# data[].attributes.headline
2025 Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action 

# data[].attributes.subject
2025 Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action 

# data[].attributes.body
Members of the Zinn Education Project's Teaching for Black Lives Study Groups submitted stories of their BLM at School activities in 2025. Including an elementary school in Oakland, California.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action Around the Country - Teaching for Black Lives

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The first week of February is the annual Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, which centers 13 guiding principles and four demands of Black Lives Matter at School. Teaching for Black Lives study groups across the U.S. participated in the 2025 week of action. Read their stories.

# data[].attributes.headline
Black Lives Matter Marketplace of Knowledge

# data[].attributes.subject
Black Lives Matter Marketplace of Knowledge

# data[].attributes.body
Be inspired by this D.C. public schoolwide study of Black Lives Matter at School principles

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Elementary School Study of Black Lives Matter Principles — D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A DCPS elementary school devotes six weeks to indepth study of Black Lives Matter principles.

# data[].attributes.headline
D.C. Area and Beyond Participate in BLM at School Week of Action 2023

# data[].attributes.subject
D.C. Area and Beyond Participate in BLM at School Week of Action 2023

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Gearing up for the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action is no small feat. While many educators in the D.C. area have been uplifting Black Lives Matter at School work with participation in the Year of Purpose, the Week of Action (held February 6-10, 2023) is a focused opportunity to uplift the guiding principles and national demands.

Read about how D.C. area educators prepared for this year's D.C. area Week of Action during their curricular planning meeting on January 7th and how educators in the D.C. area and beyond engaged in the annual curriculum fair. Then read below about how educators in the D.C. area and beyond brought the Black Lives Matter at School guiding principles and demands into their classrooms.

Check out Hannah Halpern's BLM at School Week of Action Sample 5 day schedule for her elementary school students.

Read an article featuring stories from the D.C. Area Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action at In These Times, " Black Educators are Reimagining A Better Education System."

Students Hear from HBCU Alumni at Montgomery Blair HS

For the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, the staff of Montgomery Blair High School (MCPS) planned a range of activities including a panel discussion of 10 Blair HS staff who are alumni of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Read more.

Ofosu Jones-Quartey, author of Love Your Amazing Self: Joyful Verses for Young Voices, interspersed a read aloud of select verses from his book with mindfulness exercises at Rocketship PCS - Legacy Prep in support of the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. Read more.

Self-Portraits and Braiding in Art at Seaton ES

Athena Kopsidas, art teacher at Seaton ES (DCPS), led students through projects that incorporated The Skin You Live In and Don't Touch My Hair! and art during the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. Read more.

Sweet Cherie Brings Go-Go to Simon ES

At Simon ES (DCPS), K-3rd graders learned about the history and fundamentals of go-go and got a chance to play an improvised tune on Sweet Cherie's bedazzled keyboard. They danced when they heard their name called by the talker, just like at a go-go. The visit was especially joyful because one of the teachers, whose parents met at a Chuck Brown concert in 1972, was celebrating a birthday! Read more.

On February 23, Mimi Eisen, co-author of Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction, was in conversation with Michelle Coles, author of Black Was the Ink, to discuss the parallels between the Reconstruction era and today. Participants in this virtual event had time to collaborate, share resources, and reflect on their own Reconstruction teaching and learning experiences. Read more.

Lots to plan and prep - but also feeling prepared - for Black Lives Matter Week of Action starting on Monday! As I phrase it to the kids - we focus on the ideology all year, but we focus on ACTION and ways to implement change during the week!
- Ms. Halpern (@Ms_Halpern) February 2, 2023

As a result of a Teaching for Black Lives study group, Cordley ES celebrated their first Black Lives Matter at School Week with a kick-off assembly and daily activities and questions to deepen the conversation.

Once a month, students visit their Hawk Families, which are cross-grade level groups of Kindergarten through 5th grade students. In Hawk Families during Black Lives Matter at School Week, students read the book I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes. After reading, students discussed what it means to matter and also wrote three positive affirmations with their group. Some positive affirmations that were brainstormed included:

The next day, students worked on posters that showed what they believed mattered and what they stood for. Students had lots of discussion about current events, as well as the injustice that many groups of people face.

On Friday, students participated in a "Continue the March" march and rally that called for equality, kindness, and acceptance.

The students had lot of local support, including the purchase of Black Lives Matter at Cordley t-shirts and coverage in both local papers. They were the only local school to participate, but they had 97% positive feedback from the parents in their community. There was some pushback in general because of the concern of this being a "political issue" in a school.

See local press coverage in the The Lawrence Times and LJWorld.

Hayward Unified School District (HUSD) endorsed the principles and demands of the BLM at School Week of Action, sharing a public statement in support of the BLM Week of Action, promoting the week of Action, and generating resources for educators.

Each Teaching for Black Lives study group member agreed to focus on the principle of "Unapologetically Black" and to host activities at various sites connected to that theme.Organizationally, HUSD aligned events and programming with BLM Week of Action.

They supported teacher leaders to understand and apply learning from Dr. Gholdy Muhammad's work. She explains,

I take up the ways in which literacy was defined historically within Black communities, particularly in Black literary societies. And I found that literacy was synonymous with education. Literacy was also defined within the four frames of identity, skills, intellectualism, and criticality, the four-part equity model. In other words, as Black people were learning, they were cultivating each of those four areas of their lives. If we compare these four areas to schools today, I find that most educators are teaching skills only or their state learning standards. Yet, our students need more.

In sharing Muhammad's framework, HUSD supported their educators to lean into Black traditions in ways that support ALL learners to be seen, valued, heard, and loved. Towards that end, they encouraged all sites to utilize funds the district has made available through our LCAP [Local Control Accountability Plan] to devote purely to African-American programming.

As a result of these efforts, the Teaching for Black Lives study group formally adopted the HRLF [Historically Responsive Literacy Framework] as something to develop lessons around to share from the Teaching for Black Lives perspective.
Resources:

Woodland Hills Elementary
Brooke Dupuis
Fifth grade students read the Black Lives Matter at School coloring book and learned each of the 13 principles of Black Lives Matter, then made posters to bring awareness of Black Lives Matter at School week and hung them around the school. The students also read the book All Because You Matter to ground the new learning in history.

Fifth grade students went to younger grade levels to read and discuss the principles with them. Teachers then continued the conversations with younger students.

The students came to a better understanding of why we say Black Lives Matter and why it includes all of us. They had a better idea of how you can take steps to make change around you. They were motivated to be more active in their communities because they understood what types of action they could take.

The younger grades were motivated by the older fifth graders and felt comfortable asking them questions they may not have asked of their teachers.

Coliseum College Prep Academy
Charquita Arnold
Charquita Arnold, who usually coordinates the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action activities at the school, used some materials from Seattle Public Schools and created some of her own content.

Arnold shared that, "It was a deeepppp week." Students reviewed the 13 Guiding Principles and engaged in deep conversations with discussion prompts, and gave Black History Month presentations where they read the poem " Two Sets of Notes " by M. K. Asante Jr., which they received from one of their previous book club meetings. Everyone - staff included - enjoyed the experience. In reflecting on their learning, Arnold shared,

There was joy when students said, "Wow! I didn't know that Black women used their braids to plan escape routes," or the awe on students' faces when they learned in history [class] that Black people were auctioned. How they just learned that in my eighth grade class...I don't know. I paused because I thought he was joking and he was like, "Really ...I didn't know that."

Arnold noted that some of the empowering feelings of the week were dampened because some students harbor anti-Black sentiments. Arnold is a Black educator and had to remind herself to be strong. She noted that these beliefs are learned and internalized. She charged herself with interrupting anti-Blackness and guiding students out of those beliefs.

View lesson plans and schedules from the week here and here.

New York

Math, Science Research, and Technology High School
Sandra Stokes
When teaching about the Civil Rights Movement in her Civil Rights and Equality class, Sandra Stokes wanted students to be familiar with the grassroots women who fought for our rights, as well. Each day Stokes taught lessons on Septima Clark, Daisy Bates, Ella Baker, and Fannie Lou Hamer and their roles in fighting for justice and the right to vote.

Stokes incorporated text, articles, and video clips about each woman. Students learned about their lives and sacrifices, and how they started organizations like SNCC and worked with young people their own age. The students were surprised to learn about all that these women did because they had only heard of Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.

They were so inspired they wanted to create their own group similar to SNCC. When they learned about Fannie Lou Hamer, students were sad to hear that she was beaten and treated so badly. The students were proud that Fannie Lou Hamer went from sharecropper to activist.

Rochester School of the Arts
Meagan Harris
Teachers were able to choose from a number of lessons created and distributed by the school-based planning team and the Black Student Union club that focused on Black history or Black Lives Matter related issues. In middle school science, students discussed how the human race became differently pigmented due to region and migration. In English, students discussed race in To Kill a Mockingbird. Students also attended performances throughout the day.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
D.C. Area and Beyond Participate in BLM at School Week of Action 2023 - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Gearing up for the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action is no small feat. While educators in the D.C.

# data[].attributes.headline
“Free Our Books” Say 4th Graders After Studying Representation and Book Bans

# data[].attributes.subject
“Free Our Books” Say 4th Graders After Studying Representation and Book Bans

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Before the Week of Action, the fourth grade teaching team of Katie Soffer, Rim Haile, Jamirious Mooney, and Simeon Jackson discussed with students the importance of representation in books and the idea, first introduced by Rudine Sims Bishop, of books as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors to see ourselves and understand others.

The fourth graders read the NEA Today article " Why We Need Diverse Books" and then looked at literature in their classroom for examples. Some students took photos of themselves with "mirror" and "window" books. Students will continue to add to the display of mirror, window, and sliding glass door books throughout the year. Soffer also read aloud A Kids Book About Systemic Racism and the class discussed why it is important not only to show diverse characters, but also to have authors who represent a wide range of backgrounds, or "Own Voices" books.

On the first day of the Week of Action, St. Clair Detrick-Jules visited the school to talk about her book My Beautiful Black Hair: 101 Natural Hair Stories from the Sisterhood. Detrick-Jules explained that she wrote the book after her little sister was bullied for her hair. In the book, women share stories celebrating their natural Black hairstyles.

On the second day, Soffer shared the EdWeek article " As Book Bans Escalate, Here's What You Need to Know." After reading about the sharp increase in book bans, students talked about ways to fight back against the bans, like protesting or writing letters or going to school board meetings.

Students researched online using the PEN America website to see what books in their own classroom library are already banned or are being challenged in other states. Students wanted to know if they would get in trouble for reading these books. Soffer explained that actually it is the teachers and librarians who would get in trouble for having the books in the classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
"Free Our Books" Say Fourth Graders After Studying Representation and Book Bans - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Before the Week of Action, the fourth grade teaching team of Katie Soffer, Rim Haile, Jamirious Mooney, and Simeon Jackson discussed with students the importance of representation in books and the idea, first introduced by Rudine Sims Bishop, of books as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors to see ourselves and understand others.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
" Thanks for coming to my birthday party! " - Stephanie Howell

All Teach the Beat visits are special, but serenading a beloved teacher with a go-go version of the birthday song only compounds the joy! Stephanie Howell, a native Washingtonian whose parents met at a Chuck Brown show in 1972 also happened to be celebrating a birthday the day Sweet Cherie facilitated a visit with K-3rd grade students at Simon ES (DCPS).

In addition to learning about the history and fundamentals of go-go, each child got a chance to play an improvised tune on Sweet Cherie's bedazzled keyboard. They danced when they heard their names called by the talker, just like at a go-go.

The students surprised Cherie by already having a response to when she asks, "Wh- wh- wh- where you from?!" to which they shouted, "D.C.!"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
February 9: Sweet Cherie at Simon ES - Teach the Beat!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
" Thanks for coming to my birthday party! " - Stephanie Howell All Teach the Beat visits are special, but serenading a beloved teacher with a go-go version of the birthday song only compounds the joy!

# data[].attributes.headline
What We Do & How We Do It: A Guide to BLM at School

# data[].attributes.subject
What We Do & How We Do It: A Guide to BLM at School

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
National coalition organizing for racial justice in education.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Athena Kopsidas welcomed Teach the Beat back to Seaton ES (DCPS) in February as part of the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action this year. During a session with the upper elementary classes, students shared with associate director, Keesha Ceran, one student shared, "This week we celebrate school spirit and Black Lives Matter."

Matt "Swamp Guinee" Miller facilitated the two visits with students in the school cafeteria, leading students through interactive lessons on different percussive instruments used in go-go. After sharing a brief history of go-go music, Miller introduced the school to his "friends" - musical instruments. Students were instructed to guess if you shake, scrape, or strike each instrument. As students became acclimated to the different instruments, Miller taught students a few beats that they practiced at the cafeteria tables before the "Seaton Elementary School Hot Fire Beesgo-go groups" performed on stage with Miller. Students and staff alike created the go-go beats they had learned. The rhythmic sounds transformed Seaton's cafeteria into its own go-go with students and adults beating their feet.

At the conclusion of their last session, Miller gifted the school one of his drums, thanking Seaton educators for their great efforts in educating the students and the high energy the students brought to these sessions.

Kopsidas shared,

Everything was great! We have a number of students who are non-verbal and who participated fully - on stage! They were so enthusiastic and engaged!

Read about last year's visit at Seaton ES.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
February 13: Swamp Guinee at Seaton ES - Teach the Beat!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Athena Kopsidas welcomed Teach the Beat back to Seaton ES (DCPS) in February as part of the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action this year. During a session with the upper elementary classes, students shared with associate director, Keesha Ceran, one student shared, "This week we celebrate

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By Emily Todras

Illustrator: Keith Henry Brown

It was May 2020. My elementary dance students logged into our Zoom sessions, class after class. George Floyd

had just been murdered by police officers in Minneapolis, and because we were all home during the COVID-19 lockdown, some of my students were witnessing endless replays on their home screens. I knew I needed to scrap my lesson plan for the day and allow my students to talk about what they had seen and how they felt.

I was honest with my 5th-grade students and told them that I was struggling with the current events we were witnessing. I asked if anyone would like to share their thoughts or feelings about COVID-19, George Floyd, or anything else on their minds.

I was honest with my 5th-grade students and told them that I was struggling with the current events we were witnessing.

Rennie said, "It's messed up, you know? Like, he kept saying 'I can't breathe' and those cops ignored him."

Shawn added, "He was yelling for his mom. How come that cop didn't get off his neck?"

My students were sad and many of them didn't understand why the cops behaved the way they did.

Diva asked, "Aren't police supposed to protect us? This doesn't make sense."

Some students, however, were not surprised. "My mom and dad always told me that if a cop stops me to put my hands up right away so they can see I don't have a weapon," Owen said.

Period after period, grade after grade, my students shared their awareness of racism in their lives. They found commonalities and had open, honest conversations about their own racialized experiences. I tried to end each class by asking "How will we make a change? What will we do to make this better?"

By the next week, protesters were marching outside of some students' homes. We could see them passing by during our Zoom calls. Many students had TVs on in the background and the whole class could see snippets of masked protests happening country- and world-wide. I decided I needed to give them an outlet and use our shared craft - dance - to support their processing and understanding of these events. As we finished the end of that school year in lockdown, I tried to allow my students the freedom to share their thoughts and feelings, whether or not they shared them through dance.

The elementary school in which I teach is a majority low-income school, but gentrification is changing our neighborhood. My students are around 80 percent Latinx; the remaining 20 percent is a mix of South Asian, Asian, white, and Black. Our school, however, has a teacher population that is mostly white - myself included - and often uncomfortable discussing issues like race and protests with our students.

As a dance teacher, I teach every child in the school, pre-K through 5th grade. Although I spend only one period a week with many of these children, being their teacher year after year brings a different type of closeness, familiarity, and trust.

By the end of the school year in 2020, I knew I wanted to do more to make social justice a stronger part of our dance curriculum, supporting my students in becoming choreographers who use their platforms to challenge social, cultural, and economic inequities to make the world a better place.

By the end of the school year in 2020, I knew I wanted to do more to make social justice a stronger part of our dance curriculum, supporting my students in becoming choreographers who use their platforms to challenge social, cultural, and economic inequities to make the world a better place. After attending a summer webinar about the Black Lives Matter at School movement, I applied for a study group grant to take this journey along with some of my fellow educators. We were accepted and began our staff book club reading Teaching for Black Lives.

As 2021 approached, I invited teachers and parents to join me in an ad hoc committee to plan our first recognition of the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. We brought together a week with classroom visitors, virtual assemblies, special projects, movie and music nights, and more. Some of us wore Black Lives Matter shirts and face masks our students had designed with help from the art teacher.

I also began teaching a unit I had created based on the Black Lives Matter at School (BLMAS) principles as retold by Laleña Garcia in What We Believe: A Black Lives Matter Principles Activity Book (Lee & Low Books, 2020). The lessons revolve around sharing various picture books to help children understand and embody the essence of the different BLMAS principles, then adding dance-making skills to create choreographic expressions of them. For example, in the lesson that follows, 2nd-grade students and I explored the BLMAS principle of diversity, first through literature, then through dance.

Naming Differences and Commonalities
In March 2021, a few months after the Week of Action, my 2nd-grade students entered our in-person dance space. After our sharing circle, I asked, "Who can tell me what 'Black Lives Matter' means or your feelings about hearing that phrase?"

Sanford said, "It means everyone should be treated fairly."

Connor added, "And Black people don't want to have to keep saying that we are important, too."

I reminded them that we were still exploring BLMAS principles: "We are going to continue learning about principles of the Black Lives Matter at School movement and expressing our thoughts and feelings about them through dance."

For several weeks, we had created dances based on BLMAS principles. We read aloud books to illuminate BLMAS principles, then students created choreographic projects to express their feelings, thoughts, and understandings through movement. As we worked with a principle, we generated movements and choreographic elements like traveling and in-place movements, body shapes and sizes, levels, relationships, movement qualities, and directions. By the end of a class session, students had created a short dance with a BLMAS principle focus, considering how they could use spacing, timing, and their bodies to most clearly express themselves to the audience.

"What are some BLMAS principles we have worked on so far?" I asked.

Students called out answers: "Black families! Restorative justice! Empathy! Intergenerational!"

"Great remembering! We've also made dances exploring collective value, loving engagement, queer and transgender-affirming, and unapologetically Black," I added.

"Today we will work with the principle of diversity," I said. In What We Believe, Garcia describes diversity as the "many ways we are different," and adds "It's important that we have many different types of people in our community and that everyone feels safe. When that happens, our community shows its diversity." On the BLMAS website the principle is stated as, "Acknowledging, respecting, and celebrating difference(s) and commonalities."

To begin, I asked "What is diversity?"

Nolan said, "It means we are all different."

Theo said, "My family has diversity because we have different cultures. I'm partly Chinese and partly African American and partly other things, too." Other students nodded in agreement. We had several kids in class who are multiracial and/or come from multicultural backgrounds.

I asked, "Do we think diversity is a good thing? Why?"

Hands shot up. "Of course it's a good thing!" Serena almost yelled. "My family wouldn't live here if there was no diversity! I wouldn't have friends who are different from me if there was no diversity!"

Collectively, we agreed that diversity is good and important and something to celebrate. After all, no two of us are ever the same. I added, "Sometimes people get treated unequally and unfairly because of differences, and that can be harmful; we can call that inequality or inequity. What do we think about that?"

"We all live here together but we are all different and that's diversity," Sanford offered. "But people being treated unfairly because they're different? That's not good at all."

Next, we read The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson, an award-winning author who has written many children's books exploring race and identity. I chose this book because it introduces children in a class who feel alone and different at first, but begin to find connections with one another by sharing their own stories and building empathy.

As I read aloud, students shared their commonalities with the characters in the book.

As I read aloud, students shared their commonalities with the characters in the book. When we met Rigoberto in the book, Jorge shared, "People always say my name wrong and my mom only speaks Spanish and I wish people would ask because I want them to say my name like my mom does." We talked for a bit about how it feels when someone mispronounces our names and we agreed to make more effort to say names correctly.

When we reached the part of the book when a child feels bad about the lunch her mom packed - kimchi and meat with rice - we stopped and talked about the different kinds of rice we eat with our families, including basmati rice, rice and beans, arroz con pollo, and sometimes rice with every meal.

I asked, "What does rice have to do with diversity?"

Jane continued, "We all eat rice but we all eat different kinds of rice and that is a type of . . . food diversity, I guess?" I heard some giggles, but we agreed that we liked her term: food diversity.

We lingered once more over a part in the story when a classmate is unwelcome in team sports and feels alone; we glimpsed the same child flourishing and happy while holding a book. Maggie said, "I really like to play soccer, but I know some kids don't and that's OK with me."

Raya added, "I used to feel bad because that happened to me - no one wanted me on the team." Raya explained that the PE teacher helped and she doesn't feel bad anymore, but she really prefers time in art class anyway.

Shelly said, "So we like to do different things and we are good at different stuff - and that is diversity, too!"

Then I asked my students to put on their choreographer caps. "We've read this story and now we have more of an understanding of what diversity is, how we include everyone even though we have different backgrounds, genders, skin colors, beliefs, and more. We know why diversity is important - so we can respect and celebrate the differences in all of us. How can we explore this Black Lives Matter at School principle through dance?"

