Prejudice Reduction in the Classroom

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by Sarah Chase

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This website is for teachers, students, parents (and anyone else!) who wish to combat racism and reduce prejudice in the classroom. You will find lesson plans ideas, books, videos, and websites for students and teachers. I have also created my own lesson plan (Sarah's Lesson Plan). Due to demographic changes in the United States, teachers are now more than ever responsible for building classroom communities that are sensitive to issues of race, ethnicity and linguistic diversity. This website provides resources that can be used to address such issues. Just consider the following population projections for the year 2010:

The Latino population will increase by nearly 80%. Latinos have the lowest educational attainment of all groups: only 40% aged 25-44 graduate from high school. By 2040 the population of Asian-Pacific Islanders is expected to grow five times. The black population will increase by 29%. The white population will increase by 9%.

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Also consider the following statistics:

Education Completed by Ethnic Group in California

	Complete High School	Enter College	Complete College
Whites	83%	38%	23%
Blacks	72%	29%	12%
Hispanics	55%	22%	9%
Native Americans	55%	17%	6%

Lesson Plan Ideas:

• Beware the Polarized Stereotype: (k-12) Students will explore the term "stereotype" and construct a continuum-instead of using generalizations-to compare aspects of culture.
• Experiencing Prejudice and Discrimination: (6-12) This lesson's objective is to have students "experience" discrimination and help students understand the nature of prejudice.

  5	News is Not Just Black and White: (9-12) This is a five-lesson unit that is a collection of classroom activities designed to teach students to think critically about the way minorities are depicted in the media.

• The Ugly Truth about Hate- from the New York Times Learning Network. In this interdisciplinary lesson, students will explore examples and causes of hate crimes.
• Lesson Plan: Extracting Meaning from What We See -this lesson develops perspective consciousness by having students look at pictures to get perceptions out in the open.

Using Technology to Motivate Students -this lesson incorporates technology for teaching tolerance to children and teens. Multicultural Madness -website that provides ideas for a multicultural curriculum and includes lessons that integrate the Internet with learning.

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• Changing Attitudes in America -from the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, this unit of lesson plans was created to facilitate and increase interracial understanding and cooperation. It includes projects that reduce racism and confront stereotypes.

Sarah's Lesson Plan:

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GRADE LEVEL: 9-12

DESCRIPTION/OVERVIEW: Using resources on the Internet, students will gain an understanding of how hate groups "recruit" members. Students will learn about Tim Leyden, a former skinhead who is now fighting for tolerance. Students will work in pairs (chosen by the teacher) and finish all interactive assignments in three class periods.

GOAL: Students will be able to identify the ways hate groups recruit members, and will critically analyze an interview and news articles about Tim Leyden. Students will respond to all questions in their journals.

OBJECTIVES:

• Students will read news articles about Tim Leyden, former skinhead.
• Students will listen to interview with Tim Leyden.
• Students will analyze language used by hate groups.
• Students will understand how hate groups manipulate people into joining.
• Students will e-mail questions to Tim Leyden.
• Students will take interactive Cyberwatch Survey.
• Students will present findings in cooperative groups.
• Students will answer questions in journals.

BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE: Students will know and have access to the Internet and a Real Audio player (for interview).

MATERIALS/RESOURCES:

• The Making of a Skinhead
• Ethnicity , Migration , and Racism
• Cyberwatch: The Task Force Against Hate
• Interactive Q&A

PROCEDURE AND ACTIVITIES:

1. Have students get into pairs.

2. In pairs, have students go to http://www.wiesenthal.com/tj/index.html.

3. Students will first read the Time Magazine article, then the Interactive Q&A.

4. Students will answer the following questions about the articles:

• What kind of "perks" did Leyden get from joining a neo-Nazi group?
• What kind of people did this particular hate group look for?
• What tactics did Leyden use on recruiting drives in junior-high schools?
• How did Leyden realize he was the perfect target for neo-Nazi recruitment.
• How did Leyden personally recruit other members?
• What prompted Leyden's growing concerns about the movement?
• Why did Leyden decide to contact the Simon Wiesenthal Center?

5. Write down five questions--in your journal--you would like to ask Leyden. Give questions to teacher.

6. Go back to the Interactive Q&A. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and choose one question to send Leyden by e-mail (you MUST get verification from me before you send the e-mail).

7. Now read the essay "Hate Group Recruitment." What other ways to hate groups recruit the "right type of" people? Compare and contrast the essay's content with Leyden's anecdotes. Write answers in your journal.

8. Now go to http://www.pscw.uva.nl/sociosite/TOPICS/Ethnic.html.

9. Click on the Hate Groups box. Explore ONE of the websites and record THREE FALSE STATEMENTS (statements that serve to "recruit" or manipulate readers). Write them in you journal.

10. Now go to the CyberWatch survey. Complete the survey and print before sending it.

11. For homework, listen to your assigned portion of Leyden's interview on Fresh Air. Type in "Leyden" under the search of Fresh Air programs.

