PERTS Elevate Resource Library

Content Area Exemplars

Provide students with examples of experts and role models who reflect a diversity of identities to invalidate stereotypes and ensure all students can see themselves in the curriculum.

Grades 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 All subjects

Overview

Every content area—regardless of the grade level—has countless examples of diverse experts or role models that can be highlighted in the classroom. Taking time out of each unit (beginning occasionally and working up to a greater frequency, such as every week) to highlight individuals who have made contributions to the relevant field is a great way to make connections between class content and the real world, while providing concrete examples to students of professionals with backgrounds they have in common.

Through this activity, you will be able to:

  • Connect academic content to real-life examples.
  • Highlight diverse identities and pathways in a subject-related field.
  • Engage students in a conversation that builds interest, representation, and ownership of learning.

Conducting the Practice

  1. First, identify time during your unit and/or lesson plans when you will share examples of diverse, real-world experts or role models with students. Consider this an important part of your instructional practice—piquing students' interest in the subject and revealing content-specific academic and professional pathways.

  2. Second, consider which identities of your students you want to prioritize. These identities can be social identities like race or gender, connections based on geography, or similarities based on interests or qualities relevant to the field of study.

    • As you make these determinations consider:
      • Including a mix of examples from different genders, race/ethnicity backgrounds, etc.
      • If you happen to know a particular group is not stereotypically considered "good at" a particular subject, try to include extra examples of that group, e.g. if you teach math, make sure to include examples of women mathematicians.
      • If you know your student body has a lot of an underrepresented group, try to represent that group more (e.g. if you teach a lot of Appalachian youth, include some examples of Appalachian people who have achieved a lot in that field. If you teach a lot of girls of color, find women of color who have excelled in their field, etc.)

  3. Conduct a search for an exemplar that a) fits the identity you want to highlight and b) connects to the themes/content of the class.

  4. Prepare a quick bio of relevant facts (e.g. one PPT slide should be sufficient).

  5. Share the person's biography and their connections to the subject matter.

    • Have students consider the following questions (and others you may come up with):
      • What qualities do you think this person needed to accomplish what they did?
      • What can we learn from this person's accomplishments?
      • What else do you want to know about this person's life?
    • Facilitate a brief discussion based on the questions above.

  6. Follow up on students' questions the following day to the extent that you're able. You can also assign students to look up certain answers.

  7. (For grades 6-12) As students get used to the exercise, you can delegate responsibilities and have students identify examples themselves, create the PowerPoint slides, and facilitate the discussion. You can use the resources in future years as well, saving yourself valuable time and empowering students in the process.

This practice was adapted from the Affirming Identities Guide developed by the Learning and Development Group at the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research in partnership with PERTS.