Hi everyone—

This week, I’ve been tasked with the assignment of creating a lesson plan for 8thgraders that talks about Of Mice and Menby John Steinbeck. I read the book for the first time a couple of weeks ago and absolutely hated the ending. (I won’t spoil it here.) I was so repulsed by the direction it went into that I immediately threw the book down and yelled aloud, “There is no way in HELL I am teaching this in a real classroom!” I then learned the book is banned anyway, but that didn’t change my assignment.

Two days after finishing the book, I had my last class before the lesson plan was set to be due. We spoke about approaching the book through a thematic lens and once the ball got rolling with the different avenues one could go down to teach this text, I found myself sliding away from my initial shock and into a pedagogical wormhole. (I’ve learned that I could become passionate about almost anything when put into the context about teaching.)

I decided to look at the theme of “freedom,” which coincidentally aligns with my blogpost from last week about Edward R. Murrow’s “This I Believe” radio show & Eve Birch’s “American Dream.” I came up with the following thematic statement: obtaining freedom often requires personal sacrifice. This is used to bridge the gap between my theme I want to teach and the essential question I am going to ask as focal point of the unit. My essential question then became: what makes freedom so difficult to obtain?

Tabling how I dissected the text from this point of view in my lesson plan, the idea of exploring the obstacles that one faces to reach their desired idea of “freedom” (which often parallels with “success”) in a middle/high school classroom is an example of the fundamental practice of critical literacy. Teaching students critical literacy is about going beyond the text and taking a stab at thematic or philosophical questions by breaking down and analyzing society. This allows students to develop social consciousness, questioning anything and everything. 

When I started to break down my essential question for myself, I started to consider how expectations and standards for freedom vary from person to person. Yet, we all have more or less the same obstacles: finances, education, resources/opportunity, cultural/parental expectations, favoritism, racism/sexism/marginalization, depression/lack of motivation, etc. Studying critical literacy for the past year has made me realize the importance of bringing discussion of historical and systemic disadvantages to the classroom (the earlier the better!) so that students are able to develop and navigate their own expectations for themselves while realizing the faults of the world we live in and hopefully inspiring change for the future. 

-l.a.

Remember that educating yourself on any political/humanitarian issue is one Google search away. Stay informed & use your voice for the change you want to see. For information about Black Lives Matter and other humanitarian issues, click here.

p.s.: Stay safe and healthy! Remember to wash your hands for 20 seconds at a time, don’t touch your face, and be considerate to your community by practicing social distancing! Let’s all do our part in fighting against coronavirus.