Dana Chung – Schooltalking

Exploring the Principles of Schooltalk

In March 2021, I spoke with principal Candace Hunstad, school instructional coach Brigid Dux, ESOL teacher/school equity lead Samantha Gauta (all of Fairhill Elementary), and district coordinator of professional learning/cultural responsiveness Junena Thomas — all educators from Fairfax County, Virginia — about their use of Schooltalk for sustained antiracist equity work at the school level. It was a really exciting discussion about how to go beyond initial use of books to long-term use of texts for change. Sharing here to support others in similarly sustained efforts!

Session guide here.

Responding to Hateful Speech in Schools

An article I wrote to support educators to navigate hateful speech in schools; it was featured in ASCD’s November 2020 newsletter, Education Update (Volume 62, Number 11).

Read here.

Read the whole issue here.

Complete List of Everyday Antiracist Strategies

An excerpt from Everday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School.

Link here.

Anti-racism: Lessons for the classroom and faculty lounge

A podcast with Ethical Schools, where I speak about #USvsHate and Schooltalk.

Episode description: “We speak with Mica Pollock about #USvsHate and Schooltalk. Student anti-racism messaging in any medium can catalyze youth activism. Comments embedded in teachers’ everyday communication can impact students’ lifetime trajectories.”

Link here.

Here’s a scaffold

to help folks apply texts to make change where we work: the Antiracist Equity Action Planner.

Here’s a Conversation Starter

to get folks going beyond reading only, to repairing opportunity systems and the treatment of children in schools: https://bit.ly/WhileYouRead

Thoughts from middle and high school youth on youth-friendly segments of Everyday Antiracism are here.

#USvsHate LESSON LISTS

These lessons for K12+ students draw from nearly 20 national teacher-support organizations. I curated these lists for #USvsHate. I’m working right now to add youth-facing lessons based on Schooltalk and Everyday Antiracism.

Lessons for Building an Inclusive School Community (from #USvsHate)
- These lessons help build inclusive relationships, start to challenge stereotypes, and explore overarching issues of empathy, bias, bullying, and ally behavior. Start here if the people in your group don’t know each other well.
Lessons on Countering Specific Forms of Hate, Bias, and Injustice (from #USvsHate)
- These lessons build a stronger foundation to explore and refuse specific forms of hate, bias, and injustice needing attention in specific communities and the nation, so we can together build a society where all are valued!

#USvsHate Tools for Productive Dialogues

These tools help structure dialogue for anti-bias efforts in classrooms and schools. List includes norms, talk tips, protocols, and group work strategies.

Tools for Productive Dialogues (includes Quick Dialogue Suggestions): (from #USvsHate)

#USvsHate Definitions and Concepts to Prepare for Anti-Bias Teaching

I wrote up this page of “concepts” for #USvsHate; it helps teachers prep overall for antibias teaching that treats all people as equally valuable.

Definitions and Concepts to Prepare for Anti-Bias Teaching: (from #USvsHate)