Unconscious Bias
Our unconscious bias unit traces inequality from the 1860's through today. Specifically, the unit focuses on unconscious bias, and how much of the inequality that lingers in our country isn't the blatant, purposeful racism of the 1960's, but is in fact more subtle, and in some ways, more insidious than that. We'll even engage in a Harvard Study to measure our own unconscious bias, and to help advance the field of inequality research.
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Week 1: Essentially Questioning
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In this, the first week of our inequality unit, we write questions that drive our learning for the rest of the unit. Because it's such a valuable use of our time, we spend the entire week writing, evaluating, refining, and voting on the questions we want to answer. We'll also utilize some reader-response theory to discuss how inequality has affected our lives.
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Week 2: Historical Significance
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Our second week is focused on the historical significance of inequality. While most of the unit focuses on the current iterations of unconscious bias, it's important that students make the connection to the texts dating back to the 1860's, when women and minorities were already asking for the same kinds equality that they're still fighting to enjoy today. We'll use three differentiated passages depending on our students' reading level, and utilize some jigsaw methodology to share an accurate picture of the history of inequality in our country.
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Equality through the Ages Sentences
Ain't I A Woman? Equal Rights for Women I Have a Dream Historical Significance Form |
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Verna Myers starts her speech with a staggering connection between a book she was reading about violence against young, black men from the early 1900's, and the recent radio reports about violence against young, black men from today. She shares some insight about the uselessness of pretending to be "color blind" and the importance of admitting our biases to overcome them.
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Yasmin Abdel-Magied transforms both her wardrobe, and our perceptions about inequality with her insightful speech about how the world looks at her differently depending on the cloth she chooses, or chooses not to wear. We'll continue building connections between how the different sub groups experience inequality.
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Based on this year's gender-specific questions, we needed to add more texts about how gender identity and sexuality create inequality. We dumped some of the women's rights specific texts from last year in favor of this text from November, 2018 about how sexuality still impacts people's lives.
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Yoruba Richen makes connections between the civil rights movement's success in Barrack Obama's becoming president, and the gay rights' movements recent success. Like most of our speakers, her vision of civil rights is not one representing a single perspective: she represents two groups, each struggling for equality.
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"What the gay rights movement learned from the civil rights movement"
Full-Length text Bilingual Text Shortened Text Shortened, Bilingual Text |
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Halla Thomasdottir shares excellent advice in her speech. We learn about Iceland, the most equal country in the world. Most importantly, we learn about how important it is for women to run for office, whether or not they win the election. You will never, in your entire life, experience a more hopeful message delivered by the "loser" of an election.
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In this, the most moving of our speeches, we examine "Manifest Destiny" from the perspective of the losing side, and we realize that what we learn as a great time in American history is only great advancement for the U.S. based on the great loss of our Native American population. As our final group, our connections are now complete, and we can use all the evidence we've accrued to answer the questions we posed in week one.
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Transcript
Shortened Transcript Bilingual Transcript Shortened, Bilingual Transcript Text-Dependent Questions "This Land is Your Land" |
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Final Essay Project
Essay DescriptionOur essay this unit will answer the essential questions our students created during our first week. Regardless of the questions, the essay will connect how different groups across history and countries have suffered from, and worked to overcome inequality.
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Success Skills |
Essay Materials
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Essay Differentiation
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