What Kids Can Do

NEW ON OUR FRONT PAGE

Photos by Andrew Reed Weller

May we find the goodness in front of us. Best wishes for 2017 from WKCD!

Two Learning Experiences for High School Students that Address Stereotyping and Community
For the past six months, WKCD's Barbara Cervone and international service learning consultant Cathryn B. Kaye have been developing an advisory curriculum centered on social-emotional learning for international schools around the globe. The curriculum, still in its pilot phase, is grouped around four themes—identity, learning to learn, relationships, and wellbeing—and includes 72 40-minute interactive learning experiences. The learning experiences can stand alone or, better yet, create their own momentum. The topics are as deep as they are wide, from belonging to the science of the teenage brain.

Here we offer two of these learning experiences, appropriate to the times. The first builds off Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED Talk, "The Danger of a Single Story." The second begins with students drawing, in silence, their own visions of community.

Generous Orthodoxy
A pastor officiates at the wedding of his son—under ordinary circumstances, an affirmation of family and community. But what if the son is gay? And what if the pastor belongs to the most traditional of religious communities? “Generous Orthodoxy” is the story of Chester Wenger, a 98-year-old Mennonite minister who chose to confront his own church over a question of deepest principle. It asks: What do you do when the institution that has defined your life comes between you and your family? Wenger offers all of us a master class in the art of dissent.

Wenger's story is one of ten episodes from Welcome to Revisionist History, a podcast from Malcolm Gladwell. Although presented largely with adults in mind, Wenger's message will surely ring true for adolescent listeners.

SHOUT OUTS

Ideas for Productive Discussion: Reflections on a Civil Conversation Challenge
This fall, the New York Times Learning Network invited teenagers nationwide to weigh in on some of the most divisive issues of this election and challenged them to have the kinds of respectful, productive discussions across ideological divides that, it seemed, many adults were unable to. Nearly 3,000 comments were posted to its monthlong Civil Conversation Challenge. Here are observations about the best of those conversations and what made them work, along with unedited student examples for each.

Six Ways to Give the Gift of Generosity to Children and Teenagers
"This is not a guilt trip," writes Ron Lieber in the New York Times. "Pile the presents to the sky, by all means. . . . But let this column be an additional seasonal reminder that generosity is a trait that nearly all of us share and hope to imprint on the ch.ildren and teenagers in our orbit. So if you’re so inclined, commit yourself to doing at least one thing before the end of the year to bring the gift of giving to young people. Here are six ideas to get you started."

"My students are worried about their families being deported. Here’s what I stopped world history class to tell them."
"Queens, New York is an exciting place to teach world history," writes John Giambalvo. "The borough is known for its diversity, and more than 1 million of its residents were born in a different country. That diversity is also why I knew my high-school students would have more than a mild curiosity about President-elect Donald Trump’s stance on immigration. So, last week, I finished our lesson a few minutes early and asked my students: 'Who here is concerned that someone they love will be forced to return to a home country under President Trump?' More than half of my students raised their hands."

The Teenagers Suing over Climate Change
In the spring of 2010, environmental attorney Julia Olson met Alec Loorz, a 15-year-old from Ventura, California who had been inspried by Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and had founded a group called Kids vs. Global Warming. At the time, Olson was preparing to sue the federal government over its insufficient action on climate change—and Loorz asked to be a plaintiff. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed, but as this New Yorker article points out, it was the beginning of a legal campaign that is gaining attention from teen-age climate activists across the country.

RECENT/POPULAR FEATURES

Integrating Social-Emotional Learning Into High School
In this 2014 Education Week commentary, WKCD's Barbara Cervone and Kathleen Cushman, ask: What would it take to weave social and emotional learning into the daily fabric of our nation's high schools? To start, Cervone and Cushman argue, we need new language that ends the "versus" between cognitive and noncognitive factors in our discussions of learning and mastery. Academic, social, and emotional learning are deeply mutual. In turn, we need learning standards that treat SEL as integral to the curriculum. Finally (though perhaps first of all), teacher-preparation programs must equip new teachers with the core competencies necessary to foster social and emotional learning.

You're Constantly Revising Yourself: Dispositions of a Student-Centered Teacher
What qualities should a school seek when hiring teachers explicitly to teach in a student-centered setting? What dispositions help teachers thrive in the demanding environment of a student-centered school? WKCD asked these questions to teachers and students in six high schools known as exemplars in student-centered learning. We had spent months documenting everyday teacher practice in these schools—as part of a larger inquiry for the Students at the Center project, led by the Boston-based Jobs for the Future.

Immigrant Students Use Cartoons to Share Their Journeys
At Oakland International High School, new students arrive each week. For many, OIHS is their first school in the United States. Its 300 students come from 31 countries and speak 29 languages. Each of these students has a story. Not all of them have a way of communicating it. OIHS art teacher Thi Bui urges her 9th and 10th grade students to tell their immigration story in the form of a comic. Each of the 23 comics—stories of loss and hope—answers the question, "Who am I?" and, collectively, the question "Who are we?" Together, they provide an extraordinary insight into the motives, challenges, and dreams of our newest immigrants as they become part of the complex fabric of America.

	Short Workouts for Social-Emotional Learning In an era when test scores consume much of the oxygen around student success, we welcome the turn to social-emotional development as a key factor in a young person’s education. In December 2015, WKCD introduced a new, monthly feature called Short Workouts for Social-Emotional Learning, geared towards middle and high school students. Each "collection" includes ten 10-15 minute workouts—quotations, questions, video clips, and photographs—suitable as a bell ringer, warm up, or advisory activity. There is no formula for using these workouts with students (just as there are no right or wrong answers). Mix them up and sprinkle them into your ongoing work, knowing that your students will embrace the chance to flex their social-emotional muscles. May 2016 \| April 2016 \| March 2016 \| February 2016 \| January 2016 \| December 2015

	The Ground Beneath Our Feet Eleven years ago, the photo essay book WKCD's Barbara Cervone created with youth in Tanzania made its debut, sparking an international movement of youth telling their own "village's" stories. Profits from the sale of In Our Village: Kambi ya Simba Through the Eyes of Its Youth have sent more than two dozen village youth to advanced secondary schools. U.S teachers and students have visited the village and donated money for various projectss. In 2014, Cervone traveled to Tanzania to catch up with the book's young authors. All are college graduates now, some with families of their own. Still, their struggle to make their way in one of the world's poorest countries is at times heartbreaking. In this powerful story (with video interviews), Cervone shares their journey.