Diving Deeper into Social Justice (blog 3)

For my topic of Social Justice in Young Adult Literature, the hypothetical group of students this would target would be an English class of 11th graders at Bay View High School. The beauty of books is that, depending on the genre of the book and the age level, a lot of books can be enjoyed by a huge variety of ages- even, at times, people outside of the "targeted age". The age range for what the title "young adult" considers is ages 12-20 which is a wide range of ages that can include all secondary education students. The best part of having a variety of texts that suit such a large audience is that these texts could be used for a plethora of reasons. Specifically, with my 11th graders, there are 36 students in the class which is made up of 10 girls and 26 boys. Of those students, 17 of them have an IEP of some sort and a majority of the class are introverted and work well by themselves, while a group of about 6 boys tends to be on the louder side and enjoy working with one another as opposed to by themselves. Using the texts together would not be a difficult process necessarily due to them all having the common trait of having to do with social justice. The texts would be able to be used together to help students understand what "social justice" is, and how it can be shown in many different ways in writing. Since the texts I selected are all different, all of my students should find something that works well with the way they prefer to learn. Whether it be a social justice unit where the class is focusing on a specific novel and then bouncing other texts off that as mini-lessons, working by yourself more than with the large group, or having one large lesson that involves a more extensive range of texts...anything can work. The texts I selected will allow my students to understand the topic at a deeper level and potentially connect it to themselves or have an "aha" moment about seeing it happen in real life. Most of the texts I chose show what social justice issues look like in the real world. Racism, discrimination, and inequality are real issues that my texts focus on in order for others, like my class of 36 11th graders, to learn about and reflect on their actions and the actions of those around them. This being said, my texts would pair well with a unit about social justice and what it may look like in MPS, and what my students can do to potentially bring change. Raising awareness is key, and each of the texts I have provided brings some form of change to light. I hope my students would be able to recognize how realistic the social justice issues in the texts I provided are and use this knowledge to bring a change of some sort. They would be able to choose how they want to go about this change, whether it is bringing more awareness to the topic, standing up for themselves, etc., as long as it means something to them...I would be happy. I hope that the texts I provided to my 11th graders would increase their motivation to speak up and make a difference. 

PRINT:

American Born Chinese written by Gene Luen Yang

• Citation: Yang, Gene Luen, and Lark Pien. American Born Chinese. First Second, 2006.

• Summary: This graphic novel includes three different storylines which all connect in the end. The first storyline involves a Monkey King who wants to be more powerful than he is originally, and tries to do anything he can to change himself. The Monkey King took on power for himself to make him feel like he was worthy compared to those who were judging him. He was made fun of for being a monkey, so he wanted to change himself. Throughout the novel, we see the Monkey King coming to terms with whom he is and learning to love himself how he is. In the next storyline, Jin Wang, readers watch Jin live his life mostly at school and go through the struggle of any teenager going through struggles involving dating and being a good friend. As the novel goes on, Jin gets friend zoned and gets envious of his best friend Chin-Kee's relationship which eventually breaks their friendship up. The novel finishes Jin's story with him realizing that he needs to value things, like his friendship with Wei-Chen, no matter what. In the final story in the novel, we follow Danny and his cousin Chin-Kee. Danny is a typical blonde-haired white boy who is trying to fit in and be cool. So, when his cousin Chin-Kee comes to visit him in America and is super embarrassing, Danny gets tired of it and wants nothing to do with him. In the end, Danny realizes that things are not always as they seem and then the three stories connect into one. Danny is actually Jin, and Chin-Kee is actually The Monkey King who came to Earth to help teach Jin (aka Danny) a lesson about being true to yourself and having friendships.

• Quantitative Measures: In quantitative measures, Storytoolz rated this text a grade level average of 5.3. Although the text might be on the easier side to read, I do not agree with these quantitative measures because I believe the messages in the book would not be understood by a younger audience, thus affecting its text cohesion. Graphic novels tend to be an easier read no matter the book, therefore, I do not believe the level should be as low as it is. I believe an average of about 6.5 could be a bit more accurate. Although it is not a huge difference, I believe Storytoolz is rating it lower due to the text's lack of difficult vocabulary words, but the content or comprehension level of the given material should rate the text a bit higher. Knowledge demands force students to be able to identify racism, and I do not believe the grade level average would be able to do so as easily.
  

