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Who are we? Who do we imagine ourselves to be?

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Who are we? Who do we imagine ourselves to be?

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Identity maps can be used in the classroom in order to find out who we are - individually and as a class. What strengths do we bring to our community? What is a strength that I don't find in myself, but see in others?

I imagine doing an identity web during the first week of school as a get-to-know-you activity, but also for students to realize their identities and to take pride in them. When students create and share identity maps, teachers should validate each identity that they possess in order to empower them.

Books such as "Milo Imagines the World" written by Matt de la Pena & illustrated by Christian Robinson and "Red: A Crayon's Story" by Michael Hall can catapult students into thinking about their identities - about how they perceive themselves, but also how others perceive them. "Red" is a great book to read and guide students in thinking about when they feel they are valued and why people might talk negatively about someone. When reading, ask students:
- Is the crayon really red?
- Does talking mean about the red crayon make it seem any more red?
- How do you think it makes the crayon feel for the other crayons to talk negatively about him?
- How do you feel when you try very hard at something, just to fail?
On the other hand, "Milo" is a book to read about celebrating identities - any and all. As you read, ask students:
- How does Milo see others?
- How does Milo see himself?
- What does Milo wonder at the end of the book?
- What strengths do you think others notice about you?

As teachers, it is our duty to teach, but also to build up our students to be proud of who they are. When students have a positive self-image, they are more likely to be their best self in the classroom and give everything their all. If we can empower children to be proud of who they are and to accept everyone else for who they are - no matter how different - we can create a brighter, more peaceful community.

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Book comparison charts can be useful in a classroom community because making connections aligns with meaningful learning, but also because it allows students to think about books more than surface level. If the books that are being compared go along with a theme, this can challenge students to think about the theme as a whole, but also in parts. For example, the whole theme of this book comparison chart was girl empowerment. The separate "parts" of this chart, each book, shows a different side of girl empowerment - embracing individuality (Monster Mayhem and Ada Twist), fighting for equal rights (Drum Dream Girl), and pushing back against societal norms (A Girl Like Me). Book comparison charts can allow students to think about books critically, in a way that strengthens connections in their minds to other books.

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Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts can serve as a mirror for readers in my classroom. When students hear Ada's inquisitive mind and questions, they might start to think about things like Ada, or any scientist, would. I see this book as an inspiration for readers to start, or continue, asking "Why?"

I see this book leaving readers in my kindergarten classroom inspired to continue asking questions, even if others get discouraged by their questions.

In the book, Ada's parents say "You'll figure it out" and "We'll figure it out". These statements are so important in the classroom because they can be interpreted as students independently 'figuring something out', but also as the teacher and students 'figuring it out' together. I think this book is a great jumping off point into the mindset that "everything is figure-out-able"!

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Starfish - Influences on Character visual

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How can we tell a main character's true self? Or, in other words, how does the author communicate to readers what influences the main character to feel the way they do?

The Reading Strategies Book (Serravallo, p. 182, 2015), gives us the perfect tool to give to students in order for them to be able to make these connections and to evaluate the character even further. The purpose of keeping track of the influences on a character, from other characters to setting, is  to determine how these influences affect the main character throughout the book.

Starfish by Lisa Fipps is a wonderful book to illustrate this. At the beginning of the book, Ellie, an 11-year-old girl, is being bullied by her classmates, siblings, and her own mother due to her fatness. Through Ellie's relationship with her dad, her friends, and her therapist, she is able to embark on a journey of learning to love who she is and stand up for herself. In the picture above, you can see how I set up my Influences on a Character chart to include all of the characters mentioned, as well as the setting in which these characters are featured in.

Continuously thinking about how characters, events, setting, and story elements affect the main character enables us to make a deeper connection with the character, but also to better understand the character development and progress of the story in general.

Don't stop at other characters and setting! Prompt students to think about (Serravallo, p. 182):

Think through story elements to help you consider what's impacting the character.

Explain how the character reacts.

I agree that person (or place or event) had an impact - we saw a change in the character.

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Cultural Authenticity - We Are The Water Protectors 

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Listen to my "podcast" on my evaluation of cultural authenticity of "We Are the Water Protectors" (2020) written by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Goade.

In this podcast, I address a couple of different factors of the book, such as the writer and illustrator's background in relevance to cultural authenticity, the significance of some things in the book, and choices that the author and illustrator made and why they make this book culturally authentic.

