The Teacher As Screenwriter: Action for Social Change
“The way I look at it is, when you allow people to submerge themselves into a story, they will react by thinking through what it’s about. That’s just so much more fun and effective, I think than a lecture. ”
I am a huge fan of Jordan Peele’s acting, writing, and directing. I feel his work has the potential not only to entertain, but to bring about positive change in this country. If people are open minded and find value in “thinking through what it’s about,” Peele’s work will be taught in high schools soon if not already. I am anticipating his next masterpiece and am inspired by Peele’s philosophy of storytelling as an action to change minds.
“Verbs are active, no less demanding but requiring constant engagement.
…They are not structures but, rather, engines.”
What Ted and Nancy Sizer say above is similar to what Jordan Peele is saying. Education needs to break down the old structures of lecturing and inflexible lesson planning. In movies, the action isn’t just the writer telling the story…the audience must “react by thinking through what it’s about.” In the classroom, the teacher lays out the story like a screenwriter, but the action has to be with the students as they react by thinking it through. It is a risk for an educator to let go of the reins, but it must happen for true learning to occur. This may lead to students asking questions, disagreeing with what has been presented, telling their own stories that connect, researching to find out more, creating new stories to inspire after learning the information, or rising to act against the injustices. The power of having all the information fuels the engine of action and real engagement. Engines not structures.
“Action is about objectives, obstacles, and conflict. ”
As teachers, it is our obligation to foster a safe environment in which students can talk to each other about their identities and biases. As I have said in past posts, teachers must first do this work themselves and understand their own identity, privilege, and biases. The teacher’s job is to facilitate students’ conversations and allow them to ask the questions that are on their minds. This is an action we must take. We need to be clear about what we are trying to do, understand it will be messy, and know that there will be “obstacles and conflict.”
“If we don’t address systemic racism in schools at the classroom level, we as a system will continue to fuel the school-to-prison pipeline. We owe it to our students, especially those of color, to restructure schools as anti-racist institutions, and the only way to do this is to start talking about race—at school and at home. ”
Sara K. Ahmed, in her incredible book Being the Change, has a section at the end of each lesson called, “Addressing Tensions.” Ahmed knows that identity, bias, and social justice work will create “obstacles and conflict.” She shares actions a teacher can take to help students communicate respectfully when tensions rise.
In her Listening with Love chapter, Ahmed talks about active listening and provides wording to teach students how to do this work respectfully. She lays out actions and words for acknowledging, agreeing and disagreeing respectfully with the thoughts of others. It is vital for teachers to model these words and actions and provide students practice using them through lessons and discussions that tackle hard topics. These are actions and words that students can use in class and in life. Below are just some of Ahmed’s resources about actions and words shared in the chapter:
Physical Actions
Acknowledging and Agreeing: “Smiling. High-fiving. Fist bumps. Shaka signs.”
Disagreeing Respectfully: “Smiling. Handshakes. Fist bumps. Shaka signs.”
Words
Acknowledging:
“ __________ helped me think about __________________.”
“I never thought of ____________ until ______________ mentioned it.”
Agreeing:
“We have similar thoughts or evidence about _________________.”
“___________ and I both …”
Disagreeing with Respect:
“Can you say more about that? I want to make sure I understand where you are coming from.”
“We actually didn’t see eye to eye. One of thinks ______________ and the other thinks _______________.”
The above quote from The Students are Watching was mentioned by Sydney Chaffee in her Ted-X talk Social Justice Belongs in Our Schools from 2018. It got me thinking about action and how social change in our schools might start with the wording of our standards and objectives. How can we use more verbs in our planning and pedagogy? The students need to be doing the thinking and understanding. This video is well worth the time to watch and Chaffee’s words and work are inspiring.
Putting primary sources and real people’s stories in the hands of students to read and discuss with peers is one very important action we can take as teachers. Curating content that tells the true story and not just one glossed over side of the story should be a goal. It starts by looking at state standards mining the internet and books for primary sources and different perspectives of the history and geography I am being told to teach.
This is not enough. I will go beyond that.
Geography and the cause-and-effect relationship of economics are huge pieces that need more air time in classrooms, even in the elementary grades. It may lead to me teaching something that is not necessarily in the MA state standards document. This is more risk taking, but it must happen.
The structure of these documents needs to change and what is mentioned or not mentioned in them, is still a huge problem. As educators take on this work, stories and information that have never been shared in schools will see the light of day and make a world of difference in students’ understanding of this country’s mistakes, as well as the world’s. Information is power. The real facts and discussion about them can bring about true understanding and action. Engines not structures.
Resources:
Being the Change by Sara K. Ahmed https://www.amazon.com/Being-Change-Lessons-Strategies-Comprehension/dp/0325099707
What Every Screenwriter Should Know About Action Writing By Ken Miyamoto https://screencraft.org/2015/11/16/what-every-screenwriter-should-know-about-action-writing/
Knowing Your History & Teaching Social Justice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qByRWxN-qg
My Child’s Third Grade Teacher Totally Ignores Talking About Race and Racism By Brandon Hersey https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/06/race-discussions-school-teachers-parents.html