Identifying Bias, Omission and Stereotypes in Thanksgiving Literature
Help me give my students books about Thanksgiving so they can practice reading critically.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Kaelin's classroom raised $580
This project is fully funded
My Students
When walking into my classroom, you will see a racially and economically diverse group of students, working together, talking, sharing ideas and challenging each other to learn and grow. The group is academically mixed, with some children performing well above grade level, some for whom academic learning is difficult. Children with learning differences are fully integrated into the life of the classroom and an outside observer would not be able to tell who is struggling academically and who is not.
Because students have different strengths and learn in different ways, opportunities are created for students to both learn and express their knowledge in multiple ways.
Cooperative learning is valued and children work together on projects to expand and demonstrate their knowledge. At any time, there may be children working independently, with teachers or with paraprofessionals.
My Project
I believe it is essential to teach children how to think about the world critically. Rather than passively receiving information, students need to develop the skills to investigate and critique the source and quality of information.
“Critical literacy is not a teaching method but a way of thinking and a way of being that challenges texts and life as we know it.
Critical literacy focuses on issues of power and promotes reflection, transformation, and action. It encourages readers to be active participants in the reading process: to question, to dispute, and to examine power relations.” Paolo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Using these materials, students will learn about different perspectives of the story of Thanksgiving in social studies and then analyze a variety of texts (picture books, nonfiction texts and even board books) looking for bias, omission and stereotypes within each text. By empowering students with this language, I hope to empower them to think more critically about the representation of facts and stories in history as well as in present day.
More than a third of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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