our classroom
because learning is collaborative
We are on indigenous lands
“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.”
- James Baldwin
Courses
2017 - 2021
CSU Expository Reading and Writing
12th Grade English
This class is designed to engage students in critical reading. As critical readers we question both the writer’s intentions and our own.
HUMAN 120: Introduction to Humanities: Imagination, Invention and Creativity
Grades 10 -12
We explore the science and practice of originality and creative problem solving. DE college credit course with Contra Costa Community College.
Film as literature
Grades 10 -12
We develop criticality by watching, describing and analyzing film form and aesthetics.
English 3
11th Grade English
In this class we ask, how does language interrupt or perpetuate systems of power?
Creative Writing
Grades 9 -12
We use language as a tool to explore our lives and the lives of others.
The Technology Academy
In Spring 2018, I was asked to lead the technology academy at the high school where I teach English.
I'm thinking about
How do we foster the confidence to learn new things?
How do students learn to think flexibly and manage uncertainty?
How do we build student leadership into the fabric of the academy?
How do we foster the methodical, analytical, and critical thinking skills necessary to problem solve?
How do we become literate in the ways that technology can perpetuate -- or disrupt -- injustice?
Media
How can journalism engage young adults?
The federal government’s boldest land grab in a generation produced the first border wall — and a trail of abuse, mistakes and unfairness.
MEXICO IS MAKING SOME OF THE BEST DOCUMENTARIES IN THE WORLD TODAY. HERE, OP-DOCS PRESENTS SIX SHORTS BY MEXICAN DIRECTORS.
"I want to examine the instability of our current media ecosystem to then return to the question of: what kind of media literacy should we be working towards? So let’s dig in.""
\
danah boyd
on media literacy
"I have a deep level of respect for the primary goal [of media literacy]...But fundamentally, it is a form of critical thinking that asks people to doubt what they see (emphasis mine). And that makes me nervous."
Linguistics in the ELD Classroom
Looking Beyond English: Linguistic inquiry for English Language Learners
Our questions: Is there a role for linguistic inquiry in a class of high school ELLs? In particular, can the analysis of students’ home languages interest and engage them in critical inquiry?
Has a remote Amazonian tribe upended our understanding of language?
“Crooked head” is the tribe’s term for any language that is not Pirahã, and it is a clear pejorative. The Pirahã consider all forms of human discourse other than their own to be laughably inferior, and they are unique among Amazonian peoples in remaining monolingual.
Introduction to linguistics: MIT Open Courseware
This class will provide some answers to basic questions about the nature of human language. Throughout the course, we will be examining a number of ways in which human language is a complex but law-governed mental system...
SKILLS: School Kids Investigating Language in Life + Society
SKILLS , the first program to teach linguistics in California’s public schools, is a collaboration between UCSB faculty and students and Master Teachers in high school classes in Santa Barbara County.
Animated Shorts Celebrate 11 of Mexico’s Indigenous Languages
Sesenta y Ocho Voces, Sesenta y Ocho Corazones is a new initiative from Mexico’s government Fund for The Culture and Arts (FONCA) that seeks to elevate Mexico’s 68 indigenous languages by preserving their myths, legends, poems, and stories in the form of beautifully animated short
zines in the classsroom
An Introduction to Zines; Educating with Zines; Identity & Learning, a zine project; Reporting or Reconstructing? The Zine as a Medium for Reflecting on Research Experiences; Collaborative Zines: Making Art History Accessible to Pre-Service Teachers; DIY Assignment; Using Zines in the Classroom; Information literacy with zines; How to Make This Very Zine; Student Collaborator's Bill of Right's
afrofuturism
Black to the Future, Mark Dery; The Public Theatre's adaptation of Parable of the Sower; Ytasha L. Womack; Octavia Butler; Afrofuturism Reloaded, Mark Dery; Growing the creative economy in Detroit with founder of Afrotopia, Ingrid Lafleur; Afrofuturism/Chicanafuturism; Afrofuturism: Re-writing the African Narrative by Masi Mbewe at TEDx University of Namibia
Research Justice in the English Classroom
2018/19
Student-Led Research
12th Grade English
September-November 2018
In August 2018, our classroom received a Teaching Tolerance grant for our 12th grade students to design and implement research on peer voting knowledge, attitudes and behavior.
The grant will pay for two graduate or undergraduate researchers from local colleges to collaborate with students.
Call for Collaborators
We put out this call for undergraduate or graduate students
Using a “Research Justice Framework” (DataCenter), 12th graders will generate original research about voting knowledge, attitudes, and behavior among their peers, then analyze and share results. We’re looking for two undergraduate or graduate researchers to lead two classes (60 students) through the design and implementation of their research.
The Voting Project
We set out to understand youth voting attitudes and behavior
With our collaborator from UC Davis, Gabriel Martinez, we set out to understand youth voting attitudes and behaviors. 60 high school seniors designed an online survey that was completed by nearly 350 juniors and seniors. We are analyzing the results now.
classroom for creative work
royalquietdeluxe at gmail dot com
Image Credits
Images from the Our Classroom
1U.S. Department of arts and Culture
Honor Native Land: A Guide and Call to Acknowledgement
2ALTERNATIVE FACTS
GIF from the Center for Investigative Reporting
3Double America (2012)
Double America, 2012. Neon and Paint.
4language family tree
Illustration of the Indo-European and Uralic language families, by Minna Sandberg, adapted from an infographic page from the comic Stand Still. Stay Silent
5ALL OTHER PHOTOS
Mine.
© 2017