Skin Color Project Supplementary Materials

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Subject

Social Studies

Civics

History

Topic

Race & Ethnicity Class Immigration Bullying & Bias Rights & Activism

Essential Question

How has skin color shaped the experiences of Americans from past to present?

Texts

Informational

Always Running

In this excerpt from his memoir, Rodriguez provides a stirring recollection from his adolescence: the first time he experienced racism as a result of being an immigrant in America. As he says, the experience "stays with [him] like a foul odor."

Luis J. Rodriguez

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Topic

Class Immigration Race & Ethnicity

July 2, 2014

Literature

What If There Were No Black People?

In this poem, the speaker explores how our culture would be lacking—in people, in music, in movements, in contributions—without contributions of African Americans.

Sean Mauricette (aka SUBLIMINAL)

Grade Level

3-5 6-8

Subject

History

Topic

Race & Ethnicity

July 3, 2014

Literature

Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question

In this poem, the speaker--who is Native American--responds to a series of unspoken discriminatory questions. The reader can deduce the missing questions based on the speaker's responses.

Diane Burns

Grade Level

6-8

Topic

Race & Ethnicity

July 3, 2014

Literature

The Skin I'm In (Chapter 3)

Maleeka gets made fun of at school about her clothes, her grades, even the color of her skin. In this chapter, she talks about getting teased on a school trip and how even her friend Char was ashamed to be seen with her because of her clothes.

Sharon Flake

Grade Level

3-5 6-8

Topic

Race & Ethnicity

July 3, 2014

Literature

The Skin I'm In (Chapter 4)

Maleeka gets made fun of at school about her clothes, her grades, even the color of her skin. In this chapter, one of her teachers, with white blotches on her face, shows how she's been able to accept the skin she's in.

Sharon Flake

Grade Level

6-8

Topic

Race & Ethnicity

July 3, 2014

Literature

Foul Line—1987

In this poem, a black woman carefully analyzes her interaction with a white waitress, whose actions, although civil, are smoldering with superiority.

Colleen McElroy

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Topic

Gender & Sexual Identity Race & Ethnicity

July 5, 2014

Literature

I, Too

Langston Hughes, a voice of the Harlem Renaissance, writes of a black man banished to the kitchen when company arrives. This same man looks to the future, for a day when he will sit at the table to eat with company, because he, too, is an American.

Langston Hughes

Grade Level

6-8

Subject

History

Topic

Civil Rights Movement Race & Ethnicity

July 5, 2014

Visual

How Rich Are the Superrich?

This graphic from Mother Jones magazine depicts income inequality in the United States.

Dave Gilson and Carolyn Perot

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Subject

Economics

Topic

Class

July 9, 2014

Multimedia

Knock Knock

Until Daniel Beaty was 3 years old, his father would "knock knock" on his door every morning. This performance explores the shaping of personal identity in an incarcerated parent's absence.

Daniel Beaty

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Topic

Class Gender & Sexual Identity Race & Ethnicity

October 30, 2014

Informational

Hijas Americanas: Beauty, Body Image, and Growing Up Latina

Rosie Molinary describes how she felt as a Latina teenager in the United States, caught between disparate and unrealistic beauty standards.

Rosie Molinary

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Topic

Gender & Sexual Identity Race & Ethnicity

December 30, 2015

Literature

A Slave Auction

Solomon Northup was kidnapped and sold into slavery for 12 years before he was freed. This excerpt from his memoir of those years, Twelve Years A Slave, details a New Orleans slave auction.

Solomon Northup

Grade Level

6-8

Subject

History

Economics

Topic

Race & Ethnicity

April 27, 2016

Informational

'What Has Happened to America?'

Klan groups frequently leave pamphlets on doorsteps and parked cars to spread their message of hate. A group calling itself the Bristol Knights distributed a flier in white Connecticut neighborhoods in the 1980s.

Bristol Knights

Grade Level

6-8

Subject

History

Topic

Race & Ethnicity

April 28, 2016

Informational

The Indian Problem Is Getting Worse—Isn't It Great?

In this blog post, Houska emphasizes the enduring spirit of the Native American people and their culture, outlines the group’s past and present obstacles and calls to action young Native Americans to carry on the torch of resilience.

Tara Houska

Grade Level

6-8

Subject

Civics

History

Topic

Race & Ethnicity

July 29, 2016

Teaching Strategies

Close and Critical Reading

Text-Dependent Questions

Readers must refer back to the central text to answer text-dependent questions and provide evidence from the reading to support their answers. Students provide accurate, relevant and complete evidence. To do this well, students will often need to re-read the text several times. This approach privileges the text over prior knowledge, personal experience and pre-reading activities.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

CCSS

RL.6-12.1, RL.6-12.2, RL.6-12.4, RL.6-12.5, RL.6-12.6, RI.6-12.1, RI.6-12.2, RI.6-12.3, RI.6-12.4, RI.6-12.6

July 19, 2014

Close and Critical Reading

Thinking Notes

Thinking notes are text annotations (highlights, underlines or symbols made on the text or in the margins) that document student thinking during reading. Depending on how you structure the task, these notes can indicate agreement, objection, confusion or other relevant reactions to the text.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

July 19, 2014

Student Tasks

Do Something

Be the Change...

Students identify and investigate a community problem and propose a solution. They then plan and implement action directed at solving the problem.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

July 13, 2014

Plan Built By

DRSS_mrs.allen

Skin Color Project Supplementary Materials

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