These days equity, diversity and identity are part of the national conversation, and our students come to school with complex ideas, experiences, and assumptions about themselves and others. My first co-teacher was super passionate about social justice, and she helped me mold my beliefs about what matters when fostering student identity at school. One of the most important ideas she reminded me of was that students have no control over their racial identity or socioeconomic class or learning style. As teachers, we aim to create classroom environments that make students feel valued for who they are. So how do we do that without reducing our students’s identity and culture to a stereotype? Here are a few ways to do a bit of identity work with your class to start the year.
Beef up your differentiation toolkit. Every student has a unique approach to learning that reflects their personal patterns, and sometimes their cultural patterns as well. It can be useful to think about learners falling somewhere along working continuums. Some possible areas of learning style continuums include: competitive vs. collaborative, need to observe vs. need to test ideas, information-driven vs. feeling-driven, or individualistic vs. collectivist. To be clear, it doesn’t make sense to assume that all Latinos will ________ or all kinesthetic learners prefer ________ just because they share a cultural background or learning style. Students will often be at different places in the continuum in different learning contexts. I try to plan for a range of approaches along these spectrums, and have found they are a wonderful way to offer students choice and expand their repertoires of learning strategies.
Update your classroom supplies and books. One thing you might try is to buy multi-cultural construction paper and coloring supplies. This simple effort can make an immediate difference in making students of color feel less marginalized. Another idea is to fill your library with a large variety of books about families, stereotypes, and personal attributes like hair and learning styles. A few years ago, I made it a point to include more novels and picture books where the protagonist was a person of color. Of those books, I tried really, really hard to find books where the character’s race wasn’t the main issue of the book. This is harder to do that you’d think! Spend some time searching #WeNeedDiverseBooks on Twitter, and you’ll see what I mean. I also bought tons of graphic novels and increased the nonfiction section to better reflect the interests of the kids. The result? Greater usage of the library and students picking a greater variety of books.
Use inclusive language. When I first arrived at my current school, I noticed that quite a few of my students seemed stressed out because they couldn’t have “a parent” sign their permission slips. Thinking it over, I realized that many of my students saw their nannies more than their parents, so I switched from saying “parents” to “the adult in your home.” I know that it seems overly PC, and maybe it is, but if it helps even one child feel more connected, then it’s worth it right? Another teaching move you might try is rather than addressing the class as “boys and girls”, calling them students or writers or scientists instead.
Plan your morning meeting conversations. Our identities are constantly evolving, so it’s important to speak as a class about how it’s going. As you begin the year, it might be worth spending some time each week discussing students’ various interests and how the children could feel better represented in the room. As you get a feel for your class, you might try discussing what makes the students feel valued and what changes would help them see themselves better reflected in the room.
If we want children to truly see themselves in our classrooms, then we need our rooms, materials, and conversations to reflect who they are. When every child is represented in the room and we value each of their voices, our students learn to better value the voices of others.
What insights do you have about building student identity in your classrooms?
-por jenny
por jenny 