2nd Grade Lessons on Racial Identity. Link to Google doc: Resources on Positive Racial Identity Development

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1 2nd Grade Lessons on Racial Identity Essential Understandings Everyone has a race, is unique and represents diversity, including you. Noticing external differences, like race, is normal, but our differences do not limit or define us. Differences are delicious and unique aspects of who we are. It s okay to talk about race; using respectful and accepted language makes it easier to have these conversations. Asking a respectful question, complimenting someone, or sharing our own stories is a way to have conversation about race. Though we notice them, biologically, different racial characteristics are not at all significant differences between people. Race matters because of the way our country has viewed and used it to lift some groups and lower other groups. Racial identity is how we define ourselves racially and how we feel about our race. Having a positive racial identity means you feel good about yourself and other people of your same race and see people of other races as equal and deserving like you. Sometimes people insult us by choosing to focus on our race; they do this for many reasons. Sometimes people point out differences as a way to gain power. This is about them, not you. You are resilient and strong; responding to these incidents in a way that honors your values, keeps your positive racial identity in tact. Link to Google doc: Resources on Positive Racial Identity Development 2nd Grade Unit on Racial Identity by Marie Michael, Kamie Page and David Burton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

2 Lesson One: Skin Color Book: The Skin You Live In by Michael Tyler & David Lee Csicsko Introduce the unit on Positive Racial Identity. Define positive racial identity: A positive racial identity is when you feel confident and comfortable about who you are. You know your race and culture is an important part of who you are, but that there are lots of other things that make you, you. You don t feel better than or less than anyone else. You are able to make all kinds of friends--those you have lots of things in common with and those who might look, think, and live differently than you. Read and discuss The Skin You Live In. Introduce and define the term race and give them the current language for racial categories. Explain that it is sometimes hard to tell a person s race from how they look, so it is best to let people identify themselves, to listen to others and learn their stories. Race is one way we classify humans based on physical characteristics, culture, place, language and history. A few current racial categories: African American, Asian American, European American, American Indian, Mexican American Activity: Have students write a simile that describes their skin color. A simile is a comparison using like or as. For example: My skin is like peanut butter; it s smooth and creamy beige like peanuts crushed and ready to spread on warm piece of bread. My granddaddy s skin was like hot fudge, warm, sweet and double dark brown. First, have students study their skin, look at their arms, elbow, legs. Compare arms with a neighbor. Look at their faces in the mirror. How would they describe their skin? Does it look the same color all over? Do they have freckles or birthmarks, a tan from the sun, a scar from a fall? Have each student create a simile and share with a small group. Homework: Tonight, share your simile with your parents/guardians and ask them how they describe their skin color or race. Work with them to write a simile that describes their skin. Write the simile and the way they identify on the same sheet and bring it back to school to share tomorrow. More books on skin and skin color: The Skin You're In! Secrets of Skin - Melissa Stewart Brown is White is Tan - Arnold Adoff Shades of Black Sandra Pinkney Skin Again - bell hooks The Colors of Us - Karen Katz

3 Lesson Two: Hair Book: Bippity Bop Barbershop, by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley & E.B. Lewis Review: Share what they learned in their conversations with parents and ask if they have any questions, new ideas, or stories to share about skin since the last discussion. Introduce the topic of hair: Share a powerpoint that has a visual collage of different kinds of hair that you can name and describe. As they take it in, talk about how we might respond to hairstyles that surprise us. Ask questions to get them thinking: What hairstyles surprise us? How do we respond when we see a hairstyle that looks very different than what we are used to? Sometimes we laugh or say weird, but how might that make someone feel? What might be a better way to respond to a person that has hair that is different from yours that that takes the person s feelings into account? Is it okay to touch someone s hair? Is it okay to be curious about someone s hair? Talk about what our hair does and does NOT do tie to lesson about about skin. Introduce and then read Bippity Bop Barbershop. Read and discuss the book: What are the stylist s tools for doing hair? Why is everyone telling him to be brave? Why are there only men in the barbershop? How would you describe his hair style? Discuss the men s different hair styles: Afro, fade, flattop, dreadlocks, etc. Are there names for the way you wear your hair? Braids, cornrows, twists, puff, buzz cut, updo, pony tails, etc. Have students write a short description of their hair color, texture, and length: My hair is a short salt and pepper afro. It s soft with tight curls. They could also draw a picture. End with the India Arie song: "I am not my hair More books on hair. Here We Grow: The history of hair and nails - Melissa Stewart Bedhead - Margie Palatini and Jack E. Davis Saturday at the New You - Barbara E. Barber Franny B Kranny There s a Bird in Your Hair - H. Lerner, S. Golhor, and H. Oxenbury Hairs/Pelitos - Sandra Cisneros Happy to be Nappy - bell hooks Homework: Share with your parents what you learned about hair, your description of your own hair, and some of the descriptions of the hair in your class. How do your parents describe their hair? Write it down on your hair sheet and bring it back to class. Ask them how many different hair styles have they had? See if they will show you pictures.

