. Number one. Anyways in the Fire Keepers Daughter series by Angeline Bully. The main character of this fictional novel is biracial. She's an un enrolled tribal member and she witnesses a murder and agrees to go undercover in a federal investigation. So, again, fictional, um, oh, the audio book is excellent, really good. And the author herself is an enrolled member of the Susa Marie tribe of chips. And she writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, which calls the up themes include identity and belonging. There's also racial and national justice. So a lot of living adjacent to the reservation, a lot of being in and out of the community as a biracial indigenous girl, as well as well as a white girl like her biracial miss um is both indigenous and white. And so what does that mean? Right. And what are the family dynamics of that? 00:21:21Edit So shocks a lot about the importance and complexities of family and community. She talks about gender based violence that's experienced in the in the story, generational trauma, grief and healing that's related to that generational trauma and grief. Uh matriarchy. The importance of elders is really critical here which I distinguished um in my brain as is maybe not just included in the community, but yes, a piece of the community and something else that could be specifically examined by students. I think again, this could be a great interdisciplinary history el A unit to really need to contextualize all of the things that are happening in the story. Even though it's a fictional story with what has happened historically, with indigenous communities, particularly in the what is currently known as the United States. The last one I will share is Ink and Bone. This is number one in the Great Library series by Rachel Keane. I like, I like this book a lot because of the world that it painted and I love the world creation aspects of fantasy. I've read, I think four or five of these series while they continue to be good. 00:22:29Edit My preference is just the, the first one is good because of the concept that it raises and there's, there's kind of a lengthening of the series that I, I couldn't quite feel myself continuing to get into. So I do think yes, there's a lot for students to read. If you're having them read for reading's sake, they may fall up after a while if they're like pursuing this independent reading after you introduce it in the class. But INGE super interesting kind of dystopian future novel and it imagines what the world would be like if the Great Library of Alexandria had not been destroyed. And that started, I needed to have this information because I did not know it it started with Caesar's troops setting it on fire in 48 ce or common era. So the themes that are happening within this, I think a big theme is should access to information, be controlled and by whom like who gets to control information. So really interesting question to pose to students also, what's the ideal balance of control and freedom? So there's a lot of control, there's a lot of people thinking freedom and like what are the values that underpin that? 00:23:31Edit So discussions of, you know, safety and belonging and freedom and access? I I think this would be also really cool as an fel unit that gets at the underlying human needs, right? And so I think of the base needs acronym that I always think about. So belonging, autonomy, survival, enjoyment, right? Which are present in which groups and which are not and where do we land as a society, right? Like what do we need as a society? So again, interdisciplinary el A has your projects always were exciting with many of these but also that students could write their own alternative fictions centered around a major turning point in history would be a very cool project based on this book. So the el a component of course, with the writing of the fiction and then the history being like, I have to choose the major turning point. So you need to know about big turning points in history and know enough about the historical context to make that decision. But then they could also use the same structure. So again, both El A and history, which is that the author inserts artifacts, she calls them Samara between each chapter. And so they are fictional because it's a fictional world, but they are quote unquote historical documents, fictionalized historical documents. 00:24:38Edit That kind of set the stage for that transition from chapter to chapter, which I think is just a very cool setup like writing wise. So again, that el a lens but then also they could choose relevant historical documents, which means they would have to research historical documents related to the topic or turning point they chose or if they are doing like slight adaptations to those documents, that could also be cool because it's, you know, a fictional alternate reality. So like how would this important historical document have changed if this specific other thing has changed? Right? The turning point didn't happen in the way that we thought it would. Ok. So this has been a super long episode. I just wanted to uh share these ideas, get your feedback. What did you think about this? Uh For more ideas? I will probably if you, you're, you're into this idea of doing book based unit ideas as episodes on this podcast, continue this, hopefully bringing in some guests. And in the meantime, if you want to consider the books you and your students have loved reading lately, you can kind of follow the same format where you just surface the book and name what, what's going on in the book. 00:25:45Edit What are the themes? What are the subject or subjects that this would be cool to attach to like a course or develop a unit round for a specific course. And then also think about the possible activities that students could do for new book recommendations. Check out the website, we need diverse books. I'll link to that in the blog post for this episode or listen to a podcast episode