46. How To Approach Issues of Race with Mentor Texts

Our classrooms are microcosms of the society we live in.The sad reality (that many have a hard time admitting) is race matters in our society and it matters in our classrooms. A person’s race impacts so many aspects of their day to day experiences. When we ignore this fact or pretend to be colorblind, we are perpetuating the problems of stereotyping, prejudice and systemic racism. The majority of teachers in America are white and female. Schools and neighborhoods are segregated by race. Students socially group themselves by race (and so do adults).How do we approach issues of race with our students? How do we help students develop their racial identity and consider how our racial identity impacts our lives? I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I’m still reading and learning and incorporating what I learn in small, incremental ways. For now, I’m leaning a lot on mentor texts. In this episode I discuss how to use mentor texts to approach issues of race in your English Classroom. I talk about 6 mentor texts and how I'd go about using them.