12. You will be taking notes and reporting your findings to other students as a Jigsaw activity for the next day. All students are required to do their part!

13. I will be collecting your notes and journal entries, so make them legible!

ASSESSMENT:

Students will be assessed according to the thoughtfulness of responses to assigned questions, notes on the interview, participation of the Cyber Watch survey and e-mail question to Tim Leyden. Students will also be assessed during the follow-up Jigsaw activity concerning the interview.

Websites:

Ethnicity , Migration , and Racism- website that has great links to migration and ethnicity sites, as well as Anti-Discrimination, Hate groups, and Anti-Semitism sites. Teaching Tolerance -magazine with in-depth features on topics like race relations, homophobia, building classroom communities, and resource recommendations. Includes address where teachers can write for free subscriptions; provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center -fights hate, intolerance, and discrimination through education and litigation.

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• Teaching Steps to Tolerance Program- This site has links to educational resources and project ideas for teachers wanting to integrate the teaching of tolerance into their school's curriculum.
• Simon Wiesenthal Center -an international center for Holocaust remembrance and the defense of Jewish people and human rights.

9	Multimedia Learning Center -a comprehensive resource on the Holocaust and WWII; includes thousands of photos. SUAVE Online -offers an integrated approach to teaching and learning in multicultural and multilingual settings.

• Multicultural Pavilion -this invaluable site has many teacher resource links to multicultural lessons and other sites

Books and Essays:

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• Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education (1997) by Sonia Nieto an invaluable resource for teachers, this text uses case studies to voice issues of diversity. It also gives suggestions to promote tolerance and improve the academic achievement of ethnic minority students.
• Beyond Silenced Voices: Class, Race, Gender in the United States Schools (1993) Lois Weis and Michelle Fine, editors -a collection of essays that debate issues of institutionalized power and privilege, and the policies and practices that serve to silence children and adolescents of minority status.

The Concept of Educational Opportunity (1966) by James A. Coleman -otherwise known as the "Coleman Report," this essay was presented to the U.S. Congress in 1966 in which he concluded that poor black children did better academically in integrated, middle-class schools.

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• Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Educational Reform (1997) by Jean Anyon this book explores the connections between urban education's problems and the economic and "political devastation of the cities." Anyon backs up her thesis with her own experiences as a school reformer in Newark, New Jersey. This book is filled with interviews, media reports and her own eyewitness accounts of Newark schools.
• Savage Inequalities (1992) by Jonathan Kozol -this book is a collection of horrifying reports of schools in black and Hispanic communities from New York to California. He asserts that racism is the cause of vast disparities in the quality of education and resources children receive.

• Beyond Hate (88 minutes) -correspondent Bill Moyers interviews haters and the hated while investigating the causes of hatred toward the goal of promoting tolerance.
• Black Like Me (105 minutes)- this 1964 film stars James Whitmore as a white author during the 1950's who chemically treats his skin to appear black. The film, based on the book by John Howard Griffin, explores the extent of racial stereotypes harbored by a large section of the public.

13	The California Reich (55 minutes) -an inside look at the rebirth of the Nazi movement in the United States. Crimes of Hate (30 min.) -this documentary looks at the rise in violent racist acts in the United States today.

• Hate on Trial: Part One (80 minutes) & Part Two (60 min.) -a two-cassette documentary about the 1990 trial of Tom and John Metzger, leaders of the White Aryan Resistance (WAR). The two were charged with the fatal beating of an Ethiopian man in Portland, Oregon.

The Klan: A Legacy of Hate in America (30 min.) -an award-winning documentary that examines the history and present day activities of the Ku Klux Klan. Names Can Really Hurt Us (24 min.) -teenagers in an ethnically diverse part of New York City describe their experiences with bullying, bigoted classmates, and victimization. Through role playing, students learn how to confront their victimizers.

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• Not in Our Town (2 Parts) -prejudice-reduction video that uses a case-history of "Aryan supremacy" in the U.S.
• Prejudice: The Monster Within (30 minutes) -for 6th graders, this video answers question about the nature of prejudice and how we can work to end it. The film uses interviews with middle and high school students.

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Scapegoating/Impact of Prejudice: Understanding Prejudice (30 min.) -analysis of the roots of prejudice. Uses three case studies to explore scapegoating versus discrimination. The Truth About Hate (49 minutes) -this film explores the origins of hate through the eyes of teenagers as they face their own racism, sexual discrimination, and religious hatred.

Footnotes

 1. http://imagine.metanet.com/fcgi-bin/imagine_search.fcgi?go=showcase&file=http://imagine.metanet.com/bg1/BG-Masks.JPG&origin=catalog_view_image (background).

2. http://members.arttoday.com/tools/?a=c

3. www.savethekahiki.bizland.com

4. http://members.arttoday.com/tools/?a=c

5-16. http://members.arttoday.com/tools/?a=

7. http://www.excel.net/~ssmith/alc.html

 

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