Affinity Groups in Lower School

We ran a Students of Color affinity group for grades 3-5 at our school and hope to be able to meet again later this year. We used to meet during lunch (pre-COVID) which was so lovely, but since that’s currently not possible with all of our protocols, we are trying to find another time and space. We’ve found that many schools have affinity groups for older students, but want to share support and ideas for starting an affinity group with some of the younger ones as well. Our crew really benefited from it and it was a time we all looked forward to as a breather during the week!

What to Prepare 

• A general overview of your proposal/plan to share with administrators so they know and take this endeavor seriously. Everything about this process is easier if you have administrator buy-in. They will be bombarded by at least a few parents as you get going, soon enough. 

• Maps/globe

• Vocabulary: Race, ancestors, minority, majority, POC, BIPOC, see below 

• General ground rules you want to pitch to the students (ie: what is said here stays here, what is learned here leaves here.. Or something that allows them to tell stories and talk freely about what they want and need without becoming too messy or mean of a situation if it is about a classmate or one of your colleagues). It will get messy, FYI. And we wanted students to share whatever was on their mind, but we were careful that we didn’t want all the kids leaving the room at the end of the group dog piling or mad at a certain kid that was talked about during group.

  • Along with this, general expectations for how you would like students to behave in the space. For us, teacher-led rules that were non-negotiable were about cleaning up our classroom and respect for one another. We recommend teaching these explicitly like you would in your classroom to set everyone up for success, you are a new group together (from different classrooms!) with new personalities. It is hard for them otherwise to know what part of this get together is casual vs. what part is regular school so be really clear so they can be successful. You can also choose where to make room for them to add in what they want the group to be and expectations/rules they have etc. 

• Games, food, and memories are part of forming a community. Make a plan with the admin to set yourself up for some of these to be expected and supported in your group. 

• At minimum, a second adult. We recommend this for a few reasons, practically speaking, a weekly commitment is hard for anyone to always be able to make (things come up!) and it’s important to not cancel the group as much as possible (the kids will let that be known!). Also, more teachers of color means a fuller community and more connections for everybody :). In addition to this, tough things come up, and it is important to have another adult in the room to balance out how to respond and also to discuss with after if you need to handle a difficult situation in a careful way etc. 

• A space! A time! Where will you meet? When? We had our meetings in our classroom which was great for us (and our crew), but it also meant we had to ensure the rest of our class knew they couldn’t come barging in the room at lunch or stay after to ask a question or manage a meltdown. Think about what space will work best for you all collectively that you can get to. 

Expected Bumps & Pushback 

• We were told that 3rd graders don’t know what race they were.

• Push back from students & families who are not part of the affinity group. We had parents claiming this is segregation and a violation of the Civil Rights Act.

• Teachers who don’t agree, like it, or understand and might pass this feeling on to other students knowingly or unknowingly. Also, teachers pitching a white affinity group. 

• “Tan” students trying to come to our group, or kids trying to bring their friends and explaining why they could or should come who weren’t POC.

• As mentioned above, talk about someone who upset or hurt a student’s feelings. Think about how you want (and need) to navigate this for the students/families and your position. Things will come up. 

• Time! It’s limited! Plan for a little bit of passing time. Kiddos coming from different classrooms and grades will need some wiggling time and they will talk and joke as they see each other and enter the room. Also consider the buffer of clean up (it is their responsibility in our group!). So if you want to plan a discussion topic or specific activity, think with your teacher brain about the realistic amount of time you have to do it and how it can work. 

Useful Explanations & Language 

• Explain affinity group means we share an facet of identity - also we share being in the minority

• This is the one time a week we are in the majority

• Explaining to students that people of color don’t trace their ancestry back to Europe

• A communal event any culture/community might have (going to Temple, celebrating a Quince, going to a Friends meeting) you might need and want space from someone who doesn’t share that cultural background so you can just BE. Be with your community, relax, share, laugh, eat etc. and not feel the gaze of someone outside or answer their questions for what they don’t understand about your community right at that moment! A big part of enjoying affinity is getting to be with your people and relax! 

Activities We Loved & Our Favorite Parts! 

• The joy! The laughs! And selfishly, it was a community for both of us, too! It was also a nice way to check in with POC kiddos from different grades who we had our eyes on in a routine way and make sure they were feeling cared for and doing okay. 

• Weekly share - they loved having the time to share and be unfiltered in ways that felt different from their classroom and school day experience. Any way that we could step our voices off and give their voices and bodies the space to just be, we tried to for the short time they had this space! Even if we wanted to, they never would’ve passed up on their share time (even when we said we’d use the time for games or other fun stuff!) as they really wanted to talk. 

