The famous "White Stag" building sign in downtown Portland. Photo taken over Winter Break, 2015.
We continued our Civil Rights unit today by investigating and learning about some specifics about how our own city of Portland (and the surrounding area) has been impacted by struggles for civil rights. Here's what happened in class:
Learning Targets Addressed:
Behavior LT 1: I can self-direct my learning.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain the process of change and continuity in a society, place, or region.
Knowledge LT 19: I can explain the role and impacts of social hierarchies.
Soundtrack: "Come Rain or Come Shine" by Billie Holliday. Selected for today because of the rainy weather over recently and the desire to keep a positive attitude about coming to school! Lyrics here.Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain the process of change and continuity in a society, place, or region.
Knowledge LT 19: I can explain the role and impacts of social hierarchies.
AGENDA 11/21/19:
News Brief – Alex
Brown v. Board of Education
Oregon's Racist History
Lift Ev'ry Voice
Homework: Read the blog. Know your grade and how to improve it, if possible! Next news brief: Chris.
News Brief: Alex had the news brief today and selected an article about this story: CNN.com - Stunning testimony links Trump to abuse of power. This is obviously an enormous ongoing story in our country, so we took some time in class to ask questions and try to answer them, before moving on.
We also checked in to see if anyone was up to anything interesting or fun outside of class over the weekend.
Chris was selected to do the next news brief.
As part of the news brief, we also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):
BBCNews.com - One-minute World News
And here's an overview video that I showed in class to help students understand context and impact:
Brown v. Board of Education: I introduced the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson in the realm of public schools (which was eventually extended to most other areas of public life), Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954). Here's the case:
And here's an overview video that I showed in class to help students understand context and impact:
We spent the first part of class reading through the case and answering the questions on the back side, on your Civil Rights note sheet. We then answered the questions as a class.
Oregon's Racist History: As I tried to point out today, there is a LOT of history in our own community of racism, that I think students do not typically know about. But, there is a reason that Portland is one of the whitest major cities in the United States. A few links for curious students to check out:
I also wanted to be sure that we talked about the laws that prevented people of color from owning property in places like Lake Oswego and throughout Oregon. Here is an example:
We also watched the first 4 minutes or so of this video, to help set the stage for the main documentary I wanted to show in class:
Lift Ev'ry Voice: For the rest of class, we started watching an excellent documentary from OPB, called Lift Ev'ry Voice, and ended class about 23:50 minutes in. If you want to watch again, share, or get caught up, it is here:
Here is the worksheet that goes along with the documentary:
I think it is super important that we understand our own history regarding race in Portland, especially as I think there are some common assumptions that are just not true. As such, I was glad to see that almost everyone was glued to this in class. Thanks for your focus and willingness to learn about our own history! We will continue to watch this next class!
I also wanted to be sure that we talked about the laws that prevented people of color from owning property in places like Lake Oswego and throughout Oregon. Here is an example:
We also watched the first 4 minutes or so of this video, to help set the stage for the main documentary I wanted to show in class:
Lift Ev'ry Voice: For the rest of class, we started watching an excellent documentary from OPB, called Lift Ev'ry Voice, and ended class about 23:50 minutes in. If you want to watch again, share, or get caught up, it is here:
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