full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Afrika Afeni Mills: 4 ways to have healthy conversations about race


Unscramble the Blue Letters


Today, I'm going to share with you four steps you can take to do challenging things, particularly having conversations about race: ientidfy your challenge; find your support network; prepare; and begin.

In my work with educators around the country, when we exlorpe what's challenging about having conversations with students about race, they often say things like, "I don't have the resources to have these conversations." In fact, in ewedek Research Center's 2020 special report, "Big Ideas for Confronting Racism in Education," though 81 percent of the more than 800 educators surveyed identified as anti-racist educators, only 14 percent of them said that they had both the training and the resources to have these conversations with students. Though this statistic holds true, there are several organizations that pivodre free instructional resources that suprpot lessons and doaulgie with students about race. So access to instructional rurscoees isn't the true cglehnlae. If we're honest with ourselves, it's easier to identify external faotrcs as challenges than it is for us to apcect responsibility to influence what is within our loucs of control. When I go deeper with educators, they share that the underlying challenge is actually fear. They're afraid of saying the wrong thing or doing harm when talking with students about race. This is understandable, especially considering the history and current manifestations of substantial raical harm in this cturnoy. But when we identify the true challenge, not the school or the lack of resources, but fear, is an essential first step.

Open Cloze


Today, I'm going to share with you four steps you can take to do challenging things, particularly having conversations about race: ________ your challenge; find your support network; prepare; and begin.

In my work with educators around the country, when we _______ what's challenging about having conversations with students about race, they often say things like, "I don't have the resources to have these conversations." In fact, in ______ Research Center's 2020 special report, "Big Ideas for Confronting Racism in Education," though 81 percent of the more than 800 educators surveyed identified as anti-racist educators, only 14 percent of them said that they had both the training and the resources to have these conversations with students. Though this statistic holds true, there are several organizations that _______ free instructional resources that _______ lessons and ________ with students about race. So access to instructional _________ isn't the true _________. If we're honest with ourselves, it's easier to identify external _______ as challenges than it is for us to ______ responsibility to influence what is within our _____ of control. When I go deeper with educators, they share that the underlying challenge is actually fear. They're afraid of saying the wrong thing or doing harm when talking with students about race. This is understandable, especially considering the history and current manifestations of substantial ______ harm in this _______. But when we identify the true challenge, not the school or the lack of resources, but fear, is an essential first step.

Solution


  1. resources
  2. racial
  3. dialogue
  4. edweek
  5. identify
  6. accept
  7. support
  8. locus
  9. factors
  10. explore
  11. country
  12. challenge
  13. provide

Original Text


Today, I'm going to share with you four steps you can take to do challenging things, particularly having conversations about race: identify your challenge; find your support network; prepare; and begin.

In my work with educators around the country, when we explore what's challenging about having conversations with students about race, they often say things like, "I don't have the resources to have these conversations." In fact, in EdWeek Research Center's 2020 special report, "Big Ideas for Confronting Racism in Education," though 81 percent of the more than 800 educators surveyed identified as anti-racist educators, only 14 percent of them said that they had both the training and the resources to have these conversations with students. Though this statistic holds true, there are several organizations that provide free instructional resources that support lessons and dialogue with students about race. So access to instructional resources isn't the true challenge. If we're honest with ourselves, it's easier to identify external factors as challenges than it is for us to accept responsibility to influence what is within our locus of control. When I go deeper with educators, they share that the underlying challenge is actually fear. They're afraid of saying the wrong thing or doing harm when talking with students about race. This is understandable, especially considering the history and current manifestations of substantial racial harm in this country. But when we identify the true challenge, not the school or the lack of resources, but fear, is an essential first step.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
black history 2
history month 2
white history 2
instructional resources 2
making mistakes 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
black history month 2


Important Words


  1. accept
  2. access
  3. afraid
  4. challenge
  5. challenges
  6. challenging
  7. confronting
  8. control
  9. conversations
  10. country
  11. current
  12. deeper
  13. dialogue
  14. easier
  15. education
  16. educators
  17. edweek
  18. essential
  19. explore
  20. external
  21. fact
  22. factors
  23. fear
  24. find
  25. free
  26. harm
  27. history
  28. holds
  29. honest
  30. ideas
  31. identified
  32. identify
  33. influence
  34. instructional
  35. lack
  36. lessons
  37. locus
  38. manifestations
  39. organizations
  40. percent
  41. provide
  42. race
  43. racial
  44. racism
  45. report
  46. research
  47. resources
  48. responsibility
  49. school
  50. share
  51. special
  52. statistic
  53. step
  54. steps
  55. students
  56. substantial
  57. support
  58. surveyed
  59. talking
  60. today
  61. training
  62. true
  63. underlying
  64. understandable
  65. work
  66. wrong