Social Justice

For this blog post on the issue of social justice in the classroom, I chose to respond to an article called “Creating Classrooms for Social Justice” by Tabitha Dell’Angelo. The link to her article is below. From what I gathered as I read her post, social justice is “recognizing and acting upon the power that we have for making positive change” and encouraging our students to do so as well. Part of encouraging our students to act upon this power is to also diversify your instruction and activities to reach out to all types of students. There are four steps that are important for teachers to use to help students realize and act upon the power they have for making positive change. First, a teacher should value their students and what knowledge, ideas, opinions, and/or facts students can bring to class. Second, a teacher must connect lessons to the real world at all opportunities. This will teach students how to be critical thinkers and form their own opinions. Third, teachers must create a community in their classroom where every voice can be heard. Since the classroom is diverse, the teacher will want to include materials in each lesson that address these diversities. Lastly, teachers should give authentic assessments that span outside of the classroom. For example, instead of writing letters just for a grade, have students write letters for a grade and then have students revise and send them. Social justice is a key component to the classroom because it really encourages teachers to reach out and make connections with their students. It encourages teachers to help their students make real world and life connections. If students learn social justice in the classroom, they will go on to act upon their power to make a positive impact in this world. 

 http://www.edutopia.org/blog/creating-classrooms-for-social-justice-tabitha-dellangelo