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Learning for Justice Digital Literacy Framework

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Learning for Justice Digital Literacy Framework

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The internet is an amazing tool for teaching and learning. But, before we can teach students to harness its power and become good citizens of the web, we need to understand the intricacies of how it works and how it can be manipulated to mislead and even harm users.
Learning the Landscape of Digital Literacy

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Digital and Civic Literacy Skills The internet is an amazing tool for teaching and learning. But, before we can teach students to harness its power and become good citizens of the web, we need to understand the intricacies of how it works and how it can be manipulated to mislead and even harm users.

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Teaching for Change and Rethinking Schools collaborate to bring people's history to the classroom.

A dedicated website to encourage and support teaching about Central American history.

The best selection of multicultural and social justice books for children, YA, and educators.

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Building social justice starting in the classroom.

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The Zinn Education Project is my compass in a sea of corporate textbooks, packaged common core curriculum and standardized testing. My entire curriculum is based on lessons that can be found on the Zinn Education Project.

High School Social Studies Teacher, Portland, Ore.

Your support is needed to help more students learn people's history. 100% of Zinn Education Project funding comes from individuals like you. Donate today.

By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca

From voter ID laws to voter-roll purges, gerrymandering to poll closures to the deadly in-person voting conditions during a pandemic, the right to vote is under attack and the stakes are high. It is critical that students learn about the fight for voting rights, past and present.

Nov. 30, 1924: Shirley Chisholm Born...

Teaching About the Violence in Palestine and Israel...

I can UNDERSTAND pessimism, but I don't BELIEVE in it. It's not simply a matter of faith, but of historical EVIDENCE. Not overwhelming evidence, just enough to give HOPE, because for hope we don't need certainty, only POSSIBILITY.

-Howard Zinn

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Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

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The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people's history in middle and high school classrooms across the country. Based on the lens of history highlighted in Howard Zinn's best-selling book A People's History of the United States, the website offers free, downloadable lessons and articles organized by theme, time period, and reading level.

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Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

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Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi

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Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi

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In Our Mother's House by Patricia Polacco

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The Case for Loving by Selina Alko

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Lydia X. Z. Brown

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I don't know much about virology, epidemiology, or pharmacology. But I do know that the vast majority of my friends, colleagues, and community members, are scared for their lives. Because just like always, government and corporations are showing how little they value disabled people.

I know that at the end of this there's a very big possibility that literally half the people I know or more might be dead. This year.It's a million times worse than for moneyed degreed cishet white disabled citizens. Who are
also terrified.
I'm 27.

And I've already lived through deaths of dozens of my peers, due to institutional abuse, medical ableism, filicide, or police violence.

It's not even just that huge numbers of us are at significantly higher risk for severe infections and death. It's that literally right now states and hospitals are writing and updating " medical rationing" plans that would will deny care to many of us. Or forcibly take disabled people's existing ventilators.

We already know how deeply ableist the medical profession is. How disabled people are routinely denied eligibility for organ transplants, have newborn infants removed solely based on parents' disabilities, face forced sterilization, and are denied other lifesaving care. Disabled kids paraded naked in front of medical students as examples. Dental students practicing extractions by removing developmentally disabled people's healthy teeth. The fact that it took until for the FDA to ban electric shock punishment on disabled people. The "bioethicist" who had a 13 year old disabled kid moved to his hospital so he could deny the kid necessary antibiotics for pneumonia, remove him from intravenous nutrition and hydration, then give him some morphine and watch him die instead. (The doctor is Norman Fost, by the way.)

All that before you even factor that for disabled people of color, disabled queer and trans people, disabled rural people, disabled workers, disabled people in jails and prisons...

I know that so many people I know are scared shitless. Because they know we'll be left on the chopping block. And I know that too many people I know are also ambivalent about it all. Because they know we never had much of a chance in this violent, fucked up world anyway.

About the enormous numbers of disabled people in prisons? Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of Deaf Communities (HEARD) estimates that probably over 80% of people in jails and prisons are disabled in one or more ways - in large part because disability is both a cause and consequence of incarceration, as Talila Lewis repeatedly points out. The fact that prisons largely cage Black, Native, and Brown disabled people is no accident, but by design and deliberate intent. And the fact that COVID-19 is spreading and will continue to spread rapidly and uncontrolled throughout jails and prisons is also no accident.
Prisons are ripe grounds for genocide. Prisons are a product of eugenics. Prisons are rooted in ableism, white supremacy, and capitalism, at a minimum. Prisons are violence.

Ableism is both necessary for and dependent on white supremacy, imperialism and colonialism, capitalism, queermisia and transmisia, and misogyny. Disabled people at the margins of the margins will absolutely be treated as expendable and disposable. We already always have been.

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Autistic Hoya - A blog by Lydia X. Z. Brown

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I don't know much about virology, epidemiology, or pharmacology. But I do know that the vast majority of my friends, colleagues, and community members, are scared for their lives. Because just like always, government and corporations are showing how little they value disabled people.

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Erin Adams

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Teaching K-12 economics and other scholarly projects

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Recommended Reading

Three Minute Theory

Erin on Econ

I am using this site as a way to share my thoughts about K-12 economics and economic issues with a larger audience. I believe that this format is more conducive than an academic journal to the kinds of insights I want to share and aligns my writing and working style.

On this site, I will highlight economic resources and thoughts as a way to make complex ideas accessible. I may also share my thoughts and insights about a myriad of media including books, TV, movies and podcasts.

This site is intended to provide insight into economic issues, particularly as they relate to K-12 education.  Although the contents is based on scholarly research, the opinions expressed here are the author’s and should not be taken as representative of a particular organization or institution.

Note-this site is not intended to provide financial advice.

If you use any content from this site, please cite me;

Adams, E. (2020). Title of post. Erin on Econ. http://www.erinonecon.net

I can be found on Twitter @ECA_Twin

Learn more

Latest from the Blog

No Need For Needs?

No need for needs? Putting wants and needs into historical context. February 8, 2021 See this exchange of letters in SSYL for context https://www.socialstudies.org/ssyl/march-april-2020/letters-to-the-editor-defining-economic-terms-at-the-elementary-level Although economics purportedly does not teach “needs,” somehow lessons on needs and wants manage to find their way into K-5 classrooms. Just last week on of my students, a local K-5 […]

February 8, 2021 July 1, 2021

Unpacking human capital narratives in social studies and society

With Kelly Koch, UGA The C3 Framework states that knowledge of human capital is an essential component of economic reasoning; “Economic reasoning and skillful use of economic tools draw upona strong base of knowledge about human capital, land, investments,money, income and production, taxes, and government expenditures” (p. 35). Covid-19 has revealed a need for critical […]

November 3, 2020 May 8, 2021

More on Jobs + entrepreneurship

I wrote about jobs in the job creators post and my state of elem. econ post. Here’s what I’m continuing to think about;  I think classroom jobs (community-builders?) done right (or better) could likely foster a sense of belonging, affiliation and purpose. A job could be a way for a student to have a concrete, […]

October 21, 2020

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Renee Hobbs, Dan Krutka, Carolyn Weber, Heather Hogan, Stacey Abrams

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Fikile Nxumalo

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Start Here, Start Now book. Read 52 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Most educators want to cultivate an antibias and antiracist c...

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Teaching Critically about Lewis and Clark by Leilani Sabzalian, Alison Schmitke, Jeff Edmundson

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Teaching Critically about Lewis and Clark by Leilani Sabzalian, Alison Schmitke, Jeff Edmundson

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The first chapter of this excellent resource about the uses and misuses of Lewis and Clark in U.S. classrooms is "Beyond Adventure." This evocative title also says a lot about what is offered by the authors of a book that is at once critique (of the dominant Lewis and Clark adventure narrative) and curriculum (new lessons that help teachers move beyond).

On the critique side, the authors of Teaching Critically about Lewis and Clark: Challenging Dominant Narratives in K-12 Curriculum examine how popular textbook treatments of Lewis and Clark miseducate children by erasing Indigenous people, knowledge, and history - like the Harcourt Social Studies book for elementary students that asserts, "Little was known about the land in the Louisiana Purchase." Known by whom? On the curriculum side, the authors offer promising lesson plans for children of all ages.

One example that powerfully refutes the textbook passage above is "Everything Was Already Loved." In this elementary lesson, each student learns about and draws a different plant known and used by Indigenous peoples before the arrival of white colonizers - red cedar, huckleberries, wapato, camus, biscuitroot, etc. - to create a "card" and play a game similar to Uno, with a unique set of rules. The rules, of course, are not the point. The point is to help children marinate in the wealth of scientific knowledge held by Indigenous people. To quote poet Karenne Wood, from which the lesson takes its title, "Nothing was discovered. Everything was already loved." [Description from Rethinking Schools.]

ISBN: 9780807763704 | Teachers College Press

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Teaching Critically About Lewis and Clark: Challenging Dominant Narratives in K-12 Curriculum | Zinn Education Project

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The first chapter of this excellent resource about the uses and misuses of Lewis and Clark in U.S. classrooms is "Beyond Adventure." This evocative title also says a lot about what is offered by the authors of a book that is at once critique (of the dominant Lewis and Clark adventure narrative) and curriculum (new lessons that help teachers move beyond).

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A ___ People’s History of the United States

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A ___ People’s History of the United States

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- A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

- An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

- An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz

- A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski

- A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross

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No one wants to believe how truly powerless they are. I was raised to love everything about America and after living abroad for a short time, found ouNo one wants to believe how truly powerless they are. I was raised to love everything about America and after living abroad for a short time, found out that not everything is wonderful. Not EVERYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING is wonderful. That is a trite, simple answer. We, as a country, have done so many things wrong, and we are not inclined to admit any of it. I feel cheated, truly cheated, that I was not taught SO MANY THINGS about the world, or taught outright lies. Now, in my fifties, I am trying to read all I can to fix that. Anne Cupero...more (less)

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No one wants to believe how truly powerless they are. I was raised to love everything about America and after living abroad for a short time, found ouNo one wants to believe how truly powerless they are. I was raised to love everything about America and after living abroad for a short time, found out that not everything is wonderful.

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Mapping

We strive to map Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages across the world in a way that goes beyond colonial ways of thinking in order to better represent how Indigenous people want to see themselves.

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Native Land is a resource to learn more about Indigenous territories, languages, lands, and ways of life. We welcome you to our site.

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For the parents!
The guiding principles that shape the way I teach social studies center on making all students feel welcome by seeing themselves represented and heard in all aspects of their learning. From reading, writing, math, science and art, I want students to foster a deep sense of self through challenging and critically engaging with topics presented in class. And yes, that is possible even in elementary! My goal is to teach your students that their history matters, their families matter and they matter. In my classroom, students will learn the way of the JEDI (justice, equity, diversity and inclusion) and how by applying their JEDI skills they can make the world a better place. As a class we will discuss topics like racism, heteronormativity, ableism and oppression. I know these topics can feel uncomfortable for even adults to talk about at times but our young people have the capacity to dive into these topics if they are scaffolded and supported effectively. We will look at these topics through picture books with diverse characters and challenges, discussing historical and current events and by including our community as an active member of our classroom. Everyone of my students and you as their caregiver bring unique and important cultural, historical and practical knowledge to our school and I would love every family to have the opportunity to share that with our class throughout the year if they so choose. This pandemic has brought many challenges to the way we live our lives and our children have been particularly impacted by it in ways we may not understand for years to come. The best way we can support them is to build their foundation even stronger than it was before. By teaching them to lean into discomfort, ask questions and celebrate the unique aspects of experiencing the world through different lenses we are giving them the tools they will need to thrive as they transition to each new chapter in their lives.

For the kiddos!
What does it mean to be a JEDI?

Justice- challenge dominant narratives and advocate for change

Equity- to behave in a way that considers everyone's needs and is fair

Diversity- celebrate the things that make us similar and different

Inclusion- create space so all identities feel included, represented and heard

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Critical Orientations for Indigenous Studies Curriculum

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Critical Orientations for Indigenous Studies Curriculum

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Orientations for Indigenous Studies Curriciulum-OR version

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Van Horn & Hawkman - 2018 - First comes love, then comes marriage equality

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Today on Election Day by Catherine Stier

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History Lab: George Washington and Slavery

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History Lab: George Washington and Slavery

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Ward & Mathews - 2017 - Examining evidence in a history lab - George Washington and Slavery

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SSYL - 2020 - Women’s Suffrage- Teaching Voting Rights using Multiple Perspectives and Timelines

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Suffrage Organizations: the National Association of Colored Women, Men's League for Women's Suffrage and the League of Women Voters
Chinese American Suffragette: Mabel Ping-Hua Lee
Indigenous Suffragette: Yankton Sioux Zitkála-Šá
Latinx Suffragette: Adelina “Nina” Otero-Warren
Black Suffragette: Mary Church Terrell

First woman and Black woman to be published- Phillis Wheatley

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Civil Rights for Black folx:
Bayard Rustin
Claudette Colvin
Edna Griffin
Marian Wright Edelman
Yuri Kochiyama (also advocated against Vietnam War and anti-asian discrimination)
Ruby Bridges
Viola Liuzzo
Joan Trumpeter Mulholland

Birmingham Children’s Crusade
Black Panther Party for Self Defense

Civil Rights for the LGBTQ+ community:
Marsha P. Johnson
Sylvia Rivera

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She Stood for Freedom by Loki Mulholland
Separate is Never Equal by Duncan Tonatiuh

The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist by Cynthia Levinson

¡Si, Se Puede! / Yes, We Can!: Janitor Strike in L.A. by Diana Cohn

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Movements:
- March for Our Lives fighting for gun control
- Mexican American Dreamers protesting deportations of undocumented young people
-Chicano Blowouts in 1968 East Los Angeles
-Indigenous youth as water protectors fighting for sovereignty and sustainability at Standing Rock.

Birmingham Children’s Crusade

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One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia (Black Panther Party)

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Japanese Internment and Latinx Civil Rights

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Japanese Internment and Latinx Civil Rights

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Silvia and Aki by Winifred Conkling
Dear Miss Breed by Joanne Oppenheim
The Bracelet by Yoshiko Uchida

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Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine
Mrs. Katz and Tush by Patricia Polacco

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Indian No More by Charlene Willing
I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day
Sharing our world: animals of the pacific northwest (science board book)

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How a string of custody battles over Native children became a federal lawsuit that threatens everything
from tribal sovereignty to civil rights.

About this Podcast

The award-winning documentary podcast This Land is back for season 2.
Host Rebecca Nagle reports on how the far right is using Native children to attack American Indian tribes and advance a conservative agenda.

ALM - as referred to in court documents - is a Navajo and Cherokee toddler. When he was a baby, a white couple from the suburbs of Dallas wanted to adopt him, but a federal law said they couldn't. The Brackeens' case would have been a normal adoption dispute, but then one of the most powerful corporate law firms in the United States took it on and helped the couple launch a federal lawsuit. Today, the lawsuit doesn't just impact the future of one child, or even the future of one law. It threatens the entire legal structure defending Native American rights. The second season of This Land is a timely exposé about how the far right is using Native children to quietly dismantle American Indian tribes and advance a conservative agenda.

View All Episodes

Host

Subscribe to our nightly newsletter

What A Day-what's happening, why it matters, and what you can do about it.

Related Photos

Click on the episode pages to see photos, links, and documents from our reporting, as well as additional audio and timelines of the case and custody battles.

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This Land is Crooked Media's 8-episode podcast series hosted by Rebecca Nagle about how a cut and dry homicide opened up an investigation into the treaty rights of five Native American tribes. Find out how this unique case could result in the largest restoration of tribal land in US history.

