Lost But Not (Yet) Forgotten

Reviewing Robert L. Tsai, America\u27s Forgotten Constitutions (Harvard University Press 2014

Lost But Not (Yet) Forgotten

Reviewing Robert L. Tsai, America\u27s Forgotten Constitutions (Harvard University Press 2014

A Political Companion to James Baldwin

In seminal works such as Go Tell It on the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, and The Fire Next Time, acclaimed author and social critic James Baldwin (1924–1987) expresses his profound belief that writers have the power to transform society, to engage the public, and to inspire and channel conversation to achieve lasting change. While Baldwin is best known for his writings on racial consciousness and injustice, he is also one of the country\u27s most eloquent theorists of democratic life and the national psyche. In A Political Companion to James Baldwin, a group of prominent scholars assess the prolific author\u27s relevance to present-day political challenges. Together, they address Baldwin as a democratic theorist, activist, and citizen, examining his writings on the civil rights movement, religion, homosexuality, and women\u27s rights. They investigate the ways in which his work speaks to and galvanizes a collective American polity, and explore his views on the political implications of individual experience in relation to race and gender. This volume not only considers Baldwin\u27s works within their own historical context, but also applies the author\u27s insights to recent events such as the Obama presidency and the Black Lives Matter movement, emphasizing his faith in the connections between the past and present. These incisive essays will encourage a new reading of Baldwin that celebrates his significant contributions to political and democratic theory. Susan J. McWilliams is associate professor of politics at Pomona College. She is the author of Traveling Back: Toward a Global Political Theory and coeditor of several books, including The Democratic Soul: A Wilson Carey McWilliams Reader.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_cr/1001/thumbnail.jp

Early-Childhood Teacher Candidates’ Service Learning with Family Book Celebrations

An associate professor and a public school district administrator formed a family-school-community partnership to introduce family book celebrations to an early-learning center located in a high-poverty area in a midwestern city with more than 80% of children (n=75) who attended the center qualifying for free and reduced lunch. Primary goals for the celebrations were (a) to offer a venue for book-related experiences with families of children attending the early-learning center; (b) to engage early-childhood teacher candidates in service with families in an authentic and meaningful way; and (c) to analyze efficacy of the service-learning experience on teacher candidates. Overall, teacher candidates reported benefits in working with families, fostering interaction, and using props and concrete materials to promote successful book celebrations. Although this service-learning experience was relatively small, limited, and exploratory, it served as an initial study to inform further inquiries into early-childhood undergraduate service- learning experiences with families

A Community Coalition Promotes Family Literacy with Story Celebrations

A coalition is typically formed between individuals or groups to bring unique strengths together in a cooperative manner to address a common cause. In our community, an alliance was formed to raise public consciousness about the impact of family reading on children\u27s literacy development. As a coalition, we planned, organized and funded literacy-related events or story celebrations in multiple locations throughout the community. In this article, I describe and provide rationale for creating a coalition that advocates for family literacy

Nurturing Urban Native American Families through Preschool Family Literacy Celebrations

Most Native Americans (NAs ) live in urban settings [1]. Only half of indigenous ninth-grade students graduate with their non-native, same-age peers [2]. New and innovative approaches to teaching urban NAs to increase their graduation rates are urgently needed. One such innovative approach infuses cultural education into curriculum: young children from diverse Native Nations, many of whom have additional non-Native heritage, attend an experimental, urban Native Indian Centered Education (NICE) preschool in the Midwest. The preschool focuses on building and strengthening family literacy resources and developing family-school-community partnerships to strengthen literacy

Supporting Native Indian Preschoolers and Their Families Family–School–Community Partnerships

In this urban midwestern public school district, families of Native Indian students, pre-K through grade 12, attend four multigenerational gatherings like this one during the school year—one of a number of events orchestrated by the Native Indian Centered Education (NICE) program. NICE is a program in the school district that partners with families to provide Native-centric educational opportunities for preschool children. Family events such as the storytelling activity in the opening vignette represent trends in early childhood education: building family-school-community partnerships to enhance learning and build family resources. The all- Native-Indian preschool program is unusual and rare in urban areas. (Most all-Native-American preschool programs are located on reservations). It is in its third year of funding from a US Department of Education Experimental Education Grant (four-year grant project)

A partnership in Nebraska with the Humane Society

Perhaps service-learning continues to grow as an effective pedagogy in colleges of education because it offers everyone involved an opportunity to put words into action. With the news full of stories of bullying and school shootings, teachers and teacher candidates look for someone to help them make sense of what feels to be a growing trend of cruelty. Perhaps it is a natural reaction for teachers to want to do something positive in the face of brutality. Perhaps our wanting to be proactive corresponds to whatever drew us to education in the first place. Regardless of the cause, four literacy professors used the vehicle of service-learning to challenge their graduate and undergraduate students to consider issues of bullying, brutality and cruelty

Art Play: Stories of Engaging Families, Inspiring Learning, and Exploring Emotions

Collage is the ultimate playful technique . . . . When you put it all together, you create something new. It is really about trial and error . . . about trying things and making mistakes. It’s about forgiving yourself when you make mistakes, and playfulness lets you do that. —Hanoch Piven, “Living in a Playful Collage” Hanoch Piven, an internationally known collage-caricature artist, visited Omaha, Nebraska, to conduct arts-based workshops for families, teachers, and children. The workshops were organized by the Omaha Family Literacy Partnership (OFLP). The partnership promotes literacy learning among children and their families through community activities such as author and illustrator visits, family book celebrations, storytelling events, book distributions, and puppet shows. The OFLP invited Piven, an author and illustrator of children’s books, because of his connection to literacy. Playful explorations with objects is his method of creating art, and this method was the focus of the workshops