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DOWNLOADABLE: Choosing Grade School Books With Complex Representation of People and Topics

By Ileana Najarro — September 25, 2023 1 min read
Image of an open book, and a hand drawing a character of the content.
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Researchers and educators alike seek texts for students that enable them to think critically about themselves and the world around them through fuller, more complex representations of people, cultures, and topics.

But even high-quality instructional materials that meet state standards and other quality benchmarks might not offer such complexity.

To get educators and publishers to think deeply about what a balance of complex representation means, and why it matters, researchers at The Education Trust put together a new tool that asks critical questions about texts in the hopes of spurring new ways of thinking and dialogue about representation.

The full tool is available online. A summary of the key questions to ask of texts is available for download here.

Download

Laura Baker, Creative Director contributed to this article.

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