Social Studies, Stereotypes, Giving, and a Glimpse at 4th Grade Math

Wagons Ho! Our wagon train groups are gathering supplies and provisions for the long journey west to California or Oregon. What should we bring? Do we really need that? Is it too heavy? What if someone gets sick? How will we take care of them? Do we have enough items to trade? When do we need to leave in order to make it out west before the first snowfall? So many questions!

 

 Make sure that wooden wheel and iron tire is on tight! We only have one extra!

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Last week we discussed stereotyping. After showing the students some photos and videos of NASA’s Orion test flight (so cool!), I told them to imagine that they’d been asked by NASA to hire the lead engineer and project manager for a space station on the moon! This is obviously a challenging job that will make history so it is important to hire an innovative, talented leader. I handed each student 7 cards with first names on them and explained that those seven names represented the seven candidates for the job. I then told the students to eliminate one candidate right away and they turned over one name. Then I showed them the candidates last names and they eliminated another person. They continued in this manner as I showed them the ages of the candidates, then their photographs, and more. With each bit of new information they eliminated one candidate. On the last round they saw the candidates' work experience and education. Then we discussed the following questions:

•      What choice did you make?

•      Are you pleased with your hired engineer?

•      Would you have made a different decision if you had the qualifications information first?

•      What is wrong with judging people with such little information?

•      What do you think influenced your decisions?

•      Do you think people judge one another like this in our everyday lives?

•      What could be the consequences of pre-judging people?

We defined the term stereotype and added this qualifier to our list of “Questions To Ask About Books In Our Socially Responsible Library”.

We later read a book called The Little Family that was published in the early 60s. In this book every single action and characteristic of every single character is defined by gendered stereotypes. We had an important discussion about the fact that, of course it’s okay that the little girl and Mom clean the house! Of course it’s okay that Dad goes to work and he and the little boy work on the car together! Those are wonderful things to do. However, when no character EVER deviates from stereotypes, a story is not offering balance and complete, real characters and those types of books can start to make people think that stereotypes are how things should be.  

 A break in the rain! Let's go explore!

Thank you to everyone who helped to make our bake sale a success! We raised $174.41! And thank you to the third graders for counting the cash and sorting it into three equal groups for our shopping trip.

Thanks to Valerie and Genevieve for going shopping with us in San Rafael on Tuesday! Each group had a budget and a goal: To pick up as many cozy PJs and blankets as possible for seniors in the Bay Area who otherwise wouldn't receive a gift this holiday season.

They calculated tax on their items and kept a running total to make sure that they would have enough cash at check out.

The fourth graders are wrapping up hours of work on this math problem. It calls for computations with money, multiplication, division, calendar skills, and more!:

Ramona is a high school student who earns money by babysitting. She charges $7.50 per hour for babysitting one child. She charges $10.00 per hour to babysit two children. She charges $11.50 per hour to babysit three children.

She loves to go away to circus summer camp and it is her responsibility to pay for half of it.

·      Her absolute favorite camp is Camp Runamuck and it costs $1,700.

·      Her second favorite is Camp Zoomaround and it costs $1,500.

·      Her third choice is Camp Freeanfun and it costs $800.

She plans to start saving on December 14^th. She needs to earn the money by March 1^st to save her place at camp.

Her neighbors, the Grants, have two kids. They’re tons of fun and she loves to babysit them. The Grant kids need babysitting every Sunday afternoon from 4:00 to 7:00.

She also babysits her cousin, Little Joey. She picks him up from school at 3:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays. She stays with him until 4:30.

The Brown family has three kids and Ramona does NOT love babysitting them. They always misbehave and drive her crazy! They need a babysitter on 12/19, 12/27, 1/16, 1/31, 2/6, 2/13, and 2/28 from 5:00 to 10:00.

Ramona is not available to babysit from 1/11 – 1/15 because she has to work on a big project for school. She also does not want to babysit on December 31 because it is New Year’s Eve.

Work with your partner to come up with a babysitting schedule for Ramona. What would you do if you were her?

Let's Talk About Race

In my graduate school program, I'm taking a class called Transformative Education which highlights important current trends in education. This class, along with the fact that I have been glued to my computer screen reading about the events in Ferguson, Missouri and Statin Island, New York, has left me feeling that I need to do more in our classroom to facilitate learning around race and social justice.

I'm grateful to have access to some fantastic resources for initiating conversations about race and justice with young children. This is where I feel change can begin - with talking openly about history; having honest conversations about racism, prejudice and privilege; and identifying progress and where we can go from here.

On Tuesday, I read aloud Let's Talk About Race by Julius Lester.

 

In the discussion that followed this read aloud, a student mentioned Ferguson. I explained that I didn't want to talk specifically about Ferguson now because we haven't yet done the work to develop the understanding and vocabulary necessary to really talk about that specific situation. I explained that by talking openly about race, prejudice and privilege, however, we are talking about the issues at the core of the events in Ferguson. As always, I added: "If you feel confused and interested in what's going on in the news, please do ask your parents."

While teaching compassion, a balanced view of history, compromise, and community have always been core to my work with your children, students now experience a new level of openness from me about modern social issues.  Mostly, I hope that as I talk more openly about social justice, the students will continue to feel held by the warm and safe community in our room and be able to share their thoughts and questions about race and social issues. I'm excited!

I have been stocking our class library with more great novels, biographies, and picture books that help students gain perspective on the blessings in their lives, help them to feel connected with children of diverse cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds, and share true explanations of historical events.

One way that I'm working to build a more socially responsible classroom is to periodically select some books for the students to examine. They're looking to decide if the book is one that we want to have in our socially responsible library. We'll continue to add to our list of qualifiers. Some questions that we ask are: What is the message of the story? Does it help us better understand other people's experiences? Does it share ideas that are biased and inaccurate? Is it full of stereotypes about certain races or genders or family structures?

Part of building a more socially responsible class is bridging a stronger connection with the world outside of our school and community. Our trip to Bello Gardens Assisted Living yesterday was beautiful and felt important. The class has decided to raise money to buy gifts for seniors in assisted living around the Bay Area who otherwise would not receive a gift this holiday season. Shreya, our Class Parent, has been helping me come up with ways that the students can give of themselves to other people in the Bay Area in the coming weeks.

I hope that the steps I take in the classroom will inspire more open conversations about these topics at home as well!

As always, I want to hear your opinions, insights, ideas, and concerns.  You know where to find me. :)