CMS has made a commitment to directly support equity in literacy classrooms as stated in our K-12 Academic Values. An important part of this work is reflecting on how educators think about students and their abilities. Completing the activities below, based on a lesson plan from Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance), will provide a valuable foundation to engage in anti-racist work.

*We encourage you not to rush through this work, but to plan for 30 minutes. If you would like, you can return to this page/activity later on.

Teachers want students to learn, and many make an effort to be particularly responsive to racially and ethnically diverse students. Many of the beliefs we hold and the lessons we are taught about racially and ethnically diverse students and how best to facilitate their learning have positive effects. Others, however, while seemingly sensible and well intended, can have negative consequences. The purpose of this activity is to provide an opportunity for you to self-reflect and examine common beliefs as we work toward continued growth & learning.

The objective of this activity is to examine commonly held beliefs about racially and ethnically diverse students, and the kinds of things we may say in conversations about how to meet the learning needs of all students.

Read each statement on the "Teacher Voices" worksheet (Links to an external site.) and complete the "First Thoughts" section after each statement. Try not to overthink the items, answering instead with your "gut response."
Next, read the entries for each statement on the Discussion Prompts (Links to an external site.) (PDF). As you read each discussion prompt, reflect on your initial response in "First Thoughts," and write down additional thoughts, along with possible action steps that might help you better serve students.
You are invited to participate in the discussion at this link by posting your reflection about the common beliefs and/or action steps to support your students. *The discussion is available on a backchannel discussion site called YoTeachApp. It will ask for a nickname (i.e., your initials) and the room entry password is NTX2021.

-Content and lesson plan from Learning for Justice.