This notion connects directly with my concentration: creating inclusive environments through curriculum design. Most people think of special education when they hear “inclusive,” but I believe it means even more than that. Like Toshalis, I envision classrooms that help adolescents from all walks of life feel “included” and “embraced” in the classroom. Many people focus on the teacher’s actions, attitudes, and implicit messages (what I collectively refer to as the teacher’s “informal curriculum”) regarding student inclusiveness, but I believe much of this can be found in the “formal curriculum” as well. I think students should see themselves represented in textbooks, activities, videos, pictures, literature, etc. What students learn in school should not make them feel Othered.

However, as I imagine what kind of curriculum I want to create for teachers to implement in their classrooms, I have often questioned how to help teachers with the “informal” aspect with the “formal” one that I would provide. I think it would be helpful to have a wealth of resources available for teachers to use in the first week of school. There are many “icebreaker” games online, but in my experience that was never enough to create the classroom culture I wanted: one that had a sense of community in which students respected each other at all times. We need not to just break the ice, but also warm the water.

The five themes Toshalis presented (belonging and community, separation and individuation, transcendence and purpose, narratives of meaning, and understanding her or his place in the postmodern world) give me ideas of what to focus on when considering these “first week” lessons that would help teachers “formally” set up an inclusive space. I had always thought that these community building activities needed to focus explicitly on everyone together, but maybe a more meaningful approach in middle school would be allowing students to explore their own selves within the context of the group. As Toshalis later says on p. 195, adolescents “need practice situating their growing identities, decisionmaking processes, and worldviews in the context of interdependent relationships, and they need to have faith that such work is worthwhile.”