Poems for Social Justice
We have a habit of taking our kids to bars. We know what you’re thinking. Keep reading and It will all make sense.
Let’s rewind to a hot, sticky day in early August of 2020. We all remember that time, don’t we? It was a time of hope, fear and exhaustion. That’s when the news came and the dreaded words were spoken: “virtual learning.” After a quick cry, we dried our tears and got to work. What were we going to do? What were our kids going to do? How will this all work? But most importantly, how will we keep our kids connected with each other through screens?
Being self-proclaimed PBLers, we knew we had to do something epic with our first and second graders even if we had no idea what or how. What do our students need? What does our community need? After a “50 Things” protocol and a “Yes, And” ideation, that’s when the idea came. What if our kids designed and created Little Free Libraries to place around our city? Better yet- What if children wrote books to put into these libraries? Was this a crazy idea? Probably. Did we have any background knowledge in woodworking? Absolutely not. Should we tie in social justice? Definitely! Would this bring our kids together while apart? You bet!
We got out our favorite post-it’s and markers and went to work. We created a storyboard of what this project could look like. We met virtually with some colleagues from our district and went through a Tuning Protocol We received some excellent feedback and went on to revise, tune again, and then revise some more.
Milestone 1
Our first milestone was the launch of our project. We created a newscast that took our students out into the streets of West Allis, Wisconsin - virtually. They followed along with us from their screens while we meandered through our community knocking on doors, standing on sidewalks, microphone in hand interviewing homeowners that had Little Free Libraries in their yards. We got their insight and advice. All the while running from bees and being honked at by passers-by who thought we were the actual news.
Designing this project and being in the midst of a global pandemic, during a heated presidential election, and numerous protests and movements happening all around us, we knew it was essential for us to tie social justice into this unit. This idea came with both enthusiasm and a bit of pushback and discomfort from others. Having integrated the Learning for Justice social justice standards, and understanding that at the K-2 level social justice often means celebrating who we are as individuals, we went on to tackle this anyway because we believed it was important to our kids and their families. We wanted to focus on helping our kids be proud of who they are, engage with others who are different from them, and to recognize unfairness they see in the world.
Milestone 2
Our next milestone focused on children taking pride and having confidence in their own identities, appreciating the diversity and the unique experience of others, and recognizing injustice in the world. We shared many conversations, photographs and stories. Our kids created artifact museums to highlight their identities, used art and collage as a pathway to share their concerns and the unfairness they noticed - in particular, children discussed issues related to police brutality and racial justice. While this was challenging, we elicited support from our school counselors and other colleagues to help us navigate complex conversations with our 6 and 7 year old students. Our children surprised us with their insights and compassion.
We found a common theme in our kids’ reflections; empathy. We wanted to help them put a word to the feelings they were expressing. These conversations led to more questions from our kids. Questions we didn’t have the answers to, like “Why can’t everyone in the world be nice?” “Why are some people racist?” Our guidance counselors suggested having our kids conduct their own empathy interviews with members of their family. A guidance counselor zoomed in and shared with our kids about the power of empathy and listening to understand. As a class, our students generated a list of four questions. 1. What is the best thing about you? 2. What is hard for you? 3. What is diverse about you? 4. What is something you care a lot about? The conversation that followed after the interviews helped us navigate exploring social justice with our students.
We found our students and their families had so many stories to tell. Stories about their lives, stories about themselves, stories about triumphs and challenges they have faced in our community. We decided to shift our project learning goals to focus on writing poetry rather than stories. Our original plan in this project was to have our kids write their own narratives on how they took action (were a helper) when they saw an unfairness and put those narratives into the libraries they would build. We decided to shift our focus a bit and that's when the poetry of expressing their identities came into play. With poetry, there were no rules, no preconceived notions, and our kids could excel because nothing was stopping them.
