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Inquiry questions- Extending the "I" in perspectIve

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Inquiry questions- Extending the "I" in perspectIve

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1. What is identity?
2. What makes up an identity?
3. What is our identity?
4. What is perspective? What is perspective taking?
5. Why is perspective important when talking about identity? (connecting question between empathy and perspective)

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These books were selected on the criteria that they showcased different identities. Wether it be a multiple perspective book or an adaptation of a classic, they consist of diverse perspectives and help create meaning for the word "identity".

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This realistic fiction book is written from a first person perspective, but every chapter switches around from 13 narrating characters. The main plot of the story revolves about one garden created by the ethnically diverse community in Cleveland, Ohio. It starts off from one young girl Kim who is planting lima beans for her late father in a trash lot and transpires into a big garden where everyone plants their seeds. At some points the garden is segregated and a little hostile; however, certain characters find ways to join everyone together by the end of the story.

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Wonder is about a boy named Auggie who was born with facial deformities in which he chose to not attend public school. However in 5th grade, his parents have him join the public schooling system in which he faces difficulties with students and other community members who are unaccepting of Auggie. At the end of the book, there comes a point in where everyone becomes accepting of Auggie and his exceptionalities.

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This book is about a group of diverse students who all identify differently all put in one class with a teacher who had given up with the teaching spirit. Throughout the plot of the book, they all seem to find their place together in efforts to save Mr. Kermit's, the teacher, job. The reason why I chose this book for perspective as it has a diverse amount of identities and all switches through different perspectives of students.

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This book is a novel written in verse about a little girl who is dealing with issues of daydreaming and dealing with her parents divorce. What I like most about this book is the fact that it shows how children that daydream (or ADHD like symptoms) aren't bad students and shouldn't have that be the sole part of their identity.

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This picture book is about cat who is walking through life and is seen by multiple different animals. However, the twist on the book is that all the animals that viewed the cat, saw the cat from different perspectives and were depicted as such. The main theme was perspective and at the end, the cat looked at theirself in the water and said "imagine what it saw" as that we will never know what the cat's perspective is on his/herself.

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Bird by Zetta Elliot and illustrated by Shadra Strickland

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Bird by Zetta Elliot and illustrated by Shadra Strickland

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This picture book is about a boy who loves to draw and is dealing with family issues such as his grandfather's death and his brother's drug addiction. He uses art as a way to work through his feelings and emotions and how people cope with addiction. He was finding himself through his picture drawing, especially "Birds".

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These videos align with the subcategory of perspective as it teaches the core of "identity" and also explains what perspective means within identity. Perspective and empathy go hand in hand, but I think it is important to teach what perspective is first and then teach that to have and create empathy, you need to understand others perspectives first.

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Wellbeing for Children : Identity And Values

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Wellbeing for Children : Identity And Values

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This short 5 minute video describes what identity is. It explains that values, hobbies, cultural backgrounds, religion, language and personality are all essential to identity. It also talks about how everyones identity is unique and should be celebrated!

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Wellbeing For Children: Identity And Values

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1. How do our identities compare and contrast to our classmates?
2. What is a community? What community do we belong to?
2. what is a stereotype?

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The main theme that all these books have in common is how they address stereotypes and how stereotypes make the other person feel when experiencing them. They also give a sense of what communities are and how we base our identity off the community we are surrounded with but also, we can make our own community by things other than race, age, religion, etc.

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"I Am Not a Label: 34 disabled artists, thinkers, athletes and activists from past and present" by Cerrie Burnell

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"I Am Not a Label: 34 disabled artists, thinkers, athletes and activists from past and present" by Cerrie Burnell

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This book is a short biography book about 34 different people with disabilities who are famous figures and achievers in their field and how their disabilities do not define them. The "Label" or stereotype given to them is challenged in a way that there are misjudgments about their abilities and that they all defy what their Label means. This book promotes inclusion, empathy and creates a better understanding for people who have exceptionalities that defy the "norms".

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My son is doing a Black History project on Stevie Wonder and we found this book at our local library. I want my son to learn about how disabled people can lead normal lives like able-bodied people. An example being Stevie Wonder who is blind, but is one of the greatest artists of all-time. This book is excellent for kids and adults to learn that having a disability does not stop people from reaching their true potential.

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Jessi ❤️ H. Vojsk [if villain, why hot?]

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My son is doing a Black History project on Stevie Wonder and we found this book at our local library. I want my son to learn about how disabled people can lead normal lives like able-bodied people. An example being Stevie Wonder who is blind, but is one of the greatest artists of all-time.

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1. what is empathy?
2. How do we create empathy for our classmates identites?
3. What can we do to learn and care from others?

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This book is a graphic novel is about Jordan, a 7th grade African American boy, who was enrolled in a predominantly white school that was suppose to give him better opportunities in life. In his new school he goes through experiencing racism, microaggression, stereotypes, and code switching. He eventually makes friends and finds his own identity and what it means to him. He still deals with issues such as bullies, but he is more comfortable with himself.

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Discover and share books you love on Goodreads.

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"Inside Out and Back Again" by Thanhha Lai

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"Inside Out and Back Again" by Thanhha Lai

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This historical fiction novel written in verse is about a refugee girl named Ha and her family escaping from a war-torn Vietnam in the 1970's. Ha and her family fled from Saigon to Guam by boat and then ended up being sponsored (or bought) by a "cowboy" from Alabama. Ha is stereotyped by her home and school community for not speaking english, not looking like the other boys and girls, and in general not coming from western culture. She tells her tribulations with starting over in a new country and we can see from her perspective that we should be mindful of others experiences and not rely on stereotypes in making judgements about others.

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Read 7,920 reviews from the world’s largest community for readers. For all the ten years of her life, Hà has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets,…

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This autobiographical graphic novel is about Cece Bell, a girl who lost her hearing at age 4 from meningitis. Cece shows her experiences of being a hearing impaired person and retells of instances such as her being bullied or being fitted with hearing-aids. She creates an alter-ego, "El Deafo" who is her courageous and confident self. She learns through her struggles who she is as a person and her identity while combatting harmful stereotypes.

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Read 7,879 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Starting at a new school is scary, even more so with a giant hearing aid strapped to you...

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1. What is activism? What does activism mean to you?

2. How can we help each other's communities by being activists?

3. What can we celebrate about each other?

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"Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation" by Ari Folman and Illustrations by David Polonsky

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"Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation" by Ari Folman and Illustrations by David Polonsky

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This adaptation of the famous Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young girl, gives readers a visual interpretation of Anne Frank's persecution from the Nazi Regime. She is a young girl who was going through the brutality of hiding in an annex from the Nazis and writes of her experiences of having to hide from her oppressors. She writes about her as a person, her dynamics with her family and others in hiding, about the Nazis, the isolation, friendship, etc. This book is an important read and goes along with the perspective subtopic as it reflects on how she views herself vs how others view her and how dangerous stereotypes are.

