Improving Our Racial Literacy

Deepening Our Understanding of Justice, Equity and Diversity

By Cathy Weeks, Director of Curriculum

Since the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year, Parkside administrators and staff have been engaged in the process of deepening our understanding of justice, equity, and diversity and seeking to improve our racial literacy. We have done this in many different ways and we are pleased to be able to share our progress. 

After a review of different options, coheads Albina Miller and Leslie Thorne chose the Pollyanna Racial Literacy Curriculum to adapt for use at Parkside. Many independent schools in New York City, Brearley and Stephen Gaynor to name a few, have begun to use a version of this curriculum with their students and have seen great success. In January 2021, Parkside staff engaged in a thought-provoking and meaningful training on the concepts of racial literacy with Pollyanna coordinator Monique Vogelsang. Staff left this event inspired and motivated to refine their practice and engage more with these issues. In March 2021, Monique made an evening presentation to Parkside parents reviewing many of the same concepts and engaging parents in discussion of how to build a better foundation of racial literacy at home. We look forward to future Pollyanna trainings and events as we deepen our engagement with the Pollyanna curriculum.

Another area where Parkside has sought to refine our practice around these issues is in the area of materials used for reading groups and for classroom read alouds. We have ensured that all reading groups have read at least one (and in many cases it has been several) books with diverse characters and contexts. We have made a similar effort with picture books read aloud in classrooms.

We are planning an overhaul of our social studies curriculum to ensure that diversity and equity are at the center, and we will be sharing more in the fall about this after work planned for over the summer on integrating the Pollyanna curriculum units into our existing curriculum. As a start, during this past year, we have reviewed all of our social studies units and we have sought to further incorporate materials reflecting diverse perspectives. For example, in the country study done in class 4-1 about Australia, we included more materials about indigenous peoples including read alouds focusing on aboriginal culture. Class 3-3 did similar work about the Inuit in their unit about Alaska.  Our 4th floor classrooms incorporated updated language and concepts in teaching about colonial America, and our 5th floor classrooms extended their units on Slavery in America based on the trainings and materials we received from Pollyanna. 

While we are proud of the progress we have made during this past year, especially as we also navigated the pandemic, we know there is more to do, and we look forward to the important work ahead.

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To learn more about the Pollyanna Racial Literacy Curriculum, click here.