I want to try to update my classroom library this upcoming year. I had to take inventory of my books for another course, and I can use more of these. I do have a lot in my mentor texts, but I need more mirror and window books for my students to refer to every day.

(Ebarvia, 2024, p. 38).

We need to reach all students; that's why I selected the idea of a rope.

This is something that I want to try in my classroom this year. That way, they can see that I am human too.

1. US Citizen with a passport

2. College educated

3. Upper middle class

4. Well-resourced neighborhood

5. Straight

6. Cisgender

7. English Speaker

8. Able-bodied

9. Car and driver's license

10. Health and car insurance

11. Live at home at 24

"Furthermore, students should never be asked to write or share anything personal that they are not comfortable writing or sharing. We must respect students as the narrators of their own stories" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 63).

My goal is to have daily writing as a transition between subjects!

"Just-beyond" their comfort zone - encourage students to share, but respect the boundaries

Writer's notebooks are a good way to help students reflect on traumatic events in a safe and brave space.

I always do at least one read-aloud on the first day of school! It is the book All Are Welcome.

Suggested books: Patchwork by Matt de La Pena and Corinna Luyken; Your Name is A Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow; Where Are You From? by Jaime Kim

I would love to use this in my classroom as a whole group activity!

I read Our Class is a Family by Sannon Olsen during the first week of school. This mentor text allows us to all agree on classroom rules and consequences, together as a "family".

1. Time limit of one minute to allow all students to be heard for an equal amount of time. It is also a challenge for students to select only the important information.

2. Students can also write a paper about their object after the fact.

I have never done a show and tell at school. However, I did see a cute TPT idea of having students bring it on the first day of school. My goal is to either complete this strategy on the first day of school or throughout the year as new things become meaningful to them.

Seen in Brookfield's (2012) Teaching for Critical Thinking: Tools and Techniques to Help Students Question Their Assumptions.

"It's this metacognitive element that serves as an important building block for the deep self-reflection that will be needed when students are asked to tackle more difficult conversations throughout the year" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 84-85).

Method of Sharing:

1. Google Form

"When students know that noticing and appreciating each other's contribution is a norm in how we treat one another, they build pro-social habits that strengthen their ability to form community connections and relationships" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 85).

I think this is a fantastic idea! I want to have a NAP box in my classroom!

SO POWERFUL!!

"If we teach who we are, then we also teach what we believe. As educators, we are charged not only with the academic and intellectual development of our students, but also with the emotional, moral, and ethical development of their character - whether we are aware of this responsibility or not. Teaching is an intensely human activity; we cannot help but convey our beliefs about what is right and wrong, good and bad, valuable and worthless by the choices we make, even when they are unintentional. Schools socialize; they help young people learn about what it means to be part of a community, how to be among others outside of their immediate families" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 90).

"Storytelling 'is considered vital by every society on earth." (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 90).

Sometimes, I think I am too empathetic. I carry the weight of others' feelings alongside mine. I want my empathy to look more like the picture. Be empathetic, but do not completely take on their feelings or responsibilities.

1. Gender - Cisgender Female

2. Race - White

3. Sexual Orientation - Straight

4. National origin/Immigration Status - U.S.-Born Citizen

5. Socioeconomic status: Middle-Class*

   1. Allows for the basics of housing, clothing, and food without thought. Can enjoy going out to eat and going to concerts.

6. Home Language - English*

   1. Allows for easy communication in most settings. Also allows for easy reading and writing in most settings.

7. Religion/Spiritual Practice: Catholic

8. Ability - Fully able-bodied

9. Age - 23

This is how I navigated my choices of crossing off parts of my identity.

1. Provide students with a topic or category for their list.

2. Give students one to two minutes to try and make the longest list they can with one simple rule: don't overthink it. The goal is to write down as much as they can, quantity over quality. This will give them more to choose from in the next step, and as I tell students, you never know when something unexpected but perfect ends up on your list.

3. Star three items from their list that stand out to them, for any reason.

4. Choose one of their starred items and free-write about it for five minutes." (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 101).

This is a great simple start for my first graders that I will try this upcoming school year!

There are several types of maps:

1. Heart map

2. Hand map

3. Home map

"Maps help us make sense of the world, and most importantly, they can help orient ourselves when we feel lost" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 103).

"What I appreciate the most about these pie charts is that they allow students to see the complexities in any area of their identity or otherwise" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 106).

"[...] simply asks kids to think about things they know about - topics, issues, hobbies that they know they are an 'expert' on, or at the very least, those things that they might know a little bit more than the 'average' person, however they define that" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 106).

Read Artwell's (2002) Questions for Memoirists.

Students can choose from any of Artwell's questions.

Use in Free-Write Friday.

1. Have students bring in photos, spanning a wide range of their lives. Students are then guessing as to what was happening in the photo. Then, students are to write and reflect on their photograph.

2. Musical chairs - Move around the room when the music plays. When the music stops, share the photos with someone closest to you. Then go back and reflect.

"The more we know about our students, the better able we are to select material in the curriculum to meet their unique needs" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 127).

"When students write personal narratives, they are composing themselves and claiming identities" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 128).

"Yet no matter what identities I might possess, we can signal our support for all students through our choices in the classroom, by being intentional about the voices we feature on our classroom walls, the books we have available in our classroom libraries, or the pronouns we use in our language. Students are watching; every day is a test to see if we are worthy of their trust, if our classroom is a space that is safe enough for them to be brave" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 130).

