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Secondary text matching for grade level appropriate analyzing.

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In 1948, two professors at Harvard University published a study of thirty-three hundred men who had recently graduated, looking at whether their names had any bearing on their academic performance. The men with unusual names, the study found, were more likely to have flunked out or to have exhibited symptoms of psychological neurosis than those with more common names. The Mikes were doing just fine, but the Berriens were having trouble. A rare name, the professors surmised, had a negative psychological effect on its bearer.

Since then, researchers have continued to study the effects of names, and, in the decades after the 1948 study, these findings have been widely reproduced. Some recent research suggests that names can influence choice of profession, where we live, whom we marry, the grades we earn, the stocks we invest in, whether we're accepted to a school or are hired for a particular job, and the quality of our work in a group setting. Our names can even determine whether we give money to disaster victims: if we share an initial with the name of a hurricane, according to one study, we are far more likely to donate to relief funds after it hits.

Much of the apparent influence of names on behavior has been attributed to what's known as the implicit-egotism effect: we are generally drawn to the things and people that most resemble us. Because we value and identify with our own names, and initials, the logic goes, we prefer things that have something in common with them. For instance, if I'm choosing between two brands of cars, all things being equal, I'd prefer a Mazda or a Kia.

That view, however, may not withstand closer scrutiny. The psychologist Uri Simonsohn, from the University of Pennsylvania, has questioned many of the studies that purport to demonstrate the implicit-egotism effect, arguing that the findings are statistical flukes that arise from poor methodology. "It's like a magician," Simonsohn told me. "He shows you a trick, and you say, 'I know it's not real, but how did he pull it off?' It's all in the methodology." A problem that he cites in some of these studies is an ignorance of base rates-the over-all frequency with which something, like a name, occurs in the population at large. It may be appealing to think that someone named Dan would prefer to be a doctor, but we have to ask whether there are so many doctor Dans simply because Dan is a common name, well-represented in many professions. If that's the case, the implicit-egotism effect is no longer valid.

There are also researchers who have been more measured in their assessments of the link between name and life outcome. In 1984, the psychologist Debra Crisp and her colleagues found that though more common names were better liked, they had no impact on a person's educational achievement. In 2012, the psychologists Hui Bai and Kathleen Briggs concluded that "the name initial is at best a very limited unconscious prime, if any." While a person's name may unconsciously influence his or her thinking, its effects on decision-making are limited. Follow-up studies have also questioned the link between names and longevity, career choice and success, geographic and marriage preferences, and academic achievement.

However, it may not be the case that name effects don't exist; perhaps they just need to be reinterpreted. In 2004, the economists Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan created five thousand résumés in response to job ads posted in the classifieds in Chicago and Boston newspapers. Using Massachusetts birth certificates from between 1974 and 1979, Bertrand and Mullainathan determined which names appeared at a high frequency in one race but at a low frequency in another, creating groups of what they termed "white-sounding names" (like Emily Walsh and Greg Baker) and "black-sounding names" (like Lakisha Washington and Jamal Jones). They also created two types of candidates: a higher-quality group, with more experience and a more complete profile, and a lower-quality group, with some obvious gaps in employment or background. They sent two résumés from each qualification group to every employer, one with "black-sounding" name and the other with a "white-sounding" one (a total of four CVs per employer). They found that the "white-sounding" candidates received fifty per cent more callbacks, and that the advantage a résumé with a "white-sounding" name had over a résumé with a "black-sounding" name was roughly equivalent to eight more years of work experience. An average of one of every ten "white" résumés received a callback, versus one of every fifteen "black" résumés. Names, in other words, send signals about who we are and where we come from.

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In 1948, two Harvard professors surmised that a rare name had a negative psychological effect on its bearer. Were they right?

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Primary Source #15: Alma and How She Got Her Name

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Primary Source #15: Alma and How She Got Her Name

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This interactive read aloud would be essential in a unit about finding your place. Someone's name is their very first identity marker. It is everything they are. It is what makes them... THEM!