of what should I read next or uh an episode of Brave New Teaching. Specifically one where they're focused on texts, usually they will be in the title and you can just kind of skim through the titles to find one of those. Now just help you support students to select their own books to read because I'm all about student choice. I am sharing my independent reading selection guide with you for free. That's gonna be linked as well on the blog post for this episode. So you can get all of those links at Lindsay, Beth lions.com/blog/one 67. Until next time. If you like this episode, I bet you'll be just as jazz as I am about my coaching program for increasing student led discussions in your school, Shane Sapir and Jamila Dugan, talk about a pedagogy of student voice in their book Street Data. 00:26:49Edit They say students should be talking for 75% of class time. Do students in your school talk for 75% of each class period? I would love for you to walk into any classroom in your community and see this in action. If you're smiling to yourself as you listen now, grab 20 minutes on my calendar. It's a brainstorm how I can help you make this big dream a reality. I'll help you build a comprehensive plan from full day trainings and discussion protocols like circle and Socratic seminar to follow up classroom visits where I can plan witness and debrief discussion based lessons with your teachers. Sign up for a nerdy no strings attached to brainstorm. Call at Lindsay, Beth lions.com/contact. Until next time, leaders think big act brave and be your best self. This podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better podcast network, better today, better tomorrow and the podcast to get you there, explore more podcasts at teach better.com/podcasts and we'll see you at the next episode.
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In this episode, I talk through an authentic “publishing opportunity” for student documentaries on socio-political issues. I break down the steps my students took in this project and share the Google Drive folder of resources I used to teach this unit in my high school Social Studies/Literacy class.
Why this topic? I was inspired to create this episode after hearing DeRay Mckesson’s comment on Pod Save the People about the need for two important skills in the documentary filmmaking space: storytelling and criticality. He says we should ask filmmakers, “Do you have the range to tell the story and do you have the range to interrogate the story?...Our best storytellers often don’t know the content…they know how to craft the story…the critical interpretation of the content, rarely do they know super well…we have to figure out how to bridge the gap” Listen to him share this in context here. My brain immediately imagined a course in which two of the priority skills were effective communication (e.g., storytelling) and criticality (in the words of Dr. Gholnecsar Muhammad). Then, I remembered my students had created mini-documentaries on social and political issues for a CSPAN competition when I was in the classroom, and surely I had resources I could share with other teachers interested in doing this kind of project in their classrooms. Why documentaries, specifically, as summative assessment? Multimedia formats, unlike traditional essays, invite students to leverage artistic communication—visual, auditory, and narrative storytelling talents—that otherwise remain hidden. In addition to supporting students’ sense of academic accomplishment, this type of assignment generates a final product that is useful for communicating information to the wider public. Specifically, in the example I’m sharing from my class, there’s an authentic audience and national publication of the video(s) that win the student competition. Also, this type of project lends itself to project-based learning as the “main course” and not just “dessert” at the end. In the unit I describe below, the project is the unit. They are always working on the project throughout the unit. They’re just learning and practicing what they need as they need it, in service of the project. Which, by PBL standards, is gold star status. What can I do to plan a student documentary project? Step 1: Find an authentic audience/publishing opportunity I built this unit around C-SPAN's annual Student Cam competition. Students had to choose a problem the new administration should work to solve in 2017, provide evidence of the issue, use video of politicians' discussing the issue, and interview experts. The publishing opportunity should align with your course’s priority standards or skills. The CSPAN project enabled me to assess students’ research, CER (Claim Evidence Reasoning) organization, technology use, and creativity skills, which aligned with my course-long rubric. Step 2: Hook students with student examples and celebrating strengths My students watched past videos that won the competition. We also brainstormed class responses to the question: What skills do you need to win? Students then wrote their name next to at least one skill they have from the list. Then students had time to interview each other and select team members, knowing their best bet was to have a diverse skill set among the team. Step 3: Support project management and get started I shared a checklist, timeline, and rubric with students to guide their planning. (All of these documents are available in the free folder of resources at the bottom of this blog post.) We also brainstormed a list of urgent issues that could serve as the claim for students’ videos. Step 4: Student work time and just-in-time supports Throughout the couple of weeks students were actively developing their videos, I offered skill-based (content-agnostic) workshops and resources based on what stage of the project groups were in and which challenges they faced. Examples include: characteristics of effective teams research, a storyboard template, tutorials on how to download videos, interviewing