Moving Toward Acceptance Through Picture Books and Two-Voice Texts

Connecting literature to students' lived experiences in the school and classroom, this lesson provides an opportunity for students to learn about situations of intolerance and discuss ways to move to a more ideal world in which acceptance is the norm. Starting with the picture book Whoever You Are, students discuss embracing diversity. The class then compares the ideal to realistic situations that they face in their own school as well as those portrayed in the books Weslandia and Insects Are My Life. Students then study, create, and perform two-voice texts that shows how they can move closer to the ideal of accepting all types of diversity.

This lesson plan was developed as part of a collaborative professional writing initiative sponsored by the Illinois State Writing Project (ISWP) at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois.

Featured Resources

Tips for Confronting Bullying and Intolerance: This printable sheet offers tips for teachers on how to address bullying and intolerance in schools.

Example Two-Voice Poem (audio version): This audio version of a student-written two voice poem helps to illustrate the genre.

From Theory to Practice

"As language arts teachers," note Mary E. Styslinger and Alison Whisenant in their Voices from the Middle article "Crossing Cultures with Multi-Voiced Journals," "we have the opportunity to transform students through literacy experiences" (26). The authors find measurable value in having students participate in the particular activity of writing from varied perspectives, seeing the "potential to change [students'] relationship with individuals, heightening sensitivity to issues of diversity such as race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation" (26-27). This lesson modifies the type of writing, but its multi-perspective approach still provides the same opportunities to enrich students' understanding of the diversity of the world around them.

Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
• 9. Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns, and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles.
• 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

• Whoever You Are by Mem Fox