It is important for young readers to find deeper meanings in childrens

literature. As a future educator, it is our job to help our students make these kinds

of connections. Books are a great way to teach students of the many different

social issues that occur in our world. In this way, students will relate to the texts as

well as find answers to the questions they might have, but might be too timid to

ask. As a group, we decided to speak on discrimination against diversity. Our

students, are our future and we want to instill an open heart and open mind and end

discrimination.

We will start off our lesson with a read aloud on Duncan Tonatiuh's Separate

is Never Equal. The students will discuss in their groups to answer the following

questions: What is segregation? How does Slyvia Mendez and her family cope

with prejudice comments. We will discuss our ideas and organize a chart with the

shared answers. After discussion, the students will pick a classmates name from a

jar, forming a circle...as we close the circle the students will read aloud the chosen

classmates name and say something positive and encouraging to them.

Students will partner read Taye Diggs Chocolate Me. As a class, we will

share ideas to define the term diversity. Students will create with their partner a

letter strip diagram, spelling out the word d i v e r s i t y. The paired students will

come up with different words for each letter in the word diversity. After, green and
red apples will be assigned to a pair, alternating pairs will receive a brown egg and

white egg. The students will be instructed to break the egg and bite into the apple.

They will compare and record what the inside looks like. We will come together to

discuss as a class what the students observed.

In this activity students will be instructed to identify their own unique

physical traits. For example, their eyes, smile, skin color, ect. As a class, we will be

reading aloud Todd Parr's It's Okay to Be Different. The purpose of this activity is

to encourage our students that we should feel comfortable in our own skin. After

the read aloud, the students will be paired up and organize a compare and contrast

chart of their traits that they have individually drawn. Our goal in this is activity is

to develop sense of self, while instilling group cohesiveness. The students will be

given a piece of a puzzle. They should be as creative as they can be and decorate

their piece as they wish. As the students complete their piece they will all come

together and work as a group to put the body puzzle piece together working toward

group activity cooperatively.

The purpose of this activity is to observe CJ's feelings change over the

course of the story. Why is this? What does his Nana tell him to change the way CJ

observes the beauty of things. We will be organizing a two- column chart, one side

noting CJ's feelings and the second column noting what his Nana is teaching him.

The students will break into discussion answering the following questions: What
does it mean to say something or someone is beautiful? Have the students define

the word in their groups. Talk about what it means to have deeper and inner beauty.

Come up with examples from the text.

This activity purpose is to teach students to be themselves and find the

beauty of being different and unique. The student will be able to appreciate and

respect everybody's differences just as they will learn to love who they are. As a

class, we will popcorn read, A Bad Case of Stripes written by David Shannon.

Through reading we will identify all of Camilla's worries and the effect it has on

her. We will answer the questions: Is it important to care about what others think

about us? What does it mean to be yourself? How does Camilla feel when the kids

laugh at her? And lastly, we will answer the question of what is a persons identity.

The students will do a follow - up activity which they will draw and decorate

themselves with their own" Bad Case of .....". The students should decorate

themselves with something they like and what makes them unique. The class will

come back together to discuss how Camilla worried about how others felt about

her at the beginning of the story and then how she felt at the end of the story.

In conclusion, the activities we would like to share are our ideas to help the

new generation have an open mind.