tips, and academic citation support. Step 5: Publish (Part 1), Reflect, and Celebrate Students played their videos in class. Peers submitted feedback on all videos via a reflection Google Form. Teams also completed a self-assessment for their projects on a Google Form. (This one asked each student about the work habits of team members and themselves.) Then, each student group decided if they wanted to submit their videos to the CSPAN competition. Final Tip Back to DeRay’s comment that inspired this episode, this project format and its prompt—asking young people to advise the incoming president of the most pressing issue to solve—inherently asks students to practice storytelling and criticality. While this post focuses more on how to support students with this potentially unfamiliar format (e.g., storytelling), criticality skill-building showed up often in workshops and conversations with students as they developed their videos (e.g., selecting an underreported issue; making choices about who to interview—whose expertise matters?— and critiquing existing policies, actions, and proposals). These are great places to leverage and expand students’ “critical interpretation of the content.” And finally, if you want to read more details and immediate reflections about how this unit went, check out this post on the blog I had when I was teaching, which details this unit. To help you plan documentary-based assessments, I’m sharing my folder of Documentary Project resources with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 166 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 below. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:01 Educational justice coach Lindsay Lyons, and here on the time for teacher podcast, we learn how to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice design curricula grounded in student voice and build capacity for shared leadership. I'm a former teacher leader turned instructional coach. I'm striving to live a life full of learning, running, baking, traveling, and parenting because we can be rockstar educators and be full human beings if you're a principal assistant superintendent, curriculum director, instructional coach or teacher who enjoys nering out about core curriculum of students. I made this show for you. Here we go. Super excited about today's episode that was inspired by a podcast. I was listening to super excited to get into it. So this is about documentary, a summative assessment. We've talked before about podcasts as summative assessment opportunities but wanted to share a little bit about what it could look like to design for your own class or to coach a teacher that you work with to design a documentary as summit of assessment for your class. 00:01:07Edit Here we go. In this episode, I'm talking through an authentic, what I would call publishing opportunity for student documentaries on sociopolitical issues. I'm gonna break down the steps that my students when I was teaching high school in New York City took in this project. And I'm going to share at the end of the episode, I will talk more about this, but I will share in the blog post to this episode, a Google drive folder of the resources that I actually used with students to teach this unit in my social studies slash literacy class. Now, I want to tell you how I was inspired to create this episode. I listen to the podcast pod. Save the people love it. Highly recommend it. If you don't already listen, I'm sure I've talked about it before on the podcast. So I'm on a run listening to this podcast and I hear the Ray mckesson comment on the state of kind of documentary filmmaking. Currently, he talked a little bit about some new examples and kind of the commercialization of it and critically pointed out a kind of need for two important skills in the documentary filmmaking space. 00:02:17Edit And he talked about basically how the there's very infrequently documentary filmmakers who have both of these skills, they either have one or the other. And I thought it was fascinating and I thought how cool would this be to think about this in the context of education? So let me tell you the two skills he was talking about the need for filmmakers to be good storytellers. So you need to have the skill of quality storytelling as well as what Goldie Muhammad would call criticality, right? So storytelling and criticality, both super important and he says, you know, we really should ask filmmakers and this is kind of a um quote uh amalgamation of some of his quotes here. Do you have the range to tell the story? And do you have the range to interrogate the story? He says our best storytellers often don't know the content. You know, they know how to craft the story, the critical interpretation of the content. Rarely do they know that super well. And he says we'll have to figure out how to bridge the gap. 00:03:23Edit I'm gonna link in the blog post for this episode to the podcast that he shares this on. So you can listen to more of a conversation and get situated with that information and those ideas and context. So that's gonna be at Lindsay, Beth lions.com/blog/one 66. I'll link that in there. Now, here's what my brain did when I am thinking about this immediately. I was like, this is fascinating. I am imagining my brain goes to curriculum building a course in which two of the maybe five priority skills that are course long were effective communication under which I think storytelling fits and criticality, right to again use those words of Doctor Golden Star Mohammed. Then I remembered that my students actually had created many documentaries on social and political issues for ac span competition. When I was in the classroom and surely I had resources that I could share with other teachers interested in doing this kind of project in their classes that jumped me into a search for all of these older resources. 