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![]() Students will understand the following:
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![]() Younger children may not have an understanding or awareness of the concepts of race and ethnicity as they operate in society. However, they can be introduced to the concepts of categorizing, making assumptions, and stereotyping by exploring gender bias in a one-day activity. Limit categories in the exercise to "boys" and "girls" and brainstorm with students a list of adjectives that come to mind when they think of either group. Work with students to define the word "assumption" and point to examples of assumptions from the student-generated lists for boys and girls. Students should take part in a free writing exercise on a personal experience when an assumption was made about them because of gender. Students can then create a collage that combines the student-generated assumptions relating to gender, their own personal experiences, and related newspaper and magazine clippings. |
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![]() This lesson is designed to affect attitudes and receptiveness to new ideas, which are learning outcomes unlikely to be measurable by traditional assessment methods. Teachers should look for students' willingness to participate, openness to new ideas, and their level of empathy toward targets of bias and discrimination. It is important that the basic principles of this lesson—freedom from bias and stereotypes and recognizing individuals—are interwoven into the classroom environment throughout the year. Changing attitudes around bias requires continual reinforcement. |
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![]() Timelines Have students create historical timelines showing important events in the histories of traditionally underrepresented groups. Timelines can be created on long rolls of paper or with software such as TimeLiner . Research can be done using encyclopedias, history books, and the Internet. Some good timeline Web sites include the following:
An African-American Chronology of Important Dates http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtimeline.html
Welcome to the Chinese American History Time Line http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_American_history
A Short History of Immigration Laws http://www.crf-usa.org/immigration/lessons-1-and-2.html
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![]() What Are You? Voices of Mixed-Race Young People Pearl Fuyo Gaskins. Henry Holt and Company, 1999. Society tries to define race, even if genetics can't. But even society has a hard time finding the right "niche" to put racially-mixed people into. The author interviewed eighty mixed-race teens about how they're treated by both halves of their heritage, and how they've shaped their own identity by either embracing society's view of who they are, or by trying to define themselves. Us and Them: A History of Intolerance in America Jim Carne. Oxford University Press, 1996. From the days of the earliest European arrivals on our continent to the present day, prejudice and intolerance have played an ugly part in the lives of many of our country's citizens. This book takes a close look at more than a dozen examples of prejudice. A few are well-known, but most are smaller, more personal incidents that have never made the history textbooks. Maps, sidebars containing quotations from those who were there, and a wealth of photographs and illustrations bring the text to life. |
Southern Poverty Law Center An extensive collection of resources for teaching tolerance in the classroom Southern Poverty Law Center An extensive collection of resources for teaching tolerance in the classroom. Museum of Tolerance Online Multimedia Learning Center The The Simon Wiesenthal Center provides a wealth of resources examining racial prejudice. Museum of Tolerance Online Multimedia Learning Center The Simon Wiesenthal Center provides a wealth of resources examining racial prejudice. U.S. Department of Justice: "Hateful Acts Hurt Kids" Designed for children from the Department of Justice this web site offers great information geared for elementary school children, parents and teachers. |
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![]() Click on any of the vocabulary words below to hear them pronounced and used in a sentence.
Context: Non-Asians often make the assumption that Asians are smart.
Context: When we omit people of color in our history lessons, we display a bias that suggests that their contributions are not important.
Context: The terms "Italian" and "Irish" describe two distinct ethnic groups.
Context: One function of the U.S. Census is to count the citizens by race, which is categorized as Black, White, Latino, or Native American.
Context: When we stereotype a group of people, we depict all of the individuals within that group as having the same characteristics. |
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![]() This lesson plan may be used to address the academic standards listed below. These standards are drawn from Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education: 2nd Edition and have been provided courtesy of theMid-continent Research for Education and Learningin Aurora, Colorado. Grade level: 9-12 Subject area: Behavioral Studies Standard: Understands various meanings of social group, general implications of group membership, and different ways that groups function. Benchmarks: Understands how the diverse elements that contribute to the development and transmission of culture (e.g., language, literature, the arts, traditions, beliefs, values, behavior patterns) function as an integrated whole. Grade level: K-12 Subject area: Working with others Standard: Contributes to the overall effort of a group. Benchmarks: Demonstrates respect for others in a group. |
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![]() Tara Brown-L'Bahy, anti-bias educator and Ph.D. candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts. |
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