Closing the Year

Teaching Tolerance ran The ABCs - The Anti-Bias Classroom Series - from 2006 to 2008. The ABCs were online curriculum packages for educators and each installment of The ABCs offered classroom activities and professional development resources for teachers at all grade levels. From women’s history to service learning to hip hop, each thematic unit allowed for educators to “click, print and use” materials immediately.

The ABCs gave Jeff the opportunity to co-write with some of the most prominent scholars in the field of multicultural education, scholars like Bill Bigelow and Linda Christensen of Rethinking Schools Magazine, Carl Grant of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Jacqueline Jordan Irvine of Emory University, Christine Sleeter of California State University, Monterey Bay, and Paul Gorski of EdChange.org. These scholars have contributed to the classic works that multicultural educators use to teach and cite as core pieces of literature in research.

Introduction

Just because the school year is coming to an end doesn’t mean that community building comes to an end. Educators have a unique opportunity to model for students the power and impact of learning communities and the lasting effects they have on all of us.

Most of us can remember a memorable teacher or learning experience that created a turning point experience for us. These memorable experiences become touchstones that we refer back to over and over again throughout our lives.

“That teacher really cared for me.”

“That was the first community where I felt accepted for who I was.”

“Everyone in that class really cared for each other.”

“We were like a family.”

Learning communities can be places of transformation, places of healing, places of refuge and places where we find friends and mentors that last for a lifetime. We can strategically build rituals into our closings that facilitate an opportunity for students to think across social boundaries and practice the skills needed for dialogue and democratic citizenry.

A ritual is something that we create and do that keeps the community we’ve built vital and alive long after the experience of being together has ended. In the natural rhythm of the school year, rituals are part of teacher and student lives. For example, we go in weeks before class to get everything clean and “just right” for the first day of class. We also have graduation and award ceremonies to celebrate students’ accomplishments at the close of the school year.

Beginnings and endings are the stuff of our everyday school lives. We open and close each lesson plan we teach. We try to have an interesting “hook” to grab students’ attention at the beginning of a unit of study and close units of study with reviews and culminating assignments that check for comprehension. We help students get closure on conflicts they have with each other during their school day.

Just as we started the year by building community, it is important to celebrate our community of learners as the year comes to a close.

In this edition of the ABCs (Anti-Bias Classroom), Teaching Tolerance offers unique ways for students and educators to close their learning communities and create one last opporunity to reach across social boundaries to celebrate our connections.