Structural racism can make the education system a fraught place for students and educators of color. However at AdoptAClassroom.org, we believe that the classroom can also be a site of meaningful, empowering anti-racist change.
By incorporating anti-racist teaching practices into everyday instruction, teachers can help create a safer, more supportive environment for students and educators of color alike. AdoptAClassroom.org has gathered a few resources to support teachers at every step of their anti-racism journey.
If you’re a teacher and you have an anti-racist teaching resource that has been helpful to you, please email us at [email protected] and we may add your resource to our list.
Please note: AdoptAClassroom.org is sharing these resources with the intent to spread awareness and promote conversation among educators. Sharing a resource is not an endorsement of the resource for classroom use. Educators are the experts on their students’ needs and their school’s policies. Please always be mindful if a resource is a good fit for your classroom.
Please note, the stock and availability of the following items may fluctuate. AdoptAClassroom.org cannot guarantee the availability of any of the items below.
Free Teacher Leader Resources for Racial Equity
Teacher Leader resources are developed for teachers, by teachers as part of AdoptAClassroom.org’s Spotlight Fund grants, which provide teachers at high-needs schools with funds to address specific subjects and issues of greatest need.
They are available to all educators registered with AdoptAClassroom.org. Just log in and click on the “Teacher Resource Library” tab in the AdoptAClassroom.org Dashboard. You can also find a step-by-step video on how to access our Teacher Leader resources on our YouTube channel.
Not registered with AdoptAClassroom.org yet? Register here.
Free Anti-Racist Teaching Resources
1619 Project
The 1619 Project provides free curricular materials relating to the legacy of slavery in the contemporary United States. The resources also highlight the contributions of Black Americans to every aspect of American society.
“5 Ways to Show You Care for Your Black Students”
In this EdWeek article, a former teacher suggests five ways that educators can support Black students throughout the school year.
Learning for Justice
Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance) is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The organization provides free educational resources for teachers looking to implement anti-racist teaching practices in their classrooms.
Lee & Low Webinars
AdoptAClassroom.org vendor partner Lee & Low Books offers a series of webinars on topics like Teaching About Slavery, Black Lives Matter in the Classroom, and Teaching About Juneteenth. Books are available through the AdoptAClassroom.org marketplace for teachers who receive funding, including grants.
National Child Stress Network “Addressing Race and Trauma in the Classroom: A Resource for Educators”
The National Child Stress Network’s guide to addressing race and trauma in the classroom discusses the impact of both historical and modern-day trauma on students of color. The guide stresses the importance of educators listening to Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) students’ experiences and empowering them to be leaders and anti-racist activists in their schools.
National Education Association (NEA) EdJustice
The NEA’s EdJustice project provides an in-depth guide on how educators can prioritize and implement anti-racist teaching practices in their schools.
National Museum of African American History
The National Museum of African American History’s resources for educators provide an approachable introduction to the historical and modern effects of racism on American society.
PBS Talking to Children About Race and Racism
PBS’ half hour program“PBS Kids Talk About: Race and Racism” features real footage of parents and their young children talking about racial equity topics. The program also features footage from Daniel Tiger and Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum.
PBS Tools for Anti-Racist Teaching
PBS’ eight part “Tools for Anti-Racist Teaching” webinar series explores the ways that current and historical racism impact the classroom and affect students’ mental health. The series includes practical tips to help educators make immediate, positive change in their schools.
Ideas from AdoptAClassroom.org Vendor Partners
Check out the following resources that may help improve diversity and equity for all of the students in your classroom. Log in and click the “Go to Shop” button to review each of our vendor products in more detail. Register for AdoptAClassroom.org here.
AKJ Education
AJK Education has a group of books and learning resources to support diversity and inclusion in the classroom.
Featured Item: ISeeMe Diversity & Inclusion Grades 6-8
This exclusive AKJ Education collection contains books that feature diversity and inclusion through themes, characters, settings, etc. or are written and/or illustrated by people of color. The books and collection work to support the broader #ISeeMe effort.