It also helped that we were members of the EC PBL Facebook group and saw Sara Lev’s posts about the Poetry of Us Project that she was doing with her class. Our poetry project was an adaptation of that project. To access Sara’s full project plans, go here.
We read lots and lots of poems to our students. Anthologies of poems that were about kids like them: Brown, Black, white, short, tall - and poetry that highlighted all different kinds of families. These poems had rhythm and shared a depth and culture. Our kids wanted to be like those authors. So we thought: Why not? Let’s add our poetry into the libraries that we will be building. But wait (insert sound of screeching tires)....we’re virtual and we’ve built nothing. Not yet.
Milestone 3
How can we take everything we have been learning about each other, all the changes we want to see, and put these into our libraries that will be going out into the community? As teachers, we couldn’t answer that so we brought it to our kids to answer. We brainstormed in breakout rooms. This led to an amazing amount of collaboration and comedy as six and seven year olds (and teachers) learned how to use these rooms. We were missing something… group norms! We couldn’t click the “close break out room” button quick enough. We reflected on that shared experience and tried again. After a few more brainstorming sessions our kids wanted each library to have it’s own “identity.”
Now that the kids had an idea for their libraries, we needed to make prototypes, gather materials, get them to the kids, and have students create roles and make group decisions for their libraries. More experts were needed. We brought in our District’s Coordinator of Instructional Services. Not only is he a fellow PBLer, but is a builder on the side. He designed a prototype for what the libraries could look like and then went through a feedback protocol with the kids. He presented his work, our kids listened, and then gave him praises, asked questions, and gave suggestions as to what could be made better. We refer to this protocol as PQPs (praise, questions, polish). Our class met over zoom with him 3 times with 3 different iterations of what the libraries could look like.
Once the final design was agreed upon, we needed to figure out how to send 200 pieces of wood and 400 containers of paint home with four classes of first and second graders. To solve this, we first laid out 80 piles of wood in the classroom. (Each child would be going home with about 2 boards). We then started filling the 400 ramekins with paint. Trying not to trip over the boards we set 5 ramekins next to each pile and put each child’s materials into a two gallon bag. After a few elevator rides delivering these kits to the first floor accompanied by some air high- fives, we were ready to go!
Wood pieces ready for delivery
During that week families drove up to the school to pick up their child’s learning kits. Over the course of a few weeks the students met in breakout rooms with their group to collaborate on their progress, give and receive feedback, and make revisions until all pieces could come together as one final product.
Milestone 4
Let's fast forward through a few quarantines, a couple of vaccinations, and 6 weeks of hybrid learning. We found ourselves in a makeshift workshop at our school. Caulk gun in hand, and 200 pieces of beautifully painted wood were scattered all around us. Our expert had guided our kids in building a foundation that served as a blank canvas for our students to adhere their pieces of wood to. The kids collaborated to strategically lay out the pieces in a mosaic to show how all the pieces could come together as one. Just like our class community.
In the end, our kids successfully published an anthology of poems and created three Free Little Libraries. Through this, our connection to each other was strengthened as was our curiosity to learn more and do more. We came full circle to the same bar that hosted last year's podcasting project, but now instead, it was there that we held a ribbon cutting ceremony. Here, our Little Free Library, a library that represents West Allis, still stands. Inside you will find Poems from 86th Street, an anthology that amplifies the proud, confident, and courageous voices of our kids.
Kory Schaefer and Beth O’Connor currently teach in a PBL first and second grade classroom at Franklin Elementary in West-Allis, Wisconsin.
Kory serves as a teacher mentor for the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District. She has worked as an educator for the last 14 years and holds a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership. Outside of the classroom she continues to gain inspiration for projects and seek out new adventures with her husband and daughter.
Beth also works as a presenter for a professional development agency. She has worked as an educator for the last 17 years and holds a Master’s degree in Reading, along with numerous reading licenses. Outside of the classroom she enjoys reading, traveling and spending time with her husband and daughter.