Teaching Elections: Part 2

by Hattie Maguire Notes from the Classroom

shutterstock_114757342A few weeks ago I wrote about using the election in our classrooms. I said it was important to respect our students’ beliefs and try to keep our own political opinions out of the classroom. I suggested that focusing on skill development was key.

That was a lot easier before the election.

Now, after the election, I’m left wondering how to respond to my students. Some are upset and worrying about their futures in a country that doesn’t seem to value them. Others are excited and certain that now is the time America will finally rise to its full potential. It feels like focusing on skills would be artificial at best and probably just insensitive when they’re trying to process all of this.

As an adult who is highly engaged in political conversations, and as an educator who wants to help my students respond to this divisive election, what is my responsibility now? I still think it’s important to respect their beliefs and stay as neutral as possible, but tonight I’m wondering if focusing solely on skills is enough.

A Moment for Grit

Sometimes, answers pop up in incredibly unlikely places. Tonight, my answer, I think, is coming from Trolls. Not internet trolls–I’m talking about the fuzzy-haired singing ones in the recent Dreamworks movie. I took my four-year-old and seven-year-old to see Trolls last weekend, and throughout the whole movie, I kept thinking that the main character’s life perspective–keep trying, get back up again, etc.–was eerily reminiscent of a book pretty popular in education circles these days: Angela Duckworth’s Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. As the main character sang her way through all kinds of problems and, ultimately, succeeded because of her grit, I chuckled to myself about the parallels. The cartoon was like a commercial for grit–just with glitter.

Truth be told, I’ve always been a little skeptical of the whole “grit” concept. It seems a little shallow to look at a student drowning in problems and say, “Hey! Keep tryin’, buddy!” But, really, what other choice do we have? We want our students to be resilient. We want our students to respond with relentless positive action when they are faced with challenges. And, regardless of whether you saw this election result as a positive or negative, there’s no denying that this election has been challenging. This has been a rough fight, arguments have turned personal and people on both sides are hurting.

So perhaps this is the time when Language Arts teachers ask our students to respond with a little grit. Perhaps our response needs to be: What is your response? If your side won, what do you think we need to do to move forward? If your side lost, how can you stay engaged in the process? If this whole thing left you totally disillusioned and disengaged, what can you do to get back in the game?

Tomorrow, my AP Lang. students are comparing two texts. One is a speech given by Booker T. Washington during the Reconstruction Era. He believed African Americans should “cast down their buckets” where they were. He wanted them to accept low- or no-skill jobs and work their way up slowly in society. Another text is by W.E.B. Dubois, responding to Washington’s suggestions. He had a totally different response: seek higher education, demand opportunities. We will examine those two responses to a complicated, contentious time. Both men responded to a challenging time not by throwing up their hands in despair or gleefully skipping off into the sunset. They dug into the challenge and offered a way forward.

After we study the texts, I think the question for my students will be an obvious one. In this contentious time, what will you do next? What is your way forward?

If we ignore the outcome of this election and hope it will go away or that time will heal the wounds in our country, we are missing an opportunity. Before the results, I thought we could zero in on skills and use politics as our base. I still think that works. But today I’m thinking that we need to see political topics as a challenge for our students as well. The Common Core State Standards require us to teach students to “Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media in order to make informed decisions and solve problems.” Focusing on skills helps with the informed decisions part, but giving them space to write, talk, and think about how to solve problems is key to helping all of us move forward.

Hattie Maguire (@TeacherHattie) is an English teacher and Content Area Leader at Novi High School. She is spending her sixteenth year in the classroom teaching AP English Language and Composition, AP Seminar and doing Tier 2 writing intervention. She is a National Board Certified Teacher who earned her BS in English and MA in Curriculum and Teaching from Michigan State University.

Using Politics to Zero In on Skills

by Hattie Maguire Notes from the Classroom

shutterstock_458871724This is the third time I’ve rewritten this opening.

I wanted to start this blog post by telling the story of my experiences working on a political campaign in high school, and my teachers’ different reactions to that work. No matter how I wrote it, my husband kept telling me that my political opinion was shining through. Unfortunately, that was the whole point of my piece.

