First Chapter Fridays
Read aloud a chapter of a book your students are interested in to build community around stories and storytelling.
Compass Points
Students get an opportunity to give feedback about the class and communicate their needs and worries.
Contracting and Re-Contracting in the New Year
Elizabeth Carroll, New England Program Director at Facing History, explores the value of contracting and re-contracting in January each year.
Exit Cards
Students share how they are feeling, what their needs are, and what goals they’d like to set in an exit card.
Authoring My Identity
Students explore the costs and benefits of sharing aspects of their identities, discuss an informational text about “narrative identity,” and apply these concepts to their own lives in an original poem.
What’s In a Name?
Students explore the relationship between our names, identities, and the societies in which we live.
Frame a Special Item
Students identify an object that holds special meaning and learn about each other by sharing the stories of these special items.
Envisioning Our Classroom Space
Students analyze a poem in order to determine the qualities of a classroom community where members are seen, valued, and heard.
More Than Monsters: The Deeper Significance of Wendigo Stories
The wendigo stories of Algonquian peoples offer a window into the endurance of cultural resources used to transmit significant moral values, and underscore the power of Native people using these stories to engage in social critique.
What is Power?
Students define power and then analyze five perspectives about power in order to understand its many sources and the different ways it can be experienced.