This month, all of the 8th grade social studies teachers at Alice Deal Middle School (DCPS) engaged their students in the popular role play, The People vs. Columbus, et al.  The lesson, written in the form of a trial by Bill Bigelow of Rethinking Schools, is available for free download on the Zinn Education Project website. The lesson is a prime example of how to engage students in learning through role play and debate. Read more >>

The news, the news, the news… it hit us all summer. And like most teachers, even when we are taking our time away from school, we think about how things will work or impact our kids—and in happy ingenious moments, maybe a great lesson plan idea. As my co-teacher and I prepared to meet our third grade class, we thought about how to approach all our wonderful young people at... Read more >>

National History Day projects are a wonderful opportunity for middle and high school students to research and learn about topics and individuals outside the typical textbook. We share here the experiences of D.C. eighth grade middle school teacher Beth Kara. Her students’ completed projects on Queen Liliuokalani, Sophie Scholl and the White Rose, Assata Shakur, Muhammad Ali, and many more people of note who stood fought for social justice. Read more >>

Third-grade teacher Andy Grayson wrote to tell us that he was thrilled to share Wilfredo: Un niño de El Salvador/A Boy from El Salvador with his students. He learned about the free downloadable book in a Teaching for Change workshop sponsored by the Alexandria City Public Schools. Here is what Grayson told us about why Wilfredo is so useful: After reading Wilfredo, I observed increased discourse and engagement from a wider range of students. Students whose families have... Read more >>

When fifth grade Spanish literacy teacher Cesarina Pierre realized that her nearly two decades of teaching Caribbean students in New York City Public Schools would not fully translate to teaching Central American students in Washington D.C., she sought resources from Teaching for Change. Pierre asked Teaching for Change, a longtime partner at the school, to help her understand the unique experiences of Central American families. Read more >>

The theme was “Feed Your Brain: Nourish Your Community” and the session topics included: Food Sourcing, Food Policy and Laws, Food Production, Food Waste and Composting, School Lunches, and Food Access.

Stapert became inspired to incorporate the curriculum from A People’s Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching Climate Change and the Environmental Crisis into Lowell’s academic program.

On Sunday, October 16, 2016, twenty D.C. area teachers gathered for the first session of Stories from our Classrooms 2016-2017, an annual course offered by Teaching for Change. The goals for this course are for teacher participants to deepen their own practice, build community among D.C. area social justice educators, and to contribute to the all-too-scarce collection of published descriptions of classroom practice by teachers themselves. Read more >>

On June 12, 2016, Teaching for Change celebrated the work of the teachers from our inaugural Stories from Our Classrooms social justice teacher writing group. Every month on a Sunday, social justice teacher writers came together to write, reflect, and share. The event opened with teachers each reading one of the lines below to highlight what they did and why. Read more >>

This spring my sixth and seventh grade reading students at Gunston Middle School in Arlington, Virginia researched the lack of diversity in children’s and young adult books. After learning about the statistics on diversity in books and the “We Need Diverse Books” and #StepUpScholastic campaigns, students did surveys of our classroom library and a selection of sports books to see which groups of people were under-represented.I started the sports books lesson by asking them... Read more >>

For two months in the spring of 2016, Teaching for Change staff member Julian Hipkins III taught a class in D.C. history at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. The strategies and resources he used for teaching from a bottom-up perspective, described below, could be of use for other teachers of D.C. history. In addition to drawing on archives, key people, and historic sites, his core text was City of Magnificent Intentions by Keith Melder. Read more >>

Teaching for Change was pleased to attend and photograph the 2016 Food Justice Youth Summit. See our posts about 2014 and 2015, and view more photographs from 2016 in our Flickr album. On April 7, 2016, 11th graders at Capital City Public Charter School hosted the 2nd Annual Food Justice Youth Summit to build awareness about food justice issues, both nationally and locally, at Friends Meeting House of Washington. This year’s event featured keynote speaker, Lauren Nixon... Read more >>

Our 11th-grade FOOD JUSTICE EXPEDITION is an interdisciplinary three-part study (past, present, and future) of the impact of food on our community–both locally and globally. The expedition begins with an exploration of our students’ families’ cultural connections to foods; as 99% of our students come from African American and immigrant families, we discuss the significant role of food in dictating cultural identity. Read more >>

On September 17, John Buchanan visited two of Kerry Sylvia’s D.C. history classes at School Without Walls (DCPS). In advance of the lesson, students participated in an introductory activity called “Meet the Beat” about go-go. This visit was one of many by noted go-go performers and scholars that took place at schools across Washington, D.C. Here are some reflections from the students about Mr. Buchanan’s visit and their preparation for it. Read more >>

Teaching for Change was pleased to help Filmfest DC 2015 bring filmmakers and students together for the fourth year in a row. In April 2015, students at three high schools in Washington, D.C., had the opportunity to talk with film’s directors about their documentaries. This year’s films were about gay marriage in the U.S. and education in Israel and Palestine. Read more >>

“If you were at the grocery store and saw an apple with one stem and another apple with two stems, which one would you buy?” As much as I would like to say it doesn’t matter, I would probably end up picking the one with one stem because this superficially normal-looking apple was an option. Marquell and Isaiah, the students who asked me this question, confirmed that most buyers would do the same, thereby reinforcing perceptions... Read more >>

High school students studying U.S. history at the E.L. Haynes Public Charter School learned about labor history during a January 29, 2013 Labor Walk led by Metro Council Union Cities Coordinator Chris Garlock."It was easy to see the now and then relationships for labor movements and other issues," wrote one student. The students saw the AFL-CIO lobby mosaics, the old CIO headquarters, and Bonus Army and Occupy DC sites. Read more >>

For the past several years, I have been the music teacher at Shepherd Elementary School in Washington, D.C. This has given me the chance to combine two passions: music and social justice activism. I teach students the civil rights songs, peace songs, and union songs that I learned throughout my life. And I make links between the songs and peace and justice movements. One of my specific objectives is to get the internationally acclaimed singer, actor... Read more >>

Twenty-four D.C. area teachers, administrators, and students recorded stories as part of the National Teachers Initiative the weekend of August 20-21, 2011 at the Teaching for Change offices.Teaching for Change was honored to partner with the National Teachers Initiative, a project of StoryCorps, to host these 40-minute conversations about teaching with DC area public school teachers. It was a wonderful opportunity to highlight the experiences of social justice educators. While the conversations are open-ended, we suggested questions such as... Read more >>

Students in Washington, D.C., had the rare opportunity to discuss the hidden history of labor through Brothers on the Line, a new film they screened in school, with Sasha Reuther, who is both the filmmaker and grandson of one of the famous Reuther brothers. Teaching for Change and Filmfest DC, with the support of the Wyncote Foundation, worked with educators Julian Hipkins III at Capital City Public Charter School and Susan Ikenberry... Read more >>