Can You See Yourself?Students Finding Themselves in Southern Children’s Literature

Latonda Mitchell, 6th Grade, Mountain Island Lake Academy

Curriculum Unit (PDF)

Synopsis

Can You See Yourself?:Students Finding Themselves in Southern Children’s Literature is created to help students of color find themselves depicted in a positive light in southern children’s literature. The focus of this unit is on self-efficacy and southern culture seeing that students in my district are southern. Students will analyze how southern culture is depicted in novels with main characters of color and compare their lived definition of southern culture to how it is portrayed in children’s literature. Throughout this unit, students will get the chance to have authentic discussions on self-efficacy, southern culture then vs. now, hidden curriculum, and how to find oneself in southern children’s literature by looking for windows, mirrors, and sliding doors.