Category Archives: Anti-bias Curriculum

Self-Study During the Pandemic

When I started my second attempt at the self-study my initial idea was that I would focus on making sure I didn’t become a “dinosaur”. A dinosaur in this context meant faculty member and teacher who was wed to the way he/she has always done things. I was going to re-examine my habits as a teacher and a learner. Continue reading Self-Study During the Pandemic

The Problems of Unexamined Normative Assumptions

Essential Questions:

  • How do we teach students to see historical events through multiple perspectives?
  • How does changing the “voice” of the class materials challenge stereotypes about non-Western civilizations and cultures?
  • How do we teach students to value the achievements of civilizations that are not their (or our) own or that have traditionally been seen through a deficit lens?
  • How can highlighting examples of interactions between oppressed and dominant groups throughout history reveal injustices that affect our students’ lives?

Continue reading The Problems of Unexamined Normative Assumptions

Affirming Perspective /Challenging Stereotypes: Decentering whiteness in 9th grade history

Essential Questions:

  • How do we teach students to see historical events through multiple perspectives?
  • How does changing the “voice” of the class materials challenge stereotypes about non-Western civilizations and cultures?
  • How do we teach students to value the achievements of civilizations that are not their (or our) own or that have traditionally been seen through a deficit lens?
  • How can highlighting examples of interactions between oppressed and dominant groups throughout history reveal injustices that affect our students’ lives?

Continue reading Affirming Perspective /Challenging Stereotypes: Decentering whiteness in 9th grade history

Many Scales make a Rainbow Fish: Exploring Self and Community in the Fours

Essential Questions:

  • How do we grow our understanding of ourselves within a community?
  • How do we develop our own identities while also learning about others’ identities?
  • How do we use the concept of community to notice and celebrate both similarities and differences?
  • How do we use the concept of community to foster a culture of social justice in terms of vision and action?

Continue reading Many Scales make a Rainbow Fish: Exploring Self and Community in the Fours

What’s in a name? Looking Deeper into Morning Meeting in the Lower School.

Essential questions:

  • How does morning meeting develop identity on a daily basis? How can this practice be deepened? 
  • How can morning meeting develop capacity for anti-bias work?

Guiding Questions:

  • Where do our names come from? 
  • Why are they so important?

Continue reading What’s in a name? Looking Deeper into Morning Meeting in the Lower School.

Parenting for Affirmation and Collective Action

Essential Questions:

  • Identity: How do parents affirm children who have received an identity related microaggression? / How do parents help support children who deliver an identity related microaggression?
  • Action: What is a decision parents can help children make to build resilience from, and/or practice personal or collective action after an identity related microaggression has taken place?

Continue reading Parenting for Affirmation and Collective Action

We Are the Same, We Are Different: Racial Literacy in Early Childhood Classroom

Essential Questions: 

  • How do discussions about sameness build a sense of shared community?
  • How do we explore the ways we are different from people around us?
  • What are ways that people are treated unfairly?
  • What can I do to make things more fair for myself and others? 

Continue reading We Are the Same, We Are Different: Racial Literacy in Early Childhood Classroom

Affirming Perspective /Challenging Stereotypes: Decentering whiteness in 9th grade history

Essential Questions:

  • How do we teach students to see historical events through multiple perspectives?
  • How does changing the “voice” of the class materials challenge stereotypes about non-Western civilizations and cultures?
  • How do we teach students to value the achievements of civilizations that are not their (or our) own or that have traditionally been seen through a deficit lens?
  • How can highlighting examples of interactions between oppressed and dominant groups throughout history reveal injustices that affect our students’ lives?

Continue reading Affirming Perspective /Challenging Stereotypes: Decentering whiteness in 9th grade history

Values and Beliefs about Doing Science and Science Class

Essential Questions:

  • If we want students to learn to do the work of scientists, not just learn about science, how can that be done without recreating within our classrooms the culture that currently exists in science outside of our school?
  • If the past 500 years of science had been created by everyone, what values and beliefs would we hold about science? And if we want to do something about that now, what values and beliefs should we aspire to hold in our classroom?
  • What routines, activities, and systems of feedback are necessary to create a culture of science that is built by and for everyone and that can be carried beyond a single classroom?
  • How do we help students align their actions with their values in science class?

Continue reading Values and Beliefs about Doing Science and Science Class