00:04:32Edit And I am excited to say that this podcast is the culminating results before I get into it a little bit more. I do wanna talk about documentaries specifically as a format and why those are good for Summit of Assessment. So two big things come up for me here. One is their multimedia format and a project that it has a multimedia format to it. Unlike maybe a traditional essay really invites students to leverage artistic communication. So things like visual auditory narrative storytelling talents that they have that if you're just doing essays or just doing more traditional assessments, they're gonna stay hidden, they're going to maybe not even recognize that they have these talents. They're certainly not going to make a student feel like this is an important and valuable skill that can help them in an academic space. 00:05:37Edit So in addition to supporting student sense of academic accomplishment, I really think that this type of project or assignment, it generates a final product that's really useful in the current way we communicate with people, right? Communicating information to the wider wider public and like having an authentic audience, particularly around important social and political issues. We're having students think on and ideate on and believe he harm that has been done in our communities, which is so much of what we're working on, what we talk about a lot on this podcast that's really important that how we get that out into the world, how we publish quote unquote students ideas as they're grappling with this stuff um is accessible to the public, can get into the public eye, but also is accessible to the public. And something, you know, the format is something that people really want to consume. I do think short form videos and this isn't quite short form. I think this project was around five minutes or so video lengthwise, but shorter on the shorter side compared to, you know, a full feature length documentary, shorter video content is really engaging for people, I think in the larger community. 00:06:55Edit And so it is something that people may actually consume outside of their teachers, their family, people who are invested in the student who created it. But now it can be appreciated and consumed and engaged with just like people who are interested in the topic or interested in the format and the way that it tells a story. So I think that's super exciting. And in this specific example, I'm sharing from my class, there is an authentic audience built in and I'll talk about that actually, as I think an important step, one of this process of planning for a project or what I'll share soon around like actually being a unit around a documentary assessment, finding that authentic audience and kind of publication opportunity is critical. Mine was C span. So there's actually for the winners, a national publication of the student videos. So there's a chance for an authentic audience just within what I could create for students in my own focus of control. But there's also opportunities there for much larger audiences to engage with their content. 00:08:01Edit So then the other piece of that, in addition to really thinking about the the student experience and and where their work goes is that from a lens of curriculum development and a lens of student centered pedagogy specifically around project based learning. This type of project really is main course learning with the PB L folks refer to as like kind of that main course. So it's project is main course and not project as dessert, which would just be kind of a fluffy project comes at the end, it's not intimately tied to all the things we're learning throughout the entire unit and just becomes something almost separate from all the stuff they've just been working on here. It really has to be the main course. And so I'll describe to you in just a moment, the unit effectively that this project was it was it was a unit, it was a documentary unit and not just a stand alone project. After a bunch of learning, we did several mini units prior just to kind of build up their understanding of what possible issues they could select. 00:09:09Edit But I saw this itself as a whole unit. So they're always working in this unit on the project. You'll see so much of it is really just projects, time, student, time and then they're learning and practicing specific skills and content as they need it in service of the project. So as they get to a particular stage of the project, OK. Now I need this information, I'm gonna, you know, ask Miss Lindsay or whatever. And so PB L standards, you know, that's, that's gold star for a project to be the main course. Now, let's get to literally, how do I plan this out? How do I support a teacher to plan this out? The first step I think is to find that authentic audience or publishing opportunity. So again, I built this around C Span's annual student C competition. They're still going, I just looked it up, they have their 2024 information up. Now, typically, I think it's due in at the start of the year. So I think this 2024 has, has passed, but 2025 should be coming out soon or soonish probably fall of 2024. Um And then students, you know, they, they had to choose the problem for the one we did in 2017, students had to choose a problem that the new administration coming in should work to solve. 