As a high school teacher and teacher educator, I use social justice-oriented curriculum to engage students in academically-rigorous investigations of contextually-relevant questions. When working with P-12 teachers, I frame this as teaching in standards-conscious, but not standards-driven, ways.
The following links feature examples from my classroom, as well as curriculum created by the pre- and in-service teachers with whom I work.
Examples from my own classroom:
Teaching for Social Justice AND Standards: Lessons in Secondary English Language Arts
EDFN 492: Social Justice Education in Schools: Final Project
See below for examples of curriculum created by students in my Spring 2015 course on Social Justice Education in Schools:
Culture and Gentrification: English Language Arts Curriculum for 9th and 10th grade
Soil Justice: Soil Quality & Environmental Justice in Chicago
Energy Sources: Justice-Oriented Curriculum for Middle School Science
One of my focal areas is culturally and linguistically sustaining literacy education. The following links highlight recent and ongoing projects related to this emphasis:
Since 2016, I have co-directed the Language Explorers, a summer, Saturday, and academic year program for newcomer and emergent plurilingual students in Southern California. To date, more than 1000 students (from 23 countries) and 150 pre- and in-service educators have been part of the Language Explorers, and joined us to examine and deconstruct identity, culture, and language through an exploration of high interest poetry, music, art, and young adult literature. Throughout, students and teachers work collaboratively to affirm students’ linguistic and cultural identities, explore multiple perspectives and diverse experiences, and nourish students’ fluency in oral and written academic English. In addition to being receiving 2 Golden Bell Awards from the California School Boards Association (2019 and 2022) and the 2018 Orange County Department of Education's Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness Award, the Language Explorers programs are also the focus of our recent book (Radically Inclusive Teaching with Newcomer and Emergent Plurilingual Students: Braving Up ) and Spencer Foundation Research-Practice Partnership grant (Project LEARN: Language, Equity and Action Research with Newcomer Students).
Click here to see examples of emergent curriculum created by teacher candidates in my courses on disciplinary literacy, including student-created podcasts.