Students could have a class discussion about names and their significance, read this book, or listen to the read aloud and then have a deeper conversation about their name and the roots and significance of it.

Through this application, students will be able to learn about each other and different societal markers of identity.
Activities like this create a safe place for one to celebrate their identity and start to highlight how that identity is needed in the world around them.

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As my secondary example to primary resource 14, I was able to find a specific reading tip sheet that can be geared towards secondary school students.

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Primary Resource 14: Reading Tip Sheet to Parents 

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Primary Resource 14: Reading Tip Sheet to Parents 

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Alot of how students situate themselves as an academic is based in their cultural biographies. Thus, it is important to make a connection with their parents/caretakers.

By making connections such as sending reading sheet tips or novel choices home, you not only empower the parent, but the student.

Students are then able to organically have conversations with their parents that enhance their learning and comprehension.

Naturally, parents will have commentary about the book through the lenses of their familial foundation. This awareness will help the child in more ways than one within this unit.

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Colorín Colorado is a national multimedia project that offers a wealth of bilingual, research-based information, activities, and advice for educators and families of English language learners (ELLs). Colorín Colorado is an educational service of WETA, the flagship public broadcasting station in the nation’s capital, and receives major funding from the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association. © Copyright 2023 WETA Public Broadcasting.

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This resource utilizes Common Lit activities in Spanish. This is an excellent resource in providing students an opportunity to showcase learning in L1 or L2. One of the TEKS mentions student choice of reading -- this would be an ideal strategy to allow students to choose between L1 or L2.

This language choice allows students self agency within their own education. This lends itself to students finding their way within their own academic frameworks regardless of age or grade.

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CommonLit | Textos y actividades de lectura gratuitos

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Para obtener una funcionalidad completa de este sitio es necesario activar JavaScript. Haga clic aquí para obtener instrucciones sobre cómo habilitar JavaScript en su navegador web. Explore nuestra colección gratuita de textos informativos y literarios de distintos géneros para estudiantes de tercer grado de primaria hasta la secundaria.

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Primary Source #12: Culturally Relevant Reading 

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Primary Source #12: Culturally Relevant Reading 

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Doctoral Candidate Ayesha Rabadi-Raol reads culturally responsive children's books every Wednesday on Live. Not only are the books intentionally chosen to highlight representation, Rabadi-Raol, herself, is from India. While I was listening to her accent, I thought it would be lovely to have students who have the same accents (or any accent) hear her read. It takes extreme courage to read aloud with a distinct accent and I think students of all ages would benefit from this during the finding my place unit.

As we've previously discussed in this course, read alouds spark conversation and comprehension like no other. This resource centers their text selection on books that involve topics such as race, gender, class, disability, etc.

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Tell-A-Tale with Ayesha Rabadi-Raol | Events | Teachers College, Columbia University

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Join us for live-streamed readings of children’s books with Ayesha Rabadi-Raol.

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This culturally-responsive resource provides teachers and students with a virtual library full of titles that celebrate what it means to be an indigenous person.

This can be paired with other indigenous celebration resources. Moreover, once students have a better conceptual understanding of the culture in low-pressure situations (such as reading a children's book), it can take away some of the nuanced pressure of reading a novel with some of these same cultural references.

I also find that it is more digestible for high school students to receive cultural allusions and references by means of childrens' books rather than just giving them a sheet of vocabulary or allusions to look for.

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Primary Resource #10: Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

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Primary Resource #10: Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

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This video could be paired with Yang's books and discussion facilitation.
These discussions will not only empower Asian Pacific students, it will provide a deeper contextual understanding of what it could be like to experience life as a migrant by knowing both cultures.

