Empathy, understanding, and alliance
A National Writing Project model for an online anti-racist family literacy program
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.24358Keywords:
anti-racism, family literacy, onlineAbstract
This online antiracist program for children as young as 3 and their parents/caregivers took place in June of 2020 early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Driven by a desire to build change in opposition to racism and unite families during a time of quarantine and isolation, the program fuses family literacy practices to create space for discussions surrounding race, racism, anti-racism and alliance. The model of the program uses children’s literature to make difficult topics accessible to young children, and provides literacy activities which are engaging, age appropriate, and adaptable to materials at hand, interests, abilities and attention spans of each child. This success of this program demonstrates the power of the model to engage with young children and issues of social justice.
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