What should conversations about race look and sound like in the elementary classroom? And how can we build classroom communities that encourage these meaningful conversations about race?
Matthew Kay and Jennifer Orr take on these questions and more in We're Gonna Keep On Talking: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Elementary Classroom. This book focuses on the unique and powerful role discussions about race can play in the elementary classroom.
Drawing its title inspiration from the freedom song 'Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around,' sung by hundreds of children marching against segregation in the Children's Crusade of 1963, We're Gonna Keep On Talking is written for teachers who are willing to match children's courage and brilliance.
Writing with the humility and honest storytelling of two career classroom teachers, Matthew Kay and Jennifer Orr share:
- Strategies for building safe and supportive classroom and school spaces for productive discourse
- Dozens of practical teacher moves for facilitating race conversations
- Classroom stories that allow listeners to envision ways into the work through picture books, art, graphs, and current events.
Do you feel prepared to initiate and facilitate meaningful, productive dialogues about race in your classroom? Are you looking for practical strategies to engage with your students?
Inspired by Frederick Douglass's abolitionist call to action, 'it is not light that is needed, but fire' Matthew Kay has spent his career learning how to lead students through the most difficult race conversations. Kay not only makes the case that high school classrooms are one of the best places to have those conversations, but he also offers a method for getting them right, providing candid guidance on:
● How to recognize the difference between meaningful and inconsequential race conversations.
● How to build conversational 'safe spaces,' not merely declare them.
● How to infuse race conversations with urgency and purpose.
● How to thrive in the face of unexpected challenges.
● How administrators might equip teachers to thoughtfully engage in these conversations.