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More than 100 carefully selected lists of multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators. When you find a book at this site, please purchase it here. Our titles are linked to Bookshop. A portion of your book purchase helps sustain our work. New Releases Activism and Organizing Africa Afro-Latinx American Indians Arabs […]

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The following 58 titles were under consideration by the Rainbow List Committee during the month of October:

America, vol 1: The Life and Times of America Chavez by Gabby Rivera

America, vol 2: Fast and Fuertona by Gabby Rivera

La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibia Obono

Before I Let Go by Marieke Nijkamp

Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore

Burro Hills by Julia Lynn Rubin

Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

Dark Beneath the Ice by Amelinda Bérubé

DeadEndia: The Watcher's Test (Book 1) by Hamish Steele

Dead Weight by Terry Blas & Molly Muldoon

Furyborn by Claire Legrand

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Goldie Vance vol. 3 by Hope Larson

Goldie Vance vol. 4 by Hope Larson

The Handsome Girl and Beautiful Boy by B.T. Gottfried

Heart Foreger by Rin Chupeco

Heavy Vinyl by Carly Usdin

Here to Stay by Sara Farizan

Hocus Pocus and the All New Sequel by A.W. Jantha

I Felt a Funeral in My Brain by Will Walton

Inkmistress by Audrey Coulthurst

Jack of Hearts and Other Parts by L.C. Rosen

Jaya and Rasa: A Love Story by Sonia Patel

The Ladies Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

The Last Summer of the Garrett Girls by Jessica Spotswood

Like Vanessa by Tami Charles

A Line in the Dark by Malinda Lo

Love & Other Carnivorous Plants by Florence Gonsalves

Luisa - Now and Then by Carole Maurel and Mariko Tamaki

Lumberjanes Bonus Tracks by Holly Black

Mariam Sharma Hits the Road by Sheba Karim

Modern HERstory: Stories of women and nonbinary people writing history by Blair Imani

My Life as a Diamond by Jenny Manzer

Nate Expectations by Blair Imani

Odd One Out by Nic Stone

P.S. I Miss You by Jen Petro-Roy

People Like Us by Dana Mele

Pride Guide: A guide to Sexual and Social Health for LGBTQ Youth by Jo Langford

Pros of Cons by Alison Cherry, Lindsay Ribar and Michelle Schusterman

Prom to Remember by Sandy Hall

Pulp by Robin Talley

Quiver by Julia Watts

Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh

The Rules and Regulations of Mediating Myths and Magic by F.T. Lukens

Runaways Vol. 1 Find Your Way Home by Rainbow Rowell

Runaways Vol 2 Best Friends Forever by Rainbow Rowell

Secret Loves of Geeks ed. by Hope Hicholson

Starless by Jacqueline Carey

Summer of Us by Cecilia Vinesse

SuperMoon by H.A. Swain

That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E. K. Johnston

They She He Me: Free To Be by Maya + Matthew

This is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kacen Callender

Tiger's Watch by Julia Ember

Top Ten by Katie Cotugno

Trans Teen Survival Guide by Fox and Owl Fisher

What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

When Lights Left us by Leah Thomas

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The following 58 titles were under consideration by the Rainbow List Committee during the month of October: America, vol 1: The Life and Times of America Chavez by Gabby Rivera America, vol 2: Fast and Fuertona by Gabby Rivera La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibia Obono Before I Let Go by

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Primary resources for Oregon specific history lessons

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The Oregon Encyclopedia of History and Culture provides definitive, authoritative information written in accessible and literate language about the State of Oregon, including significant individuals, places, institutions, events, peoples, and artistic expressions.

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Finding Primary Sources for Teachers and Students

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Finding Primary Sources Primary Sources from DocsTeach Thousands of online primary source documents from the National Archives to bring the past to life as classroom teaching tools. National Archives Catalog Find online primary source materials for classroom & student projects from the National Archive's online catalog (OPA).

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Impact of westward expansion on Latinx and Indigenous communities

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Latino Americans | Episode 1: Foreigners in Their Own Land | PBS

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Teach students about privilege

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We are halfway through our presentation at a conference. Participants are buzzing about the simulation they just experienced and asking procedural questions, sharing their responses and reactions. Then the inevitable happens. Someone asks, "How do you handle your students feeling guilt or shame? I don't want to make my students feel bad." We freeze. We look at each other. Our response? "We're afraid they won't feel bad."

We need our students to feel something because students will not truly understand or even engage with the dynamics at play unless they have an emotional involvement-including discomfort. In fact, discomfort is often where learning begins. It is good for our students to wrestle with it, especially those who live with great privilege. Beyond that, our simulations are never about assigning individual blame. They are about recognizing and experiencing (briefly, temporarily, and minutely) the systemic effects of privilege. Without that realization, students will be allowed to think that oppression is disconnected from them or someone else's problem.

The simulation in question is our pom-pom activity. We created it to attempt to simulate the dynamics of cyclical wealth and power and disrupt students' belief that poor people just need to work harder in order to no longer be poor. As co-teachers at a progressive private school in Washington, DC, we tried to teach with a social justice lens in all of our curriculum. This means we continually questioned whose voice is/is not heard, or who is advantaged/disadvantaged by institutions and systems. This means that when we taught economics, we explicitly addressed cyclical poverty, wealth, and oppression, and investigated who is (and who is not) valued in economic systems. The simulation we created was one of the most dynamic learning experiences we have ever had with fifth graders. Before we explain it, however, a few words of caution.

First, while we love when students have fun, that was not the intention of this activity. In fact, many of our students did not find this experience "fun," instead feeling a mixture of anger, guilt, and shame. Secondly, this simulation was woven within an explicit instructional framework and should not be taught in a "constructivist" way. Cyclical poverty is a real concept that we can define-we do not want students to leave this experience with fuzzy understandings of that. We did not just toss the simulation into our day but planned meticulously for this experience with explicit pre- and post-reflections. Lastly, students' misconceptions and questions should never be left floating in the air after this simulation as they need multiple ways throughout the curriculum to think through their experience, make connections, and receive feedback. Without these caveats, we fear (and know) that the simulation and others like it will be used as an "exciting" experience that students are left to sort out by themselves. This explicit instruction also helps make the information accessible for all of our students.

The Simulation
There are three rounds to the pom-pom simulation. Round One consists of collecting as many differently sized and colored pom-poms as they can in two minutes. Pom-poms, of course, represent wealth and power. There is a catch, however. Students receive slips of paper with "assignments" on them with instructions for how they can gather pom poms (e.g., You can use both of your hands, but you may not move your feet at all). Only two people are allowed to use their hands and move around as they typically would. We also caution all students that if you touch or bump another body, you lose pom-poms. This is a safety requirement but also makes it harder for those already limited by their instructions.

After setting up the simulation and answering questions, we start a timer and tell them to go. Once pom-pom collection is over, we put students into three groups based on the number of pom-poms they collected: Group 1 includes a few students (out of 26 total) who have "great wealth and power," Group 2 has another few students who have "some wealth and power," and Group 3 is everyone else with "little wealth and power." For debriefing, we ask students to move to different areas of the room for each group to discuss Round 1. Group 1 moves to the biggest, most comfortable area. Group 2 moves to a smaller but still comfortable area. Group 3 is corralled into an uncomfortable corner of the room. Students are typically very engaged in the debrief, animatedly talking about how the process was "not fair" and how they deserved another chance. Group 3 students often loudly complain about the instructions they had, saying things like, "I could only use my two pointer fingers behind my back!" or "This is not fair-why are we all smushed back here?" As they air their grievances, we say, "We hear you complaining that Round One was not fair, so we will give you another chance in Round Two."

Round Two consists of making "baskets" of crumpled up balls of paper with each group using different color paper. We tell the third group with little wealth and power that they will have an advantage in the next round due to their large number of members. Every time one member of the group makes a "basket," each member of the group will earn another pom-pom. There are cheers when this is announced, but the celebration is short lived as we show each group where they have to stand to shoot. Group 1 is in front and Group 2 is behind them, and Group 3 is in the back of the room. Naturally, Group 1 makes many baskets, while Group 2 and 3 rarely make any. During this round, we witness some very creative teamwork, as well as enterprising blocking tactics. After Round 2 ends, we tend to hear more frustration about how "unfair" the whole situation was and many requests for a new "fair" round. "We couldn't even see the baskets. And Group 1 blocked our shots! They already have so many pom-poms." "It was basically impossible. I don't even know why we tried."

We move onto Round 3 during which each group gets to decide what they think is a "fair" system to distribute all of the pom-poms. We give them five minutes to discuss with their group and come up with a system they support. Each group must choose a spokesperson to present their plan to the class with one minute to make a pitch for their group's plan. What students do not know until voting happens is that voting is weighted (Group 1 members get five votes each, Group 2 gets two each, and Group gets a half vote each) to represent the influence that wealth confers. When students see the unequal voting power, Group 3 is livid. They planned on winning the vote by virtue of their large number of people. Group 1 is pleased as they planned on retaining their "wealth and power" and now had the votes to do so. When we voted, Group 1's proposal got the most votes after calculating the weighting. The other students were frustrated. Group 1 was pleased-they had started out trying to think of a "fair" system, but soon realized "it doesn't say it has to be fair." They also were influenced by two members who repeatedly said, "Stay wealthy! We should keep our power!"

The Debrief
At this point, we stopped the simulation for a debrief. First, we asked students to verbally share their reactions and feelings, limiting them to one comment per person and giving them time to reflect.

When I first saw the amounts each group got, it made me feel like the people in the third group were being treated like they aren't humans... ½ a vote. ½ human! Half not real. Not seen. When the people with more wealth get so many more votes, it feels like just because they have more, they also should get more of everything always. We are the people working the hardest, but we can't get the things they have that we want and need. (Student from Group 3)

I do agree with [student's name] that it wasn't fair. But our group was trying to make it so that we would still be at the top of the ladder, so it wouldn't be as fair-you had to be strategic and life isn't always fair. (Student from Group 1)

Once everyone shared, we reminded students that this was a simulation and therefore not the same as actually experiencing poverty, discrimination, etc. We do not suddenly understand how others in these situations feel because we did an activity about pom-poms. This reminder is essential to avoid trivializing or minimizing oppression or injustice as most people (whether they are fifth grader or adults) find having perspective difficult when they are frustrated. After this, we asked them to make connections to real life-both in the debrief discussion and later as a homework reflection. 1 A sample of their responses is included below.
[T]hough the law says everyone can vote, there are examples in history when our voting wasn't fair. Even now, some people can't vote because they don't have access to it. I think that was an accurate representation of those with more or less power because there are less super wealthy people then super unwealthy people but if someone super wealthy says they are doing something it might sway other people to do the same. I think an example is endorsements during the election. I used to think that if you work hard you can get wealth but now, I think there is more to it. I think this because If you are born without wealth you will have a disadvantage and you will be stuck behind someone who started with a lot of resources and wealth.
We wrote this simulation as an antidote to the idea that people experiencing poverty should just "work hard" and in hopes of simulating the experiences and effects of privilege (or not having privilege), but students have made connections to ableism, racism, sexism, classism, politics, and more in their written reflections.

Considerations
For teachers considering using simulations like this as a strategy for social justice education in "elite" settings, we recommend the following essential elements:

Simulations should be long enough for students to feel emotions/responses genuinely (e.g., guilty for watching friends in an "unfair" situation or frustrated and ready to give up). Even after an hour, students will report that a simulation was "endless," "unbearable," and "went on forever."

Simulations must have an explicit, real world analog.2 Our pom-pom simulation occurs in the midst of our economics unit, after we teach students about the distribution of wealth in the United States. They often think of other applications on their own, especially as we continue to learn more economic systems.

Try to have multiple rounds so that students can feel and observe the cyclical, repetitive, and defeating nature of the experience. If it is too short, it will just be a funny or odd activity and easily shrugged off. Multiple rounds also give students the possibility of redemption or "fresh start," so they often react with frustration when they thought it was finally going to be fair but is the same dynamics all over again.

Debrief is key. Start with feelings and observations, move to reflection and connections, and end with identifying how your thinking has changed and next steps. Without a debrief, the students simply played a game or did an activity, so the application must be explicit!

We have students share out orally immediately after the simulation about how they felt and what choices they made. Every student is given a chance to speak. Students are allowed to pass, and we encourage them to add to the discussion instead of repeating. We have them journal immediately after this share to get out their thoughts and reactions and complete a question sheet for homework. The sharing out, discussing, and journaling take at least thirty minutes and we usually have to cut the discussion short (or at least pause it until the next class).

Make sure to add a disclaimer that it is a simulation that only lasted an hour or so and is NOT the same as the actual experience. If this is not our lived reality, we cannot fully understand how others who are actually in the situation feel.

Simulations are critical teaching tools to make learning relevant, personal, tangible, and felt. We become numb to stories of injustice or misfortune that happen to others and report sadness or outrage, but soon move on. When we experience an injustice, even in small ways, those emotions stay with us far longer. When students have an experience like this, they use these feelings as prior knowledge that can be activated when confronted with new vocabulary and complex content. In addition, everyone (including children) already has preconceived ideas: people are poor because they are lazy, racism was "fixed" by Martin Luther King, only bad people believe stereotypes, etc. Once we have established these "facts," it is very hard to change our minds about things we already "know." Experiencing something that disproves our preconceived notions is key because it forces us to acknowledge what we think we know, and it shows how it is not necessarily true. It also demonstrates to our students the ways in which they can grapple with some of the more unequal or unjust aspects of our society.
Sometimes, understanding concepts in our world like this might feel bad-and we won't avoid that. Concepts like oppression or cyclical wealth are painful. It does feel bad. But this is teaching, and this is learning. And one thing the students consistently see in this experience is that their learning is vast and connected to the actual world around them-and that their learning and voices matter.
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Interview with Gabby Arca and Nina Sethi

Katy: What was your philosophy as a teaching team?

Gabby: What Nina and I did really well was that "one-two-punch": you know you're loved and supported-- and you will be challenged and near tears and you're going to write in your journal "I can't stand my teachers" right now and then we'll be there for you two seconds later when you come in from recess after a fight with your friend. It's not a constant either/or-it's a both/and. You are challenged because you are cared for.

Nina: It takes time. Someone might be upset in the moment. Hopefully, later on-you may not hear about it-it sinks in. We were very transparent about what we were doing-if you walked into our classroom, it was very obvious. Being two women of color, people did not like certain things and sent us emails-such a wonderfully passive aggressive tool to throw a compliment in there but CC the head of school! When push comes to shove, we've had administrators back us up. We would often invite parents to come in and talk to us-while they were super uncomfortable, they knew we shared facts. One of my favorites was when a mom came in because her white son said that she was racist and she was crying. She clearly wanted us to reassure her, but we said, "It sounds like you were." A year later, she told me she had learned a lot from her son being in our class and tries to incorporate what she learned into her Sunday school. I appreciated that. It took her awhile and I'm sure it was painful for her son to call her racist.

Gabby: You also can't deny when dynamic learning is happening-a classroom has a buzz. We built a reputation, families that expressed their appreciation and kids who loved us, and we had the administration's backing. I think a lot of that was the power of two of us. What private schools need to do is put two teachers of color together. That setup gives safety, support, and power that you can't beat. We also understood this is one way to make change-we have access to super wealthy white people. The parents won't listen to us or talk to us, but we had access to their babies. And their babies loved us, and we got them thinking and asking questions-and they will listen to their kid who brings home really important questions. Then when that mom came in swinging that finger, crying, saying her kid called her racist-usually that feels really terrible as a teacher, but reframing those moments as successes because that's what they really are. That, in combination with what I call "speaking it into existence." We'd say, "Thank you so much for being in this work." Even if they weren't, they would pretend because that's part of whiteness and we know that and would use it. Also, Nina was especially good at framing our tough content as "rigorous," which was totally factual. Talking about the world around us and thinking critically is higher level work and there's nothing private school families love more than their kid doing something their friends' kids aren't doing.

Nina: Just make it about the kids. "Your student asked a really great question and I gave him facts about his question that he was curious about."

Gabby: We'd also be sincerely excited for the kids and say, "Gosh, our generation doesn't know how to talk about these things" and parents would agree, and we'd talk about how proud we were that their kids could.

Nina: I've had some success referring to our mission. It requires a lot of patience and I reserve my patience for children.

Gabby: We would retreat to our rooms sometime, which is not a solution, but when you walk through the hallway and encounter multiple microaggressions-we're saving our patience and we want to keep our job and the world is the world on top of that, so it's hard to always find the right words. In my experience, white people need the exact right words in the exact right tone. It can take a lot to be heard, even when you're trying to be supportive. People could come to our room literally any time, but rarely did-I struggled with that feeling of that diversity eye-roll vibe. At conferences is when I would feel most valued-when people would say "This is really great" and saw how complicated and important this type of education is. It requires two women of color, who have been in a range of spaces and studied a great deal with degrees from "elite" institutions who know a lot of layers about a lot of things-quality social justice education requires a lot for us to pull these things together and make it work.

Katy: What dimensions of anti-oppressive education were especially tough to tackle?

Nina: At well-meaning white liberal progressive schools there is a lot of "Don't say that-we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings," but that's not why we don't use that language. Dehumanizing someone debases all of us and lowers our collective humanity. Wealth and inequality also dehumanize people. The reason we wrote the simulation is because we had students who would talk about poor people and say, "They're poor because they don't work hard." They're fifth graders, so they're just repeating what they hear their parents say. And we're like, "Okay, that's one opinion." We never directly said, "Your dad is wrong." We would say, "Why don't we try this and see what we all think?" And then students could reflect on their own. A lot came from our students' questions. In terms of what was difficult, talking about disability-we did our best, but I always felt like that the kids were still very concrete about it.

Gabby: Disability is so complex. We really wanted to avoid the pity or overcomer narratives and struggled to find the way to do so successfully. One of our good friends was in a wheelchair (she passed away in 2019, we love you Anne Thomas!) and she told our students that she would not have liked it if people held the door for her. Wealth took some guts. That first year we had a few Black kids in our class and almost all were very wealthy. We thought of those kiddos and families first and how they wanted to present and be. The dynamics of looking at the wealth gap was really important because white kids would be confused: "Race means people don't have money, but my friend here is rolling in it!" The other thing that was hard, but we were both jazzed about, is that the justice lens we have is incessant. It would be the choices we were making on a rolling basis, both of us figuring out how we were going to pull a book or write a simulation because we heard a kid say something. We missed stuff, for sure, but it was incessant.

Katy: Talk to me about assessment, or how you calibrated when to push harder or pull back.

Nina: We always had written reflections. Sometimes they got something wrong because they're ten and made a connection that doesn't make sense, so we would clear that up. Other times, students would say, "I don't want to learn about this anymore-it's too painful." Depending on who they are, we would take that different ways. And some kids just aren't there yet-they can't make the connections yet because they're so concrete. That's okay.

