Foreword Prologue Introduction Part 1- Why Windows are Crucial for White Teachers and Students Chapter 1 - Windows for White Students Chapter 2 - Starting with Ourselves: Racial Identity Development for White Educators Chapter 3 - Instructional Strategies that Help Students Develop Racial Identities and Understandings Chapter 4 - Navigating Resistance and Creating Brave Classroom Spaces Part 2 - How to Provide White Students With More Windows Chapter 5 - Opening Windows into Overlooked Histories, Contributions, and Experiences: Content that Expands Understanding Chapter 6 - Opening Windows into Overlooked Perspectives: Building Skills Through Discourse Chapter 7 - Opening Windows into Overlooked Challenges: Action-Oriented Learning Epilogue
Equip your students--and yourself--to grapple with racial identity and crucial questions about race. Open Windows, Open Minds, explores why racial identity work is critical, especially for White-identifying students and teachers, and shows educators how to use literacy instruction to provide more windows to racial awareness, antiracist thinking, and pro-human action in the classroom. It includes: Exercises that push educators to examine their own racial identity before facilitating antiracism work with students Developmentally appropriate teaching strategies for guiding students toward understanding racial identity and engaging in action-oriented learning Tools and resources for navigating challenges, finding allies, and creating partnerships
Afrika Afeni Mills is a Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and an education consultant. She works with colleagues, teachers, coaches, and administrators to transform practices. Before these roles, she gained extensive experience as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, teacher developer, and school administrator since 1999. Afrika has been featured on podcasts, blogs, delivered keynote addresses, and facilitated sessions at conferences across the United States. Afrika believes that all educators can be motivated, engaged, dynamic practitioners and leaders when provided with the support needed to create student-centered, antibias, antiracist, culturally responsive learning environments that inspire wonder and creativity and nurture true diversity, belonging, equity, and inclusion. Recognized for her contributions, Afrika was named among Brightbeam's Top 22 Education Influencers of 2022 and is an active member of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and Learning Forward. She holds an M.Ed. in Elementary Teaching from Boston College's Lynch School of Education and Human Development, graduating at the top of her class.