Borders & Belonging

To orient yourself to the collection’s themes and essential questions, we recommend that you start by watching one or more of these videos:

• Richard Blanco: Navigating the Borders of Belonging (02:23)
  In this short video, poet and memoirist Richard Blanco considers the ways in which aspects of his identity have shaped his sense of who he is and where he belongs throughout his life.
• Richard Blanco: Finding Belonging in Others (04:45)
  Richard Blanco explores how storytelling and poetry can cultivate empathy and foster connection between individuals and groups, even when the particulars of their lives may seem different. 
• Richard Blanco: Searching for Home (07:18)
  Richard Blanco reflects on his quest for home and the role of storytelling, writing, and memory in his lifelong journey to answer the question, “Where am I from?” 
• Exploring Borders and Belonging in Young Adult Literature with Malaka Gharib and Randy Ribay (1 hour)
  In this recorded webinar, young adult authors Malaka Gharib and Randy Ribay discuss the complexity of belonging, and the tangible and intangible borders that can shape it.

This collection includes two introductory lessons that develop students’ conceptual understanding of the tangible and intangible borders that shape our sense of belonging in the world. The lessons are designed to be taught together, in sequence; we encourage you to teach both introductory lessons before engaging students with other resources in the collection. 

These lessons can be used with grades 7-12; the materials are adaptable and modified versions of the readings are provided.

• Introductory Lesson 1: What is Belonging? introduces students to the concept of belonging and the many factors that can shape one’s sense of belonging in the world. 
• Introductory Lesson 2: How Do Borders Shape Belonging? builds on the first lesson, supporting students to expand their understanding of borders and consider the ways in which borders can impact how individuals and groups experience belonging.

After building schema for the concepts of borders and belonging in the introductory lessons, students will be ready to engage in a thematic unit. 

You can teach a mini-unit with short, multimodal texts; a longer book unit; or combine components for a deeper learning experience. 

Option 1: Teach a text set as a 1-2 week mini-unit. Each text set includes multimodal texts, lesson plans, and assessment ideas that support students to explore an essential question through collaborative learning experiences, engaging discussions, and writing tasks. 

• From Fitting in to Belonging: Understanding the Forces that Shape Belonging for grades 7-8
• Crossing Borders: Building Empathy Through Storytelling for grades 9-10
• Reimagining Home for grades 11-12

Option 2: Develop and teach a unit on a book of your choice using the Facing History ELA Unit Planning Guide.

Option 3: Combine components for a longer unit. Pair a book of your choice with the text set that best fits the book’s themes and the grade level.