Gabby: Sometimes we had to connect the dots for them because it was too important to leave hanging. Another way we would know it was working is when we would hear them start correcting each other, gently and kindly, taking on certain language. We would look at each other and think, "That kid really gets humanity." And then we had drawings and writing reflections in case they didn't want to share what they were thinking with the whole group. It's kind of "spidey" sense subtle, watching your kids having reactions to things. It's truly listening to your kids.

Katy: A common question is if you're teaching them racism or homophobia because they wouldn't otherwise know about it. What's your response to that line of thinking?

Nina: That feels like if we hide under the bed, then nothing exists.

Gabby: One thing that is really sincere with both of us is that we respect kids as brilliant thinkers. That question is disrespectful to kids. Time and time again, our students said what they liked about our teaching was that we treated them as real people who got to learn about the world. It doesn't mean throw everything at them-but it does mean respect how thoughtful they can be. We definitely got parent complaints that we were "scaring" kids, which we had to debunk and work through and honor all at the same time. But the kids were savvy. They already knew at ten how to be avoidant of race. Sometimes we would prompt them, and they would act like they don't know-especially in a progressive crowd of kids. They actually do know, and they've learned from adults so they're doing a level of pivoting that's pretty impressive. Regardless, they need the vocabulary, the frameworks, and the time to make connections with this content. They live on Earth.

Katy: What messages did you give kids about their obligations?

Nina: We ended the year with a storytelling unit where kids would perform their stories and we would talk about the importance of using your voice, about how some of our voices are heard more than others and what obligation that leaves us with.

Gabby: Some of the pushback we would get, especially in our conversations around race, was parents saying, "My kid comes home and thinks everything is their fault. You guys did this to them." One thing we would be explicit about is that they are ten. It wasn't removing this sense of obligation to be a good human, which was a non-negotiable in our room. They got that you have a voice, but so does everyone else-all of us are speaking up for humanity when and how we can. We didn't nail the obligation piece because we had too many kids who were so loving that they would have thought, "I must wake up at 6am and cry about this every morning!" And that isn't their weight to carry in that way. They didn't start racism, so our work is to work against it-but it is not you.

Katy: Were you explicit with kids about transitioning to places where that baseline expectation isn't there?

Gabby: We would talk about it as them having dissonance-noticing what didn't match. A lot of them had dissonance from classroom to home, which was tricky. I struggled with how confusing that would be for some of our kids. We felt for them. People can spiral down being annoyed or frustrated with parents and it's really not effective. We tried to just celebrate how awesome the kid was being so they'll expand their realities through their engagement and critical thinking. Their life is going to be swimming in these different spaces and they just got this huge dose of Women-of-Color-Education-Land intensely for a year. We can't make every connection for them as they move on-we have to trust that the intensive year gave them something and they're going to connect to it and build. There were hard moments. Every year I've ever taught, a kid has said the "n" word at least once and it's so disappointing. We were good keeping in mind that they are ten years old, but there were still moments of treating them like a full human. I remember having to tell a kid that they hurt my feelings: "I'm shattered inside by what you did, and I need a moment before we can talk through this." Maybe that's crummy but remembering they're ten and celebrating them and then owning how you've hurt someone.

Katy: Is that the flip side of respecting them?

Gabby: Yes. But I can't imagine a teacher having said that to me! But that's the learning. If I took that away from them, they miss it. We respect them enough-we want them to have the whole learning process.

Nina: That's what we're fighting against. If, at the end of the day, everything is okay for you-well, it may for you, but what about everyone else?

Gabby: In my house, we say, "It's not me versus you-it's us versus the problem."

Katy: Whenever I visit private schools, someone pulls me aside and says, "I care about social justice. I shouldn't work here." Have you ever felt that way?

Nina: Before I worked at Sheridan, I taught in public schools. I know not all public schools are the same, but I felt like I was hurting children due to high stakes tests and inappropriate tasks. We weren't encouraged to talk about race, even though the city was really segregated. I wanted to work at a progressive school and the most progressive ones are private. We have a lot more flexibility and freedom. I think about how I'm teaching kids who have access to power and it's really important that they know about these systems of oppression. So many public school teachers are doing so many amazing things-just the constraints of the system really got me down. Know what's best for you and be kind to yourself-so many teachers aren't, and they burn out.

Gabby: If you understand systemic oppression, there is such an opportunity for change in terms of having access to folks in the top 1% during such formative years. It's powerful and you can't deny that. Beyond that, creating a space that inundated these messages-even in the best public school, I can't imagine having that freedom. I will also say, we applied to different jobs every year. And we were not in the minority-we have other friends of color who worked at private schools and we all talked to get a pulse on where you can be treated well. We know our value and then we know what mission statements are trendy at private schools-we're well-educated women of color.

Nina: Every day at Sheridan I'm reminded that representation matters. I was explaining it was okay to say "Indian American" and how I call myself Asian American and how Asians are the majority of the world. We had a student who was East Asian adopted by white parents and the next week I heard her say, "I'm Asian American" for the first time. No one had ever modeled that you could say that because everyone she knows is white.
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Gabby: And the modeling-that intimacy. We love these kids. We love them to pieces. They knew, the families knew. That's what kept us afloat even when it was hard. For me, the narrative so often goes around the white kids when we talk about this. But there are other kiddos in those rooms and I think we always thought of them first. It was really powerful for us and for them that we were there for them. They also deserve women of color teachers who love them fiercely and can give them the tools they need as they navigate the world so they can value themselves and self-advocate and all of that. A lot of times it sounds like "we're talking about private schools, we're talking about white kids," but so much of the fight is for them.

Gabby Arca is currently the Special Education teacher at a bilingual public elementary school in Oregon. She's passionate about supporting all kids in being their best selves, and in honing their voice for themselves and others.

Nina Sethi is currently a 3rd grade teacher, the Co-Teaching Faciliator, and a faculty facilitator of a Students of Color affinity group at an independent school. Learn more about Nina & Gabby's work at teachpluralism.squarespace.com and @teachpluralism.

REFERENCES
Jones, S. (2020). Ending curriculum violence. Teaching Tolerance, 64. https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/spring-2020/ending-curriculum-violence

1 The discussion prompts included the following questions: Why were some people given more votes than others? Was this an accurate representation of those with more or less power in the world? What examples can you think of where this might play out in the world? The homework was to respond to the following prompt: "I used to think ___, but now I think ___."

2 Editors' note: This point Gabby and Nina make about analogs with real world applications is crucial. We do not recommend engaging students in simulations that directly replicate injustice (e.g., holding a mock slave auction). Also, be careful never to assign students roles because of their real-world identities so as not to retraumatize or tokenize them. See Stephanie Jones' (2020) work on curriculum violence for more on this.

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Teaching for Social Justice at the Elementary Level

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We are halfway through our presentation at a conference. Participants are buzzing about the simulation they just experienced and asking procedural questions, sharing their responses and reactions. Then the inevitable happens. Someone asks, "How do you handle your students feeling guilt or shame? I don't want to make my students feel bad."

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/17tLDrDMBKSSCzH2wWopoXjBhDhuMzJ7jVjaglj-eYeY/edit

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15VO_2lVBRvjt_gmhaM67fcLNgHSInzPzJAPpz0L1iv0/edit#slide=id.p3

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Teaching Global Warming to 3rd Graders

By Rowan Shafer

Illustrator: Erik Ruin

Erik Ruin

The room was bustling with 28 3rd graders diligently working in pairs and practicing their scripts for next week's "People's Climate Summit." The 8- and 9-year-olds were discussing parts, devising props and costumes, and sounding out Bengali words and scientific terms.

"Ms. Shafer, what is a gla-ker?"

Paris, her partner Adrian, and I looked at their script and sounded out the word "glacier" together.

"I remember what a glacier is. That's what's melting in the North Pole!" Adrian exclaimed.

"Exactly, Adrian. But does your character live in the North Pole?"

"No, Nancy Tanaka lives in Oregon," he responded. We looked at a map of North America. Most of my New Orleanian students hadn't heard of Oregon before.

"I didn't know we had glaciers, are they melting here too? Isn't that bad?" Paris asked.

This was one moment, of many, when I wondered how to answer an 8-year-old.

When I began brainstorming this unit, the 2015 United Nations Climate Conference in Paris had just ended; I thought about how I could use this significant event as a way to teach my students about climate change. Was this global concern too big and abstract to address with 3rd graders? How could I bring up an issue so complex, so gloom and doom? How could I not? I was concerned about how environmental issues are often taught to young children in a way that is artificially divorced from social concerns, and I felt learning about the pressing issue of climate change could not wait until my students were older.

I knew my students would have myriad experiences relating to this crucial topic, and that most of their knowledge wasn't coming from school. In Louisiana, there are pretty clear real-life examples of climate change negatively affecting my students in their own backyard. Changing weather patterns, sea levels, and temperatures influenced the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina; rapid coastal erosion - at the rate of a football field per hour - is compounded by rising sea levels and the continued destruction of wetlands for human use (including for the Gulf Coast oil industry); and "Cancer Alley" is the nearby petrochemical industrial corridor in predominantly poor, African American communities between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

While most white and middle-class children attend private schools in New Orleans, my public charter has prioritized creating an institution that reflects the diverse neighborhood around it. With a majority African American and low-income student population, and a full-inclusion model, my school is known as one of the most diverse public charters in the city. I wanted to not just teach what climate change is, but to frame it as a social and environmental justice issue my students could directly relate to and take action to change.

The inspiration for this unit came from Bill Bigelow's article "Climate Change Mixer" in Rethinking Schools' A People's Curriculum for the Earth. In the introductory activity, each student takes on the role of someone affected by climate change and, walking around the room, meets people from the world as they tell their stories based on short autobiographies. I was inspired by the active, yet profound way high school students were learning about the climate crisis and believed my 3rd-grade students could too. I created a unit around a "People's Climate Summit" in which 3rd graders would present mostly underepresented voices of people around the world in a conference-like group performance. The conference was the culmination of students' learning about the topic, and led to students taking action around Congress' upcoming decision to adopt the U.N. agreement.

Setting the Stage

To begin this unit, I showed students a short clip from the U.N. conference panning all of the global leaders as they announced the agreement in various languages. "Hundreds of leaders who live in different places and speak different languages came together to make a decision about something that affects the whole world," I explained. Animated chatter stirred in the classroom; many students excitedly pointed out President Obama on the screen. "These leaders from around the world had a big decision to make about the whole Earth. But only the leaders from each country were there. Not everyone's voices were heard," I told them, setting up a scenario. "It is going to be your job, in the next month, to prepare for our own conference where you will represent regular people from all over the world. This is so important that you're each going to get to write President Obama and tell him what you think he should do. But first, we need to learn about something called global warming."

Big Issues, Small Kids

"Who knows what global warming is?" Some students had never heard the term before while others had a lot to share. They referenced pollution from cars and garbage, concerns about endangered species, and changing temperatures at the beach.

During the first half of this unit, I focused on providing the scientific background students needed in order to interact with the larger concepts of climate change (such as the composition of the Earth's atmosphere and phases of matter). These were big, abstract ideas for 3rd graders. The notion that the air around us is composed of different molecules, let alone that this is changing, was hard to grasp.

"The atmosphere is all around us, it's the air we breathe. We can't see it, but without it, humans, animals, and plants couldn't live on Earth. It's made up of tiny parts called molecules. Who's heard of oxygen before?" Lots of hands shot up. "That's one of the molecules! A really important one that plants breathe in is called carbon dioxide." I used lots of visuals, including YouTube videos like Climate Change for Kids and Climate Change (according to a kid), to help students understand the science behind global warming. The videos shied away from a lot of scientific vocabulary and instead used animated representations like color-coded cartoon molecules of greenhouse gases to demonstrate how industrial sources are increasing the "blanket" of these molecules around the Earth, trapping heat inside. I used these visuals to build a common vocabulary and a conceptual understanding of the human impact of global warming: We are upsetting a natural balance of the Earth by producing more and more greenhouse gases that keep heat from the sun inside our atmosphere, while cutting down plants that use up carbon dioxide. The result is that our planet is getting warmer, which is causing dangerous changes. I then had students illustrate their own diagrams of global warming as a way to assess their understanding. Most drew pictures of the Earth getting hotter and hotter due to ball-like molecules of carbon dioxide forming a barrier and balls of solar energy bouncing around inside. Once I knew my students had a common foundation, I presented the problem of global warming as both an environmental and social issue.

"Why is this a problem?" I asked. "Is this a problem just for animals?"

"No," Dante piped in. "We're polluting the air, and people can't breathe. Sometimes in other countries people have to wear masks because the air is bad to breathe." This really concerned students, and I could tell it made an impression on them.

"My mom said Hurricane Katrina happened because of global warming." So far all of the class examples were about abstract, faraway places, so I was grateful to Janelle for bringing the issue close to home.

Instead of discussing scientific concepts we hadn't studied, such as how warmer waters influence air masses and weather patterns, I decided to focus on the connection between the storm surge, rising sea levels, and coastal erosion. So the next day I started with a question: "When ice melts and melts and melts in Antarctica, where does it go?" They were stumped. I tried again. "When an ice cube melts in your soda, what happens?" It gets watery, they agreed. "So when glaciers melt into the ocean what happens to the ocean?"

"There's more water!" Paris exclaimed.

I used this analogy to help students visualize global rising sea levels and coastal land loss. To illustrate one of the ways climate change is affecting our state, I showed a video from the U.S. Geological Survey showing coastal land loss in Louisiana in fast motion over 50 years. You can literally see peninsulas about two hours from New Orleans shrink to tiny islands. "The land we're losing in Louisiana is our natural sponge to soak up huge waves from hurricanes before they get to where people live. Now," I asked the class, "do you think all those global leaders who met in Paris had an important job to do?"

Adapting the Activity for Elementary School Students

I knew right away that a mixer in which students walk around the room and introduce their characters to each other was too advanced for my class; I needed to create a structure in which I could guide them through the complicated ideas each character would present. Making this into a presentation with an audience could motivate students to take more ownership over their role. So I modified the mixer into a performance modeled after an actual conference.

Next, I set about adapting the content. I rewrote each script from Bigelow's original high school mixer, replacing big words and concepts with more accessible ones. There were a few parts that were just too complex, but I tried to preserve the big ideas as much as possible. For example, part of a Russian oil executive's write-up (one of the characters who "benefits" from climate change) read, "Already our competitors in Norway - Statoil - are working on project Snow White, which will generate an estimated $70 billion in liquefied natural gas over the next 30 years. I'm not going to sit back and let the Norwegians or anyone else beat me out of this new business opportunity." I changed this to "A company in Norway is expected to make $70 billion from drilling in their part of the Arctic. It's not fair for them to be the only ones to make money, I have a business to run!" I understood my students still weren't going to internalize everything each character talked about, so I planned several ways to scaffold students through these concepts as we went through the preparation and performance. I also adapted the script so two students played one character together. The length was more suitable for 3rd graders and also provided each student a peer helper.

To introduce the activity to the class, we revisited the idea that there were many people around the world whose voices were not heard at the Paris summit. We watched Democracy Now! clips of groups protesting outside the summit, such as Indigenous women from Ecuador and youth leaders from some of the countries most affected by climate change. To really engage students in the importance of their role, I wanted to appeal to their sense of fairness. I used a clip of Kichwa activist Nina Gualinga from Ecuador to get my students thinking about the injustice of only a few making a decision for the whole world:

Indigenous people should be inside the actual negotiations, but we are not. Those who are actually negotiating right now, they might not have to live with the consequences of climate change, but I will. I will have to live with it. My sister, my little brother, and my children, they're all going to have to live with the consequences of climate change.

The next day I told students we were going to have a people's climate conference right here at our school and that each of them would be representing a real person's voice. "Similar to the United Nations Climate Conference that happened in Paris last month," I read from the PowerPoint I had ready, "all your characters will meet at a conference and hear each different perspective. You will share your character's experiences of climate change, and hear how other characters feel similarly or different." I added, "There are also people who think climate change can mean good things for them. Some of you will be representing people in businesses who are making money from letting climate change continue. Is this wrong? You will have to decide what you think by listening to all the voices at the summit."

I wanted to give my students some context for the people they would be representing and meeting at the conference, so I decided to organize each of the characters by continent. On a slide of each continent I highlighted the location of each country. I then paired the maps of country locations with pictures of people (I tried to include non-stereotypical pictures of children) from that nation. After showing the pictures, I addressed issues of cultural representation in our performance.

"Your characters are based off of real people whose voices weren't heard at the conference in Paris. One way we're going to respect their voices is by not making up things about them we don't know," I instructed. "No one is going to use accents in their performances, OK? Because we don't know what the real people sound like, it's not respectful to guess."

By the time we'd gone through the slideshow, viewing where each character was from, the students were hooked and couldn't wait to get their parts. I passed out the role descriptions I had purposefully assigned to each pair considering students' interests and strengths. Some scripts were even designed with a specific student in mind. For example, one might have simpler vocabulary for a student who was learning English as a second language, or a short passage for a student with autism to recite with prompts. I started to circulate, checking for conceptual understandings particular to each reading.

I also encouraged students to think of props they might bring to help illustrate something about their character. I used "clues from the text" to steer most students toward props like a basket of apples for Oregon farmers.

