As an aspiring scholar activist it is crucial for me to find ways to connect abstract sophisticated systems to the lived realities of learners. Ricchart interprets this method as a subversive activity amidst the high stakes testing era. Ricchart states, “We must learn to identify the key ideas and concepts with which we want our students to engage, struggle, question, explore and ultimately build understanding. Our goal must be to make the big ideas of the curriculum accessible and engaging while honoring their complexity and beauty and power in process” p.26 (Ricchart 2011)
With this in mind I have outlined the Headline activity which is d
MTV structure #1 – Headlines – Using news sources such as the New York Times, Washington Post, or a news outlet of their choice, students will compare the current child border immigration separation actions of the current administration to previous historic immigration policies. In doing so, students will identify the necessities and inequities of this enforcement, while critiquing a greater prevalence of his racial, religious, and national bias in the history of immigration policy throughout the United states. An activity of this nature is crucial due to the precedence this immigration enforcement could set in the national and global community. Additionally an activity of this sort allows students to examine the present philosophy of the United States as a global actor.
MTV structure #2 – Red Light Yellow Light – “School is no longer about the “quick right answer” but about the ongoing mental work of understanding new ideas and information” p. 28 (Ricchart 2011) This is essential context that guides my second activity. This second Red Light, Yellow Light, is an exercise I would use to unpack preconceived notions about individuals or parties in conventionally understood contemporary and historic landscapes. For example, one could present the Doctrine of Discovery as a neutral tool to understand the exploration of the New worlds, by foreign entities. However using this tool could illustrate individual and institutional bias which had/ and still has a literal disparate impact on communities of color, (in this instance, Indigenous communities).
Both of these techniques are urgent due to the ongoing crisis being faced by historically marginalized communities. MTV possesses the opportunity to critically examine perhaps overlooked institutional and individual bias. Additionally MTV can create space to juxtapose injustices of the past to current inequities, to galvanize everyday students, and people to advocate for those who are at risk of experiencing oppression.