My experiences taught me how frustrating it can be for a high school student who’s just beginning to form her political opinions, only to have those opinions directly criticized by a teacher. Teachers certainly need to question faulty logic or unsupported opinions; we need to teach critical thinking skills and help students question the messages bombarding them. But, we also must walk a very careful line and respect their budding young beliefs.

Politics in a 2016 Classroom

This election has been so polarizing that some teachers have questioned that approach. Last week, ten former state and national teachers of the year published an open letter condemning Donald Trump, and rejecting the notion that teachers should remain neutral. I respect their belief that the uniqueness of this election requires a different response, but I’m still not sure I can abandon my practice of neutrality. I remember what it felt like to feel so strongly about a candidate, to be so passionately convinced that I was on the right side. And I remember what it felt like to have a teacher unequivocally tell me I was wrong.

It’s tempting to just put politics aside. There are plenty of other texts my students can study. I don’t want to step into a discussion and have hateful language–regardless of the target–supported and championed by students in my class. On the other hand, how can I not teach my students to dig into the texts that are all around us with this election? They have a right to engage in political discourse.

Educator Rick Wormeli, in his blog post for the Association for Middle Level Education, argues that teachers have the opportunity to show students “how to respond constructively to people and policies that offend us.” He makes some great points about balancing neutrality with an approach that respects students’ opinions, but I think there is one more step to consider when figuring out how to blend political texts into a secondary ELA classroom.

For me, the key comes in framing. Rather than focusing on the political topics themselves, I have the most success when I use the political material to zero in on skills we are learning and practicing. I give students texts from both ends of the political spectrum, teach them the skills to analyze them, and let them make their own decisions.

Zero In on Word Choice

shutterstock_339032462In my classes, we talk a lot about using precise language that gives you the most bang for your buck. Twitter forces that because you only have 140 characters. The day after the protests in Charlotte, NC, this fall, we talked about word choice and how it sends implicit messages. One example:

Those who protest in peaceful ways are welcome to the table, those who engage in chaos & violence have no place in society. #Charlotte

There’s a lot to unpack in that short sentence. The contrast of peace vs. chaos? The suggestion that you either do it peacefully or you have “no place in society”? The more we discussed it, the more my students realized there was a lot lurking under the surface. A tiny text opened the door to a great discussion about the power of word choice. And since it was directly related to a skill that is central to our work with critical reading and writing, I didn’t feel like I was ramming political opinions down their throats.

Zero In on Argument Structure 

We work on recognizing claims, evaluating evidence, and then examining the reasoning that goes with the evidence. Op-eds are excellent mentor texts for this type of writing because students can identify the claims, and then try to follow the threads of evidence and reasoning. In some cases, it becomes clear that those threads are a little weak; that leads to discussions about evidence-based arguments vs. emotional arguments.

Later, when students write their own op-eds, they have to justify the types of arguments they’re making in their writing. By linking the politics to the skills we’re studying in class, we can have rational, reasoned discussions–something too often lacking in the adult world of political discourse.

Zero In on Audience and Purpose

Finally, this political season has given us all kinds of ways to examine audience and purpose. When my students struggle to move beyond generalizations, I use political cartoons as a first step.

It’s easy to look at a cartoon and identify the target. But the followup questions are: Who is the target audience? Is this intended to convince people to change their minds? Is it intended to merely fire up people who already support the candidate? How can you tell? After students look closely at audience and purpose in visual texts, they are better prepared to consider those questions with written texts.

Using political material in class during such a polarizing election is tough. But I think it’s important to give students practice in the examination of these texts with a critical eye. Zeroing in on the skills will make them better prepared to make up their own minds.

Hattie Maguire (@TeacherHattie) is an English teacher and Content Area Leader at Novi High School. She is spending her sixteenth year in the classroom teaching AP English Language and Composition, AP Seminar and doing Tier 2 writing intervention. She is a National Board Certified Teacher who earned her BS in English and MA in Curriculum and Teaching from Michigan State University.