Tips for Reading Antiracist Literature with Middle School Students

By Rachel Wiegand

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it”- Alan Kay.

As we contemplate the future and our role in inventing it... we can use this time to think about and plan for a future that revolves around understanding, respecting, and appreciating all that people have to offer.

It has been just over one month since the death of George Floyd, and protests supporting Black Lives Matter are sustaining a strong presence in cities across the country. As parents and educators, we are continuing to reflect on how to create a dialogue with our students about race, racism, and police brutality… so that we can create a better future for generations to come.

Last week we shared some tips for reading antiracist literature with our earliest learners. As promised, we would also like to provide some simple strategies for how to read and discuss antiracist books with middle school students. If you are interested in discussing these topics with high school students, stay tuned for upcoming Station2050 posts!

Some of our previously shared strategies certainly apply to middle school readers, but, in addition to those, here are a few more suggestions to add to your social justice literacy toolkit.

4 Tips for Reading Antiracism Books with Middle School Students

1. Start with a Temperature Check Just like adults, many of our middle school readers are absorbing and internalizing intense feelings related to current events on race, racism, and police brutality. Asking about our child's "emotional temperature" allows us the chance to validate and affirm their feelings, provide comfort, and guide the discussion in a way that will be most beneficial for them. The goal, with matters of the heart, as with the mind, is to meet our kids where they are. One way to get a read on your child's current emotional status is to do a “Temperature Check.” Before you begin reading or discussing, consider employing one of the techniques below to check-in on how your child is coping. Feel free to share your temperature too!

• Offer a mood chart, with labeled emotions, and as the child to show you how they feel and what experiences or events have to lead them to those feelings.

• For a more “techy version”- display a keyboard of emojis and ask them to pick one that represents how they feel when they think about race, racism, or what they have seen in the news

• Ask the child to describe one high and one low from their week to get a general sense of how they have been feeling and processing current events (highs and lows can also be described with other analogies such as roses and thorns, hills and valleys, etc.).

2. Talk Themes: A Pathway to Real-World Application A large part of middle school literacy is taking a students' critical thinking to the next level and examining the more nuanced elements of a text (Hint: this skill is crucial for success in the future). By identifying the themes of an antiracist book, young readers unlock crucial life lessons that can prepare them to be better allies and advocates for diversity and social justice within their communities. Readers pinpoint the themes of a story in a variety of ways, such as analyzing the characters or plot. To get your reader thinking about the theme of a text and how it applies to them, you might ask...

• What was the biggest problem Martin faced in the story? How did he solve it? What do you think he learned?

• What do you think the author wanted us to learn about the way we treat people, who we perceive as different than us?

• In what situations could we apply this theme to our own life?

If your child struggles to answer these questions independently, you can start the discussion by providing your reader with a more specific topic and asking them what they think the author is trying to tell us about that topic

• What do you think the author is trying to say about…(race, family, policing, equality, love, peace, etc.) How can we apply this lesson to our own lives?

3. Always End With a Closeout Question Sometimes, middle school readers need to warm up to the idea of talking about what they're reading. Getting into the habit of having simple conversations early on better prepares your reader for the more in-depth discussions related to social justice that you may have at the climax or conclusion of a story. One way to do this is to pose a Closeout Question after each time you read. The purpose of these questions is to share, connect, and build conversation skills. If your middle schooler is ready, you can also encourage them to generate the Closeout Question for the day as a way to take more ownership over their own learning! Here are a few sample Closeout Question below...

1. What surprised you?

2. What do you predict will happen next?

3. What about this story reminds you of an experience from your own life?

4. Which character are you most interested in? Why?

5. What questions were you thinking about as we read?

4. Discuss Perspectives to Promote Cultural Awareness Along with identifying themes, analyzing the perspectives of characters is a middle school literacy staple (and helpful in developing the critical skill of perspective-taking). Reflecting on a character's perspective can also be a starting point for engaging in meaningful conversations about social justice issues related to race and identity. Begin by spending time discussing and making inferences about the perspectives of the characters in the text, what components make up their identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, ability status, gender, socioeconomic status, religion), and how these components might impact their experiences within the story. If your student expresses an idea that reflects a stereotype related to an aspect of a character's identity, seize the opportunity for a teachable moment to clarify any confusion or misconceptions.

• You mentioned that our main character Jade is black. How do you think her race impacted her experience at her new school?

• Who are the other characters in the story? How are they different from and similar to Jade?

Extend the child’s thinking by asking them how the experiences of characters are similar and different from their own. Acknowledging and respecting what makes each of us unique is as important as considering the similarities we might share. Thinking about various characters' points of view is a great way to build your readers understanding of diversity in a story and in the world around them.

What comes to mind when you consider how to read antiracist books with middle school-aged kids? What strategies have you found effective in discussing these topics with middle-grade readers?