Learning Through Literature : Identity and Diversity

Essential Question

How do our various group identities shape us as individuals?
How do our intersecting identities shape our perspectives and the way we experience the world?
Which works on our reading list do you think will relate the most to your personal identity?
How does studying works written from different cultural perspectives benefit us?

Texts

Literature

i will be chosen

i will be chosen is an anthem for all middle schoolers who knows what it feels like to be left out. Now, they’ll know what it feels like to be included and to win, in more ways than one.

ramesh kathanadhi

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Topic

Bullying & Bias

July 9, 2014

Informational

In this excerpt from his memoir, Rodriguez provides a stirring recollection from his adolescence: the first time he experienced racism as a result of being an immigrant in America. As he says, the experience "stays with [him] like a foul odor."

Luis J. Rodriguez

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Topic

Class Immigration Race & Ethnicity

July 2, 2014

Literature

Echoes

You can see, hear, feel, and taste the injustice, frustration, and naiveté experienced at this ladies' get together.

Pat Mora

Grade Level

6-8

Topic

Class Immigration Race & Ethnicity

July 3, 2014

Teaching Strategies

Community Inquiry

Four Perspectives

A strategy to introduce the anti-bias framework into group discussion and textual analysis. Students respond to and pose questions from the four anti-bias domains: identity, diversity, justice and action.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

CCSS

RL.6-12.1, RI.6-12.1, SL.6-12.1, SL.6-12.4, SL.6-12.6

July 13, 2014

Community Inquiry

Socratic Seminar

A structured discussion in which students examine issues and respond to open-ended questions about a text. Students use dialogue rather than debate to communicate with each other.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

CCSS

RL.6-12.1, RI.6-12.1, SL.6-12.1, SL.6-12.3, SL.6-12.4, SL.6-12.6

July 13, 2014

Word Work

Prior Knowledge and Personal Association Surveys

These surveys ask students what they know or how they feel about specific words in the text they are reading.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

July 19, 2014

Student Tasks

Do Something

Inventing a Better World

Students invent a product or process that solves a social problem discussed in the central text.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

July 13, 2014

Do Something

Journalism for Justice

Students plan, write, edit and distribute a piece of print or digital journalism about a relevant social problem or issue.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

July 13, 2014

Write to the Source

So What?

So What? asks students to demonstrate their explanatory and informative skills when writing to gain the understanding of others.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

CCSS

W.6-12.2, W.6-12.4, W.6-12.9

July 19, 2014

Plan Built By

KColeman4

Learning Through Literature : Identity and Diversity

i will be chosen

Always Running

Echoes

Four Perspectives

Socratic Seminar

Prior Knowledge and Personal Association Surveys

Inventing a Better World

Journalism for Justice

So What?

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Learning Through Literature : Identity and Diversity

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