Choreographing Diversity
Because I didn't want students to just pantomime or "act out" the story, I offered the idea of concentrating on movement qualities, which means how we are moving. I asked, "How can we walk in different ways?"

Celia said, "We can walk in a stiff way like when we were scarecrows in kindergarten, or in a floppy way like when we pretended to take all of our sticks out."

"Exactly!" I said.

José added, "We can walk like ninjas or robots."

The students understood that our action would be walking, but we could vary the way we were walking. I added that we could try a wobbly, sloppy, cheery, tired, or sad way, too. Our action would always be walking, but the quality of how we walked would change how the audience perceived our dance story.

I pointed out some movement quality opposite pairs I had written on the board. They were smooth/sharp, flowing or starting/stopping, and bound/free. Because my students already created previous dance work throughout a unit on movement qualities, we didn't need to take long to review them. Nolan chose the action "skip," and we all warmed up our bodies by skipping around the space (in a socially distant way) using the different movement qualities. We were skipping scarecrows, ninjas and robots, wobbly, tired, and sloppy. Some students added the qualities "strong" and "fast" after a few minutes of moving, so we tried skipping in those ways as well.

"I get it," Damion said. "We could make a whole dance using only one action as long as we change how we're doing it."

"Precisely!" I stated, adding "When we change our movement qualities, we reshape what the audience understands as they watch our dance work."

After we felt our bodies and brains were ready, I asked the students, "How should we make an organized and planned dance?" As they already knew, what we just did was called improvising, or letting ourselves move in any way to different prompts. We didn't have to plan or remember our improvisations. But now, we wanted to make a plan so that we could practice it, make sure we were proud of it, and perform it for our classmates.

Damion said, "We should pick out some moments from the book and see if we can make moves for them."

Jane added, "Our moves should have different qualities. Let's take ideas from the book."

The students connected to moments from the book, figuring out the links between feelings and movement qualities, and creating dance ideas. After time for a short chat with a nearby classmate and a bit of referencing the book, the students created these movement ideas:

Smooth - when the teacher says "Rigoberto" and it's beautiful like flowers growing

Flowing - the heat lifting off the curb over summer

Bound - the student feeling bad about her lunch

Sharp - feeling upset when other kids aren't nice

Free - when the main character begins to tell her own stories

We agreed that this five-movement dance sentence looked good, and the kids were eager to start creating. My students made choices to work alone, with a friend, or with some friends - a practice I find generates solid work by allowing and acknowledging the current feelings of students - some of whom want company and others who prefer to create in their own space. "Friends," I said, "please remember to decide how your dances will begin and end. Also, please make sure that you remember to change your movement qualities. After all, this dance is a celebration of diversity, and just like Jane thought of food diversity, in our class we can also celebrate movement diversity."

As the students moved through creating their dance plans, I cycled around the room to offer support and cheer on their ideas. "Remember to use as much of your body as possible so we can see your different movement qualities," I reminded the class. I saw Raya blooming like a flower using a smooth movement quality and Jay chopping the air showing his sharp, upset movement. "I'm closing into a little ball to show my bound quality movement," Sarah offered. The students related to the book, creating, processing, and moving.

The students connected to moments from the book, figuring out the links between feelings and movement qualities, and creating dance ideas.

After our first work period, we decided to have our preliminary showing. This is a time when our classmates can offer "glows and grows," or compliments about parts of the dance they love, as well as suggestions for additions or changes that might make the dance even better. This is also a class habit - to keep our language positive so that our friends are motivated to keep making work they are proud of instead of saying something hurtful that might stop creativity altogether.

"OK, friends," I said. "For our preliminary showing, half of us will perform while the rest of us are the audience. If you're in the audience, you have the very important job of helping your friends along their dance journeys by offering feedback. Let's remember to use kind and constructive words." After they showed their work, Jay received the suggestion that he could use more than just his arms for his sharp action: "What about adding your legs or even your head?" Sanford got a big compliment for their bound action and the kids wondered "Can you start it with an even bigger body in order to show how small you get by the end?" For both performance groups, the audience members did their jobs; they offered specific and actionable feedback and after a quick all-around check-in, I saw that students were ready to revise their work.

Next, the children implemented suggestions they'd received or new ideas they'd like to try. I circled the room. "I love the way you're using your whole body for this sharp part now!" I told Jay. "That really large body shape is making it much more clear just how small you're getting," I told Sanford. I said to Sarah that I loved the way she was using so much space for her free movement, and to Jane and Raya who had decided to work together, I mentioned that I loved the way they were passing their smooth movement back and forth; they told me that they were flowers swaying in a breeze. I loved their brilliant imagery and told them so.

By our final showing, we limited our comments to glows. I wanted the students to leave feeling proud of their revised work and satisfied with what they had created during the period. This time, each dance was performed alone in a sequence so that everyone else in the class could be the audience.

At the end of the performance round, Maggie said, "I love the way Jay used his whole body to show the sharp movements." Damion complimented one group's starting and ending still-shapes and said, "I could really tell when the dance started and ended." Shelly said, "I love the way Nolan danced with five different movement qualities. I could really see them all." Jane offered, "I like the way the dances I watched told the story in the book. We were working on 'diversity' today and it was cool to see all the different movement choices we made in our dances."

After a short cool down, I wanted to close out our class time with reflections from the students. I said, "Let's circle back, think about the BLMAS principle of diversity, Jacqueline Woodson's book, and the dances we created during class today. Please turn and talk briefly one last time about your experience today and then we'll see if anyone would like to share with the group."

"I really liked the book," Raya offered after some class conversation. "I like that there was a character who looked like me. I liked turning it into a dance because I could just make my ideas move and not have to talk."

Nolan said, "I come from a mixed family, and I like that we are doing projects like this because we should all respect each other."

Sarah added, "I love to dance and my body just wants to move, and using different types of energy or qualities made me feel like I was telling a better story."

Jane offered a final comment: "We are different, we look different, we like different music, we like to dance in different ways. We are a diverse class and we should always be nice to each other."

* * *

Through movement and sharing of dances, my 2nd-grade students deepened their understanding of the BLMAS principles and turned them into dance work. The week we read Except When They Don't by Laura Gehl, students talked about gender stereotypes, pronouns, and what it means to be queer- and transgender-affirming. Their choreography was based on their own experiences with gender stereotypes with a final movement showing acceptance or celebration of themselves and others. During our "unapologetically Black" lesson we read The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander and made dances about Black role models.

For me, dance class is an environment in which I can foster future world changers, creators, critical thinkers, and appreciators. As we move through dance units across grades, we can learn about each other's skills, likes and dislikes, interests, and affinities for movement and more. Creating together in dance class gives us the opportunity to connect and build empathy. We can talk about real-world topics and current events, and students can learn that movement is another communication tool they can use to help create the kind of world they'd like to have. We can use our dances as a voice for change without ever having to speak a word. We can ask each other questions and learn new things and use our bodies as tools for exploration and communication. Dance can be a transformative tool to lift students' social awareness and inclusivity.

Students are aware of so much of what goes on in the world, and I want to create a space in which they can share their thoughts, fears, and ideas. I want students to think critically about and work against inequities so that we can live and move in a more just world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By Emily Todras Illustrator: Keith Henry Brown It was May 2020. My elementary dance students logged into our Zoom sessions, class after class. George Floyd had just been murdered by police officers in Minneapolis, and because we were all home during the COVID-19 lockdown, some of my students were witnessing endless replays on their home screens.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sesame Street explain Black Lives Matter

# data[].attributes.headline
D.C. and Beyond: Stories from Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action 2022

# data[].attributes.subject
D.C. and Beyond: Stories from Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action 2022

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The fifth annual Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action wrapped up recently and educators in the D.C. area and beyond participated in powerful ways. Social justice educators prepared in a variety of ways, including attending the D.C. area and national Black Lives Matter at School curriculum fairs. Read below for insight about how educators lifted up the 13 guiding principles and national demands of Black Lives Matter at School during this year's Week of Action!

D.C. Area Teaching Stories from the 2022 Black Lives Matter
at School Week of Action

Macfarland Middle School - DCPS

Sixth grade humanities teacher Melanie Holmes designed a week of lessons to engage students in learning about the Black Lives Matter at School national demands. After exploration of the movement, students crafted a call to action in support of one of these demands. Read more about Holmes' Week of Action plans.

School for Friends - D.C.

Early childhood educator Makai Kellogg attended this year's Black Lives Matter at School Virtual Curriculum Fair and was inspired to practice more empathy with her preschoolers as they are creating art. Looking to former D.C. public school teacher and artist Alma Woodsey Thomas as their inspiration, the Sea Lions created works of art similar to her work or their own originals. Read more about Kellogg's story.

School Within a School @ Goding - DCPS

DCAESJ elementary working group teacher co-leader Raphael Bonhomme integrated math and economics into a close study of Brian Flores's lawsuit against the NFL. Beginning with the hiring and eventual firing of Fritz Pollard, the first African-American coach in the NFL, Bonhomme traced historical and present lack of diversity in the NFL. Students reflected on what implications that has on the NFL, and sketched ways they can improve the league. View the slides.

Howard University School of Education

Our annual partner in Black Lives Matter at School, Howard University School of Education, curated a gallery walk of children's books centering Black characters, Black stories, and Black experiences at Founders Library during the Week of Action. Students of the School of Education led the activity and were supported by Drs. Altheria Caldera and Katherine Norris. Here are curated booklists around the 13 guiding principles for Black Lives Matter at School.

Howard High School - Howard County Maryland Public Schools

11th and 12th grade Modern World History & African American Studies teacher, Masami M. Stratton taught the 13 Guiding Principles. She organized the principles into five groups: Group 1 Restorative Justice, Empathy, Loving Engagement; Group 2 Globalism & Diversity; Group 3 Trans & Queer Affirming; Group 4 Intergenerational & Collective Value; Group 5 Black Families, Black Women, Black Village, Unapologetically Black. She then asked students to write: 1. What do they mean to you?; and 2. How should we practice them in our community/our school? Finally, Stratton asked students to draw posters illustrating these groups as affirmative & inclusive.

Stratton sought to emphasize that we are an inclusive movement, that we can only be as strong as our most vulnerable, so we must pay particular attention to those who are targeted (historically and in contemporary times). Stratton then displayed the students' work across the back of the classroom. Check out the photo album.

Moten Elementary School - DCPS

Laura Goemann, a DCPS teacher resident in a PreK 4 class, explored the book Sulweby Lupita Nyong'o. After a read aloud, the class discussed the book's plot, how Sulwe felt, and what Sulwe learned. One student recalled how the other children were mean to Sulwe because she was darker. Another student recalled that Sulwe's mom told her that she is beautiful. Goemann expanded upon this by highlighting how Sulwe learned that she is beautiful inside and out. The class also connected the book's discussion of inner beauty with their music teacher's ongoing discussions of inner light and how we show our inner light through kindness and compassion. The students reviewed ways in which they show their inner light, such as "being nice," "helping," and "giving hugs." The next day, Goemann played the class a video of Lupita Nyong'o reading Sulwe on the Netflix Jr. series Bookmarks. A discussion followed in which the class reviewed how to show inner beauty. They then made beautiful thank you letters for their custodian and cafeteria worker. The students presented their letters with excitement and gratitude, truly showing their inner beauty.

Georgetown Day School - DC

The lower school offered a menu of activities for the Black Lives Matter Week of Action, with suggestions for each day to align with the 13 Guiding Principles. In addition, the pre-K welcomed Dr. Denisha Jones, education justice advocate and member of the national Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action steering committee, for a discussion of the guiding principles. As noted on the GDS website, "Students asked questions and gave heart-melting compliments to Dr. Jones. As the students waved good-bye, one gave a spontaneous 'Black Lives Matter!' cheer." One of the organizers for the event is one of the founding members of the DCAESJ early childhood working group.

Social Media Posts from the Black Lives Matter
at School Week of Action
Use the hashtag #BLMatSchool and tag @dcaesj on Twitter

"We're asking educators to reflect on their own work in relationship to antiracist pedagogy and abolitionist practice, persistently challenging themselves to center Black lives in their classrooms." 🔥

📸: The #BLMatSchool Week of Action: Literacy Edition Gallery Walk @HU_SOE! pic.twitter.com/Hk2DCVcgLI
- Report back about BLM at School Week of Action! (@dcaesj) February 1, 2022

Making learning relevant engages our students. We discussed the #BLM 13 guiding principles & rated their prevalence at DHS. They are now using their voice to write an essay providing evidence as to whether black lives matter to our students based on their actions. #BLMatSchool pic.twitter.com/Rh2oXs6rHQ
- Shelina Warren-Martin, Ed.S, NBCT (@shelinawarren) February 4, 2022

Week of Action: Beyond the D.C. Area

Lamberton Elementary School - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

In Sheila Myers' 5th grade class, students read the 13 Guiding Principles in small groups and discussed what the principles meant to them. Then, students selected one principle to illustrate and created a design. Through collaboration with the art teacher, Myers' students painted their designs on t-shirts and cardboard. Students also learned about popular protest statements such as "I Can't Breathe" and learned about past and present freedom fighters. Students then showcased their work at the schoolwide march. Simultaneously, students made connections to the Black Families principle through their current novel study: Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, discussing family separation. Check out the photo album.

Academy at Palumbo - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

High school Economics teacher Ashley Bryant created two weeks of lessons to explore the Tulsa Race Massacre and socioeconomic impacts on the Black community. Read more about Bryant's story.

Woodland Hills Elementary School - Santa Clarita, California

Out on the West Coast, Brooke Dupuis's 5th grade class embraced Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action with lessons, activities, and actions throughout the week and invited all of Woodland Hills Elementary to join in! On top of the 13 guiding principles coloring book, Dupuis's class made and displayed posters about Black Lives Matter at School, publicly announced the school's support of Black Lives Matter at School at a parent meeting, and had students visit every classroom in the school to explain the principles and demands to all other students in the school.

Dupuis reflected,

My students saw the importance for Black Lives Matter not just for Black students but for everyone. They also felt empowered to teach others and learned the principles more deeply so that they could.

Wyandotte HS - Kansas City, Kansas

Michael Rebne shared an activity related to centering Black women. In having students reflect on their connections - or the lack thereof - to Black women, it drove home how central they are to our shared humanity.

Students reflected:

My mother is a very strong woman who has inspired me by her work ethic and her determination.

I admire my 3rd grade teacher, she was a very passionate teacher, and even though I wasn't a great kid she still treated me equal to the other kids and wanted everyone to learn.

[I admire my] friend/old neighbor Keyale. Her mom does people's hair. I would spend nights over there and learn things all the time.

I remember my 3rd grade teacher...I always looked up to her because she made me feel safe and comfortable.

I admire my co-worker Ms. Yvonda because she is headstrong and just amazing overall.

Resource: WHS Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action 2022 Community Calendar

Community of Peace Academy - St. Paul, Minnesota

Caitie Ryan-Norton read The Undefeated, by Kwame Alexander, in class. Ryan-Norton regularly uses picture books to highlight important content in her class, and students loved the illustrations in the book! They asked a lot of questions about who was depicted in each picture, and spent a lot of time listening to music from artists on the artist page. They now have a class playlist that features some of the jazz musicians featured!

Books for Teachers: Donated by Publishers for the Week of Action

In support of the Black Lives Matter at School Curriculum Fair, a number of publishers generously donated titles related to the Black Lives Matter at School 13 Guiding Principles. We extend our appreciation to Astra Publishing House, Candlewick Press, City Lights Publishers, Haymarket Books, Heyday Books, The Innovation Press, Lee and Low, Lerner Publishing Group, Shout Mouse Press, Tilbury House, and Little, Brown Books.

Year of Purpose

The 13 guiding principles and national demands of Black Lives Matter at School can be uplifted throughout the year with the Year of Purpose. Beginning in the fall on October 14th with Justice for George Day and reaching into the summer with Juneteenth, the Year of Purpose is designed to intentionally create space and opportunity to raise certain guiding principles with accompanying calls to action. Prepare to participate in the Year of Purpose with the toolkit and continue tagging us @dcaesj and using the hashtags #BLMatSchool and #YearofPurpose.

Learn more about ways to formally endorse, amplify, and engage in Black Lives Matter at School.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
D.C. and Beyond: Stories from Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action 2022 - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The fifth annual Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action wrapped up recently and educators in the D.C. area and beyond participated in powerful ways. Social justice educators prepared in a variety of ways, including attending the D.C. area and national Black Lives Matter at School curriculum fairs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Based on "Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism." Updated in 2013.*
Children's books continue to be an invaluable source of information and values. They reflect the attitudes in our society about diversity, power relationships among different groups of people, and various social identities (e.g., racial, ethnic, gender, economic class, sexual orientation, and disability). The visual and verbal messages young children absorb from books (and other media) heavily influence their ideas about themselves and others. Depending on the quality of the book, they can reinforce (or undermine) children's affirmative self-concept, teach accurate (or misleading) information about people of various identities, and foster positive (or negative) attitudes about diversity. Children's books teach children about who is important, who matters, who is even visible. Consequently, carefully choosing quality children's books is an indispensable educational and child-rearing task.

It is important to offer young children a range of books about people like them and their family - as well as about people who are different from them and their family. All of the books should be accurate and appealing to young children. Fortunately, there are some good anti-bias children's books, which are available as a result of the ongoing activism of many individuals and groups over many years. However, while choices have improved over past decades, the lack of quality multicultural kid's books currently being published has frustrated many communities. The number of children of color in the United States continues to rise, but the number of books published by or about people of color stays the same or even decreases.

Check the Illustrations

Look for Stereotypes: A stereotype is an oversimplified generalization about a particular identity group (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, ability/disability), which usually carries derogatory, inaccurate messages and applies them to ALL people in the group. Stereotypes dehumanize people. So, too, does misinformation. ( See Box 1 below for a list of common, harmful stereotypes).

Unfortunately, all of us absorb socially prevailing stereotypes about a range of people, even if we do not consciously subscribe to them. To alert you to stereotypes in children's books, as well as other media, it is useful to list all the stereotypes you know about various groups of people as precondition for critically reviewing children's books. The books you choose should depict people compassionately and as real human beings. Also consider if images depict all people as genuine individuals with distinctive (rather than stereotypical) features. Books containing stereotypes require you to engage children in critical thinking, but should probably be eliminated from your collection.

BOX 1: Common Harmful/Undermining Stereotypes

Strong, independent girls and women are "manlike"

Book-loving or nonathletic boys and men are "effeminate"

Latino men talk funny, are lazy, gang members, or wear oversize sombreros

Latina women are earth mothers or subservient

African American men are gang members, oversexed, or underemployed

African American women are too independent, oversexed, or "welfare moms"

Arab and/or Muslim men are terrorists

Arab and/or Muslim women are voiceless and passive

All Muslims are Arab / All Arabs are Muslim

American Indians live in teepees, carry bows and arrows, or are half-naked in winter

American Indians were only significant in the past (read)

Disabled people are not independent or are to be pitied

Disabled people must "overcome" their disabilities rather than just live with their disabilities

LGBTQ+ people are invisible

Poor people are invisible

Poor people are depicted as passively needing help from others

AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islanders) are depicted as the "model minority"

AAPI are exotic or their food is exotic/abnormal

All AAPI know martial arts or are meek and compliant

AAPI are portrayed with slanted eyes or just lines to represent eyes

Jewish people are all Zionists (read)

Jewish people are wealthy and yield undue influence in the financial and political world

Look for Tokenism: This is the "one only" message. Regularly seeing only "one" person of any group in a book teaches young children about who is more or less important. Examples of tokenism include books with only one African American child among many white children or having only one book about children with disabilities among many other books. Tokenism also becomes stereotypical. It only allows children to see one view of a group of people, rather than the diversity that exists among all groups.

Look for Invisibility: What children do not see in their books also teaches them about who matters and who doesn't in our society. Invisibility in their storybooks - as well as in textbooks as they get older - undermines children's affirmative sense of themselves and reinforces prejudiced ideas about people who are not seen (See Box 2 for examples of groups who tend to be invisible). The booklists on this website include a great variety of books with groups who are often excluded. (The titles are vetted by Teaching for Change.)

BOX 2: Examples of Groups of People Who Are Often Invisible in Children's Books or Mainstream Media

Families who live in rural areas

Blue-collar workers

Musicians, artists, and writers

Families with two dads or two moms

Single mothers or fathers

Homeless families

Families with an incarcerated parent

People of Middle Eastern descent

Families who practice Islam

Transgender adults and children

Check the Story Line and the Relationships Between People

Even if a book shows visual diversity, the story line may carry biases related to how it handles power relationships among people of various identities. Are whites or male characters the central figures with people of color or female characters in essentially supporting roles? To gain acceptance and/or approval does a child of color, a girl, or child with a disability have to exhibit extraordinary qualities or be the one to understand, forgive, or change? Are the achievements of girls and women based on their own initiative and intelligence, or are they due to their looks or relationship with boys/men?

Are people of color, women, low-income families, or people with disabilities depicted as needing help or in passive roles, while whites, men, and "able-bodied" people are in leadership and action roles? How are problems presented, conceived, and resolved? Who typically causes a problem and who resolves it? Your book collection needs a balance of different people in "doer" roles.

