Black History Month

Happy February (and Year of the Tiger!)

This week is Black Lives Matter at School week (we interpret the “week” part loosely and will probably spend 2-3 weeks introducing BLM, going through the 13 principles, and crafting our own class statement). You can read some important reminders in our Black History Month past posts here.

As always, try to focus on relating whatever you learn to the present so students can make the connection to their own lives and the current world we live in. And remember that Black history is American history.

Here are two examples of stories that help students to make the connection to now:

Maya Angelou will be first black woman on US quarter: this is the Newsela link, so if you sign up for a (free) account, you can access the article at different reading levels. We had students read this article and then design their own quarter featuring someone inspiring. You can see their quarters above!

We Are Not Asking Politely: How letter writers won the campaign to name the library after Dr. King | District of Columbia Public Library A great, local story about action, persuasive writing, and libraries!

Some book recommendations that will help students think about the present (and are just great books!):

M is for Melanin by Tiffany Rose

Don't Touch My Hair! by Sharee Miller (a huge hit in my 3rd grade classroom!)

Stay tuned as we try out some of these ideas and take part in Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action in our classrooms.

Black Lives Matter.

MLK Day 2022: Reminders & Ideas

Photo credit: https://www.childrensbookworld.com/book/9781629799391 

Another 3rd grade teacher I know had a colleague forward her a link to an Art of Teaching post I wrote 4 years ago (a slightly modified version of this post on our blog) about teaching MLK day! It was a nice surprise and funny coincidence, as well as a welcome reminder to use primary sources with my 3rd graders.

This year, however, we went with a different approach as my co-teacher (who is new to me this school year!) had the brilliant idea of widening our focus to Dr. King’s legacy and movement and thinking about the people who came before and after him.

I also always remind educators to tie Dr. King’s work back to today and future work. This is not a one lesson or one day reminder, it is something you should think about all year. Two obvious examples of this work continuing are Black Lives Matter at School Week and Black History Month, but you don’t have to stop there.

My co-teacher helped my students (and me) learn about other people who contributed to the movement. The examples are endless, but here are a few with links to related pictures books:

• Lizzie Jennings: I had never heard of Lizzie Jennings, but she fought for her right to ride a streetcar in New York City in 1854 (100 years before Rosa Parks!). This is a wonderful story for so many reasons, but might help students conceptualize that the fight for equal rights on public transport was not limited to the South.

• Claudette Colvin: she was a 15 year old who was arrested and dragged off the bus in Montgomery for refusing to give up her seat nine months before Rosa Parks triggered the bus boycott.

• Georgia Gilmore: she sustained the Montgomery bus boycott by selling food and collecting donations. She also protected the members of her organization from employer retaliation. We read this book last year as part of work we did during Black Lives Matter at School week

Picture books are a wonderful medium for students of any age, but they are not the only option! Even if a picture book about something doesn’t exist, you can use photos, video clips, Newsela articles (or write your own!). You can always adapt materials that aren’t accessible for your students and explain to them how you did so. 

As always, we would love to hear how other educators (or families) addressed this topic or commemorated the holiday. If you didn’t have a chance due to so many factors complicating our day to day lives, remember it is never too late!

Subscribe to our blog:

Remote or Hybrid Learning Resources & Ideas

Sending love to teachers and families as we tackle yet another round of uncertainty and anxiety! I’m trying to take things one day at a time and remember that I’ve done this before when my students and I were not vaccinated. It seems like I will be in school in person with increased mitigation and vigilance. However, it also seems likely that some students and staff will need to stay home due to infection, so we may be teaching some students on Zoom and some in person at the same time. I experienced this set up for most of last year and found it to be the most difficult and least effective set up as it makes teaching and learning harder for everyone, but at least this time around it will be temporary and I have all my experience from last year to draw upon!

For those of you who are finding yourselves unexpectedly teaching online for the immediate future, here are some Remote Learning Ideas that I came up with when this all started in early March of 2020. After I taught online for some time, I came up with these Useful Virtual Tools that we depended upon daily as we made it through last school year.

One high success and meaningful activity that I always try to do with students in January is writing New Year’s Resolutions. This post is from back when I taught 5th grade, but here is a link to a video read aloud with some great ideas for younger students. This activity works well both in person or online (or a mix!) and you can provide an organized planner for your students, have them share orally, have them draw and write, or have them record a video (or more - the options are truly endless).  If your students are worried or anxious about the changing situation, new year’s resolutions could also be a way to address this as you work to brainstorm strategies and share information. There is so much that it is outside our control, but acknowledging uncertainty and students’ potential concerns about it often helps students feel seen and sometimes more secure.

Read alouds are always invaluable classroom tools, but they work really well for helping students talk about or process feelings. Sometimes younger students do better talking about how a character in a book might feel and suggesting strategies for that character. Also, read alouds work when all of your other technology fails and students can always do responses on paper even if they are online. There are some great picture book read alouds and more general tips in this post about Mental Health.

And of course, here are some ideas for Games to Play During Remote or Physically Distanced Learning! Games are a great way to do so many things and being online, distanced, or some combination of the two doesn’t mean that we have to stop having fun, bonding, and working together.

Hoping everyone got some time to relax, catch up on sleep, and feel more like themselves over the winter break.

Subscribe to our blog:

Map Exploration

My 3rd graders and I have been learning all about maps! We learned about different features of maps, different kinds of maps, made our own maps (which were so creative) and more. This week, my co-teacher and I asked students to bring in a map from home. We told students it was their “homework” so they took the assignment very seriously, reporting talking to their parents to get permission and reporting back to us that they looked at different maps they found at home and decided not to bring in some that were too large or fragile etc.

Once we all had maps at school (and we of course had some extra ones for students who forgot), we started our map exploration. First, as a class, we watched a Brainpop (not Brainpop Jr.) video about map skills and reviewed features of maps we might look for and reminded ourselves to use the map key or legend to help us understand the information the map was displaying. Then, we projected an image of this map of Washington, D.C. on the board. We let students have a minute to look at the map and see what they notice. Immediately, cries of, “Why is there so much white? It’s ALL white. There are so many white people!” filled the room. Students turned and talked about what they noticed and questions they had. 

They noticed so much. They had questions and observations about white neighborhoods taking over, why white and black neighborhoods are so separate, if it is like this everywhere, why there were so few (visible) Asian blocks, and what the gray areas meant (we explained those are areas where people don’t live because it’s Rock Creek Park or it might be a solely commercial district). Some students noted where our school might be and that it was in a white area as well. After giving students time for discussion and reflection, we passed out copies of these See, Think, Wonder sheets and told students to note one thing they discussed with their partner. 

Next, we gave each pair time to look at the maps they brought in and share with their partner. Students were very excited to share their maps! After they finished sharing and reflecting, they were free to walk around the classroom and look at other maps. We have a big world map on the wall and put out different books with maps in them as well such as My Map Book by Sara Fanelli and 50 Cities of the U.S.A.: Explore America’s Cities with 50 Fact-Filled Maps by Gabrielle Balkan. After students had time for (silent) exploration, they met in small groups (2-4 students per group) to discuss what they noticed, what questions they had, and anything they learned or wanted to learn more about next.

Eavesdropping on the discussion was fascinating! Students were surprised by the different types of maps and really wanted to explore more. One student had brought in a map of constellations, which really pushed us to think about maps as applying to everything, not just locations on Earth! Having students bring in the maps really led to strong investment and interest in the exploration as they wanted to share what they brought in and felt a personal role and connection. Starting with a map of DC also really intrigued students, as many of them were born in the area and have always lived here, so looking at DC in a new way really interested them. And of course, the questions and responses discussed (and a few responses included above) show how deeply they were thinking about who lives where and why that might be. Other maps that were really popular (that we provided) were this map showing each state’s favorite Halloween candy, this map showing ice cream consumption by state, and all the maps in My Map Book (linked above).