00:10:23Edit So that was the prompt for that year, there's always some variation but it's around the general same theme like what should government do. And then in addition to that, they had to provide evidence of the issue, use video of politicians discussing the issue and interview experts. So I think another component of this is really that you want to make sure the publishing opportunity, whatever the requirements are of that project, wherever you're submitting it, that should align with your courses or the teacher's course, if you're coaching a teacher with their priority standards or skills. So the C SPAN project really enabled me to assess students research skills, their kind of argumentation or claim evidence, reasoning skills and organization also their technology use. So we were a 1 to 1 ipad school for during this period. So it was really important that that was like a school goal we needed to achieve and also their creativity skills, which was really important for me. So having that kind of creative communication piece, all of these aligned with my course long rubric. So it felt like a nice fit. 00:11:25Edit You don't want to pick something that's, you know, too far out of the realm of what you're trying to do. OK. Step two. Once we've secured the publishing opportunity and it doesn't have to be something you publish widely. I should say it can be something that you just publish as a local community that's totally fine. You could create that publishing community yourself. It just becomes a little bit easier if you have it easier in some ways than if you have that kind of authentic opportunity where like there was a cash prize for this. So that was another additional incentive. So, ok, after you're done with that, we're gonna start start the unit really kick off by hooking the students in with student examples. So what is possible at the end of this? What can you create, What if students created before you and then rewarded financially and through the publication nationally of their videos, and we really wanna anchor this in students strengths. So really asset based lesson here. So my students ended up watching past videos that won the competition. And so we brainstormed a list of what are the things, what are the qualities or characteristics of a video that could win? 00:12:30Edit Then next we brainstorm class responses to the question, what skills do you need on your team to win? And then students could come up and write their name next to at least one skill that they have from the list we created. Then students had time in class to interview each other. And so really getting to the heart of like what skills do you bring to the team and then selecting team members? I think we aimed for groups of three here. But I mean, that's gonna vary based on the project based on the ages of students and knowing really the their best bet. To win or to have a great video, it's not all about winning, but to produce quality content is to have a diverse skill set. So you're not gonna just pick your friends. If your friends have the same skills as you, you want people skills that maybe you don't have. That was a really important conversation. Step three is really, let's get some project management in place and get started, which included for me, a checklist, a timeline and a rubric that I shared with them as the guide. They're planning all of those documents by the way, are available in this brief folder of the resources that I'm gonna link to this blog post. 00:13:37Edit That's gonna be again, Lindsay, Beth lions.com/blog/one 66. If you're listening along, wanna check these out as we go, we also brainstormed a list of urgent issues that could serve as the claim for students video. So really getting them started by like they need a topic that is step one, they cannot go further. Once they formed a team, they can't do anything else until they agree on a topic. So we brainstormed that list. We got people talking. We also like some students couldn't decide. So we needed to support in that way. Um I would use things like fist to five or some other sort of agreement or consensus protocol to help them there. Now, step four, they've got their topic, they're rocking and rolling through the the details of figuring out putting together their video. So there's a ton of student work time here. I think it was about 2 to 3 weeks. And again, because this is the whole unit um offering just in time support. So my quote unquote lessons or mini lessons were really workshops that were sometimes geared to the whole class if that's what everyone needed, but often geared to like one or two groups. 00:14:43Edit And I would just kind of move around and offer that workshop or invite representatives from the team to the workshop, giving them whatever they need at that time, this is usually skill based content agnostic workshop. So if they're doing different topics, totally, OK, because the skill that they need to work on to create the video and pull all the things together and work as a team is gonna be the same regardless of what content specifically, like what topic they chose. And so I would offer resources, advice, you know, guidance coaching based on what stage of the project they're in and what challenges that came up. So some examples included, you know, characteristics of effective teams research at the time I was doing my dissertation and I was like, this is fascinating and relevant to my students. Let me try to distill this or share pieces of this because I'm seeing this dynamic play out in class. I wanna, you know, share what I'm learning with them. Um a storyboard template so they could actually you know, figure out what they, how they want to pace their documentary. 00:15:47Edit What sound am I hearing if I'm seeing this visual? And again, this is all this um language and the kind of formatting of documentaries is um I feel like sometimes ablest in nature because we're, we're using visuals and auditory. So I just wanna, I wanna recognize that um thinking about the other pieces of this, you know, the downloading of politicians talking about an issue that was a requirement for C SPAN, there's some tech stuff there that we had to coach on. And so I would have to walk through, students through or help students think through and offer tutorials on how to download videos from the internet. For example, interviewing tips was a big one. If you're gonna go interview, you know, experts, what does that look like? What kinds of questions do we ask? How do we identify the experts with an exercise in criticality itself? Right? Who is expertise? Do we value and do we want to decent some of the traditionally valued expertise in service of some more critical viewpoints and more, you know, close to the pain and close to the problem kind of voices that really know what's going on in, in their lived experience of, of an issue. 