Relevant Curriculum Rises From The Grassroots!: in This Issue

Chicago Grassroots Curriculum Taskforce
Feb. 2011 Monthly Newsletter Vol.1
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
Photograph by Halley Miglietta
Art by Terrence " T.zeye" Haymer
Relevant Curriculum Rises from the Grassroots!

Feb. 2: As an historic 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, dumbeddown, 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 delivered in traditional formats that often bore students to death - as mind boggling media and real world challenges swirl 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 headon the age-old problem of what well label top-down curriculum designs and boring content. Its 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!
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 ght to win their equality.
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Building great curriculum from the ground up
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
Project Tracks:
Where you come in...
Photograph by Halley Miglietta
Co-Authoring & Publishing

Help 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 actionbased, 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 Archives
Imagine a website with historic and current documents, photographs, videos, timelines, student work, letters, and more. Read, download, and use right away! Upload a piece youve 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. Youll nd our choices of helpful websites, books, other publications, and more. Share your favorites readings, websites, resources, eld trips, speakers, other media!
Building great curriculum from the ground up
Photograph by Halley Miglietta Senn High School
An Inquiry to Action Group!

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 within their school communities. All contributions are needed to make sure this u n i t o f f e r s t r u e h i s t o r y, interdisciplinary studies, and sound practices. Send all inquiries/contributions to [email protected].

Thanks to the ITAG approach, imported from the N e w Yo r k C o l l e c t i v e o f Radical Educators (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
Feb 8: CGCT Monthly Curriculum Night - Chicago Teachers Center, 770 N Halsted, 4th - 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 , 5:30-7:30 *Free parking across the street of the Chicago Teachers Center (newcomer orientation provided) March 12: ITAGs 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 - 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
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Upcoming Events!
Curriculum Coming Soon!

Urban Renewal or Urban Removal? An Action Investigation into Chicagos Land Battles: Soon to be released, this unit is from A Peoples Chicago:
Our Stories of Change and Struggle (7 12th grades). It tackles Chicagos history, present, and future of land issues, urban planning, displacement, gentrication, and much more. Set within a global context, students will investigate their own communities and draft a student-based urban plan.
Chicagos Urban Planning, Disinvestment, Displacement, and Community Struggles from 1800 to Today: This comprehensive
timeline is the rst 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.
Featured Links in Social Justice Education

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.
The Young Peoples Project http://www.typp.org Kuumba Lynx http://www.kuumbalynx.org Rethinking Schools http://www.rethinkingschools.org
New York Collective of Radical Educators http://www.nycore.org Chicago Area Metro History Fair http://www.chicagohistoryfair.org Chicago Freedom School www.chicagofreedomeschool.org
Education for Liberation http://www.edliberation.org Radical Math http://www.radicalmath.org Teachers for Social Justice www.teachersforjustice.org
Contact Us:
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: [email protected]

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Chicago Grassroots Curriculum Taskforce

Feb. 2011 Monthly Newsletter Vol.1

Art by Terrence " T.zeye" Haymer

Relevant Curriculum Rises from the Grassroots!

Chicago Grassroots Curriculum Taskforce

Building great curriculum from the ground up

Co-Authoring & Publishing

Compiling Key Resources

Chicago Grassroots Curriculum Taskforce

Building great curriculum from the ground up

Photograph by Halley Miglietta Senn High School

An Inquiry to Action Group!

Curriculum Coming Soon!

Featured Links in Social Justice Education

Attach contributions and email us at: [email protected]

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