My Family (The Anti-Bias Activity)

My Family

(The Anti-Bias Activity)

There are many different types of families living in our communities. We must be able to recognize and celebrate our differences and our families.                             My activity involves children recognizing and celebrate their families and expressing self worth. Depending on the age There are a couple of different ways to do this activity with children. 

  

The goals that my activity addresses are: 

Recognize, appreciate, and respect the uniqueness, beauty, value, and contribution of each child.

Provide children with a positive experience exploring similarities and differences. 

Promote respect towards others.

Foster a positive self-esteem and positive self-concept in children.

With children who are younger. Materials: Large construction paper of a variety of skin tones cut out into people shapes, and supply glue, crayons, or markers. Description: Introduce the topic of family. Define family as people with live with and love. Ask thee children to name the members in their family. Invite the children to pick out a people shaped person for each person in their family, glue the shapes to the construction paper, and decorate the people. Offer to write the names of the family members on each child's paper. Display the children's family picture in the classroom.

With children who are older. Expand the definition of family such as family members care for one another, do things together, and share responsibilities.

Materials: A note sent home to parents.

Description: Send a note home to the parents at least 1 week before you plan to begin sharing the posters, pictures, etc. Ask the parents to help their children put together a poster or a collage of family pictures for the children to share with the class. 

Have each child return their poster or collage to school on a different day to share with the class. Each child gets to stand up in front of the class and tell all about their poster, pictures or collage. They can answer any questions that the other children might have after sharing their information. (For those who are not able to do this, they could draw or paint the picture of their family.)

Both of the books I chose can be used to show children that there are many different types of families in our communities and they live in different ways. These books show acceptance for ALL types of families.

Beginning with a traditional nuclear family and ending with blank spaces in which the child reader is instructed to "draw a picture of your family," this slight book catalog's multicultural contemporary family units, including those with single parents, lesbian and gay parents, mixed-race couples, grandparents and divorced parents. Kevin and his brother like their kimono-clad grandmother to help them with their jigsaw puzzles, while Ricky lives with two families. "Aunt Amanda and Uncle Stan," pictured riding in a blue convertible with their pets, "don't have any children at all" but are "still a family," says the narrator, because "they say Mouser and Fred are their 'babies.'" Because "animals have families, too," the text describes elephant, lion, chimpanzee and dog families as well as human families. (A human family headed by a mother is "like the chimpanzee family. Mama chimp raises the babies by herself, with the help of any older children she may have.") Nienhaus's lackluster illustrations, the schoolmarmish tone of the text and the comparisons with wild animals all tend to undercut the final definition of a family as "the people who love you the most!" Ages 3-7.

      This colorful, large-format picture book looks at families, all kinds of families, and all kinds of diversity. Families live in different places, eat different foods, and enjoy doing different things together. They have different numbers of children, who might be adopted, and different combinations of mothers and fathers, who might get divorced and possibly remarry. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, foster parents, and pets are family, too. The color of different family members’ hair, eyes, and skin may vary. They may sometimes be mad or sad, but families really do love one another.

*I chose this age appropriate activity because I have always had a diverse family, and my son has had an even more diverse family. I think it is very important that all children know of the different family types so thy do not fear the unknown. This will help with accepting everyone for who they are no matter what. This is an age appropriate activity and theme because it shows that there are similarities and differences between all of us. Children at this age can comprehend this and should be made aware of these differences to know that the differences are not bad, just different. "Children ages three to five asked questions about: People with disabilities, gender differences, physical differences, cultural differences, and family lifestyles." (York, S. 2006 page 12) My goals for this activity were met by having the children explain why they chose the color they did and who is in their family. The children can explore their differences in a safe environment and ask questions to learn more about their peers culture and family. Children will learn that people are similar, and people are different. There are different kinds of families. Families live in different ways. Many different people live in our community. (Multicultural Concepts Young Children Can Understand handout)

** Information on the books was found on the amazon.com website.

Despicable Me 2 Film Review

Despicable Me 2

July 3, 2013

Gru is a single father of three girls whom he adopted in the first movie. At the start of this movie Gru had turned away from a life of crime, (Only males were mastermind criminals in these movies.) and tried to have a "normal" family life with his girls, but that did not last.  

