Teaching for Black Lives Study Group Members Resource Page

This resource page is for Teaching for Black Lives Study Group members only.

Highlights

Selected updates and snapshots from Teaching for Black Lives study group coordinators and feedback from the Teaching for Black Lives workshops and classes.

Fall 2021 Update         Spring 2022 Update

Upcoming Events

All weekday events are at 4pm PT/ 7pm ET and last for 60 to 90 minutes.

May 23 Study Groups Closing Celebration. We look forward to seeing all of you at the end of year celebration for Teaching for Black Lives Study Groups on Monday, May 23 at 4:00pm PT / 7:00 pm ET. You will engage with hundreds of fellow study group members from across the country in large and small groups.  If you have not RSVP’d already here is the form (if you RSVP’d already, you are on the Google calendar hold).

In addition, three noted veterans of SNCC will join us to share words of appreciation for the many ways you are carrying on the struggle for education for liberation.

You will hear first hand from:

• Charlie Cobb Wrote the original treatise for Freedom Schools and later wrote, This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed.
• Courtland Cox Used popular education in Lowndes County for Black power, helped organize 6th Pan African Congress, and leads the SNCC Legacy Project and SNCC Digital Gateway
• Judy Richardson Full time SNCC staff in Alabama and Georgia, and later assoc. producer of Eyes on the Prize and co-editor of Hands on the Freedom Plow.

All three continue to be active in movements for social justice today. If you have not RSVP’d already here is the form (if you RSVP’d already, you are on the Google calendar hold). We want to see ALL of you! There will also be time to fill out the end-of-year evaluation with lots of raffle prizes.

June 6 Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Online Class with Kelly Lytle Hernández on the 1910 Mexican Revolution

Sept 12 Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Online Class with Alaina Roberts on Black Freedom on Native Land

 

Orientation

Here are the videos from the presentation portions of the study group orientation workshops.

Dyan Watson reading a letter she wrote to her son, from the book Teaching for Black Lives.

Ayva Thomas interviewing the Teaching for Black Lives co-editors: Dyan Watson, Wayne Au, and Jesse Hagopian.

Book and Study Guide

The study groups use the Rethinking Schools text Teaching for Black Lives, a compilation of essays, teaching activities, role plays, poems, and artwork, designed to illuminate the movement for Black students’ lives, the school-to-prison-pipeline, Black history, gentrification, intersectional Black identities, and more. The book is edited by Wayne Au, Jesse Hagopian, and Dyan Watson.

Cierra Kaler-Jones and Jesse Hagopian wrote a guide for teachers who are reading Teaching for Black Lives in study or discussion groups. They suggest discussion questions for each section of the book.

Download the Teaching for Black Lives Study Guide for free.

Rethinking Schools

All study group members receive a free one-year print and digital subscription to Rethinking Schools. Here is the link and code: ZEPSTUDYSUB Beyond your study group members, do not share the code — there is only one subscription per study group member. For questions about the subscription, email.

Past Events

2021

Nov. 8 Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Online Class with Dave Zirin on The Kaepernick Effect

Nov. 9* Teach Truth Organizing Workshop with sessions on Know Your Rights, Influencing School Boards, and Building Allies

Nov. 15* Curriculum Workshop: Teaching The Kaepernick Effect with Jesse Hagopian. Using readings from the book, participants will brainstorm teaching ideas in small groups. RSVP.

Nov. 17* Teaching for Black Lives Study Group coordinator convening. RSVP (Note this is only for the group coordinators.)

Nov. 1 – 31 The Neutral Ground documentary on the Lost Cause and the fight against Confederate monuments, streams for free. Highly recommended for teachers and students. We’ll host a workshop on teaching the film, with director C. J. Hunt from The Daily Show.

Dec. 6 Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Online Class with Jarvis Givens on Fugitive Pedagogy

Dec. 13* Curriculum Workshop: Teaching Fugitive Pedagogy with Jesse Hagopian and Cierra Kaler-Jones. Using primary documents and readings from the book, participants will brainstorm teaching ideas in small groups.

2022

Jan. 4 Climate Change Mixer lesson offered as part of Austin, Texas teachers equity conference. Climate change lesson, offered by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca, from 9:25am – 10:20am CT. 

Jan. 10 Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Online Class on The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. You Won’t Read About in Textbooks with Jeanne Theoharis

Jan. 13* Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action Orientation and Planning, facilitated by Jesse Hagopian.

Jan. 22 Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action Virtual Teach-In hosted by Teaching for Change and the Howard University School of Education.

Feb. 21 Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Online Class with Martha Jones on Black Women in the Fight for Voting Rights

Mar. 7* Curriculum workshop on Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All.  

March 14 Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Online Class with Vikki Law on Myths about Mass Incarceration

March 28* Teaching The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks. Hands on introduction to a lesson to teach about Parks’ long life of activism, before and after her action on the Montgomery bus. Participants will receive copies of the book.

March 30* Coordinators-only T4BL study group meeting to share stories and strategies and support one another.

April 11* Climate Justice is Racial Justice. Hands on introduction to classroom lessons.

April 25 Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Online Class with Johanna Fernández on the Young Lords

May 9 Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Online Class with Kidada Williams on season two of Seizing Freedom