Learning Point-of-View Through Others’ Eyes

Wendy S. Girnis

Introduction

I will be writing a blended curriculum unit that focuses on racism and bias through fiction and nonfiction texts. Through these texts, students will analyze a character’s point of view based on the situation portrayed in the story or article. There will also be a writing component to this unit. Students will write a narrative giving their opinion about a specific situation where bias or racism could exist. An example of a situation could be African American students having old textbooks because the school is in the inner city, or a student who get in trouble because of their hairstyle.

I currently teach third grade. Third grade students do not understand how to explain or define bias or racism, but they have been exposed to it through the media or even their own experiences. In order to educate my students on bias and racism, I will use age appropriate books for them to read that have stories or articles containing a bias or racist situation. Using technology with this unit, my students will access eBooks or articles, as well as use Kami, a PDF annotation software, to complete graphic organizers, and write their narrative. Using technology will help my students to become more proficient as 21st century learners and help them understand the world they live in and how racism/bias can shape that world.

Background

The students in my school come from many different backgrounds. There are approximately 600 K-5 students in my school. Our school services students from a low socioeconomic status and is 100% free breakfast and lunch. As a third-grade teacher, I have approximately 24 students in my class, approximately 80% are ELL students. Third graders are ages 8 and 9.

My students are very computer literate. My classroom is 1-to-1 with Chrome Books. The students are familiar with Schoology, our LMS (Learning Management System), Google Drive, Kami, and various on-line research sites such as UD LibSearch, Common Lit- https://www.commonlit.org, Frontier- https://frontier.esparklearning.com/teacher, and Newsela- https://newsela.com. My students work well collaboratively with each other most of the time. My goal for this lesson is to have my students improve upon their knowledge and understanding of bias and racism. This lesson will also fit into the broader context of learning, which is to facilitate my students’ learning to move them towards becoming 21st century learners and problem solvers. Today’s students need to be critical

thinkers, problem solvers, communicators, and collaborators. My classroom is moving from a teacher centered classroom to a student centered one. This shift in pedagogy has me prioritizing student interaction, communication, and collaboration in my classroom. Blended lessons do this by combining face-to-face discussions, as well as delivery of digital content to give my students a chance to practice 21st century skills required for future success.

Rationale

Third grade students have a difficult time understanding the definitions of bias and racism. They are quick to throw the word “racist” around if someone does something to them that they don’t agree with or holds them accountable for something they have done. To increase students’ understanding of bias and racism in the world they live in, materials used will have to be age appropriate and deal with the topic using authentic examples for younger students’ understanding.

The delivery of content will be through digital and print means. In my twenty-four years of teaching, I have noticed that students spend more time on their digital devices than they do with a book. With the implementation of Common Core State Standards, there is more focus on delving deeper into fiction and nonfiction text. Questions are more rigorous, and students are required to think more deeply to answer them. With that said, reading deeply is difficult for third graders. The expectations for reading in third grade are a lot more rigorous than those in second grade. In third grade, students move from learning to read, to reading to learn. This is a difficult transition for some students. By third grade we are asking students more rigorous, open ended questions that require an answer of more than a few words. I have noticed that most third-grade students will read and write more when given a chance to use computers, so this will be a blended lesson with the final product completed in PEG, an online writing program.

My focus for this unit will be on creating more perceptive readers. Third graders need to be interested in the subject matter to delve deeply into it. Students will use close reading strategies and reciprocal teaching while reading the texts. We will use both fiction and nonfiction books and articles to look at racism through the point of view of the characters in fictional text, as well as the author ‘s point of view using nonfiction text. Students will then be given a text-based prompt to write a narrative in order to give their own opinion on a situation where racism comes into play.

Learning Objectives:

The Learning Objectives of this unit focus on having my students explore racism and bias through literature. This will be done using ELA standards that cover opinion and point-of-view. Students will read picture books and delve deep into the character’s point-of-view and analyze how that point of view affects the character’s actions in the story.

Students will then write an opinion essay based on a scenario that contains a situation where bias or racism takes place.

Concepts:

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.”

— Nelson Mandela 1

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary racism is defined as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” Throughout history, one cultural group has always considered themselves superior to another. Kendi defines racism as, “any concept that regards one racial group as inferior or superior to another racial group in any way.”2

The Europeans considered themselves culturally and spiritually superior to the Native Americans. They looked upon the Native Americans as “savages” because of the way they looked, dressed, and lived. The Europeans thought that if the Native people could be made “more European” or “White” that they may behave like Europeans and therefore assimilate into the European culture. “Indians didn’t come to be seen as inherently different in relation to colour until the mid-eighteenth century along with also the tag”red” [which] wasn’t used until the century.”3 This way of thinking was the cause of many bloody battles between the Europeans and the Native Americans. This conflict continued until May 28, 1830 with the Indian Removal Act. The government gave the Indian tribes land west of the Mississippi in order for settlers to occupy the land that was taken from the tribes.

