It's Okay to Feel Different

Activity Outline

• Goal of Activity

  • The goal of this activity is to create a visual that shows and celebrates the differences that make our classroom a beautiful place to be.

• Time Allotment

  • 70-90 minutes

• Learning Objectives

  • "Read and analyze themes from a picture book"

  • "Create text-to-self connections"

  • "Understand the terms "difference," "diversity" and
    "community""

  • "Develop an understanding of the importance of diversity in a community"

• Steps of Activity- Full Lesson Plan Here

  • Define Your Terms (10 minutes)

    • "What do you think of when you hear the words difference and diversity? On chart paper, make word webs of ways people or things might feel or seem different from each other."

    • Turn and talk about "ways you have felt different in school in the past... about one way you feel different, special, or unique in your classroom community."

  • It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr (15 minutes)

    • Read the text aloud

    • "Can you make any personal connections to the text?"

    • "Discuss why it is important to have lots of different kinds of people in a class community."

    • "What would be the disadvantages if everyone in the class were the same?"

    • "Why do you think difference is important?"

    • "Make a chart showing how various differences can contribute to a class."

  • Jigsaw Puzzle Piece (45 minutes)

    • "On a jigsaw puzzle piece, write your name and use words and illustrations to represent the difference you talked about."

    • Each student will also create a jigsaw puzzle. Then create a community puzzle.

    • Admire your puzzle. "It represents the diversity of your classroom community!"

  • Alternative Project (60 minutes)

    • "On construction paper, create your own page for a class book similar to It’s Okay to be Different. (You may want to have a sample page ready or create one together as a whole class.) Follow the same format Todd Parr uses in his book. Challenge yourself to write a page about a way you really do sometimes feel different. If you have trouble getting started, use the web you created at the beginning of class for ideas."

    • "Illustrate your page using oil pastels or crayons."

    • "Bind the pages together and listen while your teacher reads it aloud. Now you have a book to celebrate the many differences in your classroom community. Keep the book in your classroom library."

Discussion

I chose this activity because it celebrates the differences that are present in the current classroom. Even in a classroom that is usually homogeneous in most regards, this project will help students to see the diversity that is in the classroom. This project shows in a visual way that we are all different and that no two of us are exactly the same. This project shows that we are all individuals that are shaped by differences to make us who we are.

This lesson allows for critical engagement with material as it forces students to reflect and make text-to-self connections about what makes them different from the rest of their classmates. This lesson also provides shared inquiry and dialogue because students will be finding what is different about them and also what makes them unique from their classmates. This project allows for group inquiry into the people that the class is around every day.

Resources

Full Lesson Plan

References

It's okay to feel different. Learning for Justice. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2022, from https://www.learningforjustice.org/classroom-resources/lessons/its-okay-to-feel-different