• Sharing positive current events and moments in history!

• Games & food are part of becoming a community! 

• Kids connecting from different groups. 

• Kids from different POC backgrounds learning more about one another and their backgrounds without the white gaze! Just because we’re all some kind of brown, doesn’t mean we suddenly know everything about everyone else. We loved the learning moments that got to happen for and with our students in this smaller setting. 

• Celebrating and being proud. Kids shared a lot of things they did with family, but also other parts of their lives that when we checked in with their teachers they didn’t hear about in class. This group was so excited to cheer or to join in with kids in being proud of themselves for something they accomplished or a way they handled a tough moment. 

• Which segways nicely to the shared knowledge/advice. Students were really thoughtful and supportive about advice and being supportive of how to handle some of the tougher parts of being a minority in our school. They said it in ways only they could have and also heard one another in ways that only could be heard from a peer. We found this really powerful and beautiful. 

• Music! We had some fun/ dancing. 

• Books! Our end of the year gift to our students were books (surely you are shocked!) and it was really nice to write a note to each one of them and give them a book to take with them as they graduated from our division and left our group for the older POC group. 

• A meet up with the older kids! We had some meet ups with the older POC group which was great for both groups. Knowing personalities, thinking about what would be the best use of time, planning something that works for all ages are all things to consider. We found that our kids really just wanted to...talk with one another. 

Other Thoughts 

• It’s worth it! It really is! Our kids told us so, families told us so, and we felt it, too. 

• You also have affinity and are not alone! You can always reach out to others (or us!) for tips or thoughts about what is happening in their affinity groups. 

• Your kids, like always, will guide a lot of what you do so no two affinity groups will be exactly alike. 

• A big part is just jumping in. Our school is now used to the concept and we look back years later and remember a lot of the bumps (we are always and still learning of course) and are grateful to have gotten it off the ground so it can be where it is today for today’s students. Even if we haven’t and won’t ever make it ‘perfect’ they deserve their own space. 

Resources 

Resources from Rosetta Lee's website

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10 Habits to Help Teachers and Students Stay Positive and Engaged

Gabby’s post, Ten Habits to Help Teachers and Students Stay Positive and Engaged, was published on The Art of Teaching! Please read and share widely as I’m sure we all could use some reminders right now. And let us know your tips as well!

Mental Health!

I wanted to write this post in May for Mental Health Awareness Month, but clearly time has gotten away from me (yet again). Here is a post Gabby managed to write in a more timely fashion for Mental Health Awareness Month in the past! As we look toward the next school year with lots of uncertainty and anxiety inducing unknowns looming for most kids and teachers, here are some ways to support kids in managing their disappointment or anxiety about our unknown future. Please keep in mind that these are strategies to deal with uncertainty and anxiety, but NOT ways to handle grief or trauma.

Some things I tried that seemed to support my students this year:

• Talk about what you miss or would have done in more typical circumstances periodically. It’s okay to acknowledge disappointment and important to model expressing and thinking through emotions to students. Indulging in fantasy about what we might/could have done in other circumstances can make students feel better and help them get their feelings out. This isn’t something to do every single day, but periodically or around important milestones or holidays. (For example, I talked to my students about how I was disappointed about all of the restrictions during my son’s first Halloween, but I was looking forward to having him wear his costume during our party over Zoom). 

• Make up an alternate version of things as much as you can! Our Halloween party over Zoom was actually a huge success and a lot of fun. We also built “tents” in our homes and shared photos of them as an alternative to outdoor education/a camping trip. Try to continue traditions as much as you can, even if it means giving students and families the option to do things at home or on their own and share photos or stories.

• Try new ways to connect if you are getting tired of video chats or distanced, masked interactions. Ask students to write letters or design and write postcards. Or give students the option of sharing something about themselves in a creative way - they’ll come up with all kinds of ideas we would never think of!

• Sending photos or making videos when meeting in person isn’t an option. It is always a pick me up. My students were very motivated and cheered by videos or photos of my baby, and my co-teacher and I sent students a photo postcard so they could see our faces before school started since our traditional meet the teachers/see your classroom open house was cancelled. 

• Give students an opportunity to be creative! There is so much you can do with limited materials. We’ve used sheets of foil to make team or partner sculptures, or had partner creations (for example, someone draws and someone writes captions) that could be done in person/distanced or online.

• As always, find new ways to bring joy into class! Share something that made you smile and tie it into a sign in, response, greeting or something else. We used this “It’s an avocado, thanks!” video to talk about gratitude in the past, and my students also liked writing to my baby or writing a narrative to go along with a video of my baby. 

