Critical Race Theory
During our reading's this week, I had the privilege of reading the #OWNvoice story, Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh. This amazing text shows the fight for desegregation and the injustice in public schools. I fell in love with this book because it is very inspiring and shows readers that they can make a change in the world if they fight for their rights.
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Follow along my presentation to see what this text is about and how we analyze Tonatiuh's illustrations of how he not only depicts racism, but also how Sylvia and her family overcome and rise above their stereotypes that are set.
Seperate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family's Fight for Desegregation
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By:
Duncan Tonatiuh
About the Author's!
Duncan Tonatiuh is an amazing author/illustrator that we have actually looked at earlier in the semester! He is both Mexican and American who grew up in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. According to his blog, his artwork is inspired by Pre-Columbian art, particularly that of the Mixtec codex. His aim is to create images and stories that honor the past, but that are relevant to people, especially children. He has received numerous awards such as, the Pura Belpré Medal, the Sibert Medal, the Tomás Rivera Mexican-American Children's Book Award, the Américas Award, the Jane Addams Children's Book Award and the New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book Award.
Sylvia Mendez
In our text, Reading to Make a Difference, they discuss that younger children may not be as exposed to what desegregation truly means. For example, I am hopefully looking to teach ay the K-2 level and they may not have certain background knowledge to fully understand what it means to have informed conversation about desegregation at that age. In the chapter, they mentioned that after reading certain texts that expose students to discrimination, desegregation, etc., they would engage in plays and write letters to help inform their peers or leaders about how to stand up to such topics. I personally love this idea because it allows students to use their learnings and engage in serious topics and conversations to help others learn more about these critical topics. A few things we can put in our classrooms to help expose students might be:
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Photographs
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Primary Documents
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Article Clippings
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Artifacts
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Guiding questions we could keep in mind while discussing critical topics such as, discrimination, desegregation, issues related to refugees, etc.:
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Why do people treat people differently?
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How do people respond to difficult topics?
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How do I view the World?
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How are you different/similar from the character?
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What don't you understand about the character?
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Resources!
Laminak, L. L. & Kelly, K. (2019). Reading to Make a Difference: Using literature to help students speak freely, think deeply, and take action. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann
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Tonatiuh, D (2014). ​Separate is Never Equal. Published by Abram books