Elementary School
Change Sings
The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles
Amanda Gorman (Author) Loren Long (Illustrator)
A lyrical picture book debut from #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman and #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Loren Long
I can hear change humming
In its loudest, proudest song.
I don't fear change coming,
And so I sing along.
In this stirring, much-anticipated picture book by presidential inaugural poet and activist Amanda Gorman, anything is possible when our voices join together. As a young girl leads a cast of characters on a musical journey, they learn that they have the power to make changes--big or small--in the world, in their communities, and in most importantly, in themselves.
With lyrical text and rhythmic illustrations that build to a dazzling crescendo by #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Loren Long, Change Sings is a triumphant call to action for everyone to use their abilities to make a difference.
Video Resources:
The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles
The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles
The inspirational true story of Ruby Bridges.
The year is 1960, and six-year-old Ruby Bridges and her family have recently moved from Mississippi to New Orleans in search of a better life. When a judge orders Ruby to attend first grade at William Frantz Elementary, an all-white school, Ruby must face angry mobs of parents who refuse to send their children to school with her. Told with Robert Coles' powerful narrative and dramatically illustrated by George Ford, Ruby's story of courage, faith, and hope continues to resonate more than 60 years later.
Video Resource:
Sulwe
From Academy Award–winning actress Lupita Nyong’o comes a powerful, moving picture book about colorism, self-esteem, and learning that true beauty comes from within.
Sulwe has skin the color of midnight. She is darker than everyone in her family. She is darker than anyone in her school. Sulwe just wants to be beautiful and bright, like her mother and sister. Then a magical journey in the night sky opens her eyes and changes everything.
In this stunning debut picture book, actress Lupita Nyong’o creates a whimsical and heartwarming story to inspire children to see their own unique beauty.
Video Resource:
How Full Is Your Bucket?
Tom Rath (Author), Mary Reckmeyer (Author), Maurie J. Manning (Illustrator)
An illustrated adaptation of the long-running bestseller How Full Is Your Bucket? Told through the story of a boy who learns a valuable “bucket filling” metaphor and watches it come to life as the day unfolds.
Every moment matters.
Each of us has an invisible bucket. When our bucket is full, we feel great. When it’s empty, we feel awful. Yet most children (and many adults) don’t realize the importance of having a full bucket throughout the day.
In How Full Is Your Bucket? For Kids, Felix begins to see how every interaction in a day either fills or empties his bucket. Felix then realizes that everything he says or does to other people fills or empties their buckets as well.
Follow along with Felix as he learns how easy it can be to fill the buckets of his classmates, teachers and family members. Before the day is over, you’ll see how Felix learns to be a great bucket filler, and in the process, discovers that filling someone else’s bucket also fills his own.
Video Resource:
How Full Is Your Bucket? Read aloud video 6.55 minutes
Separate Is Never Equal
by Duncan Tonatium
When it comes to raising children who will fight against injustice it’s obvious that silence does not work. “Colorblindness” does not work. And putting off conversations about privilege and equity does not work.
This inspiring book tells the story of Sylvia Mendez, a child with Mexican and Puerto Rican roots, who helped bring about school segregation in California a decade before it was deemed unconstitutional at the national level
Video Resource:
Child of the Civil Rights Movement
Author Paula Young Shelton draws on her own experience as a child during the civil rights movement in this lyrical #OwnVoices book. Through a collection of free-verse poems, she reflects on the family’s move to the South, the March on Selma, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and more. Most importantly, Child of the Civil Rights Movement will emotionally resonate with children.
Video Resource:
“Child of the Civil Rights Movement” Read aloud video - 14.30 minutes
Susan B. Anthony: Her Fight for Equal Rights
Susan B. Anthony: Her Fight for Equal Rights
Susan B. Anthony: Her Fight for Equal Rights
2020 marks the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote and there is no better way to celebrate this with your little one than introducing the woman who made it all happen—Susan B. Anthony. This book will inspire young readers to stand up in the face of inequality and fight for what's right.
Susan B. Anthony, Fighter for Women's Rights video! 2:07 minutes
Video Resource:
Middle School
Same but Different by Holly Robinson Peete
Being a teen is hard enough. But when you have autism--or when your sibling is struggling with the condition--life can be a topsy-turvy ride. What happens when you come face-to-face with dating, parties, sports, body changes, school, and kids who just don’t get you?
Where do you turn when your sibling with autism is the butt of jokes, the victim of misunderstood social cues, and the one everyone thinks is weird?
Through alternating narratives based on their own lives, Ryan Elizabeth Peete and her twin brother, RJ, who has autism, bravely and honestly reveal what it means to be a teen living with the disorder.
With insight and humor, Same But Different explores the many aspects of teen autism, while daring to address issues and feelings nobody talks about.
This is Your Time by Ruby Bridges
Written as a letter from civil rights activist and icon Ruby Bridges to the reader, This Is Your Time is both a recounting of Ruby’s experience as a child who had to be escorted to class by federal marshals when she was chosen to be one of the first black students to integrate into New Orleans’ all-white public school system and an appeal to generations to come to effect change.
Ruby’s honest and impassioned words, imbued with love and grace, serve as a moving reminder that “what can inspire tomorrow often lies in our past.” This Is Your Time will electrify people of all ages as the struggle for liberty and justice for all continues and the powerful legacy of Ruby Bridges endures.
Other Words for Nome by Jasmine Warga
I am learning how to be
sad
and happy
at the same time.
Jude never thought she’d be leaving her beloved older brother and father behind, all the way across the ocean in Syria. But when things in her hometown start becoming volatile, Jude and her mother are sent to live in Cincinnati with relatives.
