Evaluating teaching ideas and picture book on identity
The book I chose is called “Red: A Crayon’s Story” and it is about a crayon that is mislabeled as red but is actually an entirely different color of blue. Even though the crayon isn’t actually red and doesn’t feel red, everyone preserves them to be red. In the summary of the book, it was interesting to see how the crayon and the others around saw that another color was being produced but still was putting the label of red on the crayon. Later in the book, the red crayon finds friends and gains a new perspective about his identity and is true to what he feels like he should be labeled as. This book can teach students about how society and those around us might pick and choose identities for us that we don’t agree with and that it is okay to deny those identities and be true to what you individually feel is your identity whatever that might be. Most of the times the identities put upon us are stereotypes or assumptions and reading this book can reinforce for students that they don’t have to fall subject to these and they can define the terms of their own identities. An instructional idea that would go along with this is making the classroom inclusive with the classroom posters, videos, pictures, etc and making sure they show a wide variety of what identity can look like both physically and non-physically. This idea can first show students identities they weren’t even aware of and to help them navigate any confusion within themselves. Another instruction idea is cultivating diversity as a resource and having different music, art, stories, etc be a part of the lesson every day and not just one a specific day. This will give the same opportunity of exposing the student’s to a variety of identity and diversity in even more ways.
Hello Zion!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading through your response about identity and how the book "Red: A Crayon's Story" can help students understand the harms of labeling. This book that you described seems to perfectly describe how someone may feel if they are labeled incorrectly by society. The author represents this idea by physically and intentionally labeling something incorrectly. Students old enough to know the difference between red and blue can clearly point out that this is wrong and further understand the difficult concept of labeling in our society. No one should label anything other than themselves. I had an old art teacher who always said "You label jars, not people" which is something that helped me to understand. I feel that several of these comparisons are necessary in teaching and enforcing the concept in our classrooms. In order to encompass the thought, a student may need plenty of explanation and comparisons to things they enjoy and understand. Simply telling a student not to make assumptions about someone means nothing unless they have something to relate it to.
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ReplyDeleteHi Zion! I checked out the book and I really enjoyed it as well, I can definitely see myself using it in my future classroom. I agree that cultivating diversity and appreciating identities is something we have to strive to do throughout the year, not just on special occasions. What are some posters or videos specifically that you think would sponsor inclusivity and showcase the range of how identities look? How would you incorporate playing these videos in the classroom? I think it could be fun to create a poster with the class of a crayon that lists all of the important lessons from the story. I adore the idea of having new music playing in the mornings and maybe at the end of the day. I think it's a great way to foster community and to learn more about our students' interests and identities. I really enjoyed your post!
Hello Zion I really enjoyed reading your blog. I think this is a great book to teach students able having labels of others and they could either be true or not. But it is good to teach them what labels are and how we should show empathy to others despite what they might look like. I would most definitely use this in my future classroom because it is a great tool to educate students, so they can avoid putting labels on other and themselves. It is also good to keep reminding students of different identities other than their own through the lessons we teach as future teachers, the wall art that we put up, and the different group activities that we perform during class.
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