Refer to pages 139-141 for examples of each guideline.

1. Distinguish between assessing student writing (the product) versus assessing student writers (the person).

2. Develop shared language and expectations around the specific areas of focus or skills to be assessed.

3. Practice looking at writing craft together as a class using mentor texts.

4. Provide multiple opportunities for students to self-assess and talk through their own writing.

5. As a teacher, embody the role of reader versus evaluator when assessing writing.

Basic Criteria:

1. Ideas

2. Organization

3. Voice

4. Word Choice

5. Sentence Fluency

6. Conventions

"Yet, when we consider the powerful and enduring messages that students internalize as a result of not being heard, or of not learning to listen, we can see why we must teach listening and speaking skills if we want a truly equitable classroom" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 150).

"I survey my students to ask what issues they're most interested in learning about" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 151).

"The goal of debate is to win. Yet to apply an antibias lens requires us to lose - to seek and to acknowledge the ways in which our thinking is limited or even wrong" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 153).

vs.

"But having a critical conversation requires more than an exchange of ideas - it requires us to take a critical look at ourselves, each other, and the world" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 155).

Examples of values to have authentic, meaningful, and rigorous critical conversations:

1. Open-mindedness

2. Flexibility

3. Curiosity

4. Care

5. Humility

Why do you think this is?

1. Be prepared

2. Establish ground rules for discourse

3. Model and promote a learning stance

4. Support students with structures for conversations that legitimately encourage engagement

See pages 158-161 for more details

1. Courageous Conversations About Race by Glenn Singleton

2. Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence by Derald Wing Sue

3. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

4. Teaching Race by Stephen Brookfield and associates

p. 162

See pages 164-171 for more details

"Musical Talk gives students practice in talking to anyone as soon as the music stops" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 179).

"Silent discussions give students the option for being heard without speaking" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 182).

"[...] the texts we teach are a means, not an ends, to engage the imagination" (Ebarvia, 2024, p. 214).

1. Students (who)

2. Context (where/when)

3. Texts (what)

4. Skills (how)

"Finally, when teaching a text that deals with issues that you know could be challenging for your students, one reflection strategy to prepare is to ask two clarifying questions: (1) What's the best-case scenario in teaching this text? (2) What's the worst-case scenario in teaching this text?" (Ebarvia, 2024, pp. 225-226).

-Teacher writes a letter to students and asks the students to reply —-> Could also further this by partner students to respond to a letter (potentially could make this anonymous by someone else in the class)

- NAPs (Notice & Appreciation) google forms about a student in the class & their writing —-> share later on google classroom & start of class the next day (snaps moment?)

-Show & Tell- I would do this in a speed dating style & allow for students to let their t-shirt be their item if they have nothing to bring in or be willing to print a picture for them to represent an item they can’t bring in

-Notes to the teacher where they write a comment, fear, concern or question from that day, respond to each child —-> builds rapport with the teacher & student on an individual basis (Wow! They read what I write)

Have students create identity maps or visual biographies that could help to navigate or represent that hyphen or dual life. You could also do Heart maps, Hand Maps or Home Maps!

I’m sharing a controversial split portrait poster I’ve had kids make in the past in my ESL class to explore the “deficit views” others have of them versus how they view themselves- this could be an activity unshared but in the writer’s notebook

Making this more of a conversation instead of a "right or wrong" mark up.

The texts we ask students to read become the schema of their world and their own place in it.

It is the job of the educator to DISRUPT curricula that is not inclusive

Perhaps some examples of questions to use with students based on the study guide:

• What role does narrative storytelling play for readers?

• What takeaways might a reader have from a poem that could differ from an informational text?

• Why is it important that we read and engage with multiple genres of writing?

• Why do you think each of us interpret a text differently? Why is this a good thing when we discuss our takeaways, noticings, overarching themes, etc of a text?

• Why is it important to be active listeners and engaged readers? What does it mean and look like to hold these titles?

Perhaps some examples of questions to use with yourself when looking through the lens of a teacher based on the study guide:

• What was a time that you failed to truly hear a student and their perspective? How would you do things differently after applying the takeaways we've discussed from this book?

• What does your classroom library look like? If your school has a library, what kind of selection is provided there for students? As you reflect and analyze the titles that are present, what are you noticing about the titles that aren't? Are there patterns of specific marginalized groups/identities who are left out of the narrative? How could you potentially make a positive change to these libraries in the future?

• In restrictive, censored environments, where could you possibly empower students with choice and agency in exploring their own identities and how this affects they ways in which they interpret texts?

• How do you build a community of readers in your classroom? Or if you feel that you need to improve on this skill, what are some steps you could take moving forward?

• Think of a a piece of work that one of your students made that really resonated with you. What was it about that piece that stuck with you? How did they make meaning with what they created, and how did you make meaning with it? How do these interactions with their piece differ and also mirror each other?

• "On nurturing (independent) reading..."

• "On analysis and critical thinking..."

• "On writing authentically..."

• "On building community..."

• "On other important things..."

How do you feel about the answers you just gave? If you aren't satisfied with what reading instruction looks like in your classroom, how could you go about addressing it in the future?

This article that discusses Penny Kittle's ideas/philosophies about Book Talks is SO helpful and important!