Day 1

9:30 - 9:45

Welcome!

• Lenape means “original people,” the “first people,” the “true people.” When William Penn arrived to this land in 1682, there were some 8,000 Indigenous people here. Lenapehoking stretches from the Delaware River Valley to the lower Hudson River Valley (including Manhattan), covering all of New Jersey and Delaware, eastern Pennsylvania and southern New York.

  • • Video: Reverend John Norwood reflects on Lenni-Lenape and Lenapehoking (Philadelphia: The Great Experiment)

    • Allyship with Lenape Tribal Nations (Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends)

    • The original people and their land: The Lenape, pre-history to the 18th century (West Philadelphia Collaborative History Center)

9:45 - 10:30

Re-introductions and Literacy Artifacts

• What's your name? What are your pronouns? Where and what grades do you teach? What is the story behind your literacy artifact?

  • • Sharing your pronouns/asking people's pronouns is a valued practice showing respect for the people with whom you interact.

    • In 2016, the School District of Philadelphia released policy 252: "A student has the right to be addressed by a name and pronoun that corresponds to the student’s gender identity.

    • We encourage you to think of "literacy" more broadly than it may be defined in your school blocks and curriculum.

    • As we share in a circle, we will use the serial testimony protocol.

    • Read more about the protocol: Making space, taking time, sharing power (Mahabir, 2012).

• What are some implications for broadening what we think of as "literacy"? Specifically, what connections do we see to Style (2014) and Delpit (2006)?

10:30 - 11:00

Reflecting on Working Agreements

• Reflect on three proposed working agreements: (1) fully engage, (2) equitable discourse, and (3) speak/write your truth.

• In pairs, discuss how we might practically honor and instantiate these agreements; designate a reporter.

• In whole group, share what your group discussed.

11:00 - 12:00

Journal Groups

• Journal groups are a PhilWP ISI tradition.

• Small groups of teachers write daily and then convene to share their writing.

• Recommended: Write for 20 minutes, then meet together for 20 minutes to share and discuss.

12:00 - 1:00

Lunch and Reading

1:00- 2:00

Freedom and School: Literacy Roots and Routes

• Closely read the primary source: Overview of the Freedom Schools, 1964. Jot down things that you notice and wonder about.

• Notice that the Overview of the Freedom Schools has a title given to it by the authors as well as a caption in the bibliographic record by an archivist. If you were to write a new title (or caption) for this piece right now that communicates the most important idea that should be remembered by a reader, what would that title be? You may choose to write a title from a perspective of someone at the time and/or a caption from a perspective of someone today.

  • • Headline thinking routine (Project Zero) is a way to summarize the core idea of a text and to communicate your current understanding.

• Share headlines. Read someone else's headline if it stands out to you. You can repeat headlines that someone else already called attention to.

• Additional Resources:

  • • Glenda Funchess oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 2015 December 02. (Library of Congress Civil Rights History Project, American Folklife Center)

    • SNCC Digital Gateway: Freedom Schools

      • Freedom School Poetry (SNCC, 1965)

    • Tackling Illiteracy (The Philadelphia Citizen, 2020)

    • John Elliott Churchville oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2011 July 15. (Library of Congress Civil Rights History Project, American Folklife Center) [While John Elliott Churchville doesn't talk about Freedom Schools, he does reflect a lot on education as well as his experiences with SNCC and the Black Power Movement. He also went to Pierce Elementary in North Philadelphia.]

• While the Freedom Schools text was from the 1960s, we might think about how people across time have thought about, argued for, and organized themselves for education.

• Analyze two more images of schools: one from an adult freedom school in 1964 and one from the Carlisle Indian School in 1901. Jot down noticings and wonderings.

  • • Image 1: Freedom School Adult Classes, 1964

    • Image 2: [Debating class, Carlisle Indian School, Carlisle, Pennsylvania] (1901)

• Create a new title/caption/headline for each image. In breakout groups, share what you wrote by adding a caption or headline to JamBoard. Then, discuss how these images may challenge or affirm the ways in which we might define learning spaces in our schools.

  • • What ideas did you get from Style (2014) and/or Delpit (2006)?

    • What would we say about headlines that said, "Education is for assimilation and erasure" and/or "Education is for empowerment and self-determination"?

    • What roles do we have in recognizing young people's literacy roots and supporting them in traveling their literacy routes?

• Additional Resources:

  • • Zitkála-Šá. (1900, February). The school days of an Indian girl. The Atlantic Monthly, 85(508), 185-194.

    • LOC Primary Source Set: Assimilation through Education

    • LOC Lesson Plan: Indian Boarding Schools

    • Learning in Places

2:00 - 2:45

Searching for Primary Sources

• Slideshow: Our Found Primary Sources

• Maps

  • WPCH: Maps and Atlases

  • Library of Congress: Philadelphia Maps

  • Phillyhistory.org: Maps

  • Digital Public Library of America: Philadelphia Maps

• Photographs

  • Library of Congress: Philadelphia Photos

  • Phillyhistory.org: Photos

  • Digital Public Library of America

• Newspapers

  • Library of Congress: Chronicling America

  • Library of Congress: Chronicling America: Pennsylvania Newspapers

  • Free Library of Philadelphia: Historical Black American Newspapers

• Oral Histories

  • Library of Congress: John Elliott Churchville oral history interview

  • Goin' North: Oral Histories

  • Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Oral Histories Repository

2:45 - 3:00

Closing and Afternoon Activities

• Add a word to a shared slide to describe how you are feeling after day 1.

• Reaction Sheet

• Readings for Day 2:

  • • Lytle, S. L. (2008). At last: Practitioner inquiry and the practice of teaching: Some thoughts on "Better." Research in the Teaching of English, 42(3), 373-379.

    • Lytle, S., Portnoy, P., Waff, D., & Buckley, M. (2009). Teacher research in urban Philadelphia: Twenty years working within, against, and beyond the system. Educational Action Research, 17(1): 23-42.