Subscribe to our blog:

Gratitude Activities We Love

Happy almost Thanksgiving! This has been an incredibly long fall, especially for teachers. Even when we are beyond tired, it is always a good time to remind people (including ourselves) to give thanks and reflect on what we are grateful for. We like to share with students that there are many benefits to giving thanks including our own mental and physical health. But first and foremost, it’s important to appreciate the people in our lives who take care of us and keep us safe.

• Make thank you cards. My class will be working on thank you cards for many of the staff in our school building, especially the custodians who clean up after us every single day as well as the kitchen staff who cooks for us. If you don’t know everyone’s name, find time to introduce yourself, learn how their name is spelled, and how they like to be addressed. Most of the people who clean our building prefer to speak in Spanish, so I’ve had one of the Spanish teachers help us get started with some example phrases of appreciation in the past.

• A parent sent in “My First Gratitude Journals” for my entire class this year, which was so kind and generous! The journals have a page per day with some different entry formats. We gave them to the students on Friday and had them fill out one entry and will do so on Monday and Tuesday before sending them home for Thanksgiving break. Students who fill out more pages during the break can bring them in and share. We’re hoping the repeated use will lead to a habit.

• In My Map Book by Sara Fanelli (which is a great book for some many uses and my students LOVE it), the author includes a “Map of My Heart.” We are going to have students make their own maps of their hearts, focusing on who we love and are grateful for. 

• So many writing prompts! If you want to be extra cute you can make a turkey or something Thanksgiving themed (making sure there are NO cartoon Native Americans or anything like that) and have students write one thing they are grateful for on each turkey feather etc. Sometimes, it’s easier for younger students to think about things that have made them happy recently and go from there. Some prompts that I’ve used in the past are: I am thankful for, I am grateful for, Some things that made me happy recently are.. 

• Appreciation webs: we’ve made these in the past for co-workers’ birthdays, going away posters, or just for fun. In the middle of the web, you write something like “I/we appreciate _________ because..” and students fill in reasons. This can be done with writing or drawing for the really little ones. You can also use whatever verb works for you - appreciate, love, am grateful for, admire, will miss, etc. 

• Compliment or appreciation shares: We usually have an appreciation circle when it is someone’s birthday. For our Morning Meeting greeting, we all say what we appreciate about the person whose birthday we are celebrating. I’ve also written all my students’ names on slips of paper and passed them out at random and you write a compliment or appreciation for whomever’s name you receive. This might be a nice activity to end with heading into the break.

Subscribe to our blog:

Thanksgiving & Native American Heritage Month Resources & Reminders

Resources & Great Place to Start

American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) 

Teaching for Change 2021 Indigenous Peoples’ Day Curriculum Teach-In (especially the section about Native Voices in Children’s Literature by Dr. Debbie Reese, the creator of AICL)

Native American Heritage Month Resources For Teachers

Our ideas for addressing Thanksgiving in 3rd grade this year

(on top of expressing gratitude to all the people who take care of us at school):

• The word Indigenous - explained l CBC Kids News

• Newsela article: A Native American poet reimagines Thanksgiving and the poem referenced in the article: America, I Sing You Back by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

•  Read aloud: We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell

• We also just bought two new books that we are VERY excited about:

  • Classified, The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer by Traci Sorell

  • JoJo Makoons by Dawn Quigley (an early middle grade series with a Native American main character!)

General Tips for Choosing Resources about Native Americans

1. Look at publication dates.  In general, older (sometimes “classic”) books tend to have stereotypical portrayals of Native American peoples or kids dressing up as “Indians” or playing “Indian” games.  

   1. Some examples: Little House on the Prairie, George and Martha (George dresses up as an “Indian”).  We are not saying you cannot use these books, but be prepared to address the problematic images, language, or events.

2. Avoid anything stereotypical, overly simplistic, or cartoonish (think of the Cleveland Indians logo).

3. Look at IMAGES of Native peoples depicted in the books. Does every Indigenous person look exactly the same? Are the characters displayed as 'savage' 'non-human' in some way? Avoid the “how” hand gesture, tomahawks, gratuitous headdresses, dancing around a fire, taking hostages, etc.

4. Ask yourself these questions:

   1. Who wrote this piece? (Even Encyclopedia Britannica articles can be used as examples of problematic language/bias). Use the resources list and look FIRST for Indigenous voices on the topic. 

   2. Does the author/illustrator specify a tribal nation?

   3. What is the time period? 

   4. Is the history accurate? How do I know? 

   5. How does the author/illustrator present gender?

   6. Does the author's word choice indicate bias against Native peoples?

   7. (Some of these questions are from Tips for Choosing Culturally Appropriate Books & Resources About Native Americans).

5. Be mindful of the language used (by the resource and by you): avoid the words chief, squaw, savage, natives, and remember that “Native Americans” refers to thousands of diverse tribes (which means thousands of different cultures and histories) and not just one group of people. 

6. Make sure to proactively balance historical representation of Native American peoples with contemporary voices so as not to perpetuate the idea that American Indians only existed in the past. If a piece speaks of Indigenous peoples only in the past tense-- double triple check why it does that and why you are using it! 

7. Remember that many Indigenous peoples are Americans and were the first Americans.

8. Avoid resources (or saying yourself) that say "We are all immigrants". Not all of us are. Utilizing that immigrant 'melting pot' rhetoric as the foundational metaphor of the US erases the (long) history of Indigenous Americans. 

For more details and tips, please see Tips for Choosing Culturally Appropriate Books & Resources About Native Americans andUnderstanding Prejudice: Teaching About Native American Issues

Subscribe to our blog:

Learning Through Photos

In my third grade class, we usually end our year with an integrated Social Studies, Reading, and Writing unit where we learn about the different regions of and research different countries in Africa, but this past year we ran out of time and weren’t able to do a lot of the creative grouping or sharing of materials that characterize this unit. So instead we focused on learning more about Ethiopia as a class. We chose Ethiopia as Washington D.C. is home to the largest population of Ethiopian born people in the United States. There are also many Ethiopian Americans in and around D.C. In past years, we’ve ordered food from a local Eritrean restaurant as part of our end of year celebration, but this year we were sadly unable to do that.

We started our study of Ethiopia by looking at maps, watching short videos, and reading nonfiction books and articles together. Students had so many questions and wanted to see more, so we gave them time to work in pairs and enjoy this photo essay about Ethiopia from The Atlantic: Beauty and Color: Scenes From Ethiopia (the first photo is the cover photo for this post).

Students looked at the essays on their individual laptops (we had one laptop per pair or group of three), although it can also work to look at each photo together as a whole class. We wanted them to have more autonomy to spend time with the photos that really interested them as well as have small group discussions (which are difficult when everyone is sitting at their own desk six feet apart). As they looked at the photos, we had them fill out a See Think Wonder chart which we found here (also pictured above).

You can see one student’s work here. This student said he had more questions, but wasn’t sure how to write them down (phrase them) and also talked about them a lot with his group mates. We reminded students about the importance of being respectful if something is new or different for you and asked them for suggestions for what you could say in that situation (This is something new for me, this is different from what I’m used to, I notice, I used to think, but now I’m thinking..).

I learned this approach of having students research or gain information from photos from Tony Stead whom I was lucky enough to work with at a public school in NYC. He taught me so many new ways of approaching reading and writing nonfiction which I’ve used in Social Studies, Writing, and Reading lessons since. (This idea that I’m writing about would also work for Science, but I don’t teach Science in my current position as we have separate Science teachers/class at my school). Tony Stead has a different chart called a R.A.N. (Reading and Analyzing Nonfiction) chart that is a modified/improved version of a KWL chart (what you know, want to know, and what you’ve learned) that is also a wonderful tool for a longer research unit.

I’ve used this approach of looking at photos and observing, pondering, and wondering in many different ways. It’s also really helpful with current or historical events (we took a similar approach, but with a slightly different chart when learning about sit ins). Also, if you are interested in learning about the large Ethiopian population in and around Washington D.C., we loved this story by WAMU!

