#edresourcesforblm

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As an educator, I’ll be using today to share resources I’ve used in my classroom. I teach in a school that is 75-80% white, so these resources are directed at engaging a mostly white, teenage audience. Feel free to share! I don’t want to clog the BLM tag, so I’ll use EdResourcesForBLM if other teachers want to join in.

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The danger of a single story

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

Rejecting the Single Story Assignment

Click HERE to access the shared Google folder for this lesson.

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VOICES of WOMEN

This unit is actually a multicultural one, so you will find works by Hispanic women and Asian (including Indian) women, too. 

Brief Explanation

This unit opens by asking students to think about labels.

We read excerpts from Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks.

We read short stories and poems by women of color.

Students respond to this unit by researching a topic of their choosing to deepen their knowledge of how different voices shape our perceptions of the world.

As a bonus, please do read the rationale in the African-American folder for that time I got “in trouble” for teaching Donald Glover’s This is America 🤬 I’m still bitter about it because it speaks to how much more freedom teachers need when it comes to curriculum. And it speaks to why we need more people of color (and women) in positions of authority. 

Click HERE to access the shared Google folder for this lesson, plus there are lots of free things to read!

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Ta-Nehisi Coates has an incredibly clear explanation for why white people shouldn’t use the n-word

He said that white people could learn something from not being able to use the word.

Since my school is mostly white, any time I teach black authors, we start here. For my most basic learners to my most advanced, Coates offers a clear explanation. My more advanced learners are then challenged to think about something mentioned in the video: space. 

We talk about how as white people, we are raised to believe that all space belongs to us. It is difficult to unlearn that entitlement, but it helps to start by discussing that not every space is a white person’s space with young learners.