OVERVIEW 7 | Summary of Readings

Reading | Using Role Plays | How to Begin | Please Respond | Summary

A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE READINGS FOR NEXT WEEK

1. The first reading is written as a poem and it discusses the experience of an Hispanic boy named Alejandro. He is entering a new school as the poem begins. Throughout, the poem describes the boy’s experiences of racial discrimination related to language and culture from teachers and other educators at the school.
2. In the second reading, an Indian boy named Akash suffers discrimination by the music teacher. This is witnessed by his homeroom teacher who struggles to figure out how to respond to the music teacher.
3. In the the third reading, a second grade girl is sexually assaulted on the playground by a group of second grade boys. And, instead of educating the boys about personal space and appropriate touching, the principal decides that the boys would lose recess privileges for several days.
4. In the fourth and final reading, a new teacher struggles throughout the school year to teach her 10th graders, who are mostly white and privileged, about racism. They resist her efforts complaining to the principal and to their parents. By the end of the year, the teacher begins to figure out how to reach her students.