|
Looking for more? Check out the NCTE Position Statement on “Resolution on the Need for Diverse Children’s and Young Adult Books.” Also, visit NCTE’s Intellectual Freedom Center for ways to address censorship in your school and community.
1 Comment
Get Involved: In response to the efforts to censor books, NCTE has launched This Story Matters. YOU can help by writing a rationale for a specific book. These rationales help your colleagues and your students access stories that matter!
Read: PEN America recently shared their key findings of a report about legislative efforts to enforce education gag orders. The authors write, “Educational gag orders are state legislative efforts to restrict teaching about topics such as race, gender, American history, and LGBTQ+ identities in K–12 and higher education.” Consider reviewing aspects of this report with your colleagues and discuss how you can take steps to protect yourself, your colleagues, and your community against these insidious attempts to silence important voices.
Resources for Native American Heritage Month:
✬ The Abbe Museum, celebrating the Wabanaki people of Maine, provides tours of the museum, classroom programs, and lesson plans in their Educator Hub. ✬ Listen to the WERU Community Radio archives of their radio programs Wabanaki Windows, Indigenous Voices, and Dawnland Signals. ✬ Read about Theresa Secord, traditional Penobscot basket maker, her art form, and her advocacy work in her essay for the "What Maine Craft Means to Me" series from the Maine Crafts Association. ✬ The University of Maine's Resource page on Native American Programs includes Native American information, Wabanaki studies, and a few other resources. ✬ The Maine DOE has a rich collection of resources on their Maine Native Studies Resources page. ✬ The National Museum of the American Indian provides student webinars, virtual field trips, lessons, and resources through its Native Knowledge 360◦ Education Initiative. ✬ The Wisdom of the Elders website hosts multimedia resources, curriculum, events, and environmental and other projects to promote Native American cultural sustainability. ✬ The First People website has a collection of nearly 1400 Native American Legends. ✬ NCTE's Read Write Think resource provides a database of searchable lessons for teachers, such as Making Connections to Myth and Folktale: The Many Ways to Rainy Mountain. ✬ PBS Learning Media has a vast amount of videos on the topic of Native Americans. ✬ Annenberg Learner provides free resources for K-12 educators, including the Native Voices section of the American Passages series. |
The IDEA CollectiveMembers of the MCELA Executive Board created this working group to focus on an important goal: Support Maine educators as they explore ways to develop materials and practices for inclusion, diversity, equity, and access. In particular, MCELA invites educators to think about, discuss, and take steps to address issues related to racism, income disparity, gender identity, environmental justice, equity, genocide, and indigenous sovereignty. Archives
May 2025
Categories |
RSS Feed