Children as Advocates: Beginnings

Young Children as Advocates

Dana Bentley, Beginner North Teacher

Betty Chan, Beginner North Teacher

Establishing Individual and Group Identity: “Me” Stories and “We” Stories 

Teacher Perspective:

When doing advocacy work with young children, it is essential that they first establish a sense of their own identities in the school space.  It is only when children feel seen and known that they are able to turn outward to their potential impacts on the broader community.  It is through the establishment of this powerful sense of identity that children feel the peace and security that allows them to consider the  needs of a larger community.

As children begin to establish their identities, they ignite connections across their community.  They begin to “know” one another, and to share communal stories of the “we” they are becoming.  As teachers, we highlight these connections to the children, helping them to see each other in relation to one another, and bringing their community stories to the forefront.  As the “we” stories of the community grow, the children become a more confident and cohesive whole.  It is from this space that they are able to connect as a community and turn to change they wish to make in the larger world.

During the first months of school, we focus on these elements of the children’s identities, establishing a strong foundation from which advocacy can grow.  Interlaced with this work is a focus on fundamental anti-bias work, setting the groundwork for their perspectives and our community standards over the course of the year.

Teacher Reflection Questions:

Who are these children?

What are their stories?

Do they feel seen and heard?

How can we highlight all children’s stories and identities?

What is the story of the community?

How are the children connecting with one another?

How might we make these stories visible?

What are the shared interests and questions emerging from the community?

What habits of mind are we supporting as a part of our classroom culture?

Foundational Project Work:

Portfolios: Developing and Sharing Family Pages

The “Me” Story:

As a part of their classroom work, every child developed a “family page” as the introduction to his or her portfolio.  This is direct connection between home and school, framing the child’s home life as central to their school identity as well.  Children then share their page with their classmates, bringing their home stories into the culture of the classroom.

The “We” Story:

When these stories are shared, classmates are invited to ask questions and to make comments.  The stories told, shared, and discussed become a part of our community as a whole, sharing not only children’s individual identity, but creating knowledge and connections through shared story.  Through this process, children’s families and their family stories become a part of the fabric of our classroom community.

The Advocacy Connection:

Children have to develop connections and relationships that encompass similarities and difference in order to evolve as advocates.  A fundamental building block of this process is family, and the diversity of the families represented within a classroom community.  Through the sharing of these stories as a part of the “official” curriculum, the many faces and forms of family are brought to the forefront of our classroom, becoming not just visible, but a part of our story.  Through sharing, embracing, questioning, and collaborating around our stories of family, those diversities become part of a shared identity.  In this way, we position the children as advocates for the diversities of family represented within our community.

The Colors of Us: Mixing Our Own Skin Color

      

The “Me” Story:

To begin some of our anti-bias work in Beginners North, we investigated the colors available in our paint collection.  We noticed that none of them were the right color for any of our skin color.  Going through a process of discussion and problem solving, we realized that our skin is all different, so we would need 19 different colors for all of us to be represented in our paint collection.  Working with our art teacher Vanessa, we looked closely at our skin colors, carefully tested and mixed them, and created names that described our own skin tones, thus physically representing each of us in the classroom space.

The “We” Story:

The Colors of Us is also a “we” story.  Using the concrete materials of paint, we thought about representation, and about every member of the community.  We considered the need to represent all of our bodies in paint, and considered our connections and differences.  This became a part of our shared story as well.  Finally, we completed this process with the development of collaborative community standards.  We signed this document with our handprints, using the skin color paints that we developed.  This “document” now hangs in our classroom, a visual representation of the many shades of us, and the ways in which we come together in caring for our community.

The Advocacy Connection:

Many biases emerge and grow in the silences.  When we ignore differences, when it is not invited into the body of our classroom work, we breed discomfort and fear around discussions about diversities.  “The Colors of Us” was a process by which we brought some of our basic differences to the center of the classroom, making these differences a safe part of our community discussions.  Through looking at skin color, naming, thinking through ideas of representation, we enable early thinking and meaning making about anti-bias work.

The Artifact Project

    

The “Me” Story:

As part of our work as a class this semester, each child has had the opportunity to bring home the “artifact bag.”  This tool instructs students and families to pack three objects that have a home story that the child would like to share.  Each child shares these objects with her or his classmates, taking questions and comments as a part of this process.  The objects are then housed in an “exhibit” in the classroom that showcases that child’s image as well as the objects that she or he shared.

This process offers another powerful connection between home and school culture, inviting children to make their home stories and adventures visible in the context of their classroom life.  By keeping these artifacts in the classroom, they are visual signal of the connection between home and school, inviting the child’s home experiences into their school life.

The “We” Story:

Through this sharing process, children make connections to each other’s broader life experiences.  The presence of these objects in our classroom space invites a continued relationship and questioning that is a part of the development of these connections.  Finally, all children’s objects are set up as observational drawing prompts, so that each set of objects has a “turn” to be the focus of the class’ observational drawing.  As the children look closely at each other’s objects, ask questions, and draw, they represent each other, and literally draw connections to one another, while also working on a range of other academic skills.

  

The Advocacy Connection:

The Artifact Project establishes a higher level of collaboration and close thinking about diversities, home stories, school stories, and our relationships within the classroom community.  As the children have become more established in the classroom, they are better able to look beyond their own stories, and into the ideas and experiences of their classmates.  In thinking about anti-bias, advocacy work, we work closely with children in slowly stepping outward, from self, to dyads, to community connections, to researching and deeply knowing the classroom group as a whole.  As we go through this process, we work with children to deeply know, investigate, and celebrate diversities.  Through this process, we position children as advocates, holding their stories, the stories of others, and the shared stories they have developed through evolving identities.