The Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities is increasingly being turned to as a thought leader on issues of diversity and inclusion. 

• Article, Book, and Curriculum Suggestions

• "Building Inclusive Schools" Monthly Email Update

• Interfaith Resources

For additional information or resources, please contact us.

Interfaith Resources

• Calendar of Holidays and Festivals:
  2012-2013 School Year

• Guiding Principles for Inclusive Public Prayer

• "Interfaith Dialogue" Podcast

Article, Book, and Curriculum Suggestions

General | Ability Status |  Body Image  |  Bullying 
Class/Socio-Economic Status  |  Conflict Resolution
Gender  |  Peer Leadership  |  Race/Ethnicity
Religion/Belief Systems  |  Sexual Orientation  |  Stereotypes

[These suggestions are intended for use by adults. Their listing on this page does not imply endorsement by the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities of all content included therein.]

General Diversity

• Suggested Readings & Resources

[Websites]

• A World of Difference Institute
• EdChange
• Rethinking Schools
• Teaching Tolerance
• Understanding Prejudice

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Ability Status

[Articles/Research]

• A Few Words About People First Language
  
• Assessing Your School Environment for Access to People with Disabilities
  
• Creating Positive School Experiences for Students with Disabilities
  
• Disability History Timeline
• Evaluating Children’s Books that Address Disability
• Misunderstood Minds: A PBS Special on Learning Differences and Disabilities
• Rising to the Challenge

[Curriculum]

• Able Am I
  
• Are Media Images of People with Disabilities Accurate?
• Awareness: A Welcoming World!
• A Case Study in Public Policy Making: The Americans with Disabilities Act
• Civil Rights and Americans with Disabilities: Upper Grades Activity
• Feeling Different
  
• Friends Who Care
• The US Constitution and Disability Laws
• Understanding Learning Differences

[Media/Websites]

• “I’m Tyler”
  
• “Including Samuel” – A documentary by Dan Habib
• R-Word - Spread the Word to End the Word
  
  

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Body Image

[Articles/Research]

• A Guy’s Guide to Body Image
• Body Image Dissatisfaction: A Growing Concern Among Men
• Bullies vs. Overweight Kids: How Can You Help?
• Children and Weight: The Dilemmas
  
• Fat…So?
• School-Wide Wellness Programs
• Understanding Size Bias
  

[Curriculum]

• A Healthy Body Image
• Conversation Starters for Student Leaders
• Critical Viewer Activity
• Dying to Be Thin
• Ideal Weight, Cultural Stereotypes, and Eating Disorders
• Reshaping Body Image
  
• Your Own Healthy Style: A Middle-School Curriculum to Enhance Body Image

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Bullying

[Articles/Research]

• 10 Ways to Move Beyond Bully-Prevention
  
• Advice on How to Handle a Bully
• Beyond the Bully Victim Dyad: The Role of Peers in Bullying Relationships
• Bully at the Blackboard
• Bully, Bullied, Bystander... and Beyond
• Bullying: Guidelines for Teachers
  
• Bullying, Interventions, and the Role of Adults
• From Teasing to Torment: A Report on School Climate in Virginia
• Maine’s Best Practices in Bullying and Harassment Prevention: A Guide for Schools and Communities
  
• Prevention and Tolerance: A Counselor's Guide to Bullying
• A Security, Crime Prevention and Safety Center for Kids
• Stop Bullying: Guidelines for Schools
• Stop Cyberbullying Before it Starts
  

[Curriculum]

• A Bad Case of Bullying: Using Literature Response Groups with Students
• A Bullying Survey
  
• A Primer on Peer Mediation
• Cruel Schools
  
• Dealing with the Social Pressures that Promote Online Cruelty
• Do Something About… School Violence Unit
• No Name-Calling Week: Art Lesson Plans
• Think Before You Act

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Class/Socio-Economic Status

[Articles/Research]

• How School Taught Me I Was Poor
• Making Numbers Count: How Social Justice Math Can Help Students Transform
• People Like Us Bibliography
• “The Laptops are Coming! The Laptops are Coming!”
  