00:16:58Edit Also academic citation support was one I think that was a requirement of the project we were still working on that. And, and that's also was aligned to my rubric and things I wanted to work on for the year. So that was a workshop as well. Ok, once students had completed the project, this is Step five, we kind of had a part one publication like a publishing party almost where we're doing a lot of reflecting and celebrating um self assessment, peer assessment, that kind of thing. So studentss played their videos in class, their peers could submit feedback on the videos through a reflection form that we made in Google forms. So everyone did that for all videos. Each team also completed a self assessment for their group. So they would complete a Google form that asked them about kind of how they work together, what their contributions to the team were and their kind of work habits as well as their team members work habits. And then each student group decided if they wanted to submit their videos to the C scan competition. So I didn't make that a requirement, but it was an option and time was allocated in class for students who wanted to do that. 00:18:05Edit So I think in closing, just you know, back to Dre's comment that inspired the episode, this project and its prompt, you know, the the format of the documentary, the prompt about asking young people to advise the incoming president of the most pressing issue to solve. I think they inherently by just the structure of the project and prompt, ask students to practice both storytelling and criticality. And I think this, this post in a lot of the uh resources in the folder that I'll share with you are focused on the format, the storytelling element, the format of documentary because it was so unfamiliar to students. But we did a lot of criticality skill building in our workshops in our group conversations as they were developing their videos. So they were more of that just in time support, not necessarily something that was scripted as a whole class lesson, but I think you totally could do that. I'm just sharing my personal experience from this, but I think it shows up in, in the following ways. 00:19:11Edit Um Just from, again, my experience, I think there are many places to do this, but one is how you select an issue. Do you wanna select an under reported issue? One that you have, you know, lived experience and like content, evidence based um experience with, right? Or, or that you're connected to people who have a lived experience of that. So again, that kind of connects to what I was talking about with interview choices. You have to make choices about whose expertise matters to you. You are the documentary filmmaking team, right? Inviting students to think critically about that? Do they want to push back on, you know, the credentials phd? And then like, yeah, that's a certain type of expertise. But what about this type of expertise that is more lived experience based and, and often excluded from the conversation, right? Um And also, you know, just critiquing and being comfortable and confident in critiquing existing policies, actions and proposals. So you're submitting this or students are submitting this to C SPAN, right? So there's kind of a um policy wonk like a vibe of a of an audience, right? 00:20:19Edit People who have been working on the policies, the actions proposals that are gonna watch this or at least review this that takes a certain level of confidence uh and kind of speaking truth to power that may require practice or support, especially some of my students who would tell me that their cultural values were to respect, you know, elders or people in authority or that kind of thing. And so um resisting some of those narratives or to critique someone's proposal as not a good idea, um felt kind of like a a big jump that needed some support. So those are some places to consider leveraging and expanding students injurious words, critical interpretation of the content that I think would be awesome. So go forth documentary as summative assessment build those units, help teachers build those units. I'd love to hear how it goes and again to help you plan, I'm gonna share my folder of documentary project resources that I used completely free linked in the show notes, the the blog post, I should say for this episode at Lindy beths.com/blog/one 66. 00:21:31Edit Until next time, if you like this episode I bet you'll be just as jazz as I am about my coaching program for increasing student led discussions in your school, Shane Sapir and Jamila Dugan. Talk about a pedagogy of student voice in their book street data. They say students should be talking for 75% of class time. Do students in your school talk for 75% of each class period? I would love for you to walk into any classroom in your community and see this in action. If you're smiling to yourself as you listen right now, grab 20 minutes on my calendar. It's a brainstorm how I can help you make this big dream a reality. I'll help you build a comprehensive plan from full day trainings and discussion protocols like circle and Socratic seminar to follow classroom visits where I can plan witness and debrief discussion based lessons with your teachers. Sign up for a nerdy no strings attached to brainstorm. Call at Lindsay, Beth clients.com/contact. Until next time, leaders think big act brave and be your best self. This podcast is a proud member of the Teach better podcast network better today, better tomorrow and the podcast to get you there, explore more podcasts at teach better.com/podcasts and we'll see you at the next episode.
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AuthorLindsay 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. Archives
August 2024
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