The People's Climate Conference

We spent three days preparing for the performances. Students were more engaged than I had anticipated. Joseph, for example, one of my most struggling readers, came back after the weekend and had memorized his whole script, proudly reciting the Bengali river names he practiced. "I am the mayor of Antapara, a village in Bangladesh," he proclaimed. "Antapara is on the Brahmaputra River that flows from the Himalaya Mountains in India." Matthew was bursting to share the research he had done at home about the Ecuadorian Amazon, "I saw pictures of just dirt and mud where there used to be rainforest and homes, and those trees made the air cleaner too." Students worked with their partners to research and make the flag of their country, which, stapled to a straw, they stuck into Play-Doh on the music stand I fashioned as a podium for their presentations.

On performance day, our classroom was transformed into a conference room, with the chairs in rows facing the four-desk panel and podium. Performers were called up by their region, and sat at the desks facing the audience until it was their turn to speak. I projected the slideshow in the background, to help visually orient audience members to where we were in the world. As students performed, I wrote new keywords or significant phrases from their speeches on the whiteboard to help guide our debrief, and aid struggling students identify the big ideas on their guided notes handout.

When they were part of the audience, each student had a scavenger hunt handout on their clipboard that was also adapted from A People's Curriculum for the Earth. This was to help students organize the overload of information from these presentations into a recognizable, game-like framework. Students were asked to identify someone who is affected by climate change in a different way from their character or someone whose life will change because of climate change. Following each performer, I gave students a few minutes to finish scribbling down ideas or reading over what I wrote on the board. Then I asked volunteers to share one of the "find someone who" questions they answered and used this as a jumping-off point for a dialogue about the effects of climate change.

Matthew and Jaelyn represented Moi Enomenga, a Huaorani leader from Eastern Ecuador: "We say, 'leave the oil in the ground.' Oil kills the Huaorani through pollution and kills everyone through global warming. Why do rich companies come here? People from the richest and most crowded countries come here to take our resources."

I wrote phrases on the board from their speech such as "spilled millions of gallons of oil," "toxic rivers and streams," and "oil burned to make energy." Then I provided background information about oil extraction, describing the process of drilling and transporting oil across oceans to refineries. Paris made a connection to several oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico and a barge spill on the Mississippi in New Orleans. "The air smelled so bad," she said. Students responded to Enomenga's statements about rich countries exploiting poor countries. "They don't even want the oil!" Matthew exclaimed. "But getting it ruins their homes and poisons their water, and then they don't get any money. It's not fair."

We talked briefly after each performance, but I saved a lot of the conversations for the next few days. The purpose of the debrief was to unpack what students learned from the conference using their handouts and my notes on the board. It was an informal conversation in which I used students' questions and comments to draw a global picture of the climate crisis and the responses to it. I also explained some concepts I could tell were not understood during the performances, such as the new possibility of drilling in the Arctic or the processes of extracting, transporting, and storing fossil fuels and uranium.

Elementary Students Take Action

One performance discussed at length during our debrief was about Tuvalu. Aaron and Janelle, playing the prime minister of Tuvalu, shared that there will be no more Tuvalu in 20 years. "How can anyone say that people in Tuvalu should suffer so that people on higher land can continue to fill our atmosphere with carbon dioxide by driving their big cars and buying stuff made halfway around the world?" Janelle implored. "This is sick."

These words really stuck out to the class, and they referred over and over again to the disappearance of this Pacific island because of the choices of rich countries to not curb fossil fuel consumption.

I used this as an opportunity to talk about the institutional versus individual changes that curbing climate change would require because I wanted to make sure my students left this unit with a bigger picture. I steered the solutions we discussed to focus on larger systems such as governments holding polluters accountable, and whole countries curbing emissions. "It's important that we make sure we turn off the lights when we don't need them, or that we use fewer plastic water bottles. But that's not enough to help Tuvalu," I told them. "Prime Minister Sopoaga knows that it's companies that pull the oil out of the ground, or use energy in huge amounts that can make a big difference. Moi Enomenga knows that some of these American businesses go to other countries like Ecuador and damage his communities to get materials to sell, while they stay poor. But we can speak up and speak out like your characters, and tell these companies to change or tell the government to make them change."

The empathy that came from embodying characters whose voices were marginalized led to outrage and a sense of purpose. At this point, one of my students suggested that the biggest polluters - China and the United States - should be paying the people of Tuvalu when they have to move. I also shared videos of local environmental justice activists fighting oil refineries in mostly rural, poor, Black neighborhoods of Louisiana.

This unit illustrates my constant struggle with how to present and discuss complex issues with young kids, particularly because there is no easy solution for something like climate change. I wanted to discuss a relevant issue without reinforcing a feeling of helplessness. When dealing with such issues with elementary students, I tend to focus on education as the way students can take action because this can take the form of many age-appropriate activities like writing, performing, and/or creating a school-wide campaign. I emphasized the agency of "ordinary people" by making the conference a people's climate summit and empowering them to feel that all of us can use our voices to make change.

We ended the unit analyzing the Paris Climate Conference agreement and writing letters to President Obama. We used modified versions of a DOGO News article and an IndyKids article written by a 10-year-old to break down how the agreement sets out commitments to prevent global temperatures from rising past the two degrees Celsius threshold. The whole class was adamant that climate change was a pressing issue that our government needed to address. However, the group was divided about whether this agreement should be adopted. Some students thought it was a good goal. Others thought that because there weren't penalties for breaking the rules, it didn't hold polluters accountable.

Jewel wrote, "Dear President Obama, I think you and the U.S. government should not adopt the U.N. Climate Conference agreement because I don't think it will help. I think this because I'm very concerned about global warming because 14 percent of the world's greenhouse gases come from the United States. . . . When people signed they could raise the limit. And nothing or nobody is making them live up to their goal."

Dante referenced the institutional equity issues we discussed: "(Kenya) is not even polluting that much, and they're experiencing the worst effects. A woman named Wangari Maathai works in the Green Belt Movement and this is what she said: 'Wealthy countries who are polluting more should raise money for the ultimate victims of the crisis: the poor people of the world.' I agree with that! And I know that you might say that you are donating money to poor countries. But that's poor countries, not poor people."

I reflected on the unit after it was over and decided there were parts that worked well and parts I would do differently on the next go-around. I would have liked my students to be able to do more research about the countries and cultures they were representing, and less of me presenting. Also, our post-conference discussions were so rich that I would have liked more time with them and less time presenting background scientific information.

Climate change will undoubtedly be a pressing issue throughout my students' lifetimes. As this issue goes to press, Trump announced plans to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Now, more than ever, I strongly believe that we can - and must - trust in young people's abilities to grapple with issues that impact them. My hope is that through exploring the scientific and social impacts of climate change early in their education, we can better prepare students to face the challenges of their world.
Resources

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By Rowan Shafer Illustrator: Erik Ruin The room was bustling with 28 3rd graders diligently working in pairs and practicing their scripts for next week's "People's Climate Summit." The 8- and 9-year-olds were discussing parts, devising props and costumes, and sounding out Bengali words and scientific terms. "Ms. Shafer, what is a gla-ker?"

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Feminist Indigenous Women talking about various indigenous topics

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Cooperative economic game

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American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL)

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Designed to help readers develop a critical eye about representations of American Indians in children's and young adult books

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Treaties-solemn agreements between sovereign nations-lie at the heart of the relationship between Indian Nations and the United States. Native Nations made treaties with one another long before Europeans came to the Western Hemisphere. The United States began making treaties with Native Peoples because they were independent nations. Often broken, sometimes coerced, treaties still define mutual obligations between the United States and Indian Nations. The treaties featured in Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations, on loan from the National Archives and Records Administration, are representative of the approximately 374 that were ratified between the United States and Native Nations.

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Nation to Nation | Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations

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Nation to Nation: Treaties between the United States and American Indian Nations exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. Treaties-solemn agreements between sovereign nations-lie at the heart of the relationship between Indian Nations and the United States.

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AMERICAS

ELI FARINANGO
Kichwa
Hamilton, ON, Canada + Otavalo, Ecuador

www.elifarinango.com

@elifarinango

JENNY IRENE MILLER
Inupiaq
Albuquerque, NM, USA

www.jennyirenemiller.com

@jennyirenemiller

RUSSEL ALBERT DANIELS
Diné & Ho-Chunk
Salt Lake City, UT, USA

www.russeldaniels.com

@russelalbertdaniels

DAWNEE LEBEAU
Cheyenne River Tetonwan
Wakpa Was'te' / Eagle Butte, SD, USA

www.dawneelebeau.com

@dawneelebeauphoto

PAMELA J. PETERS
Diné (Navajo)
Los Angeles, CA, USA

www.tachiiniiphotography.com

@tachiiniiphotography

ALEX JACOBS-BLUM
Lower Cayuga, Six Nations of the Grand River Territory
Mount Hope, ON, Canada

www.alexjacobsblum.com

@alexjacobsblum

MINIK BIDSTRUP
Inuk
New York, NY, USA

www.minikbidstrup.com

@bidstrupp

KALEN GOODLUCK
Three Affiliated Tribes & Navajo & Tsimshian
New York, NY, USA

www.kalengoodluck.com

@kalengoodluck

JEFF THOMAS
Onondaga, Six Nations of the Grand River Territory
Ottawa, ON, Canada

www.jeff-thomas.ca

MARISSA GONZALES
Cherokee & Chahta
Los Angeles, CA, USA

marissagonzales.myportfolio.com

@indigewitch

KARI ROWE
Turtle Mountain Ojibwe + Ogalala Lakota
Portland, OR, USA

www.karirowe.com

@karirowephoto

RODERICO YOOL-DÍAZ
Maya Kaqchikel
Durham, NC, USA

www.rodediaz.com

@rode_diaz

DAKOTA MACE
Diné
Madison, WI, USA

www.dakotamace.com

@dmaceart

GAVIN JOHN
Metis Nation of Alberta
Calgary, AB, Canada

www.gavinbryanjohn.com

@gjohnjournalism

TATÉ WALKER
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
Phoenix, AZ, USA

www.jtatewalker.com

@walkerimagining

SHELBY LISK
Kanyen'kehá:ka (Mohawk)
Ottawa, ON, Canada

www.shelbyliskphoto.com

@shelbyliskphoto

Z LONG
Cherokee
Omaha, NE, USA

www.zlongvisuals.com

@visionsanddisorders

MARCEL PETIT
Cree + Metis
Saskatoon, SK, Canada

www.marcelpetit.ca

@mountainmetis

EUNICE STRAIGHT HEAD
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
Eagle Butte, SD, USA

www.straightheadphotography.com

@straightheadphotography

CHARLEY NEISNER
Apache
Syracuse, NY, USA

www.charleyneisner.com

@chvrley_

CARA ROMERO
Chemehuevi
Santa Fe, NM, USA

www.cararomerophotography.com

@cararomerophotography

BRIAN ADAMS
Inupiaq
Anchorage, AK, USA

www.baphotos.com

@brianadamsphotography

TAILYR IRVINE
Confederated Salish & Kootenai
Missoula, MT, USA

www.tailyrirvine.com

@tailyrirvine

TEKPATL KUAUHTZIN
Nahua, Cucapa, Tsalagi
Los Angeles, CA, USA

@tekpatl

JOE WHITTLE
Caddo & Delaware
Joseph, OR, USA

www.joewhittlephotography.com

@joewhittlephotography

JEREMY DENNIS
Shinnecock
Southampton, NY, USA

www.jeremynative.com

@jeremynative

KILIII YUYAN
Nanai/Hezhen
Seattle, WA, USA

www.kiliii.com

@kiliiiyuyan

PAT KANE
Timiskaming First Nation
Yellowknife, NWT, Canada

www.patkanephoto.com

@patkanephoto

PAUL WILSON
The Klamath Tribes
Chiloquin, OR, USA

www.maqlaqsmedia.com

@paulrww

TAHILA MINTZ
Yaqui
Allegany Reservation, NY, USA

www.tahila.net

@tahilasnap

JENNI MONET
Laguna Pueblo
New York, NY + Tucson, AZ, USA

www.jennimonet.com

@missmonet

KAYLEE SMOKE
Dakota Plains First Nation
Hamilton, ON, Canada

www.kayleesmoke.com

@kayleesmoke

ALEJANDRA RUBIO
Yavapai-Apache Nation
Carson City, NV, USA

www.alejandra-rubio.com

@alejandra_rubio_photography

LINDA DUTAN
Cañari
New York, NY, USA

www.cargocollective.com/lindadutan

@via.linfinite

CODY HAMMER
Cherokee
Skiatook, OK, USA

www.thecodyhammer8.wixsite.com/mysite

@_codyhammer_

NĪA MACKNIGHT
Hunkpapa Lakota (Standing Rock Sioux) & Anishnaabe (White Earth Chippewa)
Los Angeles, CA, USA

www.niamacknight.com

@nia.macknight

CANDICE WARD
Kehewin Cree Nation
Calgary, AB, Canada

www.candiceward.ca

@candicewardphotography

JARETTE WERK
Aaniiih + Nakoda Nations

@Jarrette_Werk

KAYLA MACINNIS
Métis
Vancouver, BC, Canada

www.kaylamacinnis.com

@kaylabythesea

RIVER WHITTLE
Caddo Nation of Oklahoma + Delaware Nation of Oklahoma
Albuquerque, NM, US

miarw96.wixsite.com/natanehriver

@natanehriver

MATIKA WILBUR
Tulalip & Swinomish
Seattle, WA, USA

www.matikawilbur.com + www.project562.com

@project_562

JOSUÉ RIVAS
Mexica & Otomi
Portland, OR, USA

www.josuerivasfoto.com + www.standingstrongproject.com

@josue_foto

THOMAS RYAN REDCORN
Osage
Osage Reservation, Pawhuska, OK, USA

@redcorn

TARA WESTON
Oglala Sioux
Oglala, SD, USA

www.tararoseweston.com

@tararoseweston

KALI SPITZER
Kaska Dena & Jewish
Portland, OR + Daylu (Lower Post), BC, Canada

kalispitzer.com

@kali_spitzer_photography

WILL WILSON
Navajo
Santa Fe, NM, USA

willwilson.photoshelter.com

@willraywilson

JAIDA GREY EAGLE
Oglala Lakota
St. Paul, MN, USA

www.jaidagreyeagle.com

@jaida.l.greyeagle

MADISON LONG
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
Cherokee, NC, USA

www.madisonhye.com

@madison_hye

MELODY CHARLIE
Ahousat
Nuuchahnulth, BC, Canada

www.melodycharlie.com

@firstnationphotographer

TOMAS KARMELO AMAYA
Yaqui & Zuni & Tarahumara
Phoenix, AZ, USA

www.tomaskarmelo.com

@tomaskarmelo

CINTHYA SANTOS BRIONES
Nahua
New York, NY, USA

www.cinthya-santosbriones.com

@cinthyasantosb

GABRIELLE NORTE
Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeño Indians
Warner Springs, CA, USA

www.gabriellenorte.com

@nativekidwithacamera

SHARON CHISCHILLY
Navajo
Navajo Nation (New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah)

www.chischillyphotography.squarespace.com

@sharonchischillyphoto

JOHN PAILLÉ
Anishnaabe (G'Chimnissing - Beausoleil First Nation)
Toronto, ON, Canada

www.johnpaille.com

@johnpaille

NORMA IBARRA
Yaqui
Vancouver, BC, Canada

www.normaibarra.com

@Lapir0

ROBBY DICK
Ross River Dena Council
Ross River, YT, Canada

www.kaskaphotography.com

@kaska_photography

MANAL MURANGI
Mbanderu
MD, USA

manalsmedia.squarespace.com

@manals_media

LAWRENCE SUMULONG
Casiguran Dumagat Agta
Brooklyn, NY, USA

www.lawrencesumulong.com

WHITNEY SNOW
Suquamish + Blackfeet
Heart Butte, MT, USA

www.whitneysnowphotography.com

@whitneysnow10

WARA VARGAS LARA
Quechua
La Paz, Bolivia

www.waravargas.weebly.com

@wara_vargas

CITLALI FABIAN
Zapoteca
Oaxaca City, Mexico

www.citlalifabian.com

@citlalifabian

CHRISTIAN LEYVA
Náhua
Guerrero, México

fotocristianleyva.wordpress.com

@fotocristianleyva

JUAN JOSÉ ESSTRADA SERAFÍN
Purépecha
Meseta Purépecha, Michoacán México

nuestraaparenterendicion.com/testigospresenciales/juan-jose-estrada-serafin

@xikuame

TAYNÁ BATISTA
Sateré-Mawé
Barreirinha, Amazonas, Brazil

@tayna_satere

OCTAVIO LÓPEZ
Zapotec
San Andrés Zautla, Oaxaca, México

www.octaviolopezjimenez.com

@ehkatl

JERO GONZALES
Quechua
Cusco, Perú

www.jerogonzales.com

@jerogh

LUVIA LAZO
Zapotec
Oaxaca, Mexico

www.luvialazo.com

@luvialazo

JAIRO NICOLAS BERNAL USAMA
Los Pastos
Ipiales, Nariño, Colombia

@jaironicolasb_ph

SARA ALIAGA TICONA
Aymara
La Paz, Bolivia

www.sarawayraphoto.weebly.com

@sarawayraphoto

YAEL MARTÍNEZ
Nahua/Mexican
Guerrero, Mexico

www.yaelmartinez.com

@yaelmtzv

MORENA PÉREZ JOACHIN
Mam
Guatemala City, Guatemala

www.morena.com.gt

@wmorena

URIEL MONTÚFAR
Aymara
Puno, Perú

www.urielmontufar.com

@urielmontufar

AFRICA

ADEDAMOLA ODETARA
Yoruba
Lagos, Nigeria

www.adedamolaodetara.com

@adedamola_op

TAIWO AINA
Yoruba
Ilorin, Nigeria

www.taiwoaina.com

@taiwoaina_

ADESEGUN ADEOKUN
Yoruba
Abuja, Nigeria

www.behance.net/adesegunadeokun

@adeokunadesegun

IMMACULATA ABBA
Igbo
Enugu + Abuja, Nigeria

www.immaculataabba.com

@immaculata.na

OLUWOLE HAMMOND
Yoruba
Abuja, Nigeria

www.wolehammond.com

@wolehammond

AISHA BADA
Yoruba
Lagos, Nigeria

www.aishabada.com

@aisha_bada

MARYAM TURAKI
Ngas + Nupe
Abuja, Nigeria

www.maryamturaki.com

@maryamaturaki

DAVID EXODUS
Atyap / Kataf
Abuja, Nigeria

www.behance.net/dawalidavid

@dawalidavid

SOLOMON NZIOKI
Kikuyu + Kamba
Nairobi, Kenya

www.rootsofafrika.co

@rootsofafrika

NNEKA IWUNNA EZEMEZUE
Igbo
Lagos, Nigeria

www.nnekaezemezue.com

@nnekaezemezue

OLU JAMESON
Yoruba
Ibadan, Nigeria

www.thisolujameson.com

@thisolujameson

SAMMY NJOROGE
Kikuyu
Nairobi, Kenya

www.behance.net/sammynjoroge

@idfied

GEREMEW TIGABU
Ethiopian, Amhara, + Tigre
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