Subscribe to our blog:

Invaluable Beginning of the Year Tools & Tips

ORGANIZATIONAL 

• Online calendar template for planning: while paper planners are wonderful, this past year I realized having everything online helped me feel reassured and less helpless when we had to suddenly quarantine or wait for test results. It’s also less to keep track of and carry back and forth, and especially useful if you are co-teaching as you can easily share the document and track changes in real time. I personally use these online calendar templates and turn them into Google Docs, but many different formats or platforms would work depending on what is easiest for you. My co-teacher and I really like the commenting and tagging options on Google Docs. I would be lost without my calendars as they have EVERYTHING on there from basic lesson plans to students’ birthdays to my dentist appointment.

• Anecdotal notes: as mentioned above, it’s reassuring to have information online in case you aren’t allowed in school due to exposure at short notice. We take anecdotal notes about each child in a Google Sheet with one tab for each student and columns for different subjects and general notes (social emotional, family communications etc.), but you should organize yours however makes sense for you. I often make notes on a clipboard or post it while I’m with students, but I really try to make sure I then input my notes into our anecdotal shared document so that I know they won’t get lost and my co-teacher(s) can access them as well. Depending on your level of comfort, you can share the document with other teachers or staff who work with your students so they can add notes as well. I can’t share an example as it might include sensitive information and students' names, but set it up however makes the most sense for you and your team.

• SPED related ones: Gabby used Google Sheets with tabs for all of the endless data collection/ assessment trackers, created virtual point cards and incentive systems (tried a few ways for both, this could be its own post!). First /then boards or other visual tools especially around expectations are also so clutch especially at the beginning of the year! However, one of her favorite tools that she would use even in the transition into in person was making a Google Form for teacher input for IEPs so she didn’t have to go ask teachers/put a form in their mailboxes. Finally, while having a physical binder for staff was sorely missed during virtual times, she also found that having a clear template with running staff notes virtually is something she would keep. It let her link all of her staff training choices and plans she made to one place, and kept a running log of how everyone was doing or what she needed to communicate with staff each day. 

BRING THE KIDDOS IN 

• Family survey: I have always sent home a family survey, but modify it to the situation and after thinking about what might work best for the families I am working with. We always ask: Is there anything you want to share about your child/children? What are your hopes & dreams for your child in __ grade? Anything you want to share with our class (holidays, family traditions, hobbies or skills?) Since our opportunities for informal and/or in person interactions are so limited this school year, it will be extra valuable to get information from families however you can.

  • Depending on the families you work with, you can offer a paper copy or ask someone to help with translation as needed (or do it yourself if you’re lucky enough to have those skills). If you have families who don’t speak English at home and translation isn’t feasible, you can also change the format to make it less open ended and shorter

  • We always stress that it is optional and not something for families to worry about, just a way to share if you’d like! Sometimes families share names of pets or something students have been working on all summer that’s not school related, and it’s a way to positively connect with students the first week of school. It’s also nice because it is a neutral interaction with families before school starts, so if you do need to be in touch about something less positive, it’s not your first interaction (although we also try to send positive emails home for all students as soon as we can!).

  • For SPED, there should be even more background that you get to have for students-- at minimum a binder left by a previous teachers (I am a fan of keeping all of it!) about each kiddo, or a virtual folder for each kiddo with background, BSPs, Step up plans etc. Gabby liked having all of this organized virtually so it would be easy to refer to and adapt. She also put her Preferences, Interests and Strengths interviews with students in here so their voices (and how they change from year to year!) get to be in this folder, too. 

• I wish my teacher(s) knew: It’s so important to give students the opportunity to share with you, especially these days with everyone feeling anxious and a lot of uncertainty about the way the school year will play out. I find that it is nice to make a Google Form for students to fill out with a few questions to give students an extra feeling of privacy. But there are so many ways to do this so find a way that works best for you and your students!

• Shelfies! There are also so many ways to do shelfies. You can have families take actual photos with books or draw/write in titles they enjoyed this summer. You can also ask students to fill in a paper template at school (or online). I made sure to make an example and emphasize that some of the books on my “shelfie” were library books and many were books I re-read or read in the past and loved, so students know it’s okay if you don’t have a lot of books at home or didn’t have a lot of time to read over the summer. This can be a really nice ice breaker as it’s fun and creative. Of course, it is always great to know what kids have been reading or what books they’ve enjoyed in the past.

  • For SPED we had a few Bitmoji sensory and break rooms which were very helpful and big hits. Jamboard dolls and games that kids could dress up and really anything that they can personalize and share were all really great ways to bring themselves to the space, virtual or in person. 

• Names Activities: We love taking time to talk about, share, and love up on our names as we step boldly into a new community we will create together. We are going to use them all year with one another and grow into our names even more! We value taking the time to get to know each other's names not just in correct pronunciation, but in some of the stories behind them and who we are! Asking students how they would like to be addressed is so important. Books like Your Name is a Song, Becoming Vanessa, Thunder Boy Junior, My Name (excerpt from House on Mango Street), are all solid options. More details about these activities here.

We hope these ideas help you as you start this new school year. Sending healthy and calm vibes to everyone for Teacher New Year.

Subscribe to our blog:

Talking to Students About Afghanistan

As we watched the tragic scenes in Kabul unfold this past week, we thought about how to broach the topic with students in the classroom. Many students might have questions or a vague idea that something is happening based on overhearing adult conversations or catching snippets of the news. Where to start?

One place to start that usually works well for us is with a read aloud. Sadly, we don’t have a lot of books set in Afghanistan, and the ones we could find (list of picture books here) are all about war, refugees, or women and girls being denied rights and education. These are unquestionably important stories, but we want to avoid presenting a single narrative about Afghanistan. It’s also hard to find picture books written by Afghan or Afghan-American authors, but we will keep looking now that we are aware of the deficit in our libraries!

One book that many of my (older elementary) students enjoyed is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. There is a graphic novel version as well. Two picture books that I hope to check out soon are Brave with Beauty: A Story of Afghanistan by Maxine Rose Schur and The Stranger's Farewell: English-Pashto Edition by Palwasha Bazger Salam. Neither of these books is about war and both are set in the past.

If you chose to start with a read aloud, have students respond to the story by making text to self (have they ever felt like the main character? What connections can they make with teh story?) and then text to world (how does this story resonate with something happening in the world today?) connections. 

Another way to start could be to look at one image or several photos. Have a table for responses with two columns: "I think/I notice" and "I wonder." You can do this on a large whiteboard or piece of chart paper, or individually (or in small groups) with handouts. It helps less confident students feel ready to share their thoughts and provides you with a way to find out what misconceptions versus accurate information students have and understand. The "I wonder" column also gives you a better sense of where to go to answer all of their questions and prompts them to ASK questions, which is an excellent place to start. Students also respond well to stories about individuals as they make the situation less abstract and are more humanizing.

And of course, look at a map! Always a great place to start - where are we talking about? What do we notice about the location? Look at a world map, regional map, and country specific map of Afghanistan.

Make sure you talk about what was happening 20 years ago when we started the war in Afghanistan (11-12 years before most of my students were born, I was in school etc.). This is helpful as younger students don’t have a clear conception of time or the past and anything before their lifetime (or even when they were a baby) is “a long time ago.” Or use a timeline! Great way to practice this tool, make the time before they were born tangible, and integrate math! 

Share Newsela articles for students who have more questions or want to know more. What’s helpful is that Newsela will have articles about the latest news, but will also have human interest stories about Afghanistan in general, so students can learn more about the country in different, humanizing ways.

Also, share basic information about Afghanistan. We also like to think of some ways to help kids talk about the place and people we are learning about. This includes considering what are likely mistakes (for example, with anything Africa related we know we ALWAYS have to review country vs. continent) and what would empower students to accurately and respectfully talk about people. In this way we might consider:

• helpful location/map cues like the bordering countries listed above, or also regional terms like South Asia and Central Asia.