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Cultural Authenticity - We Are The Water Protectors 

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"We Are Water Protectors" by Carole Lindstrom & illustrated by Michaela Goade is a story about a young, presumably Indigenous, girl whose culture strives to protect the land from a figurative black snake. The black snake signifies the insertion of an oil pipeline into an area. The story continues to show that this group of people form a protest and have hope that they can stop the black snake from ruining the land that they hold so dear.

At the end of "We Are Water Protectors", there is a note from both the author and illustrator to the reader. Both notes reveal the cultural identity of the author (listen more about this on my previous post!) and illustrator, while also giving some background of the story, specifically, the significance of the black snake and the protests. The notes disclose that the book is inspired about a real event that happened - Standing Rock - a protest that fought against the insertion of the oil pipeline.

These notes can be used by teachers when showing this book to children. The intentional disclosure of the author's and illustrator's notes can allow teachers to use the book in a culturally conscious way, and to give students a look into a different perspective (Kaczmarczyk & Adams, 2021, p. 2).

Personally, I think it might be beneficial to have students read over the two notes before reading the story. This way, there can be a conversation surrounding what they predict is in the book, what the conflict of the book might be, and how they think the protest and black snake will be portrayed. When reading the book, students can make connections back to the author's and illustrator's note, strengthening their comprehension of the story and plot of the book. The book ends without telling the outcome of the protest and the black snake. Ask students:

This is something that really happened. What do you think the outcome was?

Brainstorm what were the implications of the oil pipeline being put in.

Brainstorm what were the implications of the oil pipeline not being put in.

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Whether you are assigning a book for students to read, or reading a book with students, duet text sets can help generalize the takeaways you wish to communicate! Duet text sets can bring multimodal and multicultural examples into your classroom in order to expound upon a "range of perspectives" (Cappiello & Dawes, p. 13).

Act! by Kayla Miller (2020) is a book about a girl who is upset by a number of things that she notices in her school. The girl, Olive, decides to start a petition, facilitate a sit-in, start a bake-sale fundraiser, and even runs for student council to bring awareness to these issues and advocate for a change. After reading this book, I immediately thought of a video that my professor, Dr. Buchholz showed my class when I was in block 2, learning about teaching persuasive writing. I think the video linked would be a great extension, or duet for this book as well!

The video introduces a 10-year-old girl, Bellen Woodard, who advocated to make a change in her friend group, then classroom, whole school, then her community! She noticed that everyone seemed to refer to the peach-colored crayon as the "skin color crayon". As a black person, this made Bellen feel, as she says in the video, "weird". So, after speaking with her mother about the situation, she devises a plan to respond to classmates asking for the "skin color crayon" by saying "which color?" This started to get noticed by other classmates, and even her teacher. In her classroom, everyone began asking for clarification when classmates asked for a skin color crayon. As Bellen says, then her whole school started this. In the video, Bellen is seen packaging bags with crayons in many shades of skin colors to be sent to other children in her community. She shares that she pays for the crayon packs with her money that she makes modeling.

This video would be a great duet text set for Act! by Kayla Miller because it features a girl who, like Olive, noticed something she didn't think seemed fair, then acted on it. By viewing this video after reading Act!, students get another perspective of a social justice issue that was acted on by a student. Some ideas for assignments or extension activities regarding both Act! and the linked video are:

1) COMPARE AND CONTRAST: Make a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting Olive from Act! and Bellen Woodard from the video.
2) PERSUASIVE WRITING LESSON: Ask students about something they have noticed in their lives that seem unfair. Brainstorm ideas together. Invite students to begin a draft of a persuasive letter to someone who can help make a change.
3) REAL WORLD CONNECTION: Locate other examples (magazine articles, videos, books, etc) of children making a change in their area - big or small! Give this collection of materials to students to view and discuss other children who acted and advocated for change.

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Girl launches project showing kids there’s more than one skin-tone crayon

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Two voice poem inspired by Amelia Bloomer & Lucy Stone.

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Good readers think beyond text. One way to encourage students to think beyond the text they are reading is to create an invitation for them to construct a response to the text. Two voice poetry could be a way to take text interpretation a step further!

Above you will find my two voice poem that was inspired by two woman, Amelia Bloomer (p. 28) and Lucy Stone (p. 29), who I read about in History Smashers: Women's Right to Vote by Kate Messner, illustrated by Dylan Mecons. This poem highlights Amelia Bloomer and Lucy Stone because they were both women who stood for women's rights and worked to make changes in society. Amelia Bloomer created bloomers in a world where women did not wear pants. I included the line "is it easier to lay down?" in Amelia's voice because, according to History Smashers, the bloomer movement eventually died out because it was taking attention away from more important issues, such as women's right to vote. My thought in response to reading this was: "Why was this taking away attention? Why can't women be outraged about both issues? Why pick one?" On the other hand, Lucy Stone was one of two ladies who initiated the National Women's Rights Convention. In response to the convention, she and others at the meeting were called "unwomanly". I picked these two women because the had things in common, being advocates for women's rights, but had a distinct phrase they were known for: bloomers and the phrase unwomanly.