www.geremewtigabu.com

@ghost_ti

TSHEPISO MABULA KA NDONGENI
Xhosa
Johannesburg, South Africa

tshepisomabs.wixsite.com/southesternside

@quintessential_mmasnepe

OKE OLUWASEGUN
Yoruba
Ibadan, Nigeria

www.okeoluwasegunm.wordpress.com

@okeoluwasegunmoses

OYEWOLE LAWAL
Yoruba
Lagos, Nigeria

www.oyewolelawal.com

@oyewole__lawal

ASIA, OCEANIA, & PACIFIC

ALEXANDRA MOANA KING
Whakatohea, Ngai Tuhoe, Ngati Porou + Uritaua
Rarotonga, Cook Islands

www.alexkingphotographer.com

@alexkingphotography

MILLO ANKHA
Apatani
Arunachal Pradesh, India

fernfields.wordpress.com

@millo.ankha

NAYLA AZMI
Sumatran Batak
Indonesia

www.nuragabhumi.org

@nayla.azmii

WAYNE QUILLIAM
Palawa
Melbourne, VIC, Australia

www.aboriginal.photography

@waynequilliam

FLANEGAN BAINON
Murut
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

www.flaneganb.net

@flaneganbphoto

KAPULEI FLORES
Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian)
Hawai’i, HI, USA

www.kapzphotography.com

@kapzphotography

BUKBISJ CANDRA ISMETH BEY
Sundanese
West Java, Indonesia

@nyalak.anjing

QIANE MATATA-SIPU
Māori
Auckland, Aotearoa (New Zealand)

www.qiane.co.nz

@qianeandco

HOUKAMAU TE AHO POTAE
Māori
Opotiki, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand

www.manahauphotos.squarespace.com

@teahoj | @manahauphotos

KA’ŌHUA LUCAS
Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian)
Honolulu, HI, USA

www.kaohuaphotography.com

@kaohuaphotography

HAFITZ MAULANA
Malayan + Javanese
Jakarta, Indonesia

www.hafitzmaulana.com

@hafitz.maulana

EUROPE

CAMILLE SEAMAN
Shinnecock
Kilrush, Clare, Ireland

www.camilleseaman.com

@camilleseaman

NAINA HELÉN JÅMA
Sami
Stockholm, Sweden

www.nainahelen.com

@nainahelen

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The Indigenous Photograph database showcases the work of Indigenous visual storytellers from around the world.

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Standing Strong The Tribal Nations of Western Oregon

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Many new teachers are inspired by the social justice and multicultural theory presented in some teacher education programs, but need to see examples of it in action. Some people believe that younger students are not capable of discussing difficult or controversial topics. This site counters that notion by showing teachers and students engaged in social action on complex topics. It provides a multimedia space to see social justice projects in action.

All the units housed on this site:

were designed and implemented by elementary school teachers and student teachers

focus on social justice issues such as racism, gentrification, fairness, child labor etc.

help students ask difficult questions about the world

are designed to engage children in social action to change the conditions of their worlds

have been integrated with standards or mandated curricular program

About the Site

This site features the work of Dr. Bree Picower and her students.

Dr. Bree Picower is a Professor at Montclair State University in the College of Education and Human Development. She is the Co-Director of the Urban Teacher Residency, Newark Teacher Project and the Critical Urban Education Speaker Series with Dr. Tanya Maloney at MSU. Her newest book, Reading, Writing and Racism, is an unflinching examination of recent examples of viral racist curriculum and what it means for our educational institutions to take responsibility for addressing teachers' understandings of race. Her previous co-edited book with Rita Kohli, Confronting Racism in Teacher Education: Counternarratives of Critical Practice examines patterns of institutional racism by amplifying the voices of non-dominant teacher educators. She also co-edited a collection of essays with Edwin Mayorga and Ujju Aggarwal called What's Race Got To Do With It? How current school reform maintains racial and economic inequality . She is also the author of Practice What You Teach: Social Justice Education in the Classroom and the Streets explores a developmental continuum toward teacher activism. Bree works to create spaces for educators to sharpen their political analysis and act for educational justice. She has taught in public elementary schools in Oakland, California and New York City.

This site features blogs from Bree's students as they engage in teaching about social issues and engage their students in social action. It also includes an extensive annotated bibliography (click children's literature) maintained by her students of social justice books for elementary students.
View Additional Publications
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Many new teachers are inspired by the social justice and multicultural theory presented in some teacher education programs, but need to see examples of it in action. Some people believe that younger students are not capable of discussing difficult or controversial topics.

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Skip to main content

Our youngest students deserve a truthful, age-appropriate account of our past. These resources for elementary educators include a first-of-its-kind framework, along with student texts, teaching tools and professional development for anyone committed to teaching this hard history.

Download the Framework

Here are a few key elements of the framework and the accompanying resources:

Key Concepts
The foundation of the K-5 and 6-12 frameworks, the Key Concepts pinpoint 10 important ideas that all students must understand to truly grasp the historical significance of slavery. Explored through Essential Knowledge in the elementary grades and Summary Objectives in middle and high school teaching, the Key Concepts serve as tools educators can use to structure their teaching.

Essential Knowledge
Each of the 20 "Essential Knowledge" sections identifies an age-appropriate understanding for students to reach and outlines additional information that will help them get there. It also offers recommendations for supporting student learning. Essential Knowledge items 1-10 are designed for K-2 students, and items 11-20 are designed for students in grades 3-5.

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Our youngest students deserve a truthful, age-appropriate account of our past. These resources for elementary educators include a first-of-its-kind framework, along with student texts, teaching tools and professional development for anyone committed to teaching this hard history. Download the Framework

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The 1619 Project Curriculum in Lesson Plan Grouping - The 1619 Project, inaugurated with a special issue of The New York Times Magazine, challenges us to reframe U.S. history by marking the year when the first enslaved Africans arrived on Virginia soil as our nation’s foundational date. Here you wil…

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ATTENTION: Before attempting to access these courses, watch this video on how to correctly set up your iLearn account. Failure to set up your account correctly could significantly delay your access to the courses.

You can also use the following directions to set up your account. Select the iLearn account instructions sheet (either the text with screen shot images version or the text-only version) to establish an iLearn account. Once you have an iLearn account established you will be able to access the Professional Development Courses.

If you receive the following message when trying to access the courses: "This item cannot be opened due to the reasons listed below. Contact an administrator or manager to obtain access to the item." This video can help with updating your account.

Or follow these steps to update your account: Updating your Organization in iLearn (either the text with screen shot images version or the text-only version)

Click on the "+" to read the description of the Professional Development Course and to access the link to iLearn.

​​ SB13 Inservice​ is a storyboard project of short videos including presentations on the background of Senate Bill (SB) 13 Tribal History/Shared History, The Essential Understandings of Native Americans in Oregon process, The 6 P's (Critical Orientations for Indigenous Studies Curriculum), Tribal place-based curricula as well as lesson modeling demonstrations.

Module 1​ covers the follwing sections of the nine Essential Understandings:

Essential Understanding 1: Since Time Immemorial

Essential Understanding 2: Sovereignty

It is designed to support educators in building a foundation for teaching, training, and serving as a source of support, knowledge, and advocacy within their school, district, or organization for the Senate Bill 13 Tribal History/Shared History curriculum.

Module 2​​ covers the follwing sections of the nine Essential Understandings:

Essential Understanding 3: History

Essential Understanding 4: Tribal Government

It is designed to support educators in building a foundation for teaching, training, and serving as a source of support, knowledge, and advocacy within their school, district, or organization for the Senate Bill 13 Tribal History/Shared History curriculum.

Module 3​ covers the following sections of the nine Essential Understandings:

Essential Understanding 5: Identity

Essential Understanding 6: Lifeways

It is designed to support educators in building a foundation for teaching, training, and serving as a source of support, knowledge, and advocacy within their school, district, or organization for the Senate Bill 13 Tribal History/Shared History curriculum.

​

More modules coming soon!

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SB13 Tribal History/Shared History Professional Development Courses

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ATTENTION: Before attempting to access these courses, watch this video on how to correctly set up your iLearn account. Failure to set up your account correctly could significantly delay your access to the courses. You can also use the following directions to set up your account.

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Native Knowledge 360° | Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

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Educational resources, lesson plans, teacher training, and strategies to support positive change! Native Knowledge 360° is a national initiative to inspire and promote improved teaching and learning about Native America. #NK360

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Hi! My name is Laleña. When you talk about me, the words that feel good to me are she and her. I'm a kindergarten teacher in New York City. I also sometimes teach grown-ups, and last summer, I wrote a book! It just came out! You can buy my book from your local independent bookstore, directly from Lee & Low, or on the internet from Bookshop and Indiebound, among other places.)

Big Ideas! And how we talk about thosebig ideas with little people

Things like:

Race!

Equity!

Gender!

Justice!

Consent!

Where do I like to talk?

My favorite place to talk is in schools. I used to go to schools to meet with teachers for professional development, or to run workshops with parents. These days, it's all online, and I'm doing a lot of work with grownups about how to talk (and listen!) to kids about "difficult" topics, like race and gender. Want to know more about how Black Lives Matter in Education?

I also like talking about other things, like how to be a good friend, how to take care of our community, and what my favorite color is. When I'm in school, there's one thing I like even more than talking.

Listening

​

I love listening to kids talk. They say really smart things. At school, I like that I get to listen while my students talk, and then write down what they say. Here are some things they said last October.

Want to sign up for my course?

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Creating Social Change Through Early Childhood Education | Laleña Garcia

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Offering strategies for teachers and parents to address what's happening in our world with their young children, with a focus on the work adults need to do on themselves in order to support their young people. Emphasis on Black Lives Matter as a social movement for systemic change.

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Indigenous STEAM - Indigenous science education resources

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"The antidote to feel-good history is not feel-bad history, but honest and inclusive history." -James W. Loewen, Plagues & Pilgrims: The Truth about the First Thanksgiving
The Thanksgiving story you know and the one I know are most likely the same. It's the story deeply rooted in America's curriculum-the one that inspires arguably the most important and tradition-filled holiday in American culture. We're taught that in 1620 the Pilgrims fled harsh religious suppression in Britain, sailed across the Atlantic, and in December stepped ashore at Plymouth Rock, in what is now Massachusetts. With little food and no shelter, the colonists struggled to survive a brutal winter until a friendly Indian, Squanto, came along and showed them how to cultivate crops. Their first harvest resulted in a feast, as the Pilgrims gave thanks to the kind Indians for helping to bring the colony back to life.

This version of Thanksgiving, while pleasant, isn't terribly accurate. Told from a perspective that frames the Pilgrims as the main characters, the story leaves out major details, glorifying the Pilgrims' endeavor and the holiday it birthed, forcing the Wampanoag Indians into forgotten roles. It also erases a monumentally sad history. When we pay homage to the Pilgrims and their bravery, and react to the tragic background of America's founding myth with silence, we essentially support a mindset that only some people's history matters.

The true history of Thanksgiving begins with the Indians.

About four years before the Pilgrims anchored off Massachusetts, British fishermen had already started making their way through New England, storming through Indian towns to kidnap Native people for profit in the slavery trade. Although it's often left out of textbooks, this series of intrusions was the catalyst to what is probably the most important event in this nation's history, without which Europeans would not have been able to settle on top of the millions of Native people who already lived in America-at least, not as fast: epidemic illness.

Before 1492, the Western Hemisphere was largely isolated, sparing its indigenous peoples from diseases the rest of the world succumbed to time and time again. But this lack of contact prevented Natives of the Americas from developing any type of immunity to European, Asian, and African pathogens. When Europeans started trekking through Indian towns, they brought sickness with them. Indians died at an alarming rate, making it substantially easier for colonists to overpower entire villages-well, what was left of them.

The Pilgrims already believed they were part of God's plan. Finding empty villages as 90 percent-yes, 90 percent-of America's Indians perished in front of them only furthered Europeans' sense of their destiny, influencing them to continue the colonization westward. As Jolene Rickard (Tuscarora) and Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche) wrote in Our Peoples: Giving Voice to Our Histories, one of the opening exhibitions at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, "That initial explosion of death is one of the greatest tragedies in human history because it was unintended, and unavoidable, and even inevitable. But what happened in its wake was not."

One people who famously suffered from the onslaught of disease were the Wampanoag, a nation made up of 69 villages scattered throughout present-day Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Skilled hunters, gatherers, farmers, and fishers during spring and summer, the Wampanoag moved inland to more protected shelter during the colder months of the year. Like indigenous groups everywhere, the Wampanoag had a reciprocal relationship with nature and believed that as long as they gave thanks to the bountiful world, it would give back to them. Long before the arrival of the Pilgrims, the Wampanoag held frequent Thanksgiving-like celebrations, giving thanks in the form of feasts and ceremonial games.

Exposed to new diseases, the Wampanoag lost entire villages. Only a fraction of their nation survived. By the time the Pilgrim ships landed in 1620, the remaining Wampanoag were struggling to fend off the Narragansett, a nearby Native people who were less affected by the plague and now drastically outnumbered them.

For a moment of history, the interests of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag aligned. When the Pilgrims landed in New England, after failing to make their way to the milder mouth of the Hudson, they had little food and no knowledge of the new land. The Wampanoag suggested a mutually beneficial relationship, in which the Pilgrims would exchange European weaponry for Wampanoag for food. With the help of an English-speaking Patuxet Indian named Tisquantum (not Squanto; he spoke English because he was kidnapped and sold in the European slave trade before making his way back to America), the Pilgrims produced a bountiful supply of food that summer. For their part, the Wampanoag were able to defend themselves against the Narragansett. The feast of indigenous foods that took place in October 1621, after the harvest, was one of thanks, but it more notably symbolized the rare, peaceful coexistence of the two groups.

The events that followed in New England also depart from the Thanksgiving ideal we celebrate. To read what happened to the New England Indians later in the 17th century, see the museum's earlier post Do Indians Celebrate Thanksgiving?

Lindsay McVay is a senior at the University of Central Florida, majoring in writing and rhetoric. Her professional experience includes writing grants for nonprofits; contributing to blogs, especially Book Baristas; and designing websites for Florida independent publishers. During the fall of 2017, Lindsay has worked as an intern in Marketing and Communications at the National Museum of the American Indian.

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Everyone's history matters: The Wampanoag Indian Thanksgiving story deserves to be known

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The Thanksgiving story deeply rooted in America's school curriculum frames the Pilgrims as the main characters and reduces the Wampanoag Indians to supporting roles. It also erases a monumentally sad history. The true history of Thanksgiving begins with the Indians.

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Smithsonian Voices National Museum of the American Indian

"Words Spoken Before All Others," the Ohenten Kariwatekwen or Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address

Haudenosaunee bear effigy pipe, 17th c. Cayuga Lake, New York. 22/3765 (Ernest Amoroso, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian)

When the museum asked Native Americans if their families celebrate Thanksgiving, a friend from the Crow Agency in Montana spoke for many Native people when she told us, "My Dad used to say, 'We give thanks everyday. . . .' " The Ohenten Kariwatekwen is often called the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, but translated directly the name refers to "words spoken before all others." The Haudenosaunee nations-the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora-traditionally open and close every important gathering with a version of these thanks.
Today we have gathered. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now we bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as people. Now our minds are one.

We are all thankful to our mother, the earth, for she gives us all that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she continues to care for us as she has from the beginning of time. To our mother we send greetings and thanks. Now our minds are one.