                   

At Agnes' birthday party Gru is trying to be set up on a date.  This woman is portrayed as not very attractive and a little overweight, to the point that when she leans on a table she breaks it.  This is sending the message to girls that if you are overweight you wont look pretty and you'll break things because you are heavy and not graceful.

When Gru is set up on a date with Shannon, a tall, thin woman who wears a skimpy dress. She’s  a ‘Dumb Blonde’ stereotype who talks about physical fitness and ‘phonies’. When the date starts to go south after Shannon becomes angry at Gru, his partner Lucy shoots Shannon with a tranquilizer dart.

What comes next is such a great amount of violence against women.

Lucy explains to the waiter that the unconscious Shannon had too much to drink, and then she and Gru decide to take Shannon home. The carry Shannon out the door, except the door keeps slamming against her head and they take no care to refrain from dropping her or knocking her into things. Then three people is too large for the vehicle, so they take Shannon out and tie her to the roof like a deer carcass. When Lucy slams on the brakes, Shannon flies off and crashes.

This was all meant to be funny. A woman who dresses the way Shannon did, and the way she talked. Why wouldn't she deserve all this violence and disrespect? This is a stereotype that says it is okay to treat women who dress and talk the way Shannon did with such disrespect. That is exactly the message that is being sent out.

All of Gru's minions are portrayed as males. Some minions dress as female, but there are no female minions. Why even put the male minions in stereotypical female clothing?

The filmmakers added a wig and facial hair to make one of the Minions appear to be African America, but did not change the coloring of the Minion's skin.

Some of the things that I noticed while watching the film was a lot of judgement put upon people just by their looks.  The evil villain has the stereotypical largeness to him. I also noticed that Gru told Agnes that she does not need a mom, and she is sad about it. Then at the end when Gru and Lucy get married Agnes is happy because now she has a mom. So all she needed for her happiness was a mom, what message is that sending out to kids without a mom? I saw a lot of Spanish culture in this movie, but I did not see much of any other culture.  I believe I only saw one African American woman in the movie two different times, but that was the extent of what I noticed.

I believe that children are absorbing how to be decietful and brag when you win something.  They also learn that evil villain's can have a soft spot. If someone annoys you, spray them with a hose. Guard chickens are just as good as guard dogs.  When someone is happy they do good things, and when they are not they do not so good things. Children also learn how to work with someone even though they prefer to work alone.

My twelve year old son had these things to say about what he picked up from the movie.

"All the houses on the block look the same, Why would they do that?"

"When you get older you need to have a relationship."

"Parents flip out when their kid goes on a date, geez they were just hanging out. Then the parent gets all mad and accuses the kids of dating."

"Making a phone call to make a date is so stressful they can start fires!"

"Even though you're a villain, you can still turn into a Super Hero!"

When I was watching this movie with my son I noticed so many little things that I never noticed before. When Gru gets annoyed he pretends to shoot himself in the head. Gru asks his youngest daughter to lie for him. So many acts of violence that is portrayed as funny, and I bet thousands of people miss it every time they watch it. Do not get me wrong, I really like the movie for many reasons, but I do see it in a new light now.

** http://hesahero.blogspot.com/2013/07/despicable-microaggressions-sexism.html

I used part of this blog in mine because Niki M did such a thorough job analyzing this movie that I wanted to make some of the same points that she made. Although I did not agree with everything that was in her blog, I agreed with the majority of her assessment of this movie.

