2020 Post #10 -- Trapped

by Nate Harris

During my first week teaching 9th grade English Language Arts, I gave my students what I thought was a simple writing diagnostic to complete, which asked them to do the following: Write about a time in your life when you felt trapped. You may write about being trapped physically or being trapped in some other sense, perhaps socially or emotionally.

After a few minutes of silent writing, one of my two English Language Learners, a 13-year-old girl from Russia, raised her hand. She proceeded to shyly ask me what the word “trapped” meant, and I did my best to give her a personal definition, followed by several examples. Not two minutes later, the same scenario played out with my other ELL student, a girl from Spain.

It was this scenario that inspired me to use Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem "Sympathy" to introduce the concept of feeling trapped and review the poetic elements of rhyme scheme, end rhyme, and imagery.

As the year progressed, I also connected the poem to the themes of oppression and the power of empathy and sympathy that appear throughout my curriculum in texts such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Night. In order to fully make these connections, it is important to note (while introducing the poem) that Dunbar’s parents were born slaves, and so his voice as an observer of the oppressed and formerly oppressed is authentic and credible.

Further Reading:

Nate Harris is in his sixth year of teaching English Language Arts, and is excited and humbled to be a part of a collection of inspirational ideas. He has not had any social media since his senior year of college, but he can be reached at nharris@cbsd.org.

2019 Bonus Post -- A Reflection

by Juli-Anne Benjamin

In the space of afterthought, one comes to the realization that fear, of anything, is really the true reason we don’t jump, lean in, risk it or amplify. Being fearful allows us the opportunity to avoid, procrastinate and pretend. The space of fear intersected with the hope of liberation and freedom in our lives, throughout the years and across the spaces and times, reminds me of the brilliance of Dunbar’s words about the masks we wear that “hides our cheeks and shades our eyes.” Fear is a mask. Fear is my mask, and if I’m being honest, Pain is it’s cousin.

Having lived through and survived much, I’m finding that as I deconstruct my fears and understand the whys, my pain provides the answers to the questions that rise to the surface as I work to manage and heal while learning through it, and true liberation lies in aligning my heart with the UNmasking of what initially makes me fearful. Paul Laurence Dunbar, in “We Wear The Mask”, (one of my favorite poems) always inspires me to do better, be better and make everything better in my life. Dunbar speaks of bleeding hearts, grins and lies; which brings up the whys of it all. I read the poem often as a judgment space and rubric as to how I’m coping and doing with my masks as well as reading it for the beauty we sometimes we find in the cycle of fear, pain, healing and wellness.

As we educators inhabit the space of National Poetry Month in April, countless American schoolchildren recite poems, carry them in their pockets and battle it out using hip hop rhymes in celebration of the genre, expression and love. I too, celebrate poetry and am thankful for the freedoms it offers me, especially as I continue to contemplate how I, and we all wear yet dismantle our masks and work not to shade our eyes.

For a classroom activity related to this poem, please see Trevor Aleo's Go Poems post found here.

Further Reading:

Juli-Anne Benjamin is globally-minded educator who currently works as a vice principal in Newark, NJ and is a founder of both @EdCampBROOKLYN and @EdCampNewark(NJ).  Her background includes teaching experience in South Africa and India.  She serves on the Board of Directors for the International Literacy Association (ILA) and is a tireless advocate for teacher leadership, social justice and equity work, access to technology, and excellence in literacy instruction. 

2019 Post #12 -- The Mask

by Trevor Aleo

In a time where our students spend years crafting curated versions of themselves on social media, Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” provides a context to discuss the growing dissonance between our inward and outward facing selves. Though the poem was originally meant to convey the double consciousness originally articulated by W.E.B. DuBois (and re-examined in Jordan Peele’s “Get Out”), the idea of hiding pain behind a veneer of happiness is an increasingly relatable one in our social media driven world. Though the symbol of the mask may not be a subtle one, Dunbar’s sing-song iambic tetrameter, spiritual allusions, and chilling refrain convey the inescapable universality of “the mask.”

After reading the poem, ask students why Dunbar believes people wear masks. Then, ask them which ones they wear and why. Does the anonymity that masks provide empower or isolate us? If we know we’re all in pain, why do we continue to hide it from each other?

To start engaging in some learning transfer fun, ask students to write out three situations in which people “wear masks” to hide their true feelings. Then, ask them to start looking for similarities and differences in each example. What do they notice? What are some emergent patterns that occur across all three examples? Based on the inferences they’ve made about masks, ask them to articulate the relationship between one or more of the following concepts: power, isolation, identity, fear, acceptance, empathy, and anonymity. For example, a group might note that “Anonymity helps people feel powerful and allows them to overcome fear,”

To test the mettle of their statement of conceptual relationship, ask them to provide an additional context that proves their statement to be true. In the group example stated above, students might cite Jack’s evolution once he put on the face paint in Lord of the Flies.

Further Reading:

Trevor Aleo is an English teacher in the DC suburbs. He has a passion for instructional innovation, finding the intersection of pop culture and pedagogy, and incessantly asking his students “Why?” You can find him pontificating on the state of American culture and education on Twitter @MrAleoSays.