Junior High E-News Test Story

Ms. Valero, Intermediate Renaissance Club teacher says, “What works so incredibly well in the Academic Clubs is that these difficult topics arise organically. We have had a few ‘visiting stars’ to our club, including, for example, Queen Rani of the Chitoor Kingdom (played by Intermediate Reading Specialist Ranjini Richards) who answered the students’ questions about how she was able to fight against British colonization and how her struggle compares to that of other characters the Club has learned about.“

While widening our historical lens and telling the whole story, we can also model empathetic behavior,” Ms. Valero adds. “I can say, ‘I’m sad this happened. It doesn’t make sense,’ when students ask ‘Why, why would people do that to each other?’ It’s okay to feel dis-comfort, to learn that everything can’t be fixed or folded into a tidy box. But we, as teachers, as guides, are there to help them unpack the information so they understand it as 10, 11 year olds.”