Learning & Teaching about Ramadan

It is hard to believe, but Friday is April 1st (get ready for April Fool’s Day!) and Saturday is the beginning of Ramadan! Of course, it depends on the sighting of the new moon, but it seems likely that will occur on Saturday, April 2nd.

Even if you think you don’t have any students who observe Ramadan, it is still something to teach and learn about as over two billion people participate all over the world! Also, you don’t always know how people identify or who they might have in their life. At my current school, I’ve had one student who shared with me that they were Muslim and appreciated when I shared a book with the class that felt relevant for them (which of course happened before Ramadan because we learn about the world and everyone who lives in it every single day). 

When I taught in New York City, many of my students followed Islam and often had to miss school for Eid or other important holidays which I know sometimes felt stressful for them. However, after I moved on, New York Public Schools added both Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr to the school holidays list. Later, Lunar New Year was added as well. It’s great to see a public school system respecting the holidays that many of their students celebrate, but in my experience, this is unusual, even in districts with large numbers of families that observe Ramadan or celebrate Lunar New Year. Hopefully this will continue to change!

I always start by asking my students what they know about Ramadan and going from there. It’s important to dispel the myth that Ramadan is something that only happens in other countries as many Americans observe Ramadan as well. As always, it’s a good time to look at a map! This interactive map shows the Muslim population by country and students love interacting with it. I also found this graphic showing the different fasting hours based on location interesting and very clear. It’s also another opportunity to practice our map skills! My next step would be to have students read something to learn more information (or multiple things) and my go to is always a read aloud followed by a Newsela article. Providing a bin of books for students to continue learning more on their own is always helpful as well. Brainpop also has a movie about Ramadan, which is a good way for students to build some background knowledge before moving on to learn more on their own.

Resources to Highlight and Bookmark:

• I found this letter for educators from Dr. Sawsan Jaber, a high school English teacher in Illinois, very helpful and informative. It includes some great resources. Please read it and share it. 

• I also discovered a great new blog: Notes from an Islamic School Librarian. There are so many wonderful book recommendations! Again, please read and share. Remember that everyday is a good day to read books with varied representations. 

Books!

A Party in Ramadan by Asma Mobin-Uddin: I have this one in my classroom! The characters are very relatable and students often find both windows and mirrors in this story as they have friends who follow different traditions. The book includes an author’s note at the end that shares more information about Ramandan.

Rashad's Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr by Lisa Bullard: I haven’t had the pleasure of reading this book yet, but it comes highly recommended and has a glossary and information boxes sprinkled throughout for more learning. It also seems to be appropriate for younger learners (K-2).

All books by Rukshana Khan! I have to give Big Red Lollipop a shout out as we used it as a mentor text when writing our own stories, but also because my students connected with it on so many levels. They had so much to say and didn’t require any questions or prompts to think deeply about the characters and text. Her books are beautifully written and illustrated and while many of the characters are Muslim, their stories are bigger than a sole focus on identity..

A Sari for Ammi by Mamta Nainy: this book is full of bright, gorgeous illustrations and saris. It always makes me happy to see saris in a book because I remember both of my grandmothers wearing them. I also appreciate how this story disrupts the single story about India and teaches us all about a mostly female and Muslim artisan community. The book includes a glossary and an information page about Kota Doria sari weaving in Kaithun, Rajasthan. There is a reference to Eid, but this book is not specifically about Ramadan.

Another author to check out is Reem Faruqi for both Lailah’s Lunchbox: a Ramadan Story  (cover photo) and Amira’s Picture Day. Both books address Ramadan directly and the main characters’ simultaneous excitement and trepidation about managing at school. They both include a glossary and address the challenge of a home/school balance when your classmates might not share many of your traditions or customs.

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We are now reading and reviewing ARC's !

We feel so hip, so cutting edge! It is no surprise to any of you who follow us here (or on Twitter) how much we love literature. We have seen on a daily basis how transformative it can be for us personally, but also for our students. As a result, we are now reading ARC's ( Advanced Reader's Copies) to continue our ongoing quest of excellent, thoughtful, diverse literature. If you are someone who is looking for a reader (or two! ) feel free to reach out to us! 

We have loved reading the ones we have received so far. We especially loved How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs. The very first piece (Light Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands) in her short story collection blew our minds from the get go with its nuance, humanity, and the way it got at the depths of the many layers in our identities. Beautifully done-- we hope you can snag a copy this summer (It is officially out July 24th, 2018)! We would definitely use it with high schoolers!! 

What books are you loving this summer? What book are you desperate to get your hands on-- tell us, tell us! 

We're official! ;) 

Social Justice Tour to the Dominican Republic!

We were very fortunate to join a group of educators for a Friends Beyond Borders Social Justice Tour through the Dominican Republic earlier this summer. We loved exploring and learning more about a stunningly beautiful country as well as getting to know and collaborating with other educators.

