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Woodson, J. (2014). Brown girl dreaming. Puffin Books.
https://www.amazon.com/Brown-Girl-Dreaming-Jacqueline-Woodson/dp/0147515823
Brown Girl Dreaming is the main text for this unit on Racial Justice and Racial Identity.  Jacqueline Woodson uses verse to recount her childhood growing up during Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement.  Woodson explores her childhood and what it was like to grow up African American during this time in American history.  It's a true story about finding your place and accepting yourself.

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Racial Justice and Racial Identity Essential Questions

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Racial Justice and Racial Identity Essential Questions

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1. How do our experiences with racism shape our racial identity?

2. Does the way we see ourselves affect how we treat others?

3. How can we embrace our differences and still be ourselves?

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Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins- Carole Boston Weatherford and Jerome Lagarrique

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Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins- Carole Boston Weatherford and Jerome Lagarrique

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Carole Boston Weatherford, & Jérôme Lagarrigue. (2007). Freedom on the menu : the Greensboro sit-ins. Puffin Books.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/freedom-on-the-menu-by-carole-boston-weatherford/

When Connie was eight years old there were a lot of things she could not do because she was Black.  One of the those things was sitting at the lunch counter in her town of Greensboro, North Carolina.  She knows change is coming when she sees four Black men take hold of their rights and sit at the counter.  The move sparks a movement and we get to see change through the eyes of 8-year-old Connie.

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Pam Muñoz Ryan. (2018). Esperanza rising. Scholastic Press.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/esperanza-rising-by-pam-munoz-ryan/
Esperanza's family owns a large ranch in Mexico and Esperanza has all the best things.  When Papa dies, Esperanza and her mother flee to California and become migrant workers. Esperanza has to learn how to live in a new country under very new circumstances.  When conditions become so bad, people start striking for a livable wage and better working conditions. Esperanza must now decide what to do now, her family's survival depends on her.

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This Book is Anti-Racist- Tiffany Jewell and Aurelia Durand

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This Book is Anti-Racist- Tiffany Jewell and Aurelia Durand

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Jewell, T., & Aurélia Durand. (2020). This book is anti-racist. Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.
https://www.braveandkindbooks.com/products/this-book-is-anti-racist-tiffany-jewell

This book is a how-to on how to address racism and other types of oppression in everyday life.  It even gives advice for young people on how to address racism with adults.  This book gives us real things we can do in real life to help make our world a better place.

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Becoming Kareem: Growing Up On and Off the Court-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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Becoming Kareem: Growing Up On and Off the Court-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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Abdul-Jabbar, K. (2018). Becoming Kareem : growing up on and off the court. Little, Brown And Company.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/becoming-kareem-kareem-abdul-jabbar/1125896087
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the greatest professional basketball players that ever played the game.  Even as great as he was, he could not escape racism and racial injustice.  In this autobiography, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar tells us just how he became so great!

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Alexander, K. (2019). The Undefeated. Versify.
https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/The-Undefeated/9781328780966
This award winning book by Kwame Alexander demonstrates the strength and resilience of Black people in American history. Despite slavery, oppression, and overwhelming racism Black people have endured and achieved greatness.  This book shows us how Black people have remained Undefeated!

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Lester, J., & Barbour, K. (2009). Let’s talk about race. Amistad.
https://bookshop.org/books/let-s-talk-about-race/9780064462266
This books reminds us that we each have a story to tell and each of us is important.  This is a great introduction to a conversation about race with young people.  Julius Lester reminds us that, if we explore enough stories, we will learn that we are all the same.  Let's read our stories and talk about race.

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Choi, Y. (2013). The Name Jar. Zaner-Bloser.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/27340/the-name-jar-by-yangsook-choi-illustrated-by-the-author/
This book explores the importance of names and their meanings.  Unhei wants to change her name because she thinks it's too hard to say for her new classmates.  In the end, she realizes that her name is perfect for her and teaches everyone how to pronounce it.  Our names are part of our identity and help make us who we are.

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Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation- Duncan Tonatiuh

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Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation- Duncan Tonatiuh

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Tonatiuh, D., Sananes, A., & Media, D. (2014). Separate is never equal : Sylvia Mendez & her family’s fight for desegregation. Abrams Books For Young Readers.
https://www.amazon.com/Separate-Never-Equal-Familys-Desegregation-ebook/dp/B00JMWQV7I
Sylvia's dad knows the best way to show that he's made it as an immigrant in America is to own land.  When he buys a farm in Westminster, California, Sylvia is ready to go to the neighborhood school.  She and her siblings are told they must go to the Mexican school.  Sylvia is an English-speaking American citizen who knows she can succeed in the nearby public school.  Sylvia's family files a lawsuit and eventually wins the right to go to the school of their choice.

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Objectives:

1. Cognitive: Students will list what they know about race as a class with the teacher on chart paper.

2. Psychomotor: Students will create personal stories to share with the class using words and drawings.

3. Affective: Students will revise their thoughts on race using their knowledge from the book Let’s Talk About Race and their classmates’ personal stories to complete the “L” section of the chart.

Activity:
We will start the lesson talking about race.  We will make a KWL chart that discusses what we know about race and racism and what we want to know. We will then read the book Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester.  Next we will write stories about ourselves that answer some of the questions asked in the book using words and drawings.  We will then share the stories with our classmates.  To conclude the lesson we will complete the “L” section of our chart to fill in what we learned about race and racism.