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"Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson

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"Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson

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"Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson is a autobiography written in verse about Jacqueline, an African American girl who grew up in South Carolina in the 1960's. she divided up into sections that contain moments from her life that explained what it was like to be black when Jim Crow laws were still used in society of the south. Jacqueline and her family defied all stereotypes but were still treated like them. Jacqueline realized that stereotyping was harmful and by writing from her perspective, she was breaking walls of what it meant to be Black.

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The main message that these videos are meant to convey that we are different from each other and belong to different communities, but we need to have respect and responsibility for inclusion of all regardless of differences, because we are all human at the end of the day.

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This video describes what a community is and how we all are apart of a community in one way or another.

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Types of communities for kids - What is a community? [KS1 PSHE]

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I chose this because it talks about racism and racial stereotypes in the view of identity. They have their parents talk to their kids with all diverse backgrounds about what it means to them about their ethnicity and race, what it means to be diverse and tolerant/ kind to everyone.

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PBS KIDS Talk About | Race, Racism & Identity | PBS KIDS

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This video explains how perspective is different for everyone. One quote form the video that connects perspective to empathy is that "Sometimes, to understand others and see from another's perspective, we must reposition ourselves both physically and mentally".

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The Wonder of empathy: Using Palacio's novel to teach perspective-taking

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The Wonder of empathy: Using Palacio's novel to teach perspective-taking

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This supplemental research article takes the book "Wonder" (a book selected for this subcategory), and uses it to engage students on learning about kindness, differences in identities, and different perspectives of one story. This study showed how the students' “Perspective taking" skills improved vastly just from engaging with this one book. This is a support article also for teaching empathy as Perspective taking is an empathy skill, but I put this in perspective category as one of the questions are " Why is perspective important when talking about identity?" and this article supports the answer.

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The Wonder of empathy: Using Palacio's novel to teach perspective-taking.

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R. J. Palacio's Wonder offers an engaging look at the challenges a child with facial deformities encounters when attending school for the first time. Told from multiple perspectives, the novel emphasizes kindness, acceptance of differences and the common anxieties associated with fitting into a social group.

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This blog post was written by a 12 year-old-boy who explained what the book meant to him. He wrote about the multiple cultures and diverse people that were characters in the book. He also wrote about how the book showed stereotypes, how characters are similar and different, and how that by reading the book, you can create understanding and "caring emotions" for others.

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Elena Reads: After reading this review by my friend Udit S., age 12, I have added Seedfolks to my list of books I must read. Here is what Udit wrote:
Posted by

A recent book that I read showed cultural and racial diversity and how one thing could change the entire community.

I read the book Seedfolks recently and I wanted to share with you just how much the author ( Paul Fleischman) packs into a rather short chapter book.

Seedfolks starts out by setting the scene with a little girl named Kim who, in attempt to connect with her father, plants a lima bean seed. Her father worked as a farmer before he passed, but he passed away eight months before Kim was born. Both Kim's mother and sister have connections and memories with her father, while Kim doesn't. When Kim plants the lima bean, she commits to taking care of the plants, almost like a child of her own.

This one lima bean inspires person after person to start planting something in the lot. The lot that used to be previously trashed by the city hall and garbage companies in the city. Each person layers scenes from parts of the previous chapter, and what they thought of that scene. The characters also expressed what they thought about the person without speaking to them. As Amir (one of the characters in the book) states, " In America, you treat all as foes, unless they are known as friends." This quote from the book shows that people assume so much about each other's personalities.

Paul Fleischman represents multiple cultures through fictional characters, and shows their perspective and their background story. Every character is so similar and related to each other, but so diverse and different at the same time. This is great for people to understand how easy it is to stick a label on someone of whom you do not know. However, the book also shows how you can slowly peel the label off if you stand by a understanding and caring emotions to know how that person would feel. I would highly recommend this book for people looking to understand how others would feel if they find out how others actually are after you get to know them.

Udit S., age 12

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Guest Blog: Seedfolks Is A Lesson In Understanding Others

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Elena Reads: After reading this review by my friend Udit S., age 12, I have added Seedfolks to my list of books I must read. Here is what Udit wrote: A recent book that I read showed cultural and r...

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The main purpose for these engagements are for students to really dive into different identities and what makes up their own identity. These engagements are to also show how we can all have different perspectives on identities. This sets a foundation for students to learn more about the nuances of what identity is as it relates to "empathy", "stereotypes", and "activism".

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Engagement 1: "Who are you?" identity sheet

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Engagement 1: "Who are you?" identity sheet

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The first activity I would like to engage in is a "Who am I" identity sheet. This covers the majority of identities that students could have. They will take this sheet and write how they identify in the middle, and have to answer at-least one of the questions from each category. They can use pictures or drawings, article clippings, words, colors, collages to make their "identity" chart.

Then they have to take one of the given books from the text set, or a book approved by the teacher first, and give them an identity sheet. They can work in partners, as a class, or individually.

Then in their journals, they can write about why they chose that character to do a identity chart on, how they connect with them personally, how they view/ how the character appears to them, what emotions the characters might feel based off their identity, how would they feel if they switched shoes etc. They can realistically write about anything in connection to the identity chart and character's perspective with the student.

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The texts selected for "empathy" had a strong central theme for being tolerant and understanding of differences. It connects back to perspective and the differences in our identities, but also shows the similarities as well.

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Throughout the "big idea" students will have a journal to write about their reflection of the content they are learning. They will be prompted with questions but can realistically write about anything they want. They can design the journals based off of the things that make them them. They can use different mediums such as paint, collage art, newspaper clippings, stuff they find and want to glue to the journal.

Also to keep privacy, the students will leave them in a locked locker and can put a colored sticky note on it if they want the teacher to real their entry or not. For example, a pink sticky note on the entry could mean "DO NOT READ" and the teacher would just skim to make sure the child is writing. It is derived from "The Freedom Writers Diary".

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Engagement 3: Canva poster on perspective

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Engagement 3: Canva poster on perspective

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The students will be given a task based off the book "They all saw a cat", which teaches about perspective.  In the book, everyone saw a different version of the cat. So, their task with Canva will be to create a poster in which they have to choose a Continent they learned about in history class, and show how we can see the place from different perspectives. For example, if they choose Asia, they can show different types of people, places, and things that are there (see example above).

Then the teacher will print out all of the posters and will have a "walk around" the classroom.

Then they can lead discussion on what was different and the same about the students posters. They can also engage students with the fact that identities, just like continents, can be viewed differently by different people, and not one part straightly defines them.

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Fish in a tree is a realistic fiction book which has the main character, Ally, a 6th grade military brat who struggles with dyslexia and never really fits in with her classmates.
In her new school, she at first was having a hard time and was labeled at the "trouble student". Then meets two friends, Keisha and Albert, and a new teacher , Mr. Daniels, who helps her find her way as she is struggling with herself while being bullied by a mean girl. She starts finds her way and realizes that she is smart and that her difference from others does not define her. She learns to have empathy for people who are also struggling with things that make them insecure. At the end of the book, she is awarded for her differences and working hard while her peers come around to the fact that they are all different.

