The text I have selected for a lesson in a K-12 classroom is To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. It is a story about a case in which a black man was accused of raping a white girl and the main character’s father decided to defend the black boy because he knew the boy was innocent. The book could be heavy as it is straightforward in pointing out the social issues of rape and racial inequity.

The objective of the lesson is to analyze the case with students and inspire students’ sense of justice to understand how severe the racial inequity and racism were and still are. As I build students’ interest in racial inequity cases, I would use the Brown V. Board case and its aftermath as an example of how policies could be anti-racist yet the progress can be so slow.
At the beginning of the class, I would introduce the novel to students and let them know it had been my favorite book for almost six years. I wish they could enjoy it as much as I did. Even if it was not their favorite genre of novels, I am very excited to have the opportunity to share the novel with them.

Throughout the class, I plan on simplifying the novel and only focusing on the case and how White residents near the neighborhood treated the main character’s family differently because her father decided to stand out for justice. I will set different questions to evoke students’ interest throughout the process and encourage them to take guesses on how things will turn out in each twist and milestone of the book.

I would applaud their creativity and bravery for speaking up. I wish to empower students to be more proactive in class and motivate them to delegate their critical thinking capabilities like Dr. Gholdy Muhammad did (Jones, 2022.) I will give an example of when I got mistreated because of my skin color and ethnicity. I would encourage every students to open up and provide their experiences. It will help some students to feel relatable and some to understand other sides of the society that they may not have seen before.

As we approach finishing analyzing the case, I wish to introduce them the Brown V. Board case I and II. I would also suggest students to follow up on how the policies are today on their spare time and disscuss with me during my office hours.

Citation
1. Jones Stanbrough, Raven (2022) “Book Review Cultivating Genius: An Equity

Framework For Culturally And Historically Responsive Literacy,” Michigan Reading Journal: Vol. 54: Iss. 2, Article 16.

Contributor: Jessica Jiapei Zhu