Look at Messages About Different Lifestyles

Do the lives of people of color or people living in poverty in the story contrast unfavorably with the norm of white, middle-class suburban life? Are negative value judgments implied about ways of life that differ from the dominant culture or economic class (e.g., people are to be pitied, or the story is about one person who "gets out" of the less desirable way of life)? Do images and information go beyond oversimplification and offer genuine insights into the lifestyle of the characters in the story? Does the setting reflect current life - or past assumptions about life? Does your book collection depict diversity among people within a specific racial/ethnic group, such as a range of family structures, living environments, socioeconomic conditions and types of work, and male/female roles within the family? (Remember that every racial/ethnic group has diversity, including people who self-identify as white).

Consider the Effects on Children's Self and Social Identities

In addition to specific books, also examine your book collection. Do your books reinforce or counteract messages that teach children to feel inferior or superior because of their skin color, gender, family income, able-bodiedness, or type of family structure? At school, will all of the children you serve see themselves and their family's way of life reflected in your book collection? Will all children of color, including those with mixed heritage, girls, and children from the many types of family structures, children living in poverty, and children with disabilities see one or more characters with whom they can readily and positively identify? If they are visible in your book collection, are the illustrations and information accurate and respectful? Does your overall collection balance the backgrounds of all the children in your program? Does it also show diversity within the social indentity groups to which the children belong (e.g., a range of ways to be female and male, families reflecting different kinds of jobs within a racial/ethnic group). Does your book collection also include a balance between diversity within your classroom and beyond your classroom?

At home, does your book collection reflect diversity among the groups to which your family belongs? Does it have stories about people like you who have contributed to creating a more just world? Does it also include a range of books showing diversity beyond your family and neighborhood?

Look for Books About Children and Adults Engaging in Actions for Change

To fully develop a strong sense of self and a disposition toward cooperation and fairness, children need to know how to stand up for themselves and others when faced with unfairness. They also need to know about people from all social identity groups who have - and are currently - working for justice for all. In addition to previous criteria, here are more items to consider: The story line should be about children and adults working together, rather than perpetrating the myth that change happens because of special, individual people who do it by themselves. Does your book collection include a balance of people who have made important and honored contributions to American life as well as the world community - and not just the traditional white, male "heroes?" Do some of your books about important people include struggles for justice? Do they show people who were/are poor or from racial/ethnic groups of color? Are people with disabilities engaged in these struggles for justice?

Consider the Author's or Illustrator's Background and Perspective

All authors write from a cultural as well as from a personal context. In the past, most children's books were by authors and illustrators who were white and members of the middle class. As a result, a single cultural and class perspective dominated children's literature. There are now excellent books by people of color from a range of backgrounds - although not nearly enough. Consider the biographical material on the jacket flap or back of the book. What qualifies the author or illustrator to deal with the subject? If the book is not about people or events similar to the author or illustrator's background, what specifically recommends them as creators of the book? What is the author's attitude toward her/his story characters? Are the images accurate and do the illustrators respectfully render the people in the story? Do you have books reflecting a balanced range of author and illustrator identities and experiences?

Watch for Loaded Words

A word is loaded when it in any way demeans or makes people invisible because of any of their identities. One example is the generic use of the word "man" to stand for women as well as men (although the opposite never occurs). This traditional terminology is now questioned by many because of its sexist implications. Here are some examples of ways to avoid sexist language: community instead of brotherhood; firefighters inserted of firemen; human family instead of family of man; ancestors instead of forefathers; chairperson instead of chairman. Examples of adjectives applied to people of color that carry racist messages include: "savage," "primitive," "superstitious," "backward," "inscrutable" and "treacherous." Always consider the context in which a word is used and to whom it applies.

Look at the Copyright Date

Copyright dates indicate the publication year, not the time of its writing, which might be two to three years before the copyright date. Although a recent copyright date is no guarantee of a book's relevance or sensitivity, copyright dates are useful information. More children's books began to reflect the reality of a pluralistic society and nonsexist and non-ableist perspectives in the 1970s. Since then, the range of accurate, respectful, and caring books reflecting diversity has increased significantly (unfortunately the diversity of books published in the United States still does not accurately reflect the actual diversity of the people living here). When considering new books for your collection, begin with most recently published ones and then continue with descending copyright dates.

Assess the Appeal of the Story and Illustrations to Young Children

Although these guidelines focus on the messages about diversity and equality reflected in children's books, it is also important to take quality into account. Be sure the book is a "good read." If children find the story or illustrations boring, a book will not hold their attention, even if the book adds a specific kind of diversity you need. Check for active, interesting story lines where different kinds of people are integral to the people in the story, not the main topic. For example, in A Chair for My Mother, a young child tries to save money to get a comfortable chair for her waitress mother. Although the book shows a single parent, working-class family, and a resourceful girl, it is not didactic. Also look for illustrations that are colorful and recognizable to young children. Although they enjoy a range of styles, illustrations that are too subdued or abstract may not hold their attention.

Check for age appropriateness. Most booksellers list any picture book as appropriate for early childhood even if the story line is really for primary grade children. Sometimes a book for older children will work if you simplify the story or "tell" the story rather than read it. In some cases, this is the only way to get books that present specific groups of children (e.g., stories with Cambodian children or children with learning disabilities). Some additional issues to consider:

Many children's books use animal characters instead of people and there are some excellent books that explore diversity with animal characters (e.g., And Tango Makes Three or A Coyote Solstice Tale). Children enjoy these. However, such books are not a substitute for exploring issues of diversity and anti-bias fairness with people as the main characters.

Some early childhood teachers wonder if it is necessary for every book in their collection to show diversity. Every book needs to be accurate, caring, and respectful. However, you will want individual books about specific kinds of people (e.g., a biracial family or a family with adopted children). Diversity becomes essential in the balance of your book collection, where you want to avoid invisibility or tokenism of any group.

Folk and fairy tales have long been a mainstay of children's literature. In the cultures from which they come, folk and fairy tales were used to teach important lessons and values related to their culture of origin. Children love them in their original versions - not their commercially sanitized adaptations. However, folk and fairy tales also carry messages that convey sexism, classism, and racism and must be used thoughtfully as part of introducing young children to diversity and anti-bias values of quality and fairness.

Overuse of folk tales to "teach" about a specific ethnic/cultural group leads to misinformation and confusion. They are about animals and occasionally people from a mythical past and are designed to teach core values and beliefs in their culture of origin. They are not about how people actually live in contemporary society - and that is what young children need to understand. Information and images about how people really live now is what enables young children to build connections to people who are from different cultures while countering stereotypes that children have already absorbed (e.g., how American Indians really live).

Finally there is the somewhat sensitive issue of what to do about "classic" or "well-beloved" children's books. Many of these are wonderful as children's literature, but unfortunately they often convey values of sexism, racism, ableism, or even colonialism. People who love the books that pose this dilemma argue that it is OK to use them because they "reflect their times," which they imply somehow excuses their biased messages. For example, I adored the Babar series of books as a young child and was unpleasantly shocked to realize as an adult how much the images and story lines reflected messages of European colonialism in Africa. I chose not to use them with my own children, wanting them to learn accurate information about how people in Africa really live. Not sharing childhood favorites may sadden some, but it is far better than the harm caused by reinforcing messages of racism and colonialism.
In a nutshell - as you choose books or critically examine your current book selection, always keep in mind the power of books - their words and their images - to nurture or, conversely, to undermine a child's sense of self, positive attitude toward others, and motivation to act for fairness.
Additional Resources

Louise Derman-Sparks is an internationally respected anti-bias educator and author (along with Julie Olsen Edwards) of Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. She has co-authored several additional books with Dr. Carol Brunson Day (Teaching/Learning Anti-Racism), the ABC Task Force ( Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children), Dr. Patricia Ramsey (What If All the Kids Are White?), and Dr. John Nimmo and Debbie Leekeenan ( Leading Anti-Bias Early Childhood Programs: A Guide for Change). She speaks throughout the United States and abroad, and served on the NAEYC Governing Board from 1998 to 2001. Louise has a lifelong commitment to building a more just society for all people. Her children Douglass and Holly, now grown, were her inspiration. A Pacific Oaks College faculty member for 33 years - when its mission and pedagogy reflected anti-bias education principles - Louise is now retired.
*In 1980, the Council on Interracial Books for Children published the book Guidelines for Selecting Bias-Free Textbooks and Storybooks. A shorter version of the book in pamphlet form, "Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism," followed. One of the first guides written for teachers and families, it became an invaluable tool for hundreds of thousands of people. Both the book and pamphlet have been out of print for several years. Rethinking Schools published their adaptation of the original Guidelines in 1994.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children's Books - Social Justice Books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By Louise Derman-Sparks Based on "Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism." Updated in 2013.* Children's books continue to be an invaluable source of information and values. They reflect the attitudes in our society about diversity, power relationships among different groups of people, and various social identities (e.g., racial, ethnic, gender, [...]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By Laleña Garcia
Illustrated by Caryn Davidson
This powerful activity book will engage hands, hearts, and minds as it introduces children to the guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter movement.
When the Black Lives Matter movement began in 2013, the three founders--Alicia Garza, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, and Opal Tometi--anchored its work in a list of guiding principles, developed through conversation with other activists. These principles commit the movement to empathy, loving engagement, and just action among its participants; affirm the importance of Black women, families, elders, and LGBTQ folk; and celebrate the strength and diversity of Black people in their communities and around the globe.

Now young people can explore these powerful principles in What We Believe: A Black Lives Matter Principles Activity Book. Created by two teachers with more than thirty-five years of educational experience between them, the book presents the guiding principles in down-to-earth, child-friendly language, with each principle accompanied by writing prompts, space for children or adults to create their own reflections, and a coloring page. Supporting materials guide adults in sharing the principles with children and encourage kids to dream big and take action within their communities. An essential resource for anyone discussing racial equity with young people, What We Believe offers a beautiful and inspiring lens on the most important social justice movement of our time.
Read the story behind What We Believe from author Laleña Garcia. In an interview, author Laleña Garcia and illustrator Caryn Davidson share a bit about their partnership, and how they define the role of activist and ally.
About the Creators

Laleña Garcia - Author

Laleña Garcia has been teaching children in New York City since 2000, and educators across the country since 2017. HOW WE CAN LIVE grew out of her work with Black Lives Matter at School, a coalition of educators and parents striving for racial justice in education. A graduate of Yale University and Bank Street College of Education, she lives in Brooklyn. Please visit her website at rootedkids.org and follow her on Instagram at @blm_in_kindergarten.

Caryn Davidson

Caryn Davidson studied Anthropology and Visual Art at Brown University and received her MA in Arts Education from NYU. Since the start of her career in education in 2004, she has founded and developed the arts programs at three public schools in New York City, and led initiatives to promote culturally relevant pedagogy and socially just practices within those school communities. She now teaches art at the high school level in Brooklyn, NY, where she also lives. She is a Steering Committee member of the Black Lives Matter at NYC Schools organizing group and a designer for the national Black Lives Matter at Schools movement. Please visit her website at caryndavidson.com and on Instagram at @caryn_arts.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What We Believe by Laleña Garcia, illus. by Caryn Davidson | Lee & Low Books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By Laleña GarciaIllustrated by Caryn Davidson This powerful activity book will engage hands, hearts, and minds as it introduces children to the guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter movement. When the Black Lives Matter movement began in 2013, the three founders--Alicia Garza, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, and Opal Tometi--anchored its work in a list of guiding principles, developed through conversation with other activists.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Second Graders Study Activism — D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Second graders in Katie Soffer and Kina Gee’s classroom at Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS learned about activism as part of the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black Lives Matter at School - Social Justice Books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There are 13 guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter movement. We seek to expand student understanding of these principles through the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action (scheduled for the first week of February each year) and beyond. Below you'll find a growing list of recommended titles that center each of the [...]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
She talked with the students about how important it was for her to stay committed to her piano lessons when she was growing up. Practicing consistently was hard work, but it was worth it. Even though she feels happiest when she's playing go-go music, if she hadn't kept up with her classical music lessons as a child, she might not have developed enough skill to cross over into other genres as an adult. The students listened attentively, and nearly every student had their hand raised, hoping to have a question answered. Cherie was so impressed with the students' energy, and said that they were the liveliest group she'd ever worked with. Cherie's visit made such an impression on the students that one student even doubled back as Cherie was leaving to ask her one more question.

At the conclusion of Cherie's visit to Langdon, she posed for a traditional go-go photo with two Langdon staff members in front of the display - it was a fitting end to a great visit.

Parent Engagement

Part of Langdon's partnership with Teaching for Change involves holding monthly meetings with parents, called Principal Chat n' Chews. Organizers from Teaching for Change's Tellin' Stories project work with Principal Husbands to design meetings that are open to all parents and caregivers, prioritize the voices of marginalized parents and build a stronger school community.

At the January chat n' chew, parents participated in an icebreaker where they were asked to consider:

What does go-go music mean to you?

Parents responded to this question with so much enthusiasm that the chat n' chew went over-time! Some examples of their responses include

"it's a lifestyle,"

"it means to be alive"

"it's a culture, a movement"

"it gives a native Washingtonian a sense of pride in their city."

They listed their favorite bands, such as Rare Essence, Be'la Dona, Junkyard Band and New Impressions, and talked about going to go-go parties when they were growing up. Following this meeting, the parents' responses were displayed under a banner that read "Langdon loves go-go!"

More photos.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Langdon ES Fifth Graders Learn About Go-Go - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Go-go artist "Sweet" Cherie Mitchell visited Langdon Elementary School in connection with Teaching for Change's Teach the Beat program. This is the second year that the program has been able to visit Langdon, a partner in Teaching for Change's Tellin Stories parent engagement project. At the January

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We are pleased to have guest editor Katie Schaffer's help in addressing this sensitive and timely issue. Katie brings extensive knowledge and insight regarding gender issues to this column.

Four-year-old Michael usually comes to school in jeans and a T-shirt but always goes to the dress-up area as soon as he arrives and puts on a dress or skirt.

On the day his mother was volunteering in the classroom, he walked in and immediately put on a ballerina skirt and sparkly shoes. She firmly told him to take them off and instead put on the firefighter's hat and boots, try on the cowboy hat, or do "something that boys do." Michael complied with his mother's demand but soon left the dramatic play area.

When the children went outside to play, Michael's mother told Ana, Michael's teacher, that he consistently plays female roles at home and shows little interest in toys and activities typically associated with boys. She and her husband were very concerned about his behavior, and she asked Ana not to allow Michael to play with any "girl stuff" at school.

Ana also has observed that Michael strongly prefers playing with girls and chooses activities that are stereotypically feminine, like having tea parties and wearing dress-up clothes that have lots of ribbons and sequins. He also frequently tells the other children that he is really a girl and that he wants to be called "Michelle."

Ana knows that some children begin to persistently identify with a gender different from their assigned sex at a very young age (Ehrensaft 2011; Fox 2015). (See "Glossary of Terms" for definitions of words and phrases used in this column.) She is also aware that the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct strongly supports maintaining close, collaborative relationships with families and respecting their child-rearing and cultural preferences. What is her most ethical response?

Responding to the issue

This scenario is similar to the one described in the Focus on Ethics column "Don't Let My Son Dress Up as a Girl!" in the September 2017 issue of Young Children. In both cases, there is a conflict between a family's request that its son not be allowed to engage in stereotypically feminine activities in school and a teacher's belief that it is best for children to be encouraged to choose the activities that are most meaningful to them.

Our role as educators is to create a safe and reflective space for children to develop their identities and to counterbalance gender stereotypes.

Despite the similarities, there are some important differences between these two scenarios. Like Victor (the child described in the September 2017 column), many boys are fascinated by glittery clothing and enjoy playing a variety of roles-including feminine ones-in the dramatic play area. Michael's interest in "girl stuff," however, is not limited to playing with clothes and roles. Michael consistently gravitates to female-assigned pursuits, identifies as a girl, and asks to be called by a girl's name. These are examples of how Michael's gender expression (how a person shows their gender to the world through external choices) is currently gender nonconforming (it does not follow prevailing cultural and social expectations about what is appropriate for their gender). Michael may be-or ultimately identify as- trans or transgender (a person whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned at birth).

While there is nothing new about gender nonconforming behavior in early childhood settings, advice for how educators can best handle conflicting perspectives has been scarce or absent, and resources to help teachers work with children and their families on this issue have not been readily available (Kilman 2013).

As in previous columns, we will use the process described in Ethics and the Early Childhood Educator (Feeney & Freeman 2018) to systematically apply the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct (2011) to this situation. We will then consider the unique challenges presented by this case and explore some resources that might be helpful to teachers and administrators who are working with children like Michael and their families.

Our analysis is informed by contributions from students in the ECE 200, The Professional in Early Childhood Education, class at Portland Community College in Portland, Oregon; participants at the June 2018 NAEYC Professional Learning Institute in Austin, Texas; Briel Schmitz, head of Spruce Street School in Seattle, Washington; and Rabbi Meir Muller, assistant professor of early childhood education at the University of South Carolina and head of Cutler Jewish Day School in Columbia, South Carolina. We thank them for contributing to this analysis.

We begin with the first two steps of the process we use to address a workplace issue.

Identify the problem and determine if it involves ethics

This situation involves ethics because Ana must decide the right course of action to support a gender nonconforming or trans child and the child's concerned family.

Determine if it is an ethical responsibility or an ethical dilemma

While we noticed similarities between Michael and Victor (from our 2017 column), we came to appreciate that Ana faced a more challenging situation than Victor's teacher. She needed to respect Michael's preferences while working effectively and sensitively with his parents.

After presenting the scenario to two groups of early childhood educators and doing some research and reflection, we came to the conclusion that Ana is facing an ethical responsibility (a situation with just one morally justified course of action), not an ethical dilemma (a situation for which there is more than one possible resolution, which can be justified in moral terms). Because we consider it an ethical responsibility to respect children's gender self-determination, we will refer to Michael using her chosen name, Michelle, and chosen gender pronouns, she/her, for the remainder of the article.

Assigned sex: The label given at birth-usually male or female-based on a variety of factors (usually genitalia, but sometimes also hormones and chromosomes). The term assigned at birth acknowledges that someone (often a doctor) is making a decision but there is far more biological, anatomical, and chromosomal variation than captured by the binary labels of male and female.

Gender: A social construct that categorizes and labels societal and cultural expectations (i.e., gender norms) for how people of different assigned sexes (and thus assigned genders) are supposed to act. Gender varies over time and from place to place.

Gender identity: How a person self-identifies their gender, which may include man, woman, genderqueer, or other gender identities. A person's understanding of their gender identity can begin as early as age 2.

Gender expression: The way in which a person expresses their gender identity, typically through their appearance, affect, behavior, and activities.

Gender nonconforming: A term to describe a person whose behavior or appearance does not follow prevailing cultural and social expectations about what is appropriate to their assigned gender (and thus assigned sex). Some people who position their gender outside of a man/woman binary describe their gender as gender nonconforming or genderqueer.

Trans or transgender: A self-identification of a person whose gender identity differs from their assigned sex. For example, someone who was assigned female at birth but identifies as male might use the term transman.

Cis or cisgender: A person whose gender identity is the same as their assigned sex. For example, if the doctor said "It's a boy," and the child continues to identify as a boy/man, then he is cis or a cisman. People who are not trans are, therefore, cis.

Queer: A term that allows individuals to avoid the rigid categorization of straight and gay, and can indicate an attraction to people of many genders. For some, queer is also a political statement, expressing rejection of binary thinking and asserting that sexual orientation and gender identity are complex and potentially fluid. Although historically a derogatory term, queer has been reclaimed by many communities to have a positive connotation.

Sexuality: Sexuality is not just about sex. It is about individuals' bodies, genders, feelings, relationships, and ways of experiencing intimacy. In this context, children's healthy sexual development involves learning about their bodies, feelings, and relationships. Sexuality can also refer to sexual feelings, thoughts, attractions, and preferences. Sexual orientation often refers to whom we are sexually attracted. Some common terms for sexuality include bi (or bisexual), gay, straight, and queer.

Guidance from the NAEYC Code

Let's look at the guidance the NAEYC Code provides for this decision.

The groups who discussed this situation both concluded that they could not justify forbidding a child to behave in ways that express her strongly held sense of self and that, therefore, they could not comply with this family's request to keep her from activities associated with girls or femininity. They agreed that Ana's primary responsibility was to Michelle, and that she needed to honor Michelle's ways of expressing her identity. The groups also emphasized the importance of Ana listening carefully to the family's concerns and treating them with understanding and respect.

Some noted that Ana might feel she lacks the expertise to respond confidently to this situation. They recommended that she work closely with her director and seek out other knowledgeable professionals. Together, they could help her prepare to share information about young children's developing gender identity with Michelle's family, helping them understand their child's request to be identified as a girl and to engage in play that she finds meaningful. For suggestions on how to engage families and respond to some of their concerns, see "Practical Guidance for Teachers: Supporting the Families of Gender Nonconforming Children". It would also be important that Ana and the director work with the program's other teachers and families to help them accept Michelle's gender identity with kindness and understanding.

The Code's Core Values, Ideals, and Principles

Respondents to this case found that the Code's Core Values, Ideals, and Principles offered guidance that would help Ana address this family's concerns. They noted, in particular, educators' responsibilities to children and the importance of nurturing positive relationships with families. The following excerpts from the Code are those most applicable to this situation.

