Slide Deck to Share with Students HERE

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This Lesson in Action:

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Lesson Objectives:

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Students will be able to:

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1. Describe four different ways that racism shows up in our lives and society

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Learning Standards:

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LfJ 12. Students will recognize unfairness on the individual level (e.g. biased speech) and injustice at the institutional or systemic level (e.g. discrimination)

LfJ 14. Students will recognize that power and privilege influence relationships on interpersonal, intergroup, and institutional levels and consider how they have been affected by these dynamics

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​​Learning Activities (If you have 15 minutes…)

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Greeting (Slide 4): Which Billie Eilish are you today?

 

Reading (Slide 6):

 

“We are better able to resist the negative impact of oppressive messages when we see them coming than when they are invisible to us.” –Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, 2017

 

Ask students: What does this quotation get you thinking about?

 

Initiative

 

Use slides 8-12 to define the levels of racism for your students

 

Slide 13: Ask your students—Can you think of other examples of each of these types of racism?

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Learning Activities (if you have 45 minutes….)

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Initiative (continued):

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Slides 14-15: Explain to your students that Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones at the Harvard School of Public Health wrote a famous article where she used a story called the Gardener’s Tale to explain how these different types of racism work

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You might decide to read this article with your students HERE

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You might decide to show this YouTube video telling the Gardener’s Tale HERE (2 minute version) or HERE (4 minute version)

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Slide 16: Ask your students: 1) Describe how this story illustrates one of the levels of racism

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​Learning Activities (if you have 2 hours…)​

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Initiative (continued)

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Slide 17: Ask your students:

 

What could the gardener do to make the garden more fair?

What does that mean for real life?

How well (or not well) do you think this story captures the way racism works in our society?

Why do you think many people are so reluctant to talk about racism and how it works in our society?

 

Debrief (Slide 18)

 

1. What did you like about today’s lesson?

2. Did you learn anything new about yourself or anyone else?

3. What could make it better?

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