We give thanks to all the waters of the world for quenching our thirst and providing us with strength. Water is life. We know its power in many forms-waterfalls and rain, mists and streams, rivers and oceans. With one mind we send greetings and thanks to the spirit of water. Now our minds are one.

We turn our minds to the all the fish in the water. They were instructed to cleanse and purify the water. They also give themselves to us as food. We are grateful that we can still find pure water. So we turn now to the fish and send them our greetings and thanks. Now our minds are one.

Now we turn toward the vast fields of plant life. As far as the eye can see, the plants grow, working many wonders. They sustain many life forms. With our minds gathered together we give thanks and look forward to seeing plant life for many generations to come. Now our minds are one.

With one mind we turn to honor and thank all the food plants we harvest from the garden. Since the beginning of time the grains, vegetables, beans, and berries have helped the people survive. Many other living things too draw strength from them. We gather all the plant foods together as one and send them a greeting of thanks. Now our minds are one.

Now we turn to all the medicine herbs of the world. From the beginning they were instructed to take away sickness. We are happy there are still among us those who remember how to use these plants for healing. With one mind we send greetings and thanks to the medicines and to the keepers of the medicines. Now our minds are one.

We gather our minds together to send greetings and thanks to all the animals in the world. They have many things to teach us as people. We are honored by them when they give up their lives so we may use their bodies as food for our people. We see them near our homes and in the deep forests. We are glad they are still here, and we hope that it will always be so. Now our minds are one.

We now turn our thoughts to the trees. The earth has many families of trees who have their own instructions and uses. Some provide us with shelter and shade, others with fruit, beauty, and other useful things. Many people of the world use a tree as a symbol of peace and strength. With one mind we greet and thank the tree life. Now our minds are one.

We put our minds together as one and thank all the birds who fly about over our heads. The Creator gave them beautiful songs. Each day they remind us to enjoy and appreciate life. The eagle was chosen to be their leader. To all the birds, from the smallest to the largest, we send our joyful greetings and thanks. Now our minds are one.

We are all thankful to the powers we know as the four winds. We hear their voices in the moving air as they refresh us and purify the air we breathe. They help us to bring the change of seasons. From the four directions they come, bringing us messages and giving us strength. With one mind we send our greetings and thanks to the four winds. Now our minds are one.

Now we turn to the west where our grandfathers, the thunder beings, live. With lightning and thundering voices, they bring with them the water that renews life. We are thankful that they keep evil underground. We bring our minds together as one to send greetings and thanks to our grandfathers, the thunderers. Now our minds are one.

We now send greetings and thanks to our eldest brother, the sun. Each day without fail he travels the sky from east to west, bringing the light of a new day. He is the source of all the fires of life. With one mind we send greetings and thanks to our brother, the sun. Now our minds are one.

We put our minds together to give thanks to our oldest grandmother, the moon, who lights the night sky. She is the leader of women all over the world, and she governs the movement of the ocean tides. By her changing face we measure time, and it is the moon who watches over the arrival of children on earth. With one mind we send greetings and thanks to our grandmother, the moon. Now our minds are one.

We give thanks to the stars who are spread across the sky like jewelry. We see them in the night, helping the moon to light the darkness and bringing dew to the gardens and growing things. When we travel at night they guide us home. With our minds gathered together as one we send greetings and thanks to the stars. Now our minds are one.

We gather our minds to greet and thank the enlightened teachers who have come to help throughout the ages. When we forget how to live in harmony they remind us of the way we were instructed to live as people. With one mind we send greetings and thanks to these caring teachers. Now our minds are one.

Now we turn our thoughts to the Creator and send greetings and thanks for all the gifts of creation. Everything we need to live a good life is here on earth. For all the love around us, we gather our minds together as one and send our best words of greetings and thanks to the Creator. Now our minds are one.

We have now arrived at the place where we end our words. Of all the things we have named, it was not our intention to leave anything out. If something was forgotten, we leave it to each individual to send greetings and thanks. Now our minds are one.
This text is based on a translation published in 1993 by the Six Nations Indian Museum and the Tracking Project, and is used here through their courtesy. All rights reserved. English: John Stokes and Kanawahienton (David Benedict, Turtle Clan, Mohawk). Mohawk: Rokwaho (Dan Thompson, Wolf Clan, Mohawk). Original inspiration: Tekaronianekon (Jake Swamp, 1940-2010, Wolf Clan, Mohawk).

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Smithsonian Voices National Museum of the American Indian When the museum asked Native Americans if their families celebrate Thanksgiving, a friend from the Crow Agency in Montana spoke for many Native people when she told us, "My Dad used to say, 'We give thanks everyday. . . .'

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By Vera L. Stenhouse

Illustrator: Eric Hanson

Illustration: Eric Hanson

In 2006, an Atlanta newspaper ran several photos with captions describing the celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday. The first picture featured a 5-year-old girl wearing a precision-cut fringe vest made out of a brown paper bag from a local grocery store (as identified by the store name and tagline detailed prominently in big blue letters on the vest). On top of her head sat a multicolored feather headdress made of construction paper. The caption under the picture read: "Feathers in her cap. Ava adjusts the headdress of her American Indian costume for a Clairemont Elementary School Thanksgiving feast. More photos from the feast are on page J9."

Page J9 includes three additional pictures-one showing a group of Pilgrims (with white paper collars and hats) and Indians (as identified by their feather headdresses, of course). A second picture shows students in "costume" working on a coloring project and a third captures a student showing off his "homemade American Indian costume." Between the pictures it reads: "Clairemont Elementary School studied American Indians and Pilgrims in preparation for today's big holiday. Last week, they re enacted the first Thanksgiving and dressed in costumes for a feast with family members." In the center is the phrase "Thanks for the lessons."

What lessons did they learn? Between Columbus Day in October and Thanksgiving in November, Native Americans [the "official" curricular name in Georgia] play a key role in the mythology of U.S. history as taught in schools. As someone who works with pre- and inservice elementary teachers, I see firsthand how these happy stories maintain children's ignorance and reinforce stereotypes.

The traditional first Thanksgiving story recounts Pilgrims from Europe settling in the wilds of the New World and celebrating their survival by sharing their bountiful feast with the Indians. As my students learn, this version of Thanksgiving is inaccurate. The Pilgrims did leave Europe and comprised 35 out of 102 colonists traveling on the Mayflower, eventually settling in 1621 at Patuxet-aka Plimoth. The "new" and "wild" world to which they arrived was neither new, wild, or unnamed, thanks to the Wampanoag, the indigenous people who lived there. Given the Pilgrims' ignorance of the "new" land, their survival was made possible through indigenous knowledge, labor, harvest traditions, and trade. Most significant to the first Thanksgiving story: According to the Wampanoag and the ancestors of the Plimoth settlers, no oral or written account confirms that the first Thanksgiving actually occurred between them in 1621. The Wampanoag, however, did participate in daily and seasonal thanksgivings for thousands of years prior to the Pilgrims' arrival.

Beyond the inaccuracy of the first Thanksgiving story itself are its omissions: Colonists initially stolebushels of corn buried and stored by Wampanoag families for their own use, robbed graves and homes, and left diseases that devastated (albeit unintentionally) Native American communities, subsequently enabling European settlers to overtake Indian land.

The traditional Thanksgiving story is continuously retold through plays, activities, worksheets, and children's books, perpetuating misinformation and stereotypes that maintain a deep misunderstanding of American Indian history and current issues. Thanksgiving Day, for example, is considered a Day of Mourning by many American Indians-a time to acknowledge the ongoing painful legacy of removal from their homelands, enslavement, and deaths from diseases. Thanksgiving images further negate significant cultural and sacred distinctions among indigenous peoples. Long feather headdresses and tipis are not part of an accurate portrayal of Northeast Coast Native Americans. Thanksgiving pictures tend to depict garments and housing of Plains Indians, whom the Pilgrims would have not met.

As a teacher of teachers, I attempt to engage students in a more accurate, inclusive, and culturally respectful approach to a time in history that began to set the pattern for U.S. race relations. I choose to critique the first Thanksgiving story because of its familiarity, inclusion in so many schools' curricula, and persistent misrepresentation of Indians and Pilgrims.

Flipping the Script on the First Thanksgiving

Before launching into the myths and omissions surrounding the "first Thanksgiving," I ask my teacher education students what they already know about the event: Who celebrated the original Thanksgiving and when? What was celebrated and for how long? Who initiated the celebration? Why? Where did the event take place?

My students find the details difficult to recall. Generally, their contributions reflect a disjointed recollection: Pilgrims and Indians; something about religious persecution; the Mayflower; Jamestown, Va.; an abundant harvest after tough times; the Pilgrims' generosity toward the Indians; and three days of fun, games, and eating popcorn, turkey, and pie. Sometimes students suggest names of actual "Indians" like the Sioux or Cherokee nations or people such as Sacagawea, Squanto, or Pocahontas.

I challenge my students' knowledge about Pilgrims, Indians, and Thanksgiving through a series of exploratory activities using elementary-appropriate materials. I designed activities meant to model how they might introduce a critique of Thanksgiving to their own elementary students that also identifies stereotypes about Native Americans and explores the events surrounding 1621. The activities require my students to work first within and then across small groups to compare and contrast the histories of the "Indians" and "Pilgrims," separate fact from fiction about the Thanksgiving story, and uncover new information concerning Native Americans past and present.

For one activity, I divide a set of students into "Indians" and "Pilgrims." Both groups visit www.plimoth.org/education/olc/index_js2.html#, a website elementary teachers and students could use that offers an interactive timeline with key dates in the history of the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims. I send the students to the "path to 1621" for their respective group's story. The "Indians" follow the Wampanoag ancestor Ahsaupwis' story and the "Pilgrims" follow English ancestor Remember Allerton. In the penultimate phase of the activity, I combine the "Indians" and "Pilgrims" and tell them to create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting what they learned.

Other student groups work to determine the facts, fictions, and omissions of the first Thanksgiving story using a selection of traditional first Thanksgiving picture books. To add to their critique, students receive additional texts that provide perspectives and information often distorted or omitted in traditional texts.I send the students to partner-read their selected books with questions: From whose perspective is the story told? Whose voices are active and passive? What words are used to describe the groups? Whose story has the most detail? What details were offered or implied in the text or illustrations about Thanksgiving and each group's lifestyle (e.g., food, clothing, beliefs, and traditions)? Are the illustrations accurate? How do you know?

After partner-reading, students read the short version of Judy Dow and Beverly Slapin's article " Deconstructing the Myths of The First Thanksgiving." I tell them to mark new and surprising information. Typically during this activity, as students read and discuss, I'll overhear one say, "So there was no Thanksgiving at all? I'm confused." I clarify that although the Thanksgiving story as told is not historically accurate, Native Americans and Pilgrims had thanksgiving traditions exclusive of each other.

When the groups reconvene as a whole class, I ask each to report what they learned and to share what they believe to be the main points of their activities. It is clear from their reactions that in most instances, the activities presented different depictions from what they had previously believed or known. As Lorrie said, "I remember learning about a huge friendly feast between 'Pilgrims' and 'Indians.' It was taught almost as though it was a culmination of a friendship that had been building from day one."

Charlie commented, "I remember making the feather headdress for Thanksgiving. I had no idea it could be inaccurate, let alone inappropriate." Students often remark on the cultural disrespect implicit in illustrating Thanksgiving stories with clothing that the Wampanoag didn't wear.

By the end of our re-examination of Thanksgiving, students grow anxious and begin to consider if and how they might integrate a more critical perspective of Thanksgiving with their own students. As Iris later wrote:

So, how do we go about talking about Thanksgiving now that we have all of this new information? How should we treat it with our students? Truly, it is not a day of Thanksgiving for all people in this country. I am at a loss now. I think that we could approach it with the new information that Ms. Stenhouse gave us and debunk some of these myths for our students, but I'm beginning to question what the bigger message should be. Is the holiday real? Is there really something to celebrate? I mean, sure, I'm glad to be here, and I'm thankful for the blessings in my life, but am I celebrating at the expense of others? If I do teach my children that the coming of the settlers was at the indigenous people's expense, will they want to continue celebrating this day? Will their parents thank me if I do? I am not sure how to proceed.

My response to Iris' conundrum and to students who ask "now what?" starts with prompting my students to generate alternative ideas for teaching Thanksgiving. I want them to start thinking about how they might use or adapt our activities or their underlying concepts with their students. I notice that, as they share their ideas with each other, they introduce a variety of ways to reframe Thanksgiving based on what they experienced in class (for example, book critiques or use of the two-voice poem, as described in Rethinking Our Classrooms, Vol. 1) and begin to consider tactical approaches to parents' and administrators' potential concerns. Given my students' focus on the repercussions from school authorities, I also ask them to imagine for a moment what the first Thanksgiving story means for Native American children in their classes. And based on their own experiences, I ask them to keep in mind the lasting impressions about Indians and Pilgrims from their own schooling. I further encourage them to first find out what their students already know, which is how I started with them.

More recently, I have also begun showing a video clip of Monty, a former student of mine, who discusses how he addressed Thanksgiving with his 1st graders. After witnessing parents, students, and teachers delight in a Thanksgiving re-enactment held at his school, he determined he needed to provide his students with a more complex perspective of Native American-Pilgrim relations. Monty shares candidly the steps he took (including a trip to his principal's office) and the process he went through to teach his students about fairness through a lesson on the consequences of colonial encroachment on indigenous lands. Watching Monty adds a perspective to our discussion other than my own about the possibilities, relevance, and power of teaching critically at any grade level.

I know that what I am asking my students to consider is unsettling to many of them; however, I'm convinced that it is necessary in order for them to be the teachers they wish to be. In addition to our in-class discussion, I ask my students to continue thinking, problem-posing, and talking with me and each other through the class blogs and journals.

Waiting for Later to Disrupt the Status Quo

As preservice teachers, my students are overwhelmed by learning to teach the prescribed curriculum and consumed by their university schoolwork. They work in schools they assume are not populated by indigenous students or other students for whom it is relevant to know the unpleasant details of historical events. Why trouble a good story?

Silent in most discussions about indigenous peoples are the current realities of Native American life, including widespread poverty; relegation to reservations; the persistent political, social, and economic disregard for things cultural or sacred by the dominant U.S. society; and the advocacy necessary for linguistic, cultural, economic, and territorial sovereignty. I use the Thanksgiving story to provide an opportunity for my students to ask themselves, "If not me, who?" and "If not now, when?" as it relates to challenging the status quo.

In terms of measuring progress, we have come a long way from learning how to count to 10, one "Indian" at a time. Yet national multimillion-dollar franchise sports teams retain derogatory "Indian" names, logos, and chants; commercial products still utilize "Native" names and imagery as brands; and we still have the enduring uncritical portrayal of the first Thanksgiving. I believe a connection exists between the unwillingness to "give up" the beneficent 1621 Thanksgiving story and the ongoing appropriation of the imagery, spirituality, ceremonies, sovereign rights, and identity of this country's indigenous peoples. Students from all racial and cultural backgrounds learn early that it is OK to play Indian. They learn that Indians wear "costumes," feathers define cultural features for all Indians, and sacred cultural artifacts are crafts to be made from brown paper bags, paper towel rolls, paper plates, and construction paper. And after Thanksgiving, crafts and all, the "Natives" disappear back onto the shelf.

Confronting racism, injustice, prejudice, and stereotypes through a consciousness-raising education is a far cry from the fun-filled, feel-good activities characteristic of how schools approach holidays. With respect to indigenous peoples, I want my students to acknowledge the diverse and unique traditions among Native American cultures and to explore the historic and contemporary legacy of colonial intrusion, brutality, and cultural ignorance. As a teacher educator, I seek to invite my students on a journey of interrogating the fallacy of the "standard" curriculum as neutral and push them to develop an understanding of official knowledge as politically constructed and contestable. Critiquing received fact, such as the first Thanksgiving, is an integral piece of an overall critical approach to teaching and learning. I want my students to recognize that the histories of indigenous peoples have been subverted, silenced, and misrepresented in the curriculum. Equally important: I want my students to recognize that we can do something about it.
RESOURCES Evaluating resources about Native Americans:
Boston Children's Museum. Evaluating Resources: The Wampanoag in Teacher Resources on Native American History and Culture. ( www.bostonkids.org/educators/wampanoag/html/evaluate.htm)

Seale, D., and Slapin, B., eds. (2005)
A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children. Lanham, Md.: Altamira Press.
Cultural appropriation in books for children. Evaluates hundreds of books for children and teenagers published from the early 1900s through 2004.
"Evaluating Children's Books for Bias." Integrating New Technologies into the Methods of Education. (www.intime.uni.edu/multiculture/curriculum/children.htm)
Wampanoag information past and present:
"Mashpee Wampanoag Timeline." Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Website. ( mashpeewampanoagtribe.com/timeline.html)
Timeline of events from precolonial times to current federal recognition.

Boston Children's Museum. "People of the First Light." Teacher Resources on Native American History and Culture. ( www.bostonkids.org/educators/wampanoag)
Information and suggested activities about Wampanoag origins and life before, during, and after 1620; survival; and current day.
Teacher and student resources on Thanksgiving, Native Americans, and colonists:
Dow (Abenaki), J., and Slapin, B. " Deconstructing the Myths of The First Thanksgiving." Oyate. ( www.oyate.org/resources/longthanks.html)
Facts and fiction about the first Thanksgiving story, including critiqued excerpts from popular books.