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Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2020: Episode 2

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Episode 2:
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A learning video for elementary students, with a special focus on Asian Pacific American/Desi students to learn our own histories, in celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
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»Who were the first Asian Americans?
»A Different Pond, by Bao Phi
»Write/Illustrate a Family Memory
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Also learn about the U.S. Census and recognizing the Indigenous history of the land you live on.
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Census Resources for Kids
https://www.census.gov/schools/facts/
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Resources to Learn Hangul (한글)
http://learn-hangul.com/
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Honor, Know and Recognize Indigenous People
https://native-land.ca/
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Filipino-American History
http://fanhs-national.org/filam/about/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9plG_tf7ISY
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“Float” by Bobby Rubio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03t-MvPIf40
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A Different Pond
https://socialjusticebooks.org/a-different-pond/
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Book Referenced in this episode:
A Different Pond by Bao Phi; Illustrated by Thi Bui
The Best We Could by Thi Bui
Drawn Together by Minh Le; Illustrated by Dan Santat

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Secondary Resource: Gabrielle Union's Book Recommendations 

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Secondary Resource: Gabrielle Union's Book Recommendations 

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As discussed, students need more tangible examples of people that look like them writing, reading, speaking, and thinking. It is a bit more difficult to find celebrities reading full length novels, beyond their own, but I was able to find book recommendation lists from celebrities.

Perhaps, in my HS classes, I would further highlight cultural inclusivity through the use of the picture books and then build using a more grade level appropriate text recommended by Gabrielle Union.

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Gabrielle Union’s 10 Favorite Reads - Radical Reads

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A list of books recommended by actress Gabrielle Union, including work by Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Chimamanda Adichie, Malcolm X, and Roxane Gay.

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Primary Source #9: Celebrities Reading Stories in Spanish 

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Primary Source #9: Celebrities Reading Stories in Spanish 

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This resource is useful in not only allowing students to see themselves in the books, and be read aloud to, but to see cool celebrities that look like them reading to them. Several opportunities of engagement and relatability. These themes transfer over to the personal connection piece of the TEKS as students work to comprehend.

My secondary connective piece to this includes curated books by celebrities of color.

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It all began with Amy Adams and Jennifer Garner. The two actresses teamed up to create "Save the Stories," a new initiative that would support a new fund for a combined effort between Save The Children and Share Our Strength's " No Kid Hungry " campaign. As they shared in their initial post, "These funds will help us make sure that families know how to find meals when schools are closed, support mobile meal trucks, food banks and other community feeding programs, provide educational toys, books and worksheets, and support out-of-school-time programs to help kids make up for lost time in the classroom."

To incentivize donations and to bring more awareness to these efforts, they put reading at the center of "Save With Stories." While closures of schools and local libraries risk leaving young kids without access to shelves full of books they'd otherwise be enjoying were it not for the Coronavirus pandemic, Adams and Garner took it upon themselves to create their own online story hour, reading children's books for all to enjoy. And they've recruited a number of A-listers to help out including Camila Cabello, Demi Lovato, Noah Centineo (reading Dragons Love Tacos!) and even Captain America himself, Chris Evans.

What's been most exciting to see is the way bilingual and Spanish-language books are well represented in the "Save With Stories" Instagram page where all of these readings are being compiled. Describing the book she chose to read, for example, Eva Longoria was giddy at showing off the many copies she had of the Lil' Libros series. The picture book collection offers bite-sized bilingual biographies of famous Latinx icons including Celia Cruz and Frida Kahlo. Wanting to honor a fellow Corpus Christi artist, she read out The Life of - La Vida De Selena, written by Patty Rodriguez and Ariana Stein and illustrated by Citlali Reyes, in both English and Spanish. Similarly, eager to speak to kids whose first language is Spanish - or those who are intent on practicing their Spanish language skills - Zoe Saldaña chose ¿Cómo dan las buenas noches los dinosaurious?, written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Mark Teague.

You can take a look at Longoria's bilingual storytelling in action and Saldaña's Spanish-reading skills below in full.
You can learn more and donate here.

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Watch Zoe Saldaña & Eva Longoria Read Kids Books in Spanish as Part of the Save With Stories Campaign

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It all began with Amy Adams and Jennifer Garner. The two actresses teamed up to create "Save the Stories," a new initiative that would support a new fund for a combined effort between Save The Children and Share Our Strength's " No Kid Hungry " campaign.

