By: Brittani Nivens & Hamill Serrant

1. Caribbean Week Exploring our Caribbean Community Week 5 of an International Curriculum By: Brittani Nivens & Hamill Serrant

2. Overview of the international curriculum

3. Introduction • The goal of our international curriculum project is to explore issues faced by Hartford’s immigrant community over the course of five weeks. • We will employ a transformative approach that will allow students to view concepts, events, issues, and themes from the perspectives of diverse cultural, ethnic and racial groups. • The entire curriculum will culminate in a multicultural festival celebrating all of the regions and their communities in Hartford.

4. Context • 7th grade students in a social studies class at Bellizzi Middle School. • Five 60 minute class periods • Last week in a five week project • The majority of Bellizzi middle school students are of non-white backgrounds (76.1% Hispanic)

5. Objectives • Students will collect and organize information from and about the Caribbean immigrant community in Hartford and assess the most prominent issues faced by this community.

6. Objectives • Students will collect and organize information from and about the Caribbean immigrant community in Hartford and assess the most prominent issues faced by this community. • Students will investigate stereotypes in their community and analyze the reasoning behind the perpetuation of these stereotypes and propose and discuss ways to address inequalities faced by this community.

7. Objectives • Students will collect and organize information from and about the Caribbean immigrant community in Hartford and assess the most prominent issues faced by this community. • Students will investigate stereotypes in their community and analyze the reasoning behind the perpetuation of these stereotypes and propose and discuss ways to address inequalities faced by this community. • Students will assemble and evaluate information on Caribbean history and historical figures in order to increase comprehension and critical thinking skills.

8. Objectives • Students will collect and organize information from and about the Caribbean immigrant community in Hartford and assess the most prominent issues faced by this community. • Students will investigate stereotypes in their community and analyze the reasoning behind the perpetuation of these stereotypes and propose and discuss ways to address inequalities faced by this community. • Students will assemble and evaluate information on Caribbean history and historical figures in order to increase comprehension and critical thinking skills. • Students will work collectively to identify and track the migration patterns of various Caribbean people in order to assess the reasons why and how people immigrate to Hartford and the surrounding areas.


9. Justifications of International Curriculum • James A. Banks “Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform” • Bloom’s Taxonomy Theory • Howard Gardner’s “Multiple Intelligences Theory” • Connecticut framework K-12 curricular goals and standards for social studies

10. Activities

11. Day 1 Assessing student’s knowledge of the Caribbean • The students will begin class by writing a journal entry of their knowledge of the Caribbean. • The students will share what they have written with one another in 4 person groups and share the highlights of their conversations with the class. • The teacher will then use these highlights from each journal entry to lead a discussion with members of the class asking students to think about student’s perceptions about people from the Caribbean.

12. Day 2 History of the Caribbean • Students will watch excerpts from the film Portrait of the Caribbean, which looks at the history of the Caribbean and how European culture has influenced the region. • The video will be followed by a discussion where students will discuss colonialism and the affects it had on Caribbean people as seen in the video. • Students will be provided with biographies of important historical figures that outline their background and the contributions they have made to Caribbean culture.

13. Day 3 Tracking Migration patterns • Students will be provided with a table with numbers and statistics of a specific country showing students what major cities have the largest populations from that country. • The students will track migration patterns using different color yarn, each representing a different numerical value (ex. red yarn 500,000 people, blue yarn 250,000 people, etc.) • At the end of this lesson, students will write letters to parents and community members who have migrated from the Caribbean requesting participation in a panel to share their experiences and transitional difficulties.

14. Day 4 Poster Day • Each group will be assigned a country from the region and they will create posters, which will be displayed at the multicultural fair at the end of the five-week curriculum. • Each poster will have three sections, which include: Culture, History, and Caribbean people in their community. • Students will be asked to display these topics in a creative fashion and will be evaluated based on the content of their poster.

15. Final day Multicultural Fair • The curriculum will end with a Cultural heritage forum and festival featuring cultural items and foods of the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and European. • The panel will feature members of the community, as well as family members of students willing to come in and speak about their immigration experience. • Teachers will prompt panel members with the interview questions previously formulated.

16. Evaluation • Individual assessment: Throughout the week, students will be taking notes that will assist them in writing a 5 paragraph essay as homework due on the final day. Prompt: Choose and compare two groups that have been studied in the international curriculum and compare their most relevant issues in Hartford. • Group assessment: Students will be evaluated by the posters they have created as a group and on the information. Students will be assessed based on the originality, creativity, accuracy, and depth of the information portrayed on their poster.

17. The End

18. Steel pan band St. Thomas steel pan band

19. Bob Marley Music Video Bob Marley – Redemption Song

20. References • Banks, James A. “Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform” from Multicultural Education, 2004. • Gardner, Howard “Theory of Multiple Intelligences.” <http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm> • Jamaican Heroes <http://www.jamaicans.com/info/heroes.htm> • Portrait of the Caribbean [videorecording] / Barraclough Carey production for B.B.C. in association with Turner Broadcasting System. • Slavin, Robert,Cooperative Learning: Theory, Research, Practice, 2nd edition. (Boston:Allyn and Bacon, 1995) • "Social Studies Curricular Framework" The Connecticut Framework K-12 Curricular Goals and Standards, p. 143. Connecticut State Department of Education. <http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=2618&q=320898> • West Indian Community in Hartford: < http://www.westindianfoundation.org>