**All photos were found on Google images

The New Girl...and Me

 The New Girl…and Me

Written by: Jacqui Robbins

Illustrated by: Matt Phelan

Published 2006

Stacy Barros

Human Development 25

Professor Kelly Bliss

October 12, 2014
 

 

Shakeeta, a new African American girl is introduced to her new class and is told to be made like she feels at home.  She introduces herself and tells about her pet iguana. Eighteen girls try to show her around the school while Mia stays back.  An African American boy named DJ calls her Shakeeta Mosquita, and she threatens to punch him in the face.  Mia was nervous about meeting Shakeeta’s iguana so she asked her teacher for more information.  On the second day of school all the kids played soccer with DJ, and DJ said that there’s an even number of kids and she can’t play, this happens to Mia all the time.  DJ said she looks like an iguana.  Mia thinks that shakeeta does not feel at home with so many people around her and  no one talking to her.  Mia asks Shakeeta about her iguana, and offers to tie Shakeeta’s shoelace.  Shakeeta ties her own shoe lace while Mia asks about her iguana.  Shakeeta says her pets name is Igabelle and they both start laughing.  Shakeeta brings Mia to her house to teach her about iguanas.  Mia feels that in Shakeeta’s house, she likes people who like iguana’s, eat lettuce, and makes her laugh, this is how she will feel at home even in school.

The characters in this book are depicted as individuals and not caricatures.  The only stereotype that I recognized is that Shakeeta who is African American automatically wants to punch DJ in the head for calling her names. [Robbins, J. (2006) The New Girl…and Me page 8.New York: Simon and Schuster.]  The one that is teasing her happens to be an African American boy.  These two characters are illustrated authentically and are culturally accurate in their illustrations [Evaluating Children’s literature handout.]  The two aggressive people portrayed in the book are both African American.  The one who is standoffish is a smaller Caucasian girl. 

The one who has the wisdom in this story is Mia.  She takes the time to observe Shakeeta and see what she likes and dislikes.  When she does not know something about a topic she knows to go to the teacher and ask for reference books to expand her knowledge. [Robbins, J. (2006) The New Girl…and Me page 9.New York: Simon and Schuster.]  Once Mia has this knowledge she uses it to not be afraid to talk with Shakeeta about what she once was afraid of.  This conquering of fear also leads to Mia and Shakeeta becoming friends.  The consequences of Shakeeta’s behavior of telling DJ that she is going to punch him in the head is no one talking or playing with Shakeeta.  Her punishment for being new and different was a group rejecting to talk with her.  The teasing and aggressive behaviors were only coming from African American children.  Not the Caucasian, Asian, or Hispanics that were also in the book.

Jacqui Robbins is a Caucasian female and the illustrator is a Caucasian male.  When Jacqui was asked if she related more to Mia or Shakeeta she said, “I am definitely more like Mia. I am shy until I know people are safe; then I don't stop talking. I always watched people like Mia does and thought a lot about how to make friends.”[http://jacquirobbins.com/aboutme.html]  The only real voices in the story that are heard are Mia, Shakeeta, DJ, and the teacher.  None of the children in her class speak up at all.  The illustrations and language depicted the culture that it is intended for.  It was intended to be a grade school type setting and it depicted exactly that.

In the illustrations most of the children are just standing around with their hands in their pockets.  Almost like they don’t want to say anything or they might get laughed at too.  It feels more like a following when they have their hands in their pockets and a smirk or blank expression on their face.  The illustrations made me feel as if African American children are the ones that start fights and have to be better than anyone and everyone else.  Caucasian, Asian, and anyone else could also be put into that illustration, but it was two African American children instead.  That to me felt stereotypical.  The end of the story seemed very short and almost unfinished.  From the ending the main point of this book is to see how Shakeeta gets to feel at home in her new school.  I felt like it needed a little more, but I was left thinking ok, now what.

***I tried for several hours to put my books pictures on this site and I couldn't figure it out, and after trying the link at the top and it crashing my computer three times, I'm just including this note.