Our trip covered so much ground and inspired a lot of reflection, so we will most likely be coming back to it in many future blog posts.  For now, here are a few key takeaways:

• Diverse authors: My main context for background information about Dominican history and culture came from Junot Diaz books. This background helped me make connections and build upon previous knowledge.  This is why diverse authors and voices are so important! Also, (sidenote) why do I know so little about a country the US has occupied twice in the last century?

  • Once starting on May 5, 1916

  • Once starting on April 28, 1965

Learning about the oh-so-incredible Mirabal sisters.

• The “developing” world: How do we understand poverty in different contexts? How can we talk about vast discrepancies in standards of living in other communities with students without dehumanizing or “otherizing” people experiencing poverty? How can we balance between confronting the reality of socioeconomic inequalities and simultaneously avoiding one dimensional interpretations or conceptualizations of a nation or people?

• Columbus’s legacy: his actions and racist policies still affect ALL OF US today. Part of the motivation for the genocide of the Taino people was to make way for African slaves. Also, “extreme” poverty in the developing world is not an accident. It is related to historically racist policies!

Visiting the Alta Gracia factory!

• Economics: we study Economics with our fifth graders and learn all about the labor force. After visiting the Alta Gracia factory, these issues came to life for us in a new way and now we are thinking about workers’ rights and humane conditions. Also, we need to add a more deliberate action component to this unit as there are real opportunities for activism here! As consumers, we really can vote with our money.

Please let us know your thoughts and reflections.  We would love suggestions or just to hear about what or how you are teaching!  Stay tuned as we try out some new things this school year!

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Our Storytelling Unit!

The year is wrapping up in 5th grade! Where has the time gone?! We love many things about the end of the school year, but our favorite is the culmination of our Storytelling Unit. We have a big Final Stage show in which every single one of our 26 students steps up onto the stage and tells a true story LIVE!

There are so many reasons why we love teaching storytelling. It is rigorous, social justice oriented, colorful, and has the power to be incredibly personal and meaningful. We love how it opens up spaces for each student's voice, and we love how it allows space for deeper connections with family friends, especially in the act of reflection. However, this year, we had our students fill out a survey so we could have a sense of what they thought about studying the craft of storytelling. Check out some of their thoughts below!

On what IS storytelling anyway?

G: I have learned that storytelling is more than words coming out of your mouth. It is a memory, a feeling and a meaning. I have learned how strong that is.

C: One thing I learned about story telling is that a real story has to have all these things that some memories don't.  I could have told a lot of different stories but they might not have meaning or change so they can't be a story.

R: Other than learning about what storytelling is in the first place, I have learned about how to make a sad story happy, and how to make a memory have meaning. I have also learned how to take these memories that I have and make myself learn something valuable that I will always carry with me.

On what storytelling taught us about others:

G:I have learned that everyone has their own thoughts running through their brains that I do not know about. They have things that I do not know about. I have to respect that.

R:I have learned about so many stories that people in my class have gone through. I have learned what people really felt during different times.

G2: I have learned what some people like and don’t like, I have learned what people have done in the past and if they liked it or not, and best of all I have more info about my friends and what might upset them if I somehow bring the subject up.  I also learned a lot of new messages that I didn’t have in my stories and now I can use those new messages in my lifetime.

S: What I have learned about others in this unit is that people have many stories to share and that if you listen, you can learn about them and get closer to friends.

On what storytelling has taught us about ourselves:

C: One thing I learned about myself is that even though I might not be the best writer and sometimes I have trouble with coming up with ideas I love the performing. I really love going on stage and performing. In a lot of the time writing is hard for me but, storytelling feels so natural because you're talking about you.

R: Other than learning that I love to tell stories I have learned so many things about myself. To list a few, I have learned that I am good at acting in the stories but I have to push myself a lot harder to find messages and to convey meanings; I have also taught myself how to push myself to do my best.

F: I have relearned these stories that were just in my head and released them from the back of my mind and let them come out of my head using words.  I have also learned these lessons from myself over again and I am going to follow the examples that I said in my story over again to be a better person.

S: What I learned about me in this unit is that I have had really meaningful experiences that I did not think were important, and that I could not see the value in the experience. Now I see value in lots of experiences I have had.

E: I think that writing this reflection right now is what is helping me learn about storytelling. This is because this reflection is giving me the time to sit back and and realize all these things about storytelling. There were moments during the storytelling unit where I was mad, or nervous, or unsure, or rushed, or many other things. Now, I can see beyond that and I realize that this unit, even though it has probably been the most challenging writing unit I have ever had in my years at Sheridan, it has helped me a lot. And I think I am learning from all the challenges that our storytelling unit presented.

And finally, they wouldn't be 5th graders without some spunk (and emojis!):

G: Can you please tell the people who thought that we were too young for storytelling that this was one of the best writing units ever and that I had so much fun telling my story and hearing others! Thank you. (;

We hope even if you don't have time for a full blown storytelling unit, that you find spaces to hear and share stories in your classrooms and communities. If you are thinking about a storytelling unit or workshop and are on the fence-- please take it on! If you need any support, feel free to reach out to us, we'd love to talk about it with you!