In New Rochelle, New York, a 24-hour daycare is a lifesaver for parents who work multiple jobs and odd hours to make ends meet. Through the stories of two working mothers and a childcare provider, Through the Night reveals the personal cost of rising wealth inequality in America and the close bonds forged between parents, children and caregivers.

A Note from Curriculum Creator, Vivett Dukes

The other day I drove past the daycare center that my four year old niece went to prior to the pandemic. It has since closed down. I couldn’t help but think about my own children’s introduction into child care and day care centers. You see, they didn’t have the upbringing that I did. Thanks to my grandmother who came to the United States from Jamaica, West Indies to help her only daughter and son-in-law raise my siblings and me while they strove to achieve the all-elusive “American Dream”. My children are the product of a single-mother household which meant that they were in day care centers from a very early age. As a matter of fact, I began my career as an educator teaching in one of their day care centers. I was so conflicted about leaving my children at the day care center that I would stick around for hours and hours to see what was going on there.

Subject Areas

• English Language Arts
• Social Science
• American History
• Civics

Grade Levels: 9th - 12th Grades

Objectives:

In this lesson, students will explore the intersection of gender inequality, racism and the constant economic precarity plaguing working class families. These intersections are both prevalent and simultaneously exhausting. Highlighted is the fact that women often bear the responsibility of raising children, are paid less than their male counterparts, and face unique socio-economic and racial challenges than other groups. They are trying to achieve the ubiquitously deceitful "American Dream" that serves as this myth by which people continue to erroneously be judged. While all of these key issues are discussed in Through The Night, at its’ core, this documentary seeks to convey the message that community care - particularly in marginalized communities - is rooted in love and the belief that “it takes a village to raise a child.”

In this lesson students will consider the following Essential Questions:

• How do radical community formations come together to support and nurture one another and one anothers’ children?
• Why is the rearing and nurturing of children historically and presently framed as “women’s work?”
• What is the perceived role of mother’s in our society?

Materials

• Computer
• WiFi
• Through The Night POV documentary
• Digital Presentation software (Slides/PPT/Prezi/Keynote)
• “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes.
• “Who Will Cry” by Antwone Fisher

Time Needed

Two (2) 50-60 minute class periods

Clip 1: Great Expectations [00:11 - 00:25]
Our expectations of mothers are often so unrealistic and out of reach. Mothers, contrary to popular belief, are not superheroes. They are human beings who feel real feelings and who, as you will witness in this clip, are overworked and underpaid. Who pays the price for these great expectations? Are they really that great after all? Who or what is it that we really value in this country -- strong family bonds or the almighty dollar?

Clip 2: The Evolution of Family[00:25 - 1:36]
What we consider to be a family has changed over the course of time and continues to do so. In this clip, we explore the various iterations of family that continue to form in response to our ever-evolving society. take an intimate view into the inner workings of mothering and motherhood and what it entails to be a part of a child-rearing community in the form of an urban daycare center environment that runs 24 hours a day, seven (7) days a week.

Clip 3: It Takes A Village[4:42 - 6:07]
In this clip, we see a model of community care rooted in the Black Radical Tradition model for community health, free lunch program, community care, and culturally-relevant education. The day care center featured in Through The Night falls under the category of an organized movement of Black and Brown women who address issues of intersectionality directly for the sake of our own revolutionary care. The families it seeks to help are in a constant state of insecurity. The interdependence between mother and daycare provider are evident.

Clip 4:[7:54 - 08:06]
The power of community is unmatched and that is showcased in this clip. Deloris gathers the children who attend her daycare and has a conversation with them. She offers them a reminder of the community that exists when they are together: “Let’s not be rude because we’re all friends and we all love each other.”, and all of the children exclaim: “YES!”

Clip 5: [19:32 - 20:41]
Working mothers put in so much work for their children and their well being, as highlighted in this clip. One mother shares that “I’ve been working 7 days for almost 2 months. I’m very tired. If I’m not working one job, I’m working another job. I’m always working non-stop.” This clip highlights the sacrifices that mothers have to make, the compromises that must be made, and the intersections of capitalism that exist.

Activity: Research health insurance in the US (Obamacare); probe into the corporate practice of keeping workers part-time to avoid paying insurance; job-security for single-parents;

Guided Questions: Where is the American Dream in all of this? What is the impact on limited time with family on education? (How) Is the community equipped to respond to this need? Why or why not?

Clip 6: [22:32 - 23:49]
At the local Thanksgiving Day Parade, Deloris and Patrick reflect on the mothers of the children of whom they care for. It's easy to forget the care and community that places like child care facilities embody in people's lives. Patrick and Deloris speak on the lack of care from the government: “There are families out there that need help. They need a net” … “‘Cause once I’m full or if other providers are full. Then where are those children going?”. Their words show the amount of care that goes beyond just the families serve and the impact they make within the facility.