• And of course, powerful read alouds work for so many purposes! We read Hello Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly aloud to our class this year and students really responded to one of the characters being trapped, another character feeling unheard and misunderstood, and more. Using characters as a conduit is a great way to talk about our feelings. Other read alouds that I love in general, but also for talking about emotions are:

  • Front Desk by Kelly Yang: strong connections for students to learn about taking action when feeling powerless, fear, missing family, racism, discrimination, inequality, and more. This is another long chapter book read aloud, but definitely worth the time!

  • Saturday by Oge Mora is a gorgeous picture book and I’ve used it to talk to kids about managing disappointment

  • Carmela Full of Wishes by Matt de la Peña is another gorgeous picture book and deals with hope and loss, sibling relations, immigrant rights.

  • Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Khan. This lovely picture book caused intense reactions from my students and led to some powerful discussions, as well as being a great mentor text for descriptive writing. We also touched on managing disappointment, things being “unfair,” frustration with siblings, making kind choices, and different religions and family traditions.

  • Malaika’s Costume by Irene Luxbacher and Nadia L. Hohn is another beautiful picture book. Students connected with Malaika missing her mother, feeling disappointed, having money troubles, and eventually being creative and finding a solution that made everyone feel good. It could also inspire some costume making or other creativity!

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Top 7 Things I’m Reminded About Now That I’m a Student Again...!

Gabby here- first post in eternity.

It’s finals week over here in graduate school land, and as I begin to reflect on the term (or procrastinate-- whatever you want to call it!), I have been thinking about what past teacher me could be reminded about from my current student life. Here are a few pieces that came up as I reflected (or procrastinated, really, you decide- just don’t tell me!). Hopefully these can be helpful right before the upcoming break, or when students return in January.. in addition to reviewing all those hard taught classroom expectations that they forgot!

1. Time: What is time really, you know? And how does it just disappear so fast?! In seriousness, the demands of time management of a student are hard (different from a teacher’s but still very hard in its own way!), and I forgot to the degree they are especially when we calculate in the rest of their lives. Students do not even have full control of their schedules (siblings rehearsals, family obligations they can’t opt out of like adults do..) Remembering that what you ask students to do requires them to both manage their time AND do the assignment .. make sure it’s actually worthwhile or call it a pass. There are of course a million cool things you could shove their way for them to work on, but when you want it to actually take some time, make sure it is your very top pick and you have loads of reasons as to why you chose that one.

2. Review homework in class or don’t assign it. Connect in some way the work they are doing at home to in class work otherwise that homework does not really matter... Nothing is less motivating even for the kid who is continuously on top of their reading to realize ... huh.. it doesn’t really matter if I do this work or not. Even if they keep doing it, noticing it doesn’t matter will change the intentionality with which they do it. Also, repeated exposures is helpful for everyone! There’s nothing like that moment when you notice that you’ve been trying hard to follow the rules and nobody else and then you wonder why you are...yes, our students notice.

3. Do frequently check for prior knowledge / experts about a range of topics — there’s a great range of educators in my classrooms right now and the courses where we are just getting lectured to and not discussing with one another seems like a lost resource / learning opportunity! I often feel this way at conferences, too... Your students know a ton and bring all sorts of background knowledge to the table that you really won’t know about unless you ask.. Or when their mom tells you in the hallway in May..

4. Remember how scary authority is — if there was one thing I could emphasize the most in this entire post it is this point over and over again. Authority is actually terrifying and makes all of us squirm or meek up (this should definitely be a phrase) in some fashion. If you are not doing something well your students may very well not tell you. If your students are asking you for something, chances are it is something that really needs to change and it took a lot of pumping up for them to get to that point. Asking questions, asking for clarification, asking about an unfair grade (!!!) ... is typically not going to happen 80% of the time those dilemmas actually come up. That means as the teacher on the other side, we have to proactively and consistently check how things are going for your students and how open your lines of communication are.*  This also means being even more on their team than they are is the best way to go, because they likely won’t have the words or the skills (which we do need to teach them / have them practice) to ask for what they need and tell an authority figure what isn’t working respectfully. I had to talk to a professor about a grade and I was sweating. Actually sweating. *The 80% statistic is made up or also known as my personal educated guess *

5. Everyone likes a video example. That’s all, I just think that’s true. Pick a good one, obviously-- but they help break things up and provide different entry points to learning.

6. Remember that students are social beings ... it is only from training that they do not chat with each other during your entire class. Also, talking with one another about their learning is actually really effective for them to all be hands-on practicing something.. You just have to teach and reinforce how to do it.