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Kelly Yang writes books that center on the daily lives and experiences of Asian American teens. This would be a great resource to include any students that identify as Asian-American, as typically you do not see them at the forefront of Young Adult Novels. Many of her novels have a migrant aspect to them - - highlighting the readjustment of social norms and narratives. This adjustment can be useful to students of all colors and cultural backgrounds as they navigate to find their places.

Yang also provides free resources to foster classroom conversations.

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I became an author because I love telling stories. Ever since I was a little girl, I've always LOVED telling stories. I tell all kinds of stories -- stories about immigrant girls, loan sharks, wealth, privilege, motels, first love, relationships, family, trauma, poverty, and race.

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Primary Resource #7: Making Children's Book - Who Am I? 

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Primary Resource #7: Making Children's Book - Who Am I? 

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The link in our resource guide for this module was broken, so I used one I found on Youtube.

When we consider my goals for this unit and the TEKS that are spiraled within, giving students the opportunity to tell their own stories provides a rich experience of agency, empowerment, and literacy development.

To add an extra element, students can illustrate or solely complete flip books and then verbally explain their choices for the flip book.

This activity also gives agency to students whose cultural background is rooted in oral language during read alouds.

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How to Create a Children's Book Storyboard • CANVA • Free!!

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Primary Resource #6: We are Water Protectors Read Aloud 

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Primary Resource #6: We are Water Protectors Read Aloud 

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We are Water Protectors is a book describing a young girl’s fight to protect her land’s water source from a “black snake” in the form of an oil pipeline. This book was written as a response to the protests emerging around the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline being constructed through sacred land. Lindstrom literally borrows the slogan: “We are Water Protectors” from the head of the climate change program from the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, Don Sampson (St. John, 2020). Furthermore, Lindstrom identifies as Anishinaabe and is tribally affiliated with Ojibwe (carolelingdstrom.com). Because of these historical and cultural influences on the plot, when I critically examine the book, it becomes an excellent resource for students of all ages to 1) analyze a diverse text and 2) analyze the influence of the setting, including historical and cultural settings, on the plot. Along with this, the analysis of characters, plot development, and relationships fold in quite nicely.

This book also builds on the resource: ThinkIndigenous. This would be a great followup or tool to use on the same day a ThinkIndigenous lesson was utilized.

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Carole Lindstrom reads WE ARE WATER PROTECTORS

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Secondary Source: Cree Language Lesson for All Ages 

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Secondary Source: Cree Language Lesson for All Ages 

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Considering my students would be newly introduced to the Cree language, I think even this language video would be conducive to our classroom. They would have an opportunity to practice basic words/terms to everyday concepts.

I don't have any students that identify as indigenous, but I do think that this would still open the doors for cultural inclusivity. My students would know that everyone is welcome, and we must be intentional with exploring ourselves, as much as we explore the lives of others.

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Think Indigenous - Online Indigenous Education K-8

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K-8 Cree Lesson - Think Indigenous Online Education K-8

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Primary Resource #5: Think Indigenous: Online Indigenous Education 

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Primary Resource #5: Think Indigenous: Online Indigenous Education 

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Think Indigenous is an online video platform used to create an inclusive classroom and a safe space for indigenous learners. It is complete with mental health training, language lessons, and animal videos.

It is a great tie in with the unit exploration of self.

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Think Indigenous - Online Indigenous Education K-8

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In light of the current situation regarding school closures, educators across Turtle Island have come together to provide online learning opportunities for our children K-8.

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Secondary Source: Khalifa and Amal go to Space (Arabic Reading)

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Secondary Source: Khalifa and Amal go to Space (Arabic Reading)

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Student representation

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Primary Source #3: StoryTime From Space 

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Primary Source #3: StoryTime From Space 

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StoryTime from Space is a grant-funded program that allows students to engage with actual astronauts reading to them from space!! How cool?!