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Objectives:

1. Cognitive: Students will identify aspects of culture and how they define us in a whole-class discussion.

2. Psychomotor: Students will cut words out of discarded books and assemble the words into a poem.

3. Affective: Students will choose words relating to cultural identity and diversity to complete their poems.

Activity:
The lesson revolves around the reading of brown girl dreaming by Jaqueline Woodson, a novel in verse for middle grade students. We will read the book as a class and have a discussion about how our family, upbringing,  and culture define us.  Students will use discarded books to cut out words and create their own poetry about cultural identity and how we can embrace diversity and still be ourselves.

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Lê, M., & Santat, D. (2018). Drawn together. Disney-Hyperion.
https://shop.scholastic.com/parent-ecommerce/books/drawn-together-9781484767603.html

The pictures in this book help tell the story of a little boy connecting with his grandfather through drawing even when they don't speak the same language.  Minh Le shows us how our elders and our culture help shape our identities and reminds us that we are better off together.

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Nyong’o, L., & Harrison, V. (2019). Sulwe. Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers.
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sulwe/Lupita-Nyongo/9781534425361
Sulwe has the darkest skin of anyone she knows and she feels like she doesn't fit in. In this book,  Lupita Nyong'o reminds us that what's inside us matters and beauty comes from within.  We learn about colorism and accepting ourselves for who we are.

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Draper, S. M. (2019). Blended. Atheneum Children’s Books.
https://www.amazon.com/Blended-Sharon-M-Draper/dp/1442495006
Isabella's dad is Black and her mom  is white, making Isabella "blended".  She feels like she is always going between her two identities when she goes from one house to the other.  Draper reminds us that we are not half anything but wholly ourselves in this powerful middle grade novel

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Renée Watson. (2018). Piecing me together. London Bloomsbury February.
https://www.amazon.com/Piecing-Me-Together-Ren%C3%A9e-Watson/dp/1681191059
Jade is an artist. She is also a Black girl who is trying to find her way in a fancy private school where she feels like she doesn't quite fit in.  She is matched with a mentor that eventually helps Jade to embrace her identity and where she comes from.  Jade uses her strong voice and her art to express herself in this award winning novel.

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Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice-Mahogany L. Browne, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Olivia Gatewood

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Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice-Mahogany L. Browne, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Olivia Gatewood

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Browne, M. L., Acevedo, E., Gatwood, O., Reynolds, J., & Taylor, T. (2020). Woke : a young poet’s call to justice. Roaring Brook Press.
https://www.amazon.com/Woke-Young-Poets-Call-Justice/dp/1250311209
Young women of color express themselves through poetry in this collection.  The poems address racism, activism,  and social justice.  It reminds young people to speak up and uses their voices to change to world and make it better.

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Varsha Bajaj. (2020). Count Me In. Puffin Books.
https://www.amazon.com/Count-Me-Varsha-Bajaj/dp/0525517243
When Karina and her grandfather are the targets of a crime because they are Indian-American, Karina uses social media to speak out for justice.  Her posts make her more popular than she could imagine.  This book shows us how, through using our voices and standing up to injustice, we can make our country a better place.  It also shows us that immigrants belong and make our country richer.

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Saeed, A. (2020). Amal Unbound. Puffin Books.
https://www.amazon.com/Amal-Unbound-Aisha-Saeed/dp/0399544682
Amal Unbound tells the story of Amal, a young Pakistani girl who falls on hard times and has to work as a servant in a corrupt family's home.  This book gives us an inside look at a place that some children may not have even heard of.  It helps to create empathy and understanding for people and reminds us that we are all so similar.

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Yang, K. (2019). Front Desk. Arthur A. Levine Books.
https://www.amazon.com/Front-Desk-Kelly-Yang/dp/1338157795
Mia is a ten year old that runs the front desk of a motel where her parents clean the rooms.  Her parents have been letting immigrants stay in rooms that are unoccupied.  This could mean trouble for Mia's family if the owner finds out.  Front Desk addresses racism and the hardship of immigration with Mia's strength and endurance an inspiration to readers.

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Williams-Garcia, R. (2012). One crazy summer. Amistad, An Imprint Of Harpercollinspublishers.
https://www.amazon.com/One-Crazy-Summer-Rita-Williams-Garcia/dp/0060760907
This award winning middle grade novel takes us on a journey from New York to California following the Gaither sisters as the get reacquainted with a mother they haven't seen in years.  We get a glimpse of the Black Panther movement of the 1960's.  This book addresses racism and and identity in an honest way.

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Reynolds, J. (2016). Ghost. Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books.
https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Track-Jason-Reynolds/dp/1481450158
Ghost has a troubled past. He runs from it, and everything else, until he joins an elite track team and realizes he can run toward something instead of away from.  The diverse track team helps us to remember that everyone is living with different circumstances and reminds us to leave our judgments behind and take people for who they are.

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Supriya Kelkar. (2020). American As Paneer Pie. Aladdin.
https://www.amazon.com/American-Paneer-Pie-Supriya-Kelkar/dp/1534439382

This book addresses racism and colorism through the eyes Lekha, an Indian girl in a mostly white town.  When Avantika moves across the street, Lekha is happy to have another Indian girl in the neighborhood, until she realizes that Avantika doesn't feel the need to blend in but is unapologetically herself.