Clip 7:[26:51 - 29:02]
It's often easy to forget how the decisions we make, the environments we build, and the situations that we are in affect the children in our lives and their relationships. In this clip, we witness how children and caretakers grapple with the realities that exist within many single caretaker family units and how they are affected by the perception of others for that. A young girl expresses her thoughts on her experience with daycare, making friends, and how, through her development of her relationships, she began to like her experience. Her mom, on the other hand, is angry, at a crossroad with work, and faces criticism for the decisions she has to make to care for her children.

Guided Question: What is the social-emotional impact on kids from being in day care from a young age and for extended hours per day? What is the impact of the separation from their children on the parents?

Activities: Conduct interviews with children and parents for whom both questions posed above are relevant.

Clip 8:[29:03 - 31:35]
Young children learn through play. In this clip, we see two siblings engaging in physical, imaginative, and explorative play, but are quickly brought back to course by their mother. In particular, we see a young boy, Noah, continue to play and push his boundaries while his mother and sister share a moment of frustration around wants and needs. This clip highlights the balance that caretakers and children encounter when trying to express themselves and meet real life needs and responsibilities.

Case study: Why is Noah having a hard time? How do we assess the social emotional health of young children who are not able to articulate their feelings of frustration verbally?

ACTIVITIES: Web Quest [3 - 4, 60 minutes class periods]
NOTE: This is a post-screening activity and will be most effective if students have had the opportunity to screen the entire film. Please visit POV’s Lending Libraryto virtually “Check Out” a free copy of Through the Night to screen with your students.

Step One: Social Emotional Check-In

Open by asking your students how they are feeling & creating space for them to “share” or “pass” if they are not feeling up to sharing. We suggest you call on students one-by-one and invite them to share and also model what this looks like by sharing first.

To provide a visual aid to help students express themselves, you can look into applications like Mood Meter or Klick Engage (if your school has a subscription). You can also let students know that they can express themselves non-verbally (using hand signals, certain number of fingers, etc. to express how they are showing up today).

Invite students to set their intention and prepare for the day’s lesson by asking them to do the following:

• Turn on your camera (for hybrid/fully remote learning environments)
• Take out your notebook
• Open up today’s assignment
• Get settled in
• Prepare to write down today’s AIM

Step Two: Identify Lesson Objectives and Shared Goals

After viewing Through the Night in its entirety as a whole class, students will work in small groups to engage in a web quest about the documentary in order to gain an appreciation of the complexities of single motherhood in Black and Brown communities.

1. DO NOW: Quick Write -- Critically analyze the following quote:“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children” - Nelson Mandela, 8 May 1995.
2. SHARE OUT: via Turn and Talk or In the chat (for hybrid and fully-remote classes)
3. RECAP key issues that came up in “Through the Night” with students. Chart their responses. Some possible answers may include: Mothering and Motherhood, Childhood and children, Child care and caregivers, Community, Family and extended family structure, Exceptionalism, Meritocracy & Equality, Paid and Unpaid Labor, Income Inequality, Social Justice, Self-care, Race, Capitalism, Gender Equality, and Precarity

Step Three: Mini-Lesson & Modeling Web Quests
NOTE: Web Quests are an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet. (Dodge, 1995). They are based on the ideas of inquiryand constructivismmeant to help students develop their critical-thinking and analysis skills.

BEGIN: This will allow you to model the Web Quests for Students before assigning them to engage in their own.

• Carefully choose four (4) clips from “Through the Night” from the list of eight (8) provided.
• For each clip chosen, create one (1) digital slide that:
  • Answers the specific question(s) asked about that clip. Be sure to identify the clip at the top of your digital slide.
  • In addition, for each clip, create another slide that includes:
    • THREE (3) facts you learned from the clip;
    • Two (2) questions the clip raised for you;
    • One (1) graphic or video that illustrates your understanding of a key issue revealed in “Through The Night.”

Step Four: Individual to Collective Gallery
NOTE: Students should have already seen the film in its entirety. If they have not, review the film and describe the film in full, consider sharing a review of the film for students’ to read and/or the trailer in addition to the Lesson Plan clips. You should determine how many class periods this individual work will require and assign homework if necessary.