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The Giver is a speculative fiction novel which has a utopian/dystopian world setting. The people in this world were protected from anything that wasn't "rational" ( feelings and emotions, anything that could potentially cause pain and suffering) was taken away from the society. However, the main character Jonas is chosen to take on/ experience everything of the "old" society and is passed on down from "the giver". He realizes that life/ people are way better off being able to have a choice in what they experience and sets a plan up to release everyone from their enforced "sameness".  It supports the notion that being different is good! Jonas displays empathy for everyone when he learns of others pain as well as pleasures.

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George by Alex Gino is a novel is about a transgender girl who wants to come out to her world that she is a girl, not a boy. She is afraid of the repercussions and how people will think of her if she does come out.

Through out the book, she deals with issues of her gender identity, and it hits a head when she was trying out for the school play as charlotte, but was told that was a girl role. After being denied the role, she decides to come out to her family, mom first, and then to everyone else. She did hit some unsupportive people such as Rick, the mom's boyfriend. At the end, he came around to supporting George, aka Melissa.

"George" encourages/ displays themes of "acceptance" and "empathy" throughout the book and helps if people who are going through the same thing in that its teaching people to be compassionate and caring.

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"Stella by Starlight" by Sharon M. Draper

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"Stella by Starlight" by Sharon M. Draper

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This historical novel was set in the 1930's in a southern racist town. The main character, Stella, and her family are African Americans who face discrimination and segregation actions from white town members and leaders. The community, including Stella and her family,  deal with injustices in their town such as voter suppression, unfair treatment at jobs experienced by her mother and father, unequal resources at segregated schools, KKK rallies, etc.

Stella stands up to these injustices  by attending secret schools, writing in journals, peaceful protesting and overall advocating for equal rights and change.

The book gives insight and engages readers in seeing experiences from Stella and other community members POV and how to understand how it feels if you've never been discriminated against.

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All of these books that were selected, has a theme of social justice and how activism can look different, but are all striving towards the same goal.

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This biography and autobiography tells stories of Malala Yousafzai and other refugee girls from places in the middle east and having to flee their home due to violence and conflict. Displacement from a refugee can look like many different experiences and she sheds a light onto the different narratives.  She writes through the lens of resilience and empowerment within women as well as how advocacy is important for change. She specializes in equal education as well as human rights.

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Malala's newest book is available now!

In "We Are Displaced," Malala shares her own journey and those of displaced young women around the world. Their stories are important reminders that even when girls are forced from their homes, they don't leave behind their dreams for the future.

Because of violence or persecution, 70.8 million people are currently unable to return to their homes. More than half of all refugees are children. In Malala Yousafzai's new book, "We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World," she introduces the girls behind the numbers.

"What tends to get lost in the current refugee crisis is the humanity behind the statistics," says Malala. "We hear about millions of refugees, hundreds of migrants trapped on a boat or in a truck, but it's only when a truly shocking image appears in the news that people consider what's really going on."

Forced to flee their homes because of conflict, persecution or natural disaster, refugees experience on average of 20 years of insecurity. That often means no home, no education and no country to call their own.

The book opens with Malala's own story of displacement. As a child, her family fled Taliban rule and lived as displaced people in other parts of Pakistan. After relocating to Birmingham following her attack, Malala was unable to return to her home country for six years.

"We Are Displaced" introduces girls from Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria and around the world - many of whom Malala has met through her campaign for girls' education. They share their stories of struggle, triumph and hope.

The book is available now in Australia, New Zealand, U.K. and U.S. The proceeds from sales of the book will go toward Malala Fund's work to see every girl in school.
Purchase book

Support Malala's fight for girls' education.

Your gift today is an investment in Malala Fund programmes that help girls around the world go to school -  from creating safe spaces for girls in northern Nigeria, to training young Pakistani women as activists and providing STEM education to Syrian refugees.

Support Malala's fight for girls' education.

Your gift today is an investment in Malala Fund programmes that help girls around the world go to school -  from creating safe spaces for girls in northern Nigeria, to training young Pakistani women as activists and providing STEM education to Syrian refugees.

To fundraise or make a donation in another way, please visit More Ways to Give.

Malala Fund is a registered charity in the U.S. and U.K. Your online donation made here will benefit the work of Malala Fund's U.S. 501(c)(3) charity and is tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. You will receive an email donation receipt as your official record for tax purposes and regular updates on how your gift helps girls around the world.

If you have any questions, please email us at giving@malalafund.org.

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Malala's newest book "We Are Displaced" - available now!

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Because of violence or persecution, 70.8 million people are currently unable to return to their homes. More than half of all refugees are children. In Malala Yousafzai's new book, "We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World," she introduces the girls behind the numbers.

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"Let the Children March" by Monica Clark-Robinson and illustrated by Frank Morrison

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"Let the Children March" by Monica Clark-Robinson and illustrated by Frank Morrison

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This picture book is set during the 1963 civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama, which was a segregated and discriminative town against African Americans. The main character, Audrey, who is 9 years old joins the protesting about the discrimination and racism in the town and marches for equal rights. After being brutalized and sent to jail for marching, Audrey and the other children inspired others to join in on the cause of equality and justice.

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This powerful picture book introduces young readers to a key event in the struggle for Civil Rights. Winner, Coretta Scott King Honor Award.

In 1963 Birmingham, Alabama, thousands of African American children volunteered to march for their rights after hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak. They protested the laws that kept black people separate from white people. Facing fear, hate, and danger, these children used their voices to change the world.

Frank Morrison's emotive oil-on-canvas paintings bring this historical event to life, while Monica Clark-Robinson's moving and poetic words document this remarkable time.

I couldn't play on the same playground as the white kids.

I couldn't go to their schools.

I couldn't drink from their water fountains.

There were so many things I couldn't do.

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Let the Children March [Clark-Robinson, Monica, Morrison, Frank] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Let the Children March

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This non fiction book is about the Stonewall Riots, which is a symbol today for LGBTQ+ rights in society. The book covers how being gay was illegal in the 1960's and how places like the Stonewall inn was a safe haven for people apart of the LGBTQ+ community. However, police still raided and were brutal towards places like this and arrested people at these establishments.
On June 28th, 1969, during a raid, people started to resist and fight back against the police which ignited a flame that would spread into a full blow fire, with protests against the brutality for several days after. The stonewall was the start for fighting for equal rights for the LGTBQ+ community and the book's main message was to accept and still fight for their rights.

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What Was Stonewall? by Nico Medina, Who HQ: 9781524786007 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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How did a spontaneous protest outside of a New York City bar fifty years ago spark a social movement across America? Find out about the history of LGBTQ rights in this Who HQ title. In the early-morning...

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"Refugee" by Alan Gratz is divided into 3 first person perspectives of young refugees from different time periods of different places of the world.