Core Values

Base our work on knowledge of how children develop and learn

Appreciate and support the bond between the child and family

Respect the dignity, worth, and uniqueness of each individual (child, family member, and colleague)

Recognize that children and adults achieve their full potential in the context of relationships that are based on trust and respect

I-1.2 -To base program practices upon current knowledge and research in the field of early childhood education, child development, and related disciplines, as well as on particular knowledge of each child.

I-1.3 -To recognize and respect the unique qualities, abilities, and potential of each child.

I-1.5 -To create and maintain safe and healthy settings that foster children's social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development and that respect their dignity and their contributions.

I-2.2 -To develop relationships of mutual trust and create partnerships with the families we serve.

I-2.5 -To respect the dignity and preferences of each family and to make an effort to learn about its structure, culture, language, customs, and beliefs.

I-2.6 -To acknowledge families' childrearing values and their right to make decisions for their children.

I-2.8 -To help family members enhance their understanding of their children . . . and support family members in the continuing development of their skills as parents.

Principles

P-1.1-Above all, we shall not harm children. We shall not participate in practices that are emotionally damaging, physically harmful, disrespectful, degrading, dangerous, exploitative, or intimidating to children. This principle has precedence over all others in this Code.

P-1.4 -We shall use two-way communications to involve all those with relevant knowledge (including families and staff) in decisions concerning a

child, as appropriate, ensuring confidentiality of sensitive information.

P-2.4 -We shall ensure that the family is involved in significant decisions affecting their child.

P-2.6 -As families share information with us about their children and families, we shall ensure that families' input is an important contribution to the planning and implementation of the program.

The Code offers strong justification for a teacher to base her actions on the needs of the child and for honoring the family's childrearing values and agreeing to their request. However, the Code also points educators toward putting the wellbeing of the child above all other concerns. P-1.1 takes precedence over all other items in the Code and supports Ana's decision to place the highest priority on the best interests of the child.

Guidance for the director

These items from the Code's Supplement for Program Administrators (2011) provide additional guidance for the director who is helping Ana address this issue:

P-1.1-We shall place the welfare and safety of children above other obligations (for example, to families, program personnel, employing agency, community). This item takes precedence over all others in this Supplement.

I-2.2 -To serve as a resource for families by providing information and referrals to services in the larger community.

P-2.10 -We shall respond to families' requests to the extent that the requests are congruent with program philosophy, standards of good practice, and the resources of the program. We shall not honor any request that puts a child in a situation that would create physical or emotional harm. In such instances, we shall communicate with the family the reason(s) why the request was not honored and work toward an alternative solution.

Reflecting on the case

Gender curiosity in children is not a recent phenomenon. Young children have always engaged in various forms of gender play, exploration, and identification. However, in recent years there has been greater recognition of the range of ways that individuals can express their gender identity and significantly more representation of trans people and communities in mainstream media. While this has opened up space for conversations about gender nonconforming and trans-identified children, some adults (including some educators, parents, grandparents) still attempt to stop the behavior (as in the case of Michelle's parents) or attempt to rigidly categorize the behavior (assuming they can predict the child's ultimate identity).

It is important to note that in US society today, children who are assigned male at birth receive more intense gender scrutiny than children who are assigned female at birth. For instance, girls are often encouraged by their parents to explore and participate in games traditionally associated with boys. These children are often celebrated as "strong" and "independent." However, when boys express interests in activities associated with girls, they are typically reprimanded, ostracized, or identified as problematic. This double standard stems from a culture that often demeans behavior associated with women and femininity.

This case warrants particularly careful consideration because of the potential lifelong consequences of respecting or refusing to respect Michelle's view of herself. It is important that the adults in Michelle's life be willing to honor who she says she is. Denying children the opportunity to express themselves by forcing them to accept adults' views of gender-appropriate behavior is likely to damage relationships and the children's sense of self, in addition to making their lives more difficult.

Teachers working with families who are concerned about how their children are expressing their gender identity need to be flexible and well prepared. It may be helpful to refresh their knowledge of child development, specifically identity development as it relates to concepts of gender. Gender is varied and dynamic. All of us express our gender differently over the course of our lives; children should be encouraged and supported to play, explore, and define the gender that feels right to them at the time (without an expectation of day-to-day or month-to-month consistency). Our role as educators is to create a safe and reflective space for children to develop their interests and identities and to counterbalance pervasive gender stereotypes.

Flexibility and preparation are also essential for supporting families. The most important thing that a teacher or director can do with families is listen carefully and try to understand their concerns. Some families may be worried about their children's future school experiences during their middle childhood and teen years. They may be seeking assurance that their children will be safe, happy, and well adjusted. Other families may be interested in knowing if there is research that indicates that a transgender child can grow into a confident and well-adjusted adult. Families with strong religious or cultural beliefs that do not support gender nonconformity need to feel that their perspectives are being heard.

Teachers also need to have appropriate resources in mind for families, knowing that different families will be best supported in different ways. Some will be interested in reading scientific literature; others may just need someone to listen to and reassure them. At times, it may be appropriate to refer the family to a community resource person who is skilled in addressing questions of gender and sexual expression.

It may be helpful to remind family members that the ultimate goal is preserving their positive long-term relationships with their child. By sharing current information on child development, teachers may point out that there are things about the child that the family can neither change nor control. While they can't change their child's gender identity, they do have the power to strengthen the relationship by being loving and supportive no matter how their child self-identifies. (For more specifics to help you work effectively with families, see pages 91-93.)

As we pointed out in our September 2017 column about a father's disapproval of his son dressing up in girl's clothing, many child-rearing values are strongly rooted in families' cultural beliefs. Sensitive teachers must carefully balance their responsibilities to children and to their families-this can be particularly challenging when working with groups that have strong positions about appropriate gender roles. Additional challenges arise when a child's gender preference is at odds with their family culture and values. Those situations will call for exceptional cultural navigation skills and, most likely, additional support from experts and organizations in the community. We anticipate that this topic will continue to be addressed in early childhood education.

As a teacher, you have the ability to make the world a better place for children who are gender nonconforming, are gender creative, or identify as trans. One place to start is with an inclusive classroom that supports a variety of gender expressions and avoids perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes. There are simple ways to make classrooms more inclusive, like avoiding consistently dividing children into groups by gender. For example, think about how you call children to the door. Instead of calling boys, then girls, to line up at the door, you might ask children wearing red, then blue, then green, to get ready to go outside. You can incorporate pictures, books, and dress-up materials that avoid gender stereotypes into the classroom. And you can help children move beyond traditional gender roles by encouraging girls to pretend they are firefighters and boys to role-play as nurses. If possible, make your restrooms available to all genders. Respond to children's fears, teach children to stand up for themselves if teased for their gender expressions, and validate their gender identities as they choose to express them. Strive to help all the children and adults in your program embrace a more inclusive, less restrictive view of gender.

Resources for Teachers and Families

Books and articles for adults

Gender Born, Gender Made: Raising Healthy Gender-Nonconforming Children. Diane Ehrensaft (2011). This developmental and clinical psychologist provides clear advice about supporting children who do not conform to society's narrowly defined gender categories.

The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals. Stephanie Brill & Rachel Pepper (2008). A comprehensive resource with information to help adults guide gender-variant and transgender children.

This Is How It Always Is: A Novel. Laurie Frankel (2017). A family's journey of learning and acceptance begins when their 3-year-old son announces that he wants to be a girl when he grows up.

"Tate and the Pink Coat: Exploring Gender and Enacting Anti-Bias Principles." Janice Kroeger, Abigail E. Recker, and Alexandra C. Gunn. 2019. This article presents current research on the importance of gender inclusivity in early childhood classrooms and offers practical tips to help teachers support children's explorations of gender. NAEYC.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2019/exploring-gender-enacting-anti-bias

Gender Spectrum. This website has links to resources that help programs create gender-sensitive and inclusive environments for all children. Includes resources for children, families, and teachers, and training materials addressing a wide range of topics. www.genderspectrum.org

Teaching Tolerance. This website contains resources for educators committed to diversity, equity, and justice, including classroom and professional development materials focused on race and ethnicity, religion, ability, class, immigration, gender and sexual identity, bullying, and bias. www.tolerance.org/topics

Gender Justice in Early Childhood. This website focuses specifically on young children and offers resources and links to help educators consider their language, teaching practices, and programs from a gender justice perspective.
www.genderjusticeinearlychildhood.com

The Boy & the Bindi, by Vivek Shraya, illus. by Rajni Perera (2016). (Ages 4-8) A 5 year-old South Asian boy is fascinated with his mother's bindi, the colored dot commonly worn in the middle of Hindu women's foreheads. He wants to have one of his own. His mother agrees and teaches him about its cultural significance.

Elena's Serenade, by Campbell Gleeson (2014). (Ages 3-8) A young Mexican girl admires her father's glassblowing and wants to follow in his footsteps. However, pointing to her size and gender, he disapproves of her aspirations. She disguises herself as a boy to learn the craft and ultimately changes her father's views. Told in both English and Spanish, the story explores the limiting nature of gender roles and the power of children to challenge adult thinking.

Introducing Teddy, by Jessica Walton, illus. by Dougal MacPherson (2016). (Ages 3-6) Errol and his teddy bear, Thomas, are best friends who do everything together. One day, Thomas tells Errol, "In my heart, I've always known that I'm a girl teddy, not a boy teddy." Errol replies, "I don't care if you're a girl teddy or a boy teddy! What matters is that you are my friend."

Julián Is a Mermaid, by Jessica Love (2018). (Ages 4-8) Inspired by women he sees on the subway who are colorfully dressed as mermaids, Julián dresses up like a mermaid when he gets home. He worries about how his grandmother will respond, but she celebrates his transformation.

My Princess Boy, by Cheryl Kilodavis, illus. by Suzanne DeSimone (2009). (Ages 4-8) This story is told from the perspective of the mother of a 4-year-old boy who likes to wear dresses and enjoys things that typically appeal to girls.

Sparkle Boy, by Lesléa Newman, illus. by Maria Mola (2017). (Ages 4-8) Casey loves blocks, puzzles, and his dump truck, but he also wants to try out the shimmer skirt, glittery nails, and bracelets his sister and his grandmother wear. The adults in his life support his choices, but he worries when older boys tease him.

Photographs: © Getty Images

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Focus On Ethics: Gender Expression and Identity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Our role as educators is to create a safe and reflective space for children to develop their identities and to counterbalance gender stereotypes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
13 Guiding Principles — D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Launched by Teaching for Change, D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice is a network of educators who seek to strengthen and deepen social justice teaching.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Jamila Felton, librarian at St. Patrick's Episcopal Day School in Washington, D.C., read What Do You Do with a Voice Like That?: The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan to her kindergarten classes for Black Lives Matter Week at School of Action.

After Ms. Felton read the book, students talked about how Barbara Jordan used her voice powerfully to help people. A student stated that she used her voice to fight for justice for other people and that she was a teacher that taught her students important stuff.

The previous week, students read Martin & Mahalia: His Words, Her Song.

One child asked what Black Lives Matter meant. Ms. Felton explained it "was about justice, equality and the affirmation of black lives in the United States and all over the world."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Learning About the Power of Voice from the Story of Barbara Jordan - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Jamila Felton, librarian at St. Patrick's Episcopal Day School in Washington, D.C., read What Do You Do with a Voice Like That?: The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan to her kindergarten classes for Black Lives Matter Week at School of Actio

# data[].attributes.headline
Talking to Young Children about the Guiding Principles of the Movement for Black Lives

# data[].attributes.subject
Talking to Young Children about the Guiding Principles of the Movement for Black Lives

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Freedom Reads: Anti-Bias Book Talks

Freedom Reads: Anti-Bias Book Talk is part anti-bias training, part book review. Each short segment explores anti-bias books for home and the classroom with the goal to strengthen parents' and teachers' anti-bias, anti-racism lens and their ability to critically analyze children's media.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black Lives Matter - Early Childhood and Elementary Resources - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Freedom Reads: Anti-Bias Book Talk is part anti-bias training, part book review. Each short segment explores anti-bias books for home and the classroom with the goal to strengthen parents' and teachers' anti-bias, anti-racism lens and their ability to critically analyze children's media.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
National Museum of African American History and Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Talking about race, although hard, is necessary. We are here to provide tools and guidance to empower your journey and inspire conversation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Last May, Teaching for Change's D.C. Area Educator's for Social Justice, hosted a session for early childhood educators on teaching about disability. There was a variety of educators and specialists in attendance including therapists and teachers of inclusive and self-contained classrooms.

Using the chapter titled "Learning About Disabilities and Fairness" from the book Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves, small groups discussed sections related to children's early experiences and understandings of ability and disability such as: "young children are curious; they want to know about what they see" and "young children have the capacity to appreciate their shared abilities and similarities."

The anti-bias goals pertaining to disability and fairness are:

All children will develop autonomy and independence (as they are able) as well as confidence and pride in their competence.

All children will learn accurate information, appropriate to their developmental stage, about disabilities and special needs.

All children will gain understanding about how their own abilities are the same as and different from others'.

All children will learn to interact knowledgeably, comfortably, and fairly with each other, whatever their abilities.

All children will learn how to challenge name-calling and stereotyping with respect to their own or others' abilities and will share ideas about accessibility in order to promote interaction and independence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Talking to Young Children About Disabilities - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Last May, Teaching for Change's D.C. Area Educator's for Social Justice , hosted a session for early childhood educators on teaching about disability. There was a variety of educators and specialists in attendance including therapists and teachers of inclusive and self-contained classrooms

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I began by having a photo of a Black man drinking out of a water fountain labeled "White Only" hanging from my neck on a piece of yarn.

I led students in a "See, Think, Wonder" routine of the photo, and then asked them why do they think I was wearing this on a day where we would be talking about the Black Lives Matter Movement. They noticed things such as his facial expression, the way that he had his hand on his hip, where he is looking, and the quality of the water fountain.

Using information from their homework for that week, a NewsELA article on how Trayvon Martin's death help to spark the Black Lives Matter Movement, they made many connections as to why I was wearing the photo on my neck.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Connecting to the 13 Principles of the Black Lives Matter Movement in Fifth Grade - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I led students in a "See, Think, Wonder" routine of a photo of a Black man drinking out of a water fountain labeled "whites only" and then asked them why do they thought I was wearing this on a day where we would be talking about the Black Lives Matter Movement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Woke Kindergarten 60 Second Texts: Move Like Stacey

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Woke Read Alouds: It Feels Good to Be Yourself (NEW version)

# data[].attributes.headline
Brent Elementary District of Columbia: Study Group Spotlight

# data[].attributes.subject
Brent Elementary District of Columbia: Study Group Spotlight

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The D.C. Teaching for Black Lives study group, made up of 14 educators from Brent ES (DCPS), meets once a month. According to Jon Berg, the study group's coordinator, they started the group "to help educators reflect on their practice and to identify resources that center our Black students in our classrooms - with an emphasis on what is taught and how classrooms are set up to help students engage in civic life." They also hoped to "encourage school wide participation in the Black Lives Matter at School Year of Purpose and Week of Action 2023."

For their March meeting, the group spent time discussing their actions for both Black History Month and for the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Brent Elementary District of Columbia: Study Group Spotlight - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The D.C. Teaching for Black Lives study group, made up of 14 educators from Brent Elementary (ECE-5), meets once a month. According to Jon Berg, the study group's coordinator, they started the group "to help educators reflect on their practice and to identify resources that center our Black studen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Watch the Webinar: Black Lives Matter in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Watch the recording of our most popular webinar yet, "Black Lives Matter in the Classroom: A Conversation with Experts" with Laleña Garcia and Caryn Davidson, author and illustrator of What We Beli...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Woke Kindergarten 60 Second Text: ...and Martin

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This article was published in By Brenda Randolph and Betsy DeMulder Teaching Tolerance in the fall of 2008 in collaboration with Teaching for Change. The issue continues to be relevant today.
In the fall of 2007, in a 1st- and 2nd-grade classroom during circle time, Ms. Brown told her students, "My friend is planning a trip to the continent of Africa. Can you tell me what my friend will need when she goes to Africa?" Several children shouted out excitedly.
Animals.
Yeah, animals.
Elephants.
Cheetahs and monkeys.
Lions.
Giraffes.
Jaguars.
Men with spears hunting animals.
Water, 'cause it's very hot.
Food, 'cause they'd be hungry.
A tent.

Ms. Brown followed up with another question, "What will my friend see when she goes to Africa?" The children quickly rattled off a list:
Picking fruit.
Growing corn.
Ms. Brown asked, "What kinds of things do they do there?"

Finally, Ms. Brown asked, "What kind of jobs do they have there?" The children seemed stumped. Then two children piped up.

These responses highlight the images that children often have of Africa.

As Professor Michael Bamidele Adeyemi of the University of Botswana suggests, "Americans believe that Africa is a country, that Africa is 'still uncivilized,' that the average African is polygamous, and that Africa is not urbanized." In fact, the African continent encompasses a diverse set of more than 50 nations, each made up of a variety of urban and rural cultures, lifestyles and socioeconomic realities. Rates of urbanization in Africa are the highest in the world. By 2025, more than half of the African population will be urban. Barbara Brown explains in the March/April 2008 issue of Social Studies and the Young Learner: "Americans are often surprised to learn that the majority of Africans have never seen large wildlife."

Images in the news, popular media and school textbooks often highlight African people living in abject poverty; rarely do they show the realities of wealth, power and good health that also exist throughout the continent. Typically, African children are depicted as sick and hungry; rare are depictions of the millions of African children who arrive at school fed and ready to learn each day.

Inaccurate impressions of Africa start early, as children are exposed to stereotypical information in books, the news media, advertisements, and film and TV programs such as "The Lion King," "Madagascar" and "George of the Jungle," to name just a few.

It is not just children who see Africa as a land full of wild animals and starving children. One of the authors of this article showed slides in her child's classroom of their family's trip to the capital city of Dakar in Senegal, with images of cars, tall buildings and people in schools, restaurants and at work. As soon as the slide show was over, the teacher jumped in front of the class and told all the students, "I want you to know that this is not the real Africa that you have just seen here."

Because teachers, parents, and other adults are influenced by ongoing exposure to these stereotypes, we must carefully examine and challenge our own knowledge and assumptions about African environments, customs, traditions and cultural realities. Otherwise, our misimpressions influence the kinds of learning opportunities we create for children.

This is a challenging but essential task. Vivian Yenika-Agbaw, the author of Representing Africa in Children's Literature: Old and New Ways of Seeing, analyzed 50 fictional children's books set in West Africa and published between 1960 and 1995. She found that the texts "represent West Africa as either primitive/barbaric or natural/romantic."

She also examined messages regarding life in Africa as depicted in picture books for young children. Although some picture books depicted "Africans as dignified people with varied cultures," many painted a more stereotypical picture; negative messages included descriptions and depictions of Africa "as a 'Mythical Home' with unexplainable natural and historical occurrences ... as a vulnerable place prone to foreign invasions ... [and] as a place where people share space with animals."

Our own review of 30 children's books about Africa found skewed and incomplete images. More than 90 percent of the books, for example, showed only rural or village life and jungles. Based on images from these books, readers would assume there are no cities in Africa.

Why is this important?

Stereotypical representations of Africa and its people have a profound impact on three levels:

Racial relations and identity development for all Americans. Constant association of Africa with animals, poverty and exotic behaviors affects the perception of African American and black heritage around the world. Such deficit images of Africa contribute directly to racism. Historically, these misconceptions were used to justify enslavement and colonialism. The portrayal of Africa in Western media and children's books continues to feed a belief in white superiority and the need of Africans (Blacks) to be saved or feared. The images also contribute directly to internalized racism, leading many black children in the U.S. to want to distance themselves from any association with their African heritage.

Treatment of first-generation African immigrants. Most recent immigrants from African countries to the United States learn quickly about how little Americans know about Africa and experience firsthand the racism associated with that ignorance. We have heard countless stories from first-generation immigrants from Africa about the questions they receive. Invariably, they are asked about wild animals. Many of these immigrants have come from cities in Africa and have not seen a wild animal except in the zoo. In some cases, children are taunted, told to return to the jungle or asked to show their tail.

Global/international relations and foreign policy. Ultimately what students in the United States learn about Africa impacts our country's relations with and policies toward African countries. If negative stereotypes prevail, then as citizens we are unlikely to challenge policies that are paternalistic or exploitative. If the next generation of students develops a deeper and more respectful understanding of African countries, then our foreign relations and policies will follow suit.
Use the names of specific countries instead of just calling it "Africa."
Challenging African Stereotypes in the Classroom

Below are recommendations for using an anti-bias curricular approach when creating learning experiences about the African continent for children in the United States.

Just as it is unusual to use "Europe" when referring to France or "North America" when referring to Canada, avoid using "Africa" to stand for individual African countries.
Avoid activities that perpetuate stereotypes of hungry and poor Africans.
Some guidance:

Some children's books have Africa in the title, but the author's note indicates which nation is featured.

If a parent, fellow teacher, or guest speaker references Africa, you can ask: "Which country?"

If there are first-generation immigrants from the African continent in your school or classroom, be sure that you and your students know their specific countries of origin.

