Who am I? Learning about myself and buildling a classroom community.

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.

This excerpt explains that families are defined by love, caring and sharing, not the number or gender of its members.

“Every brain is a little bit different...”

“Is there anything you wanted to know about me?”

“I felt alone and tried to hide it...”

The novel's main character, Joey, is introduced in this excerpt. Joey is full of spunk, but he also has trouble focusing and controlling all of his urges—which sometimes leads him to make bad choices.

Felipe Morales' telling account of an encounter with a blind woman on the streets of Washington, D.C. was recorded for This I Believe. The NPR project features brief personal essays in which people from diverse backgrounds discuss how their values affect their daily lives.

In this essay, Nhi relates her experience of moving to the United States from Vietnam when she was in high school. Her story illustrates the value of perseverance and “putting yourself out there.”

Sean McCollum gives an account of writer Julia Alvarez's move to the United States from the Dominican Republic as a young girl. Although Alvarez struggled to fit in in this unfamiliar place, she finally found a comfortable niche in her writing.

In this book excerpt Mattie Stepanek describes what it is like living with a rare neuromuscular disease. Defying many developmental odds, Mattie recounts highs and lows as he travels toward his tenth birthday, living on what he terms “the edge.”

Based on a true person, this story is told from the perspective of a little girl whose dad took her to the Million Man March—where she saw the tears, happiness, and chants of men banding together for a common purpose.

“I remember being in court every day...”

Michael and Cathy Hoffman recount how their son with Down syndrome is included on the middle school soccer team and how his teammates and opponents show support in a way that leads to his first goal.

Mariel visits her birthplace in China with her adopted parents. Although she struggles to fit in at times in her school in Miami, visiting her old orphanage helps her learn about where she comes from and opens her eyes to how lucky she is.

This story follows a girl who befriends the first African American to attend High Point Central High School, as a result of desegregation. What begins as an unintended and awkward experience in the cafeteria, becomes a strong and admirable friendship.

Two friends who attend different schools in the same community learn that one of their schools has no instruments for their music program, while the other has multiple different kinds. They use their friendship and musical abilities to confront this inequity and try to bring about change.

In this Story Corner from Teaching Tolerance Magazine, Yaki is nervous about making friends at her new school but finds a way to share her culture and art with her new class by creating a class mural.

This film documents English language learners as they write and tell personal stories from their past.

Mary Jenkins describes growing up in the Jim Crow era and frequently being told, “You can’t”—both by a mother terrified of what might happen to her daughter if she stepped out of her expected place, and by a system that had institutionalized segregation as a way of life.

Mia can’t understand why the new kid, Amena, seems sad, but she learns that a little empathy can go a long way.

“Many residents of Compton, California, live in a food desert, which means they lack access to healthy foods and young people have never acquired the habit of eating fresh fruits and vegetables. Retired neurosurgeon Sherridan Ross may have a solution: Teach them to grow their own food. Drawing on the legacy of farming in Compton by African Americans, Sherridan develops community gardens that transform the attitude of neighborhood youth to food, and benefits them in other ways, too.”

“Ava is an ambitious teenager who owes much of her inner strength to a dance studio in South L.A. Founder Lula Washington and her daughter Tamica are professional dancers — and they are role models as well as teachers. At their dance school, African American children learn to respect themselves, their bodies, and their cultural traditions. The young dancers also defy stereotypes by mastering ballet. The dance program cultivates self-discipline and mutual support that enables girls like Ava to flourish even when their families are facing hard times.”