• Qualitative Measures: This text averaged very complex on the Achieve the Core Qualitative Measures Rubric. I scored it exceedingly complex for organization and use of
  
  graphics due to the range of themes and focus of each mini-story and the amount of graphics that are key to understanding the graphic novel. For the "language features" category, I rated conventionality and vocabulary as moderately complex and sentence structure as slightly complex because it is a relatively easy read due to its genre of being a graphic novel. The overall message is what tends to be more complex, but the sentences are not overly difficult to read. Finally, I rated both the "meaning category" and the "knowledge demands" category as very complex. This was the rating that I chose for these for the simple reason of having a more complex message of the text that requires its readers to have more knowledge regarding the overall topic of social justice and what it means to be discriminated against. The maturity of themes throughout this text is another reason why I believe it should be rated a very complex text. If a reader was not keeping in mind the development of characters and overall message at the end of the book, it would not fully be understood at the level the author intended.

            Vocabulary that may need instructional support: deity, prerequisites, parable, haggling, fervently, transcended, cudgel, emissaries, pitiable, behoove, antiquity, repentance, vagrants, sovereign, emissary, pinnacle. 

• Task and Reader Complexity: The purpose of this text would be to allow my students (and any other reader) to understand the messages the book gives. So many people do not like who they are and may potentially be self-conscious. This graphic novel is intended to help make people feel good about themselves in their own skin which could be very beneficial for the people of color in my class. The text would be used in a way to activate background knowledge as well as to most likely summarize previously learned concepts due to most people knowing what it is like to want to change yourself in some way. This way could be big or small (as shown in the book), but it is still there in some way. This text builds on some students' cultural assets by making their culture valuable and meaningful. The text is surrounded by some Asian heritage which would allow students of that background to see their culture being represented and potentially relate to the feelings of resentment at times. Ultimately, the text shows that it is important to embrace who you are and your culture since the text does focus on some stereotypes that accompany those of Asian descent. Not succumbing to those stereotypes and allowing them to bother you is something the author does a great job of showing. A task that I would pair with this text would be for my students to come up with a list of stereotypes that are very well-known to be paired with certain cultures. This task could be used as a pre-reading activity in order to help bring to light how common it is to be racist and discriminate against people (which relates to this text and the overall purpose of social justice). The complexity of the task that I would pair with this text matches the accessibility of the text and students' prior knowledge and motivation because everyone knows at least one stereotype that they have either been called/referred to or have heard others be referred to as, whether in real life or in movies/books. The task the students are in charge of completing is not a complex activity, due to the background knowledge that they should possess. 

The Hate U Give written by Angie Thomas

• Citation: Thomas, Angie. The Hate U Give. Walker Books, 2017.
• Summary: In this Black Lives Matter movement text, sixteen-year-old Starr Carter balances the life and personality she presents while at her prep school with white peers and her personality in real life in her poor neighborhood. This all collapses though when she is a prime witness in the shooting of an old friend of hers. Once the unlawful shooting makes headlines and everyone seems to have a different opinion on the matter without knowing all the information surrounding it, Starr has to battle if she wants to come forward and share what really happened that night or stay in the shadows. Riots, teargas, police brutality...this text has it all. 

MULTIMEDIA:

https://youtu.be/O5uKJVDFHFw

• Citation: "What is inequality and social justice? - BBC Bitesize Key Stage 3 Learning for Life and Work". YouTube, uploaded by BBC Northern Ireland, 9 April 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5uKJVDFHFw. 
• Summary: This YouTube video gives a brief overview of what it means to discriminate and what inequality looks like in an easy-going example. At times, there are reasons behind being discriminative, and at times there are reasons behind inequalities. You cannot always prevent these things from happening, but when you can prevent them, you need to. You should never make someone feel discriminated against. 
• Quantitative Measures: In quantitative measures, Storytoolz rated this text a grade level average of 7.5. I agree with these quantitative measures because it is an easy video to understand due to the pictures and language used in it, but some of the terms might not be understood as easily by younger grades. Although videos typically would be understood by lower grade levels, I believe comprehending the video at a deeper level would require the students to be at about a 7.5-grade level which is what Storytoolz rated it. Surface level understanding and understanding it at the targeted level are very different, and I think this video shows that very well.

