Full Description
It is imperative that teachers build community in their classrooms and across their academic teams and grades in order to make school a safe and supportive place for adolescents. Teachers must help their students acknowledge that they belong to a group together, that they are part of a "we" or "us," and that any differences—divergent talents, backgrounds, experiences, cultures, and skills—only make "us" stronger and better.
No More "Us" and "Them" delineates what steps educators can take to create an atmosphere where adolescent students feel accepted, included, and valuable to themselves and to their peers. The goal of this book is to change adolescent attitudes to lead to not just acceptance and tolerance, but toward an expansion of "us" and respect for their classmates that will serve to spread an even wider net of respect.
This book provides ideas for lessons and activities that can be integrated into existing curricula and that meet a variety of content area standards in language arts, social studies, science, mathematics, foreign languages, physical education, art, and music, while also proposing ideas for advisory or homeroom periods and class, team, and grade gatherings to build respect in our classrooms, our schools, and our communities.
Contents
List of Activities & Lessons
Foreword
Preface
Chapter 1 Getting to Know You
Chapter 2 Starting with Seeing Similarities
Chapter 3 Becoming Part of the Puzzle
Chapter 4 Collaboration & Interdependency
Chapter 5 Everyone's an Expert: Valuing Diversity
Chapter 6 Making Every Day Multicultural Day: Studying & Valuing All Cultures
Chapter 7 Holidays in the Curriculum
Chapter 8 Reading for Respect
Chapter 9 Ending the Year with a Focus on Respect
Appendix A Reproducible Multicultural Activity Sheets - Cinderella
Appendix B Book Club Issue Response Journal Pages
Appendix C List of Activities and Lessons
References
