Racial Stress
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Build Students’ Foundational Knowledge When we teach a student to read, we start with the alphabet. We teach letter recognition, letter sounds, and basic prereading skills, such as rhyming, hearing sounds in words, and breaking words into discrete parts. We continually check for understanding and reteach when necessary, and we practice in some way, usually every day, in the classroom. Therefore, when we teach students to become competent in talking about race and racism, we can start by laying a strong foundation of understanding. The following list includes some foundational concepts you can explore with young students. What race is and what it isn’t
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How race has operated and continues to operate in the United States and other countries
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Our own internalized biases or misinformed ideas
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What we can do to create more equitable experiences in our classrooms
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Definitions of common terms students will encounter in conversations about race (see the glossary, page 145)
As we practice talking about these definitions and ideas with students, we also work on how to communicate across differences with respect. As teachers and students build their capacity to manage racial stress, they’ll gain the tools for staying engaged instead of retreating into silence. To be able to do this work with students, teachers must already be doing the work for themselves. If you’re just beginning your personal work around breaking silence, investigating your personal bias, and adopting antiracist practices, you can explore helpful resources in this book’s glossary (page 145) and appendices A (page 147), B (page 157), and C (page 161). There you’ll find definitions of common terms, frequently asked questions, and books for students and adults about race and racism. Now let’s look at two sample activities you could incorporate into your classroom to lay foundational knowledge about race.
©️2022 by Solution Tree Press
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