• We’d also consider things like languages (Pashto, Dari, maybe not going into the full list of all represented languages in a country for over saturation purposes, but explaining how many languages are common; in Afghanistan there are about 8?), 

• religion (Islam, we’d definitely expect mistakes about this so we would want to think about how deep we’d want/need to cover students understandings of Islam and aligned vocab, ie Muslim etc). 

• Finally! There are other words that we might consider that are heavy but have multiple uses like displacement, patriarchy, corruption...which we might choose. However, we are careful to think about how if this is the one and only time a teacher chooses to discuss/teach this topic what will be the takeaways of the place? In this way, without minimizing the tragedy and failure of what is happening right now in Afghanistan and the US’s responsibility within it, we also consider images that show aspects we can all connect on. We typically turn to a country's flag (always so cool!), food, and art. Pottery in Afghanistan, for example, could be a great way to integrate with an art teacher and be in awe of the millennia (!!!) long creations of pottery. Even just an image or two or another class connection can support rounding out a perspective and reminding us of the multitudes that we could go on to learn more about even if the focus of the lesson is on heavier pieces. 

There are resources for talking about refugees here. If you are worried about backlash or concern from families, helpful language is available here.

Vocabulary 

We like the vocabulary highlighting you can do through Newsela. Vocabulary instruction is frequently something teachers (ourselves included!!) miss in instruction and that miss impacts our students who need it the most. We won’t go into the numbers but the research is there if you care to know how important it is that we provide access to our instruction through vocabulary in as many ways and with as many routines and frequency as we can. 

When we think about vocabulary instruction for difficult topics like this we try to keep it minimal knowing that the content (and emotional weight) is already heavy, while still giving students ways to access and talk about this new idea. 

We aim for general good vocabulary practices like: providing the word in context, student friendly definitions, multiple examples of use, trying to choose target words that we know we can integrate into other social studies lessons or tough world conversations so they will have repeated exposures and opportunities to practice them, and then of course like we mentioned before, lots of visuals. Visuals for examples/non-examples is one of our go to ways to gear towards a word’s definition and assess if students have a sense of where it lands (ie more positive or negative?). Variations of a Freyer model in a writer's notebook and a vocabulary wall are also great tools to support students in utilizing the language to let them engage in these conversations! 

Some vocabulary options for this content that could be considered: 

• Capital (capital city, we would use this in other conversations and other map conversations. A good way to introduce Kabul) 

• Decade (talk about how it has been 2 decades, helpful vocab for math and SS) 

• Civilians 

• Taliban 

• War/ war-torn

• Invasion 

• Billion, Trillion (when we talk about the cost of the 20 year war, we would also use this in math, or in our Econ conversations) 

• Afghanistan (of course), could consider a few countries bordering (ie Pakistan, Iran etc, point out China to the northeast which might be a big recognizable location that you’ve discussed previously for when they situate themselves on a map as the lesson(s) continue). 

• Government 

• Fear / terrified/ distraught (we like to choose a social emotional vocabulary word or two to give us the space to grow our vocabulary and skills in this realm too. It also supports clarifying the range of that word (ie livid is at a different level of intensity than mad) and the emotions we might feel within it, as well as reminding us of how we connect to other humans all over the world). 

We try to keep vocabulary lists to 10 or less, and they can definitely be less and still be very valuable (oftentimes more valuable because students will actually be able to... learn the words!!) so think about your crew and choose accordingly for them to be successful.

Subscribe to our blog:

Black History Lesson: Sit Ins

This past February, we spent most of the month taking time to learn about, talk through, and create our own statement for Black Lives Matter at School Week. However, we wanted to address Black History Month and explicitly connect American history to our lives today. There are, of course, many ways to do this, but one way I’ve always loved teaching history to elementary school students (or really any students) is using primary sources and read-alouds. They can make the past tangible and far more real for students, as well as feeling “grown up” and authentic. 

I took inspiration from PBS History Detectives and modified one of the lessons they created for high schoolers or middle schoolers. We started by watching the 2nd video titled Integration Report. (It’s the one that is 2 minutes long. The 6 minute video clip included in this lesson included hate speech and violence so we decided against showing it to our third graders.) 

Photo credit: http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/slideshow/the-civil-rights-movement/#

Next, we showed students two images (numbers 1 and 3 in this slide show/ the cover image for this post as well as the image above) and had them analyze what they saw (as inspired by this resource from PBS), as well as answer some reflection questions to tie the activity into BLM, American history, and the present. 

We let them know that these photographs were primary sources (and explained what that means) and showed important moments during a significant historical event. Students were aware of the civil rights movement before we taught this lesson.

We created this handout and gave a physical copy to each student (with other reflection questions on the back).

We gave students time to look at each photo and respond. We let them know that they might write more in some boxes than others, and that was totally fine! You can see one student’s answers below.

One student’s responses after/while looking at the photographs.

Once we had given everyone time to look at both photos and fill in the table above, we moved on to the reflection questions (on the back of their papers) which were: 

• Why is this American history (not only Black history)?

• How are the strategies activists used during the sit ins similar to or different from BLM activism today?

Once students had time to answer both questions, we shared, first as partners and then as a whole class. Students were able to make a lot of comparisons between protests today and in 1960. We talked about how long ago (or relatively recent, based on your perspective) 1960 was, as conceptualizing the past and understanding the magnitude of time is always tricky for concrete third graders! I tried to make it more clear by saying that my parents were children when this was happening and that this is something my students’ grandparents lived through and might remember if they were in the United States at the time. I find that putting something in a family member’s lifetime helps students as otherwise a thousand years ago versus twenty years ago doesn’t feel that different to them since both occured before they were born.

Student’s response! She misspelled “signs” in her second answer.

Above is one student’s responses. They felt that the question about this being American history and not only Black history was obvious and therefore they did not need to elaborate in their written response, but explained to me verbally that this was something that affected everyone and still matters today. 

We followed up with sharing other resources available that students could use to learn more, including Newsela articles, books on Epic, Brainpop videos, and physical books in our classroom. Students asked if we could hear the read aloud in class as they wanted to know more about it, so we watched Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney. I have the physical book in my class library, but due to distancing requirements and the fact that I had two students on Zoom (while the rest of the class was at school in person with me), video or online read alouds worked best for us this year.

This was just one lesson and of course there is so much more to address and learn, but hopefully it kindled some primary source excitement as well as starting connections in students’ minds from history to today. We wanted to avoid the pitfall of teaching Black History as something that happened a long time ago and is now “fixed” or even “better,” as well as equip students with tools to be media literate, think critically about images and information, and notice, ponder, and wonder about what they see and hear.

Subscribe to our blog:

Black Lives Matter at School

In February, my co-teacher and I (along with our entire school) learned about Black Lives Matter’s 13 Guiding Principles as part of Black Lives Matter at School week. My co-teacher and I chose to spend more than a week as we felt that we needed more time to introduce the topic, teach each principle, and allow time for reflections, shares, and questions before creating our own class statement.

After learning about all 13 principles, we came up with the above statement about what our class believes. All of the language in the statement comes directly from students, and we worked to make sure their beliefs and voices were being expressed. Every student signed the statement (including two virtual learners who sent me their signatures electronically) and it hung outside both of our classrooms (we had to be in two rooms with smaller groups this year due to COVID).

We started thinking and wondering about Black Lives Matter the week before with a preview activity. We projected the slide shown above and gave each student a notecard to record thoughts and questions.

For students who needed more structure, we had them fill out an I think/I wonder t-chart in response to the image/slide above. Students had a lot of thoughts and questions. Many said they had seen the images on signs, murals, street art, and t-shirts. Others mentioned protests and the events that occurred last summer after George Floyd was killed.