Slavery in the colonies, and then America started with the Jamestown colony in 1619. Slavery was very important to the Southern states. African American slaves worked on the tobacco, rice and indigo plantations of the south. Slaves were important for the economy of the south. They provided inexpensive labor. Since these positions were mainly menial jobs such as “day laborers, mariners, servants, waiters, barbers, coachmen,

shoe-shiners, and porters for men, and washers, dressmakers, seamstresses, and domestics for women,” 4 African Americans were thought to be unskilled and therefore they were only suitable for menial jobs. If the African Americans were freed, then who would fill those positions? This thinking gave many racists an out. Following the Civil War, the economy of the South continued to be dependent on former slaves doing the menial jobs.

The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861 due to “decades of simmering tensions between northern and southern states over slavery, states’ rights and westward expansion.”5 January of 1863 saw the Emancipation Proclamation free the slaves in states that seceded from the Union. These states became part of the Confederacy. Unfortunately, slaves in border states and those states that were under the control of the North were not freed. On January 1, of 1862, the thirteenth amendment abolished slavery, but it wasn’t until December 18, 1865 that 27 of the 36 states had ratified the thirteenth amendment making slavery illegal throughout the United States.

History of Public Education

“Public education is defined at Education Bug as a “federally funded school, administered to some extent by the government, and charged with educating all citizens.”6 Public education encompasses both elementary and secondary education. Public schools have a history dating back to the 1600s. The public schools that were formed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony focused mainly on religious teachings which included a values education and how to read the Bible. Latin schools were also formed for those students from wealthy families. 1635 saw the first public school funded by community taxes.

The first official public school opened in Virginia. Less than 10 years after it opened, laws were put into effect in Massachusetts “requiring towns with populations of 50 or more to hire a schoolmaster to teach the children of the town basic academics.”7 If there

were more than 100 students, towns would need to hire a Latin teacher. This teacher was to make sure that students were ready for higher education, which at that time was Harvard.

Public education was disjointed. There were no standards in place and each school ran differently and there was no way of knowing if the education the students were getting was high quality. Jefferson wanted an educational system supported by tax dollars. Unfortunately, his appeals fell on deaf ears.

In the mid-1800s, people like Horace Mann began calling for public schools for every child. In 1852, Massachusetts passed a compulsory law that required all children to attend elementary school to learn basic math and grammar. After Massachusetts, the other states followed. By 1918, all states had a compulsory education law. These laws include the ages that children start school by, as well as when they are old enough to drop out. The laws were created not just to improve the literacy of the American citizen, but to combat child labor practices. By the 18th and 19th centuries, a compulsory public education was believed to be the best way to assimilate the children of immigrants into American society. The movement to integrate schools was a slow and grueling process.

Segregated Schools

After the Civil War was over, there were many more concerns that came about in public education especially in the South. Free slaves were justly seeking a public education. The idea of “separate but equal” was created in 1896 by a Supreme Court decision, Plessy vs. Ferguson. Homer Plessy had sat in a train car reserved for whites and refused to move to the train car that was for blacks. He had sued the train company and lost his case. The Supreme Court ruled that “a law that ‘implies merely a legal distinction’ between whites and blacks was not unconstitutional.”8 Due to this ruling, Jim Crow laws were more commonplace. This extended to education. It was felt that former slaves and their children would be better off being educated in their own schools, in their own communities. This decision covered all aspects of everyday life including public education. Unfortunately, separate but equal was far from equal.

Native Americans

It just wasn’t the African American students who were segregated. Native American children were also segregated. Not just from Whites, but also from their culture and their parents. Boarding schools for Native American children was designed to assimilate them into the White culture and destroy the Indian culture. Academics for these students

included the core subjects along with religious training. The Catholic Church established schools. A few years later, Protestant schools were established. In 1879 one of the most notorious boarding school was started, the Carlisle Indian School which was in Pennsylvania. Its goal was to make sure that Native children would assimilate into “White” society and never return to the reservation. During the education of the students their Native beliefs clashed with what was being taught, which was individualism. Natives Americans believed more in communal beliefs and that the land is for all and not for the individual. While European values were materialistic and their goal was the acquisition of things.

Once Native Children arrived at the boarding schools, hair was cut, clothes were discarded in favor standard school uniforms. This was when deculturalization began. Traditional foods were never served, the language and culture of the tribe was replaced with those of the “White” man, and American holidays that meant nothing to the Native Americans were celebrated. Any trace of Native American culture was erased. Parents were forced to send their children to boarding schools against their wishes. “Indian Commissioner Thomas Jefferson Morgan wrote in his 1889 annual report to the Secretary of the Interior that ‘the Indian must conform to the white man’s way, peaceably if they will, forcibly if they must.’”9 By 1893 pressure was increased on parents to keep their kids in boarding school. Parents finally gained the right to refuse their children’s placement in an off-reservation boarding schools in 1978 through the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Topeka Kansas

In Topeka, Kansas, the black schools were mismanaged. “In 1879, the Topeka Colored Citizen found the black Monroe Street School so mismanaged ‘that many children in it are just where they were 2-3 years ago’”10 The schools were so bad that parents were advised to homeschool their children.