At first, everything in America seems too fast and too loud. The American movies that Jude has always loved haven’t quite prepared her for starting school in the US—and her new label of “Middle Eastern,” an identity she’s never known before. But this life also brings unexpected surprises—there are new friends, a whole new family, and a school musical that Jude might just try out for. Maybe America, too, is a place where Jude can be seen as she really is.
Dare To Make History by Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando
In Dare to Make History, the Lamoureux twins chronicle their journey to the pinnacle of their sport, their efforts along with almost 150 other hockey players to start a new professional women's hockey league, their training to come back and make another national team after giving birth, their tireless efforts to advance the interests of disadvantaged communities in closing the digital divide, and their ongoing contributions as role models championing the dreams of future generations of girls in sports, education, and the workplace.
This is not a hockey book. It is not a girls book. It is a book about the importance of the fight for equity, particularly gender equity. It is the inspirational story of how two young women from a small town in North Dakota have dreamed big--had the courage to take on huge battles--and in the end how they have dared to make history.
High School
To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.
Waking Up White: And Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving
Waking Up White is the book Irving wishes someone had handed her decades ago. By sharing her sometimes cringe-worthy struggle to understand racism and racial tensions, she offers a fresh perspective on bias, stereotypes, manners, and tolerance. As Irving unpacks her own long-held beliefs about colorblindness, being a good person, and wanting to help people of color, she reveals how each of these well-intentioned mindsets actually perpetuated her ill-conceived ideas about race. She also explains why and how she's changed the way she talks about racism, works in racially mixed groups, and understands the antiracism movement as a whole. Exercises at the end of each chapter prompt readers to explore their own racialized ideas. Waking Up White's personal narrative is designed to work well as a rapid read, a book group book, or support reading for courses exploring racial and cultural issues.
Dare To Make History by Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando Feature something
In Dare to Make History, the Lamoureux twins chronicle their journey to the pinnacle of their sport, their efforts along with almost 150 other hockey players to start a new professional women's hockey league, their training to come back and make another national team after giving birth, their tireless efforts to advance the interests of disadvantaged communities in closing the digital divide, and their ongoing contributions as role models championing the dreams of future generations of girls in sports, education, and the workplace.This is not a hockey book. It is not a girls book. It is a book about the importance of the fight for equity, particularly gender equity. It is the inspirational story of how two young women from a small town in North Dakota have dreamed big--had the courage to take on huge battles--and in the end how they have dared to make history.
Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
Tired of being singled out at her mostly-white private school as someone who needs support, high school junior Jade would rather participate in the school's amazing Study Abroad program than join Women to Women, a mentorship program for at-risk girls.
Adult
From Equity Talk to Equity Walk
From Equity Talk to Equity Walk offers practical guidance on the design and application of campus change strategies for achieving equitable outcomes. Drawing from campus-based research projects sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California, this invaluable resource provides real-world steps that reinforce primary elements for examining equity in student achievement, while challenging educators to specifically focus on racial equity as a critical lens for institutional and systemic change.
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths to which she must go—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.
Beyond Diversity by Rohit Bhargava.
In early 2021, more than two hundred widely respected experts gathered virtually for the world’s most ambitious conversation about diversity. The dialogue brought together casting directors, bookstore owners, disabled leaders, healthcare professionals, students, VCs, standup comedians, chief diversity officers, pro gamers, archaeologists, government insiders, startup founders, and even a master puppeteer.
Now for the first time, these solutions are compiled into one groundbreaking volume organized into twelve powerful themes including: storytelling, technology, identity, retail, education and more. For newcomers to the topic of diversity, and DEI experts alike, this book offers a much-needed actionable blueprint for creating a more inclusive world for us all.
Whistling Vivaldi by Claude M. Steele
In Whistling Vivaldi, Claude Steele describes the powerful role that stereotypes play in human behavior. He begins by recalling his childhood in 1950s Chicago, and the day when he first truly became aware that he was black. Steele tried to get into a public swimming pool but was told that the pool was only open to white people that day. It’s significant, Steele argues, that he first became aware of his own race while being treated negatively—being turned away from a swimming pool on a hot day. Human beings judge one another according to their identities—not just their race but their class, their age, their health, etc. For more than twenty years, Steele has conducted psychological research suggesting that the mere threat of a stereotype is so powerful that it can change human behavior.
Teachers
Mindful of equity
Article regarding how teaching mindfulness in schools can ignore systemic inequities.
Charity-and-justice
Middle and high school lesson plan on distinguishing between charity and justice by focusing on the underlying inequality that then requires charity. It doesn't target equity per se, but provides a framework for understanding the issue.
Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities
Our country faces converging economic, health, and climate crises that have exposed and exacerbated inequities, while a historic movement for justice has highlighted the unbearable human costs of systemic racism. Our Nation deserves an ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda that matches the scale of the opportunities and challenges that we face.
Equity Matters
Webinar on "Equity Matters" - first of four part series for teachers, available on demand
Books that inspire resilience in kids of color
The books on this list demonstrate kids of color persevering in a variety of settings and overcoming obstacles through a myriad of scenarios: whether it’s the first day of school, standing up to a bully or for yourself, dealing with death, defending a person in need, or celebrating identity.
Books that encourage kids to be inclusive and empathetic
Children demonstrate compassion and show empathy for people through a variety of approaches. The following books exemplify inclusiveness, demonstrate ways to understand the feelings of another person, and exhibit what it means to appreciate your own self.
Books that support kids to think critically about racial inequity
It’s imperative for children to engage with texts that elucidate racial disparities. The books on this list present injustices that people of color and Native people have experienced historically and in present day, and how characters and historical figures have combated these issues.