Becker’s School Supplies
Becker’s offers a variety of supplies and curriculum in their “Social Awareness and Diversity” category.
Featured Item: Multicultural Book Set: New Friends And New Places
Finding children’s book sets that address cultural and racial differences are plentiful and choosing the right ones for your class can be challenging. Becker’s Multicultural Book Set includes books that will introduce children from many different cultures and places through memorable images and stories.
Featured Item: Anti-Bias Curriculum for the Preschool Classroom
The YWCA Minneapolis Early Childhood Education’s anti-biased and play-based curriculum uses practical and real-life experiences to support teacher learning and practice. With thrilling success in 2016, 94% of infants through preschoolers enrolled in this program were on track with age-appropriate development. This curriculum is flexible enough to accommodate state or local standards while remaining open to children’s ideas, interests, and questions.
Fun Express
Fun Express has a variety of products to help educate and celebrate holidays like Martin Luther King Day, Black History Month, Juneteenth, and more.
Featured Item: Black History Learning Charts
Display these paper cutouts which include facts on famous African American figures. These learning charts can help to create an environment where your students of color feel seen and celebrated, and learn about the contributions of people who look like them.
Kaplan Early Learning
We live in a beautifully diverse world and it is critical to instill the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion into our children through learning and play! Provide opportunities for children to explore the fact that each and every one of us in the world are unique and important through a variety of books, puppets, toy sets, and much more.
Featured Item: At Home with Diversity and Inclusion Read Along Books
Introduce this At Home with Diversity and Inclusion Read Along Books set in your classroom for group reading. This collection of books promotes diversity, empathy, literacy, and social learning. Children will learn more about characters different from them and connecting to characters familiar to them. Encourage children to ask questions about vocabulary words they’re unfamiliar with.
Lakeshore Learning
Lakeshore’s Diversity & Inclusion covers supplies from books to learning toys, posters and curriculum.
Featured Item: Celebrating Diversity Poster Pack
Our big, full-color posters provide a great starting point for age-appropriate conversations and activities exploring diversity, inclusion and understanding. Perfect for bulletin boards and classroom displays, the photographic posters feature multi-ethnic children in familiar scenarios—from a child pushing a friend in a wheelchair to a group of kids enjoying the same book—that remind students our differences are worth celebrating. Pack includes 20 posters and a guide with thematic activity ideas; each poster measures 11″ x 16″.
Featured Item: Multicultural Children’s Songs CD
Celebrate diversity with a rich variety of multicultural music from Ella Jenkins! This incredible CD features 23 songs inspired by music from all over the world—all designed to teach tolerance and respect for others.
Learners Edge
Learners Edge provides continuing education resources for educators on topics such as “Creating an Inclusive Classroom for Students with Exceptionalities,” “Trauma-Sensitive Teaching: Helping Students Overcome Adverse Experiences,” and more.
Featured Item: The Culturally Competent Educator
“Culture is part of everything that is taught and caught.” Like its predecessors Diversity and Multicultural Education, “cultural competence” seeks to increase awareness of the variety of cultures represented in our classrooms today, to appreciate the backgrounds and contributions of all students, and encourages us to cultivate a depth of understanding which all educators must possess. Because many teachers find themselves in classrooms that do not represent their personal experience, the course has been designed to encourage reflection on those experiences as well as how to use them to heighten understanding of diverse classrooms. Through examples and easy to remember tools, this course will demonstrate how to actively involve students to promote academic excellence and cultural understanding. A hard copy textbook is included in the course price! It will be sent via postal mail upon course registration.
Lee & Low Books
Lee & Low Books is the largest multicultural children’s book publisher in the United States.
