Just Mercy Book Club // Grab your copy now, and join the conversation!

We are excited to announce our summer OER Conference for Social Studies Book Club pick! This month you are invited to join us in reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, who happens to be our keynote speaker on August 3. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults.

Our community discussion about Just Mercy will be led by Jayson Wilkinson from the OER Project Team, and Hajra Saeed, BHP teacher in Long Beach, CA.  We’ll kick off with our first book club driving question on July 15 right here in this thread, located in the OER Conference for Social Studies discussion forum. We’ll post a new driving question each Thursday for three weeks leading up to the conference which takes place August 3-5. So don't wait, grab a copy of the book, bookmark this thread so you can return on the 15th, and prepare for some rich discussions with other members of the community. Let the reading begin! 

Just Mercy // Week One Questions

We are excited to start our book club conversation on Just Mercy as we make our way to Bryan Stevenson’s August 3rd keynote address in the OER Conference for Social Studies. Post your thoughts and answers to the questions below, or add your own question.  and  will be leading the conversation and will be checking in throughout the day to respond to the discussion.   

  • Did Just Mercy make you want to explore an aspect of the U.S. criminal justice system more closely? If so, what part and why?  
  • In Just Mercy, Stevenson tells us his story of growth and discovery in relation to his understanding of the U.S. criminal justice system. Have you had a similar journey in your own life? 

Post your comments below and let's get the conversation started!

Just Mercy // Week Two Questions

  • As you are reading Just Mercy, is there a quote that "sticks with you?" Why? 
  • Is there a specific call to action that can be taken from a reading of Just Mercy? If so, what is it? 

Let's continue the conversation by posting in the comments below.

Just Mercy // Week Three Questions

  • How do the topics and concepts in Just Mercy connect to your work with students? 
  • What lessons from Just Mercy or Stevenson are you taking with you as you prepare to welcome students back to our school communities in the fall? 
  • Do know of a specific person (whether they are a personal connection, colleague, or something else) that would benefit from reading and discussing Just Mercy with you? What makes you think that and what lessons might they learn?

Post your response to the questions in the comments below as we complete our final week of the Book Club. Be sure to join us for Bryan Stevenson's Keynote Address on August 3 at 9:00 AM PDT!

Top Replies

  • The quote that sticks with me is "We are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent." It stuck…

  • For me, Just Mercy really pushed me to question my position in institutions. When I started teaching, I think I was comfortable just doing what I was told and keeping my head above water in my new school…

  • Is it possible that I jump on to the Just Mercy Train? I got to the station late, and would love to hop aboard if it is still an option. Can I hop aboard.  

Parents
  • For me, Just Mercy really pushed me to question my position in institutions. When I started teaching, I think I was comfortable just doing what I was told and keeping my head above water in my new school. Years later, I still have flashback to moments when I held students accountable with unfair rule systems or assigned tasks with full knowledge that some of my students weren't prepared to complete. One of the bigger messages from the book that I'm taking with me is our obligation to regularly interrogate the structures around us. 

  •    , this is a a great reminder about taking the injustices described in Just Mercy to the classroom level. My first 20 years of teaching were in an upper middleclass school, where students had very few challenges. When I moved schools, I was forced to look closely at my teaching practices. The school I moved to was in transition as the minority enrollment was shifting from 10% - 70%, our Free/Reduced Lunch also took the same shift, parents were working 2 -3 jobs, so students had to miss days if siblings were sick. The number of students who had parents or siblings in prison was huge. My teaching practices had to change and I became a better educator because I was meeting my students where they were. This did not mean I lowered my expectations, instead I had to change my strategies for helping students to reach this bar. Learning is not a one size fits all approach.  You are correct, as educators we do need to constantly examine the situation beyond the classroom walls.

  •  what were some of the strategies that you found most helpful? When I was in college, I did a pre-service student teaching placement in a 7th grade special ed class. The teachers talked a lot about how their student demographics changed when a prison was built in a nearby town; many families moved into the district to be near an incarcerated family member. In hindsight, I wish I would have pressed more to find out about how that changed the school dynamic. 

  • I realized that some students were not doing work because they had to take care of family members when they got home. Parents were working 2-3 jobs so they had to take care of younger siblings. Rather than penalize students, we created a work schedule that would allow them to succeed. My room opened at 6:00 each morning so students could come eat and have a quiet place to work. It was open at lunch as well. They didn't have to work on my content, it was just a place they could go. We still had deadlines, but there was flexibility and we worked together.

    I took a good look at what I assigned and whether it was necessary for students to succeed. Assignments became compact with a lot less fluff, but meaning. I thought I was doing this before, but found I could pack even tighter. 

    We also had to focus on skill development. Students who were in honors were not the same as honors students I had previously, so I had to break things down and build up those skills. It wasn't a matter of lowering my expectations, but building a ladder so students could achieve them. This really forced me to take a good look in the mirror and evaluate my own thinking and teaching practices. 

Reply
  • I realized that some students were not doing work because they had to take care of family members when they got home. Parents were working 2-3 jobs so they had to take care of younger siblings. Rather than penalize students, we created a work schedule that would allow them to succeed. My room opened at 6:00 each morning so students could come eat and have a quiet place to work. It was open at lunch as well. They didn't have to work on my content, it was just a place they could go. We still had deadlines, but there was flexibility and we worked together.

    I took a good look at what I assigned and whether it was necessary for students to succeed. Assignments became compact with a lot less fluff, but meaning. I thought I was doing this before, but found I could pack even tighter. 

    We also had to focus on skill development. Students who were in honors were not the same as honors students I had previously, so I had to break things down and build up those skills. It wasn't a matter of lowering my expectations, but building a ladder so students could achieve them. This really forced me to take a good look in the mirror and evaluate my own thinking and teaching practices. 

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