I am an eighth-grade English teacher. My LDC journey began 4 years ago when my curriculum coach offered our eighth-grade English teachers a chance to become “buddy teachers” with our school’s LDC team. My colleague Alicia Peerson and I jumped at the opportunity to continue our life-long learning and become better teachers to our students.
I had a lot of support from my curriculum coach and Alicia. We didn’t waste any time getting started. Our first module focused on Warriors Don’t Cry, a moving memoir by Melba Patillo Beals about her personal battle to integrate Central High School in Little Rock. We wanted our students to think deeply about the integration of Central High School and LDC offered us the perfect solution! Our students were really good at regurgitating information, but we wanted more than what they had learned in the book. We wanted to create a community of critical thinkers.