Read Africa is Not a Country (Burns & Melnicove, 2000) to your students, and find the featured countries on a map of Africa. Reinforce the vastness of the continent with the informative map "How Big is Africa," which fits Europe, China, and the United States into Africa.

Use "regular" language.
Activities that use images of hungry, helpless Africans reinforce negative stereotypes that pervade children's consciousness due to limited exposure to counter images. When fundraising drives, social studies lessons or current events focus on issues of poverty in an African country, use the opportunity to teach about the root causes of hunger and poverty globally. Be sure to help children recognize that poverty is also prevalent here in the United States, and that poverty locally and globally is impacted by U.S. trade policies and multinational corporations. Students can then identify strategies for lasting change, e.g. purchasing fair-trade items, educating their communities, and advocating for progressive legislation.
Pay attention to the messages and images conveyed by your choice of art activities.
Terry Moore, a 3rd-grade teacher, describes how a small group of committed students moved their school "from charity drives to education to action." For their final project, the students held a Hunger Banquet, an activity designed by Oxfam America to mimic inequities and politics in the real world. Students charged $5 admission to an ice cream banquet, then dished out unequal portions to the attendees. The activity dramatically changed the way their fellow students viewed hunger and poverty. The money the students raised was donated to an organization dedicated to helping people obtain a sustainable source of food and income (" Beyond Bake Sales: Elementary Students Fight Hunger and Child Labor" in Rethinking Schools, Summer 2004). Many more lessons like this can be found in Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World.
Make sure you are using as many contemporary stories as you are folktales.
Employ words and phrases that you would normally use when discussing life in the U.S. Use "house" not "hut" and "people" (or identity group or ethnic group) instead of "tribe." The latter is a source of endless debate and discussion. Curtis Keim provides a cogent critique of the term "tribe" in his book Mistaking Africa: Curiosities and Inventions of the American Mind (Keim, 1999).
Include North Africa.
In many classrooms, making "African" masks and "huts" are students' first school-based introductions to Africa. Expand students' perspectives by introducing contemporary art and artists. Highlight Nigerian batik specialist Nike Onlaniyi Davies and encourage students to use her techniques to create their own artistic expressions. Davies is featured in Faces magazine's "The Yoruba People: Nigeria and Beyond" (September 1995) and on her website. If mask-making is an essential part of your curriculum, be sure to include masks from throughout the world. Know the country and cultural significance of the masks you are introducing from Africa and be aware that some countries in Africa have no masking traditions. Introduce students to the wide variety of musical expressions from Africa by playing compact discs while students work. Start with Putumayo's "Mali," which features the lyrical kora, the vibrant balaphon and blues-tinged sounds from southern Mali.
Highlight typical social groups and everyday activities.
African folktales are a great way to teach values and gain insight into cultures and beliefs. The heavy use of folktales, however, can lead to misconceptions since folktales are typically set in the past and feature wild animals and rural scenes. Balance folktales with stories that introduce young children to present-day reality in cities and towns. These images are represented well in Ikenna Goes to Nigeria (Onyefulu, 2007) and A Child's Day in a South African City (Wulfsohn, 2002).
Avoid wild animal motifs.
Don't separate the study of North African countries from countries south of the Sahara. Bring North Africa into your discussions with The Day of Ahmed's Secret (Heide & Gilliland, 1990), set in Egypt, and My Father's Shop (Ichikawa, 2006), set in Morocco. When studying ancient Egypt, be sure to include ancient Nubia, Egypt's southern neighbor. The Rise of the Golden Cobra (Aubin, 2007), a novel set during the reign of King Piankhy, is a good choice for upper elementary students.
Explore African perspectives and actions.
Avoid materials that emphasize exotic practices. Provide posters and books that feature African children and families engaged in everyday activities, especially those activities with which children in the U.S. can relate. The African continent is a diverse collection of countries where people live in wealth and in poverty, in rural and in urban dwellings; where livelihoods depend upon farming, business, and industry; and where individuals occupy all of the professions we have come to associate with the industrialized world, including doctors, lawyers, and professors. Tololwa Mollel's My Rows and Piles of Coins (1999) and Big Boy (1997) are much more representative of life in Tanzania than the endless stream of books about East Africa's cattle-keeping Maasai. For occupation diversity, ask children to identify the different occupations in Here Comes our Bride (Onyefulu, 2004).
Take an imaginary city tour.
Did you know that most Africans have never seen large wild animals? Elephants, lions and giraffes populate only a few countries, primarily in East and Southern Africa, and today most of these large animals live in or near national parks. Children in Africa are much more likely to see the same animals an American child would see. I Lost My Tooth in Africa (Diakite, 2006), What's Cooking, Jamela? (2001) and Musa's Journey (Grobler, 1997) collectively feature birds, dogs, cats, chickens and a host of other barnyard animals. If "wild animals" is a must-do theme, read a book about wild animals in the U.S., and then read Home Now (Beake, 2007), a realistic story about an orphaned South African girl who befriends an orphaned elephant that lives in a national park. In Ashraf of Africa (Mennen and Daly, 1990), we see fierce lions, gliding crocodiles, and thundering zebras but discover that Ashraf, who lives "in a city, a city at the very tip of the great African continent," has only seen these animals in a book.
Brenda Randolph is the Director of AfricaAccess, chairperson of the Africana Children's Book Award and served for many years as a Library Media Specialist with the Montgomery County Maryland Public Schools. Betsy DeMulder is the Director of Initiatives in Educational Transformation at George Mason University and served as a visiting scholar with Teaching for Change. Thanks to Barbara Brown (Boston University), Lindsey Allard, Merry Merryfield (Ohio State University), and Deborah Menkart (Teaching for Change) for their contributions to the article.
Share the ways Africans see their world by reading award-winning books by African authors. Tololwa Mollel (Tanzania), Ifeoma Onyefulu (Nigeria) and Elinor Sisulu (South Africa) are just a few of the authors from African countries who have won Children's Africana Best Book Awards (complete list of winners at AfricaAccessReview.org). Highlight Africans who organized to bring about needed change. For example, students can learn about Kenya's Green Movement and the leadership of Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. Independent readers can tackle easy-to-read biographies including Lilian Ngoyi (van Wyk, 2003) and Helen Joseph (van Wyk, 2003); these unsung heroes - one black, one white - opposed apartheid side by side and in death are buried side by side.

To ensure that your students never say, "I didn't know there were cities in Africa," pretend your class is taking a trip that includes a tour of two or more cities. Students will need to plan their air travel, select hotels, understand the currency and exchange rate, pack appropriate clothing and identify places of interest to visit. Good choices for this project are: Accra, Ghana; Cairo, Egypt; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Town (Stein, 1998) and Cairo (Stein, 1996) are good resources for planning trips to these cities. For Accra and Addis Ababa, use Google Images and the University of Wisconsin's digital collection Africa Focus: Sights and Sounds from Africa. Don't limit your study of urbanization in Africa to the present. Ask students in grades 3 and higher to write about living in an ancient or medieval African city. UNESCO's World Heritage site has useful information on Aksum and Lalibela, Ethiopia, and medieval Timbuktu, Mali.

Reprinted from Teaching Tolerance. Number 34: Fall 2008.

Here are recommended book for pre-K - 12 classrooms on Africa.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
I Didn't Know There Were Cities in Africa! - Teaching for Change

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This article was published in Teaching Tolerance in the fall of 2008 in collaboration with Teaching for Change. The issue continues to be relevant today. By Brenda Randolph and Betsy DeMulder In the fall of 2007, in a 1st- and 2nd-grade classroom during circle time, Ms. Brown told her students, "My friend is planning a ...

# data[].attributes.headline
Guiding Principles: Diversity and Globalism, via #BLMPHLEd

# data[].attributes.subject
Guiding Principles: Diversity and Globalism, via #BLMPHLEd

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Day 2 (1_24) Elem - Diversity _ Globalism BLM in PHLed.pptx

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sesame Street: I Love My Hair Song (Mando's Spanish Version)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Early Childhood: Learning about Gender Identity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teaching for Change carefully selects the best multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Does Race Affect a Student’s Math Education?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A new paper examines the ways “whiteness” reproduces racial advantages and disadvantages.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
BLM at School is committed to teaching truthful histories and amassing the powerful practices, creative tools, and key strategies by which past, present, and future generations can advance the struggle of Black liberation. This summer, we renewed our curriculum work to create a more process-oriented, dialogic, secure, and empowering space for curriculum and community-building. This all-volunteer effort to map, index, and ensure continued wide access to identity-affirming, justice-oriented educational materials across the lifespan is more necessary than ever.

DONATE TO SUPPORT OUR MOVEMENT TO RECLAIM OUR CLASSROOMS AS INCUBATORS FOR INCLUSIVITY, EQUITY, & JUSTICE.

We are grateful for all of the contributions from educators and organizers from around the country who worked collaboratively to curate a variety of classroom resources for every age group. These resources are all free of charge and meant to be shared and used. The goal of these lessons and activities is to challenge racism and oppression and providing students with the vocabulary and tools needed to take action. If you are interested in joining the team please click here and email Chris Rogers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
National coalition organizing for racial justice in education.

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson based on the book Milo’s Museum﻿ by Zetta Elliott 

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson based on the book Milo’s Museum﻿ by Zetta Elliott 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Teaching Ideas | Teaching Stories

Reviewed by Deborah Menkart

Review Source: Rethinking Schools
Book Author: Zetta Elliott

Milo's Museum by Zetta Elliott is a beautifully illustrated, empowering story of a young girl (Milo) who is excited to go on a school field trip to a museum. Her grandfather explains, "Museums hold all the things that people feel are valuable or important." Imagine how Milo feels when she finds the museum offers little to no representation of African American history. Her follow up conversations with family members help give language to her frustration (and that of the readers'.) They also inspire her to take matters into her own hands, becoming the curator and docent of her own museum. At the end of the story, Milo changes the name of her museum to "The People's Museum" when her friends ask her if they could incorporate items from their community into the museum.

This story opens the door to age-appropriate conversations with young children about representation, institutional racism, youth activism, museum studies, lessons from family, and community engagement. It is also one of the all too few books that describes youth activism supported and informed by elders-instead of in opposition to or in isolation of adults.

Teaching Idea: Make your own museum!

Ask students to make a list of the things that tell a story about who they are.

What objects reveal your strengths?

Have you ever won a trophy or prize?

Is there something you loved when you were younger but have since outgrown?

What are your prized possessions?

What art have you created?

Ask students to talk to the elders in their families-parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts.

Ask them to share photographs and heirlooms that tell a story about their family (an heirloom is something precious that gets passed down from one generation to the next).

Has your family ever migrated from one place to another?

What objects help you celebrate your family's culture(s)?

Ask students to think about the story they want to tell.

Have your family members overcome any challenges?

What makes you proud to be part of your family and/or your community?

Find a space in the school where they can display their precious objects.

Teaching Stories

Milo's Museum Project for First Grade

First graders in Melissa Somerville's and Jessica Jones' classrooms at Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS read the book Milo's Museum by Zetta Elliott in preparation for the Black Lives Matter Week of Action, discussed the book, and then created "museum pieces" that represent the change they want to see or something that shows how they feel when they think about people being treated unfairly. CONTINUE READING.

Milo's Museum Read Aloud

At Mundo Verde Bilingual PCS, first grade students in Ms. Dani and Mr. CJ's class began their morning meeting with a read-aloud of Milo's Museum. CONTINUE READING.

Publisher's synopsis: Milo is excited about her class trip to the museum. The docent leads them on a tour and afterward Milo has time to look around on her own. But something doesn't feel right, and Milo gradually realizes that the people from her community are missing from the museum. When her aunt urges her to find a solution, Milo takes matters into her own hands and opens her own museum!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Milo's Museum by Zetta Elliott is a beautifully illustrated, empowering story of a young girl (Milo) who is excited to go on a school field trip to a museum.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In February of 2019, a positive behavior support coach who was employed by the district in Madison, Wis., allegedly physically assaulted and ripped the hair out of the head of an 11-year-old Black girl. In the same school district, several teachers and substitutes have been fired or resigned earlier this academic year after reports they used racial slurs in the classroom. In the neighboring school district of Middleton, Wis., a school bus driver was fired after the district confirmed he had slapped a Black child. All these incidents in Wisconsin happened within months of each other.

In Binghamton, N.Y., four 12-year-old Black girls reported they were strip-searched at their school for acting too hyper and giddy in January. School officials likely assumed the girls were on drugs because their Black joy was unrecognizable. Of course, no drugs were found and the district denies strip searching the girls. However, the district does admit that asking students to remove some of their clothing is in compliance with a "sobriety check". The girls' parents dispute the district's claims, and a civil lawsuit from the parents and a third-party investigation are still ongoing.

Last Halloween, 14 staff members at Middleton Heights Elementary, 30 miles west of Boise, Idaho, were involved in dressing up as Mexicans and the border wall for Halloween. The district's superintendent issued a public apology and placed the teachers on paid administrative leave.

"An Essay for Teachers Who Understand Racism Is Real"

"Teachers, We Cannot Go Back to the Way Things Were

"White Teachers Need Anti-Racist Therapy"

"Dear White Teachers: You Can't Love Your Black Students If You Don't Know Them"

"'Grit Is in Our DNA': Why Teaching Grit Is Inherently Anti-Black"

Sadly, incidents like these fill my social-media timeline on a weekly basis. With regularity, school districts' spokespersons portray these incidents as isolated events, the work of a few overzealous, culturally insensitive but "good" teachers. These responses never acknowledge how racism is systemic, institutionalized, and structural, or how racism breeds and is maintained by violence.

Physical and psychological attacks on Black and Brown children's bodies and culture are more than just racist acts by misguided school educators; they are the spirit murdering of Black and Brown children. This type of violence toward children of color is less visceral and seemingly less tragic than physical acts of murder at the hands of White mobs and White self-appointed vigilantes, the shooting of unarmed people of color by police officers in their own homes and communities, or the senseless violence in some Black communities, which are all conditions of racism.

What I am talking about is a slow death, a death of the spirit, a death that is built on racism and intended to reduce, humiliate, and destroy people of color.

Legal scholar Patricia Williams coined the term "spirit murdering" to argue that racism is more than just physical pain; racism robs people of color of their humanity and dignity and leaves personal, psychological, and spiritual injuries. Racism is traumatic because it is a loss of protection, safety, nurturance, and acceptance-all things children need to enter school and learn.

The spirit murdering of Black and Brown children leaves a trail of unanswered questions: How do children learn after being physically assaulted or racially insulted by a person who is supposed to protect them, love them, and teach them? How does a Black or Brown child live, learn, and grow when her spirit is under attack at school, and her body is in danger inside the classroom? How does a parent grapple with this reality? How are children's imagination and humanity stunted by the notion that they are never safe in their schools because of the color of their skin or the God they pray to? Where does the soul go to heal when school is a place of trauma?

School officials continue to misdiagnose the spirit murdering happening in their schools every day, even in a time when folks are screaming in the streets that Black Lives Matter, demanding immigration rights, calling to end police brutality, standing up to Islamophobia and transphobia, and demanding racial justice. When schools mirror our society's hate, educational justice becomes out of our reach.
Related Video In 2016, Bettina L. Love, the author of this Commentary, spoke to Education Week about African-American girls and discipline. Here's what she had to say:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Schools Are 'Spirit Murdering' Black and Brown Students (Opinion)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In February of 2019, a positive behavior support coach who was employed by the district in Madison, Wis., allegedly physically assaulted and ripped the hair out of the head of an 11-year-old Black girl. In the same school district, several teachers and substitutes have been fired or resigned earlier this academic year after reports they used racial slurs in the classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The D.C. Area Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools gave a powerful start to Black History Month in classrooms across the Washington, D.C. area. Pre-K - 12th grade teachers in more than 100 schools taught lessons about structural racism, intersectional Black identities, and Black history.

D.C. was one of many cities across the country that participated in the national Black Lives Matter Week of Action in our Schools from February 5-10, 2018. The three key demands issued by the Black Lives Matter at School national movement were:

end zero tolerance and implement restorative justice,

hire more Black teachers in our schools, and

Black history/ethnic studies mandated K-12.

In the D.C. area, Teaching for Change and Center for Inspired Teaching, with many other groups, collaborated with teachers to bring these issues and content to more than 100 schools.

Here is some of what we learned from the D.C. Area Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools.

1.) A Movement brings radical change to the classroom.

In many schools, the week of action opened a dialogue that led to deeper understanding of the Movement for Black Lives and the thirteen principles of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Applying the lens of the Black Lives Matter Movement sharpened the focus of Black History Month in a way we have never seen before. Going beyond the typical Black History Month "I have a dream" lessons on the Civil Rights Movement, students learned about Bayard Rustin, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Black Power, and Dr. Martin Luther King's stand on the war and labor. One second grader remarked, "Black Lives Matter is like the Civil Rights Movement."

2.) The Black Lives Matter Movement helps students connect with history in a new way.

Talking about the Black Lives Matter Movement allowed students to reflect on the long history of the Movement for Black Lives. For example, a sixth grade Arlington teacher began her lesson on the U.S. Constitution with a discussion of the Black Lives Matter Movement. The class then read Mumbet's Declaration of Independence, the true story of an enslaved woman in Massachusetts who sued for her own freedom. After the read aloud, students read the preamble to the Constitution and discussed who wasn't included in the "we the people" phrase. Bringing it to today, they brainstormed how they could use the Constitution to fight for justice on issues in their own lives such as sexual harassment, deportation, the Muslim ban, health care, police brutality, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

3.) Black Lives Matter is relevant to all grade levels.

The principles of the Black Lives Matter Movement were applied in developmentally appropriate ways from early childhood through high school. At one D.C. school, the community created a Black Lives Matter mural. The youngest learners contributed what is beautiful and black. Elementary students added a panel of what it takes to be alive, and middle school students expressed why the Black Lives Matter movement is important. One eighth grader reacted, "It means a whole lot that our school is honoring Black lives because I like to fight for justice."

4.) Black Lives Matter is relevant to every subject area.

Educators used the 13 principles of the Movement to teach about a wide range of subjects during the week of action. Several educators used a lesson incorporating police violence victims' #LastWords to write poetry, Spanish classes were exposed to the often untold Black history of Latin America, music classes held lessons on D.C. go-go music, social studies classes participated in " Resistance 101: A Lesson on Social Justice Activists and Strategies," " Black Muslims in the United States: An Introduction," and much more.

5.) The week of action opens communication between young people and adults.

Throughout the week, public events in the evenings provided opportunities for adults in the community to come together with and learn from young people. At an interschool seminar, young people and adults had honest and powerful conversations on student-selected topics including gentrification, mental illness and race, the war on drugs, and more. At a powerful open mic poetry event, people of all ages (the youngest was five years old) shared their " Love Poems for Black Women" with an enthusiastic audience. The young authors of a book about a teen who was killed by the police gave a presentation at a public library.

6.) Grassroots, educator-led planning, preparation, and learning are key.

The success of the week reflected months of planning by teachers in the D.C. area. The planning meetings, which began in the fall of 2017, were convened by Teaching for Change's D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice and Center for Inspired Teaching. During the meetings, educators established local demands, selected and developed lessons, planned events, and built community. The lessons were shared at two curriculum fairs. In advance of the week of action, teachers read recommended background reading to prepare and attended a talk on the history of racist ideas by Dr. Ibram Kendi.

7.) Teachers need strong allies to support this work.

Teachers cannot do this alone. First and foremost, the local Black Lives Matter chapters need to be on board. In D.C., we had the support of Black Lives Matter DMV and the BYP100 DC Chapter. In addition, we had co-sponsorship of the Washington Teachers' Union, the DCPS Secondary Literacy office, and endorsements by many other groups.

Over the last several years, we have seen the power of the Black Lives Matter Movement to raise awareness and discourse nationally about race and racism in the United States. Now we've seen the power these conversations can have in the classroom. The lessons and dialogues that took place during the week of action provided the momentum and inspiration to continue throughout the year.
See more photos and read more stories from the D.C. Area Black Lives Matter in Schools Week of Action.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Seven Things We Learned From the D.C. Area Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The D.C. Area Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools gave a powerful start to Black History Month in classrooms across the Washington, D.C. area. Pre-K - 12th grade teachers in more than 100 schools taught lessons about structural racism, intersectional Black identities, and Black history. D.C.

# data[].attributes.headline
“I am Jazz” Read Aloud By Dani McCormick

# data[].attributes.subject
“I am Jazz” Read Aloud By Dani McCormick

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
"I am Jazz" introduction of transgender and nonbinary identities

# data[].attributes.headline
Loving Their Amazing Selves: Author Ofosu Jones-Quartey Visits Rocketship PCS Legacy Prep

# data[].attributes.subject
Loving Their Amazing Selves: Author Ofosu Jones-Quartey Visits Rocketship PCS Legacy Prep

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
An Open Book Foundation sponsored an author visit for 4th and 5th grade students at Rocketship PCS - Legacy Prep in support of the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. Ofosu Jones-Quartey, author of Love Your Amazing Self: Joyful Verses for Young Voices, interspersed a read aloud of select verses from his book with mindfulness exercises.

Jones-Quartey began by leading students through a grounding exercise where he asked,

"What time is it?" to which students responded, "Right now."

"Where are you?" and students responded, "Right here."