We also shared some images of art in DC neighborhoods and let students know that we would be talking about Black Lives Matter in more depth next week for Black Lives Matter at School Week. We finished our introduction with a read aloud of Milo’s Museum by Zetta Elliot, a wonderful picture book that provides an example of institutional exclusion for students.

The next week, we started with an introduction to Black Lives Matter. We had an exclusively online learning day due to snow, so we were teaching over Zoom, which has it’s disadvantages, but allowed us to be altogether as one whole class and gave students the option of privately chatting us to ask questions or respond. 

We started by answering the questions below and included some images and graphics to help students understand.

1. Where does the name Black Lives Matter come from? 

   We shared images of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman and Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi

2. How did BLM grow?

   We used images of Mike Brown and Darren Wilson, as well as the protests in Ferguson, Missouri and New York City (following the killing of Eric Garner).

3. How big is the problem?

   Students looked at some graphs and statistics.

4. Have protesters won any changes?

5. What opposition has there been to BLM?

   We shared images of protests and rallies in Washington, DC in June of 2020.

We also watched this video, which was released on the 5th anniversary of Black Lives Matter. We ended up running out of time because we prioritized answering students' questions and giving time for reflection, but we had planned on introducing the 13 Guiding Principles of the Movement for Black Lives as well. There are posters geared towards elementary school students here (one for each principle) as well as a teacher copy, activity book, and booklist which we used in the following days which we found through the Black Lives Matter at school week site resources page.

For the next day, we covered the principles of Restorative Justice, Empathy, Loving Engagement, and Diversity. We used Jamboard to make slides (the introduction slide for this day is above) and put images of each poster on slides as well. Once we had discussed and answered questions about each principle, we moved into our read aloud Leaders Like Us: Shirley Chisholm by J. P. Miller. We used Jamboard and an online read aloud as we had two students attending school over Zoom while I taught the other students in the classroom, so this format worked best for us. After the read aloud, we gave students time to consider these pages in their activity book, respond to the questions, or color. 

The following day, we covered Globalism, Transgender Affirming, Queer Affirming, Collective Value, and Intergenerational. It was really hard to choose one read aloud as there were so many good ones that could work, but we finally went with Pies from Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Dee Romito (runner ups included One of a Kind Like Me, This is the Rope, and Voice of Freedom).

After that, we learned about Black Families, Black Women, Black Villages, and Unapologetically Black, with the read aloud When the Beat was Born by Laban Carrick Hill (runner up: The Book Itch!).

We concluded our week with a “gallery walk” of the 13 principles. In pre-COVID times, we would have had anchor charts for all 13 principles up around the room and students would eventually have stood next to the one that spoke to them, but since we had students on Zoom and we needed to distance, we gave students the instructions above and when everyone was ready to share, we stood in a distanced circle and each shared what principle we connected with and why. 

Finally, we were ready to create our whole class statement. We used the instructions pictured above and then took student responses and used excerpts to make sure everyone’s voice was included. After we all signed the statement and it was displayed outside both classrooms, we also decided to showcase our work on our class bulletin board. Students chose what they wanted to display. Some chose certain pages from their activity book, others created their own Black Lives Matter posters, and others wanted to share their response to the prompt above.

We were explicit with students about the fact that this work is always ongoing in our classroom and lives, and that making our class statement and sharing it with our community was the first step to the continuing work of putting our statement in action. We continued making connections, sharing current events, and more as the year progressed.

Other helpful resources:

Black Lives Matter Timeline

Newsela Black Lives Matter Text Set

Learning for Justice Race & Ethnicity Resources (formerly Teaching Tolerance)

Teaching for Change Black Lives Matter Archive

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!

Subscribe to our blog:

Seven Ways to Approach Black History Month in Your Classroom published by McGraw Hill!

Our piece about Black History Month in the classroom was published by McGraw Hill’s Inspired Ideas! You can see the live piece here. We thought today was a good day to send it out, as is it February 1st. Today is also the first day of Black Lives Matter at School week. I (Nina) am not teaching today as we have a snow day (hence the photo of the masked snowman above), but already started having conversations with and hearing questions and thoughts from students last week. This year, I am hoping to go over all 13 of Black Lives Matter’s Guiding Principles which will naturally take more than a week (for everyone, but especially 3rd graders).

DC Area Educators for Social Justice (a project of Teaching for Change) has some really useful resources for educators.

Also, read about the first year we participated in Black Lives Matter at School Week here! We also wrote a piece with teaching and classroom ideas for Black History Month and BLM at School Week in 2019 that has a lot of read alouds.

Please share resources and ideas below. We’d love to hear from you.

Black Lives Matter.

Back to School Activities for Distance Learning

I (Nina) am preparing to go back to work after my extended maternity leave. This is shaping up to be an unpredictable and unprecedented school year, but I hope my students and I can still find joy in learning and getting to know each other. My school has decided that we will start the year fully remote, although we are small (and independent) so we are lucky to have an option of some in-person small group meetings to meet students and parents, do some technology training, and distribute materials at the beginning of the year.

Conceptualizing distance learning has been challenging for me. In August of 2018, I wrote about some of my favorite ideas to start the school year and I am trying to think about how I can still do some of those activities with my students, maybe with a new twist! I try to think about the purpose of the activity and how we can still achieve the essence of it in a new way. 

Here are some ideas:

• Names! 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. They are my absolute favorite and I am excited to brainstorm ways they can still work:

  • 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 they have on hand. You can explain the activity by modeling how you created your own name (using scrap paper or whatever else you have around the house). I used to take students’ photos holding their “name masterpieces” and put those up outside our classroom, but you could have students submit photos of their work and share them, or even put photos of their “name masterpieces” together into a collage and make it your virtual background (or if you have a way of collecting physical papers from your students, put them up on your wall, but this seems complicated). Here are some digital collage resources, and I’ve also used Google Photos to do something similar in the past. I love the idea of creating a collage (virtually or otherwise) as it’s important for students to see all their names together and know you are still a classroom community. It’s also great for new students as this way everyone knows how they would like to be addressed.

  • 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. Interviewing each other on live video might not be possible, but you can have students interview a family member about how they got their name. Some great questions to give students to start with: Who chose my name?  Why did they choose this name for me? Am I named after someone?  What does my name mean or what significance does it have?  What do you like about my name?  After the interview (which you can skip depending on logistics), students can write their “name story.” This is a wonderful activity to get to know students and students enjoy it as well because they can share as much as they like or choose to focus on one aspect of their name that feels good to them.

  • Class “My Name” Poem: This extension of name stories is a great way to build community. I’ve participated in this activity as part of a group of adults, and we loved it and felt more connected afterward. Ask each student to choose one sentence from their name story to share. If you are in person, you can have students write their sentences on a post-it. If not, they can simply read it aloud or post it on Seesaw, Google Docs, etc if you are using that type of tech. I liked having each student read their sentence aloud and then I would type them or write them down, but it can be hard to keep up, so it’s nice to have them submit their sentences as well. Once you have all their sentences (don’t forget to include one of yours!), sit down with them when your students are elsewhere and arrange them into a poem. Later, share the poem with your students. They will love hearing their sentence and appreciating what the class created together.

  • 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. Again, this is something they could work on independently and then either verbally share what their name is worth or post it on a website.

  • Name related read alouds (for the chapter books, you can read an excerpt of the relevant part): A House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jackie Woodson, Thunderboy Jr. by Sherman Alexie, The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi, The Favorite Daughter by Allen Say, My Name is Yoon by Helen Recorvits and Gabi Swiatkowska, My Name is Maria Isabel by Alma Flor Ada - and there are so many more!

• 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. This year, this is more important than ever!

• Numbers Important to Me: we use this activity to introduce our Math binders. In the past, we made the cover of our Math binders our “Numbers Important to Me” pages, but this year they could be shared virtually or displayed at home. Students 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 about yourself so your students can learn about you as well. This can be done on paper or on a computer - whatever works best for you and your students!