Even my high school seniors would appreciate a read-aloud from space! Beyond the cool factor of being in space, the texts chosen are multi-cultural texts and some are even read in different languages.

For a specific example, I chose Khalifah and Amal go to space. It is read in Arabic by an astronaut.

This fits in my unit of Finding My Place because children are able to see themselves included in some areas that maybe they hadn't seen themselves before.

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Secondary Source: I am not your perfect Mexican Daughter Read Aloud 

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Secondary Source: I am not your perfect Mexican Daughter Read Aloud 

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Secondary connective piece:
Erika L. Sanchez's "I am not your perfect Mexican Daughter" read aloud.

This can also be found as a read-aloud in Spanish such as the children's stories provided.

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Intro and Ch 1-3 "I AM NOT YOUR PERFECT MEXICAN DAUGHTER"

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Primary Source #4: Spanish Children's Stories 

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Primary Source #4: Spanish Children's Stories 

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This resource is a collection of Spanish Children's Stories that can be read aloud to students. This fits into my unit of finding myself because 1) it allows students a chance to see themselves and/or their language reflected 2) we can begin to practice comprehension methods to discern meaning and make analytical inferences about the plot

Students could also use these stories as opportunities to tell their own stories.

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Well-known children's stories translated into Spanish and spoken by a native Spanish speaker. Great for kids... and adults too! Read along in Spanish or English.

New Pollito Tito

Chicken Little

A modern adaptation of the classic tale: What happens when a completely normal chicken believes everything he reads on the internet? This story is written in the present tense, because it's a good thing to learn.

Read more

New El Pájaro y la Ballena

The Bird and the Whale

Our first ever original story, about a bird and a whale and their shared love of little fish. Inspired by a song by Tom Waits, and an episode of Adventure Time.

Read more

Los Tres Cerditos

The Three Little Pigs

The classic tale of shoddy building materials, DIY folly, and the perils of emparedados de tocino (a.k.a bacon sandwiches). No pigs or wolves were harmed in the making of this story.

Read more

Ricitos de Oro y Los Tres Osos

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Why you should probably lock your door when you go out for a walk, even if you live en medio de un gran bosque. Why are the three bowls of sopa different temperatures when they were poured at the same time? Science, is why.

Read more

Caperucita Roja

Little Red Riding Hood

A deeply troubling investigation into what happens when you let your children walk somewhere alone: Caperucita Roja eats fresas, picks margaritas and talks to el Gran Lobo Feroz on the way to Grandma's house. (Warning: Contains highly improbable medical scenes.)

Read more

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Spanish Children’s Stories - The Spanish Experiment

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Well-known childrens stories translated into Spanish and spoken by a native Spanish speaker. Read along in Spanish or English. Great for adults too!

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Secondary Source: Virtual Learning Differentiation Strategies 

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Secondary Source: Virtual Learning Differentiation Strategies 

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As a connective piece to my primary resource, I conducted research on tools to help in the secondary classroom.

Again, although teacher centered, these strategies can also help children advocate for themselves and their learning styles. This is something that I teach in my classroom as an ideal self empowerment tool. If a student knows how they learn and what works for them, their academic success will blossom.

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Center for Student Achievement Solutions

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The novelty of COVID-19 has created countless new challenges for principals and other school leaders. Some of the biggest challenges include engaging students through hybrid and virtual learning. How can your school reach the students most at-risk for falling through the cracks, especially when teachers have limited time (or no time at all) to see students in person?

What is Differentiation?

Differentiation (also called differentiated instruction) is an instructional approach which allows teachers to meet students' individual needs, instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach. This approach is so successful that the Carnegie Corporation found that 70% of students can benefit from differentiated instruction.

