 |
Home
| How It Works
| Stats
Login | Register |
|
Case: Why Should I Listen? As part of my 7th grade Social Studies curriculum, I have to talk about slavery, the civil rights movement, etc. The topic ultimately leads to a discussion of how Whites oppressed Blacks. I try to present these topics in a way that does not suggest any guilt. This year, one of my students had a very bad reaction. When we were talking about the civil rights, John, one of my well-behaved but opinionated students, got up and said that he did not want to listen to this lesson anymore, because all we did was to demonize the White people. Three other students openly agreed with him saying that these topics made them angry. I have to cover these topics because they are a part of my curriculum. Also, I believe in the importance teaching children about these inequalities. However, it seems like the way I teach, which is mainly based on lectures and small group work, is making my White students uncomfortable. What should I do to make sure that my White students do not feel offended by these topics? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) This is a very hard subject to teach for the exact thing that you experienced. Everyone has an opinion or belief reguardless of their age. So it is easy to make people upset when discussing a large topic such as slavery and civil rights. It is important to discuss the content based on the content presented by the curriculum. I do however think that it is important to allow the students to express their ideas. It would be a dis-service to teach the content and expect the students to ignore their thoughts. I think that you should continue to do small groups and allow the students to express their ideas with one another and then get back together as a class to compare ideas. Even allowing the students write down their opinions on chart paper and then presenting it to the class would offer a great learning oppertunity for all of the students. This would give them a chance to hear what others think and not be oblivious to other opinions. This is a topic that should be taught to all students because it is an important part of history but we must allow others to express their thoughts as well. -Kayla Mullins |
||
Rating
|
||||||||||||||||||