In 1902, segregation laws in Kansas were challenged when a lawsuit was brought against the Lowman Hill school district by an African American parent whose child was not allowed to attend a new school in the school district where they lived. The charge was that separation by race violated the state constitution which called for a uniform system of schools, as well as a violation of the fourteenth amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Unfortunately, the courts dismissed the charges in the place. This allowed for the gradual separation of black and white children in the Topeka’s classrooms. The Topeka Board of Education designated new schools as white, leaving African American students to find an African American school to attend, or turning away African American Students new to the neighborhood and leaving those African American students who were already enrolled alone.

Over 20 years, new buildings to meet the needs of the African American students were built. These building had all of the modern comforts like plumbing, electric, and restrooms. The older existing building were upgraded with new equipment. On the grounds of the schools, playgrounds were included. The improvements made were the addition of healthcare in the form of a nurse, and the hiring of African American teachers.

Topeka had their problems with overcrowding of the schools exacerbated by the influx of immigrants. Receiving a bond of $850,000, helped the city to enforce segregation. Between 1920 and 1935 the Topeka Board of Education had nineteen white elementary schools and four black elementary schools built. “The Kansas City Times lauded the schools as being “not only scientifically correct and modern, but things of beauty, and architectural parts of the neighborhoods in which they stand.””11

The State of Delaware

After the Civil War, African Americans had only four schools in Delaware in which they could attend. On December 27, 1866, Methodists and Quakers began planning the next steps for the educational system for African Americans. The African American community understood the importance of education in creating a better life for themselves. Churches began to preach the importance of education to its congregations and in turn, parents began to encourage their children to attend. Due to the lack of African American teachers, religious leaders began to take on the responsibilities of teaching the children.

Unfortunately, the state of Delaware didn’t support public education of African Americans, so it depended on private donations. By 1867, communities were starting to request schools to be built. Schools were being built now in all three counties of Delaware. In 1869 a request was made to build the only high school for African Americans. By 1875, there were 26 schools that were solely African American schools whose focus was a classical education instead of an industrial one found in the south.

This classical education included a New England curriculum in which the state supported the educational system, religious education, and moral behavior. By the end of the 1800s, there were over eighty schools in Delaware that were dedicated to African American children. Unfortunately, there were still many hurdles to climb. Two of which were funding and educational philosophy.

Now that Colored schools were being established in Delaware, there were questions about where to get teachers. Many teachers were coming from the Freedmen’s Union Commission, Morgan State University in Baltimore, and Cheney University in Philadelphia. Finally, the rules for acquiring teachers were relaxed and by the early 1900s, Delaware State College was graduating teachers who were teaching in the Colored Schools.

While these schools were being built, another effort that was growing was the idea of “mixed schools.” In small communities with limited classrooms the children of different races would attend a common school. White students would go for half a day, then black students would go for the other half. Finally, the idea of mixed schools was pushed aside for institutionalization of developing a separate education system for Black and white students. In 1897, the Delaware Constitution was ratified and legally segregated schools was made into law.

Delaware was one of the few states that came close to funding both the White and Colored schools equally. In the early 1900s, Colored schools were receiving 25% less funding than the White schools who were receiving $41.80 per White student. The funding for schools came from the taxes each community paid. Since African American communities weren’t as wealthy, there was less money going into the Colored schools than into the White schools. The African American schools began to deteriorate as did some of the White schools.

In 1917 though, Delaware’s support of its educational system ranked thirty-ninth out of the forty-nine states. There was a push to increase state taxes to support the educational system. Since the referendum was based on property taxes, African American communities would still have less money for the Colored schools. In 1919, the New School Code was adopted by the Delaware legislature. The New School Code established uniform tax rates for White and African American residents. “It also established mandatory school attendance for children under fourteen years old and a 180-day school year for them.”12 Unfortunately, school districts did not have to raise property taxes in the community. White community members did not want their tax dollars to go towards the education of African Americans.

In 1920, Pierre S. DuPont, with $900,000 of a $2.5 million trust fund, began to reform the African American educational system. By the end of 1921 there were twenty-one schools built or being built in Delaware. Most of these buildings were one to five room schoolhouses built in African American communities. By the end of the 1920s there were eighty-nine schools built for a total investment of $2,157,547.22. The schools were numbered, and each school’s number was followed by the letter “C” which stood for ‘Colored’.

Students attended the new Colored schools and learned not just academics but were educated in various vocations and the arts. Unfortunately, the supplies each of these schools had were not equal. The Colored schools’ supplies were outdated textbooks, sports equipment and various other supplies discarded by the White schools. “As one teacher put it, when white students were reading about Charles Lindberg’s 1927 trans-Atlantic flight, black students were reading about Orville and Wilbur Wright’s 12-second flight in Kill Devil Hills, N.C., in 1903.”13

The Du Pont Colored schools were still functioning by the 1940s, In 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, ruled that states could not make laws that made the racial segregation of public schools mandatory, even if they are of equal quality is unconstitutional. Even though the ruling came down in 1954, there was no timeline for the states. Delaware wasn’t fully desegregated until 1967.