4 Lesson 3: Talking about Differences Activity: Stand up If Review: What did you learn about all the different kinds of hair in our last discussion? Any new ideas, questions, stories? Introduce the Stand up if game. The rules: Stay seated in your chair, very quietly, so you can hear the rules and the statements I will call out. I will say Stand up if and then I will give a characteristic. You will stand up if you meet that characteristic. For example, let s practice: Stand up if you have grey hair. Or stand up if you are in 2nd grade Listen carefully. As you stand up or see others stand up, notice whose standing and whose sitting. See what you can learn about your classmates and about yourself. Stand up if you These are suggestions. Change this list to draw out similarities and differences to help your students learn more deeply about each other and ones they would feel comfortable sharing. Are wearing tennis shoes Have curly hair Play an instrument or are learning to play an instrument Have a sibling Wear glasses or contacts Enjoy winter Attend a class outside of school for dance, singing, theater or art, culture Have brown eyes Play a sport Have long hair Speak another language besides English Were born somewhere other than Minnesota Have travelled outside of the country Attend a place of community worship like a mosque or synagogue or church Live with your grandparents or other family members besides your immediate family Live close by to grandparents or other family members Have a nanny or a babysitter pretty regularly, like several times a week Are a vegetarian Grow a garden in the summer LAST ONE (for fun) - Stand up if you... Can roll your tongue or touch your nose with your tongue You have 25 seconds to show to your table mates that they can do one of those or any other special facial skill--wiggle ears, lift eyebrows, etc.. When I count down from 5 1, stop and listen for the next instructions.

5 Suggested Discussion Questions What did you learn about your classmates or yourself by doing this activity? While we are noticing some of our differences, what else did you often find out? I noticed some of the things I have in common with others like I also noticed a few things I d like to learn more about Why do you think it s important to share the ways in which we might be different from each other? What do our differences help us understand about each other? How? If you are going on a play date with a friend, why might it be important to understand some differences about them? Share a story to elicit deeper conversation about how we can deal with others who we see as different: Have you ever noticed somebody who looked different than you and were curious about those differences? What are some of the things people do when they notice differences? Are we sometimes impolite? How might that make the person feel? How might we both notice differences, be curious, but also be polite and respectful and make each other feel welcomed instead of weird? Suggestions Be friendly Smile Invite them to talk with you or play with you Share something about yourself I noticed that you a compliment Give them time to share parts of themselves that they feel comfortable sharing Ask respectfully Know that sometimes people just need a break from being asked questions or being looked at or being treated differently, and you have to turn on your self-control Close by making sure students understand that people get to decide how they identify themselves.