The first era and character we encounter is a jewish boy, Josef, who is living under the Nazi regime in Germany in the 1930s. His family seeked refuge in Cuba who ultimately turned them away and then were caught in Europe and forced into concentration camps which, as we all know, were some of the most brutal living conditions in the world.

The second Era and character we encounter is Isabel, an impoverished girl who lives in Cuba in 1994 who's family plans to escape to the US. They escaped by raft in the dangerous conditions of the sea while the looming presence of getting caught by authorities of Cuba. Hardships were apparent but then finally they made it to Florida, trying to figure out a new life for the family.

The 3rd plot we meet is Mahmoud who is a Syrian boy living in Syria in 2015. His story starts in the middle of the Syrian war and flees the country as his home is destroyed. His family, like the other two characters explore the theme of loss from his perspective and the hardships of being a refugee. They eventually make it to Germany, but like Isabel, they have to grow to the new culture.

The 3 stories displayed showed connections to each other and how their stories overlap and are not just 3 separate instances. This book weaves the theme of empathy throughout as they all experienced persecution and conveys to people how to understand their perspective and where they are coming from.

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This novel is about Karina, an Indian-American girl, who is living in a community where hate crimes occur. She meets a young boy named Chris, who was the epitome of subliminal prejudice in the community that was instilled within kids. However, when Karina's grandfather starts to tutor both her and Chris in math, they form a connection.
The story hits a point where Karina's grandfather is assaulted by a racist in the town, and starts to see the effects closer to home. They stand up against injustices together to attempt to bring the community as as place of equality and acceptance.

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Count Me In [Bajaj, Varsha] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Count Me In

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This realistic fiction book is about a girl named Rose who has Asperger's syndrome and struggles in social situations which leads her to being an "outcast" with her best friend being a dog named Rain. However, Rain goes missing due to a hurricane storm which sends Rose onto a determined path to find her furry friend.

Throughout the story, the other characters of the book have misunderstandings of Rose's ways due to the Asperger's, however characters like Mr. Kushel, Uncle Weldon, Aunt Ruth and even Wesley create connections with Rose and develops a connection even if her actions are different than the "norm".

There are ups and downs in the book, especially in her relationship with her father and Rain, but Rose grows from these downs and shows how to bounce back from hardships while accepting our exceptionalities.

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This novel is about the main character, Ana Rosa, who lives in a small village in the Dominican Republic and is a young writer living in a community where writing is a threat to the government and seen as "resistance". She lives in an unjust political and social environment and an example of this would be the government's plan to wipe out the whole village for a "Luxury Hotel".  Through her writing, she found her voice and spoke out against the injustices put on their community. She in turn found herself and how she could help people just by using her words on the paper even through adversity.

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The Color of My Words - Kindle edition by Joseph, Lynn. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Color of My Words.

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communication skills: empathetic listening (Inside out, 2015)

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communication skills: empathetic listening (Inside out, 2015)

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This scene from Disney's Inside Out, touches on how you have to listen to others to understand and have empathy. The whole movies is based off a girl named Riley and her emotions when she has to move to a new city and school.

Some questions to ask students:
1. How did Sadness have empathy for Bing bong?
2. What did Sadness do that Joy didn't?

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Communication Skills: Empathetic Listening - Inside Out, 2015

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This video shows different identities and how we put each other in a box, but we are more similar than we think we are. They have people come out of their box they were put in and have them take a picture based off of "if they were class clown" or "if they beat cancer". Then they have everyone come together and say they are untied as one (expect they say it by god, but Teachers can explain to students to not focus on that).

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This video explains what empathy is, how we are divided in some ways and build walls. It explains that empathy helps us connect better to people and create a better place. Then it gives easy ways to engage in empathy with others.

The video helps set a foundation up for empathy within books, and how to empathize with characters, and not just the main character.

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The supplemental texts I chose were those that described the relationship between reading and empathy. The majority of the texts I chose for the empathy unit were fiction and as one of the article proves support that fiction readings improves empathy and vice vera as well.

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The relationship between reading and empathy: An integrative literature review

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The relationship between reading and empathy: An integrative literature review

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This article focused on the relationship between reading fictional texts and empathy between children and adolescents. The majority of the analyses done on research articles were seen in a North American context, as it pertains to students in the US. It was found that reading fictional texts helped students increase reading comprehension, teacher-student skills, decrease in discriminant behaviors and understanding the perspective of others.

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This post explained ways how to boost reading comprehension through teaching/ developing empathy in class as well connecting empathy to the readings. Some tips were do annotated emotional connections while reading, holding classroom discussions about creating safe spaces in the classroom and explaining perspective, do journal entries, along with other suggestions.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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The main purpose for these engagements are for students to try out and cultivate their empathy skills. Wether it's between their classmates, characters in a book, or a stranger, all activities promote answers to the inquiry questions of this subcategory.

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"I wish my friends knew"- walking in someone else's shoes

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"I wish my friends knew"- walking in someone else's shoes

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This activity is an anonymous activity where students write something they wish their classmates knew on a paper cut out of a shoe. They can decorate the shoe in how it represents them at home. If the student has trouble of getting supplies, the teacher can send home a magazine, glue sticks and other art supplies. Or the teacher can give individual time during lunch or recess and have a "sign up" sheet so the students shoe remains anonymous.

then the teacher collects all of them from students and puts them in a box, swirls them around and reads them out loud and then posts them on a wall.

Then as a class, the students will be led in discussion to answer the following questions:

1. How many other students wish their peers knew that? (can have students put heads down on desk and raise their hand, teacher counts a tally, and then tells how many after their heads come up and hands down)

2. Can anyone create a connection (text to text, text to self, text to world) between this and something else you know? ex: if a student's parents are going through a divorce, it's just like Gabby in "Words with Wings".

3. How can we help this student feel heard in the classroom or in general?

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The children will engage in an in class Kahoot in which they will interact with a Kahoot about "empathy and Compassion with [the movie] Up". This Kahoot gives scenario and experiences of how we display empathy and compassion using clips from "Up".

Then the students will take one of the 6 books given to them in the text set and will create their own Kahoot with examples from the books where characters displayed empathy and when they didn't display empathy. Then the class will play each other's kahoot!

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Join a game of kahoot here. Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn - any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!

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The students will group together and record and act out a situation where a character in a book didn't display empathy. Then in the video, they will show how they can display empathy to that character instead of being discriminatory.

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In this realistic fiction book, the main character Emilia who has ADHD and a father who has PTSD from being deployed in the Iraq war. She finds an abandoned car and starts to work on it with her father, helping them build a connection. She learns about her history of her family, while meeting new friends as well as people in need. She also learns about prejudice within her school and how it has infiltrated in our justice system and communities in subliminal ways.

She learns what it means to be an activist for a cause and her community as well as discovering what it means to be her.

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This is a great book for late elementary and middle school students with great lessons in standing up for something you believe in, regardless of your own struggles, differences or judgments. Emilia is a great inspiration! This book is available as an e-book on Libby / Overdrive.

