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The Ecosystem: “As teachers, our biggest mistake is undervaluing any of the many elements that might, on their surface, seem inconsequential- but that turn out to be vital for our discourses’ survival”

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“Students and teachers might spend their entire lives learning how to listen. It is one of our hardest self-improvement missions, and can be our most costly” (17)

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“Yet there has always been a difference between collegial banter and house talk, between the water cooler and the dining room table…we should not expect the familiar intimacy, vulnerability, and forgiveness needed for meaningful race conversations to emerge from traditional classroom relationships” (29)

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“Students pay close attention to how we allot our time. We value what we make time for…it is understandably healthy for them to trust only those who consider them [the students] a priority” (37)

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“Meaningful race conversations depend on teachers understanding the implications of their own racial and cultural perspectives”. (42) - True for many topics we bring into the classroom. We need to understand our biases that may sneak in.

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"Trained in classroom management, not conflict management" (49)

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"Trained in classroom management, not conflict management" (49)

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"It's important to anticipate which conversations must be oriented with a focus on impending conflicts. While doing so, we can remind students that they are joining what is usually a long-established debate. Throughout history, smart people have stood on both sides" (50)

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1. Over Facts or Data
2. Over Process or Methods
3. Over Purposes
4. Over Values*
*its critical that the teacher immediately push students to the middle of the Venn diagram: where they agree...negotiate differences side-by-side, rather than head to head (54)

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“Conversations beginning with mindful orientation should end with effective summary. The key decisions, agreements, and action items should be discussed as the classroom dialogue draws to a close. We often forget to do this, especially if the conversation has gone well, which tempts us to milk the last drops from it before the bell rings” (45)

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"Agility...is the ability to direct the discourse when it goes in a thoroughly unanticipated direction...Many of the biggest frustrations that my students have shared involve the perception that their teacher has ignored a blatantly hoovering question. When we do so, our students think that the planned arc of discussion is more important to us than real-time student voices" (57)

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"We must patiently apply our professional planning talents as often as possible. There is never a rush.  If we take our time, we might remember a useful tidbit about our students." (141)

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"We must begin our discussion planning with honest reflection on our personal catalysts...our personal catalysts can push race conversations to the satisfaction of our needs, with less attention to showing kids the power of their voices" (120)

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"This mission requires dialogic teachers to nourish a pioneering attitude usually associated with universities" (127) "Students are searching uncommon territory for unusual answers, pushing the edges of polite conversation, which is what drives us to scholarship" (131)

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How? 3. Publish Whenever Students Feel Ready

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How? 3. Publish Whenever Students Feel Ready

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"[Students] have been conditioned to see their secondary schools not as true academias, which, by definition, exist to further scholarship, but merely as mandatory conduits through which they pass from a mute childhood to an engaged adult" (134) Don't make them complacent with the "kiddie table"

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1. Know your students (you can't make it relevant if you don't know their lives)
2. Find multiple ways to approach the topic that connect back to modern life...Does not all have to focus on race.
3. Avoid February Soup- Feed student inquiry and seek the hard problem (do not underestimate your students-sometimes we have to play devil's advocate)
4. Purposeful reflection

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"I was annoyed by his ending the monologue about injustice with the conclusion that persecution was exhausting-without a transition to finding solutions. I wanted to flee the professional development meeting because watching The Daily Show had felt like participating in the previous chapter's Privilege Walk activity. I was the one continually stepping out, which was cool only if the endgame somewho involved showing me how to make things better" (116)

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"Students must know that they can have strong convictions, and yet remain open to making adjustments when exposed to better arguments" (83)- Do we traditionally condition students to only focus on convincing others?

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"As a structure, whole class works only if we make the time to check in with students to see how they are processing our choices, not just how well we imagine things are going" (67)- Lotus and Zoey's perceptions of the cold-call

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"To what degree do grades poison "small-group" dynamics"...How often do kids get to just kick around ideas in small groups...lack of a true authority figure led to an environment where any passionate discussion thread could be followed..." (71) Creating a true passion for learning through discussion.

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"No other structure can be more beneficial in growing classroom culture. At the secondary school level, interpersonal relationships are essential to discourse. Sustained one-on-one conversations strengthen the network of interpersonal relationships that the other two structures rely on" (74)- How can these conversations be held regularly and with fidelity? Making sure we don't leave anyone out.

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"There isn't one right structure for meaningful race conversations. We should all create a bag of structural variations that fit both our personal vision and our students' situations...The real challenge is commuting to the use of out conversational package once it has been thoughtfully created"  and DIVERSIFY! (75)
"Stagnancy blunts much of the structure's potential" (76)

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The more we want our students to buy in to our race conversations, the clearer we must make our purposes...our students must never be confused about why they are being asked to take such a demanding journey" (143)

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"Why hadn't they ever discussed anything beautiful about being black? My Latino and Asian students faced an even stricter narrowing of available discussion topics. Essentially, how come minority cultures were always discussed in relation to white oppression?" (77)

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Threaded themes- avoid the shock and awe moment

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Threaded themes- avoid the shock and awe moment

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"I argue that our students should be talking race all year, as a part of a curriculum that views race relations as human issues and as one of our most powerful and relevant analytical lenses" (91-92)- We should lead up to difficult conversations through building connected themes that focus on human issues, which includes race issues. Example at bottom of page 90

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How? 1. Student Sphere of Influence and finding solutions

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How? 1. Student Sphere of Influence and finding solutions

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Example- When reading the article on Affirmative Action, students identify the major and minor parties involved and draft their argument to a realistic party..."students might find something, or someone, they have the power to impact" (125) He also encourages their argument to be based on scale, not yes or no. "Make space for students to change their minds when confronted by better logic" (122)

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Nikki here! I created this Padlet for you to put in ANYTHING that comes to mind while reading that you want to talk about during discussion. You can put in quotes, page numbers, ideas you get for your classroom, reflections, or even just a thought you had while reading that you would like to share! And this is optional! If you would rather not use it, you do not have to!
Color Code:
Chapters 1-2 (PINK)
Chapter 3 (BLUE)
Chapter 4 (YELLOW)

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Rather than spending time on identifying cultural appropriation ("We should not tarry long on the simple stuff on the way to the hard problem" 203) teachers should encourage students to explore why we appropriate, why it can be so viscerally offensive, an most importantly, what responsibility - if any - people owe the cultures they copy (203).

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Breaking Student Comments into Key Words (a cheat code)

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Breaking Student Comments into Key Words (a cheat code)

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The choice to make discussions student-centered means that we, as teachers, must discern which student comments are rich enough to be redirected to the rest of the class and guilt on . . . cheat code: breaking student comments into key words and phrases that can be analyzed individually (206)

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When accusing someone of cultural appropriation, the first instinct is to embarrass, to mock, to rage against, but rarely to understand. When answering such accusations, the first instinct is to equivocate, to justify, to dig in, but rarely to empathize. Unfortunately, when our students witness adults' engagement of the topic, their most unproductive habits are reinforced: accusation before questioning, vilification before education, defensiveness before humble reflection. Students learn that when emotions are high, it is permissible to suppress their analytical natures . . . Both sides . . . learn to celebrate cheap victories in inconsequential battles over would-be allies (238)