• Top Ten Lists: read the first chapter of 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! Students LOVE reading these about each other, so would be great to share virtually. If you want to do a live share, I’d suggest telling each student to choose ONE thing about themselves 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. In the past, we would seal them in individual envelopes, put them away, and then give to students on the last day of school, but this year, you could have students email you letters or submit documents however works for you, and still either send them back to them or print them and hand them back (if we are in person again) at the end of the school year. This can also be a great tool for goal setting! I’d suggest creating an example that you wrote talking about how this year is new for you and what you are going to work on as this will be excellent modeling for students.

• 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. You could explicitly model to students how you modified your hopes and dreams for this year in a new setting or format. Later, use your students’ hopes and dreams to move into creating classroom rules and goal setting (more ideas and details are available from Responsive Classroom).

• Guess Who?: have students send in three “clues” about themselves (tell them beforehand that these should be things they are comfortable sharing) and every day, have a different “mystery student” where you share the clues throughout the day and take guesses about which student you are learning about! You may want to ask for more than three clues and then only share three in case the clues are too obvious or something you’d rather not share.

• Reader Survey: I’ve found that my students love filling out surveys online (we usually use Google Forms). I get so much more information from them through this medium, although they often use emojis to express themselves as well. Make a survey to get to know your students as readers. This is extra important right now as reading is one thing we can encourage students to do as an academic activity, but also something fun to do when other fun options are mostly off limits. Since we won’t be able to recommend books to students in person, knowing them as readers so we can try to recommend books through online platforms or the public library (ours in DC are open now with mostly “take out” service) is so important.

• Daily Life Word/Story Problems: this is a great way to model how we incorporate Math into our daily lives. Start by sharing some you wrote about your day. I’ve discovered that students love anything about babies and pets (don’t we all?). For example, I gave my baby 17 pieces of mango. He dropped 5 on the floor, put 2 in his hair, gave 1 to me, and ate the rest. How many pieces of mango did he eat? After you share, give students an assignment to write some of their own, and then during your next class (or later in class), they can share their problems and discuss different ways to solve them and “prove” their answer is correct.

• Share a photo: this depends on your comfort level and what you feel is most appropriate for your students. My co-teacher and I are sending our students a photo postcard of us (email or posting on a site would work too) so they can see our faces before the school year begins and get a nice note from us welcoming them to our class. If you are sharing photos virtually, it might be nice to send multiple photos showing how you are getting ready for the school year.

There are, of course, so many more ideas and possibilities, so please comment below with any of your go-to beginning of the school year activities and tips for modifications! If you are starting the year in person or in a hybrid model, any of these activities could still work. Sending strength to all teachers starting this new year, but especially those who still don’t know what their school year will look like, or how they will stay safe and keep their students safe.

Subscribe to our blog:

Reminder: Representation Matters

After reading Weeding Out Racism’s Invisible Roots: Rethinking Children’s Classics | Opinion by Padma Venkatraman in the School Library Journal, I thought about book choices in classrooms and schools. I know most teachers right now are grappling with how and if they will be able to be with students in person this fall and of course, everyone’s safety and health is the most important thing. However, if you are like me, you are trying to plan and organize for what little we can control. One thing we can control is what books we choose to share with students. 

Children receive so much information and so many ideas through their surroundings and exposure from a very young age. Racism and institutional exclusion through societal messaging starts so early. At school (and out in the world, in the media, and more), students are shown that certain voices are more important than others. They see only certain categories of people in positions of authority. While we might try to teach students that everyone is equal, the reality of society and the world around them sends a different message. I’ve learned through experience that we cannot and do not always anticipate the messages that kids internalize. 

A six year old girl once told my sister (who is a physician) that she didn’t know girls could be doctors until she met her. She had never expressed that sentiment out loud, so no one knew to tell her or show her female doctors. Another time, a child was reading a board book about the US presidents to me. The last page of the book is a mirror that says something about how YOU (the reader) could be the next president. She looked at me and said, “I can’t be president because I’m a girl.” The second to last page of the book depicted all 44 presidents (this was a few years ago), who of course, are all male. Naturally, she assumed only men could be president. I explained how only men have been president so far, but she (or other girls) could still be president one day. She looked skeptical (and who can blame her!) so we talked about women leaders in other countries. 

I think about these instances when I buy books for my classroom, choose read alouds and book club books for my students, recommend books to students, write curriculum, and more. We teach a biography/nonfiction writing joint unit in the spring and we try to highlight people who will inspire our students, interest our students, and push back against a dominant narrative or messaging. I’m fortunate to have a budget from my (private) school to buy books, and I totally understand that some (many) teachers are constrained by district mandates, administration set curriculum, standardized testing, no budget for books, and more. When I taught public school, I was encouraged to teach certain books because the school owned class sets of them. I’ve gotten around this in the past by borrowing books from other teachers and using the public library, as well as using a document camera or an online edition of a book to project the text so kids can follow along if needed. 

Modeling your excitement about new books for students is a great way to encourage them to become lifelong readers. What are we telling students if we teach the same books year after year? If we want children to be constant readers and learners, we need to do so as well. And even if you love a book, that doesn’t mean it’s right for your classroom or that you should share it with students. It’s not about you or your feelings. Good memories don’t negate problematic messaging. Teach books you love AND that have important representation and counter messaging for kids. 

When looking for new books, ask yourself: can my students see themselves in this book? Do they learn about someone different from them? Do they learn about a different lifestyle, socioeconomic status, race, language or culture? And please, BE CRITICAL: representation is key but make sure it is not otherizing or stereotypical. If you’re not sure, use the internet to read reviews! Some great resources:

• Common Sense Media

• We Need Diverse Books

• Disability in kidlit

• American Indians in Children’s Literature

• Teaching For Change Book Lists

• The Brown Bookshelf

• Our blog! We are always reviewing new books or sharing lists of books we love

Remember, don’t just avoid stereotypes. Practice image and message replacement. Of course brown women are scientists/doctors/people with authority. Also, books about kids who just happen to be [fill in the blank] are also valuable. Characters should not be reduced to their “difference.” For example, all your books with Black main characters should not be about slavery or civil rights. Also, make sure you have books about Native Americans that are set in the present! 

Please comment below with any other resources you love. We love hearing and talking about new books!

Subscribe to our blog:

Remote Learning Ideas

I am home on maternity leave, but more and more of my fellow teachers are hearing about school closures due to health concerns and potential exposure to coronavirus. I’ve been thinking a lot about ways to send work home or set up some kind of remote learning that are equitable and developmentally appropriate. 

First and foremost, ask your students for suggestions (if you have advance warning)! They will have lots of creative ideas for how to best keep their learning going at home. At the very least, they will be able to share the reality around internet access, quiet workspaces, free time, and more at their homes. They will also feel better if you include them in the process and model how this is a new situation for all of us and we are being flexible, understanding, and doing our best. 

Remember that some students may be helping to take care of younger children or sharing space with many others. Also, if students have internet access through an adult’s phone only, it is not something they can use for hours on end (or necessarily at all, if that adult goes to work or needs to use their own phone!). You know your students best - what will be the most helpful for them right now? Remember that many of them may be stressed out by the change in routine and may rely on coming to school for many things. 

Of course, I understand that many teachers are required to prepare and assign some kind of remote work plan so students can continue learning at home regardless of students’ home situations. For those of you who are required to assign work that will be graded or counted for credit, I am including low tech ideas below for students who will not have internet or technology access.

Some ideas that came to mind:

• Math projects: one of the things I don’t enjoy about teaching a set Math program is that we never have time for projects! Math projects can go so many different ways. They are a wonderful example of how Math has real world applications. Depending on what you are studying, have students apply and demonstrate their learning in a creative way. Some successes I have had in the past include proposals for field trips or experiences including budgets, creating robots to explore the relationship between measurement, area, and perimeter, finding applications of multiplication in everyday life, figuring out the best way to share resources in our school, and lots of adventures in data collection (think about people students can interview or poll when they are at home). Students can also share their work in low and high tech ways.

