My Adventure Continues

So... My students read One Crazy Summer for today and made all these nice activity plans that we did. Which was nice. But I really felt like almost every group sidestepped the issue of race, which are really central to this book. Can we look at Delphine without seeing the color of her skin, knowing how much this small fact has affected her life? I think I made the mistake of thinking that they would feel comfortable talking about these things because they voted for the book knowing what it was about. I have tried to set an example of pushing myself to talk about these uncomfortable issues and acknowledging that it is uncomfortable and that I don't have to know all the answers, but instead be willing to participate in open discussion. I could have encouraged more discussion of race by giving them examples of activities that created safe ways to explore these difficult areas.