"Who is enough?" to which students enthusiastically responded with "I am enough!"

After grounding themselves in the present, students shared what mindfulness means to them, with insightful reflections including "meditation" and "empathy."

Jones-Quartey shared more about his background, particularly his ongoing work to turn the book into a musical album, fusing poetry and rap. He read a few verses from Love Your Amazing Self, which encouraged students to affirm themselves, express gratitude, and pay attention to their bodies.

In between each verse, Jones-Quartey guided students through different question prompts and activities. For example, Jones-Quartey asked students to share a self-affirmation and gratitude. Students expressed love and gratitude for "the skin I'm in, being here on the earth, ability to play sports, faith, rain, dance, and trees." He guided students through somatic exercises, including breath work, singing bowl meditations, and a mindful freeze dance.

At the end of the visit, students peppered Jones-Quartey with questions ranging from "Are you rich?" and "When did you start rapping?" to "What made you want to write?" At dismissal, each student received a signed copy of the book, and the school received a class set's worth for their library.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Loving Their Amazing Selves: Author Ofosu Jones-Quartey Visits Rocketship PCS Legacy Prep - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ofosu Jones-Quartey, author of Love Your Amazing Self: Joyful Verses for Young Voices , interspersed a read aloud of select verses from his book with mindfulness exercises at Rocketship PCS - Legacy Prep in support of the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By Kara Hinderlie

Illustrator: Kesha Bruce

For years, I have struggled to find authentic ways of helping young children - kindergarteners and 1st graders - learn, remember, and appreciate Black history. Come January, the halls of my school are plastered with a variety of Martin Luther King Jr. tributes and artwork that conveniently find their way to being relabeled for February's Black History Month displays - and disappear in time for March's green living tips to save the planet.

But here is what my students need to know: Black is beautiful.

And here is why they need to know it...

Currently, in my predominantly white kindergarten class of 27, I see the few Black boys in my class targeted as the ones who did something wrong, as the kids who are called mean, as the kids who are not named as a friend. I see my one Black girl sad on the playground, or looking for a spot at the table with her white peers, unsure how to make space for herself. They are on the periphery of play, usually the "it" in tag, and it reminds me of my own story: In high school a teacher told us that, in our society, the color black symbolizes bad and evil, and white symbolizes good and pure.

I also remember when I was in a human development college class watching a video clip of children choosing a white baby doll instead of a brown one. I remember a little Black girl in the study saying the brown dolls were not as pretty, and the little white girls saying the brown dolls looked dirty. The video and the study itself made me sad for the little Brown girl I once was, trying to fit in and make friends in school.

One day I came across a stack of books the former librarian volunteer at my elementary school was going to throw out marked "Free books." In it were two copies of Black Is Beautiful. It was published in the '70s by Ann McGovern and made up of black-and-white photos of simple black subjects: a black bird, black jelly beans, black puppies, a black butterfly, a young Black girl in dress-up. The words in the book were written like a free verse poem. I loved the simplicity and took both copies to use in my classroom.

The students listened to me read aloud using a voice of wonderment and adoration - some pages I whispered in reverence. I stopped at the page of the Black girl playing dress-up in her mom's clothes, the only page mentioning black skin being beautiful:

Black lace, black face.
Black is beautiful.

"Do you see her wearing her mama's fancy clothes? So beautiful and fun," I said. When I finished, I asked what they noticed in the book.

"I notice the pictures only had black."

"I notice a black bird."

"I noticed beautiful."

"The horse was black!"

"I noticed the candy!"

"Yeah!" the class responds in a chorus of agreement.

I wrote down what they noticed on chart paper. Then I asked, "What can we add to this Black Is Beautiful book that the author didn't mention?"

"The tire swing!" Timothy said.

"Some people may not see a tire swing as beautiful. How can we convince them it is? I think about how some of you love to push it, and some of you love to ride on the tire swing. Hmm . . . what would some beautiful movement words be that you could say with tire swing?"

"It twirls!"

"It spins around and around!" said Chris, who was now on his knees, having popped up during his share out.

"Oooh! I can't wait to see how you write that!" I popped up too, and smiled.

I moved on, asking for more ideas. I framed their answers in the style and context of the book we read, modeling how to expand their list to sound like a poem. I wrote down their new ideas, and pointed to the ones already mentioned or from the original text: a kitten, a dog, sneakers, a witch.

"I notice the author wrote this like poetry to help us remember how beautiful the things in the book were. What words and descriptions can we add to our ideas to make people see the beauty and goodness of the color black?"

"My dress is soft and cozy," Lori gently patted her black fuzzy skirt, smiling into her own shoulder.

Nadira, who had been gazing away, raised her hand. "Black bird floating in the night sky."

I wrote what they said on the board and asked them to tell a friend three black things they are going to write about in a beautiful way. I know some will only get a picture or a word down while some will fill the page, but I want them all to start by telling someone three things. It gives them a goal and sets the expectation with a starting point.

I sent them off to write their ideas and have "Black is beautiful" written on sentence strips at each writing table for reference. I collected their work, went home, and typed them up.

The next day we reviewed: "Who remembers something that is black and beautiful?"

"Horses!"

"Birds!"

"Sneakers!"

"Rain clouds!"

"Yes!" I said. "Today we are going to look at a different kind of black is beautiful. We know that there are things that are black and beautiful, and people who are Black and beautiful. But it can be a little confusing because is people's skin the color of black paper or a black shirt? No! Black people are all different shades of brown. We just call it black sometimes. Today we are going to write about beautiful Black people and I have a few books to share with you to help give you ideas."

I started off by reading by Langston Hughes.

"Sunshines, I love this book," I told my students. "The words in this book are so simple and so powerful. This book is actually a short poem that was stretched across the pages so the photographs could illustrate each line of the poem. When I read this poem to you, I want you to study the pictures as you hear the words I say. Look at the faces and features of these Black people and notice their beauty. Notice what Langston compares the beauty to. In one place he compares me to the sun! I always feel so great when I read this poem."

The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.

Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls
of my people.

I tell them to listen to ways Langston knows Black- and Brown-skinned people are beautiful. It's a slow book, with only a few words per page, which allows my students to study the sepia-toned photos. Using the same format from the last lesson, we try to translate the idea of black is beautiful to features of Black and Brown people. After I finished the book, I ask the students to tell me about beautiful Black people. "What did Langston say?"

"Beautiful like the sun."

"The stars are beautiful!"

I am explicit when I talk to the students about the metaphor in this poem. It is hard to understand when you are 5 years old and the world is a literal, concrete place. Some do not make the connections I want them to make, they are not thinking about the Black people of the poem but of their metaphors as the thing of beauty. So I make the connection for them and carry them with me through an example.

"Now you understand why I love this poem. Langston compares beautiful people with the sun and stars. Look at this page." I show them the page of an elderly man, face raised and smiling at something unseen to the reader. "When I look at this page, I see joy and happiness. I see lines around his mouth that say he smiles a lot. His skin looks soft to touch. That is why he looks beautiful to me, and I think that's why they chose this picture to go with the word 'also' in the poem. Sometimes we think of beauty one way and then discover, like in this book, there are other ways that we can see beauty!"

I re-read the poem and asked for "Black is beautiful" examples again. This time there are more accurate answers:

"Eyes are beautiful!"

"Brown skin is beautiful."

"Hands are beautiful."

Brandon, a Black boy who often sits quietly as if in meditation, raised his hand. "Souls are beautiful." He looks at me and we smile.

We also read Hair Dance! by Dinah Johnson, another book with photos of Black and Brown kids playing outside. There is so much visual movement in this book; kids are jumping and hair is swinging. This book is special because the children in the book are from our neighborhood, the author is a parent, the kids were previous students in our school. This interests the children and they study the pictures and recognize some of their playground in the artwork. This time around when kids answer what is beautiful, they move their heads as if flipping their own imaginary beaded braids. They are holding their own hair in the air to mimic the pictures they saw while I read the rhythmic words in the book. The resounding agreement is that Black hair is beautiful - and so is jumping! We spend two minutes trying to jump high and fast to get our own hair to dance.

But this time when I sent them to write, they were less confident. Maybe I moved too quickly, or maybe the metaphor was too big of a jump. They stuck pretty close to the examples given in the books: hands, hair, skin. They focused on the metaphor and less on the physical attributes of people as beautiful.

And this was what my students deserve to know: Black is beautiful.

I tell the kids why I think it's important to celebrate Black history. I tell them my story, of learning about history where no one looked like me or my family. "We have Black History Month as a reminder to teachers that there is not much written about all of the things that Black and Brown people have contributed to our lives. When I was a kid, I only learned about the ways white people changed our lives. There were no books or activities in our school that let us know who those Black people were, or how they affected the way we live. I will share inventors and leaders who paved the way, or made an important discovery through diligence and hard work." They seemed intrigued. Some looked surprised, some totally bored. Buy-in to the unknown is hard, so I gave them an example.

Fresh off the heels of a presidential election with an unexpected outcome, where girls were coming in wearing pussycat hats and pant suits, I told the class about Shirley Chisholm.

I then told them mostly about inventors or "real firsts," as opposed to firsts for Black people, because they are the most tangible for young learners to understand. It is a clear, concrete contribution to bettering our daily lives: refrigeration, open-heart surgery, stoplights, peanut butter. I want my students to have a basis for appreciating Black people. Later, when they learn about the more complex concepts of slavery, Jim Crow, and civil rights, somewhere in the back of their mind I hope they will remember the beauty of Black and the ways Black people made life better for them. And then maybe, in the front of their eyes, they will see the injustice for what it was and what it still is.

For the next writing exercise, to retain the feeling of reverence we stayed with the free verse poetry writing style of the first book I introduced by Langston Hughes. The tone of that piece set the mood for the beauty on the page, and allowed them to transition into that poetic mode of writing, thinking, and seeing their ideas in a different light. I had them talk in pairs and instructed them to tell each other who they remember learning about and liked. When I asked them to write, they quickly jotted down their choices: Stoplights speak to cars in colors, tasty peanut butter on sandwiches for lunch every day, open-heart surgery saving lives.

When writing with young children, I have to make publishing decisions. In this unit, I wanted the kids to see their ideas from these lessons typed up and put together as a collective piece. If I made them do the extra combining work it could make the unit drag on too long, its message losing potency. So, in this instance, I did it for them.

Once all the parts were typed into one poem, I brought in craft and scrapbook supplies all in black: pipe cleaners, pom-poms, feathers, beads, stickers, textured felt, and dozens of patterned papers; all glittery, soft, and shiny - the jewels of the crafting world. I cropped their poems and let them collage them into beautiful black works of art. I read the poems aloud as I handed them out one at a time, so they could hear each other's work as inspiration.

Resistance
Some years when I do this lesson, I get backlash in the form of parent emails to the principal, disengagement from students, or the fairness argument from both students and parents: "Why just black, why not all colors?" This year it was Andrew, a tall blue-eyed white boy, and a proficient reader and writer.

When he learned about Black inventor Lyda Newman's improved hairbrush, Andrew whispered to a friend, "That's not special."

When he saw the sentence strips with "Black is beautiful" written on them for a second day, he turned them face down on the tables and exclaimed, "We already did these!"

When Jasmin told her friends something Black was beautiful, he responded, "Black is not beautiful."

Andrew, whose humor sometimes runs in the center of insulting, who often finds delight in others' misfortune, exclusion, or embarrassment, was creating another opportunity for me to change his mind.

When he turned the sentence strips face down exclaiming their completion, I explained this project was going to last the entire month. "Sometimes we remember things better and learn more when we stick with it. It feels like we finished because we did finish one part, but there's more I want to show you and more I want you to try." Andrew said, "OK."

When he said Ms. Newman's invention wasn't special, I noted there is a difference between flashy and noteworthy. "Raise your hand if you have a brush like this one in your house. Raise your hand if you've seen one before. Isn't that cool you're learning about the person who made something we've all seen or used every day? That's why I wanted you to learn about Ms. Newman. She gave us things we use so much they seem boring, but every time someone uses or buys it, she is getting affirmation that what she created was needed, even still today!" I make eye contact with Andrew when I say this, and he nods in agreement.

When Jasmin came to me upset that Andrew told her Black wasn't beautiful, I took him aside and told him about the power of an ally.

"Why did you say Black isn't beautiful to Jasmin?"

"I was kidding. It is." He tries to get the early exit card by placating me.

"I'm spending a lot of time on Black is beautiful because I want you on my team, Andrew. I want you to be the person who stands up and defends Black when someone else tries to do what you just did, tries to make a joke about it, and tries to hurt someone's feelings about Black. Black isn't just a color of clothes, right?"

"No, it's people and brown skin."

"So when someone jokes about Black, it makes us, people with that skin, feel less important. But you have a chance to be a leader. Friends look to you to include them and they follow your lead. If you decide not to treat Black as a joke, if you tell a friend why it's not funny to joke like that, you'll be helping the unfairness that is all around us. You will be making this place a better place for more of us. Can you try to do that? Help us feel welcomed and proud of Black?"

Andrew nods, "OK, yeah! I'm sorry I hurt Jasmin's feelings, Ms. Kara."

"I know, Andrew. Thank you for apologizing. I'm glad you're on my team." Andrew smiles shyly and takes a big breath.

Then I take a big breath as he goes back to his seat.

Yeah, the work is weighty, little one. Deep breaths help.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By Kara Hinderlie Illustrator: Kesha Bruce For years, I have struggled to find authentic ways of helping young children - kindergarteners and 1st graders - learn, remember, and appreciate Black history. Come January, the halls of my school are plastered with a variety of Martin Luther King Jr.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Youth deserve safety, support, education, and resources. Not policing and handcuffs.

That's why Black Swan Academy and many organizations and community members across DC are fighting for police-free schools.

We need your help - will you join the #PoliceFreeSchoolsDC campaign to support youth today?

Many people have been conditioned to believe that police keep us safe even though they harm, detain, and kill so many people, including school students.

Police make the classroom unsafe for youth, especially Black youth, ushering them into the school-to-prison pipeline and exposing them to state violence.

We demand DC Council immediately remove policing from schools.

They should use those funds and more to increase access to resources that youth across DC have said will actually promote safety.

This includes things like safe housing, affirming classrooms to learn and dream in, and support with navigating challenges and conflict.

Let's fight for the supportive world that youth deserve.

Tell your friends, family, and neighbors to support #PoliceFreeSchoolsDC.

Thank you to all the incredible coalition partners of Police-Free Schools DC, including:

Advocates for Justice and Education

ESOC

Georgetown Juvenile Justice Clinic & Initiative

Fair Budget Coalition/ Harriet's Wildest Dreams

Children's Law Center

Akoma Project DC

Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center

National Women's Law Center

Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs

DC Girls' Coalition

United We Dream DMV

Children's Law Center

ACLU-DC

Sunrise DC

Envisioning Safety On Our Campuses Now DC/MD

Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, DC

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Police-Free Schools - Black Swan Academy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
That's why Black Swan Academy and many organizations and community members across DC are fighting for police-free schools. We need your help - will you join the #PoliceFreeSchoolsDC campaign to support youth today? Many people have been conditioned to believe that police keep us safe even though they harm, detain, and kill so many people, including school students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Inspired Teaching Fellow Jay Banks' 2nd-grade classroom at DC Scholars PCS focused on Black Lives Matter by discussing resistance and advocacy. The class read Crossing Bok Chitto by Tim Tingle, the fictional story of the friendship between a young Choctaw girl and an enslaved African boy.

The students attentively listened and asked questions about how members of different cultures persevere in the face of discrimination and oppression. After the read aloud, students had the opportunity to write their own stories of a time they helped somebody or sparked change in their community.

Through addressing Black Lives Matter in the classroom, Jay has learned that the students have so much to say and giving them the opportunity to discuss these critical topics invigorates them and helps them develop into well-rounded people. Jay chooses to be a part of this movement to help students recognize their agency and help them understand they can make a change, even as a young person. Jay believes that engaging students in conversations about Black Lives Matter builds empathy and shows each student that "no matter how they identify, they are included." Read more.

See more stories.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Crossing Bok Chitto Read Aloud - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Inspired Teaching Fellow Jay Banks' 2nd-grade classroom at DC Scholars PCS focused on Black Lives Matter by discussing resistance and advocacy. The class read Crossing Bok Chitto by Tim Tingle, the fictional story of the friendship between a young Choctaw girl and an enslaved African boy.&nb

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Families Lead Read Alouds of Black History Books — D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
At Langdon ES (DCPS), parents and grandparents were featured guest readers (part of the Teaching for Change Roving Readers program) in honor of Black History Month and Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. They read in Ms. Louis’ 3rd grade class and Ms. Sco

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Safety does not exist when Black and Brown young people are forced to interact with a system of policing that views them as a threat and not as students. For many Black and Brown youth, the presence of police in their schools disrupts their learning environments. There is a culture clash that exists between law enforcement and the learning environment: police enforce criminal laws, while schools are supposed to nurture students. This report addresses the stark reality that police in schools is an issue of American racial disparity that requires deep structural change. We will explore the question of why police are in schools at all and conclude that police are incongruent with the educational environment we envision for our children.

First, this report examines the advent of policing practices in America's public schools and their historical roots in suppressing Black and Latino student movement and the criminalization of Black childhood. We discuss the documented harms of school policing, including the disparate impact that policing has on students of color, students with disabilities, and students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and asexual (LQBTQIA).

The report centers the voices of young people from around the country who describe the everyday indignities that they experience at the hands of school police. It also, for the first time, catalogues known assaults of young people by school police officers. The report shines a spotlight on three particular cases where young people were assaulted by school police and how their communities responded. These case studies - in Oakland, CA, in Philadelphia, PA, and in Spring Valley, SC, serve as models in the fight to end school policing. The report chronicles how Black and Brown youth have used organizing and advocacy to advance a vision of school safety that is not reliant on policing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
We Came to Learn: A Call to Action for Police-Free Schools

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Safety does not exist when Black and Brown young people are forced to interact with a system of policing that views them as a threat and not as students. For many Black and Brown youth, the presence of police in their schools disrupts their learning environments.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Milo’s Museum in Third Grade — D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Third grade art students read Milo’s Museum as they prepare to be “curators” of their own shadow box projects.

# data[].attributes.headline
Multilingual Resources for Teaching Black Lives Matter in ECE

# data[].attributes.subject
Multilingual Resources for Teaching Black Lives Matter in ECE

# data[].attributes.body
Developed by Carlos Duque, Capital City PCS and Itzel Mejía-Menéndez, De Colores Learning Center

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Multilingual Resources for Black Lives Matter (1.21.2020).pdf

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Unearthing Genius & Joy with Gholdy Muhammad

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We celebrated Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action by researching Black historical and present day individuals.

We focused on individuals who stood for social justice and change. As a culminating activity we had an assembly that brought these individuals to life. We put on a living wax museum where students portrayed themselves as the Black individuals and gave information about themselves. We had lots of fun while having in depth conversations about how we will use our knowledge of the past to change the future.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Key Figures in U.S. History - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We celebrated Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action by researching Black historical and present day individuals. We focused on individuals who stood for social justice and change. As a culminating activity we had an assembly that brought these individuals to life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
National Black Lives Matter in School Week of Action Starter Kit

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Students highlighted the words that meant the most to them and began to create a "wordle" project, which creates a visual display of text that highlights words by frequency. To make their own wordle, students used words from the 13 guiding principles, choosing 3 big ideas, 7 fairly important words, and 10 - 15 less frequent words.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
13 Guiding Principles in a Fifth Grade Classroom - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Students highlighted the words that meant the most to them and began to create a "wordle" project, which creates a visual display of text that highlights words by frequency. To make their own wordle, students used words from the 13 guiding principles, choosing 3 big ideas, 7 fairly important words, and 10 - 15 less frequent words.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In preparation for their first year participating in Black Lives Matter at School week of action, educators at the Georgian Forest Elementary School (Montgomery County, Maryland) started with a professional learning session the week prior. Staff were able to learn the "why" of the work of the Black Lives Matter at School week of action, as well as explore the resources available. Each staff member who attended received a packet with all of the lessons from the DC Area Educators website as well as additional lessons from Baltimore and Philadelphia. Each day, announcements were given to inform staff and students of the guiding principles for the day. Pre-K-5 staff development teacher, Asashia Martin was able to go to multiple classrooms to support and/or co-teach lessons. Mrs. Martin shares:

On Thursday, I was the co-teacher for the lesson based on the book about George Moses Horton. Students explored what it meant for Mr. Horton to be free using his poetry - with his freedom first starting in his mind and eventually being freed from enslavement through law. We began by exploring the phrases "slaves vs. people who were enslaved." Students had various comments like "they had a whole life before they were brought over," and "how would life be different in Africa if they weren't disrupted." Students also had the opportunity to chart his emotions throughout the story so that they could then create poems about the meaning of the word freedom based on the events of the story and using figurative language.

At the end of the lesson, one student commented that reading this story made him feel both sad and happy - sad that the entire system of enslavement of people happened, and happy that they were eventually freed. We talked about why it's important for us to remember the hard times so that we can develop a sense of pride for all the people who came before us accomplished before, during, and after enslavement.

