Your Existence is Resistance

For one school year I taught history to seventh and eighth grade students at a school for Native American children. It was an experience that challenged every part of who I am as an educator and after a year of listening and trying very hard to learn with cultural humility, I collaborated with my students to create the Human Timeline of Resistance Project.
The project was inspired by the humbling experience of learning Native American history to educate students who often knew more than I did. Resistance took many forms over the centuries, but truly the students I taught each day in their beautiful school that celebrated the cultures and languages of tribal nations was the most inspiring element of resistance. For peoples who the federal government tried to eradicate, their thriving existence is the ultimate resistance. Each of my eighth graders was filled with anticipation and excitement as they neared graduation. They were afraid and nervous of course, but also filled with a self-assuredness about their place in their culture.

The Human Timeline of Resistance Project asks two
essential questions:  
Can one person change the world?  
How is existence resistance?

The purpose of this project is: 

• To inquire into and explore the role and actions of an individual who practiced resistance as an active citizen in the fight for social justice
• To explain how an individual can be an agent of change
• ​To determine the most revolutionary resistance in the march toward equality for all

Product:

• Students choose a character from history (or the present) who is a role model of resistance
• They research their resistor, then build a life-size model of their person.
• They label each part of their model to help viewers understand each hero of resistance's context, obstacles, opportunities, and actions of resistance.

Knowledge gained: 

• Determine the most critical resistance movement in US history
• Reflect and describe how your existence will be resistance
• ​Make social, political, economic, geographic, and cultural connections between the agents of change and what you learned about how rights have changed over time
• Understand the attributes, skills, and responsibilities that make an effective leader

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How we did it:

This unit started with an all class read-along of I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai. As we read, we filled in a character sketch of Malala. For each label (head, heart, legs, etc.) we added details that helped us understand what she had overcome and how she was an agent of change.

To launch our timeline building, we investigated a mix of modern art works, poetry and historical facts. From laws that banned interracial marriage to Indian Boarding Schools, students had the opportunity to choose how they wanted to reflect.

Students researched independently, developed their own questions and synthesized information with an authentic audience in mind. We thought about the younger students who would pass their timeline every day. What size font would make their ideas easiest to read? How much should they write so their ideas were clear but they also didn't overwhelm their audience?
Crafting the model of an activist required a lot of trial and error. Ensuring that this final project reflected well on them and taught a lesson to the younger generation was an important motivating factor. 
It's important to consider these factors in eighth grade, when a special kind of "senior-itis" kicks in and distractions from anything other than school work abound. 

Inspirational Awards
At the end of the year I often give awards to every student that recognize their special gifts and contributions to the class. Never willing to miss the opportunity for learning, I'd used awards in the past that connected to historic figures. The Thomas Edison Award for "connecting" to classmates or the Muhammad Ali Award for not giving up, etc. 
These awards had always lacked gender parity and favored white men. 
So I created a whole set of awards based on our human timeline of resistance. My eighth grade students had already helped me connect each of their historic figures to the seven sacred gifts that guide the values of the school. 
As they received the awards, the seventh graders were curious to learn more about their historic person from the timeline.
I was extra proud of the diversity represented in the timeline, and then the awards. Every student deserves to see themselves reflected in America's story but they also deserve to learn about heroes from other backgrounds so that they can build cultural comptence.

Project Resources here:
Assignment Overview and Organizer
​Inquiry Sheet
Class Awards
Timeline Labels