Facing History | BlogWalker

Election 2016 graphic by DonkeyHotey CC BY

Election 2016 image by DonkeyHotey CC BY

Friday night was book club night, a favorite monthly event. For 16 years we’ve been coming together to discuss, over wine and dinner, good literature, education and, occasionally, politics. Although we briefly discussed our November book choice (Kate DiCamilo’s YA Flora and Ulysses), for most of the evening, we tried to make sense of the election results, consider the ramifications of our President-Elect’s cabinet choices, and envision the possible impacts, both immediate and long-term. I’m guessing that across the nation hundreds of thousands of similar discussions were happening.

I truly appreciate the resources individuals and groups have posted to help educators address students’ concerns and questions. Thank you to my Rwanda group for sharing an elementary school principal’s letter to his families, Joseph Long’s Facebook post I AM TRYING: THE RELEVANCE OF SOUTH PARK IN A TRUMP WORLD, and Clint Smith’s TED Talk The Danger of Silence.

To Facing History and Ourselves, thank you for the depth of resources shared on your recent (Re)Building Classroom Community Post Election. Starting with Fostering Civic Discourse: A Guide for Classroom Conversations, the resources will help students “gain critical thinking skills, empathy and tolerance, and a sense of civic responsibility.”

To the New York Times Learning Network, thank you for Election Day 2016: Teaching Ideas for Before and After the Votes Are Tallied (updated November 15). The thought-provoking article snippets and accompanying questions will provide powerful opportunities for students to reflect on and join in discussions. I also appreciate the link to the National Writing Project’s invitation to students to write a letter to the next president, a beautiful call to action.

To Larry Ferlazzo, thank you for your comprehensive collection of Best Sites to Learn about the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, including your interactives for teaching English Language Learners about the elections.

And thank you to Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert, and John Oliver for your timely reminders of the value and importance of laughter.

If you have resources to add to 2016 elections topic, I warmly invite you to leave a comment.

I’ve been a long-time fan of Facing History and Ourselves, a site and organization dedicated to “helping classrooms and communities worldwide link the past to moral choices today,” so I was thrilled to find a seat in their Tuesday session: Ostracism and Bullying: An Online Case Study for Educators. If you’re not familiar with Facing History, here’s a quick window into their work:

John Englander opened session with the statement that ostracism and bullying are affecting kids’ opportunities to learn in a safe environment. His opening activity was to turn to someone and think/pair/share and “reflect on a time in your adolescence/youth when you saw, heard or experienced bullying.” It’s one of those 100% inclusive topics, so we quickly and easily delved into small group and then a whole group discussion.

An interesting point raised by John is that “elementary students think standing up to a bully is cool; by middle school, students no longer think it’s cool. He also shared research by Catherine Bradshaw (Johns Hopkins University) showing that kids believe that teachers who try to stop bullying only make it worse.

We then moved on to Facing History’s amazing new resource: Bullying: A Case Study in Ostracism. The study evolved as part of research conducted by Harvard and Facing History and Ourselves and with funding from the Carnegie Corporation. At the heart of the project is a collection interviews with five girls around a simple problem that began in 7th grade and quickly escalated into a complicated and serious ostracism issue. (Click here for an overview of the project.)

After a brief introduction and tour of the site, John invited us to do a jigsaw activity with groups picking one case study to listen to and to then share out some of the experts who’ve reflected on study – many provocative thoughts! My partner and I picked Sue’s case, starting with the audio file, which comes complete with a verbatim transcription. We moved on to listen to the case study review – the classic, snowballing effect, so typical of middle school bullying scenarios.

Facing History’s Ostracism & Bullying case study and accompanying resources is one of my best ISTE 2011 take-aways – a resource I’ll be sharing with district colleagues as we come together this summer in search of online resources and assistance with the horrific issues of cyberbullying that currently occupy well over 50% of our middle school counselors’ case loads – and so quickly spiral out of control, negatively and too often disastrously impacting the lives of our students.

Thank you, Facing History visionaries, for providing this beautifully constructed/scaffolded resource!