Another staff member in our building created a social justice challenge where students had to read an article about the meaning of "Black Lives Matter at School" and then write about how they, other students, and the administration could truly demonstrate that Black Lives Matter at school. Students turned in their responses, and we will have a "Justice Jam" session. In this session, students will engage in a collaborative art project about Black Lives Matter at School. Specifically, they will focus on current civil rights issues manifested in schools such as the need for replacing traditional behavior management approaches with restorative justice, wider representation and diversity of curricular materials, gender equity, and the hiring of more teachers and counselors of color.

Read students responses to the social justice challenge below (click to make larger):

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Poetry and Self-Determination - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In preparation for their first year participating in Black Lives Matter at School week of action, educators at the Georgian Forest Elementary School (Montgomery County, Maryland) started with a professional learning session the week prior. Staff were able to learn the "why" of the work of the Black Lives Matter at School week of action, as well as explore the resources available.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Representation and Marginalization in History: Fourth Grade Exploration — D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Students at Mundo Verde explored representation and marginalization in history with their fourth-grade teacher, Dani McCormick.

# data[].attributes.headline
Books Spark Discussion of Hair in a 5th Grade Classroom

# data[].attributes.subject
Books Spark Discussion of Hair in a 5th Grade Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By Jill Tullish

In a school where Black Lives Matter:

In my 5th grade ELA class at Mundo Verde Bilingual PCS, each day during the 2019 Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, a family member from our class came in and described what Black Lives Matter means to them. With gallery walks, unpacking, and connections students became experts on the 13 guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter Movement.

As a community, each day we read a book each that centered around at least one of the guiding principles. We then had a small group discussion about how the book connects to our lives and the principles that were connected to the book. Each day we filled out a note catcher that guided our investigation of what Black Lives Matter looks like, sounds like, and feels like in our school.

One day a parent came in to read Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut andDon't Touch My Hair and shared their personal connections. Every student was surprised to hear that not everyone in the class has the same experiences and or family traditions surrounding hair. Some students shared their own experiences going to the salon with their mothers, while others shared the names of their favorite hair styles.

Each child had an "Ah ha!" moment. Our note catchers read: "In a school where Black lives matter: we would hear compliments about hair, see different hair styles, feeling comfortable to wear their hair anyway you want, hear conversations about the barbershop, respecting personal space and always asking for permission."

At the end of the week, we used our note catchers and the principles to create posters. The posters were copied and displayed around the school - in the hallways, classrooms, elevators, water fountains, etc.

This was such a beautiful week filled with affirmation and celebration! I am so thankful to everyone who organized Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action in D.C. The resources and workshop discussions guided our instruction and positively influenced our school community.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Books Spark Discussion of Hair in a 5th Grade Classroom - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In my 5th grade ELA class at Munda Verde Bilingual PCS, each day during the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, a family member from our class came in and described what Black Lives Matter means to them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
At School Without Walls at Francis Stevens (DCPS), students in my elementary ESOL class read a newsela article and watched a Ted Talk in order to understand the term "systemic racism" and how it impacts people in the United States and in other countries. Students were able to identify examples from the article, the Ted Talk video and then make connections with their own lives. They also made connections to events they had seen in the media (police brutality in the United States). Students also discussed President Trump's racist comments and ways in which the administration is perpetuating racism in the United States.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching About Systemic Racism - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
At School Without Walls at Francis Stevens (DCPS), students in my elementary ESOL class read a newsela article and watched a Ted Talk in order to understand the term "systemic racism" and how it impacts people in the United States and in other countries.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Comfort Food lesson was designed to help students make a personal connection to the civil rights movement and to recognize that people, just like themselves, came together as a community to fight against the injustices of segregation and discrimination. The use of food in the story helps students to identify with the civil rights activists, unified by a common goal and engaging in the common practice of fellowship over a meal.

This activity has been implemented in a variety of classrooms with much success. Students enjoy choosing their favorite foods to add to their menus and delight in inventing creative names for their foods. They are challenged to demonstrate writing skills, practice alliteration and identify adjectives, as well as recognize food group. The students especially enjoy experimenting with a variety of art materials to create their own plates of food.

The primary goal of Comfort Food is to inspire future social activists. As the students write their menus and design their plates they are guided to view themselves as activists who must strengthen themselves and others to fight for justice and equality for all.

Objectives

To recognize the role of community in social activism.

To make a personal connection with civil rights activists through family and food.

To identify food groups to create a menu.

To use alliteration to name menu items.

To describe foods using adjectives.

To create a plate of foods out of various materials.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Comfort Food lesson was designed to help students make a personal connection to the civil rights movement and to recognize that people, just like themselves, came together as a community to fight against the injustices of segregation and discrimination.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Vocabulary

tease [ teez ] (verb) to irritate, disturb or provoke another person

bullying [ BOOL-ee-ying ] (noun) written, verbal, physical or electronic acts that physically or emotionally harm another person

gender [ jen-dur ] (noun) refers to the social roles, behaviors and traits that a society may assign to men (masculine) or to women (feminine)

( Note: There are many different ideas about how to define the term gender. We provide a working definition, but one of the goals of Teaching Tolerance's work is for students to come to individual and collective understandings and criticisms of the term that make sense to them and their personal and developmental needs.)

gender expression [ jen-dur eks- PRESH-uhn ] (noun) the way a person chooses to show his gender to others

gender identity [ jen-durahy- DEN-ti-tee ] (noun) the sense a person has of her own gender and how she relates to her gender

Overview

Gender stereotypes often arise in social situations. Children face a great deal of pressure to be popular and to conform to their peer groups. Acting out realistic social situations in a safe, controlled classroom environment is a good way to prepare students for situations that might come up. It also helps children think about their own roles in both fighting and perpetuating gender stereotypes.

This lesson offers role plays and essential questions to guide students as they participate. Children have a chance to use creative, dramatic expression to consider not only the roots of gender stereotypes, but also their consequences and strategies for counteracting them.

Procedure

1. Explain to the class that today you will be doing some role play activities to help them think about gender- and gender-identity-based teasing and bullying. Revisit or explain the meaning of these terms, and discuss them as needed with your class.

2. Go over guidelines for acting out a role play. Explain that you will divide students into groups and give them a scenario to act out. (Note: For pre-literate students, you will need to read the scenario.) They should act out the situation two times, giving different students the option to play different roles. Then, they should think about how they might solve the problem presented in this scenario.

3. Distribute role plays to different groups of children. As they rehearse and discuss their scenarios, circulate and help them get through rough patches. Then, come together and have each group share their scenario with the class.

4. After each group presents their role play, discuss the following questions:

How do you think the different characters in this situation feel?

What do you think causes the different characters to do and say the things they do?

What are some possible, realistic solutions to this problem?

(Note: Remain alert to the fact that children have a tendency to present simple solutions that they think their teachers want to hear. Challenge them to talk about what they might actually do in this situation, including why it might be really hard to come up with a neat solution.)

5. Have students partner up to reflect on what they learned about gender, teasing and bullying from acting out these role plays.

Extension Activity

ELL Extension

Have students try acting out one of the role plays from this activity in their home language. They should pay attention to what feels similar or different when the language is different. Do they feel more or less powerful to solve the problem? They can teach some of the most important vocabulary from their home language to a few classmates and present the scene together.

Extension Assignment

Many different teasing and bullying scenarios involving gender stereotypes come up for students every day. Encourage your students to write and act out one or more of their own role plays based on real-life situations. They can problem-solve in pairs or as a class and be better equipped to handle these issues when they really arise in real life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Exploring Gender Stereotypes Through Role Plays

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This lesson offers role plays and essential questions to guide students as they participate. Children have a chance to use creative, dramatic expression to consider not only the roots of gender stereotypes, but also their consequences and strategies for counteracting them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Student responses included, "I would make own museum," "I would first ask permission [to change the museum]," and "I would ask my mom [for help]." Students responses were affirmed as the story continued and they learned Milo actually pursued some of their ideas, like asking an adult and even creating her own museum to reflect her community.

At the end of the story Milo changes the name of her museum to "The People's Museum" when her friends ask her if they could incorporate items from their community into the museum.

As a closing activity, students were invited to draw a picture of an item that was special to them and their family that they could include in a museum. Some students drew pictures of family members that have passed away, while other students drew pictures of their favorite pet, sport, or game.

Students' completed products will be posted around the school community along with items students created in other grade levels as part of the Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Milo's Museum Read Aloud - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Mundo Verde Bilingual PCS educators, Ms. Dani and Mr. CJ, started their morning meeting in their first grade classroom with a read aloud of Milo's Museum . Students gathered around the carpet as Mr. CJ began to read Milo's story.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Talking About Race

Check out resources to help facilitate conversations about race, including classroom appropriate lesson plans, guides on how to have tough conversations with peers and students, and more.

Teaching for Black Lives, Edited By Dyan Watson, Jesse Hagopian, Wayne Au. Rethinking Schools.

Black Lives Matter at School, website of the national coalition organizing for racial justice in education.

2020 Curriculum Resource Guide, BlackLivesMatteratSchool.com

Creating the Space to Talk about Race in Your School (PDF), National Education Association

Lessons by grade-level and educator resources, Washington DC Black Lives Matter

Classroom Activities, Circle Scripts, and Promoting Positive School Climate, Rochester City School District

Share your BLM at School events, actions or resolutions here: neaedjustice@nea.org
Standing Together

See how cities like Milwaukee, Rochester, and Seattle have passed community and union resolutions - and then mobilized to support Black Lives Matter at School.

Art and Activism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black Lives Matter at School - Resources - NEA EdJustice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Talking About Race Check out resources to help facilitate conversations about race, including classroom appropriate lesson plans, guides on how to have tough conversations with peers and students, and more. Teaching for Black Lives, Edited By Dyan Watson, Jesse Hagopian, Wayne Au. Rethinking Schools. Black Lives Matter at School, website of the national coalition organizing ...

# data[].attributes.headline
Understanding Difference and Building Solidarity

# data[].attributes.subject
Understanding Difference and Building Solidarity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In my fifth grade classroom at Rockview Elementary School (MCPS), we spent the majority of the reading block during the Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools reading and analyzing poems by Langston Hughes. We looked at the way he used figurative language to speak to his people and give hope. We also looked at the messages about the oppression he faced and we discussed ways people are still oppressed today.

We used the story about George Moses Horton to explore the idea of perseverance and courage and then the students wrote about what freedom means to them--using figurative language.

Since our week was cut short with weather and testing, I continued the lessons the following week (February 12-16) and will do so throughout the year. During the week of February 12-16, we continued with the theme of solidarity by acting out the play "Frogs and Snakes" and discussed ways we can stay in solidarity even when there are forces trying to divide us. The students talked about times when they, or others, have been told to avoid someone based on race, gender, nationality, language, ability, or sexuality.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Understanding Difference and Building Solidarity - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In my fifth grade classroom at Rockview Elementary School (MCPS), we spent the majority of the reading block during the Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools reading and analyzing poems by Langston Hughes. We looked at the way he used figurative language to speak to his people and give hope.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
December 31, 2020 · 1:39 pm

I always love reading folks' year-end reflections. I've rarely gotten it together to write one myself, but think that, in this moment I have between working on my book that's slated to come out in 2021 and procrastination, a year in review seems appropriate.

First, thanks to everyone who's reached out in solidarity, in purchases of coffee (thank you!) and in love to express their support for #DisruptTexts and my co-founders. The greatest thanks is doing the work; thus, please continue to #DisruptTexts in ways that fundamentally normalize high achievement for all students, and especially Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other POC children and youth. Please, keep doing that.
Top Blog Posts

1. 31 Days: We Begin, Again

2. Dr. Joseph Rodriguez' Guest Post for #31DaysIBPOC

3. Announcing: My New JAAL Column

4. 2020: My Year in Reading Progress

There were also lots of hits around the site about me, how to work with me, and publications/podcasts. I am limiting my professional development work in 2021 to allow me to be intentional about what I say yes to, to continue existing relationships with departments who have already contracted with me, and to be able to continue doing my own work that enables me to be authentic during my PD work. Thus, if you'd like to work with me, please reach out, knowing I have limited availability, but I'd love to work with you if possible.
My Faves
I had a few favorite things from 2020.

My #Blackboylit faves include:

Ty's Travels from Kelly Starling Lyons-so great for emergent readers!

I Am Every Good Thing, Gordon James & Derrick Barnes

King and the Dragonflies, Kacen Callender

I was in a significant reading rut because pandemic. I know there were such great young adult and verse texts for #blackboylit that I intend to read in 2021. Once I do, I'll update my favorites to include those as well. Thanks to Black Children's Books and Authors for their comprehensive lists that help me to keep my TBR abundant (and I also donated during Kwanzaa in the spirit of cooperative economics, BTW).

I did enjoy expanding to #bipocboylit because I collaborated with one of my favorite brilliant people and educators, Aeriale Johnson. We wrote " Literacy As a Tool for Liberation " for ASCD. In 2021, I am hoping for more opportunities to write with people I admire and who push my practice. Ms. J and I are working on a book together; send us your energy so we complete that project! That's why I loved editing the JAAL column; such fantastic voices that we should be paying attention to in the field of literacy work.

I had the most fun interviewing MacArthur Genius Fellow THE Jackie Woodson for the Horn Book magazine with some of my favorite Black women. There was so much love for her and for Black children in that moment.
2021: Looking Ahead
ASCD is insisting I complete this book, lol. So, look for that to be out at some point. It's about how we can do the work of creating culturally relevant intentional literacy communities for Black and IPOC youth. I'm excited for that.

I'll continue presenting nationally and leading PD for districts. Reach out if you'd like to think about working with me. I'm energized by the work departments are undertaking to push their own understandings forward as they select texts that can make a difference on readers. The best way to find me is through the Find Me/Work with Me page.

I'm grateful for the abundant opportunities to engage in such a broad range of literacy experiences, even during the midst of a global pandemic that has impacted so many. I am encouraged that I am in community with people who are committed to equity, liberation, and justice.

May we have a better 2021. Together.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
2020: A Wrap-Up & #Blackboylit Faves

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
December 31, 2020 · 1:39 pm I always love reading folks' year-end reflections. I've rarely gotten it together to write one myself, but think that, in this moment I have between working on my book that's slated to come out in 2021 and procrastination, a year in review seems appropriate.

# data[].attributes.headline
“It Was Like a Visit from the President”: Timothy Jenkins Talks to Fifth Graders

# data[].attributes.subject
“It Was Like a Visit from the President”: Timothy Jenkins Talks to Fifth Graders

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Rachel Hull's fifth graders were studying the founding of the United States from various perspectives in a unit called "Know Your Rights." Through their analysis of primary sources and research, they began to uncover a version of history that was missing from their textbooks.

To deepen their knowledge, they invited Teaching for Change board member Timothy Jenkins as a guest speaker. As a lawyer, lifelong activist, and veteran of the Civil Rights Movement, Jenkins had a lot to say about U.S. history and the Constitution. He responded to their questions about his own first awareness of racism, his work in the 1960s with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the evolution of the of concept of race in the U.S. judicial system. He gave the class a copy of the Teaching for Change/PRRAC publication, Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching.

After Jenkins's visit, one student said that she had only heard U.S. history from a white male perspective until this school year and that made her very sad. Another student said, "Wow. That was almost like a visit from the President."

Jenkins' visit not only informed the students, it also had a profound impact on Hull as she wrote in her thank-you letter,
You have no idea how much I enjoyed having you in our classroom yesterday. I feel so grateful to be teaching in a city and a school where my knowledge of the world is being pushed. I've cried a few times over the fact that there is a whole world of history I don't know. How is that? I am a history lover and my adult daughter has a history degree. We know how it is that I don't know. I am busy about the business of remedying that. Reading the work of Thank you for sharing your life and experiences with my students. I promise that your words and wisdom will not be lost on us. I appreciate your gentle, giving nature. I appreciate your activism. I appreciate your speaking up. There is some cosmic magic, for lack of a better term, when we give our best to those that our society deems as less. There is magic in your steps. You are an American treasure. Howard Zinn and others. I am so grateful; my students have taught me so very much.
The students will apply what they learned in their culminating project-a documentary. Their documentaries will explain the role of activism embraced by the U.S. Constitution, explore U.S. history through the lens of one topic, and challenge the viewers to take up the fight themselves.

We look forward to sharing some of their work here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
"It Was Like a Visit from the President": Timothy Jenkins Talks to Fifth Graders - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Rachel Hull's fifth graders were studying the founding of the United States from various perspectives in a unit called "Know Your Rights." Through their analysis of primary sources and research, they began to uncover a version of history that was missing from their textbooks. To deepen their knowled

# data[].attributes.headline
Teaching How Black Lives Matter in History with "Mumbet’s Declaration of Independence"

# data[].attributes.subject
Teaching How Black Lives Matter in History with "Mumbet’s Declaration of Independence"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sullivan drew a diagram to illustrate their discussion, which revealed how the inner circle of mainstream historians has excluded large groups and important perspectives that challenge mainstream interpretations of the past.

Most of the time, when someone is telling you a story about someone in the past, the stories that are centered are the privileged folks. Not so with this book I'm about to read to you.

With the diagram in front of them, the students listened as their teacher read to them Mumbet's Declaration of Independence.

In this true story, a woman (Mumbet, also known as Elizabeth Freeman) sues the powerful Massachusetts family that enslaved her and her daughter - and wins. Not only are she and her daughter freed, but she is compensated for her work during the years she was enslaved. The story illustrates how a woman finds a way to step up and demand the same dignity allotted to others in her nation, demanding the courts to acknowledge that Black lives matter. She brought her case at a time when nascent, post-colonial justice was more malleable and unpredictable on issues of race and citizenship. In the following century, policies like the Dred Scott Decision would remove the rights of Black Americans to be treated equally under the law, as Mumbet was treated.

Sullivan wrapped up the lesson by asking her class,

What do stories like this do for the historically marginalized?

The students volunteered answers, describing how Mumbet's story shows the hypocrisy of historical figures like the creators of the U.S. Constitution and signers of the Declaration. The students also thought it was important to get a more complete view of history that focuses not only on the rich and powerful.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching How Black Lives Matter in History with "Mumbet's Declaration of Independence" - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sullivan drew a diagram to illustrate their discussion, which revealed how the inner circle of mainstream historians has excluded large groups and important perspectives that challenge mainstream interpretations of the past. Most of the time, when someone is telling you a story about someone in the past, the stories that are centered are the privileged folks.

# data[].attributes.headline
It’s OK to be Neither: Teaching that Supports Gender-Variant Children

# data[].attributes.subject
It’s OK to be Neither: Teaching that Supports Gender-Variant Children

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Teaching that supports gender-variant children

By Melissa Bollow Tempel

Illustrator: Katherine Streeter

Illustration: Katherine Streeter

Allie arrived at our 1st-grade classroom wearing a sweatshirt with a hood. I asked her to take off her hood, and she refused. I thought she was just being difficult and ignored it. After breakfast we got in line for art, and I noticed that she still had not removed her hood. When we arrived at the art room, I said: "Allie, I'm not playing. It's time for art. The rule is no hoods or hats in school."

She looked up with tears in her eyes and I realized there was something wrong. Her classmates went into the art room and we moved to the art storage area so her classmates wouldn't hear our conversation. I softened my tone and asked her if she'd like to tell me what was wrong.

"My ponytail," she cried.

"Can I see?" I asked.

She nodded and pulled down her hood. Allie's braids had come undone overnight and there hadn't been time to redo them in the morning, so they had to be put back in a ponytail. It was high up on the back of her head like those of many girls in our class, but I could see that to Allie it just felt wrong. With Allie's permission, I took the elastic out and re-braided her hair so it could hang down.

"How's that?" I asked.

She smiled. "Good," she said and skipped off to join her friends in art.
'Why Do You Look Like a Boy?'
Allison was biologically a girl but felt more comfortable wearing Tony Hawk long-sleeved T-shirts, baggy jeans, and black tennis shoes. Her parents were accepting and supportive. Her mother braided her hair in cornrows because Allie thought it made her look like Will Smith's son, Trey, in the remake of The Karate Kid. She preferred to be called Allie. The first day of school, children who hadn't been in Allie's class in kindergarten referred to her as "he."

I didn't want to assume I knew how Allie wanted me to respond to the continual gender mistakes, so I made a phone call home and Allie's mom put me on speakerphone.

"Allie," she said, "Ms. Melissa is on the phone. She would like to know if you want her to correct your classmates when they say you are a boy, or if you would rather that she just doesn't say anything."

Allie was shy on the phone. "Um . . .

tell them that I am a girl," she whispered.

The next day when I corrected classmates and told them that Allie was a girl, they asked her a lot of questions that she wasn't prepared for: "Why do you look like a boy?" "If you're a girl, why do you always wear boys' clothes?" Some even told her that she wasn't supposed to wear boys' clothes if she was a girl. It became evident that I would have to address gender directly in order to make the classroom environment more comfortable for Allie and to squash the gender stereotypes that my 1st graders had absorbed in their short lives.
Gender Training Starts Early
Gender is not a subject that I would have broached in primary grades a few years ago. In fact, I remember scoffing with colleagues when we heard about a young kindergarten teacher who taught gender-related curriculum. We thought her lessons were a waste of instructional time and laughed at her "girl and boy" lessons.