• Teach someone how to.. This is one of my favorite Math projects. I had my third graders wrap up our review of subtraction with regrouping by creating a visual to teach subtraction to second graders. They had lots of flexibility in terms of finished product, but had a checklist of things that needed to be included and explained. My students loved doing this and were very creative with their explanations. This could work with many concepts, but make sure it is a review of a previously taught concept.

• Letter writing: I love letter writing for every subject! Students can write to politicians or leaders, family members, their future selves, book characters, famous people (in history or in the present), other students, you, and so much more. Letter writing is a great way to show students why we practice reading and writing and how powerful our voices can be. You can see the letter one of our students wrote to Hillary Clinton above this post!

• Research projects: every year, I do a bibliography study and essay writing unit with my third graders. They learn so much about a variety of wonderful people and they are so excited to share what they know. While it is best to be able to teach students how to read and comprehend nonfiction, take notes, restate facts in your own words, and so many other skills, students can definitely do some research on their own. This is a great at home project as it can be low or high tech. Students with access to the internet could use a teacher provided list of safe and reliable sources and others could use library books or pre-printed out articles. If library books and articles are not available, they could interview adults at their home or even “research” an adult in their life and interview other family members about that person.

• Interview a family member: this is related to research projects, but could also be a storytelling activity. When I taught fifth grade, we had a storytelling unit and had students interview family members as part of a Storycorps inspired storytelling project. While students required guidance for parts of this project, they could still interview a family member and choose to share a story in their own creative way while at home.

• Podcasts are a wonderful classroom tool. While it’s hard to think of a way to access podcasts without technology (you could print out a transcript of the podcasts you are assigning, but that wouldn’t really be the same experience and would require a lot of printing out and advance notice/planning!), they are also free, accessible through a variety of devices, and require only enough internet access to download them. Here are some that have amazing classroom potential:

  • Book Club for Kids: kids discuss middle grade novels

  • But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids 

  • Brains On: Science Podcast for Kids

  • Be Calm - mindfulness podcasts (try out, recommend to kids for bedtime)

  • Pants on Fire  - podcast (Gen Z media) liar vs expert

  • Listenwise - search engine for educational podcasts for kids

  • Zooglobble - podcast about music

  • Anchor FM: make your own podcast

  • Go Synth - helps with recording podcasts

  • Bricoradio - experimenting with just letting kids talk, some episodes might inspire your students to make podcasts

• I never have time to teach writing poetry anymore, and I miss it! Writing poems inspired by a mentor text is definitely something students (who can read independently) can do on their own/at home. Some of the mentor authors and texts we’ve used in the past as well as different structures can be found here. 

These are just some ideas that came to me - would love to hear more ideas and learn about what teachers are actually trying out! 

Sending lots of energy and kudos to all the teachers being flexible and supporting their students in so many ways during this uncertain time.

Subscribe to our blog:

Black History Month: Past Ideas & Thoughts!

Seeing all of the activity around Black History Month on various social media platforms inspired me to write a blog post again (I know it has been a long time - I (Nina) was busy having a baby!). I am on maternity leave, so won’t be teaching in a classroom this February, but will link to some of our past posts with our ideas and reflections. 

My memories of Black History Month when I was in elementary school are pretty vague, but I remember learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and maybe even singing some songs about how he helped our country. As an elementary school teacher myself, I definitely have had to teach into the idea that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “fixed” racism in our country or that racism was something bad from our past. You can read more about one way we approached MLK Day in the past here. The past few years, my co-teacher and I have been participating in Black Lives Matter at School week. It’s a nationwide movement that occurs the first week of February.* 

It’s important when teaching history (especially to concrete third graders) to tie it to the present, and I always think about any of the “history” months (Black History Month, Women’s History Month, etc) through this lens. Starting with Black Lives Matter at School week is a great way to do this. You can read more about our participation in Black Lives Matter at School week and get some resources and ideas for Black History Month here, as well as read our reflections after participating with more details about how we chose to approach the week in our classroom here. 

I’m sure we’ve said this before, but it’s also really important not to relegate Black history to one month of the year (we love the title of the book How Long 'Til Black Future Month, has anybody gotten their hands on this one yet??). Black history is American history and should be part of our curriculum year round. Also, our curriculum should reflect our world, and the world we want our students to live in.

Some things to keep in mind when approaching Black History Month: 

• Since your curriculum reflects the diversity of our world, you do not need to cover all of Black history in one month (often times depth in one area they didn’t know about can be more quality instruction with essential ideas than the grand sweep over conversation). Choose your focus based on student interests, knowledge, or ignorance or what works well with other units. Students will often need background information and time to process, so it is far better to cover something in depth than give them information out of context. 

• Make sure you have time for student reflection and feedback. We had a student who wrote a comment on an article we read that helped us know what we wanted to do next. Open ended comments and reflections also let students have a way to let you know what they are thinking and feeling.

• Give students opportunities to share and process, but do not expect Black students to share or answer other students’ questions. They are not in the classroom as examples to white students. Also, make sure students of color have a way to communicate with you in case they need to process or feel uncomfortable about the way something is framed or understood by others.

• Think critically about the resources you use (which of course we teachers do each and every day). Just because a picture book is about a Black historical figure does not mean that it is a good resource for your students. Think about framing, whose story or voice is highlighted, and unintentionally reinforcing stereotypes. Also consider context you might have to provide for the resources you choose (if there is slang, slurs, or historical terms your students don’t understand -- ie: the use of “Negro”, for example, you have to prepare to teach into these!). 

• As a side note beneath this- we are huge fans of explicit vocabulary instruction. Students rarely have opportunities to have these conversations, and when they do, the big ‘adult words’ do not get broken down for them and that is a missed opportunity for learning and excludes them from participating in the conversation. Freyer models, group work, vocabulary logs or what have you--  you can bring your Black history vocabulary into systems you already have! 

• Use original sources! There are so many ways to do this. Some ideas are through videos of historical events or speeches on YouTube, adapted text of speeches or letters on Newsela, and documents. It is a wonderful way to bring history to life and preserve the voice and intent of the primary source.

• Poems can be an excellent way to start. I have always believed we need to use poetry more in all subjects. For example, the beginning of the Langston Hughes poem, “Let America Be America Again” is below. Have students read the poem and write connections and questions. Also, teach them about Langston Hughes! We’ve also used poems from Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming (if you are stuck on where to start, she has so many wonderful books for a variety of ages!).

Let America be America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it be that great strong land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

-Langston Hughes, from Let America Be America Again

Please share your thoughts and ideas below! We’d love to hear what other educators are trying out this month. I especially enjoy hearing about other classrooms as I am away from my own students right now.

*We love Teaching For Change and if you want resources or a good community in the DMV area they are worth connecting with and receiving emails from! 

**This asterik is from Gabby just to note that she has yet to see schools that she has been working in, in Oregon, participating in BLM week. Of course, the work continues!

Subscribe to our blog:

Inquiry in Social Studies

I’ve always loved teaching Social Studies through inquiry. Start with questions students have, and then let them explore, research, and learn from there! This approach has led to biographical essays about inspirational historical and contemporary figures, case studies about different countries, companies, and Virginia Indian tribes, investigations into various holidays, and so much more. My hope is that teaching Social Studies through inquiry supports my students in continually learning about the world in a curious and open way.

Some essential parts of inquiry in Social Studies (for me) are:

• Keep the final product open or at least open ended! There are so many ways to share what you learned - let students figure out the best way to do so and personalize it.

• Encourage creativity! We asked our students for annotated illustrations of the Virginia Indian tribe they studied, and every single one of them interpreted that a different way.