7. Calculate in fatigue /winter slumps/ testing times and plan with that in mind. You are exhausted and so is your cast of characters. Everyone is tired. Do your students need a review day (back to repeated exposures!), and not trying to shove more in their brains? It would be a great way to assess how they are doing and switch up the energy during a doldrum time. Like right now! And back to writing papers. Thanks for the casual writing outlet and also for the wonderful work that you are likely up to this year !

Oh, and of course, don’t make people buy books that you only assign one chapter in the whole term and you could’ve just uploaded a pdf !!! ... hmm, clearly a specific thought... apologies! But do carefully consider the reading you are assigning. If you ever need some recommendations just look at one of the many Teach Pluralism book recommendation blog posts!

Happy plugging through December to get to Winter Break educator friends! We can do it, we are almost there. So. close.

Creating Our Class Contract!

As we near the end of October and my school has its Fall round of conferences with families, I was recently pleased to notice how many of my students use the language of our class contract (rules for our class) in their reflections about how the year is going for them. Creating our contract was a multi-step process starting with a read aloud and ending with a signed contract and accompanying art projects (and of course a shared understanding about the kind of community we want to create).

We started with a read aloud (always a wonderful place to start!). Our first chapter book read aloud of the year is Save Me a Seat by Gita Varadarajan and Sarah Weeks. We read a few chapters and a day and do a variety of responses to our reading to help us empathize with the characters. The main characters’ negative experiences at school provide a contrast as we think about how we want to make each other feel at school.

However, to specifically start our conversation about our class contract (and community) we read The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael Lopez. (This is a new picture book and it is gorgeous! We highly encourage you to read it yourself.) After we read this book, we ask students what we should have on our contract to make sure everyone feels welcome to share their stories and be themselves in our class. We also remind students of their Hopes and Dreams (which we created a few days before) and think about what we need in our classroom to make these come true.

Next, students brainstormed in pairs about their ideas for the class contract. Then, they had time to work independently and wrote down a few of their ideas on a notecard. We reminded students to make positive statements (tell what we should do) and think about the most important things to include.

The next step is to filter the ideas down to bigger ideas so that everyone’s contribution is included, but we also don’t have a contract with 50 rules! We try to show students our process so it is transparent. We do this by listing the final statements we came up with in bold and sorting all of our students’ suggestions under the relevant statement. For example, don’t be territorial went under “know your place.”

The final version of our class contract!

We ended up with 5 statements. The final number of statements can be more or less depending on your students’ ages, but 5 statements are comprehensive enough to cover everything and brief enough to easily remember. We should also mention that this process is Responsive Classroom inspired!

Our final step was sharing our final contract. Everyone in our class signed it (in fancy metallic Sharpie!) to show their commitment to upholding it. When we say everyone, this includes other adults in the building! We also asked students to think about what the contract means to them and pick at least one component of our contract to exemplify through art. They could use foil, popsicle sticks, paper, glue, markers, crayons, and more (really anything we had in the room). Students worked hard to conceptualize something that was important to them from the contract, and we took photos of them with their finished products. Now, our contract and all of our artwork graces a wall in our classroom!

All year, we keep going back to the same language that is in our contract. We notice when we are following it, when we could follow it better, use it to redirect students, use it in our Morning Message, use it on our conference prep social emotional reflection, and more!

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Activities to Help Start the School Year Off Right

I know many teachers have already had their first day (or week) of school and I’m sure you had lots of wonderful activities, read alouds, get to know yous, and interactions planned. I am planning for my first day of school next week and reflecting on some of the activities I’ve used in the past that I know I want to use again. Here are some of my favorites:

Name related activities: Name activities are the best. They provide an opportunity for you to learn about your students and ask them how they would like to be addressed in class. They also create a chance for you to share something about yourself while learning about students’ identities. Here are some of my favorites:

• Create your Name: this activity was inspired by SEED. Have your students create their name in a way that feels good to them, using whatever materials you have on hand. Then, take students’ photos holding their “name masterpieces” and get students’ photos up in your classroom or school!

• Name Stories: these are always fascinating, validating, and so much fun! I always introduce name stories with a read aloud (see name related read aloud ideas below), and then give students prompts to interview each other and ask about the story of their name. Students can share as much as they like or choose to focus on one aspect of their name that feels good to them.

• What’s Your Name Worth? This is a great Math activity that helped me start the year by seeing how my 3rd grade mathematicians approached a puzzle. For 3rd graders, we gave them a chart showing all of the letters in the alphabet and a corresponding value in cents (for example, a is worth one cent, b is worth 2 cents, etc), but you can create your own chart with negative and positive values, Math problems, or really whatever works for you and your students. Once students found the value of their name, they could choose a teacher’s or family member’s name and then had to try and find names worth exactly twenty five cents or a dollar.