Featured Item: Anti-Racism Book Collection
Are you looking to add anti-racist books to your library but don’t know where to start? Have you been thinking about how to have meaningful conversations with young people about race, but lack confidence in how to begin? The books in this collection will help you take the first steps or continue the critical discussions about anti-racism work relevant to your setting. Click here for a link to a designed PDF of the list.
Lerner Publishing Group
Lerner Publishing Group is one of the nation’s largest independently owned children’s publishers with more than 5,000 books in print.
Featured Item: Amanda Gorman: Inspiring Hope with Poetry
Poet Amanda Gorman delivered her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the 2021 presidential inauguration, winning wide acclaim. Read about Gorman’s early life, her children’s and poetry books, and what she plans to do next.
Featured Item: Beautiful Shades of Brown: The Art of Laura Wheeler Waring
Growing up in the late 19th century, Laura Wheeler Waring didn’t see any artists who looked like her. She didn’t see any paintings of people who looked like her, either. As a young woman studying art in Paris, she found inspiration in the works of Matisse and Gaugin to paint the people she knew best. Back in Philadelphia, the Harmon Foundation commissioned her to paint portraits of accomplished African-Americans. Her portraits still hang in Washington DC’s National Portrait Gallery, where children of all races can admire the beautiful shades of brown she captured.
Planting People Growing Justice
Founded by an educator, Dr. Artika Tyner, Planting People Growing Justice gives young learners the tools to become leaders who make a difference in the world. Their mission is to plant seeds of social change through education and community outreach.
The Inclusive Leader: Taking Intentional Action for Justice and Equity
What is inclusive leadership? How can you take practical steps to pursue justice and equity in your practice and in organizations in which you have a leadership role?
The Inclusive Leader provides a pathway for leaders to effect change through reflecting on and grappling with unconscious and implicit biases, encouraging honest discussions, and taking action to change organizational behavior for the better. It provides a practical framework for building the essential leadership competencies rooted in the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Competence in these areas manifests in healthy workplace relations, peak optimized performance, positive morale, and the betterment of society. Dr. Tyner’s Leadership Framework for Action™ provides four stages of learning:
- Intrapersonal (engaging in self-discovery)
- Interpersonal (building an authentic relationship with others)
- Organizational (establishing strategic outcomes and promoting equity)
- Societal (developing sustainable, durable solutions)
As you embark on a learning journey within each of these stages, you are making a commitment to serve as a leader who will make a difference in the world. This book will give you the tools to reimagine yourself as an innovator, builder, and change agent.
Really Good Stuff
Really Good Stuff is the home of fun and creative classroom teacher supplies.
Featured Item: Notable African Americans Bulletin Board
Explore the achievements of 12 notable African Americans who changed history and paved the way to a diverse yet more unified nation. Each mini-poster includes a large photograph, a full-color illustration, a brief biography, and a quotation from each person.
The Scholastic Teacher Store
The Scholastic Teacher Store offers a comprehensive selection of books, collections, instructional products, and professional resources — all in one place.
Featured Item: This Book Is Anti-Racist
Who are you? What is racism? Where does it come from? Why does it exist? What can you do to disrupt it? Learn about social identities, the history of racism and resistance against it, and how you can use your anti-racist lens and voice to move the world toward equity and liberation.
School Specialty
Save on the largest selection of school supplies and teacher supplies at School Specialty.
Featured Item: Teacher Created Materials Cultural Diversity Book Collection, Grades 6 to 8
Celebrate history’s greatest multi-ethnic heroes! This collection of 8 biography books each highlight a famous trailblazer who made their mark on civilization, from Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King Jr. down to President Barack Obama and more. Inspiring content includes primary sources, photographs, maps, timelines, and more. Guided Reading Level is M to R on the Scholastic Guided Reading Level; Lexile Level is 570L to 750L.
Did you know? AdoptAClassroom.org offers grants as part of our Racial Equity in Schools Fund to help teachers access resources for their classrooms. Click here to register your classroom and be the first to hear about our grant opportunities.