Reviewed by: Vinita Hulyalkar, Circulation, Vernon Area Public Library

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This is a great book for late elementary and middle school students with great lessons in standing up for something you believe in, regardless of your own struggles, differences or judgments. Emilia is a great inspiration! This book is available as an e-book on Libby / Overdrive.

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These videos all relate to being an activist in the community and how we can all be activists in different ways. Some of the videos also shows the differences, but can all come together in celebration of others.

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Kids Share Their Cultural Tradition (Show and Tell)

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Kids Share Their Cultural Tradition (Show and Tell)

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Kids from different cultures and religions and showcase things that are meaningful to them! They all display engagement and respect for each other. They range from showing each other different foods, clothing, traditions and rituals, songs etc.

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Kids Share Their Cultural Tradition | Show & Tell | Hiho Kids

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"We and They" was written by Rudyard Kipling, a known author to be a controversial person with racism, misogyny, etc. However, this poem is important to read as he describes the difference between certain group of communities.

He identified his community as "we" and the others as "they", but it would be important to note to students that everyone still lives on this earth, which is an even bigger community than the ones in the poem.

It also important to note that how we read this poem depends on perspective, and Kipling while writing, relies on stereotypes to define his perspective on people in his poem.

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Father, Mother, and Me
    Sister and Auntie say
All the people like us are We,
    And every one else is They.
And They live over the sea,
    While We live over the way,
But - would you believe it? - They look upon We
    As only a sort of They !

We eat pork and beef
    With cow-horn-handled knives.
They who gobble Their rice off a leaf,
    Are horrified out of Their lives;
And They who live up a tree,
    And feast on grubs and clay,
(Isn't it scandalous?) look upon We
    As a simply disgusting They!

We shoot birds with a gun.
    They stick lions with spears.
Their full-dress is un-.
    We dress up to Our ears.
They like Their friends for tea.
    We like Our friends to stay;
And, after all that, They look upon We
    As an utterly ignorant They!

We eat kitcheny food.
    We have doors that latch.
They drink milk or blood,
    Under an open thatch.
We have Doctors to fee.
    They have Wizards to pay.
And (impudent heathen!) They look upon We
    As a quite impossible They!

All good people agree,
    And all good people say,
All nice people, like Us, are We
    And every one else is They:
But if you cross over the sea,
    Instead of over the way,
You may end by (think of it!) looking on We
    As only a sort of They !

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Father, Mother, and Me Sister and Auntie say All the people like us are We, And every one else is They. And They live over the sea, While We live over the way, But - would you believe it? &#8...

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the bystander effect | the science of Empathy

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the bystander effect | the science of Empathy

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This video was an experiment for explaining the bystander effect and how people wait around to see and help someone in need if they are in a group. The video is helpful for the purpose that it shows even though you are one person, it still makes the difference for helping.

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The Bystander Effect | The Science of Empathy

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This typed out ted talk is by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and called "The danger of a single story". She explains how seeing something through one perspective is dangerous and how stereotyping is threatening our ability to be tolerant and respectful of others who are different from us. She tells of her experiences and how she was subjected to one story throughout her life and she says by rejecting the single story we gain the ability to empower and humanize others.

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Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie describes the effects that labels can have on how we think about ourselves and others:

I'm a storyteller. And I would like to tell you a few personal stories about what I like to call "the danger of the single story." I grew up on a university campus in eastern Nigeria. My mother says that I started reading at the age of two, although I think four is probably close to the truth. So I was an early reader, and what I read were British and American children's books.

I was also an early writer, and when I began to write, at about the age of seven, stories in pencil with crayon illustrations that my poor mother was obligated to read, I wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was reading: All my characters were white and blue-eyed, they played in the snow, they ate apples, and they talked a lot about the weather, how lovely it was that the sun had come out. Now, this despite the fact that I lived in Nigeria. I had never been outside Nigeria. We didn't have snow, we ate mangoes, and we never talked about the weather, because there was no need to . . .

What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children. Because all I had read were books in which characters were foreign, I had become convinced that books by their very nature had to have foreigners in them and had to be about things with which I could not personally identify. Now, things changed when I discovered African books. There weren't many of them available, and they weren't quite as easy to find as the foreign books.

But because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye, I went through a mental shift in my perception of literature. I realized that people like me, girls with skin the color of chocolate, whose kinky hair could not form ponytails, could also exist in literature. I started to write about things I recognized.

Now, I loved those American and British books I read. They stirred my imagination. They opened up new worlds for me. But the unintended consequence was that I did not know that people like me could exist in literature. So what the discovery of African writers did for me was this: It saved me from having a single story of what books are.

I come from a conventional, middle-class Nigerian family. My father was a professor. My mother was an administrator. And so we had, as was the norm, live-in domestic help, who would often come from nearby rural villages. So, the year I turned eight, we got a new house boy. His name was Fide. The only thing my mother told us about him was that his family was very poor. My mother sent yams and rice, and our old clothes, to his family. And when I didn't finish my dinner, my mother would say, "Finish your food! Don't you know? People like Fide's family have nothing." So I felt enormous pity for Fide's family.

Then one Saturday, we went to his village to visit, and his mother showed us a beautifully patterned basket made of dyed raffia that his brother had made. I was startled. It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually make something. All I had heard about them was how poor they were, so that it had become impossible for me to see them as anything else but poor. Their poverty was my single story of them.

Years later, I thought about this when I left Nigeria to go to university in the United States. I was 19. My American roommate was shocked by me. She asked where I had learned to speak English so well, and was confused when I said that Nigeria happened to have English as its official language. She asked if she could listen to what she called my "tribal music," and was consequently very disappointed when I produced my tape of Mariah Carey. She assumed that I did not know how to use a stove.

What struck me was this: She had felt sorry for me even before she saw me. Her default position toward me, as an African, was a kind of patronizing, well-meaning pity. My roommate had a single story of Africa: a single story of catastrophe. In this single story, there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her in any way, no possibility of feelings more complex than pity, no possibility of a connection as human equals.

I must say that before I went to the U.S., I didn't consciously identify as African. But in the U.S., whenever Africa came up, people turned to me. Never mind that I knew nothing about places like Namibia. But I did come to embrace this new identity, and in many ways I think of myself now as African . . .

So, after I had spent some years in the U.S. as an African, I began to understand my roommate's response to me. If I had not grown up in Nigeria, and if all I knew about Africa were from popular images, I too would think that Africa was a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals, and incomprehensible people, fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and AIDS, unable to speak for themselves and waiting to be saved by a kind, white foreigner. I would see Africans in the same way that I, as a child, had seen Fide's family . . .

And so, I began to realize that my American roommate must have throughout her life seen and heard different versions of this single story . . .

But I must quickly add that I too am just as guilty in the question of the single story. A few years ago, I visited Mexico from the U.S. The political climate in the U.S. at the time was tense, and there were debates going on about immigration. And, as often happens in America, immigration became synonymous with Mexicans. There were endless stories of Mexicans as people who were fleecing the healthcare system, sneaking across the border, being arrested at the border, that sort of thing.