• The Poverty Myth
• The Question of Class
• Savage Unrealities: Uncovering Classism in Ruby Payne’s Framework
  

[Books]

Jensen, E. (2009). Teaching with poverty in mind. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Lui, M, & Robles, B. (2006). The Color of wealth. New Press, The.

Times, The, & Keller, Bill. (2005). Class matters. New York, NY: Henry Holt & Co.

[Curriculum]

• Addressing Poverty: The Drive
  
• Charity and Justice: What's the Difference?
• Crossing Socioeconomic Boundaries
  
• Interpreting Wealth Disparities
  
• Poverty and Natural Disasters: Exploring the Connections
  
• Prison Town, USA: Economic Decision Making
• Testing, Tracking, and Toeing the Line: A Role Play on the Origins of the Modern High School
• The Ten Chairs
• What is Poverty?
  

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Conflict Resolution

[Articles/Research]

• A Review of Selected School-Based Conflict Resolution and Peer Mediation Projects
• Conflict Resolution Education: A Guide to Implementing Programs in Schools, Youth-Serving Organizations, and Community and Juvenile Justice Settings
• Conflict Resolution Programs in Schools
• Decreasing Violence through Conflict Resolution Education in Schools
• Elements of Style: The What, Why & How of Transformative Peer Mediation
  
• It’s My Life: Friends
• Want to Resolve a Dispute? Try Mediation
  
  

[Curriculum]

• Being an Ally
  
• Conflict Management: Grades 3-5
• Conflict Resolution
• Developing Dialogue
• Exploring the Nature of Conflict
• Kids to the Rescue
• Many Ways to Resolve Conflict
• The Sensible Use of the Shared Seas
  
  

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Gender

[Articles/Research]

• Gender Bias in Teaching
• ‘Good Morning Boys and Girls:’ Simple Greetings Can Promote Discrimination in Young Children
• It's OK to be Neither: Teaching that Supports Gender-Variant Children
• Just Boys, Just Girls and Just Schooling: Curriculum, Behaviors (including Bullying) and Gender
• Miles of Aisles of Sexism
  
• Rethinking Gender Bias in Theater
• Seventh Graders and Sexism
• Title IX at 35: Beyond the Headlines
  
  

[Books]

Bravo, E. (2007). Taking on the big boys. New York, NY: The Feminist Press.

Kimmel, Michael. (2008). Guyland: the perilous world where boys become men. New York, NY: Harpercollins.

Simmons, R. (2003). Odd girl out. Harcourt Books.

[Curriculum]

• Gender Roles in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: What Fiction Tells Us
  
• Gender Stereotyping
  
• Girls Can Be Plumbers?
• Learning Social Roles: Boy/Girl Piece
• Seneca Falls, 1848: Women Organize for Equality
• The Truth about Helen Keller
• Think Outside the Box
• When I Grow Up I Want to Be A...Moving Beyond Gender Boundaries in Our Lives
• Women and Political Power
  
  

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Peer Leadership

[Articles/Research]

• Better Together: An Innovative Curriculum Spurs South Carolina Students to Fight Bigotry
  
• Peer Leadership: Helping Youth Become Change Agents in their Schools and Communities
• Peer Leadership Program Implementation
  

[Curriculum]

• Building Blocks of a Community
  
• Cliques, Friendship Groups, or Boxes
• Ethics: Cheating and Plagiarism
• How Do Leaders Communicate their Ideas? A Look at John Brown, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth
  
• Incorporating Leadership Into My Own Life
• Suggestions for Creating a “Starfish” – Put Down Free School
  
• Tutu and Franklin: A Journey Toward Peace
  

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Race/Ethnicity

[Articles/Research]

• All About Hair
  
• "Anti-Racist" Geometry Lessons Explained
• Crossing Borders/Border Crossings
• Does My Town Have a Racist Past?
• From Footnote to Fame in Civil Rights History
  
• How Stereotypes Undermine Test Scores
• Mixed Race America: Teaching not Preaching
  
• Mythtakes - Working with Racially and Ethnically Diverse Students
• So You Think You’re An Anti-Racist? 6 Critical Paradigm Shifts for Well-Intentioned White Folks
• White Racial Identity and Anti-Racist Education: A Catalyst for Change
  

[Books]

Derman-Sparks, L, Ramsey, P, & Edwards, J. (2006). What if all the Kids are white?. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Fine, Michelle, & Wheeler, Albert. (2004). Off white: readings on power, privilege, and resistance. New York, NY: Routledge.

