Creating Space for Race: Conversations in Elementary Classrooms

Encourage curiosity and caring in young learners, and support an understanding and appreciation of differences.

DR. CRISTINA COMPTON
Director of Program Development
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Conversations about race are not easy. They can bring about feelings of fear, anger, and frustration, and as a result, these conversations are often avoided. However, grappling with topics of race and diversity are truly important, especially with young children who are cultivating their understanding and their perceptions of the world. Experts argue that children are never too young to learn about kindness, fairness, and human rights. Research states that children “as young as three months old...may look differently at people who look like or don’t look like their primary caregivers.” 

As a parent of a soon to be two-year-old and a professional development consultant who works closely with educators of young children, I am committed to seeking ways to engage in and facilitate my own conversations about race, especially in today’s world, as well as share strategies with educators that they can use in their own classrooms. What follows are a few strategies I’ve curated and adapted from my own musings and readings, as well as some concrete strategies inspired by one of our reimagining education initiatives: Literacy Unbound. These strategies can be particularly helpful when it comes to facilitating conversations about race with young students and cultivating skills, mindsets, and capacities that will serve us well today, and in the future. 

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The importance of asking questions

One of the most effective ways to grapple with topics of race and diversity is to ask questions. This is particularly effective with elementary students, as they commonly ask many questions of their own. By encouraging their curiosity and caring, and creating a safe space for them to be inquisitive, you can help pacify concerns, address confusions, and support an understanding and appreciation of differences. Additionally, you can raise your own questions focused on topics of race, diversity, and exploring differences to get students thinking and recognizing how they can be advocates of positive change. Here are some examples of questions that I turn to, curated and adapted from websites like PBS.com:
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• What do you notice makes people different? What makes people the same? 
• Why do you think people look different from one another?
• Think about your family. What are three things that are the same or different about you and them? (Think of physical features or likes and dislikes!)
• Think of a time you took a stand for yourself or for someone else. If someone was being mean to your friend, how would you stand up for them?
• When we see something we believe is unfair, what are ways we can stand up for others?

These questions can be a part of morning circle time, a weekly reflection or journal writing prompt, or even as a theme for a bulletin board, where students can share their responses using post-its or index cards (or, while online, students can add their thoughts online to Padlets and Jamboards).  

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Introducing & exposing students to diverse books

As Dr. Aisha White,  Director of the P.R.I.D.E. Program at the University of Pittsburgh, explains, books — especially picture books — are a safe place to start when talking to children about race and racism. She suggests selecting picture books that offer multiple perspectives and explore various entry points for addressing complex topics. Some popular texts she suggests include: 

• Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation, which explores fairness and discrimination 
• Shades of People, which explore diversity 
• Chocolate Me, which explores racial bullying

These texts can be read as part of designated read aloud time, as part of a school-wide, character building initiative where the books are read in every classroom, or as a central text that guides and inspires a larger unit of study.

But as Dr. White explains, it’s not enough to just read the book. “If a parent (or educator) just reads the book and doesn’t have a conversation — doesn’t start to talk about racial disparities and racial discrimination and racism in America — then it won’t really affect a child’s attitudes toward race…it comes back to…having a background knowledge before speaking with their children, and being brave enough to have the tough conversations.”

What does it look like to support students in reading complex texts more closely, more carefully, more creatively, and more critically?  

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Sparking conversations around texts

​Literacy Unbound, one of our signature initiatives, aims to unbind traditional approaches to the teaching of reading and writing using drama and play-based strategies to spark conversations that are inspired by questions raised in a specific, shared text. Teachers and students are brought together in this process as critical and creative thinkers, which helps foster a space for collective inquiry and exploration. 

Using drama and play can be particularly effective with young students, especially when looking to support engagement and participation, while also providing a safe entry point for complex and challenging conversations. 

Let’s look at a few strategies from Literacy Unbound to see how they can be effective and what they can look like when applied to one of my favorite texts, The Other Side, by Jacqueline Woodson. The Other Side follows the story of a little Black girl named Clover who sees a little white girl across a fence, but is told by her mom that she can’t cross to the other side of the fence because it isn’t safe. 

Taking it to Text
This is a strategy that asks students what they know and what they wonder about in the text, in an effort to tap into prior knowledge and have students reflect on their experiences and curiosities. It can be a really generative activity as students ask and answer questions about the setting, the main topic or themes in the text, as well as the characters. For The Other Side (which includes a cover with a picture of two girls — one white and one Black — one on each side of the fence),  we could ask students: What do you see on the cover? What do you know about fences? Where have you seen an example of fences? What do you wonder about this fence? You can also participate in this conversation by sharing your own ideas and wonderings. 

Thought Tracking
Inspired by Neelands and Goode (1990), this is a strategy that can support students as they travel inside the head of the narrator or one of the characters in a story to think about what they might be going through in that moment. Students will likely have different interpretations and understandings of the characters, how they are feeling, and why they are acting in a specific way. By creating a space for students to share their perspectives and interpretations, it can assist with building empathy, understanding, and the appreciation of differences. Continuing with the cover from The Other Side, we might ask students something like: 

What do we wonder as we look at this picture? I wonder what each girl is thinking.  Let’s travel inside the head of the girl in the pink sweater first. If you have an idea of what might be going through that girl’s head at this moment, raise your hand. What might she say?  It might start with “I wish…” or “I wonder…”

Students can share their responses aloud with the class, as part of a turn and talk with a partner, or even jot down their ideas on a post-it and add to a class chart paper so that the larger group can look across student responses and examine any similarities or differences. 

Hotseat
Another strategy inspired by Neelands & Goode, hotseat can support students in stepping into the shoes of one of the characters in the story, to think and speak as this character, and ultimately build capacities for critical reflection, empathy, and relating to others. Furthermore, it can help students examine what we know about a character in the story and what we think about their actions and responses to various events in the text, as well as highlight what we want to know more about. Using The Other Side, students might do a hotseat with Sandra, one of the secondary characters. Consider this passage: 

“Once, when we were jumping rope, she asked if she could play. And my friend Sandra said no without even asking the rest of us. I don’t know what I would have said. Maybe yes. Maybe no.” 

After reading, you can invite a student to come to the hotseat and speak as Sandra, while the other students think about what they want to know about Sandra’s response in this particular moment. You might ask: Why do you think Sandra said no?  Should we ask her?  Can we have someone come up into our hotseat here and speak as Sandra?  To the rest of the class you might ask: What do we want to know from Sandra about her response at this moment?

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Facilitating conversations about race with young students is no easy task. It takes courage, patience, and a lot of thoughtful planning and reflection on the part of educators, parents, and caretakers. Moreover, it takes a lot of persistence. Being open-minded and developing understanding, kindness, and an appreciation of others who are different from us is not something that happens after reading one text or engaging in one conversation.

As Glenn Singleton and Curtis Linton note in their book Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools, courageous conversations about race require that we stay engaged and anticipate feelings of discomfort, as well as expect and accept non-closure.

We encourage you to create space for these conversations with your students and reimagine the ways in which you can spark curiosity and critical thinking around race and equity in a safe and supportive classroom. 
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DEVELOP INCLUSIVE CURRICULUM​

LITERACY UNBOUND

ENGAGE STUDENTS IN COMPLEX TEXTS