I remember walking around on my first day in Guadalajara, watching the people going to work, rolling up tortillas in the marketplace, smoking, laughing. I remember first feeling slight surprise. And then, I was overwhelmed with shame. I realized that I had been so immersed in the media coverage of Mexicans that they had become one thing in my mind, the abject immigrant. I had bought into the single story of Mexicans and I could not have been more ashamed of myself. So that is how to create a single story, show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.

It is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power. There is a word, an Igbo [a language spoken in Nigeria] word, that I think about whenever I think about the power structures of the world, and it is "nkali." It's a noun that loosely translates to "to be greater than another." Like our economic and political worlds, stories too are defined by the principle of nkali: How they are told, who tells them, when they're told, how many stories are told, are really dependent on power.

Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person. The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes that if you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with, "secondly." Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans, and not with the arrival of the British, and you have an entirely different story. Start the story with the failure of the African state, and not with the colonial creation of the African state, and you have an entirely different story . . .

When I learned, some years ago, that writers were expected to have had really unhappy childhoods to be successful, I began to think about how I could invent horrible things my parents had done to me. But the truth is that I had a very happy childhood, full of laughter and love, in a very close-knit family.

But I also had grandfathers who died in refugee camps. My cousin Polle died because he could not get adequate healthcare. One of my closest friends, Okoloma, died in a plane crash because our fire trucks did not have water. I grew up under repressive military governments that devalued education, so that sometimes, my parents were not paid their salaries. And so, as a child, I saw jam disappear from the breakfast table, then margarine disappeared, then bread became too expensive, then milk became rationed. And most of all, a kind of normalized political fear invaded our lives.

All of these stories make me who I am. But to insist on only these negative stories is to flatten my experience and to overlook the many other stories that formed me. The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.

Of course, Africa is a continent full of catastrophes: There are immense ones, such as the horrific rapes in Congo and depressing ones, such as the fact that 5,000 people apply for one job vacancy in Nigeria. But there are other stories that are not about catastrophe, and it is very important, it is just as important, to talk about them.

I've always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person. The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.

So what if before my Mexican trip, I had followed the immigration debate from both sides, the U.S. and the Mexican? What if my mother had told us that Fide's family was poor and hardworking? What if we had an African television network that broadcast diverse African stories all over the world? What the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe calls "a balance of stories."

What if my roommate knew about my Nigerian publisher, Muhtar Bakare, a remarkable man who left his job in a bank to follow his dream and start a publishing house? Now, the conventional wisdom was that Nigerians don't read literature. He disagreed. He felt that people who could read, would read, if you made literature affordable and available to them . . .

Now, what if my roommate knew about my friend Fumi Onda, a fearless woman who hosts a TV show in Lagos, and is determined to tell the stories that we prefer to forget? What if my roommate knew about the heart procedure that was performed in the Lagos hospital last week? What if my roommate knew about contemporary Nigerian music, talented people singing in English and Pidgin, and Igbo and Yoruba and Ijo, mixing influences from Jay-Z to Fela to Bob Marley to their grandfathers[?]

What if my roommate knew about the female lawyer who recently went to court in Nigeria to challenge a ridiculous law that required women to get their husband's consent before renewing their passports? What if my roommate knew about Nollywood, full of innovative people making films despite great technical odds, films so popular that they really are the best example of Nigerians consuming what they produce? What if my roommate knew about my wonderfully ambitious hair braider, who has just started her own business selling hair extensions? Or about the millions of other Nigerians who start businesses and sometimes fail, but continue to nurse ambition?

Every time I am home I am confronted with the usual sources of irritation for most Nigerians: our failed infrastructure, our failed government, but also by the incredible resilience of people who thrive despite the government, rather than because of it. I teach writing workshops in Lagos every summer, and it is amazing to me how many people apply, how many people are eager to write, to tell stories . . .

Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.

The American writer Alice Walker wrote this about her Southern relatives who had moved to the North. She introduced them to a book about the Southern life that they had left behind. "They sat around, reading the book themselves, listening to me read the book, and a kind of paradise was regained." I would like to end with this thought: That when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.

1. Create an identity chart for Chimamanda Adichie. Which labels on the chart represent how she sees her own identity? Which ones represent how some others view her?

2. What does Adichie mean by a "single story"? What examples does she give? Why does she believe "single stories" are dangerous?

3. Is there a single story that others often use to define you? Can you think of other examples of "single stories" that may be part of your own worldview? Where do those "single stories" come from? How can we find a "balance of stories"?

4. Adichie herself admits to sometimes defining others with a single story. Why is it that people sometimes make the same mistakes that they so easily see others making?

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Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie challenges us to consider the power of stories to influence identity, shape stereotypes, and build paths to empathy.

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Our first engagement is meant to answer our first two inquiry questions: "how do our identities compare and contrast to our classmates?" and "What is a community?"

The engagement starts off with sharing our identity maps with a pair of students and they will discuss and write out what they have in common with each other, and what they are different.

Then their partner will choose an aspect of their identity thats different from their own (with the okay of the other student), wether it be their religion, culture, family etc., and do research on that aspect of their identity (using videos, books, articles, interviews etc.). This will help identify what community that student belong to.

Then, the teacher makes a padlet for the class and allows students post about their findings and attach what they found interesting about the community Then all the students can converse with each other about what they know on the community.

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This engagement is to help students learn what a Stereotype is and how to identify a stereotype.

After reading the poem "We and They" by Rudyard Kipling, the teacher will discuss who is the "We" in the poem and who is the "They". Then, they will fill out with work sheet as a class.

After that and reading "Inside Out and Back Again" from the text set, they will fill out the same worksheet (who the "we" and who the "they") between Ha's family and other characters. Then after they are going to pick out stereotypes that they found from the "They" section. There will be a class discussion on how these are harmful labels.

Lastly, they will be asked to research Vietnamese culture and create a venn-diagram between their Student's culture and the Vietnamese culture with emphasis on the similarities between the two (breaking down stereotypes and explaining how people are not that different).

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Engagement 3: Holocaust Survivor testimony

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Engagement 3: Holocaust Survivor testimony

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This engagement is suppose to teach students how dangerous stereotypes can be.

After reading Anne Frank, students will be asked to scroll through the "Behind Every Name a story" website page, and read the essays written by Holocaust survivors.

Then in their journals, they will write a reaction to what happened to that survivor, make connections to other books they've read, and how dangerous the stereotype was too the Jewish people as well as how they must've felt during the holocaust.

Lastly, class room discussion will start and they will explain who their person was and can share what they found out about the person, reading from their journals.

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Behind Every Name a Story consists of essays describing survivors' experiences during the Holocaust, written by survivors or their families. We encourage all survivors to share their unique experiences to ensure their preservation for future generations.

The essays, accompanying photographs, and other materials, including submissions that we are unable to feature on our website, will become a permanent part of the Museum's records.