Integrated Schools

In May of 1954, the Supreme Court handed down the decision that ended segregation in public schools. Since the court did not set a timeline, each state was on its own schedule. As schools began to desegregate, white protesters would block school entrances. In 1956 in Tennessee the National Guard needed to be called to handle protesters blocking a high school from being integrated. During that same year, law makers in Virginia call for resistance to integration of the schools.

Things came to a head in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. Nine African American students who were integrating Central High School needed to be protected by the Arkansas National Guard. When the students entered the school to enroll, riots broke out. The Governor of Arkansas didn’t intervene. President Eisenhower called in the 101st

Airborne and took the Arkansas National Guard under control in order to restore the peace.

Another well-known instance of integration of the public schools is the case of Ruby Bridges. On November 14, 1964 Ruby Bridges was the first African American student to attend the William Franz school. The city of New Orleans required African American students to take a difficult test in order to attend the “White” schools. They thought that if the test was difficult, African American students wouldn’t pass and the schools would continue to be segregated. Ruby, along with five other children passed the test. She was the only child who would attend the all-White school. On November 14, 1964 she was escorted into William Franz Elementary school by Federal Marshalls. Ruby was threatened as she walked into the school. Her family also suffered racist attacks. Life didn’t start to settle down for Ruby until the end of her first year. By the second year, Ruby was able to attend school without the drama of the year before. She graduated from Francis T. Nicholls High School in New Orleans and attended business school.

Ruby Bridges started a foundation that promotes tolerance and the appreciation of differences. This foundation hopes to end racism. “As its motto goes, "Racism is a grown-up disease, and we must stop using our children to spread it."”14

Racism and Bias in Education: Colleges and Universities

Before the Civil War ended, free African Americans who had been educated were applying to colleges and universities. Martin Robison Delany was one of those who applied and was accepted to Harvard. Born to a slave father and a free mother, his mother left Virginia and moved north so that her children wouldn’t be sold into slavery or punished because she was educating them. Martin Robison Delany began an apprenticeship with a physician and ultimately opened his own medical practice. He wanted to complete his medical training, so he applied and was accepted to attend Harvard Medical School along with two other African American students. Unfortunately, he never finished. After a few weeks, the white student body petitioned to have them removed from the school. Due to these petitions, Martin Delany and the other two African American students were dismissed from Harvard.

Before and after the Civil War, many institutions of higher education were not admitting African American students. Due to these admissions restrictions, especially in the southern former Confederate states, states were required by the second Morrill Act of 1890, to provide land for institutions for black students. This resulted in the formation of many Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Although these colleges and

universities were established to meet the needs of educating African Americans after the Civil War, “Many founders assumed ‘white teachers’ to be ‘the best’15

In 1865, the first of these institutions was established in Raleigh, North Carolina. Shaw University became the first of 90 institutions established between the end of the Civil War and 1900. These early universities’ and Colleges’ main purpose was to train teachers, religious leaders and community members. They focused on a Greco-Roman education. During the 1900s, “many HBCUs shifted their focus to promote scholarship among African Americans. Academic councils, conferences and founded scholastic journals to showcase black intellectual thought.”16

Racism shaped many colleges and universities, whether majority or minority colleges. These older universities and colleges contain the remnants of segregation that can be found in their older buildings. One example is Trinity Washington University in Washington, DC, founded in 1897. At the time it was the nation’s first Catholic college for women, white affluent women that is. These were women who were discriminated against by the mainstream Catholic colleges and universities who enrolled men and overlooked women.

When Trinity was built, the toilets were labeled “White” and “Black”. The “Black” toilets were for the help on campus. In the dining hall basement, there was the “Colored Help’s Dining Room, “with the ‘Colored Girls’ Locker Room nearby.”17 These institutions were shaped by “the intentional segregation of the help, to the exclusion of students of color from classrooms, and the stark absence of African-American faculty members and executive administrators.”18

Like many other small colleges, Trinity was losing its enrollment. By 1989, their enrollment fell from approximately 950 female students to only 300 female students. In order to save the college, they chose to head in a new direction. Trinity was founded due to discrimination against white women who weren’t allowed to attend the men’s Catholic college. Now Trinity was looking at inner city minority women of color to help save the college. This was a courageous move and according to Nancy Pelosi, “some people had an unease about the school departing from what they remembered it to be.”19 Some thought that Trinity was letting their standards down. Today, social justice is crucial in Trinity’s mission.