• Qualitative Measures: This text averaged moderately complex on the informational texts Achieve the Core Qualitative Measures Rubric. I scored it moderately complex for organization and text features due to one idea flowing into the next throughout the video. It would have been a bit difficult to understand why the thing may have been talked about if you were not paying attention to the information leading to the next idea. The use of graphics was slightly complex due to them not being necessary to comprehend the video but were very helpful at the same time. For the "language features" category, I rated all three parts (conventionality, vocabulary, and sentence structure) as moderately complex because it is relatively easy to understand due to it being a video that talked to the audience rather than the audience having to read the text. 
  
  No matter how the text portion was presented (voice or written), the language used was not difficult to understand. In addition, I rated the purpose of the video as slightly complex due to the narrator explaining the purpose of the video and why it should matter to someone. Finally, I chose very complex for the last portion of the rubric, "knowledge demands", because the subject matter knowledge and intertextuality require the audience to be developed enough to understand what is being told to them. The ideas mentioned are easily recognizable if the audience has heard the terms before, but if anyone was listening to this for the first time while being a younger age, they may have difficulties understanding fully. 

           Vocabulary that may need instructional support: steward, inequality, racism, discrimination, discriminative, prejudice

• Task and Reader Complexity: The purpose of this text would be to allow my students (and any other viewer) to understand the message of the video. The video is meant to allow viewers to understand what it is like to have inequalities, racism, and discrimination in everyday life. Everyone contributes to these things, specifically discrimination, in some way, but this video allows the audience to understand the good and the bad ways the three terms exist in our society. It can be used to activate background knowledge and likely summarize previously learned topics due to these terms being commonly used terms in the world we live in. Viewers may not know specifics about these terms but have most likely heard them; this video allows a better understanding and grasp of the terms relating to real-life scenarios. I do not believe this text builds on students' cultural assets since it does not talk about anyone specific, it is broader. There is still a chance that students relate to the video, but due to it being broad, there is also a chance that students do not relate to the video. A task that I would pair with this text would be for my students to come up with a scenario (as the video did) involving inequality. The topic could be as deep as they want it to be, or as simple as the scenario in the video and could be used as a pre-reading activity for a larger project that includes inequality, racism, discrimination, etc. The video showed inequality of height at a sports game amongst three friends, so, as long as my students show how unequal things can be without people necessarily noticing, they would be completing the task perfectly since this would help bring to light how truly common inequality is. The complexity of the task that I would pair with this text matches the accessibility of the text and students' prior knowledge and motivation because there is so much inequality in the world ranging in how deep it is. The task the students are in charge of completing may help them pick up on everyday inequalities they may normally glance over. 

https://blog.visual-paradigm.com/world-day-of-social-justice-infographic/

• Citation: Infographics, Templates. World Day of Social Justice Infographic. 28 October 2021. https://online.visual-paradigm.com/infoart/templates/infographics/world-day-of-social-justice-infographic/.
• Summary: This infographic text shows different principles related to social justice and some resources that students can use as needed. The infographic focuses on world day of social justice which is a good resource for people who did not know previously what that was and what social justice entails/some history behind it. Social justice includes a variety of things that are classified to be "social justice" which are also listed on the infographic for people to learn. 

CULTURALLY RELEVANT:

https://youtu.be/Jq6Qt1rOrw8

• Citation: "The Hate U give scene". YouTube, uploaded by kanyesigye arnold, 11 April 2019. https://youtu.be/Jq6Qt1rOrw8
• Summary: This YouTube video is a scene from the movie The Hate U Give. This clip shows Khalil quoting Tupac and in this quote, he says "thug life means the hate you give little infants, f***s everybody" and then goes on to explain that what that means is what society gives people when they are younger, comes back to bite them when they are older. 
• Quantitative Measures: In quantitative measures, Storytoolz rated this text a grade level average of 3.9. Although this text has very easy language, I do not agree with these quantitative measures because the language and the hidden meaning behind the words would not be able to be understood at that young of a grade level, affecting its text cohesion. Videos and movies can be watched by younger grade levels, but they would likely only be able to understand at a surface level rather than at a deeper level which is what it is meant to be understood at. I believe comprehending this video and the language used in it would require students to be at a minimum of an 8.0-grade level. I believe Storytoolz is basing its rating on focusing specifically on the easy-going, conversational tone, but knowledge demands force students to be able to understand the deeper message and I do not believe a 3.9-grade level would be able to accomplish that.

