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Relevant Curriculum Rises from the Grassroots! Feb. 2 : As an his tor ic Egyptian revolution impacts the world, the blizzard of ’11 hit Chicago and hundreds of thousands of students were happy to get a couple of days off from dealing with the same ole’ boring, dumbed-down, irrelevant, and/or standardized curriculum in the form of textbooks, test prep materials, and hidden Eurocentrism. Much of the learning, with some exceptions from hard working teachers, is

del ivered in tradit ional formats that often bore students to death - as mind boggling media and real wor ld cha l l enges swi r l outside school walls. As a result, many students cut school, play in the classroom, or simply dropout before trying to handle years of disconnected curriculum and less relevant content. Now, from the people and communities of Chicago, rises an effort to tackle head-on the age-old problem of

what we’ll label “top-down curriculum designs and boring content.” It’s called the Chicago Grassroots Curriculum Taskforce – and this monthly newsletter will communicate our projects, actions, and working paths with you in hopes that you will make a contribution to re-writing curriculum for 3rd – 12th grades here in Chicago. Look inside, review our work, and get involved in creating curriculum from the ground up!

In this issue:Pg. 1:

‣Introduction

‣IL Standards

Pg 2:

‣Project Tracks

Pg. 3:

‣Inquiry to Action

‣Upcoming Events

Pg. 4:

‣Coming Soon

‣Great Web Links

‣Our Contact Info

Chicago Grassroots Curriculum Taskforce Feb. 2011 Monthly Newsletter Vol.1

Art by Terrence " T.zeye" Haymer

Photograph by Halley Miglietta

Illinois Standards You Should Know:‣History, 16D, Stage I.3: Assess the impact of social movements on the social, political, and economic institutions and cultures of the U.S.‣Pol. Sci., 14F, Stage F.1: Give examples of events where people have had to fight to win their equality.

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Co-Authoring & PublishingHelp create A Peoples Chicago: Our Stories of Change and Struggle. 3rd-12th grade vertically aligned curriculum set within a global history context.Co-author an action-based, interdisciplinary, skills-driven, and college preparatory curriculum with a focus on Chicago hoods! All contributions welcome!

Create a Clearinghouse Educators across the Chi are uploading high quality curriculum, projects, activities, etc. with visions of covering all subject areas, topics, grades, skill-levels, and uses. Contribute your work today and build a Chicago clearinghouse of high quality classroom and popular education materials. Share across the sky!

Grassroots ArchivesImagine a website with historic and current documents, photographs, videos, timelines, student work, letters, and more. Read, download, and use right away! Upload a piece you’ve come across and help us build a digital archival library for everyone. The website is coming soon!

Compiling Key Resources Our website will become a grassroots resource center. You can access annotated bibliography lists for all sorts of resources and links. You’ll find our choices of helpful websites, books, other publications, and more. Share your favorites - readings, websites, resources, field trips, speakers, other media!

Project Tracks:Where you come in...

“We continue to believe that curriculum and classroom practices should be grounded in the lives of our students, critical, multicultural, pro-justice, participatory, interdisciplinary, experiential, hopeful, joyful, visionary, activist, academically rigorous, and culturally sensitive.” --Rethinking Our Classrooms, Vol. 2

Photograph by Halley Miglietta

Chicago Grassroots Curriculum Taskforce Building great curriculum from the ground up

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Thanks to the ITAG approach, imported from the New York Col lec t ive of R a d i c a l E d u c a t o r s (NYCoRE), and to Teachers for Social Justice in Chicago for building the structure here, a group of community folks is meeting regularly to lay the

foundation for our next unit of study entitled, Chicago School and Education Struggles – Past, Present, and Future. This unit will position students (7th – 12th gr.) to learn their own school / education histories, analyze their present day school system, and make change

w i t h i n t h e i r s c h o o l communities. All contributions are needed to make sure this uni t of fers true h is tory, interdisciplinary studies, and sound practices. Send all inquiries/contributions to chicagotaskforce@gmail.com.

An Inquiry to Action Group!

Feb 8: CGCT Monthly Curriculum Night - Chicago Teachers Center, 770 N Halsted, 4th fl - 5:30-7:30 *Free parking across the street of the Chicago Teachers Center (newcomer orientation provided)

Feb 12: Caucus of Rank & File Educators Annual Convention - King College Prep, 4445 South Drexel Blvd - 10am– 2pm

Feb 22: Election Day – Get out and vote!

March 5: Curriculum Uploading Party - 4441 North Malden - 3-6pm *Relaxed brainstorming and Google Docs uploading time - bring your laptop and thumb drive

March 8: CGCT Monthly Curriculum Night - Chicago Teachers Center, 770 N Halsted - 4th fl, 5:30-7:30*Free parking across the street of the Chicago Teachers Center (newcomer orientation provided)

March 12: ITAG’s Winter Session Sharing Night - Marwen, 833 N. Orleans - 5-7pm*Great presentations, potluck, and more sponsored by Teachers for Social Justice

April 12: CGCT Monthly Curriculum Night - Chicago Teachers Center, 770 N Halsted, 4th fl - 5:30-7:30

*Free parking across the street of the Chicago Teachers Center (newcomer orientation provided)

April 15: CGCT Party Fundraiser - Red Kiva, 1108 W. Randolph St. - 9pm-2am, $20 suggested donation

Senn High School

Upcoming Events!

Photograph by Halley Miglietta

Chicago Grassroots Curriculum Taskforce Building great curriculum from the ground up

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Contact Us:

Urban Renewal or Urban Removal? An Action Investigation into Chicago’s Land Battles: Soon to be released, this unit is from A Peoples Chicago: Our Stories of Change and Struggle (7 – 12th grades). It tackles Chicago’s history, present, and future of land issues, urban planning, displacement, gentrification, and much more. Set within a global context, students will investigate their own communities and draft a student-based urban plan.

Chicago’s Urban Planning, Disinvestment, Displacement, and Community Struggles from 1800 to Today: This comprehensive timeline is the first in our Root Causes Timeline Series. Each unit of A Peoples Chicago will include an extensive timeline of local, national, and global events related to the topic at hand. In this well researched document accompanying Urban Renewal or Urban Removal?, students will be able to make connections between local and global events, trace the root causes of displacement, and pinpoint historical factors affecting their own lives.

New York Collective of Radical Educatorshttp://www.nycore.org

Chicago Area Metro History Fairhttp://www.chicagohistoryfair.org

Chicago Freedom Schoolwww.chicagofreedomeschool.org

The Young People’s Projecthttp://www.typp.org

Kuumba Lynxhttp://www.kuumbalynx.org

Rethinking Schoolshttp://www.rethinkingschools.org

Education for Liberationhttp://www.edliberation.org

Radical Mathhttp://www.radicalmath.org

Teachers for Social Justicewww.teachersforjustice.org

A more extensive and annotated list will be available on our website - with your help! Please send your favorite links with a short description and help us build a library of top online resources.

Featured Links in Social Justice Education

Curriculum Coming Soon!

For curriculum/archival contributions, professional development, and presentations:

Anton Miglietta

773.387.1844

For (multi) media, photography, music, video, newsletter, and other arts:

Halley Miglietta

530.559.4754

Attach contributions and email us at:chicagotaskforce@gmail.com