Oyate. Primary Sources from a Colonialist Perspective. ( www.oyate.org/resources/booklistcolonialist.html)

Oyate. Recommended Books About Thanksgiving. ( www.oyate.org/resources/booklistrecommended.html)
Recommended books, links, and videos:
Goldstein, K. "As American as Pumpkin Pie." Plimoth Plantation.
( www.plimoth.org/discover/thanksgiving/pumkin-pie.php)
How, when, and why the "first Thanksgiving" came to be known as such.

Boston Children's Museum. Teacher Resources on Native American History and Culture. ( www.bostonkids.org/educators/wampanoag)
Wampanoag voices, information, and suggested activities.

Seale, D., Slapin, B., and Silverman, C., eds. (2001) Thanksgiving: A Native Perspective. Berkeley, Calif.: Oyate (available at www.oyate.org). Historical and contemporary information about Thanksgiving. Context and counterstories for a critical cultural approach to Thanksgiving.

Jones, G., and Moomaw, S. (2002) Lessons from Turtle Island: Native Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms. St. Paul, Minn.: Red Leaf Press.
Problems and appropriate alternatives to addressing Native peoples' experiences.

Loewen, J. (2007) Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York City: Touchstone Press.
Detailed information on the first Thanks-giving based on primary resources.

Bigelow, B., and Peterson, R., eds. (1998) Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years . Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools
Essays, poems, historical vignettes, and lesson plans.

Slapin, B., and Seale, S., eds. (2006) Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children. University of California Press (available at www.oyate.org). Stereotypes and myths in children's literature.

Rethinking Schools. (2008) Unlearning "Indian" Stereotypes (DVD). Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools (available at www.rethinkschools.org). Introduction to Native American history through the eyes of children. Includes teaching ideas and resources.

Rosenstein, J. (1997) In Whose Honor? American Indian Mascots in Sports. New Day Films (available at www.oyate.org).
Examination of the use of racist logos, nicknames, and caricatures as "mascots" in college and professional sports-and the impact of this practice on Indian families and communities.

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Rethinking Thanksgiving: Myths and Misgivings - Rethinking Schools

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By Vera L. Stenhouse Illustrator: Eric Hanson In 2006, an Atlanta newspaper ran several photos with captions describing the celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday. The first picture featured a 5-year-old girl wearing a precision-cut fringe vest made out of a brown paper bag from a local grocery store (as identified by the store name and tagline detailed prominently in big blue letters on the vest).

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A Brief Timeline of Wampanoag History

By jessie little doe baird

1620: Pilgrims established a settlement on Wampanoag land in Plymouth

1675:King Phillips War. Over forty percent of the Wampanoag tribal population is killed and large number of healthy males sold off as slaves.

1685: Twenty five square miles of land reserved by the Tribe in the form of a deed from tribal leaders to Tribe itself in 1665. Plymouth Colony confirmed this deed in 1685.

1725: Plymouth Colony institutes a proprietary system of land control in Mashpee, with tribal members known as the collective owners of the land, or proprietors.

1746: Plymouth Colony appoints three guardians over Mashpee tribe to limit the Tribe's independence. Tribe protests repeatedly, to no avail.

1760: Tribe dispatched delegates to meet with the King of England, where they repeated complaints. The King ordered changes in governance.

1763: Plymouth Colony complies with King, acknowledges Mashpee as a self-governing Indian district.

1770: Boston Massacre. Crispus Attucks, a Wampanoag is killed.

1775: Mashpee Wampanoag tribe members fight on behalf of independence in the American Revolution.

1790: U.S. Congress approves the Trade and Intercourse Act, requiring federal approval for Indian land agreements.

1822: Federal officials deliberate on federal Indian removal policy, the federal government denominates Mashpee as a tribe in occupation of a reservation.

1822: For the next twenty-five years, federal officials regularly include Mashpee in federal reports of federal Indian policy. Officials also periodically assess conditions on the Mashpee reservation. Mashpee Tribe and reservation are also referenced on federal lists of tribes in the United States.

1834: Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe protests the authority of non-Indian overseers. Massachusetts Legislature revokes their authority, acknowledging Mashpee as a completely self-governing Indian district.

1842: The Massachusetts Legislature approves the division of Mashpee tribal lands. The land is split among tribal members, making individual property allotments and inalienable to anyone other than Mashpee proprietors. The federal government did not approve this attempted extinguishment of tribal title as required by the 1790 Trade and Intercourse Act. The Commonwealth leaves roughly 5,000 acres of Mashpee land in tribal ownership.

1850: Federal census of tribes is updated and it includes the Mashpee Tribe.

1869: Legislature makes Mashpee Wampanoag tribal members as state citizens and lifts the restraint against alienation of Mashpee allotments to anyone other than other Mashpee proprietors.

1870: Legislature authorized the conveyance of the remaining 3,000 - 5,000 acres in tribal ownership, abolished the Mashpee district, and created the town of Mashpee. The federal government did not approve this transaction as required by the 1790 Trade and Intercourse Act.

1890: U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs identifies Mashpee Tribe as one of the few tribes in the eastern United States still in possession of lands.

1904-1916: Mashpee children are sent to the Carlisle Indian School, administered by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, for assimilating tribes.

1870-present time: Mashpee Tribe maintains continuous title to and possession of key tracts of land within the historic Mashpee reservation.

1946: US Navy moves to temporarily condemn Mashpee beach lands for military training and uses, historical documents that show continuously retained aboriginal rights by Mashpee Tribe for water based resources in Mashpee.

1976: The Mashpee tribe files land claim in in federal court.

2007: Mashpee Tribe becomes a federally recognized tribe, authorizing tribe to acquire land and re-establish its Indian Reservation.

2012: Mashpee Tribe files "initial reservation" land in trust application with federal Department of Indian Affairs.

2015: Department of Interior approves Land in Trust Application for "initial reservation". Tribe begins re-acquiring tribal lands.

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By jessie little doe baird 1620: Pilgrims established a settlement on Wampanoag land in Plymouth 1675: King Phillips War. Over forty percent of the Wampanoag tribal population is killed and large number of healthy males sold off as slaves.

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American Indian Perspective on Thanksgiving

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American Indian Perspective on Thanksgiving

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American Indian Perspective on Thanksgiving

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~James Loewen, "Correctly taught, the issues of the era of the first Thanksgiving could help Americans grow more thoughtful and more tolerant..." Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, 1995

National Native American Heritage Month and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday provide an excellent and relevant opportunity for teachers to examine Native American perspectives of history. Celebrate our country's Native American Heritage by investigating a traditional shelter once used by a tribe near you. Check out our shelter database for more details:

1. North Slope Ivrulik of the Inupiat people (Alaska)
2. Midwestern Wickiup of the Meskwaki tribe (Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota)
3. The Basin House of the Ute people (Colorado, Wyoming, Utah)
4. Northwest Coast Plank House of the Tsimshian tribe (Washington, Alaska)
5. Great Basin Wickiup of the Northern Paiute people (Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, California)
6. Rock Shelter of the Ute tribe (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming)
7. Plains Tipi of the Crow people (Montana, Wyoming)
8. Pawnee Eathlodge of the Pawnee tribe (Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri)

Project Archaeology also wrote a free lesson you can download below or access in our shop here.

There have been many significant questions raised in the past few years, such as those concerning monuments in public spaces. Analyzing art and answering these questions is not easy, but it is important. Students will investigate monuments, consider their place in the public sphere, and learn the history of public art in this lesson. Through the lens of artistic analysis, students will work to gain an understanding of how visual media reflects cultural values. Working as a class, students will analyze a piece of artwork to uncover broader meanings and then independently analyze a monument of their choice.

Collaborating with Project Archaeology for this lesson is Mr. Nicholas Galanin, a Tlingit and Unangax. He has been educated around the world and apprenticed with several masters to become the artist he is today. His work "offers perspective rooted in connection to land and broad engagement with contemporary culture." In this lesson, we feature Mr. Galanin's Shadow on the Land for student and classroom analysis. Shadow on the Land is " an excavation of the shadow cast by the Captain Cook statue in Sydney's Hyde Park. Following tracing and transfer of the shadow to the site, careful excavation retains the shadow's shape and reveals what the land holds beneath the surface." If you are interested in seeing more artwork by Mr. Galanin, click here. We have also included a full biography and artistic statement within the new lesson.

Art may be everywhere, but the ability to understand its meaning and purpose is not. These skills are important and valuable, and something we have worked hard to foster in this lesson. We hope you enjoy it and learn from it.

Download the free lesson here.

Here Project Archaeology gathered a selection of teacher resources that support cultural, accurate, and inclusive understanding of the historical events surrounding the popular myth of the first Thanksgiving.
The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) provides great reading material and discussion questions for use in the classroom. The materials are created in collaboration with Native community members.
American Indian Perspective on Thanksgiving Poster
For teachers: The poster addresses three main themes that are central to understanding American Indians and Thanksgiving: Environment, Community, and Encounters. This resource includes ideas for the classroom and helps teachers start in-depth discussions based on the background information in the document and links to radio stories.
Harvest Ceremony: Beyond the Thanksgiving Myth
For students:Introduce your students to the "real Thanksgiving story" in a five-page study guide which also contains discussion questions. Help students bring this important conversation to their Thanksgiving table.
Blog Post on the NMAI Website "In thinking about my earliest memories of elementary school, I remember being asked to bring a brown paper sack to class so that it could be decorated and worn as part of the Indian costume used to celebrate Thanksgiving. I was also instructed to make a less-than-authentic headband with Indian designs and feathers to complete this outfit. Looking back, I now know this was wrong"... Thanksgiving Interactive: You are the Historian A Tale of Two Societies: The Pilgrims and the Wampanoags at Plymoth.
The Plimoth Plantation developed an on-line interactive site for students to take on the role of history detectives and investigate what really happened in 1621. Two young descendants, a boy from the Wampanoag tribe and a girl whose ancestor was at the harvest celebration, guide students through an exploration of primary sources, oral history, pictures, myths, and facts. Expert historians are on hand to further explain information provided on the site by clicking "Visit the Expert". In the end, students create a museum exhibit showcasing what they learned. A teacher guide is provided!
What You Need to Know: The Wampanoag
An essay by Matt Goerss on how he would use his experience visiting Plimoth Plantation in the classroom. His visit changed his perspective and it can change how your students view the place too. He recommends reading two documents: 1621 Treaty with the Wampanoag Indians and 1675 Speech by the Wampanoag Leader, Metacom. (The links in the essay are dated so I provide new ones here)
Thanksgiving Mourning
The Boston's Children Museum provides teachers with the building blocks for an accurate, respectful curriculum on the Wampanoag people. You can read quotes by Wampanoag people about their history and culture. Ideas for lesson plans are also available on the site.
1621 A New Look at Thanksgiving Are You Teaching the Real Story of the "First Thanksgiving"?
Some Native Americans observe the National Day of Mourning on the traditional Thanksgiving holiday because the day serves as a reminder of colonization's devastating impact on indigenous people. Jennifer Holladay created an original lesson for Teaching Tolerance. In this activity, students read two works by Native American authors: the famous speech by Wamsutta James from 1970, and an essay by Jacqueline Keeler. Students will examine how diverse groups can perceive shared experiences differently, make inferences based on the written information, and write a journal entry reflecting on their new knowledge.

The Montana Office of Public Instruction has created a Thanksgiving unit constructed around the book 1621 A New Look At Thanksgiving by Catherine O'Neill Grace and Margaret M. Bruchac. Students read and discuss topics using information from the text. Then students explore and list Thanksgiving myths vs. facts.

Education World offers come guidelines and positive teaching strategies as you approach the Thanksgiving holiday.
Deconstructing the Myths of "The First Thanksgiving"
Indigenous Perspective Video
Thanksgiving Book Recommendations
Montana State University held a workshop in October 2012, called The First Thanksgiving: Dispelling Myths and Misconceptions. You can watch a video of the presentations for a better understanding of Thanksgiving from an indigenous perspective. Dr. Henrietta Mann, President of the Cheyenne Arapahoe Tribal College, and gkisedtanamoogk, Spiritual Leader of the Wamponoag/Wabanaki Nation both shared their perspective.

A blog post of 11 myths to help teachers and students think critically about Thanksgiving and deconstruct what has been taught previously so myths are not perpetuated year after year.

Debbie Reese is a respected educator and a valuable resource for teachers and librarians seeking reviews on children's literature, specifically books about indigenous people. Her blog, American Indians in Children's Literature, provides lists of recommended books about American Indians for every grade level. She even offers a special list of good books for Thanksgiving.

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Native American Perspectives on Thanksgiving - Project Archaeology

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James Loewen, "Correctly taught, the issues of the era of the first Thanksgiving could help Americans grow more thoughtful and more tolerant..." Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, 1995 National Native American Heritage Month and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday provide an excellent and relevant opportunity for teachers to examine Native American perspectives of history.

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School Thanksgiving activities often mean dressing children in "Indian" headdresses and paper feathers as they sing " My Country 'Tis of Thee" or " Mr. Turkey." Some teachers might even ask their students to draw themselves as Native Americans from the past, complete with feather-adorned headbands and buckskin clothing. These activities might seem friendly and fun, unless you are aware of how damaging this imagery is to perceptions of contemporary Native peoples. This imagery contributes to the indoctrination of American youth into a false narrative that relegates Indigenous peoples to the past and turns real human beings into costumes for a few days a year. It's not just bad pedagogy; it's socially irresponsible.

Native Americans have been speaking out and writing back against the colonialist narrative of Thanksgiving for as long as the American narrative has existed. More recently, comedian Jim Ruel (Ojibwe) includes Thanksgiving in his act ( starting at 1:40 in this clip), Dr. Debbie Reese (Nambe Pueblo) writes about children's books that "set the record straight," and Native American students speak out about what Thanksgiving means to them.

Doris Seale (Santee/Cree) and Beverly Slapin (Dakota/Cree/Abenaki) edited A Broken Flute in 2005, which includes a chapter that deconstructs the myths perpetuated about the first Thanksgiving. This chapter also includes critical reviews of many books on the market or readily available in libraries and classrooms. Providing ample evidence that many non-Native publishers, illustrators and writers are missing the mark in several critical ways, these books exemplify the ineffectiveness of good intentions, the perpetuation of misinformation and the exclusion of Native American voices and experiences.

Teaching about Thanksgiving in a socially responsible way means that educators accept the ethical obligation to provide students with accurate information and to reject traditions that sustain harmful stereotypes about Indigenous peoples. Thankfully, there are excellent online resources that can help educators interested in disrupting the hegemonic Thanksgiving story.

Challenging the dominant and inaccurate narrative about Thanksgiving, providing students with a more balanced perspective of this oft-romanticized holiday, and refusing to dress students in feathered headbands are socially responsible actions. They're actions that every teacher should undertake to benefit their students and the society their students will inherit.

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Teaching Thanksgiving in a Socially Responsible Way

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Educators have an ethical obligation to teach accurately about Thanksgiving. Here are some online resources that can help.

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The science and poetry of skin color

By Katharine Johnson

Illustrator: Sheila Hamanaka

When I look out at my room full of 1st- and 2nd-grade students, I see a symphony of colors. I see this as beautiful and invaluable. Yet I realize the world does not always embrace my students' multiracial reality. I know that the world will not receive Jamal with his skin the color of summer midnight and his easy laugh the same way it will receive Anita, with her skin the color of late summer wheat and her quiet smile. Young people, like adults, receive countless confusing and negative messages about the implications of skin color. Consistently they get the message that some are better than others-that white trumps black and brown.

Worse than an unwelcoming world is the possibility of an unwelcoming classroom and school. I see racism taking root in the relationships my young learners are establishing. I have had to step in and help my students negotiate their multiracial environment-whether it is stopping a white student from assuming an African American classmate is the one who needs to go with the parent volunteer to work on reading skills, or helping a student of color find a group to join when, once again, she has not been invited into the dramatic play of a group of white girls. Knowing this, I am always on the lookout for learning opportunities that will be accessible and affirming.

When I attended a workshop led by Katie Kissinger demonstrating her approach to celebrating skin tone with her preschool students, I knew I had found a new possibility for beginning to disrupt the skin color prejudice that harms my students on a daily basis. Kissinger's students had celebrated their skin tones and learned about the biological basis of skin color. Young children, like adults, see different skin colors-and assign meaning to these differences. I wanted my students to understand something of the science of skin color in order to challenge the notion that skin color is an indication of anything more than genetic adaptations to one's environment. My aim with this lesson was twofold: First, I wanted students to see their similarities across a skin tone spectrum. This would be the science of skin tone. Second, I wanted them to practice the art of praising their own skin tones as a way to access the connection between skin tone and identity in a positive way. This would be the poetry.

