This week’s En la Clase post continues to look at ways in which to think, teach, and talk about love in our classrooms. As I was writing last week’s post on teaching about love through immigration, I was reminded of another classroom resource that could also be used to teach about love. In the fall we reviewed Linda Christensen and Dyan Watson’s book Rhythm and Resistance: Teaching Poetry for Social Justice. The whole book is wonderful, but given this month’s theme of love, I’d like to highlight one of the lessons that I think could be particularly compelling for creating or deepening the ties of community within our classrooms. The lesson is available as a pdf here. In “Remember Me: A farewell poem,” Christensen asks her students to write a Remember Me poem about a fellow classmate. Christensen uses it at the end of the year, but I also think it could be used during the month of February to expand upon conversations around love of community. As students are bombarded with the commercialized representations of love, it’s important to provide the space for them to think through these messages, challenge them, and create their own statements on the meaning of love.
In the lesson plan, Christensen writes, “Students need to learn how to build new traditions–ones that don’t involve corporations telling them how to think and feel about death, birth, illness, goodbyes, celebrations, or each other. By creating practices in our classrooms that honor our time together, our work, and our community, we can teach students how to develop meaningful new traditions.” I couldn’t agree more. Incorporating “Remember Me” poems into the classroom allows students to think deeply about the people in their classroom community, and hopefully foster a sense of love for that community. Continue reading
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