Ask students to:

1. Choose one to four (clips) fromThrough The Night that they want to explore in their web quest.
2. Students can choose / be assigned to work independently or in pairs.
3. At this juncture, students have already watched “Through The Night” in its entirety as a whole class.
4. Students watch each clip from the documentary and create a digital slide that answers a certain number of questions that you select (these questions were modified from the POV Discussion Guide for Through the Night):

• What moments in the film resonated with you? Why?
• What moments surprised you the most? What aspects were surprising and why?
• If you could ask anyone in the film a question, whom would it be and what would you ask?
  • Why would you ask that person, specifically? What about that person and your experience made you want to ask them?
• What did you learn from each woman’s story, experience, and their roles as mothers? The more specific the better.
• What did you learn about their mothering journeys? Did it make you reflect or have different feelings and thoughts about the experience of parents?
• Reflecting on your own lived experiences, how did these roles of childcare providers or caregivers impact your life?
• Which communities does the rising cost of childcare impact most directly and in what ways does this film teach us about the experiences of those who are most impacted?
• Was there anything, or anyone, in the film that you see reflected in your city or neighborhood?
  • If yes, in what ways and how did this film deepen your understanding of those in your community?
  • If no, in what ways and how did this film deepen your understanding of yourself and your community in relation to others?

1. Tell students that one slide should be used for each individual question & its corresponding responses
2. You should decide how many slides each student/pair is responsible for as it suits your class schedule.

THE SLIDES: Tell students that each slide should include the following:

• A visual representation that illuminates or reflects their response in some way
• A text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connection on each slide.
  • Text-to-self: connections can be personal connecting lived experiences to the text of the film
  • Text-to-text: connections can connect to past class readings, films, songs, etc, from other courses, that they’ve seen outside of school, and remind them that “text” is not limited to the printed word.
  • Text-to-world: this is a broader category that invites students to connect the film to current events, news, and international issues as well
• One sentence of how this connection deepens their understandings and ability to convey what they understand about the intersection of motherhood, work (you may choose to describe this as “labor” and teach students about different types of “labor” including emotional, spiritual, physical, etc), and community in our society as revealed in Through The Night.

Step Five: Virtual Gallery Walk & Appreciation
After students have completed their slides guide them to add their completed slides to a class digital presentation (Google slides or Prezi will work best as they are online platforms that can be collectively edited). Tell students that these slides will be viewed and discussed by the whole class upon completion as a gallery walk and give students the option (at your discretion) to submit slides with their names on them and/or submit anonymously.

Invite students to add music to their slides if they think that will deepen the messages they are trying to convey. This will add another layer to this multi-modal assignment.

After having reviewed each slide as a class, ask students to write anonymous gratitude letters beginning with the statement “I really appreciated…” and to do it for two slides that stood out to them. Remind them the more specific they can be in what they celebrate, the better.

Share all gratitude statements with the class.

Extensions

Ask students to reflect on their own early childhood experiences. Did they attend day care? If so, what was that like? If not, what was it like to be home during those early years? Who took care of them? What memories stand out for them from that time in their lives? Who were the adults that had the most impact in their lives then?

Research day care funding allocations in New York State.

Helpful Sources (Optional)

A list of books and/or journal essays, cited in [X style], about the subject areas in the lesson plan. Please include links to resources that are freely accessible to educators.

• https://www.verywellfamily.com/universal-pre-k-2764970
• POV Discussion Guide for Through the Night

Resource List

A list of relevant social movements, non-profits, and organizations. Be sure to include brief descriptions for each org and a link. Here is an example.

• https://www.childcareaware.org/providers/ - This resource helps guide interested parties in navigating the steps necessary to start their own day care center.
• https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/center-locator - This resource is a Head Start Center locator. Input your demographic information and see where the closest Head Starts are in your area.

POV’s Delve Deeper Reading List provides a number of resources for educators interested in deepening their and their students’ understandings of themes presented in Through the Night

Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.1/CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.1
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2/ CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3/ CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.4/ CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.4
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.6/ CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.6
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology's capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.7/ CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.7
Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.9/ CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

About The Author

Vivett Dukes
Vivett is a classroom teacher, writer, humanitarian and social activist who cares deeply about those who are systematically disenfranchised. She is particularly dedicated to eradicating mass incarceration and the school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately plagues the Black community. To Vivett, education is and will always be the key to improvement in all areas of life for members of the African diaspora and that equity in education coupled with mass incarceration are two of the biggest civil rights assaults facing our society currently. She has been an English Language Arts teacher, literacy specialist, and teacher of English to speakers of other languages in her own classroom for twelve years and currently teaches in a middle and high school in Manhattan, New York where she teaches ninth-grade English. She also serves as an adjunct instructor in the Education and Literacy Acquisition Department at the City University of New York - LaGuardia Community College (CUNY).

Lesson Plan Producers, POV

Courtney B. Cook, Education Manager

A co-production of POV and ITVS in association with Latino Public Broadcasting and Black Public Media.