6 Lesson 4: Culture Book: Two Mrs. Gibsons by Toyomi Igus and Daryl Wells Review: Last time we were together, we talked about talking about differences. Is it okay to notice differences? Is it okay to be curious about them? What are some ways to be respectful of people who we might see as different and who we might also be curious about? Introduce the topic of culture. The book People by Peter Spier might be a good book to read before getting to this lesson in order to have a more full discussion about culture. Here, we are doing just a quick review before getting to Two Mrs. Gibsons. What is culture? Who has culture? Can you name any beliefs or practices that are a part of our lower school culture or your classroom s culture? Is there something cultural you do at home, that would kind of stick out at school, because it isn t really the culture here? Taking shoes off at the door Eating with your hands Burping freely but saying excuse me Praying out loud before a meal Speaking Arabic or French People often bring their culture into school daily prayers, clothing, hair, hijab or kippah (kee-pah), mindhi, jewelry, etc. People also code-switch. Define code-switching - when a person switches language, culture, expressions, etc to be able to better communicate or fit-in. Do you ever codeswitch? Read and discuss the book. How does the author s experience with her mother and her grandmother give you a sense of the women s two different cultures? How might you describe her grandmother s culture what are some of her practices, traditions, foods? How about her mom s culture? Do you think that people coming from different cultures might sometimes have a hard time getting along? How do you learn to get along with people from different racial and cultural backgrounds? Ask questions, pay attention, learn and appreciate Find places where you agree or have commonalities Be willing to be introduced to and to introduce new ideas or behaviors or foods Code-switch, don t just expect others to do so

7 Final Activity Have students create a self-portrait that shows both their inside and outside stories. Meet over at least 3 sessions to review and deepen their understanding of the unit. Each student will first need to create a pencil or charcoal sketch of his/her face, and you ll need to make a copy, so each student has two copies of his/her portrait. 1) Opening Question: When people look at your outside what do they see? (Have students brainstorm a list.) Activity: Using crayons or paints, students color in one of their portraits. They mix colors to find the right skin tone. Encourage them to look closely at themselves in the mirror and notice brown freckles or birthmarks or reddish undertones at their cheeks and lips. They should also add other facial features, hair, hijab, and even earrings if they often wear them. Suggested discussion questions before or after coloring in the portrait. What did you learn about physical characteristics---which ones did we talk about? Skin color remember your simile what is skin for? Hair what is hair for? Is it okay to notice differences? How do you do it respectfully? Everyone has an outside--race, skin color, hair, etc. They might be important to us, but they don t mean much in terms of our the difference b/w human beings --- not good or bad, less or more, etc. What other physical characteristics do people see when they look at you? Ears, nose, eyes, glasses, lips, clothes, style, gender, etc. What people see doesn t define you you get to define who you are. How do you do that? Sometimes people use what we look like on the outside to insult us or make us feel bad, BUT that isn t okay. This is about THEM not you, and responding thoughtfully and respectfully helps you maintain your positive identity. How can you respond if someone says something about your skin color or hair that you don t like? 2) Opening Question: Do you remember the kinds of things that we have talked about that make YOU, YOU? What are parts of your inside story that people do not find out just by looking at you? Have students brainstorm a list of the kinds of things this could be: What you eat, think, love to do, are really good at; memorable experiences; your culture and personality; the people you love, jokes you tell, etc. Activity: Using colored or black and white fine tip markers on the second copy of their portrait, students write words to describe and create pictures to show their inside stories.

8 Suggested Discussion questions before or after coloring in the portrait. How do you define who you are? How might you get to know a person who seems different than you on the outside? What are strategies you might use? How might you share your story with someone new? What are the first things you would want them to know? A positive racial identity means you know who you are, you know your race and culture and are proud to be you. You are also able to share who you are and learn about others, making friends with people who are the same and different from you. 3) Opening Question: What is the most important take away from our unit on positive racial identity? Brainstorm. Activity: Have students use the list of ideas for inspiration and write down three of their most important take-aways. Then, they can share their ideas with a partner. Eventually, each student should choose one important lesson they d like to post with his/her portrait. Using cut out speech bubbles, have each student write one take-away in black marker. Read I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont to close out the unit. Post the final project for the class and the school community to view. Hang each students portrait with his/her speech bubble and with the outside story on top of the inside story, so viewers will have to lift the outside portrait up to see what is on the inside. 2nd Grade Unit on Racial Identity by Marie Michael, Kamie Page and David Burton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.