A new resource to educate the next generation of anti-racists
There has never been a time where more teachers are looking for resources to bring anti-racism into their classrooms. If you follow our social media, you know that we firmly believe that kids are never too young to talk about what is going on in the world. But teachers of lower grades are often unsure about how to approach big topics like diversity, inclusion, and equity with young students. Some wonder if bringing up racism and ethnic identity in the classroom might create questions or issues that weren’t there already. While we encourage anti-racism not to be a single initiative and embedded in the entire curriculum, we understand that that is not always an option (yet).
But young children see color, hear about racism, and observe how grown-ups struggle to explain politics and protests in the US. They also learn and internalize stereotypes if they are not taught differently. If we do not start the conversation early, children will make up their own stories. That is why we build our program around stories of peers elsewhere. Because the more stories you know, the more friends you can make.
Teacher Phoebe Mihael was one of 100 educators chosen to participate in the Teachers Pay Teachers Teach for Justice Grant Program. This is a $100,000 fund for educator-created resources to facilitate classroom discussions around equity and justice, challenge implicit (and explicit) biases, and create learning environments that will support every student. And she created an anti-racism unit to use with the One Globe Kids Stories!
Go to the TpT website to download “Stories of Change”.
Five lessons to naturally spark tough conversations
This unit consists of six lessons, one for the teacher and five created for students K-2. The activities take students on a self-exploring journey and naturally spark conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- The lessons work with one or more of the One Globe Kids stories of your choice.
- Each lesson has an activity that leads to a conversation about what kids see, think, and wonder.
- While the lessons were created with the US’s current situation in mind, they can be used anywhere in the world.
- The unit is designed for K-2 but may need tailoring for your specific group of students, age, and time.
- You can do all five lessons in one week or spread out over a more extended period.
- Consider this unit as a great starter or as an addition to other projects. Anti-racism is most successful when ongoing and embedded in all school work. One Globe Kids also offers a standards-aligned ELA curriculum for K-2 that does just that.
- The lessons work for in-person as well as remote learning.
- Our research shows that working with at least three stories in your classroom will help the youngest students be more open and excited to contact others.
- The conversations might be hard and uncomfortable. Let your students lead the way.
- The unit is filled with links to resources to help teachers prepare for questions and responses.
- Not everyone sees the need for anti-racism education, especially with kids so young. That doesn’t mean you can’t do the work, just call it ‘Friendship lessons’.
