Launch of Anti-Bias Early Childhood Working Group 2019-2020 Cohort
We are excited to announce the launch of the DC Area Educators for Social Justice network's second annual Anti-Bias Early Childhood Working Group, a collection of classroom educators, librarians, social-emotional specialists, non-profit directors, teachers trainers, and arts educators experienced and committed to anti-bias education.
The goals for the working group are to:
Provide feedback on children’s literature and other resources
Support teacher growth and development
Collectively create new curricular resources.
2019-2020 Cohort
A'ishatu Snowden
DC Prep
Megan Macaraeg
Many Languages One Voice
Jill Wiebe
Horace Mann Elementary School
Quianna Ford
Prev. Educare of Washington D.C.
Ariel Villano
Plummer Elementary School
Ebonie Commey
Ohr Kodesh Early Childhood Center
Jennifer McCatharn
Rocketship Rise Academy & University of Maryland
Jennifer Pierson
Bruce Monroe @ Parkview ES
Jessica Cisneros
Two Rivers Public Charter School
Stephanie Aduso
JO Wilson ES
Sharrón Dean
Van Ness Elementary School
Renee LaRue
King Elementary School
Karishma Mehta
Americorps: The Literacy Lab
Sylvia Zwi
Sitar Arts Center
Jacky Howell
Azspire, LLC
Rachel Jamieson
The Lourie Center for Children's Social and Emotional Wellness
Ashley Chu
Center City Public Charter School
Rachel Austin
Thomson Elementary School
Maureen Ingram
Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS
Kelly Brown
Butler Montessori School
Itzel Mejia-Menendez
De Colores Learning Center
Karen O. Brown
Smithsonian-NMAI, Kennedy Center, WPA, Inner City Inner Child, Teaching for Change
Colleen Massaquoi
Concord Hill School
Leadership Team
Nichelle Dowell
Georgetown Day School
Marissa Howser
Breakthrough Montessori PCS
Sara Beshawred
Bruce Monroe @ Parkview ES
Makai Kellogg
School For Friends
Shayna Tivona
Thomson Elementary School
Carlos Duque
Capital City PCS
Rosalie Reyes
Teaching for Change
Six Word Essays
The working group met for their session on Saturday, October 26 at Loyalty Bookstores. To ground the work in community agreements, the four core goals of anti-bias education (Derman-Sparks, Olsen Edwards, 2010), and multicultural curriculum, the working group created collective six word essays in small groups.
This activity was modeled from NPR’s The Race Card Project by Michele Norris and was adapted by Teaching for Change for use with Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform by Dr. James Banks.
Find Dr. Banks' article in Teaching for Change's, Beyond Heroes and Holidays publication. Here's what they created:
The Contributions Approach
“Promoting stereotypes; easy but erases people.”
The Ethnic Additive Approach
“Adding content brings information without perspective”
The Transformative Approach
“Infuse all perspectives; beware the storyteller”
The Decision-Making and Social Action Approach
“Gather data, make decisions, take action” (+1, empower!)
The working group will meet monthly on Saturday mornings and/or early evenings throughout the 2019-2020 school year. Stay tuned for a multitude of children's literature reviews, new DC Area Educators for Social Justice Teacher Stories, and other articles from our group!