I had little confidence when I started. My hands were so shaky I could barely read my own writing. As I started writing, I was given confidence, support, and encouragement. If I can do this, then you can too.

Manya's Memory Project
Manya's biography

Sima could easily pass as a non-Jewish Pole because she had a light complexion and was blonde, but to be able to live as a Pole, she needed a Kennkarte (identification card), and to get a Kennkarte she needed a Polish birth certificate.

The Gestapo visited us in the morning. They knew my father from his visits as Seelsorger (minister) to the Jews in the local prison.

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Behind Every Name a Story consists of essays describing survivors' experiences during the Holocaust, written by survivors or their families. We encourage all survivors to share their unique experiences to ensure their preservation for future generations. The essays, accompanying photographs, and other materials, including submissions that we are unable to feature on our website, will become a permanent part of the Museum's records.

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How To Change The World (a work in progress) | Kid President

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How To Change The World (a work in progress) | Kid President

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This video from a kid's perspective, explains different people's ideas/ reactions on changing the world. kid president talks about different ways we can make the world better by community engagement, and how one person makes a difference.

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How To Change The World (a work in progress) | Kid President

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The Past and Future of the Women’s Rights Movement | Women's History Month | PEOPLE

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The Past and Future of the Women’s Rights Movement | Women's History Month | PEOPLE

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This video montages clips together about the Women's suffrage movement throughout history and shows different figures within the movement speaking up and inspiring women to do the same for themselves.

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The Past and Future of the Women’s Rights Movement | Women's History Month | PEOPLE

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This article goes over 5 children and their contributions to society and making it a better place. These children's issues include Educational rights for all (especially girls), Climate change, Black Lives Matter movement, and the Syrian conflict.

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Across the world, children and young people have been protesting and speaking up about what matters to them. Why? Because they feel country leaders are not listening to concerns on issues which impact children now, and into the future. While a wave of protests by children has gained momentum over the past few years, child rights activism is nothing new. We take a look at five young activists using their voice to make change.

1. Malala Yousafzai

At just 15-years-old, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head on a school bus by the Taliban in Pakistan for daring to speak out against a ban on education for girls. It is a story that is known across the world.

Malala survived and has gone on to become a role model for women globally. She has devoted her life to being a voice in the fight to ensure all girls receive 12 years of free, safe, quality education.

In 2020, the Malala Fund teamed up with UNICEF and other partners to deliver the 'Building back equal: girls back to school guide', which gives policymakers and other decision-makers the tools to ensure girls' education continues to be an important part of the COVID-19 response. Learn more about our work in education.

Follow Malala on Instagram.

2. Greta Thunberg

Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg started a school strike for the climate outside the Swedish Parliament. Since then, Greta has become a global phenomenon and has helped spread the movement, dubbed Fridays for Future, around the world.

Greta has spoken at climate rallies in Stockholm, Helsinki, Brussels and London. In 2019, she gave a searing and emotional speech at the United Nations, calling on decision-makers around the world to commit to meaningful climate change action.

Greta has inspired other young activists too. In Australia, 14-year-old activist, Izzy Raj-Seppings, led thousands of protestors in "School Strike 4 Climate" protests through Sydney, becoming a face of Australia's youth climate movement when she stared down riot police outside of Kirribili House.

In what Greta Thunberg called 'a huge win for the whole climate movement', Izzy and seven other teenagers, won a class action lawsuit against the Federal Government, which ruled that the Minister for the Environment has a duty of care not to act in a way that would put young people at risk of climate-related harm.

Thunberg has also spoken about the need for an equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. She donated 100,000 euros (AUD $155,000) from her Foundation to the WHO Foundation in support of COVAX and UNICEF to help achieve this goal.

COVAX is part of the global effort to ensure equitable access of vaccines to the most at-risk around the world, including health workers and older people. As part of COVAX, UNICEF aims to deliver more than 2 billion COVID-19 vaccines.
Yet cases of deadly COVID-19 continue to devastate vulnerable communities across the globe. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. Learn how you can play your part.
Follow Greta on Twitter.

3. Thandiwe Abdullah

By her seventeenth birthday, Thandiwe Abdullah already had an impressive list of achievements. She co-founded the Black Lives Matter Youth Vanguard, helped create the Black Lives Matter in Schools program (subsequently adopted by the National Education Association), and successfully campaigned to end random police searches in the LA Unified School District.

Thandiwe's mother, Melina Abdullah - a prominent activist in her own right - began taking her daughter to political rallies from a young age. By the age of nine, Thandiwe was already involved in the growing BLM movement, giving an impromptu speech at a rally for Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old fatally shot by police in her hometown of South Los Angeles.

In 2018, she spoke in front of a crowd of 500,000 people during the Women's March in Los Angeles, and she was featured in TIME magazine as one of that year's 25 Most Influential Teens.

"For me, success and my work should always be connected to the community. Making sure that I'm continuing to support and uplift-even if it's not my own people-anyone who is oppressed, anyone who is in need or being subjugated. That's my job."

Follow Thandi on Instagram.

4. Bana Alabed

At just seven-years-old, Bana Alabed became well known for documenting her experience of the siege of Aleppo in Syria through Twitter.

With the help of her mother, Bana told of the suffering for people inside and outside of Syria and gave a face to the everyday reality of life in Aleppo. Her Twitter account urged leaders to do more for the millions of children stuck in the middle of conflict.

Bana and her mother were evacuated from Syria in late 2016. In 2018, the child activist received the Atlantic Council Freedom Award. Learn more about the conflict in Syria and how you can help children.

Follow Bana on Twitter.

5. Children around the world

"I saw Greta Thunberg speak at COP24. Her example showed me what I had to do," says Alexandria Villasenor, then 13, to a group of young people protesting in favour of climate action outside the United Nations in March 2019.

On Fridays, throughout the winter, Alexandria took a cue from Thunberg and sat on a bench in New York to protest the lack of action on the environment.

The marchers also demanded that leaders take to heart the landmark October 2018 report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimating the planet was only 12 years away from catastrophe unless "far-reaching and unprecedented changes" are taken.
Children have the right to have an opinion and expect to be heard.
In the past year, thousands of young people across Australia and around the world have taken to the streets to protest about what is important to them and what they feel is being ignored by the world's leaders.

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Across the world children and young people have been speaking up about what matters to them. Learn about those who are making their voices heard.

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At least 7 state legislatures are proposing 'book ban' legislation, prompting concern from civil liberty advocates

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At least 7 state legislatures are proposing 'book ban' legislation, prompting concern from civil liberty advocates

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This article describes how certain books are being banned that represent minorities and other communities such as the LGBTQ+ community.  The reason I selected this article was because it shows the reason why activists are needed in society. For example, the Tennessee house Bill 800 "Prohibits public schools from including books in instructional materials that "promote, normalize, support, or address lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgender (LGBT) issues or lifestyles".

