Chapter 1: Race

The lesson plans in Chapter 1 provide educators with four different approaches to addressing the subject of race. Educators reading this book will no doubt be familiar with recent challenges related to teaching about race and culture in U.S. schools. These include proposed book bans and curricular restrictions. And while the subject of race as a topic of inquiry in schools has been politicized and even misunderstood by some, elementary educators have been engaging in this work for some time (e.g., An, 2020; Bolgatz, 2005; Demoiny, 2017; Martell, 2017).

One particular method for the integration of race in elementary social studies lessons is through literature (Ladson-Billings, 2005). Children’s literature can provide lessons on the role of race in societal privilege to individual identity and intersectionality (Vickery & Rodríguez, 2021). These lessons can provide children with more expansive views of “single stories” (Tschida, et al., 2014), and foster opportunities for children to explore racial stereotypes in pop culture (Childs, 2014). The authors who constructed the lesson plans featured in Chapter One provide multiple entry points for elementary teachers to engage on the subject of race.