Free Our Minds from Racism

Racism is an ongoing issue in the world. Each year, we deal with students using the term very nonchalantly on the yard, in the halls or in the lunch rooms. It is due to this that our character education teachings become even more important. From March to May, I will be doing the project :Free Our Minds from Racism with my Grade 7 class. They will not only learn more about racism, they will have many opportunities to discuss, share, create and offer solutions.

This project will be launched on March 21st, Anti-Racism Day in my classroom. My Grade 7 homeroom students will be focusing on various faces of racism through sketches, posters, personal response writing, poetry and dramatization. Throughout the months of March, April, May, students will have the opportunity to read excerpts and stories about famous people who either experienced racism or advocated for an anti-racism society. Students will then create several anti-racism group pamphlets pamphlets on the faces of racism which will include their group sketches, personal responses, anti-racism poems, and a listing of strategies to deal with it.

At the end of the project, 7-2 students will do class visits to teach the younger students in the primary and junior classes and share their dramatizations. Pamphlets will be in black and white, which each student in these grades will receive a copy . as well as sharing them with one of our community partners, The Boys’ N Girls’ club.. Should we receive funding, we would be able to print some of them in colour. Thank you.

Update (May 7, 2011)

Queen Elizabeth P.S.
Ottawa, Ontario
Class 7-2 Anti-Racism Project:
Free Our Minds from Racism
By Ms Tyndale

Our School:
Queen Elizabeth P.S. is situated in the Vanier area of Ottawa. It is an elementary school with grades Kindergarten to Grade 8. We currently have approximately 360 students, most of whom are intermediates. We have regular and specialized programs. In the 2008-2009 school year, we were proud to be a part of the Danny School team through ETFO (Elementary Teacher’s Federation of Ontario). Our sustainability continues to thrive with many off shoot programs as well as a very successful breakfast program.

Our Project in the 7-2 Class:
We launched our project on March 21, 2011 which was Anti-Racism Day.
Goal: to learn about racism and incorporate learning into creating an anti-racism pamphlet. The end product will be shared with the younger and possibly the older students in our school along with staff of the Boys and Girls Club. The Boys and Girls Club will be able to get the pamphlet into the greater community via other students from other schools. Much of our funding will provide for continued work with our Boys and Girls Club partners. They will work closely with us once the pamphlets are completed and, skits/commercials/thoughts are videotaped. The Club mass producing our pamphlets in colour, edit and produce our CD/DVD as well as give a mini workshop (or more) using our pamphlet as a guide to teach about racism.

The expectations already covered or being covered:

English Expectations: Oral Communication

"1.1 identify a range of purposes for listening in a variety of situations, formal and informal, and set goals appropriate for specific listening tasks..."
"1.4 demonstrate an understanding of the information and ideas in increasingly complex oral texts in a variety of ways..."
"1.5 "develop and explain interpretations of oral texts using stated and implied ideas from the texts to support their interpretation..."
"1.6 "extend understanding of oral texts, including increasingly complex texts, by connecting, comparing, and contrasting the ideas and information in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights; to other texts, including print and visual texts; and to the world around them..."

Reading:

"1.1 read a wide variety of increasingly complex or difficult texts from diverse cultures, including literary texts..."
"1.2 identify a variety of purposes for reading and choose reading materials appropr

Update (June 30, 2011)

FINAL REPORT: THOUGHTS
I am very pleased with the results of our 7-2 Anti-racism class project. Students were able to gain a better understanding about racism through research, reading stories, poems, novels and discussions. Our school improvement plan included voice/point of view this year. With this in mind as well as character education, students welcomed the opportunities that arose in each lesson to share their voice in regards to racism.
Students created a list of ideas through discussion and research. Throughout the course of the project, students made anchor charts, posters, read and wrote poems, created commercials and skits, researched and wrote a report about a famous person who made a difference about racism in the world.
At the end of the project, students created an anti-racism pamphlet filled with their learning which was shared with all the primary and junior classes, and most of the intermediate classes. Our partners, The Boys’ and Girls’ Club, McCaan Unit supervisor, Mr. A. Joiner worked with each group of students who presented their pamphlets to him. Mr. Joiner reproduced these in colour for us to share with the students of Q.E., ultimately the parents and some retained by him to share in summer workshops at the club.
I hope that the learning process will continue for all my students in 7-2 as they move on to Grade 8 and beyond.
Thank you for the funding that provided smiles on my students’ faces when viewing their pamphlet in colour or a power point of their cumulative work or a DVD of their commercials and skits and most definitely the celebration of the end of the project with a class party.