Weaving a Web of Respect

The second Grant Proposal, 2000

Project Overview

This project will develop a comprehensive website for the Newton elementary school community on Respect for Human Differences. With a user-friendly design, this site will enhance and disseminate the anti-bias lesson plans and resources developed through a previous grant, linking teachers, students, and parents to select Internet resources; original lesson plans, and hands-on activities for children and their families.

To encourage greater understanding of human differences and to promote effective use of the Internet, we will develop new activities, including student webquests; identify and develop new resources; and train teachers and parents to use these effectively. The project involves three phases:

1. Committee members will research and share information about existing Internet resources&emdash; support organizations, other schools' projects, and websites addressing respect for human differences.

2. Teachers will learn simple webpage design and digital imaging.

3. Team members will work in groups to design and build webpages; to publish existing anti-racism lessons and activities; to create webquest activities; and to design Internet classroom projects related to existing curriculum.

Our project will harness the power of the World Wide Web to help students, faculty and parents develop a deeper understanding of human differences in terms of culture, race, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, language, religion, nationality, and socio-economic class.

Weaving a Web of Respect: Educational Issues

"Respect is the single most powerful ingredient in nourishing relationships and creating a just society,"2 &endash; Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot

Creating Respect for Human Differences

People make assumptions based on stereotypes and encounter differences with hostility when they lack information and feel threatened. What is not understood is often assumed to be bad. Weaving a Web of Respect is a project designed to help people understand and respect human differences. The project features lessons and experiences that provide diverse perspectives; challenge stereotypes; identify racial, cultural and class biases, enlighten students about the current state of world and national affairs, and the cycle of oppression by delving into history beyond textbooks. The multicultural lessons will deal with current as well as historical human rights and equity issues.

Expanding a Successful Project

This proposal is an outgrowth of a previous grant-funded project, Yes, I Can Make a Difference. For the past two years staff members have created anti-bias literature kits and used them in classrooms. These lessons are an enormous success at Franklin, where we have found students to be eager to acquire information that helps them to affirm themselves and respect others. Students have been spellbound during lessons using literature and visualization, and have been profoundly moved and stimulated by hands-on activities. We have seen that children model highly respectful behavior while participating, and use the library afterward to seek more books on the topics discussed. Both suggest that the students are fully engaged in the subject matter, and that the anti-bias lessons are clearly meeting their needs and interests.

Since last spring we have presented our project to a wide audience within Newton and across the state. Teachers and librarians who have seen our project and our prototype website have been extremely encouraging and have requested that this work be made available on the World Wide Web as soon as possible. On our website, we have published a comprehensive book list and one prototype lesson plan, What Makes People Different Colors? 3 that combines curriculum activities, illustrative graphics, resources and web links for teachers, parents and children. The site has been evaluated for content and design and has received strong reviews.

Clearly, this is a challenging project that requires more financial support and human resources.

Using the World Wide Web

This Internet project is especially appropriate to today's students who have been described as "Clickerati kids." Nonlinear thinkers, challenge seekers, and natural-born multitaskers, they thrive on change. Students today have an entirely new set of expectations.4 According to Phillip Schlechty, "Students are more likely to engage in the work asked of them if they are continually exposed to new and different ways of doing things." Therefore, "Educators should commit themselves to inventing work that engages all students and helps them attain rich and profound knowledge."5

Seymour Papert, co-founder of MIT's Artificial Intelligence and Media Labs believes that "the computer's true power as an educational medium lies in the ability to facilitate and extend children's awesome natural ability and drive to construct, hypothesize, explore, experiment, evaluate, draw conclusions--in short to learn--all by themselves."6

Moreover, the Internet itself facilitates multicultural education in ways that no previous educational media has. Paul Gorski, developer of the comprehensive educational website, Multicultural Pavilion 7 says:

The World Wide Web breaks through national and cultural boundaries unlike any other educational medium, no longer constraining "Multicultural Education" to our classrooms, schools, or counties. The global educational community is no longer just an ideal. Today the Internet has the potential to supplement our efforts toward the transformation of self, school and society by facilitating the interaction, inclusiveness and collaboration which form the foundations of Multicultural Education.8

Minority groups that have previously not had their work published in mainstream books or media are able to express their point of view and share their history on the Internet. Evaluating Internet sites that accurately present new information not available in books, that complement our existing curriculum, and that are appropriate for the elementary school, is essential.

