Guidelines for Online Literature Circle:
Welcome to your online literature circle posting site. Please use the “post comment” below for this group’s discussion only. This space will give you and the members in this group an opportunity to express your own opinions about theories, research, and content. You will also be able to read each other’s comments and give feedback.
Directions:
1) Read the required readings, watch the documentary on Emmett Till, and listen to the Marilyn Nelson read the poem.
2) Complete the Google Doc (link above)
2) Post a reading response –below this post!!
3) Reading response entries should be at least 500-750 words.
4) Read all recent postings and give feedback (people in your literature circle group).
This is an opportunity for you to explore what you think is important, as well as, become active participants in your own learning by collaboratively problem solving and giving/getting appropriate feedback. This is your groups place to process meaning and develop understandings. Please feel free to respond to additional issues or questions that you feel are most relevant to your experiences and interests.
I had never heard of Emmett Till before this assignment. I find myself wondering why. Is it because I grew up in the North in an all white community? Is it because my teachers were not sure how to bring this horrible incident into the classroom? Is it because I didn't explore the plight of the African-American beyond what was taught in my school? I'm not sure what the answer is. I can tell you that what I did learn about civil rights all revolved around Dr. King and Rosa Parks and was usually mentioned in February on Martin Luther King Day. I was shocked. The hatred toward persons because they had a different skin color was foreign to me. I had no personal experience, racism had not touched my life in any form really. Perhaps I was sheltered or just a result of a homogenous community. My mother did allow me to watch the mini-series, Roots. I think I was in about second grade. I still remember much of the story. My reaction as a child was much the same as now when I think about the horrible treatment of a group of humans. I get a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach and I really can't believe right and wrong are not ingrained in us all. Is it the way some people's brains are wired? I'm not sure.
ReplyDeleteI find myself feeling Emmett's story is an important one to get out there, along with current stories of so many other groups and individuals whom are discriminated against. Wondering the best way to approach such a horrilbe event. If we don't remember Emmett, we risk continuing to allow horrible things to happen to innocent people.
I also had not heard of Emmett Till before this assignment. I really believe that if more students learned about this horrible crime our world would be a better place. Racism is still a problem in our society today, as we can see from the Trevon Martin shooting. The past teaches us valuable lessons and we can't learn from them unless they are brought to our attention. African American history is not just about Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks, the only two people I remember being taught about. Emmett's death was a catalyst for the civil right's movement and has important lessons that are still relevant today.
ReplyDeleteAs the reading for this week pointed out; poems bring such emotion and depth to a topic. A Wreath for Emmett Till made me think about so many aspects of the crime. For example: the way it affected the author and Emmett's mother, how Emmett might have felt, how the crime affected society. The google document shows how the poem affected all of the students in a different way. Reading the responses added new meanings for me too. It was hard to read the poem without feeling the urge to fix what happened, learn more about it, and share it with others. How could such things happen? Why hadn't I heard about it before? The documentary helped add a different layer of understanding to the lesson. It always helps to hear first-hand information from those that were there.
I as well had never heard of Emmitt Till until now. I am really at a lose to why? It reminds me a little bit about how Germany just didn't want to believe that their country could be apart of the cremation of the Jewish society. Are we learning about the surface of what was wrong and the greats that made it better and fought for civil rights and are we just leaving the brutality of it buried so we don't have to deal with it or face the fact that our neighbors could feel such things toward others? I was sad to see that the evil that filled the air the day Emmitt died was pushed aside and not even delt with. I applaud his mother who swallowed all the hurt and tradegy to see that justice prevailed. I am appalled by the way people look at race as a life determining factor and feel that based soley on your "roots" whether you are deserving or not. In the google doc it was metioned that evil does still exist today as it did before and I believe it does. Emmitt and his fellow percecuted soles should be an example of what can happen and what must not happen. I believe that if we teach the greats and the horrible maybe it will start to make a difference instead of sweeping it under the rug and having a "if we don't talk about it then it isn't real" feel for it. I recall some parents trying to distroy a teachers career for exposing truths of our world just like this to their class, is that reason to not teach about it or is it reason to step back and pretend it doesn't exist? Much of the evil that happens is do to ignorance so shouldn't we teach? Anyway, I think that the works we had to look at this week very much complimented each other in the way they touched us. It gave very different approaches to the information protrayed and engulfed the meaning behind it well. I am not a poetry reader, but could completely understand the meaning behind the writer and could feel the emotions come alive. I am wondering how a classroom teacher would be looked at if this movie was shown it the classroom. It was a great informational piece, but some parents really selter their children and this would really expose them.
ReplyDelete