ABSTRACT
Teaching about real people is much harder than teaching about cardboard characters, but so is any kind of authentic teaching and learning. A young graduate student who has distinguished herself throughout her academic career reflects that her most vivid recollection of sixth grade in the progressive private school she attended was being told that she could not do a report on Malcolm X because he was an inappropriate role model. Andre's fascination with the book led to a number of discussions with Loren, who decided he wanted to read it too. In preparation for his interview, Alexander also watched Spike Lee's Malcolm X on videotape with his younger brother and an adult friend. In contrast to the others, Mark's study of Malcolm was not an assigned biographical study, but rather was part of a sixth-grade language arts unit. Malcolm's approach offers an opportunity to help students learn in a context, so that seemingly meaningless information becomes meaningful.