• Qualitative Measures: This text averaged exceedingly complex on the informational texts Achieve the Core Qualitative Measures Rubric. I scored this video exceedingly complex for organization, due to its shifting of different details with different characters while I only scored it slightly complex for its use of graphics. The video did not have any graphics apart from the footage of the characters speaking. Scoring it as slightly complex was due to the main reason of if someone were to simply listen to the video and not watch it, they would still get the same effect from it. Additionally, I scored each "language features" in this video differently, with conventionality being scored as exceedingly complex, vocabulary being scored as very complex, and sentence structure being scored as moderately complex. 
  
  This area of the rubric varied so much due to the words being spoken having a much deeper meaning behind them being spoken in simple sentences. The boy in the video, Khalil, speaks in a way that is very subject-specific which could be confusing for some people who are not aware of the context and do not understand figurative language. Finally, for meaning, life experiences, and intertextuality and cultural knowledge, I rated all three of them as exceedingly complex. The meaning of the quote that Khalil is stating from Tupac could be easily misunderstood and lead to confusion. These different meanings could be difficult to understand and dissect, thus resulting in it being exceedingly complex. Knowledge demands for what is being stated in this video are also very important. The deeper meaning behind it forces viewers to connect it to the Black Lives Matter movement (social justice) and be aware of the unfair treatment African Americans face prior to viewing the video. The theme is very sophisticated and relates to cultural elements which is why I found it to be very fitting to classify each of the areas in this category as exceedingly complex. The maturity of the topic being discussed is the main reason why I rated this text exceedingly complex overall since it could very well be glanced over instead of thought about at that deeper level. 

Vocabulary that may need instructional support: 'pac, thug life, infants, society, ass, wild out. 

• Task and Reader Complexity: The purpose of this text would be to show how real these characters in this movie are, and to show that they are relating to real-life people (Tupac). Understanding the deeper meaning behind this video and the message the video is giving is key to seeing the true meaning behind some things that happen in life. The boy in the clip, Khalil, went deeper than simply a surface-level understanding and understood what the message Tupac was trying to send was. With this message, he was able to connect it to his own life. This video can be used to activate background knowledge due to it being a very real topic that we have seen happening in our lifetime. This movie came out in 2018, and the US has proceeded to have many more social justice issues following it which students can think back on. Some students may have even gone through social justice issues like the ones discussed in this video which would also activate background knowledge while watching this clip. This text could build on students' cultural assets because most of my students are African American like the characters in this clip. Khalil is discussing how society messes with people of their race early in their childhood, so those students in my classroom who have experienced similar things can relate to it and think about how it relates back to their culture and where they come from. It shows the difficulties they face and how no one seems to be on their side sometimes. Ultimately, embracing who you are while knowing that sometimes society is pitting against you is all you can do. A task that I would pair with this text would be a reflective journaling session that could be used as a during-reading or post-reading activity for any task involving their lives/things that may go on in their lives. I would want my students to reflect on their lives, no matter their race, and think of a time when they believe society set their future selves up for failure when they were younger. Some of my students may not have the greatest background and allowing them to reflect on things that they may hope to change one day for their future children could be something they enjoy. The complexity of the task that I would pair with this text matches the accessibility of the text and students' prior knowledge and motivation because everyone should be able to think of a time when they would have liked the outcome to change due to something society caused. The task the students are in charge of completing is not a complex activity due to the background knowledge they should possess.

https://youtu.be/AljeDhS1QqA

Citation: "Teen activists mobilize massive Black Lives Matter protest through social media". YouTube, uploaded by ABC News, 22 June 2020. https://youtu.be/AljeDhS1QqA
Summary: Five young girls ranging in age from 14-16 from Nashville knew that change needed to be made and knew that their voices needed to be heard through protests. The teens wanted to see change both locally and across the nation and were able to mobilize a huge Black Lives Matter protest all through the power of social media. They promoted protests and were able to seek help for other materials (masks, first aid, etc.) since they knew change can happen no matter what age you are as long as you are fighting for the same thing. 

________________________________________________________

Social Justice requires a change from a wide range of people if something is going to be done. I hope with the use of the social justice YAL texts I selected for my group of 11th-grade English that something can be sparked in their minds to potentially lead to change. I am proud of where my juniors have gotten so far and cannot wait to see how they would change the world if they could.