Enhancing Graphic Impact

A recent National Public Radio report told of a single moment captured in a photograph that shocked our nation. It descried the Pulitzer Prize winning photo of Ted Landsmark, a Yale educated African-American Boston Attorney, as he was attacked by a white anti-busing demonstrator brandishing an American Flag. Images have impact!

The World Wide Web has experienced explosive success greatly because of its friendly graphic, hypertext interface. Our website needs enhancement to appeal to and communicate with students and staff. This project will improve its user-interface by adding clearer, graphically enhanced text, digital photos and student artwork.

Meeting the Curriculum Frameworks

Our project will reinforce History Learning Standard #4: "society, diversity, commonality and the individual." It will also strengthen student skills in the Science and Technology Frameworks for "productivity, communications and research tools, technology problem-solving and decision-making tools."

Goals & Objectives

Our project is modeled after a major grant done in 1998 in Jefferson County, Colorado. This project brought staff and community members together based on interest in the topic (Diversity), rather than on technical expertise. Staff worked together toward common goals and learned the necessary technology. Publishing a district website, Multicultural Passport,9 was the primary outcome, but an important byproduct was that teachers became enthusiastic users of classroom technology. The goals of our project are similar:

1) To enhance and disseminate existing anti-bias lesson plans.

2) To develop curriculum-related web activities on respect for human differences for elementary school students.

3) To train staff and students to use the world wide web effectively.

Activities

Team members will meet for four days during the summer vacation to receive training, collaborate on curriculum activities, and build the website.

Before the Workshop: Internet Access at Home

All team members will have computers and Internet access with necessary software at home. Teachers will be able to continue the project over the summer, practicing and communicating electronically about issues and progress.

Workshop, Day 1 Locating Internet Resource

Team members will:

1) Learn to evaluate good multicultural websites for relevancy, target age group, appropriate content, credibility, bias, accuracy and navigability;

2) Research and identify Internet resources for elementary school children and teachers that help teach respect for human differences and compliment existing curriculum.

Workshop, Day 2 Web Skills

Team members will learn basic webpage design using Claris Homepage, and digital imaging using a scanner and digital camera. Webpage partnerships will be created by grade level and interests. One member of each team will learn the digital camera or the scanner software.

Workshop, Days 3 & 4, Building the Website

Partnerships will develop student activities and begin building webpages. The existing site map10 will be enlarged to reflect the greater scope of this project. The lesson plan template will be updated. Timelines, checklists, graphic art, and responsibilities for the site will be agreed upon.

Collaboration

The Respect for Human Differences Action committee at our school is a dynamic group of new and veteran teachers from a variety of disciplines, grade levels, and ethnic backgrounds. As requested by the school superintendent, the committee incorporates previous efforts of the Anti-Racism Task Force, Gender Issues Task Force, the gay and lesbian community, ESL, and people with disabilities. This committee will work closely with members of the school's technology team to implement the project's goals.

All team members will assist in evaluating web resources and publishing pages on the site. The team approach used in previous projects has helped to build trust, understanding and respect among our staff members in addition to producing the best collaborative ideas and activities. Other community members will be encouraged to add to and use the web resources we create. Two team members with extensive Internet experience will design and teach the Day 1 workshop. An instructional technologist will teach Homepage skills. Several team members with strong Internet & photographic skills and will be peer tutors during site development.

Dissemination & Publicity

Since the resources created and published by team members, teachers and students will be made available via the Internet, they may easily be duplicated by other elementary schools in Newton or elsewhere. During the 2000-2001 school year the website will be presented at staff and PTO meetings.

Team members will continue to present our website and lesson materials to teachers in our school and in Newton. We'll actively seek to become linked to other multicultural and educational websites, so that others may find us. We'll pursue the various awards given to unique, content-driven educational websites.

Evaluation

The success of this project can be measured by how actively teachers use the Internet to support curriculum in the classroom. A questionaire will be given to staff in the spring of 2000 and again in the spring of 2001 to assess changes in Internet use. If successful, our webpages should continue to generate e-mail comments and suggestions from users on the Internet, especially other Newton community members. By utilizing the webpages created with this grant, students will increase their understanding of Respect for Human Differences, as well as their analytical and technology skills.