Kivel, P. (2002). Uprooting racism: how white people can work for racial justice. Canada: New Society Publishers.

O'Brien, E. (2008). The Racial middle: latinos and asian americans living beyond the racial divide. New York, NY: NYU Press.

Tatum, B. (2007). Can we Talk about race?. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Tatum, B. (2003). Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Williams, L. (2000). It's the little things: everyday interactions that anger, annoy, and divide the races. Harcourt Books.

[Curriculum]

• A Time for Sight: The Debate over Color Blindness and Race-Consciousness in School Integration
• From Flint, Michigan to Your Front Door: Tracing the Roots of Racism in America
  
• Juliette Hampton Morgan: A White Woman Who Understood
• Just an Environment or Just Environment? Racial Segregation and its Impacts
  
• Lee Yick: Fighting Racism
• Lesson on Ethnic Discrimination
• The Color of Water
  
• What Does ‘Post Racial’ Mean, Anyway?
  

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Religion/Belief Systems

[Articles/Research]

• A Teacher’s Guide to Religion in the Public Schools
• First Freedom Center Teacher's Resources
  
• How Stereotypes Undermine Test Scores
  
• Know Your Rights: Religion in Public Schools
  
• One Nation, Many Gods
  
• Religion in the Public Schools: A Story About Civics in the Bronx and Queens
• Teaching Religion in Public School: Removing the Angst
• The Unaffiliated Unite

[Books]

Eck, D. (2001). A New Religious America: How a “Christian Country” Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse Nation. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins.

Hicks, D. (2009). With God on all sides. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

[Curriculum]

• Celebrating Connections
• How Can I Plan Inclusive Holiday Celebrations?
  
• Religion and Immigration
• Religion, Culture and Diversity
• Teaching Tolerance and Religious Diversity through Art

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Sexual Orientation

[Articles]

• Coming Out in Middle School
  
• Exposing Hidden Homophobia
• Involved, Invisible, Ignored: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Parents and Their Children in Our Nation’s K-12 Schools
  
• Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation & Youth:
  A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel
  
• Lessons on Homosexuality Move into the Classroom
  
• Responding to Questions about LGBT Topics
• Shifting the Focus from Individual Bullies and Victims to School "Culture"
• Speechifying at the Start of the Year
  
• What One Teacher Can Do
• When Words Can Kill: ‘That’s So Gay’
  

[Books]

Gold, M, & Drucker, M. (2008). Crisis. Austin, TX: Greenleaf Book Group Llc.

Yoshino, K. (2007). Covering: the hidden assault on our civil rights. New York, NY: Random House Trade.

[Curriculum]

• Building a Bully-Free Building
• History Match-Up
• How Does Homophobia Hurt Us All?
  
• Is Everyone Protected by the Bill of Rights?
• Lesson Plans for Elementary, Middle, and High School Teachers
  
• Oliver Button Is a Sissy
  
• Stonewall and Beyond: Gay and Lesbian Issues
• We're All Different Alike
  
• Words Really Matter: Examining Language at School
  
  

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Stereotypes

[Articles/Research]

• 20 (Self-) Critical Things I Can Do to be a Better Multicultural Educator
• Children and Media
  
• Conference Dispels Stereotypes
  
• How Stereotypes Defeat the Stereotyped
  
• Steele Discusses “Stereotype Threat”
  

[Curriculum]

• Bursting Stereotypes
• Checking on Stereotypes
• Culture Tree
• My Multicultural Self
• Overcoming Stereotypes
  
  
  

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