by Dr. Rose Reissman
The author’s sample animal advocacy project as it appears on the Jane Goodall website: http://www.rootsandshoots.org/project/furever-homes. It
is hoped that teachers and students will become part of the site’s
projectmap and develop online resources highlighting their local,
national orinternational animal advocacy projects. The site offers mini
grants.
Middle
School Humane Literacy
Humane education and citizenship learning can be made to happen jointly as a
single classroom participatory action. This, without the class needing time or
permissions for a school trip.
As they enter a classroom door embellished with downloads of animal advocacy
graphics and student posters protesting animal abuse, students can immediately
act as animal advocates while learning grade literacy skills. How better to further the goals of middle school language arts learning, including
text engagement, spoken and written persuasive arguments, and short research,
plus range of print and digital texts for reading and writing, than through integrating deep content study as
students work to save animals.
Two middle school language arts professionals,
who have integrated student advocacy around the needs of abused animals into
their teaching, do so based on their personal involvement with dog and cat
rescue animals as well as their interest and concern about endangered chimps.
Each was originally inspired by their
personal experience in adoption and volunteering at an animal rescue site. They
now make Human Literacy a favored part of their curriculum and define it as
using humane content study, which can included: viewing of videos, reading of texts, review of
websites, interacting with rescue workers at local animal shelters, writing advocacy
letters on animal rights issues, creating persuasive posters on behalf of
abused animals, and unwanted pets needing adoption, as well as developing a
website to link animals with adopting families in forever homes- a slew of
literacy skills embedded real world actions.
What is truly magnificent about humane
literacy is that through focus on these deserving animals who obviously lack
spoken and written literacy skills to communicate their needs and plight to
government and public, students in middle school classes become their authentic
voice and advocates as they validate literacy skills learning.
Students address persuasive skills writing and reading, read across a range of
print and digital texts and demonstrate speaking and listening skills as they
fundraise for dog treats and medical care costs plus chimp sanctuaries at
school .
One of these colleagues' classes uploaded
an animal advocacy project to Jane Goodall's website
( http://www.rootsandshoots.org/project/furever-homes ), sharing their learning about the plight of
animals and illustrating at the same time how this approach represents a door
to literacy and humane learning in a real world context.
Copies of letters students sent their
New York Council representative asking that he vote for legislation against dog
fighting. This complex issue deeply
engaged students in online news texts like the emotionally gripping story of
Oogy the pit bull, whose ear was torn off as a result of his having been
deliberately bred for dogfights, the picture of a dog with half a face and one
ear, the extensive medical support he received, and then his eventual adoption
into a loving “forever” family, touched the students emotionally; far beyond
the boundaries of mandated ELA text
engagement.
Through such emotionally charged digital
storytelling, middle school students were able to proudly and passionately
voice their arguments against dog fighting in a set of letters. Katherine, a sixth grader noted: “Dog fighting is bad because the owners make
their dogs suffer so very much. Dogs are
sentient animals who can love and be loved.
They should not be used by owners as weapons against their own species.
“ Nyla, another sixth grader, noted
that dogs “deserve like children to be treated with respect and care.” Nyla also advises the Council Member she
wrote to, that he will gain votes if he “stands against animal abuse.” Daysy wrote about Oogy (the dog) who had
inspired her ELA teachers to coin the term “humane literacy” by saying that the
story of this “dog with one ear teaches people that dog fighting is bad.”
In their persuasive letters to their
Council Person about dog fighting, students accomplished immediate citizen
participation through a required literacy skill of letter writing. Through
their involvement with the websites of the Unwanted Pets shelter in Brooklyn, students
at Intermediate School 62 in that part of NYC, and of the ASPCA and Animal
Shelter in Manhattan, two District 4 schools, there, actually contributed to
saving specific dog’s lives or improving them immeasurably through helping them
find “forever homes.”
In the case of the District 4 schools, I
took a junior high class to the local Animal Shelter that was located a few
blocks from the school. A volunteer
worker showed the students the stalls for dogs in which they were almost no
chew toys, blankets, or other necessary items and explained to them how many of
the dogs at the shelter were found abused or abandoned on the streets. The students saw how alone the dogs were and
how desperate for a petting or a walk in a small walled in courtyard. Students learned how being anxious or
territorial or unable to get along with other dogs or young children or being
older than 4 often spelled doom for a dog, or at best made the dog less likely
to be adopted. The odds of adoption also
went down if the dog was labeled or looked like a pit bull, even if that dog
was gentle.
The students created posters for the
dogs with the greatest odds against being adopted to persuade potential shelter
visitors to adopt these deserving furry friends. One of the dogs—Pluto- a large German
Shepherd mix, aged 5, who was unable to live with any other dog and very
territorial- was adopted and the class felt they had saved a life!!! Due perhaps to the student posters online the
students had a strong sense their actions were effectively saving a specific
dog’s life....
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