[THE ANTI-BIAS ACTION PLAN] 1

Running Head: The Anti-Bias Action Plan

The Anti-Bias Action Plan

Nancy Muiz
Pacific Oaks College

[THE ANTI-BIAS ACTION PLAN]

Family Book
The social inequity that I want to address is to make the children aware of all the

family styles that there is in the classroom. The Family book will expose children to
different family styles with in the classroom.
It is very important for children to become aware of other types of families
because not all families are the same. It is very important to create a culture environment
for the children in the classroom. A lot of people think that children at a young age
shouldnt be expose to different cultures. Where I think that they should, because that is
what our world is made out of diversity. By exposing children to different cultures and
family styles, it will help children get a better understanding of what makes their families
special and how they live.
The reason why I have decided on creating a family book for my class was
because I did something different in the past. In the past I had created family trees and
some of the families didnt return them. I sent home a letter letting the parents know that
they were to work with their child to put together a family tree and use their creativity. I
gave the family tree to the parents on a Friday and ask them to return it by the following
Friday. As the children were bringing their family trees back, I would put them up on the
wall for the other children to see.
The problem that I would encounter with the family book would be that some
parents may not have pictures or unable to develop the pictures. Parents may not want to
expose their family style or feel that other parents will question it. Some parents may
have a lot of work to do and may not have the time to gather pictures to put in the family

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book. The main issue I can encounter is that the parents may not have any pictures at all
because they may not own a camera.
My goal to complete my Family book anti-bias action plan would be that instead
of taking the books home I would encourage the parents to bring pictures or email them
to me to print out at the site. This would actually take work off the parents and children
will be able to engage in conversation with the other children as they work on them. By
changing my goal it will help parents not to think about the style of family they live in.
I will also take pictures of the family on the childs first day. Though out the
months I will continue to take pictures of the children and develop them to give to the
children. By taking pictures of the children this will help the parents that dont have any
pictures of their children or that dont own a camera. I think that the only thing I would
like to change would be to have the children complete their Family books at school
instead of completing them at home. The child can interact with the parents as they
choose which picture they want to take to school to put into their Family book.
The population of children that I serve is the lower income families. Most of the
family dynamics are single parents, two parents, and grandparents. Most of these parents
are working parents that barely make ends need with the work they do. Some children are
there ten to twelve hours at school. These parents tend to get home tired because they
work long hours and just want to get home and rest. Most of the populations in the
program that I work for are young parents from different cultures.
The way that I would open space for others to share their stories would be in a
parent meeting. I conducted a parent meeting and introduce the importance of children
creating their own Family book. First I share my story through my Family book and just

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talked a little about my family and how important family is to me. I provided parents with
goals that we would get out of this simple activity. According to Louise Derman-Sparks
and her Four Core Goals of Anti-Bias Education, she states, each child will develop
strong sense of self. I actually made copies of this page and handed them out to the
parents. It gave me a simple way to explain to the parents everything that a child gains
and learns through simple activities.
Another topic that we talked about in the parent meeting was the different family
styles and the different cultures that we all come from. We talked about biracial families,
blended families, foster families, nuclear family, shared custody family, transnational
family, and transracial adoptive family. It is important to let our children know that we
are all different and no one is the same. We all come from different cultures and family
structures.
My time line for implementing the Family book in the classroom will start with a
book and brief activity. In this activity children listened to the book I Have Two
Houses. This book is about a little boy that has parents that are separated. The mom and
dad share custody so sometimes he is with mom and sometimes with dad. Then we will
do a different activity, which included the paper and crayons. Children were able to draw
their family.
Once the children are done with their drawing I encouraged them to talk to each
other about their families. This is the time that children would ask each other questions
about their families. I then talked about not everybody having a mom or dad living
together. As I got the children to think I asked them a question about being different color
skin. After hearing a little boy telling the teacher that he didnt want to sit next to her

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because of the color of her skin. All of these ideas will open up the thinking of the
children when I introduced them to the Family book.
A resource that came in handing was the book Rethinking Early Childhood
Education. This book helped me out with the whole issue of race and children not
wanting to sit next to children of different color of skin. On page 19 it talks about ideas
on how to approach the situation with the heading Lets Talk About Skin. This book
talks about other different issues that as teachers we come across in our classroom.
The way that I will evaluate the results of implementing my Family books is by
seeing the end results in class and encouraging the parents to let children participate in
looking for the pictures. As the children brought their pictures to school they were excited
to share their pictures of their families. As the children were sharing I was listening and
taking observation of the things they were sharing. Through the pictures the other
children were able to see other childrens moms or dads.
For example one of the observations was of a little boy that gets dropped off by
his babysitter and the babysitter picks him up. As he brought his pictures he was showing
his friends his mom and said, this is my mom. This was one observation that I shared
but there were more. As teacher we also learned about each childs family and the things
they do together or separate. I also took pictures of the children putting together their
books.
Most of the children brought their pictures except for one he only brought two
pictures. This child still shared many things about his family even with two pictures. I
also let the child know that we would add more pictures through out the months. As I
would continue to take pictures of him he would have the opportunity to put them in his

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Family book. I thought that this activity was a great idea and children were eager to learn
from each other. The Family books were kept in the library for the children to look at
their books through out the day and year.

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Works Cited
Derman-Sparks, Louise, Olsen Edwards, Julie. (2010). Anti-Bias
Education for Young Childrenand Ourselves. Washington, DC.
Pelo, Ann. (2008) Rethinking Early Childhood Education. (First Edition)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Whitten, Mark. (2011). I Have Two Houses.