Slide Deck to Share with Students HERE

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​​​​​​​Lesson Objectives:

 

Students will be able to

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1. Explain why counter-narratives are important for all of our growth and development

2. Identify specific counter-narratives from childhood that have influenced their-- and/or other young people's-- growth and aspirations

 

Learning Standards:

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LfJ 5. Students will recognize traits of the dominant culture, their home culture and other cultures and understand how they negotiate their own identity in multiple spaces

LfJ 13. Students will analyze the harmful impact of bias and injustice on the world, historically and today.

LfJ 14. Students will recognize that power and privilege influence relationships on interpersonal, intergroup and institutional levels and consider how they have been affected by those dynamics.​

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Learning Activities (If you have 15 minutes…)

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Greeting (warm up activity): Which Billie Eilish are you today?

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Reading:

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“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” 

            --Angela Davis

 

Question for students: What does this quotation get you thinking about?

 

Walk students through definitions of dominant narratives and counter narratives (Slides 8-9)

 

Question for students (Slide 10):

 

1. What do you remember about Superman?

2. What does Superman stand for?

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Explain that for much of the 20th century, Superman’s motto and catchphrase was—Truth, Justice, the American Way.” (Slide 11)

 

Question for students: In what ways might that catchphrase represent a dominant narrative about the United States?

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Learning Activities (if you have 45 minutes….)

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​​Initiative (continued):

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Explain that in 2021 DC Comics decided to change Superman’s motto to “Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow” (Slide 12)

 

Questions for students (Slide 13)

 

What’d different about this new motto?

Does this new motto change what Superman represents?

What do you think of this change?

 

Question for students (Slide 14)

 

In what ways does Superman’s 21st century motto represent a counter narrative about the United States?

 

Question for students (Slide 15)

 

What in 2021 might have prompted this change in Superman’s motto?

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Learning Activities (if you have 2 hours….)

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Share with students 2014 Coca Cola commercial (Slide 16)

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In 2014 Coca Cola ran a television advertisement during the Super Bowl that featured people singing America the Beautiful in multiple languages.

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Question for students (Slide 17):

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1. How do you think this commercial represented a type of counter-narrative about America?

2. What does the title (“It’s Beautiful”) refer to?

 

Share with students some of the online backlash to this advertisement (Slide 18)

Share with students one of the online defenders of this advertisement (Slide 19)

 

Questions for students (Slide 20)

 

1. Why do you think some people responded so negatively to this commercial?

 

Show students the two Captain Americas (Slides 21)

 

Captain America first appeared in Marvel comics in 1940 and was depicted as a white man named Steve Rogers, who originally focused on fighting Nazis.

 

When Steve Rogers retires in 2014, he passes on the Captain America role and shield to Sam Wilson, a Black man, who had been Rogers’ sidekick (Falcon).

 

 

Questions for students (Slide 22)

 

1. How might turning the Captain America role over to a Black man be a type of counternarrative?

2. Why do you think Marvel Comics writers might have made this move in 2014?

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