Teaching Sacrifice Zones

Provided by: Zinn Education Project |Published on: May 24, 2024

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Synopsis

This resource features Rosemarie Frascella's first-person experience as she teaches about sacrifice zones in her English classroom.
Rosemarie uses discussion, journaling, and poetry to elicit students' feelings and ideas about sacrifice zones.

Subjects: Civics, English Language Arts

Authors: Zinn Education Project, Rethinking Schools

Region: Global, New York City

Languages: English

Positives

This activity is based on mutual respect and honoring student funds of knowledge.
Through reading this resource, teachers will not only get an activity to implement in class but also some pedagogical insight.

Prerequisites

Teachers will need to create a free account to download the article.
It may benefit students to understand the health impacts of living in sacrifice zones.
Teachers may want to find the poem “Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits” by Martín Espada to have in class for students to read.

Differentiation & Implementation

Students can look at population data compared to locations of oil refineries, fracking sites, and other harmful sites.
Students can read this article to extend this lesson by learning about the impact of sacrifice zones on health and how they connect to climate change.
Teachers can also use this social studies lesson to guide students in taking action against environmental injustice.

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Resource Type and Format