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State legislatures across the country are proposing bills that would restrict schools and libraries from teaching certain books.

Some of the proposed legislation allows parents to submit formal complaints about school material, or allow parents to join committees.

Insider identified 9 "book ban" bills in seven state legislatures across the country.

From " Maus" to " To Kill A Mockingbird," school districts across the country have been the battlefront of the book banning debate.

But this year, at least seven state legislatures so far are attempting to codify the concerns of some parents into law with proposed bills aiming to reshape school curricula.

Insider identified nine bills currently being debated in various statehouses, some of which attempt to ban students from reading certain genres of books while others provide parents the opportunity to report and eliminate the books classrooms, among other measures.

Certain books have been repeatedly challenged in schools for decades, Insider previously reported. The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, for instance, tracks the number of complaints that books receive in schools and publishes the most frequently contested books.

But critics of the bans said these new bills are "misguided" and possibly unconstitutional.

"Freedom of expression protects our right to read, learn and share ideas free from viewpoint-based censorship," said Vera Eidelman, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. "Book bans in school and public libraries-places that are central to our abilities to explore ideas, encounter new perspectives, and learn to think for ourselves-are misguided attempts to try to suppress that right."

The contents of the bills working through statehouses this year differ from state to state. An Oklahoma bill restricts entire genres of books from being taught or held in school libraries. And in Florida, one bill would allow parents to join committees to shape the instructional materials of a school district.

But many of the books that could be taken off of shelves under these bills showcase representations of marginalized communities, such as LGBTQ people and people of color, Eidelman said.

"The vast majority of book bans that are taking hold across the country-whether through legislative proposals or direct school district or board actions-specifically aim to remove books that are by and about communities of color, LGBTQ people, and other marginalized groups," said Eidelman, who works on the organization's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. "Censoring books on this basis is discriminatory and antithetical to our First Amendment rights, and we are actively pursuing litigation to block such laws and policies."

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, told Insider that the bills are "all about politics."

Weingarten said that giving parents more transparency about what's taught in classrooms is a step in the right direction, however, she also said there's currently a push from some conservative figures, who are "trying to exploit the anguish and the anxiety that people have about everything to create more factionalism."

Weingarten added: "These attempts are about just chilling the teaching and learning that goes on in classrooms."

But, Florida state Rep. Sam Garrison, who also co-sponsored the bill there, defended the measure earlier this month. Garrison said the bill's main goal is to "encourage" kids to visit libraries and to comfort parents about what books are available.

"What this bill is seeking to do is provide transparency to reinforce for parents the security and the confidence that comes with knowing that they can drop their kids off at the local library and be comfortable. They want to encourage their kids to go to the library," Garrison said, per the TC Palm.

The bills include:

Florida Senate Bill 1300, which:

Requires a media specialist at every school to review all books and teaching materials to ensure they are "age-appropriate."

Requires elementary schools to post a list of each of their teaching materials online.

Florida House Bill 1467:

Each elementary school would be required to post all school library materials online in a "searchable format."

Allow parents to join committees for "ranking, eliminating, or selecting instructional materials."

Georgia Senate Bill 226:

Allows parents to report school material they believe is "harmful to minors" and get the material potentially removed in a timely manner following a review process.

If a parent is unhappy with the review's answer, they can appeal the decision to the local school board.

Oklahoma Senate Bill 1142:

Prohibits public schools and their libraries from carrying books that revolve around "the study of sex, sexual preferences, sexual activity, sexual perversion, sex-based classifications, sexual identity, or gender identity or books that are of a sexual nature that a reasonable parent or legal guardian would want to know of or approve of prior to their child being exposed to it."

If a parent requests a book to be removed from a school district or school's library, they can submit a request to remove the book. If the book is not removed within 30 days, the school district or school faces a $10,000 per day fine for each day the book remains on the shelves.

Tennessee House Bill 1944:

Prohibits public schools from providing "obscene materials or materials harmful to minors" to students in school libraries.

Tennessee House Bill 800:

Prohibits public schools from including books in instructional materials that "promote, normalize, support, or address lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgender (LGBT) issues or lifestyles."
Indiana Senate Bill 17:

Removes legal protections for teachers and libraries for providing "materials harmful to minors" for educational purposes

Iowa Senate File 2198:

Makes it a criminal offense for a teacher to use "obscene material or hard-core pornography" in instructional materials.

The punishment for an offender would be up to a year in prison and a maximum fine of $2,560.

South Dakota House Bill 1337:

Prohibits public schools from including teaching materials that promote "a divisive concept."
Do you know of any additional bills in state legislatures that restrict books or teaching materials from being taught? Send an email to mhall@insider.com.

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At least 7 state legislatures are proposing 'book ban' legislation, prompting concern from civil liberty advocates

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State legislatures across the country are proposing bills that would restrict schools and libraries from teaching certain books. Some of the proposed legislation allows parents to submit formal complaints about school material, or allow parents to join committees. Insider identified 9 "book ban" bills in seven state legislatures across the country.

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Engagement 1: Historical Activist project

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Engagement 1: Historical Activist project

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They are to choose one activist within a community of their choosing (approved by the teacher first) and then they will make a S'mores news letter about the Activist like a "News story" and they have to include elements like:

- What community they are advocating for.
- What injustices they are experiencing or have experienced
- what the activist did (what type of activism they engaged in)

They can use images, clips, etc. to make it more "news like".

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The students will engage in planning an event like Audrey's march from "Let the Children March".

They will decide:
- what they are advocating for
- what event is best for their cause
- what they would plan to do at the event
- would any guest speakers come to the event (dead or alive)
- where the event would take place
- who would be at the event
- would they encounter any problems from others?
- what advertising for the event would happen

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Engagement 3: Cultural community book fair

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Engagement 3: Cultural community book fair

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After all of the different genres of books read by the class that has different identities and having struggles, the students will be asked to create their own book and character that represents someone diverse and different.

They can make a book from the following genres:

- poetry
- picture books
- realistic fiction
- historical fiction
- speculative fiction
- non-fiction
- graphic novels

Then after writing the book ( and doing work shops as a class, peer edits, etc.), they will also focus on the peritext of the book such as the authors note, the paper they use, hard cover or soft cover, the end pages, etc.

Then they will create a book trailer promoting their book as it will be shown at a "book fair" within the school.
They can invite parents, family, friends, and community members to come watch their book previews as well as after being able to read the other students books.

Brining people together is a form of activism and promotes parents getting involved with their child's learning as well as being educated on diversity and identity like their child.

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Engagement 4: Deconstruct and Reconstruct Wonder 

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Engagement 4: Deconstruct and Reconstruct Wonder 

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Students will take the book "Wonder" and will:

- Deconstruct the text: to deconstruct the text, students will be given a graphic organizer with 6 side by side "plot summaries", which will help visually display how point of view can be different for all.

-reconstruct the text: using the journals  aforementioned in engagement 1, students will be asked to find a character they are closely relate too, but within that character, find something they cannot relate to.