Amazing Books About Racism

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I think many of us are seeking to find ways to help us understand not only what is currently happening in our country, but to better understand our country's history of racism and systemic oppression and segregation. Far better people than me have posted some amazing content online and I urge you to listen to the people of color crying out for change.

As a white woman, I cannot speak personally on these issues, but I can help to spread information and foster understanding. Below are books I have read personally or have had recommended to me on the topic. I honestly don't think I can do them justice by trying to summarize or review them, so instead I am including notes from the publishers for each.

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress.  Although white racial insulation is somewhat mediated by social class (with poor and working class urban whites being generally less racially insulated than suburban or rural whites), the larger social environment insulates and protects whites as a group through institutions, cultural representations, media, school textbooks, movies, advertising, and dominant discourses. Racial stress results from an interruption to what is racially familiar. In turn, whites are often at a loss for how to respond in constructive ways., as we have not had to build the cognitive or affective skills or develop the stamina that that would allow for constructive engagement across racial divides. leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium. This book explicates the dynamics of White Fragility and how we might build our capacity in the on-going work towards racial justice.

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race

Award-winning journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge was frustrated with the way that discussions of race and racism are so often led by those blind to it, by those willfully ignorant of its legacy. Her response, Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race, has transformed the conversation both in Britain and around the world. Examining everything from eradicated black history to the political purpose of white dominance, from whitewashed feminism to the inextricable link between class and race, Eddo-Lodge offers a timely and essential new framework for how to see, acknowledge, and counter racism. Including a new afterword by the author, this is a searing, illuminating, absolutely necessary exploration of what it is to be a person of color in Britain today, and an essential handbook for anyone looking to understand how structural racism works.

The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America

Since the early 1980s, when the federal courts began dismantling the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, segregation of black children has reverted to its highest level since 1968. In many inner-city schools, a stick-and-carrot method of behavioral control traditionally used in prisons is now used with students. Meanwhile, as high-stakes testing takes on pathological and punitive dimensions, liberal education has been increasingly replaced by culturally barren and robotic methods of instruction that would be rejected out of hand by schools that serve the mainstream of society.

Filled with the passionate voices of children, principals, and teachers, and some of the most revered leaders in the black community, The Shame of the Nation pays tribute to those undefeated educators who persist against the odds, but directly challenges the chilling practices now being forced upon our urban systems. In their place, Kozol offers a humane, dramatic challenge to our nation to fulfill at last the promise made some 50 years ago to all our youngest citizens.

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

SOME AMERICANS cling desperately to the myth that we are living in a post-racial society, that the election of the first Black president spelled the doom of racism. In fact, racist thought is alive and well in America - more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, if we have any hope of grappling with this stark reality, we must first understand how racist ideas were developed, disseminated, and enshrined in American society.

In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. Stamped from the Beginning uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to offer a window into the contentious debates between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and antiracists. From Puritan minister Cotton Mather to Thomas Jefferson, from fiery abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to brilliant scholar W.E.B. Du Bois to legendary anti-prison activist Angela Davis, Kendi shows how and why some of our leading proslavery and pro-civil rights thinkers have challenged or helped cement racist ideas in America.

Contrary to popular conceptions, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. Instead, they were devised and honed by some of the most brilliant minds of each era. These intellectuals used their brilliance to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation’s racial disparities in everything from wealth to health. And while racist ideas are easily produced and easily consumed, they can also be discredited. In shedding much-needed light on the murky history of racist ideas, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose them—and in the process, gives us reason to hope.

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning

This is NOT a history book.
This is a book about the here and now.
A book to help us better understand why we are where we are.
A book about race.

The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.

Through a gripping, fast-paced, and energizing narrative written by beloved award-winner Jason Reynolds, this book shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas–and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives.

Book Review: Nerdy, Shy and Socially Inappropriate: A User Guide to An Asperger Life

Nerdy, Shy and Socially Inappropriate: A User Guide to An Asperger Life was written by Cynthia Kim, a woman who wasn’t diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder until she was an adult. As a result she provides an interesting perspective on receiving a diagnosis late in life, developing self-coping strategies and understanding, and being a woman with ASD.

Below is a review of this great book, and implications for teachers.

The book is broken down into separate chapters, each focusing on different aspects of living with ASD, beginning with a chapter about growing up undiagnosed. In this chapter, Kim describes a childhood in which she preferred to play alone, even playing games of Risk and Monopoly against herself. She collected coins, stamps, and baseball cards, and preferred organizing her Barbies over playing with them. She goes on to explain how she was bullied as a child because she struggled to navigate social interactions, and eventually became a bully herself.

The chapter titled ‘Rigid and Routine’ provides insight into these traits of individuals with autism. Kim explains that her own “strong reliance on rules, routines, and pattern recognition” (p.86) was developed as a coping strategy for dealing with some of the challenges of autism. They helped her feel like she had some semblance of control and stability when so much of her daily life was confusing. Understanding this, teachers should utilize clear routines and expectations in their classrooms to provide this stability to their students with ASD. Visual schedules, regularly repeated routines, and designated centers or zones in the classroom can all help in this regard.

There are two interesting chapters that cover sensory seeking, sensitivities, and the autistic body. For Kim, stimming often comes as a result of having to keep her body still when it is socially expected of her, so teachers should be aware of this and allow students to stim, if appropriate, or provide other means of movement for students such as exercise ball seats, standing desks, or rocking chairs. Often teachers fall into the habit of keeping students seated and still, even when it is not developmentally appropriate, and we need to break away from that.

Kim also explains that stimming serves a regulatory function, providing stimulation or a calming effect, depending on the situation, and that the form, and intensity of stimming can be very varied. Reading through this chapter, teachers may learn about forms of stimming they may have never considered before. Educators working directly to modify the behavior of students with ASD may also benefit from reading about how Kim’s stimming has evolved to be more discrete – a technique that may be beneficial for students who wish to maintain the functions of stimming without standing out too much from their peers.

In her chapter on emotions, Kim explains that she has trouble identifying and verbalizing emotions, an issue common for those with ASD. After further analysis, she realized that she had difficulties in three areas: modulation, identification, and discrimination. She dives deeper into all three areas, providing a wonderful insight into an area that is often very difficult for people with autism to explain. She also describes a strategy she uses called “Sketching My Emotional Constellations” to help identify and understand what different emotions mean and look like to her. This kind of activity could work very well in a clinical or education setting to help students better understand their own “emotional constellations.” It can also be helpful to demonstrate the depth of emotions. Kim explains that the word ‘happy’ is a “blurry splotch of a feeling” (p. 144) to her and she needed to explore it further, arriving at personal definitions or images for words such as ‘content’, ‘elated’, ‘peace’, ‘wonder’, ‘joy’, and ‘bliss.’ 

The chapter on executive function is also highly informative. Not only does she discuss what executive functioning is, but she provides clear examples of how this plays out in everyday life, such as when she visited New York City and could not answer the question “What do you want to do?” In this section in particular, Kim takes time to provide specific strategies those with ASD can use to cope with poor executive functioning, such as use of routines, reminder apps, and chunking of tasks. She also does an amazing job of explaining what goes on in her mind during what others would perceive to be “processing delays.” Any educator would do well to read this to better understand just how much our students are thinking when we often assume they’re simply not.

Peppered throughout the book are discussions about the manifestation of ASD in girls, and their perceived under-identification. Kim points out that, after her initial diagnosis she was surprised that no one had realized she had ASD as a child. She later reflects that as a child, she was a good girl who follow the rules and, as a result, she was left to her own devices. Any odd behaviors were chalked up to her being shy, nerdy, or quirky, and overlooked. She also points out that both Kanner and Asperger primarily studied boys when defining the traits of autism and Asperger’s respectively, so the signs we tend to look for skew towards the identification of males with autism. Both educators and clinicians need to be aware of these factors which may be causing us to under-identify girls with ASD, and make an active effort to look for perhaps more subtle signs in female students and clients.

There are further chapters in Kim’s book, covering topics such as meltdowns, romantic relationships, parenting, navigating social situations, and redefining and accepting herself post-diagnosis. All of it is incredibly insightful and well worth the read to gain a greater understanding of those with autism, and the challenges they face both in school and beyond as they reach adulthood.

TEACHING THE VOCABULARY OF THE COMMON CORE

As the school year winds to a close, I've been reflecting on the past school year, thinking about what worked and what didn't work.

One area we struggled with this year was definitely vocabulary. We did our best to teach vocabulary in context, as students learn best this way, but it led to brief introductions to words which we didn't encounter again until Doc and I made a point to throw it in some where.

That's why, when I came across Teaching the Critical Vocabulary of the Common Core at my university library, I grabbed it and started poring through it. I found the book to be very interesting, and it provides some great material for teachers to use. In it the author provides 55 key words that students need to be able to understand in order to meet the Common Core requirements, and to answer questions on Language Arts assessments.

After finishing the book, we've decided that this will be the backbone of our vocabulary instruction next year.



According to the author, Marilee Sprenger, "85 percent of test scores are based on how well the students know the vocabulary of the standards."

If this is true, it makes a very strong case for deep, thorough vocabulary instruction. Of course the vast majority of us would say that we do teach vocabulary. I mean we've got words walls, point out prefixes, do vocabulary quizzes, etc. But I do believe that many of us teach vocabulary and then move on.

Sprenger gives one example that stood out to me: when teaching students to compare and contrast she noticed some of them having trouble, so she explained that they just have the list the similarities and differences. She gave them the information they needed to complete the task, but abandoned the academic terms 'compare' and 'contrast.' I'm sure we do that all the time.

Chapter One

One thing I really like about this book is that it doesn't just jump into a list of words and worksheets. It starts with the research. The first chapter is all about the research on vocabulary, which would be an obvious choice. The author provides research evidence for the understanding that economic status is one of the greatest predictors of student vocabulary and school success. Unfortunately there's not much we can do about our students' histories, but we can recognize that many of them come from a life of "word deprivation" and do what we can to help them.

Sprenger also reviews Maran and Pickering's six steps for teaching vocabulary:

1. Start with a story or explanation of the word.
2. Have student put it in their own words.
3. Student draw a representation
4. Provide several engagements with the word
5. Use informal rehearsals
6. Play games with the words.

Chapter Two

She takes the research further by following this with a chapter on how memory works. I find our brains and their functions fascinating so I love that this was included. I believe having an understanding of how we learn neurologically is key, especially when teaching students with disabilities.

This chapter explains different types of memory, and the fact that when students taking reading assessments, their entire working memory is holding information used to comprehend the text. It's important that students be able to understand the questions being asked automatically so that their working memory isn't needed.

Chapter 2 also contains the crucial adage "if they process it, it will be stored." When we first take in information through our senses, it sits in our conscious memory for up to 30 seconds. If we don't do anything with that information in that time, it's gone. However if we act on the information, it moves into working memory (which cam hold it for a few hours), and with enough processing, it heads to long term memory where it resides for years.

In order to help facilitate moving understanding of vocabulary to long term memory, Sprenger suggests students need to "process the critical words in enough different ways to get them stored in the brain in multiple places."

Chapters Three to Five

The next three chapters get into the vocabulary, with words divided into verbs, nouns, and other. The 55 words in the book were chosen based on their frequency of use in the Common Core State Standards, Bloom's taxonomy, and Webb's Depth of Knowledge.

Each word is presented with a definition, synonyms, and a jingle, as well as how the word relates to the common core. There are also multiple activities suggested for teaching each word, with specific examples.

Some of the activities and suggestions are better than others. For example I like using this play on words for analyze: "because Anna lies, we have to analyze what she is saying to find out what is true." Anna lies and analyze are true homonyms, and pairing analyzing with someone who lies adds to understanding of the word.

In contrast, I'm not wild about pairing anticipate with articulate. The two sound similar but aren't homonyms so I think this would be more likely to confuse students, especially those with learning disabilities or language impairments. Also anticipate and articulate have nothing to do with each other. "Anticipate that you'll articulate" does not aid in understanding the meaning of the word.

On thing to note is that the words are presented alphabetically, but that may not be the best way to teach them. On page 31, Sprenger lists the words by the grade levels in which they are introduced, so moving in that order may be more logical.

Since I teach high school, my students are expected to know ALL of these words, so I'm debating which order to teach them in. Once I work on my unit plans for the year I'll likely see which words work best with which skills and strategies and go from there.

Chapters Six to Seven

The final two chapters briefly discuss how to choose words for explicit instruction, and how to help students retain what they learn.



All in all I like this book and will be using it as a reference next year. I always struggle with choosing what words to target and Sprenger makes a good case for focusing on the terms students need to know in order to be successful on assessments. I refuse to "teach to the test" but that doesn't mean I shouldn't help prepare my students for it.

5 MORE THINGS EVERY TEACHER SHOULD DO EACH SUMMER

I previously posted my 5 Things Every Teacher Should Do Each Summer, which I still stand by and highly recommend you check out. But let's be honest: as teachers we put our whole heart and 99.7% of our energy into teaching during the school year so we have a lot to make up for come summer time. That's why I've got:

1. Read

Perhaps I'm a little biased as a Reading teacher, but I think everyone should have a stack of books ready to read when they have some free time. I get a little overzealous with this each year and take home way more than I could possibly read. This year I brought home:

The Secret Life of Bees
Fever 1793
Speak
Paper Towns
Okay for Now
Unwind
A Lesson Before Dying
Kiss Kill Vanish

I also brought home several academic books to skim over the summer, and Mechanically Inclined to read. And I have several academic articles and research reports to look at. And books on hold at the library. And then I bought a new book... So yeah, I went a bit crazy.

2. Improve Your Health

Have you run yourself ragged during the school year? (Who am I kidding? Of course you have!) Take some time this summer to rejuvenate and take care of yourself. My primary goals this summer are to get back to eating healthy meals, and to get on my treadmill! I started the Zombie 5k program forever ago but never finished. This summer I'm committed to completing the program.

Also go and pamper yourself a bit. Get a fresh haircut, a nice pedicure, or a relaxing massage. If you don't want to spend a lot, look for a beauty school or college nearby that offers discount services for letting students do the work. Students in those schools need a certain number of practice hours and they're always looking for new victims volunteers.

3. Purge

This can apply to your home or your classroom (if you're crazy like me and will going in during the summer). Chances are you've got stacks of old receipts to file, old gifts you never wanted, clothes that don't fit, outdated class posters from the 80s, and some expired cough drops sitting around. Time to get rid of the junk, and breathe in a sigh of relief when you see how much more open your space becomes. If you haven't already read it, check out The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. The author does get a little extreme and spiritual with her belongings, but it gave me the motivation to finally get rid of tons of clutter. Also, rolling your socks is the best thing ever.

4. Socialize

When's the last time you talked to your second cousin who has the same unique hobby as you? Was your nephew teething the last time you saw him and now he's applying for college? Now's the time to reach out. Sure, take a few weeks at the start of summer to hibernate and recharge, but then get out there. Look up some old friends, get together with family, go out with colleagues with a "no work talk" rule, or even just spend some quality time with members of your own household. Trust me, being aspie, this is hard for me, but I know there are benefits and it's worth the effort.

5. Make a List

Hmm, maybe this should have been the first thing on this list, but oh well. It's already typed and I'm too lazy to renumber everything now. Plus I want reading to be first because, you know - biased Reading teacher.

Anyway, one thing I find most years is that I let the summer get away from me. A week or two of just relaxing turns into a month and a half, followed by panic of "Where did the summer go?!" and "I didn't do anything!" So if you follow nothing else in this post, at least do this: Take a few minutes to sit down and put together a master list of what you want to do this summer. There should be fun and relaxing stuff, home projects or tasks you need to take on, and some work related stuff you never have time for during the school year.

To make this easier for you I've put together a printable summer planner which you can grab for free here:

Looking for ideas? Here's my list:

So, what are your plans for the summer?



Note: this post contains a few affiliate links for books, which means I receive small commission if you decide to purchase anything through Amazon using my links. I only recommend items I've purchased and used myself, so trust that everything I post is legit, and I haven't received anything free or been asked to post any of these items : )