The creation of this poem can be presented to students in order to invite them to create a two voice poem of their own in response to a text.

As seen in Reading to Make a Difference (Laminack & Kelly, 2019) one way to model for students how to make these connections in order to think beyond the text is to create a Venn diagram (p. 94-95). This creates a visual for students to organize their thoughts about what their two people have in common, and what differences they have, in order to create their two voice poem.

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This duet text set is meant to expand students' thinking on the arresting of women for protesting, rather than the men who were behaving violently.

I have included two texts, one is an article and one is a photograph. The article excerpt gives students two reasons why the protesting suffragists were arrested, rather than the violent men: 1) the were obstructing the sidewalk and 2) they were displaying "unpatriotic actions". The second photograph shows a woman holding a banner that states "To ask freedom for women is not a crime. Suffrage prisoners should not be treated as criminals." The goal of this duet text set is to get students to think critically about the justification of the women's arrests.

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My Two Blankets by Irena Kobald & Freya Blackwood

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According to McLaughlin and DeVoogd (2004), “critical literacy helps us to read texts in deeper, more meaningful ways." Problem-posing questions can help educators guides students' thinking in a way that promotes critical thinking.

For this text, My Two Blankets by Irena Kobald and Freya Blackwood, I would pose the following problem-posing questions:

1. What is good in the main character's life? What is bad or unfair?

This question addresses the fact that the main character had to move to an unfamiliar place. Students who have moved before might consider this to be unfair, thus the wording in the second question. This makes the character uncomfortable because it is unfamiliar, but she also says that she has trouble understanding people. However, this leads us to the "good". The main character meets a girl who shows her kindness and teaches her new words. This is the "good" aspect that we see in the main character's life.

2. Which character is being perceived as different?

This question addresses the language barrier that the main character is experiencing. The students may realize that the main character also looks or dresses differently that other characters seen in the book.

3. What does the "good" character, the little girl in the park, do that makes her seem good?

This question encourages students to think about the actions of the little girl in the park. Did she act as if the main character was an outcast, or did she embrace her differences? This will prompt students to think about what they would do in this situation.

4. What would the girl at the park say if she were writing this story?

This question encourages students to think about the story from the girl at the park's perspective. Thinking about the story from her perspective makes students understand the story in a deeper way because they are thinking of the girl's motive and character. Again, this makes students connect back to themselves by thinking "Is this something I would do if I saw someone who was different from me?"

5. How can we be more like the girl from the park? How can we take what we've learned from her and apply it in our lives?

This question encourages students to not only think about what the girl in the park did, but what they can do to be more like her. Do we embrace people who are different than us? Are we patient with others, even when they are different?

The goal of all of these questions is to make students dig deeper into the story and the meaning behind what happened to the main character. Even though the main character was put in a different environment where she felt like an outsider, the girl at the park was a bright spot because she embraced the main character and treated her with respect and patience. This book, and these questions, can hopefully lead students in thinking about embracing diversity while empathizing with what the main character is feeling.

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How can teachers use language field guides? What are they?

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How can teachers use language field guides? What are they?

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According to Beck, McKeown, & Kucan  (2013), vocabulary instruction must provide multiple encounters and contexts to a word in order for students to have a deep understanding of the word. When I read this, it immediately made me think of a phrase I learned in a course about teaching literature to students with severe disabilities: "Repetition with variety". When teachers provide multiple ways to encounter and interpret a word, students will have a more well-rounded view of the word and words that may have similar parts.

A language field guide helps students explore words in a way that creates a deeper understanding of the history behind the words themselves, and the meaning of the word. For example, I've done incandescent in the virtual language field guide above. I've included the origin of the word, as well as the definition. The origin of the word was helpful in understanding what the word meant because I could then relate the word to lightbulbs. I wrote the lyrics in which I encountered the word incandescent, as well as thought up my own sentences in different contexts.

Language field guides aren't simply memorizing words and definitions, then taking a vocabulary test. They encourage inquiry and discovery as students make connections between different words and notice parts of words that are similar. For example, I realized I was thinking incandescent was actually iridescent. This made me wonder: What's the difference? Well, I had to look it up and make sure I knew! Connections like these and small distinctions are what encourage a deep understanding of the words students are studying.