• Name related read alouds (for the chapter books, you can read an excerpt of the relevant part): A House on Mango Street, Brown Girl Dreaming, Thundercloud Jr., The Name Jar, The Favorite Daughter, My Name is Yoon, My Name is Maria Isabel - and there are so many more!

Once you’ve learned everyone’s names and what they would like to be called, here are some other first week(s) of school activities that build community, rapport, engagement, and help you best support your students.

• Start a read aloud: We start a chapter book on the first day of school and it engages students in a shared reading experience from the very beginning of our time together. We read Save Me a Seat for our first read aloud last year and it was a perfect back to school book that fit into so many of the things we talked about (our needs as learners, our classroom contract, goal setting, appropriate challenge, and more)

• I Wish My Teachers Knew: give your students the opportunity to share their thoughts and concerns with you.

• Numbers Important to Me: we use this activity to introduce our Math binders. The cover of your Math binder is your “Numbers Important to Me” page. Students choose a paper color and then write (and decorate) numbers and why they are important to them. For example, “5 - because I have 5 people in my family.” Make sure you make an example so your students can learn about you as well.

• Top Ten Lists: read The Top Ten Ways to Ruin the First Day of School for inspiration and then make a “Top Ten Things to Know About [insert your name]” list. Again, make an example to share!

• Letter to Yourself: this can be a wonderful first day or week homework assignment (for older students) or an in class activity. Have students write letters to themselves making predictions about the school year. Seal them in individual envelopes, put them away, and then give to them on the last day of school. This can also be a great tool for goal setting!

• Hopes & Dreams: set hopes and dreams for this school year. I always model with one of my own and try to have one that is social emotional focused and one that is about learning or trying something new. Then, use your students’ hopes and dreams to move into creating classroom rules and goal setting (more ideas and details are available from Responsive Classroom).

Happy Teachers' New Year everyone!

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Responsive Classroom Workshop

This past week, I had the opportunity to attend a Responsive Classroom Course for Elementary Educators. I was introduced to Responsive Classroom in college as part of my elementary educator training, but it was wonderful (as always) to engage with other teachers and  have some valuable review and even more important reminders.

Some things I took away and am still thinking about are:

• Yardsticks (Child and Adolescent Development Ages 4-14) by Chip Wood: I love this resource! We give out the 3rd grade related pamphlets to families at back to school night, and the book is a great gift for new parents (of 4 year olds and up). Asking what is developmentally appropriate for a specific age is always a good question and a great place to start. This information is so valuable for so many reasons. If something in your class isn’t going well or your students aren’t responding favorably to something, it may be due to where they are developmentally.

• I love Quiet Time! For those of you who aren’t familiar with Responsive Classroom, Quiet Time is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a serene 10-15 minutes in the middle of the day (often after lunch or recess) to give students time to transition back into the classroom calmly. I’m thinking about how to incorporate this into my classroom. There’s never enough time, but that is true for everything. I brainstormed with some other 3rd grade teachers about some additional ways to have student choice in my instruction and thought about how Morning Work (what students work on after they arrive while we are waiting for everyone else to arrive) is always a difficult balance for me. It’s hard to find something meaningful that won’t take too long (since many students only have a few minutes to work on it), but that isn’t too meaningful since many students arrive right before we move on (or are late) and won’t be able to do the Morning Work! I wonder if having Quiet Time instead of Morning Work is feasible (and okay with my new co-teacher), and could be a useful re-framing. The transition to school can also be tumultuous for students. Stay tuned.. hopefully I will be able to try this out this school year!

• I really appreciated the reminders about proactive versus reactive discipline. It also goes along with the fact that if students don’t have their needs for belonging, significance, and fun met then they’ll seek to fill these needs in other ways (often by acting out). Also, educators cannot be reminded enough: social interaction leads to cognitive growth! An essential function of school is socialization which entails learning important life skills. I’m so glad I’m starting the 2018-19 school year with the reminder to (always) let my students talk to each other and learn through interaction.

Great exercise to help us shift perspective!

• The Responsive Classroom approach is researched based. Hopefully, you will never feel as if you have to justify the time you spend on teaching kids vital social skills (and making sure they feel safe and accepted!). However, if you do (and I have been in that position in the past), remember there is research behind these important practices that show how crucial they are to student success and well-being.

Here’s to giving students the structure, support, and validation they need in the new school year!

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