A differentiation strategy is especially helpful when working with at-risk students who need extra supports, including:

Students living in poverty with limited access to supportive resources

Students in inclusive and special education separate settings

English Language Learners (ELLs) and English as a Second Language (ESL) students

In the traditional classroom setting, teachers have struggled to implement differentiated instructional strategies. Blended learning models such as hybrid and virtual classrooms provide a different set of challenges because teachers and students are learning how to navigate the new platforms for instructional delivery. Some of the layered challenges lie in creating a differentiated curriculum and learning activities without increasing and perpetuating an opportunity or excellence gap between able and less-able students within a hybrid or virtual classroom setting. Pivoting from a traditional classroom setting to a blended learning approach does not mean lowering the expectations for weaker students to create easier learning tasks. With this approach, the students with opportunity or excellence gaps will continue to widen instead of narrowing or closing to reach proficient and advanced levels.

Tips for Developing a Differentiated Approach to Teaching and Learning

Colorín Colorado, one of the nation's leading educational organizations serving ELLs, outlines three key factors which help determine how a student's needs should influence your approach to implementing differentiation:

1. Readiness - Does the student have the prior knowledge needed to learn the new concepts in this unit of study? Has the student mastered the necessary concepts and skills needed to be successful in this area?

2. Interest - What topics interest the student? How can this learning unit be presented in an appealing way to the student? What causes the student to feel motivated to learn?

3. Learning Profile - How does this student "approach the task of learning," and what types of activities help the student learn most effectively? What is the student's learning style?

An effective differentiation strategy takes these three factors into account when planning the curriculum so students can learn through the means most appropriate for their needs.

Three Ways School Leaders Can Support Differentiated Instruction Through Virtual Learning

As we review evidence of the best virtual differentiated instructional strategies, we find that schools leaders should follow these three best practices:

Train teachers to act as facilitators of student-centered learning, rather than dictating each student's specific learning activities.

A recent literature review by Vargas-Parra, Rodríguez-Orejuela, and Herrera-Mosquera explains that differentiated instruction should put students "in charge of their own learning process, deciding which activities to do according to their learning styles, interests, and levels of readiness." Teachers should guide the learning process but ultimately allow learners to direct their own learning and nurture their intrinsic motivation to learn.

Additionally, teachers should be prepared to nudge students back in the right direction when they experience technology-related challenges. For example, some students may become distracted by the novelty of new technologies, have trouble navigating new technologies, or even finish work so quickly that they become bored waiting for their classmates to catch up. Evidence suggests that teachers' reactions to such challenges significantly impact students' ability to learn in a virtual setting.

School leaders must offer consistent, ongoing professional development to help teachers understand how they can best support students through differentiation in an online setting.

Provide support for teachers so they can prepare all learning materials in advance.

In their research, Vargas-Parra, Rodríguez-Orejuela, and Herrera-Mosquera find that improvised instruction is not effective in a virtual learning environment. Several factors could contribute to this lack of effectiveness:

Technology is not always reliable. Some students may experience unexpected technological issues, such as a spotty Wifi connection, which reduces their ability to properly engage in live, unplanned lessons.

Students may already feel less comfortable in a virtual setting. Virtual learning is a relatively new concept, and students who have never been in a virtual classroom before may feel uncomfortable in this setting. Well-prepared lessons can help them build confidence in the new learning system.

Students already have more trouble staying focused in a virtual classroom. Learning from home allows students to become more easily distracted because teachers cannot engage with them face-to-face. Many educational experts and ed-tech vendors recommend that teachers record lessons through a series of short clips so students can easily take breaks and replay specific videos/audio clips in case they missed something the first time.

If your school has teachers who are new to hybrid or virtual instruction, they will need you to provide professional development that will help them engage students through a virtual learning environment. Your district's chosen virtual learning platform should offer plenty of training webinars to get teachers started, but you should also check in with teachers to provide individualized support based on their knowledge gaps using new technologies.

Schedule a free call with one of the experts at the Center for Student Achievement Solutions who can offer customized professional development for your school.

Develop a list of approved virtual differentiation resources that teachers can use in their classrooms.