The Science of Skin Tone

I began the lesson by grounding my students in the science of skin tone. Kissinger's own book, All the Colors We Are, offers clear explanations for why people have different skin tones. My students were fascinated by the idea presented in Kissinger's book that all people come in shades of brown. Exclamations like "Yes, why do they call me white? I'm not white. I'm pinkish brownish tannish goldish" peppered the cluster of students gathered on the rug for read-aloud. Kissinger's book presents different skin tones as adaptations to different environments. Imagining the evolution of skin tone over millennia is beyond the scope of most 6- and 7-year-old imaginations, but the idea that our skin has tone to make us a good match for our environment, that our skin tone could be understood as a way to make us stronger, offered my multiracial class a path into this conversation. I also used the book Your Skin and Mine by Paul Showers to introduce key ideas and scientific concepts. Reading each book aloud, I asked students to turn and talk after most pages so they could monitor their own growing understanding. We created a word wall dedicated to words related to skin tone. Melanin, tone, genetic, and heritage all took places of prominence on the wall.

Using the books and students' understanding, we wrote a kid-friendly definition of each term. We defined melanin as the stuff in your body that gives your skin and hair its color. Students came to understand genetics as the recipe for how one's body will be built. After reading these books, my students stood on solid ground with some basic ideas: Skin tone has evolved over time; it is an adaptation to different environments, especially proximity to the equator; and everyone, regardless of how one's "race" is named or misnamed, is a shade of brown.

Once students had some understanding of the science of skin tones, I moved into the language of praise. Following Kissinger's lead again, I stopped by the local hardware store to collect paint chips in dozens of shades of brown and peach and tan. I wanted my 6-, 7-, and 8-year-olds to match paint chips to skin tones, just as Kissinger had done with her preschoolers. I gathered the class on the rug so everyone could see me and the paint chips. Holding out the top of my forearm, I laid a paint chip against my skin. "What do you think? Does this look like my skin?" I asked. Thinking aloud, I modeled deciding which chips seemed too dark or too light, which ones had too much blue or too little red. Soon I asked my students to help me in my matching process, finally landing on a good match. I read the name of the color, Caramel Whip, to the group and wrote my name on the back of the paint chip.

Then I released students to explore the chips I had spread around the room. They mingled and chatted, helping each other find a good match for their own skin. To close the day's lesson, all the students shared their chips with the class, to applause after each share. Jessica, who had been frustrated by not finding a perfect match, landed on Saddle Brown with help from a few friends. Fergus went with Beach House, Justin and Tyler both identified with Coconut Grove, and Samantha's color match was called Liberty-a great match for her. I collected their paint chips to use when we transitioned to writing poems.

The Poetry of Skin Tone

I began the writing process by reading Sheila Hamanaka's picture book poem All the Colors of the Earth. First, I simply read the poem aloud slowly, taking time so we could look closely at each illustration. I had students pair-share their favorite pages, and a few shared favorites with the whole class. Jamal was especially fond of the line "the roaring browns of bears and soaring eagles." As soon as he shared that as his favorite line, six or seven hands went down. Apparently this had been a favorite. Raina offered up the line "like caramel and chocolate and the honey of bees."

"Why do you like that one so much?" I asked.

"Those are all sweet," Raina answered. "I think the poem is supposed to make us feel happy and those things make me happy."

Students continued to share new favorites or restate ones that had already been shared for a few more minutes. It was important to me that students have a chance to simply connect with the language and imagery Hamanaka uses. Often the message students receive, especially white students, is that to talk explicitly about difference is to be racist. We needed our exploration of skin color to begin with a gentle, welcoming discussion.

After students connected with the poem, I moved into the craft of writing. I wanted students to begin to think like poets. I tailored my questions toward the moves Hamanaka used, hoping students might be able to replicate those moves. "Sheila Hamanaka uses a lot of comparisons in her poem," I began. "Who remembers one thing she compared skin tone to?" Students called out bears and eagles and seashells and chocolate. I tried to keep up with the flurry of ideas as I recorded their connections on chart paper.

"Sheila Hamanaka chose her comparisons very carefully," I told my class. "How do you think she feels about skin tone based on the comparisons she chose?" I pushed students to recognize that the poem is a praise poem in celebration of skin tone. I reminded students of Raina's idea that the poem makes her happy because Hamanaka compares skin tone to sweet things. Ted thought Hamanaka believes that skin tone makes you strong since she used eagles and bears in her poem. Larry said that the poem made him feel peaceful because it compares skin tone to whispering grass and the ocean.

"How do you feel about your skin tone?" I asked, a little apprehensively. Even though I had laid the path for praise of skin tone, there was still the possibility that some students would have negative concepts of their skin tone and others would claim to have no feelings at all. To maintain a praise focus and offer some additional language support, I suggested that students choose one of the feeling words we had just listed if they did not want to think of their own feeling word. "Happy" and "strong" were the most popular feelings, and that was good enough for us to move forward with the poets' work of comparing.

"What is one thing in the world you can compare your skin to?" We closed that day's lesson with students mingling around the room and sharing their comparisons with as many partners as they could. I listened closely to the partner shares, especially eavesdropping on my students of color. I do not want any of my students to feel under a spotlight or that they need to be representatives of their group. What I realized in my eavesdropping was that my students of color were better able to generate lists of comparisons with their partners than some of my white students. I suspect that white students are less practiced at paying attention to their own skin tone. I used suggestive questions and references to nudge some students toward richer language and also toward celebration.

Jeremy, a first-generation child from Eritrea, suggested his skin was the color of dirt. Jeremy's comparison stirred concern in me. Of all my students of color, he was the most socially isolated in the class. I only knew of one other student who has ever played with Jeremy outside of the structured school day. Other students often complained about having to partner with him or tattled about his behavior in P.E. or in the lunch line. Sitting next to him and seeing his paper with dirt as the lone idea listed, I wondered what his motivation was for that comparison, and I wondered why he seemed at a loss for other ideas.

Rather than admonish him for a potentially negative comparison, I probed his connection: "What type of dirt do you imagine? Is it like fresh soil ready to be planted in a garden or like the rich muddy edges of a pond or like the dry patch in front of the soccer goal?" As an expert soccer player, Jeremy ended up with several references to the types of dirt on the field. I cannot be certain Jeremy's original idea of dirt carried negative connotations for him, but I can attest that his face brightened as he added more ideas to his brainstorming chart and his hand went up to share as we closed the lesson. Fergus, a white student, said he couldn't think of anything other than the color of his paint chip. I sent him over to the area of our classroom library with large full-color science books. "Flip through some nature books and see what you find that reminds you of your skin tone and how you feel about it," I suggested. He came back to his seat 10 minutes later with river stones and prairies for his list. Since Fergus spends every summer fishing with his grandfather in Montana, these seemed like excellent choices.

The next day, I introduced another set of poems in praise of skin tone from the book The Blacker the Berry, by Joyce Carol Thomas. Each of these poems describes one of the many hues of African American skin color, from deep rich browns to red to seemingly white. Thomas uses images from nature and dialogue between children and elders to celebrate skin tone. For example: "I am midnight and berries/I call the silver stars at dusk/By moonrise they appear/and we turn berries into nectar/Because I am dark the moon and stars/shine brighter/because berries are dark the juice is sweeter." Thomas links feelings about skin tone to family, referring to grandparents' advice, motherly love, and heritage: "My mother says I am/Red raspberries stirred into blackberries/Like the raspberries I will always be here/Like the blackberries I was here with the first seed."

For each of these poems, I asked students: "How does Joyce Carol Thomas describe skin tone?" Students added to the chart that we had started with Hamanaka's poem. Thomas' work gave us additional categories: family memories, berries, sky colors, and feelings. Now we had enough poetic moves and categories borrowed from other poets to move into generating student ideas.

I designed a brainstorming template for students to use based on what they had noticed in Hamanaka's and Thomas' poems. Our big categories included: nature, animals, smells, food, and emotions. We gathered on the rug and I showed students a chart paper-sized version of the brainstorming template. "These are some of the ways we noticed other poets described skin tone. Today, we are going to think of our own ideas about how to describe our skin tones."

Then I modeled the process of thinking about how to celebrate and describe skin aloud. I pulled my paint chip from the basket of chips and re-read the name of the color: Caramel Whip. "Where would I put this on my chart?" I asked the class. We agreed it belonged under foods. "Let's see if we can think of any other comparisons for my skin." I looked closely at the back of my forearm and showed it to the students sitting closest to me. "What in nature is like this color?" I wondered aloud. "It looks a little like beach sand," I began and added this idea to the chart in the category Things in Nature. When I asked students for more nature comparisons for my skin color, they called out "bunny fur," "dry grass," and "peaches." All of these went onto the chart.

I wanted students to start thinking about their own skin. "What did you tell your partner yesterday that you compared your skin to?" I told them to share again with a nearby partner. "Who can share their idea?" I asked after a few minutes of partner talk. Many hands went up.

"Cocoa," said Sayla.

"Lovely," I responded. "Where would that idea go on the brainstorming chart?" Working with the students, I modeled placing their ideas onto the chart under the appropriate category. The categories themselves were not that important. My goal was to generate a variety of ideas.

When I felt confident that students had a sense of how to sort their ideas, I released them to work on their own brainstorming charts. "Try to get at least one idea in each section," I recommended as students settled into desks and corners of the carpet to fill out charts.

While students chatted and listed ideas on their brainstorm charts, I again roved and made sure each student came up with ideas celebrating their color. Not every student immediately settled down and brainstormed 10 or 12 poetic images in praise of their skin tone. Many needed one-on-one help to get rolling or to keep going. Neil struggled to come up with ideas, so I paired him with a trusted friend to think together. Katie listed white paper and milk as her skin tone and said she was done. We studied her skin, laying her arm next to mine to see that the pinked-up creaminess of her skin tone had little to do with the name of her race as white. She added strawberries to her milk to get closer to the real tone of her skin and came up with one of my favorite ideas-grilled cheese bread. Jason stared into space from his seat, so I pulled up a chair next to him and reminded him to start with the name of his paint chip. We studied his forearm together and imagined lions with their golden hair shining in the sun and cookie dough. Josie's pencil couldn't move fast enough to list all the browns in the world that her skin reminded her of, so I asked her to share her thinking process with the class. Some students ended up with only two or three ideas, but that was enough to get rolling with the poetry.

Poets as Advisors

Now students were ready to sculpt their ideas into poems. I once again relied on think aloud as a modeling technique. I gathered the students on the rug and reviewed the oversized brainstorm chart we had made as a class the day before. "I am going to take these ideas and turn them into a poem today. You are going to take your ideas and turn them into a poem as well. I need some advice on how to do this. First, I am going to take advice from Sheila Hamanaka and Joyce Carol Thomas." I had a couple of student volunteers read aloud once more the skin tone poems we already knew.

"I think I am going to start my poem with an idea from Sheila Hamanaka," I said as I began writing my poem on chart paper. "I am not going to copy her whole poem, but I want to use one of her ideas as a way to jump into my own poem." I wrote: "I am the colors of the Earth" at the top of the chart paper. Next, I looked back at the chart of brainstormed ideas and dramatically modeled choosing an idea to add to my poem. "I think I will use this one next," I said pointing to dry beach sand. I wrote: "My skin is the color of warm beach sand." "What idea should I write next?" I asked the class. Working together, we drafted four or five lines for my poem.

It was time for students to write their own poems. As a way to remind them of the options we noticed in the model poems, I released them from the rug by asking who wanted to start with which type of idea. "Who thinks they will start with a food comparison?" I asked. "Who wants to include a detail about how your skin is like the skin of someone else in your family? Who wants to start with hair instead of skin? Who wants to start by comparing it to an animal? Tell a neighbor how you will start your poem."

We wrote for the rest of the week. Some days we cranked out longer sessions of 45 minutes of writing and sharing. Once or twice, we simply squeezed in 20 minutes before lunch. But each day that week, students touched this work-writing, rereading, sharing with friends, sharing in small groups, and sharing all together. For students who were ready to stretch as writers, I led a revision lesson on adding more detail to their metaphors. I modeled adding action to the image of an eagle so it became an eagle soaring through the mountains. If students compared their skin to caramel, that caramel could become warm caramel or caramel inside a candy. First- and 2nd-grade metaphors tend toward the cliché, but I wanted them to try to stretch their ideas.

When students seemed satisfied with their poems, we created self-portraits. I let students choose the medium-paints or crayons-that matched how they wanted their portraits to look. Poems and portraits hung in the hallway for several months, the students protesting whenever I wondered if it might be time to take them down.

I know that children see and wonder about skin color. I know that children, even as young as 6, experience racism directed at themselves, their moms, their neighbors, their cousins, the man in front of them in line at the grocery store. I also know that opening my classroom to a discussion about the skin tone differences that we see and the ones that we ignore is one component to disrupting prejudice based on skin color. And I know that this is just the beginning-sharing an experience around loving our skin tones does not suddenly take away the real pain of how the world sees "white" and "black" and "brown" skinned peoples.

The two weeks we spent writing and learning about skin tone opened my classroom in some important ways. Samantha, an African American girl who barely spoke even in morning circle time at the start of the year, read her entire poem aloud to her classmates. Tyler and Justin, one white and one African American, who had never spent free time together before, became friends when they realized they both had skin that matched Coconut Grove. Jeremy, also African American, finished a piece of writing on the same schedule as the rest of the class for the first time.

Maybe Samantha was simply ready to emerge as a more vocal and public presence in the classroom. Maybe Justin and Tyler would have found some other connection and become friends. Maybe the academic support I offered Jeremy finally kicked in. Maybe not. Maybe the discussion of the science of skin tone and the praise of our beautiful differences facilitated these important transformations. I prefer to attribute my students' growth to the poems in celebration of skin tone. Regardless, I plan to continue teaching in ways that might interrupt racist hierarchies and might do so joyfully.

Resources

Hamanaka, Sheila. 1994. All the Colors of the Earth. Morrow Junior.

Kissinger, Katie, and Wernher Krutein. 1994. All the Colors We Are: The Story of How We Get Our Skin Color. Redleaf.

Showers, Paul, and Kathleen Kuchera. 1991. Your Skin and Mine. HarperCollins.

Thomas, Joyce Carol, and Floyd Cooper. 2008. The Blacker the Berry: Poems. HarperCollins.

All the Colors of the Earth

Children come in all the colors of the earth
The roaring browns of bears and soaring eagles,
The whispering golds of late summer grasses,
And crackling russets of falling leaves,
The tinkling pinks of tiny seashells rumbling by the sea.
Children come with hair like bouncy baby lambs,
Or hair that flows like water,
Or hair that curls like sleeping cats in snoozy cat colors.
Children come in all the colors of love,
In endless shades of you and me.
For love comes in cinnamon, walnut and wheat,
Love is amber and ivory and ginger and sweet,
Like caramel and chocolate and the honey of bees,
Dark as leopard spots, light as sand
Children come in all the colors
of the earth and sky and sea.
-Sheila Hamanaka
Copyright 1994 by Sheila Hamanaka. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
My skin is sweet cinnamon mixed with cream.
It's the color of sand dollars on the ocean floor.
It's like spicy sugar.
It's like light caramel
It's also like a heron's neck.
My skin is the lion's eye.
And it's like a slithering viper on freshly mowed grass, pebbles under the desert sun.
My skin is beautiful
like my father's and mother's.
-Teddy

What Color Am I?

I am delicious mocha with a hint of cinnamon
I am warm caramel in the bottom of the bowl
I smell like spice cake baking in the oven
I am a spicy cinnamon latte.
- Sadie

My skin is not white
It is caramel whip,
sandy beaches
and the sound of pebbles under the desert sun
My skin is the warmth of the summer sun
And the promise of a day filled with joy.
-Malcolm

This article appears in our new book, Rhythm and Resistance: Teaching Poetry for Social Justice

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An early elementary school teacher combines a science lesson and poetry to encourage children to celebrate their own skin tone and that of their classmates.

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https://www.zoeyandsassafras.com/

Mario and the hole in the sky --> mexican american chemist and CFC's

Temple Grandin

Mario and the Hole in the Sky

HOW A CHEMIST SAVED OUR PLANET

Oddhopper Opera

The Good Garden

The Story of the Blue Planet

The Magnificent Makers

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A Mighty Girl Best Book of the Year Washington State Book Award for Young Readers Winner Illinois State Monarch Award Nominee Washington State OTTER Award Nominee Beverly Cleary Children's Choice Award Nominee North Dakota Flicker Tale Nominee Florida SSYRA Award Nominee "Concepts are explained concisely and clearly, and a short glossary provides valuable vocabulary building. The slightly larger font makes the text inviting for emerging readers, and the illustrations blend perfectly into the story. Sassafras and the dragon prove to be able sidekicks in the vein of Disney characters...while this book is a natural fit for STEM collections, it deserves a place in all libraries serving young readers." -- School Library Journal
-- Publishers Weekly "...the imaginative premise and the incorporation of STEM elements make this an attractive and engaging choice." -- Booklist

"...a delightful beginning reader. I will definitely recommend this to kids and I look forward to the other books in this series." --Mel Barnes, University Bookstore

"Zoey and Sassafras are our heroes! My kids love unravelling their mysterious circumstance, and they even made their own "Thinking Goggles." Zoey is an awesome role model." -- Megan Lingo, Reading Teacher at Chickadee Lit "...Citro gracefully balances her story's scientific and fantasy elements."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A Mighty Girl Best Book of the Year Washington State Book Award for Young Readers Winner Illinois State Monarch Award Nominee Washington State OTTER Award Nominee Beverly Cleary Children's Choice Award Nominee North Dakota Flicker Tale Nominee Florida SSYRA Award Nominee "Concepts are explained concisely and clearly, and a short glossary provides valuable vocabulary building.