Unfortunately, there is still racism in higher education. African Americans are not admitted to elite universities at the same rate as whites. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “The percentage of American Black College Students increased from 10 percent in 1976 to 14 percent in 2016, but the 2016 percentage reflects a decrease since 2011, when Black students made up 15 percent of all enrolled U.S. residents.”20 African American students are still being denied enrollment into elite schools, in favor of the White upper class.

Race and Education Today

There are two different kinds of bias, implicit and explicit bias. Implicit bias is how we act towards others in a subconscious way. How we view, perceive or understand our beliefs in others is called explicit bias. Both types of biases affect the education of minority students today.

Explicit bias still exists in our public schools. Back in 2006, the percentage of Whites that believed that racism still existed in the United States was 6% when in fact racism is alive and well as we see every night on the news. Every day, racism affects children of color.

Starting in preschool, students who are Black face harsher discipline than their White counterparts. They are suspended and expelled more often than Whites. “A 2016 report from the University of Pennsylvania, Center for the Study of Race and Equity in

Education, found that 13 Southern states were responsible for 55% of the 1.2 million suspensions involving black students nationwide.”21 The same states were responsible for 50% of student expulsions. Even though African American students face harsh discipline in public schools, Native American students are disciplined more excessively than any other minority group. African American students are suspended at a higher rate causing them to miss a lot of school. Native American students drop out of school with a rate of more than two times the national average. This also fuels the school to prison pipeline for African American and Native American students.

Minority students, whether African American or Native American are also overlooked for special services. African American students are more likely to be overlooked for gifted programs in schools and more likely to be placed in special ed programs. This changes if an African American student has an African American teacher. In this case, students are more likely to be recommended to the gifted program. Some districts are now moving towards nonverbal testing for gifted students. These tests are more accurate, especially if a student doesn’t use standard English or if they are English language learners. If a student passes the nonverbal test, an I.Q. test is given. Interestingly, if an African American student has an African American teacher, they are more likely to advocate for the student to be placed into a gifted program. On the other hand, Native American students are more likely to be overlooked for special education services. This is based on beliefs that Native Americans are not as smart as White students.

When it comes to challenging students, high school students of color have less access to AP or other types of college prep courses. This inhibits their access to colleges and universities.

Native American students, as well as African American students also must contend with racial microaggressions. This includes disparaging comments about their cultural heritage. Many students have had comments made about hairstyles that have a cultural significance whether it is in its natural state or a braided style.

Students of various cultures are left out of school curriculums. The curriculum needs to consider the multicultural makeup of today’s classroom. Students need to see their stories told or they become marginalized. Sharing stories of various cultures is one way to break down barriers and build an understanding of each other’s cultural beliefs.

How can we correct the injustice of bias and racism? As educators, we must be aware of our own implicit bias. From the first time we meet a student, we subconsciously begin to generalize about that student based on our perceptions. We look at their mannerisms,

their clothing, the music they listen to, and how they communicate and subconsciously decide if the student will be successful or not. We can’t let our implicit bias affect the expectations we have for our students. If we expect our students to rise to the occasion, they do. We must be aware of these biases. We need highly qualified teachers in every classroom. Minority students have access to the fewest amount of highly qualified teachers. This includes teachers with low scores on certification exams, the least amount of classroom experience and a record of not improving student test scores. We need more teachers that reflect the cultural make-ups of our classrooms. Teachers that students can relate to and see themselves in. We need to look at other avenues for discipline and be more proactive than reactive in order to cut down the loss of academic time due to suspensions and expulsions. Finally, we need to be culturally aware. Each cultural group has their own beliefs and values. We need to be aware of these and understand them. Instead of assimilation to become “Whiter”, we need to embrace our differences and celebrate them.

Strategies

The strategies that I will be using will be a graphic organizer, cooperative learning and effective questioning.

The graphic organizer will be used to compare the point-of-view of at least two characters in the selected text. The students will fill in the title of the selected reading, the point-of-view of character one, the point-of-view of character 2, and their own point-of-view. They will also need to include evidence to support the character’s point of view, as well as their own. Students will also include the author’s point-of-view or purpose for writing the text.

Cooperative learning will also be used, since students will be paired up for part of this unit. An example of a pairing strategy is as follows. Pair students either by same reading ability or by high level readers with low level readers. Use the following steps to pair high-level readers with low-level readers. First, list the students in order from highest to lowest according to reading ability. Next, divide the list in half. Then place the top student in the first list with the top student in the second list. Continue until all students have been partnered. Remember to be sensitive to pairings of students with special needs, including learning or emotional needs. You can adjust pairings as necessary.

I will also use effective questioning. Higher order thinking questions help students with critical thinking skills. Students need these skills as they prepare for the future. I will focus on reasoning and analyzing.

Classroom Activities

My unit will include three lessons. The lessons will range from 1-6 days, with the unit taking a total of 3 to 4 weeks to complete. The lessons will be delivered using the blended learning model. The blended learning model requires the teacher to deliver the introductory content to the students. Once the content is delivered, the online component can be completed in the classroom or in another location such as home. As students are working on their online lessons, they will be checking in with the teacher to update their progress, ask questions, or ask for help. Once the online component is completed, students will be responsible to complete a product to showcase their learning.

