You are creating lessons for National Poetry Month for your Honors ELA class. You already know who to reach for: your favorites, the classics. You guide your class through the intricacies of the language and grammar choices of these poets. At first you popcorn the stanzas with students, but they are stumbling too often through the lines, so you take over reading. To make the lesson sticky, you end your direct instruction with “Poets are the original rule-breakers.” Next, they independently create their own poems using the framework around language and grammar you gave them. You emphasize the poets' command of the English language. You collect their work and begin to grade. You notice a trend: their English is interpolated with Spanish and slang so you decide that there must be a re-teach of this class.

A teacher calls roll for the first day of school and realizes there is a scholar missing. She keeps calling the scholar’s name out over and over again, to no avail, “Maria? Maria?” She counts the students in the room and realizes there is one extra scholar. She asks the scholar to come to her desk as she sets the other students to work, “Young man, what is your name?” The scholar rolls their eyes and is visibly upset. She asks, “Is something wrong? I can’t help you if you don’t tell me your name.” The scholar walks out of the room and stands in front of the door refusing to come back in. The teacher, unable to do anything about the issue at the moment, calls the Dean of Students for help. The Dean of Students comes to counsel the scholar and bring them to her office.

The school assigns the central text, “Cane” by Jean Toomer for Black History Month. This text is a collection of Harlem Renaissance poetry and short stories written during the era. Every English class is required to read this text and further their understanding of African-American heritage, central themes, and the 1920s-1930s. Educators are excited about this initiative and start including other items that will make the experience more interactive and responsive. The history team uses 1920s archives from the local library for artifact analysis. The math team discusses the statistics that lead to The Great Depression. The elective teachers decide to plaster photography and art in the spirit of James Van Der Zee and Romare Bearden. The science teachers wanted to show patents and experiments for the printing press and steam engine. They were going to make it a culturally responsive experience for their school which was comprised of 97% Black scholars.

You give out a survey on the first day of school to garner scholar interests. You ask very pointed questions about family traditions, nicknames, foods, drinks, imagined superpowers, favorite books, and more. You create a thematic outline for the year that aligns with student interests and traditions. Your word problems exemplify student familial nicknames. You create a cafe theme for your classroom and incorporate images of the drinks students listed: Horlicks, Milo, Cafe Bustelo, Horchata, etc. You have "family meetings" that mirror their actual family discussions, in the center of the room and clustered close together, to dissect specific equations and solutions. You give mini history lessons, using hidden figures, to give context to math concepts and why certain strategies matter. Scholars co-construct projects and rubrics with you. Your curriculum involves scholars and evolves as you get to know them and listen in on group conversations.

A creative writing teacher assigns a fictional short story. The rubric has a section for conventions. For a perfect score in this section, each student must consistently use punctuation, grade level spelling, grammar, and capitalization. A scholar turns in a fictional story based on her aunt’s home, where her family gathers for the holidays. In the story, the characters jump between using slang and formal English when dialoguing. The teacher wants to give this scholar a better grade, considering she scored high on all other aspects of the rubric (lead, ending, descriptions, problems, etc.), so she gives the scholar another opportunity to revise the misspelling in the dialogue. The scholar asks if, during the culminating event for this project, she can read the dialogue in the way that her family speaks. The teacher agrees.

You're teaching a unit on energy. At the end of the unit, the scripted curriculum culminates into a roller coaster project. Before launching the unit, you ask scholars how they'd like to demonstrate their understanding of the information they've learned. Some students express that they'd like to use rap, poetry, or song. Other students ask, "Can we build any amusement park ride? Does it have to be a roller coaster?" Some students ask if they can create their own invention that exemplifies the types of energy they've learned. You modify the scripted lessons so that scholars can choose one of three projects to demonstrate their understanding: A roller-coaster, any other amusement park ride, or a unique invention. You tell scholars that they can present their projects in anyway they'd like: song, rap, poetry, or traditional presentation. You tell scholars that as long they meet the requirements of the rubric (content knowledge, visuals, and organization) they've completed the task.

It is time for the spring recital. As the dance teacher, you want to assure your students can relate to rhythm and steps as they choreograph their performance. You do your research. You google Bilboard's Top 100 artists. You scan Spotify for the Hot100 International Jams. You find many reggae songs that can work for the session. The first choreographing session arrives. You have the music playing as you watch students go to work. You notice a particular group of students, of Caribbean heritage, off to the side and they aren’t dancing. You wonder why they are not dancing; you walk by and hear them complaining about the music. You reiterate your "everybody dances" rules to no avail. You decide to focus on the students that are dancing.