After viewing these resources students will have a better understanding of how to approach difficult conversations, respectfully. Social Media’s Role In The Racial Justice Movement: ‘The Conversation Is Moving So Much More Quickly’ NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Protests after the death of George Floyd—and hard conversations about race in America—are happening all across the country.
Three people reveal how they’ve found a new role for social media in the movement for racial justice. Ohi Oni-Eseleh has begun using his Instagram account as a tool in fighting racial injustice. “Following the murder of George Floyd, I was having a really hard time,” he said. Black students experience trauma from racist incidents at school, experts say. Saama Sane said that when he was a junior at Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Massachusetts, a white student repeatedly called him the N-word as he sat at a table in the library.
Sane said he responded by yelling insults back and ended up on the floor in a headlock, all while five white students, some of them laughing, stood by watching. He reported the incident, and the school, which enrolls just over 600 and charges tuition upward of $58,000 a year for boarding students, took disciplinary action against the student, he said. But Sane felt suffocated at the school, he told NBC News. And the wounds from that incident and many others seemed to still be fresh even after graduating.
How to Respond to Violence, Hate, and Racism. Below you will find resources designed to help those affected on any level to cope in the aftermath of a tragic event.
Topics include talking to children about tragedies; coping in the wake of mass violence; ways to fight hate; and finally, resources from the Inclusion & Diversity Committee (IDC) special session at the 2016 NCFR Annual Conference. Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide — The Southern Poverty Law CenterTips for Effective Communication When Discussing Controversial Topics (PDF) — Developed by NCFR member Norma J. 11 Contemporary Diverse Novels for Middle Grade Readers. If you’ve kept up with the young adult book world recently, you have certainly noticed that diverse YA books with big, important topics are exploding right now.
I love that many middle grade books have also started to embrace today’s tough subject matter without shying away from the difficulties of growing up in a complicated world. I have recently found myself gravitating more toward contemporary middle grade books with diverse characters because they oftentimes provide me, as well as young readers, with the opportunity to think long after the final page is turned about themes ranging from important social issues to difficult-to-grasp concepts to universal experiences related to adolescence.
Learning for Justice. The Anti-Racism Education Affluent White Students Need. The evidence was right there in front of me, in my student’s essay, which argued I shouldn’t have made his class read the Rev.
Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. All the injustices King outlined and the progress he demanded, my student wrote, had no relevance to kids like him, kids who attend largely white, affluent suburban schools. But after I picked my jaw up off the floor, I realized this student was doing exactly what I’d asked him to: using persuasive writing to advocate for his beliefs.
That this was apparently his belief cast an uncomfortable spotlight on my own shortcomings as a teacher, and on the failures of the school as a whole. Despite consistently achieving high student test scores and strong college admissions, our school was failing to equip its white students with vital knowledge and understanding.
Implicit Bias 101: An Introduction. Like everybody else, I possess unconscious biases about people that are contingent on how they talk and look.
Such instant judgments, called implicit bias, involve “automatically categorizing people according to cultural stereotypes,” Sandra Graham and Brian Lowery write in “Priming Unconscious Racial Stereotypes About Adolescent Offenders.” The consequences of implicit bias in schools are both powerful and measurable. A 2017 study by Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, for example, found that “math teachers perceive their classes to be too difficult for Latino and black students, and English teachers perceive their classes to be too difficult for all non-white students.”
In English, these biases lower the affected students’ “expected years of schooling by almost a third of a year.... Youtube. Youtube. How to Start Meaningful Conversations About Race in the Classroom. The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and too many others are forcing the country to reconcile with the injustices that plague our systems.
As educators, it’s our responsibility to educate students about systemic racism. It’s also our job to give students a place to talk about how it affects their lives. In response to the murder of George Floyd, my nonprofit, Teaching Matters, organized three webinars for educators to discuss how to talk about racism in the classroom. As an Afro-Cuban education consultant, I wanted to address the varied concerns both white and non-white teachers held.
Classroom Discussions on Race: Hear What 5 Black Students Say They Need. By Catherine Gewertz, Sarah Schwartz, and Madeline Will Thousands of high school students have participated in demonstrations against police killings of unarmed Black people.
Some students are demanding that their school districts adopt anti-racist curricula. Against that backdrop of activism, Education Week asked 10 Black high school students around the country about their experiences in school, including class discussions about race and racism. In another video, students tell educators what they need from their schools to feel safe and supported. Subsequent videos will feature students’ views on the importance of Black teachers and what they feel should be the role of school police. How Teenage Activists Are Talking to Family About Racial Injustice. At dinner tables, chatter keeps turning to the treatment of Black Americans.
In living rooms, U.S. history becomes fodder for debate. And on social media, difficult conversations across generations — long held privately — are now playing out in public, as many young Americans talk to their parents and older relatives about racism, police violence and protests around the world, and then post about it. As demonstrations in some cities push through a third month, many teenagers have kept conversations going at home. Youtube. Youtube. 22 Diverse Book Choices for All Grade Levels.
In a vibrant, multicultural society, representing the richness of students’ lives in a class or school library takes a conscious effort. Including writers and fictional characters with a variety of backgrounds, beliefs, and life circumstances is a way to increase the chances that students will find both windows and mirrors in the library—books that reflect their lives, and ones that give them insight into the lives and experiences of people who aren’t like them. No book shelf is going to represent the fullness of this nation. From the descendants of people who arrived here more than 15,000 years ago to the newest immigrants, we’re simply too much. But the inclusive set of books below—many of which were recommended by multiple teachers—span all grade and Lexile levels up to 1140L, and include award winners and best sellers, books that have stood the test of time and newer options.