Students will be paired up for parts of this unit. An example of a pairing strategy is as follows. Pair students either by same reading ability or by high level readers with low level readers. Use the following steps to pair high-level readers with low-level readers. First, list the students in order from highest to lowest according to reading ability. Next, divide the list in half. Then place the top student in the first list with the top student in the second list. Continue until all students have been partnered. Remember to be sensitive to pairings of students with special needs, including learning or emotional needs. You can adjust pairings as necessary.

The reader from the first list should read first while the reader from the second list listens and follows along. Then the second reader should pick up where the first reader stops. If additional practice is needed, the second reader can reread what the first reader read. Encourage pairs to ask each other about what was read. Some examples are "What was your page about? What was your favorite part?".22

Lesson One: - Introducing Point-of-view

Day 1

On the first day of the lesson, students will be introduced to the book “The Other Side” by Jacqueline Woodson. This book is the story of two girls who live in a segregated town and how a small act can bring down the fence that divides them.

I will use this book to introduce point-of-view to my third-grade students. Throughout the story, students will be asked questions. After reading the first page of the story, ask the students what they notice and what they wonder. On chart paper, make a list of their notices and wonders.

You will begin reading the text beginning after the author’s note, which you will save for last. Throughout the reading you will stop to ask students focus questions. Read the text until you get to page 5. The little girl wanted to jump rope. Ask the following question: Why do you think Sandra said the girl couldn’t play with them? Explain. Continue to read to page 17. The girls are talking, and Annie says that fences were made for sitting on. Stop and ask the following question: Do you think that the fence was made for sitting on? Why or why not? Continue to read to page 25. The girls are all jumping rope. Stop and ask: What is the significance of the girls letting Clover and Annie jump rope with them? So that students can make a connection to their own lives, ask the following question: Have you ever had a situation where you wouldn’t let someone play with you, or someone wouldn’t let you play? How did it make you feel?

Finish reading the story with the students. At the end of the story, ask: Do you think the fence was knocked down? Why or why not? Revisit the “Notice and Wonder” chart to see if any of the students’ wonders were answered. If they have new wonders to add, add them to the chart. Read the Author’s Note located at the beginning of the story. Introduce the vocabulary word segregation. Explain to students that segregation means to separate one group from another. Then ask: What or who was separated by the fence? Do you think that the fence exists today? Explain.

Introduce the graphic organizer. The organizer will be delivered online using a program called Kami. Kami is an annotation software program. This allows students to add text to PDFs and share them with the teacher. The graphic organizer will be completed as a whole group. Students will fill in the title of the book and author. They will fill in the characters’ names – Clover and Annie. As a class we will discuss Clover and Annie’s point-of-view. Students will also fill in the name Townspeople and we will discuss the townspeople’s point-of-view. They will fill in their own point of view concerning the relationship between Annie and Clover. Finally, we will discuss the author’s point-of-view and the purpose for writing this text.

Day 2

Introduce the book “Cheyenne Again” by Eve Bunting. This book is about the Native American boarding schools and one boy’s journey from his reservation and family to the school to learn the “White Man’s” ways.

You will begin reading the text and stop to ask students focus questions. On page 13 Young Bull has everything that he’s familiar with taken away. Stop and ask the following questions: What do you think about Young Bull being taken from his home to go to the boarding school? How do you think Young Bull feels? How do you know? Continue to read to page 19. Point out a quote that Young Bull says, “The Indian in us must

disappear, they say. It must be tamed.”23 What are the consequences of these actions? On page 23, Young Bull runs away from the boarding school. Ask students: What would you have done in that situation? Explain.

At the end of the book, we see a picture that Young Bull has drawn. When the book is finished ask: What is the significance of Young Bulls picture? What does this say about how Young Bull feels about the boarding school? In pairs, have students fill out the graphic organizer. Have them pick Young Bull and Taking Man and fill out their points-of-view. Students will also include the author’s purpose for writing the story and point-of-view. As a whole group, review the students’ responses.

Day 3

Read the book “The School is Not White!” by Doreen Rappaport. This book is a historical fiction book based on the Carter family who fought to get their children into the “White” school close to their home so that they could get the best education possible.

Show students the cover of the book and ask what they predict based on the cover and title of the book. Write down students’ predictions. Begin reading the story. Stop on page 4. The plantation overseer demanded that the Carters not sent their children to the “White School. Ask students: Why do you think that the plantation overseer ordered the Carter’s to withdraw their children from the school? Continue to read to page 14. Say, the mother asked the children how their day went. Looking at the illustration, how do you think their day went? How do you know?

