GUEST AUTHOR: MRS. CHOUDHURY
Helping students develop positive self-esteem and confidence include showing them how to be sensitive and empathetic to the identity expressions of their peers.
In social studies, Ms. Choudhury’s fabulous 3rd grade class has been learning about diversity, identity, tolerance and different cultures that exist in our classroom. We read the book “The Name Jar” which is about a little girl from Korea named ‘Unhei’ who accepts her own Korean name and identity.
For Language Arts and Writing, students wrote the origin and importance of their own name. They were amazed to discover different origins of their name…Swahili, Indonesian, Indian, West Bengal, French, Swedish, Mexican, Bangladeshi, Canadian, Belgian and many more. Using technology, students went above and beyond by further researching the origin and meaning of their name.
We talked about and began to understand the meanings of the words Diversity, Tolerance, Culture, Unique, Identity and Acceptance of others, we built a community in the classroom and signed a compact of our “Classroom Rules” based on these words.
My hope is that this lesson will help my students to accept themselves and others for who they are, have respect for each other and build tolerance in the classroom and beyond. They are a great group of students!
