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Why social justice ESL stories?
Social justice stories are a great way to maximize English language learning in the classroom. Students get to connect the different parts of their identity – as immigrants, people of color, workers, and so forth – to the history that has shaped what's best about America today.
Part of this practice is indebted to Popular Education, which holds that students are experts on their own lives, and need to work together to change their communities for the better. These principles complement Communicative Language Teaching, which maintains that students learn English best when they use it meaningfully.
Reading and discussing social justice stories isn't just more meaningful than doing random fill-in-the-blanks. Students also develop fundamental academic skills. They learn that different people can read the same text differently; to compare texts to one another; and to compare what's described in a text to their own lived experience. Finally, they learn that some questions don't call for a single, “correct” answer, but for a convincing answer based on argumentation. These are all skills they will need later in the academy.
How do you use social justice ESL stories?
There are three ways I've found to successfully use social justice stories in the classroom.
1. Integrate the story to the grammar
I generally focus on one grammar point per class. I try to find a way the story relates to that grammar point. For example, if I'm teaching the present perfect, I'll often use the Rosa Parks story and ask: “Have you ever experienced discrimination?”
2. Integrate the story to a theme
If the school is focusing on the environment for the semester, I have a built-in opening to teach about Rachel Carson. Starting at the beginning of each February, I'll always do several weeks of Black History. Having a thematic connection among the stories you teach is one of the most powerful ways for students to learn a body of knowledge. But don't overdo it! Students tend to burn out on a topic (even one we find intensely interesting) long before the teacher does.
3. Integrate the story to current events
Occasionally, something will happen in your community or the world at large that has to be put into perspective. This is an opportunity to use just the right story. For example, when same-sex marriage was (briefly) legalized in California, I taught the Harvey Milk story.
How can I write my own social justice ESL stories?
1. Choose something interesting and simple.
2. Write one page about it.
3. Read it out loud to yourself to see if there are any hard-to-understand parts.
4. Revise the story.
5. Teach it to your class.
6. Find a bunch of parts that were unclear, or relied on prior knowledge they didn't have.
7. Revise the story.
8. Teach it again next semester! (And, probably, repeat steps 6, 7 and 8.)
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