Read to page 24. When Ruth, Stanley, and Larry went anywhere in school, the other students reacted negatively. Ask: What would you have done in the same situation? Explain. On page 30, the children are boarding a bus. What does the author mean when she said that “the children were carrying books that felt heavier than any hundred-pound sack of cotton?”24

Finish reading the book, including the Author’s Note and The Carter Family History. Ask the students to work independently to complete the graphic organizer. Once students have completed the graphic organizer, have students share out. After students have shared out ask: At the end of the book, we find out what became of each of the Carter children. Do you think that their fight for equal rights helped them to become successful adults? Explain.

Day 4

Students will read the book Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation. This book follows the Mendez family and their legal battle to attend the neighborhood school instead of the “Mexican” school.

Read pages 1 and 2. Sylvia is walking through the halls of Westminster School and the other children are telling her to go back to Mexico and that she doesn’t belong. Ask the students: Why do you think that Sylvia is told she doesn’t belong in the school? Explain. How do you think she feels? How do you know? Continue reading through pages 8 and 9. Sylvia’s aunt was told that Sylvia was not able to register at the school. Ask the following question: What do you think about Sylvia and her brothers not being allowed to attend the neighborhood school that their cousins could attend? Explain.

Read through to page 15. At this point in the book, Sylvia and her brothers are attending the “Mexican” school, Hoover Elementary. Ask: Do you think it was fair that Hoover Elementary was inferior to the neighborhood school? What was the reason for this inequity?

Continue to read through to page 23. Mr. Mendez is beginning to get other families to fight for their right to attend the “White” school. Ask: What was the importance of the other families joining Mr. Mendez in his lawsuit? Read the rest of the story including the author’s note. Ask students: What were some of the positive impacts Sylvia and her family had on the community through this experience? Were there any negative effects from this experience? Do you think the Mendez family was right in fighting against segregation? Why or why not?

Hand out graphic organizer. Ask the students to work independently to complete the graphic organizer. Once students have completed the graphic organizer, have students turn in the graphic organizer.

Day 5

Students have been introduced to 4 books on segregation and racism. Students will write a paragraph taking on the persona of one of the characters in one of the books read. They will write this paragraph from the character’s point-of-view.

Give students the following prompt: Write a journal entry from the point of view of one of the characters we read about, Sylvia Mendez, Young Bull, one of the Carter children, or Clover. You may use your graphic organizer to help you. In your journal entry, describe your day. What was your day like? What did you enjoy about it? What didn’t you like about it? What do you wish was different?

Lesson 2 – Nonfiction-Author’s Point of View

Day 1

Review point of view. Ask students the following questions: What is point of view? Can different characters in a story have different point of views? Give an example. Do authors have a point-of-view? How do we know what that is?

In this lesson, students will be introduced to authors point of view and purpose for writing using nonfiction literature on civil rights and racial bias. Students will read about Ruby Bridges, Jesse Owens, and Jackie Robinson.

Introduce nonfiction books to students. Explain that when authors write nonfiction books, they also have a point of view and a purpose for writing the books. Authors write books to inform, entertain, or persuade. Authors of nonfiction write mainly to inform or persuade. We can tell an author’s point-of-view based on their opinion or attitude about the subject.

Students will access the Ruby Bridges book online through Reading A-Z. Some students have read or heard about the story of Ruby Bridges. Since she is near their ages, students can make a connection with her. Have students preview the cover. Have them turn and talk with their partner about what they notice and what they wonder. Have students preview the rest of the photos and illustrations. On a sheet of poster paper, write down what the students notice and wonder about the pictures and illustrations. Have students turn to page 3. Introduce the table of contents and have students preview the chapters and look at the map. If the book does not have map, show students a map of the United States and point out New Orleans in relationship to where they live.

Begin reading the story and stop on page 6. Students read about the unfair laws in the South. Ask students how they would feel if they were not allowed to use the same facilities, schools, restrooms, or water fountains as everyone else? Why would you feel that way?

Continue reading to the end of the story. Ask: Do you think Ruby was brave? Explain. Would you have gone to the white school like Ruby did? Why or why not? Do you think Ruby made a difference? Explain your thinking. What was the author’s purpose for writing this book? What is the author’s point-of-view? How do you know?

Students will access the graphic organizer and fill it in online using Kami. As a whole group, students will fill in the author’s point-of-view as well as the text evidence to support that point-of-view. Students will then distinguish their own point-of -view about the discrimination that Ruby experienced. Return to the Notice and Wonder poster. Were

any wonders answered. If students have more wonders to add, write those down to be answered later.

For an extension, students can watch a quick video with Ruby Bridges describing her experience integrating the school.

Day 2

Students will access the Jesse Owens book online through Reading A-Z. Have students preview the cover. Have them turn and talk with their partner about what they notice and what they wonder. Have students preview the rest of the photos and illustrations. On a sheet of poster paper, write down what the students notice and wonder about the pictures. Have students turn to page 3. Introduce the table of contents and have students preview the chapters. Look at a map of the United States and point out Alabama and Ohio in relationship to where they live. Explain that Jesse Owens lived in Alabama before moving to Ohio for a better life.

