This history teacher uses Chimamanda Adichie’s TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” to foster his middle school students’ understanding of the relationship between narrative and power.
Grades: 4-8 Subjects: Social Studies, Reading and Language Arts, ELL/ESL Categories: Race and ethnicity; History Story Corner is a student-directed feature in Teaching Tolerance magazine. In the current issue, we tell
Matthew Swoveland is an educator at Roca, an organization that works with very high risk young people in Chelsea, Mass. He is passionate about education as a key element in the reintegration of young people after gang involvement and incarceration. He has taught everything from classical Greek tragedy to a history of cheese in the western world. Above all, he believes in the power of relationships to transform the ways we process information, build meaning, and relate with others.
The announcement on November 20, 1969 from 89 American Indians – mostly students from colleges and universities – that they were taking over Alcatraz Island, set in motion what would become the longest occupation of a federal facility by Native Americans to date. This report aired a year later on NBC News, in December 1970, six months before the occupation ended.
Talla Cisse is an educator and graduate student in Wilmington, Delaware, and a 2019 Lee Summer Fellow at Teaching Tolerance. Talla taught American history as a founding teacher for Apex Collegiate Academy in Baton Rouge. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in policy at the University of Delaware. In his free time, Talla works with the Delaware Youth Advocacy Council students to develop a deep understanding of the landscape of education policy and the advocacy process.