• Be clear that what you are learning is limited in scope and in perspective. Use a concrete example to show that sweeping statements about all individuals who share an identity (or other) trait don’t work. I often use my wearing glasses as an example of what is generally true, but not always true for people who wear glasses versus what I prefer. The concrete example helps students to see the fallacy of overgeneralized statements and they can suggest how to reframe or rephrase statements to avoid this. Some words and phrases my students brainstormed included: usually, sometimes, some, in this instance, this example, one possibility (and of course, there are more).

• Always start with student questions! This is where inquiry begins - with asking a question. Keep in mind that students may need an introduction to a topic or some background knowledge before they can pose meaningful questions. Photographs, video and audio clips, and primary source documents are a great way to get students interested in a topic and give them some context to start asking questions.

• Find out what students already know (or think they know) and act accordingly! Background knowledge is so important to learning and understanding. So is identifying and clearing up misconceptions. Skipping ahead to research and learning new information without engaging in this pre-inquiry step can lead to more confusion.

One example of an attempt to do many of these things was our Native American Studies unit with 5th graders. We started by asking students what they already know about Native Americans, and immediately needed to clear up confusion about names and proper terms (many of our students claimed that saying “Indians” was offensive). One way we did this was by taking a field trip to the wonderful National Museum of the American Indian here in DC.  At the museum, our students were surprised to learn Native Americans are still very much present today. 

Many of our students shared that the Disney movie, Pocahontas, came to mind when we first started learning about American Indians. So we took some time to delve into an investigation of Pocahontas and see how what we discovered connected with what we already learned and had questions about. Students were shocked to see how quickly they generalized from an animated movie with limited historical accuracy to all Native Americans.

Our takeaways from this information our students shared (and were missing) was that we needed to learn more about American Indians today! So we learned some new vocabulary and background information from documentaries, articles, stories, and more. We also learned about the Virginia Indian tribes as a concrete example of American Indians living near us right now.

Our final project for the unit was a case study! We gave students time and resources to learn about a Virginia Indian tribe. We started with questions like: what do you want to know? What are the 10 most important things to know & share about this tribe? How would you depict your understanding? Students wanted to know SO MANY THINGS! The Top 10 List was a really effective structured way to share their knowledge while allowing them to follow their own lines of curiosity. We also included an “annotated illustration” as something to share to allow creativity and freedom to express their learning in an unstructured (non-written) way. As you can see from one of our students’ finished products (cover photo), they had so much to share. 

*An important disclaimer we started our case study work with was to remind students that our understanding is limited! We don’t know everything about an entire Virginia Indian tribe and couldn’t share it if we did.

The best way to do inquiry might vary from class to class and subject to subject, so these are just a few general guidelines we try to follow that have worked for us.

Subscribe to our blog:

Ideas for Black History Month and Black Lives Matter At School Week of Action

Happy snow day all! Not teaching today means I have time to reflect on and write about some activities we tried out this month related to the Black Lives Matter At School Week of Action (which we also participated in last year), and Black History Month.

While it happens that our biographical essays unit (which ties in with our non-fiction reading unit) falls during this month, we of course try to teach with an anti-bias framework every day (and all day!). Our curriculum, language, literature, and so much more should reflect the diversity of our world (as we the teachers do!) and we work hard to make this a reality everyday. So we are very purposeful about what we teach during Black History Month/Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action in hopes of avoiding the pitfall of teaching Black history only one month out of the year.

This month, we used a number of wonderful read alouds to enlighten our third graders. On February 1st, we joined millions of educators and participated in the National African American Read-In with a read aloud of Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson. This book connected with so many things we were learning about including our year long study of geography, biographies, and of course, Black History and the Black Lives Matter At School Week of Action. We also read a Newsela article about Jacqueline Woodson being named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Finally, we read Each Kindness and continued working on thinking about author’s purpose by asking ourselves a series of questions leading up to conceptualizing why the author chose to write this book and what the author might want us to learn.

Student responses to Granddaddy’s Turn

Another powerful read aloud was Granddaddy's Turn: A Journey to the Ballot Box by Michael S Bandy, Eric Stein, and illustrated by James E. Ransome (pictured above). We read this book right after we read a Newsela article about poll taxes and present day voter ID laws. Students made the connection right away and had so many questions about literacy tests at the polls, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and more.

My students were also enthralled when we read Libba by Laura Veirs, illustrated by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh as part of our biography study. They loved seeing and hearing about the statue of her and had so many questions about playing the guitar upside down! They are often amazed that they haven’t heard of someone who is so talented and this feeling leads into discussions about whose stories are highlighted (or omitted) in our homes, schools, and in the media.

This post would not be complete without including Milo’s Museum by Zetta Elliott. Third graders usually know and can describe what being excluded feels like, so they relate to Milo even though she is reflecting on institutional exclusion. There is so much to love about this book and we used our framework for inferring author’s purpose to think about how it feels to be excluded and what you might want others to learn from hearing your story about it.

February (and the school year) is not over yet, and of course there are always more wonderful books to share and enjoy! Please share activities or ideas that worked well in your classroom - book recommendations especially are always welcome.

Subscribe to our blog:

Ideas for Teaching Poetry

Happy Snow Day to any other teachers who are at home like me today! Since I actually had time to read books that were not for school today, I was reminded of a poetry unit we taught with our fifth graders. There were so many great sessions, examples, ideas, and books for teaching poetry at NCTE (which I attended in November) that it made me miss teaching a full poetry unit!

For those of you who have a poetry unit or are just looking for new ways to teach, introduce, or incorporate poetry, here are some of my favorite lesson ideas:

• Start by asking students what is poetry? How can you tell if something is a poem? What makes something a poem? We asked our students to think about these questions and then looked at a lot of different poems together. This is a great way of dispelling misconception (poems must rhyme, anything can be a poem, etc). Our students would usually end up with some variation of the idea that poems must have some kind of meaning.

• We wrote “breathless” poems (do not search this term on the internet, especially on your work computer!). The way you write a breathless poem is to write about an experience. Then, cross out the parts you would eliminate if you were out of breath and couldn’t say every word. We went caving with our 5th graders, so we started with that (shared) experience and modeled choosing what words were non-essential and physically crossing them out. Finally, we wrote (or copied and pasted) the final version with just the words that were left! The students loved this structure and came up with some great poems.

• Mentor texts are huge in poetry, but students don’t always know where to find the line between inspiration and imitation (which is understandable!). We solved this problem by finding a mentor text that models using a mentor text, written by the one and only Jacqueline Woodson! Her poem Learning from Langston (from her book Brown Girl Dreaming) has her mentor text within her poem. We compared and contrasted the mentor text and poem and asked our students: How did JW make the structure her own?  What did she learn from Langston? Then, it was their turn to try it out.

• Now that your students have a better idea of how to use mentor texts, write some food inspired poetry using Gary Soto as a mentor author! This is a great way to introduce the idea of metaphors and similes (or review them if your students are already familiar with them.) It’s also an excellent hook as almost everyone has a favorite or despised food they can write about. (We used some of his poems with food metaphors from his book, A Fire in My Hands, but of course, you could use any of his poems as mentor texts).

• Another mentor author we love is Neil Gaiman and his book Crazy Hair. You can read more about how we used this book here, but it was a wonderful social emotional learning moment as well a poetry one!

Image from: https://literaryfusions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/calamity.png

• And of course, we could not teach poetry without including a mentor text from Kwame Alexander. His books have some many great formats, structures, and ideas, but we tried what we called “definition” poems with our students (photo above). The basic structure is the word is the title, the pronunciation and part of speech are listed, and then the word is defined. Next, there are three examples of how to use the word. We gave our students dictionaries and they wrote their own definition poems. This was a wonderful lesson in how to use a dictionary, vocabulary, and poetry.

We’d love to hear more ideas for teaching poetry (especially ideas for mentor texts! There are so many wonderful texts out there).

Subscribe to our blog: