Conversations about race, ethnicity, religion, identity and gender can start at early ages, these ideas are powerful however its importance should not lead to us shying away from them.
This short two-minute clip addresses the concept of racism through a critical but easy and reflective lens. Short films and examples like this video provides an active experience for children, gaining their attention in a way that they can comprehend. While this video teaches kids on the importance of prating anti-racist behaviour, it also inspires them to continue with education. In this way the film inherently informs the audience that education and libraries are spaces for fun and activity.
Because this film would be shown to kids from Kindergarten to grade 3, the hope would be that they talk to others and share their ideas around differences and how this makes us all unique. As this film encourages kids to talk to their parents and peers it actively ignites a sense of passion for discovery.
After watching this film, the class would go on to do an art project creating their own puppets on paper including goggly eyes, fun fabrics and paints which would allow each child to explore their creativity while acknowledging that other puppets may not look like their own and that is okay. This would further develop their interactive skills, promoting their communication, creativity and independence. The technology used would be looking at puppet designs online and watching the video on Youtube (Bates, 2019).
After completion of the project students would be assessed on what they learned and what they thought about their puppet alongside their classmates, this assessment would be done through a conversation between the student and teacher. If the student enjoyed engaging with the materials or made efforts to understand the task this would be a successful demonstration of course materials. The teacher would then send an email to the parents or guardians of the child of a picture of their child’s poppet project in order to create opened dialogue. For open lines of communication and assessment the teacher would hold a zoom call that would act as a forum for the guardians of the child to discuss how the student did and what the child enjoyed about the class. This conversation would be open for the student to add what other types of projects that they would like to do, further removing the experience of isolating tasks (Bates, 2019). This form of engagement and check in over zoom can allow for a sense of community between the guardians and educators focusing on leaner-generated interactions (Bates,2019).
Art projects and class activities are constantly included into Elementary school circulars and applying the lens of anti-racism can act as a tool can remove the trend of “filler” and further establish creativity within expanding their information on racism (Bates,2019). The zoom calls with parent and class activities would be extremely manageable and inspire self direction, as these are things that already occur within our education system. Discussing racism is extremely important especially when most schools and classrooms are built on top of constructs such as settler-colonialism. This project could be produced and called larger into assembly plays, films and activities within the school.
References
Bates, A. W. (T. (2019, October 10). 9.6 interaction. Teaching in a Digital Age Second Edition. Retrieved March 2, 2023, from https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/chapter/pedagogical-roles-for-text-audio-and-video/
What is Racism? (2022). YouTube. Retrieved March 30, 2023, from https://youtu.be/_uz5BcMzqZs.
Hi Sidney! I really like the video that you found. It is engaging and age-appropriate. It is also a fantastic idea to do an art project with kids after watching the video and discussion! It is a good balance between technology and real-life interactions.