My own thoughts about gender curriculum shifted when I became a mother. As I shopped for infant clothes for my first daughter, I was disgusted that almost everything was pink and there was no mistaking the boys' section of the store from the girls'. I refused to make my baby daughter fit in the box that society had created for her. "What if she doesn't like pink?" I thought. "What if she likes tigers and dinosaurs?"

As my two daughters grew, I talked with them about gender stereotypes. I let them choose "boys'" clothes if they wanted to (and often encouraged them because they are more practical). The first week of kindergarten, my younger daughter's teacher told me that she had a heated argument with a boy while they played dress up. "She insisted that boys can wear dresses if they want to," the teacher told me. I beamed with pride.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until I had a child dealing with gender variance (defined as "behavior or gender expression that does not conform to dominant gender norms of male and female") in my classroom that I realized how important it is to teach about gender and break down gender stereotypes. Why did I wait so long? I should have taken a hint from that kindergarten teacher years ago. As I thought about how to approach the topic, I realized that the lessons I was developing weren't just for Allie. She had sparked my thinking, but all the children in my class needed to learn to think critically about gender stereotypes and gender nonconformity.

We started off with a lesson about toys because it's a simple topic I knew my students thought they had clear ideas about. The class gathered on the carpet and I read William's Doll, which is about a boy who, against the wishes of his father, wants a doll more than anything.

After we read the story, I taped up two large pieces of paper and wrote "Boys" on one and "Girls" on the other. "Students," I said, "what are some toys that are for boys?" Eagerly, the students began to shout out their answers: "Legos!" "Hot Wheels!" "Skateboards!" "Bikes!" The list grew quite long. "OK," I said, "now tell me some toys that are for girls." "Baby dolls!" "Nail polish!" "Barbies!" "Makeup!"

When we had two extensive lists, I read both lists out loud to the class and then studied them carefully.

"Hmm," I said. "Here it says that Legos are for boys. Can girls play with Legos?"

"Yes!" most of them replied without hesitation.

"I wonder if any of the girls in our class like to play with Hot Wheels?"

"I do! I do!" blurted out some of the girls. We continued with the rest of the items on our "Boys" list, making a check mark next to each one as it was declared acceptable for girls.

Then we went on to the "Girls" list. We started with baby dolls. Because we had just read and discussed William's Doll, the children were OK with boys playing with dolls. "It's great practice for boys who want to be daddies when they grow up," I mentioned.

But when we got to nail polish and makeup the children were unsure. "There are some very famous rock 'n' roll bands," I said, "and the men in those bands wear a lot of makeup." Some of the children gasped.

Then Isabela raised her hand: "Sometimes my uncle wears black nail polish." The students took a moment to think about this.

"My cousin wears nail polish, too!" said another student. Soon many students were eager to share examples of how people pushed the limits on gender. Our school engineer, Ms. Joan, drove a motorcycle. Jeremy liked to dance. I could see the gears turning in their brains as the gender lines started to blur.
Supporting Gender Variance Every Day
I knew that broadening my students' ideas of what was acceptable for boys and girls was an important first step, but to make Allie feel comfortable and proud of herself, I was going to have to go further.

For example, as teachers, we often use gender to divide students into groups or teams. It seems easy and obvious. Many of us do this when we line students up to go to the bathroom. In one conversation that I had with Allie's mother, she told me that Allie did not like using public bathrooms because many times Allie would be accused of being in the wrong bathroom. As soon as she told me I felt bad. By dividing the children into two lines by assigned gender, I had unintentionally made the children whose labels aren't so clear feel uncomfortable in more ways than one.

When we lined up to go to the bathroom, I kept my students in one line until we reached the bathroom, and then let them separate to enter their bathrooms. Allie usually said she didn't need to use the bathroom. The few times that she did, I offered the bathroom around the corner, a single-stall bathroom that was usually unoccupied. When the kids came out of the bathroom, they wanted to line up as most classrooms do, in boys' and girls' lines. Instead, I thought up a new way for them to line up each day. For example: "If you like popsicles, line up here. If you like ice cream, line up here." They loved this and it kept them entertained while they waited for their classmates. Here are a few more examples:

Skateboard/Bike

Milk/Juice

Dogs/Cats

Hot day/Snow day

Fiction/Nonfiction

Soccer/Basketball

Beach/Pool

I also became very aware of using the phrase "boys and girls" to address my students. Instead, I used gender-neutral terms like "students" or "children." At first, the more I thought about it, the more often I'd say "boys and girls." I tried not to be too hard on myself when I slipped, and eventually I got out of the habit and used "students" regularly.

Around the same time, another child's mother told me that her son had been taunted for wearing a Hello Kitty Band-Aid. She mentioned that his sister was also teased at school for having a lunch bag with skulls on it. I planned more lessons to combat gender stereotypes in our classroom.

'It's OK to Be Different'

In order to deepen our discussion of gender, I selected another read-aloud. Before we read, I asked my students: "I would like to know-how many of you like to dance?" Most raised their hands.

"How many of you have been told you can't do something because it was 'only for boys' or 'only for girls'?" Many hands went up.

Then I read Oliver Button Is a Sissy. In the book, Oliver is bullied because he prefers dancing to sports. The students quickly realized that this was not fair and empathized with Oliver Button.

The following day we read It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr. Parr's books are quite popular in the primary grades because they include an element of humor and simple, colorful illustrations. We read:

It's OK to wear glasses.

It's OK to come from a different place.

It's OK to be a different color.

As we read, I asked questions to empower the students: "Who used to live in a different place?" Students proudly held up their hands. "Awesome!" I replied. "My mom comes from a different place, too. She used to live in Hong Kong."

Then I guided the direction of the conversation toward gender. As a class, we brainstormed a list of things that students thought were "OK" even though they might challenge society's gender norms. Monica told us very matter-of-factly, "It's OK for a girl to marry a girl," and Jordan said, "My dad carries a purse and that's OK!" At that point I explained that my father and my friend Wayne both call their man purse a "murse." The children were fascinated.

Toward the end of the discussion I explained: "People make all kinds of different decisions about gender. Sometimes, as we grow, we might not want to pick one or the other, and that's OK; we don't have to." I wanted them to begin to see that our lessons were not only about expanding the gender boxes that we've been put into, but also questioning or eliminating them altogether.

Afterward, I had the students do a simple write-and-respond exercise. I asked them to pick one activity that they associated with girls and one associated with boys to write about and illustrate. Monica drew two brides in beautiful wedding gowns. Miguel drew a man with a purse slung over his shoulder. I showed off the pictures on the hallway bulletin board around the words "It's OK to Be Different."

Although things were getting better for Allie, she still faced many challenges. At the end of the school year, Allie's mother told me a heartbreaking story. She said that for Allie's recent birthday party, her grandmother had bought her colorful, formfitting clothes and then demanded them back when Allie did not like them. "Does she know she is a girl?" she yelled, and announced she would never buy her clothes again.

It was so sad to hear this. I visualized Allie on her special day, excitedly ripping open gifts in front of her family and friends only to find, again and again, the gifts were things that she would never be comfortable with. As a mother, the feeling of extreme disappointment was unbearable for me to imagine.

I have just begun to empathize with the challenges that gender-variant children deal with. For some it may seem inappropriate to address these issues in the classroom. My job is not to answer the questions "Why?" or "How?" Allie is the way she is (although asking those questions and doing some research in order to better understand was definitely part of my process). My job is not to judge, but to teach, and I can't teach if the students in my class are distracted or uncomfortable. My job is also about preparing students to be a part of our society, ready to work and play with all kinds of people. I found that teaching about gender stereotypes is another social justice issue that needs to be addressed, like racism or immigrant rights, or protecting the environment.

Later in the year, I opened my inbox one morning and read: "Andrew says he wants a Baby Alive doll and he doesn't care if it's for girls. Thank you, Ms. Melissa!"
Resources
dePaola, Tomie. Oliver Button Is a Sissy. Orlando, Fla.: Sandpiper Books, 1979.

Parr, Todd. It's Okay to Be Different. New York: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2007.

Zolotow, Charlotte. William's Doll. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1985.

For more information: http://www.acceptingdad.com/supportive-book-media-for-gender-variant-non-conforming-kids.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By Melissa Bollow Tempel Illustrator: Katherine Streeter Allie arrived at our 1st-grade classroom wearing a sweatshirt with a hood. I asked her to take off her hood, and she refused. I thought she was just being difficult and ignored it. After breakfast we got in line for art, and I noticed that she still had not removed her hood.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Welcome to Freedom Reads: Anti-Bias Book Talk from Teaching for Change. In this video series, we introduce children's books using an anti-bias, anti-racist lens as a strategy to talk about issues around race and the world with children. (View other episodes on the series home page and our YouTube playlist.)

The book featured in the video below is Missing Daddy, written by anti-criminalization and anti-violence educator and organizer Mariame Kaba, and illustrated by a multidisciplinary artist from Chicago, bria royal. Published in 2019, this book can be found on our Incarceration booklist, and is recommended for children in elementary school, though it could be adapted for early childhood.

In Missing Daddy, the young narrator's father went to prison when she was just three. Sometimes her classmates can be cruel, but she is surrounded by a loving family and an understanding teacher and counselor. This poignant book will help not only young children who find themselves in this circumstance, but will also sensitize classmates and educators themselves. Missing Daddy is a warm and necessary book.

Five Key Takeaways from Missing Daddy:

1. Positive self-identity

2. Diversity of human experience

3. Diversity in family structure

4. Diversity of economic class

5. Impact of incarceration

Booklist

Learn More

Note: Book titles on SocialJusticeBooks.org are linked to Powells.com (an independent, unionized bookstore) and/or Bookshop (indie bookstore platform). A small percentage from book sales through these links goes to Teaching for Change.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Freedom Reads: Episode 3 - Missing Daddy - Social Justice Books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Welcome to Freedom Reads: Anti-Bias Book Talk from Teaching for Change. In this video series, we introduce children's books using an anti-bias, anti-racist lens as a strategy to talk about issues around race and the world with children. (View other episodes on the series home page and our YouTube playlist.)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.

# data[].attributes.headline
Elementary Students Explore Black Lives Matter Through Books

# data[].attributes.subject
Elementary Students Explore Black Lives Matter Through Books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Elementary Students Explore Black Lives Matter through Books — D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
At Bruce-Monroe ES @ Parkview (DCPS), a dual language English/Spanish school, students explored the principles of the Black Lives Matter movement by reading and completing projects related to The Day You Begin / El día en que descubres quién eres , Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut , and Milo’s Mu

# data[].attributes.headline
Freedom Reads: Mumbet's Declaration of Independence

# data[].attributes.subject
Freedom Reads: Mumbet's Declaration of Independence

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Freedom Reads: "Mumbet's Declaration of Independence" by Gretchen Woelfle

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Navigatin' the Syllabus...

​What's Good?!...

Geechee Experience ain't new to this! They been outchea educating the people about Gullah Geechee Language and the Geechee experience. Follow them on YOUTUBE ​ALERT: YouTube and Instagram.

PODCAST ALERT: Check out Anansa Benbow's new podcast, The Black Language Podcast. It's straight FIYAH! Also, see her TedX talk, Grammar Skool, below.

Our mission for the #BlackLanguageSyllabus is to celebrate the beauty of Blackness and Black Language, fight for Black Linguistic Justice, and provide critical intellectual resources that promote the collective study of Black Language. The #BlackLanguageSyllabus builds on the digital origins of other Black radical digital education resources and digital hashtag syllabus projects, such as #LemonadeSyllabus,
​#SayHerNameSyllabus, #BlackFeminismSyllabus, and the Abolitionist Teaching Network, that are open access and created outside of traditional academe to reshape how knowledge is produced, affirmed, and accessed.

We recognize that anti-Blackness and anti-Black linguistic racism are ubiquitous, and with the current war on critical race theory and antiracist education, we ain't got time to be waiting on schools and society to celebrate or educate us about our language, so we created the #BlackLanguageSyllabus as a space for political discussions and praxis of Black Language as guided by the work of teacher-researcher-activists in classrooms and communities who stand against institutions that seek to annihilate Black Language + Black Life.

Like other #hashtag syllabi, the #BlackLanguageSyllabus is for Black Language speakers who are looking to re-educate themselves about our mother tongue, academics and educators looking to reimagine their classroom curricula and pedagogies, and for anyone who is interested in learning about Black Language + Black liberation.
[NOTE: If you cannot move past denigrating Black Language, in any way or form, then please know that this site was not created for you.]

​ The 2o21Black History Month Edition Is Here ​

Black Linguistic Justice...

​Hit Us Up...

​Follow Us...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We celebrate the beauty of Blackness and Black Language, fight for Black Linguistic Justice, and provide critical intellectual resources that promote the collective study of Black Language.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Shout Mouse Press is a nonprofit writing program and publishing house for unheard voices.

We promote diversity in literature by empowering under-represented communities worldwide to write and publish their stories.

# data[].attributes.headline
Third Graders Learn about Restorative Justice and Loving Engagement Through the Civil Rights Movement

# data[].attributes.subject
Third Graders Learn about Restorative Justice and Loving Engagement Through the Civil Rights Movement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
After this lesson, students learned about the 1963 Children's March in Birmingham. We read the book Let the Children March by Monika Clark-Robinson and watched footage from the Learning for Justice film Mighty Times: The Children's March. Using these resources, students learned that young people in Birmingham used non-violent tactics to pressure city leaders to desegregate Birmingham. The children were fascinated by the film and the power of the students' collective action, particularly when they learned that the Children's March was the catalyst for desegregating the city and spurred on the cause of Civil Rights across the country.

Throughout the lesson, we asked the students to consider two questions:

1. Why do you think the children participated in the march if they knew they would be arrested?

2. What do you think the children learned from participating in the march?

In response to the first question, children wrote:

[The children] put pressure on the police and people who were arresting them. It's ridiculous that kids were getting put in jail, so that's how they showed it was unfair.

They knew they wanted freedom and that someone had to march - so why not them?

When asked what they thought the children learned from the march, one student said:

They learned that kids can change the world just like grown-ups, and [they learned] that there are lots of good people in the world who are with them.

In teaching these lessons, we realized how powerful it was for students to see themselves reflected in the change agents we discussed. Children so often learn that adults are the "real" decision makers. By centering the role young people played in the Civil Rights Movement, we hoped our students learned a powerful lesson: your voices do count and you can create change.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Third Graders Learn about Restorative Justice and Loving Engagement Through the Civil Rights Movement - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After this lesson, students learned about the 1963 Children's March in Birmingham. We read the book Let the Children March by Monika Clark-Robinson and watched footage from the Learning for Justice film Mighty Times: The Children's March. Using these resources, students learned that young people in Birmingham used non-violent tactics to pressure city leaders to desegregate Birmingham.

# data[].attributes.headline
Fourth Graders Discuss ‘Don’t Touch My Hair’

# data[].attributes.subject
Fourth Graders Discuss ‘Don’t Touch My Hair’

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In my 4th grade class at Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School, students study cultures around the world and are currently working to define culture. We are a Jewish, mostly white, school in Washington, D.C.

To open the lesson, I showed a slideshow of hairstyles from around the world and asked them to find the pattern. They thought it was fancy hair, I explained it was just hair. I asked them to discuss whether or not hair was a part of culture. Students agreed it is! We discussed hair traditions from Jewish cultures.

I showed a YouTube clip about African hair traditions and how they changed to become African American hair traditions. I also introduced some basic hairstyle vocabulary (locs, cornrows, afro, bantu knots, and straightened hair). We discussed how hair is a part of African and African American culture, as well as a little about how hairstyles reflected the impact of and resistance to racism. Students shared why it was important to study African American hair: to know about other people.

We read Don't Touch My Hairand discussed how the main character, Aria, felt. A Black student in my class expressed that people had touched her hair without asking, and how uncomfortable that made her feel. I then moved the discussion to focus on the people who wanted to touch the book character Aria's hair. We discussed their motivations, especially their curiosity and appreciation for her hair.

When students did not get to this idea on their own, I closed the discussion by emphasizing that one part of learning about other people is to show respect. Now that our class had studied a bit about Black hair, we would know not to touch people's hair without asking (many students did think this was obvious), and how to talk respectfully about Black hair.

Related resource
Hair Representation in Children's Literature

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
4th Graders Discuss 'Don't Touch My Hair' - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In my 4th grade class at Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School, students study cultures around the world and are currently working to define culture. We are a Jewish, mostly white, school in Washington, D.C. To open the lesson, I showed a slideshow of hairstyles from around the world and asked them to find the pattern.

# data[].attributes.headline
Peace of Mind and Arts Education During the Black Lives Matter Year of Purpose

# data[].attributes.subject
Peace of Mind and Arts Education During the Black Lives Matter Year of Purpose

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Then music educator Meaghan Carrol welcomed students to their virtual music lesson and informed them of a song they will be focusing on for an upcoming project in connection to Black History Month and the Black Lives Matter at School week of action.

Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing is known to many as the Black national anthem. The group watched a video of Committed Sings rendition of the song and practiced singing the lyrics.

"We can connect to this piece and the incredibly powerful words to this day because there are still inequalities in our country," stated Carrol. Exploring some of the history of the song, Carrol shared that the song was first sung by 500 school children for Lincoln's birthday in 1900. "Students went out and taught it to their families, became teachers and taught it to their students"

This song and story is living testimony of the Intergenerational and Unapologetically Black guiding principles.

As part of the Black Lives Matter at School Year of Purpose, Lafayette 1st-5th graders were inspired by excerpts from Amanda Gorman's poem, "The Hill We Climb" and the tradition of story quilts to create their own "quilt" squares using a variety of art materials. They also launched a digital art installation inspired by excerpts from Amanda Gorman's poem, "The Hill We Climb" and the tradition of story quilts.

At the March 17 "Wellness Wednesday," art teacher Laurie McLaughlin and Andrea Perll debuted a website where you can view the story quilts as well as a video featuring the soundtrack from the Lafayette "Lift Ev'ry Voice" Choir.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Peace of Mind and Arts Education During the Black Lives Matter Year of Purpose - D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Students and staff from Lafayette ES gathered virtually for a special "Wellness Wednesday" during the Black Lives Matter at School Week featuring an introduction to the Black Lives Matter Movement 13 guiding principles and a lesson on the history of Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing .

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.antibiasleadersece.com/the-film-reflecting-on-anti-bias-education-in-action/?fbclid=IwAR2aQhijjySG05Ejdl6LsRpCUPjv0vW0JHEBYj3uaZJmGHm3ZTrGFGpTgqQ

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Anti-Bias Leaders in Early Childhood Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Official Trailer (3 minutes)

A new film, Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years (48 minutes), produced by Debbie LeeKeenan and John Nimmo, features vignettes of anti-bias strategies in early childhood classrooms interspersed with teachers reflecting on their practice. Debbie and John partnered with filmmaker Filiz Efe McKinney of Brave Sprout Productions to create a film that shifts the focus away from the talking heads of experts and on to the voices of teachers committed to equity on a daily basis. By taking viewers into diverse early childhood classrooms, the film seeks to demonstrate the importance of teacher reflection on identity, context, and practice in anti-bias education and provides a much-needed resource for teacher education and professional development. The entire film has closed captions in English, Spanish, and Chinese (simplified characters) which can be turned on by clicking on the CC button to the bottom right of the screen.

There is no "one way" to implement anti-bias education. The four anti-bias goals help guide the work. This approach involves critical thinking and a deep understanding of the complexity of the issues and the context of your community. The film is a provocation to generate dialogue about how to bring this approach into your practice. To further this conversation, we created a Guidebook, to provide additional resources and to pose provocations and questions for reflection about each vignette in the film.

Louise Derman-Sparks is the film's senior advisor. The film's theoretical and research framework is based on her co-authored books, Anti-Bias Education for Our Children and Ourselves (with Julie Olsen-Edwards and Catherin Goins ) and Leading Anti-Bias Early Childhood Programs: A Guide for Change (with Debbie LeeKeenan and John Nimmo).

Read the latest news about the film
See Awards and Festivals

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Official Trailer (3 minutes) A new film, Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years (48 minutes), produced by Debbie LeeKeenan and John Nimmo, features vignettes of anti-bias strategies in early childhood classrooms interspersed with teachers reflecting on their practice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Day And Night On The Space Station is the second book of the chapter series, Keystone Passage. This time Cliff, Monty, Shandra, Duante, and Quisha visit to their Grandma and Grandpa in Washington, DC. An ordinary family fun fair turns out to be extraordinary when Cliff, Duante, and Quisha find themselves someplace else. They must figure out where they are and whether their surroundings are real or fictitious. Along the way they not only encounter scientific phenomena but learn a few things about the history of African Americans.

Amazon Paperback Amazon Kindle Apple Books Barnes and Noble Nook Barnes and Noble Paperback Loyalty Book Stores Marcus Books Book Depository

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
KEYSTONE PASSAGE - Light Fantasy Grounded in Culture, History, Science Ideas and Realities of Black People

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Day And Night On The Space Station is the second book of the chapter series, Keystone Passage. This time Cliff, Monty, Shandra, Duante, and Quisha visit to their Grandma and Grandpa in Washington, DC. An ordinary family fun fair turns out to be extraordinary when Cliff, Duante, and Quisha find themselves someplace else.

# data[].attributes.body
Creating a CLassroom Library is an excellent article in the Book category!!