Begin reading the book. Read to the bottom of page 7. Jesse has been discriminated against on various occasions. Ask students to describe Jesse’s character. Then ask the following questions: How did he handle discrimination? How would you have handled it? Do you think it was fair that he wasn’t able to get a scholarship to college because of the color of his skin? Do you think he deserved the scholarship? Why or why not?

Continue to read through the end of page 11. Ask the following questions: Do you think Jesse was courageous to attend the Olympics in Germany? Explain. Do you think Jesse made a difference by competing during difficult times? Give examples.

Finish reading the rest of the book. Ask students: What made Jesse Owens great? Give examples using details from the text. What was the author’s purpose for writing this book? What is the author’s point-of-view? Students will access the graphic organizer and fill it in online using Kami. Students will fill in the author’s point-of-view as well as the text evidence to support that point-of-view. Students will then distinguish their own point-of -view about the discrimination Jesse Owens was subjected to throughout his life. We will review this as a class. Afterwards, we will return to the Notice and Wonder poster. We will look to see if there any wonders answered or if there any questions we need to add to the poster.

For an extension, students can watch a History.com video of Jesse Owens.

Day 3

Hand out the Jackie Robinson book. Some students belong to sports teams outside of school. Because of this, they should be able to make a connection with Jackie Robinson.

Have students preview the cover. Have them turn and talk with their partner about what they notice and what they wonder. Have students preview the rest of the photos. On a sheet of poster paper, write down what the students notice and wonder about the pictures. Have students turn to page 3. Introduce the table of contents and have students preview the chapters. Show students a map of the United States and point out Georgia in relationship to where they live. Tell students that this is where Jackie Robinson was born.

Begin reading the story. Read to the bottom of page 7. Jackie was just arrested for not sitting in the back of the bus. Ask students the following question: Do you think Jackie Robinson was wrong not to sit in the back of the bus? Why or why not?

Continue to read to page 12. Jackie was being verbally abused by teammates, the opposite teams, and people in the stands. Ask the following questions: How difficult do you think it was for Jackie Robinson to take the field with all the discrimination and abuse he faced? Explain. Do you think Branch Ricky was right when he said that Jackie Robinson shouldn’t react to the abuse? Why or why not?

Finish reading the book. After students have completed the book, ask the following question: Do you think Jackie Robinson changed the way people thought about African Americans and other people of color? Explain.

Students will access the graphic organizer and fill it in online using Kami. Students will fill in the author’s point-of-view as well as the text evidence to support that point-of-view. Students will then distinguish their own point-of-view about discrimination Jackie Robinson was subjected to. When completed, students will turn in the graphic organizer in. Return to the Notice and Wonder poster. Are there any wonders answered? Are there any questions we need to add to the poster?

As an extension, students can watch a video about Jackie Robinson.

Lesson 3- Demonstration of Knowledge

During this lesson, students will write an essay demonstrating their personal experience with either racism or bias. Students can write their work in MiWrite (PEG) which is a computer-based writing program, Google Docs, MS Word, or it can be handwritten. Students will be given a graphic organizer to organize their thoughts. This essay will be graded using the Common Core writing rubric for narratives.

Day 1

Tell students you would like them to discuss what they have learned so far about segregation and discrimination, how they felt, and the point of views of the characters in the stories we read. Have students turn and talk. Have students share out.

Tell students that they will be writing about a time when they were treated differently. Give students time to think, and then have them share with their partner. Call on students to share out with the class. Pass out the prompt. Read the prompt to the students. “You are writing a letter to a friend. In your letter, you are telling your friend about a time when you were treated differently. What happened? How did it make you feel? What did you do about it? Has that experience changed the way you treat others?" Once the prompt is read, give students a narrative writing graphic organizer so that they can organize their thoughts before writing.

Day 2-5

Student will continue to work on their narrative writing. The teacher will check in with the students to make sure all components of the writing are being completed.

Day 6

Students will print out their writing and post it around the classroom for a gallery walk. As students read their classmates work, they will write down any notices or wonders they have. There will be a classroom discussion on our notices and wonders. This discussion will conclude with a list of how we can make sure that everyone feels valued and has something to offer to make the world a better place.

Appendix

Five Common Core State Standards will be covered in this unit. The first standard is RI6. Students will distinguish their own point of view from that of the author of a nonfiction text. Standard RL6 has students Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters. For Standard RI8 students will describe the logical connection between particular sentences and paragraphs in a text.

The writing standards covered in this unit are W1 which has students Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons. Students will introduce the topic, state an opinion, and organize a list of reasons that support their opinion. Student will use transitional words/phrases to connect the opinion and reasons and provide a conclusion. Finally, standard. W6 has students, with guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing, and with guidance and support from adults, use technology to interact and collaborate with others.

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Teacher and Student Resources

Biography.com. nd. Jesse Owens. Accessed December 1, 2019. https://www.biography.com/video/jesse-owens-mini-biography-2192781306 Video about Jesse Owens

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