Self-Image, Costume, and Family Tapistry Activities

Beauty is Skin Deep:  http://www.tolerance.org/activity/beauty-skin-deep Students reflect on the ways in which they have experienced or participated in bias based on physical size and appearance, and the ways in which expectations about body image and appearance in our society affect us. They learn about media literacy and examine media images for "attractiveness messages" that consciously and unconsciously impact our attitudes and behavior toward others. Students conclude the lesson by exploring ways to get beyond appearance as a dominant force in their social lives.

Costumes: http://www.tolerance.org/search/apachesolr_search/Racial%20representation%20on%20TV

Understanding Prejudice Through Self-Portraits: http://www.tolerance.org/search/apachesolr_search/Understanding%20Prejudice%20through%20paper%20plates%20portrait

Memories:  http://www.tolerance.org/activity/memories-can-have-are  To begin the lesson, I ask the students what a memory is. We start a Can-Have-Are chart for memories. For example, memories can make you happy, have a special feeling and are different for everyone. After a short discussion, I present each item from my bag and tell about the memory it holds for me. I then introduce the book and read it aloud.

Family Tapestries: http://www.tolerance.org/activity/family-tapestry  The overall goal of these lessons is to help students recognize and accept differences among each other and within the larger community and how their own unique family contributes to a richer society. As they begin to understand themselves more thoroughly, learning opportunities likely will open up to explore their own biases and prejudices. The series consists of the following four lessons.

The overall goal of these lessons is to help students recognize and accept differences among each other and within the larger community and how their own unique family contributes to a richer society. As they begin to understand themselves more thoroughly, learning opportunities likely will open up to explore their own biases and prejudices. The series consists of the following four lessons.

What Makes a Family?

A trailer about a film which helps define what "family" means today.

 

It's Elementary:  Talking about Gay Issues in School.  All kids are affected by anti-gay prejudice, and all adults have the ability and responsibility to address it. Trailer for GroundSpark's earliest film in the Respect for All Project.

Who’s on the Family Tree? Now It’s Complicated

Who’s on the Family Tree? Now It’s Complicated http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/us/05tree.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all:  Laura Ashmore and Jennifer Williams are sisters. After that, their relationship becomes more complex. When Ms. Ashmore and her husband, Lee, learned a few years ago that they could not conceive a child, Ms. Williams stepped in and offered to become pregnant with a donor’s sperm on behalf of the couple, and give birth to the child. The baby, Mallory, was born in September 2007 and adopted by Ms. Ashmore and her husband. Then the sisters began to ponder: where would the little girl sit on the family tree?  “For medical purposes I am her mother,” Ms. Williams said. “But I am also her aunt.”

Many families are grappling with similar questions as a family tree today is beginning to look more like a tangled forest. Genealogists have long defined familial relations along bloodlines or marriage. But as the composition of families changes, so too has the notion of who gets a branch on the family tree.  Some families now organize their family tree into two separate histories: genetic and emotional. Some schools, where charting family history has traditionally been a classroom project, are now skipping the exercise altogether.  Adriana Murphy, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at the Green Acres School in Rockville, Md., said she asked students to write a story about an aspect of their family history instead. At Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, KC Cohen, a counselor, said the family tree had been mostly relegated to foreign language class, where students can practice saying “brother” or “sister” in French and Spanish.  “You have to be ready to have that conversation about surrogates, sperm donors and same-sex parents if you are going to teach the family tree in the classroom,” Ms. Cohen said.

These Days, Family Trees Look More Like A Forest

These Days, Family Trees Look More Like A Forest http://www.npr.org/2011/07/05/137627840/these-days-family-trees-look-more-like-a-forest:  The traditional family tree has grown much more complicated in recent years. With increases in unmarried and same-sex couples, surrogates, and sperm donors, many families now organize two family trees — genetic and emotional. And some schools now skip the traditional classroom project altogether.  Listen to the NPR story at this site.