Although teachers are boundlessly creative when it comes to finding outside resources for their lesson plans, it is vital for school leaders to get involved in a virtual learning environment. Virtual learning can open students up to new risks that do not appear in a traditional classroom setting. For example, if students are directed to download a mobile app, the app could gather personal information from students' devices without their knowledge or consent. School leaders should develop a list of approved virtual learning resources that have been vetted for security and legitimacy.

Edutopia suggests some virtual learning tools you may want to consider:

Wizer - This website lets teachers create interactive digital worksheets, which can be customized by adding videos, audio files, and images throughout each worksheet. Teachers can use this tool to add extra reteaching lessons or more challenging enrichment activities throughout a worksheet, which can meet students at their individual learning levels.

Edpuzzle - If a teacher wants to show a third party video to their class, Edpuzzle lets them ensure students cannot skip ahead in the video. This app also allows the teacher to pause the video whenever they want to check-in for students' understanding and have a short discussion.

Nearpod - Nearpod is a slideshow presentation tool that lets teachers include quick quizzes, games, and other interactive content throughout their virtual presentations. Teachers can create self-paced presentations so students can work through the content at their own pace.

Quizizz - Teachers can use Quizizz to create a "gamified" review of each learning unit. Teachers do not even need to create these review games from scratch because they can search other teachers' content to use as a starting point.

How to Find Professional Support

Our expert consultants are ready to help if your school would like to improve its strategies for providing an equitable education to all students through traditional approaches, hybrid, or virtual learning models. Schedule a free call with our team to learn how we can build a customized strategy to transform your school and close the equity gap.

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Differentiation Strategies for Hybrid and Virtual Learning During the COVID-19 Era

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The novelty of COVID-19 has created countless new challenges for principals and other school leaders. Some of the biggest challenges include engaging students through hybrid and virtual learning. How can your school reach the students most at-risk for falling through the cracks, especially when teachers have limited time (or no time at all) to see students in person?

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Balancing Online/Remote and In-Person Learning for Young Children

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Balancing Online/Remote and In-Person Learning for Young Children

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This resource allows teachers to interact with varying "principles of early childhood learning" to aid in remote learning.

While this is more teacher-centered, I thought this was a resource for student inquiry because students had to work to define their learning style as remote students during COVID. Learning styles are often found out through a survey or class discussion at the beginning of the year, but once COVID forced everyone to have an online school, it seemed as though these learning style differentiations went out of the window.

Using resources such as this one, teachers could have administered a learning style survey for online learning. Even now, since a lot of districts have continued online, this would be a helpful resource to mitigate some of the disconnection that occurs during online learning.

Because of this redefining of learning style, students would not only be able to operate within the realm of self-identification, they could then move to self-empowerment and agency as they use their new knowledge of their learning style to aid in their assignment completion.

This new knowledge for teachers would obviously improve a student's engagement and thus allow the teacher to foster a deeper literacy connection within the ELAR class.

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Inclusive Texts for High School Classrooms - Penguin Random House

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Inclusive Texts for High School Classrooms - Penguin Random House

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The primary resource includes mostly Elementary resources. After students are introduced to picture books through read aloud, the classroom can have a constructive conversation with elevated topics. Then, we can move to this list of inclusive texts exclusively curated for High School Students.

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Penguin Random House Secondary Education

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Inclusive Texts for the High School Classroom - Penguin Random House Secondary Education

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Inspire Teaching and Learning with Outstanding Books

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Black Lives Matter Instructional Library 

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Black Lives Matter Instructional Library

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Black Lives Matter Instructional Library

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This culturally-responsive resource provides teachers and students with a virtual library full of titles that celebrate what it means to be bold and Black.

The Black Lives Matter movement is a social and political advocacy medium that strengthens and supports Black Life.

As pointed out by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, professor emerita at Ohio State University, “Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience.”

When students are able to see themselves in classroom materials, they are able to foster a deeper comprehension of the material. They also begin to see themselves as readers, writers, and thinkers.