Books To Inspire Change

It's been stressful to watch the news or read social media the past few months. I can't imagine being a little one and trying to understand everything going on in the world right now.

These stories show how one person can make a difference. How someone can help change the world.

A community works together to make a wall beautiful.

Another neighborhood transformed.

Sofia literally fights City Hall to get a park in their town. I like that it goes through the process of petition and a vote. She reminds me of a young Leslie Knope. :) 

Barbara Jordan used her voice to enact change for her community. I can't wait to share this book with my students because she comes from the same city they do!

I feel pretty hopeless about what is going on today. What can I do? I can help instill in a new generation a feeling of citizenship and standing up with their voices. Hopefully children are our future!

Books to Teach Ethics

I am participating in a book study for the book by Ian Byrd and Lisa Van Gemert:

If you haven't read it yet, it's a great introduction or refresher for Kaplan's Depth and Complexity. I've been a fan of Ian Byrd's for a long time. His ideas revolutionized how I taught and this is a great guidebook to activities and questions you can use in your classroom to step up the rigor.

My favorite concept is Ethics. Teaching students to choose a side and make an argument for it. Pro/Con, right/wrong. I do a little turn and talk with a question almost every day. When my Kinder students begin the year, they will give you the answer they think you want to hear. When they leave me, they are better at making an argument to support their opinions.

Some great books to use (besides fairy tales and Dr. Seuss books) :

A boy catches the huge fish that is a local legend-should he take it home and be a hero or throw it back and let it continue to thrive.

Was the boy right? Was the tree right?

A father tells his son to stay by the lion he drew in the sand. The boy draws a very long tail on the lion and goes to the other end of the beach. Was that the right thing to do?

Was it right for the letters to go back up the tree after they fell down.

Was it right for Max to leave the Wild Things and go home?

Challenging Advanced Students

I am going to get up on my soapbox for a minute. ;)

I was looking at some blog posts and it led me to one where a teacher was very proud of how she challenges her high level readers. They read independently and then fill out a packet about the story they read. *sigh* Students who read above grade level deserve to learn new skills as well. The one way to make sure a child loses a passion for reading is to give them packets of work their classmates do not have to complete.

Do's and Don'ts for working with advanced students:

*Do differentiate classwork. Please don't simply give them more work to do. If they are finishing the classwork too quickly then it is not challenging enough for them. It's ok to give students different versions of the same activity and to have different expectations for them. In Kinder some students are still learning how to write their names and some can write a complete sentence. The paper I give them to write on looks very different. Spelling lists can be differentiated, homework. Is this extra work on your part-absolutely, but so worth it!

*  Do literature circles and book studies with them. Even if you just have one student, you can read a book with them during reading groups. It breaks my heart when I hear teachers say they don't meet with their high students for guided reading-every student deserves targeted instruction at that time.

* Peer tutoring does not mean students who finish their work help others. That is your job, not another student's. I've heard teachers say if you teach someone something, you learn it better. That is just not true. If a student can already read their sight words, helping a low student read their sight words is not helping them become better readers. They need focused instruction on fluency and comprehension strategies.

* When pairing your students for workstations, consider pairing high with high. If you pair a high and a low-the high student does the work and it's on a lower level than they need. I've seen this happen in many classrooms-a student who can read fluently is doing and activity to identify letters. Teachers justify this by saying low students just cannot work independently-you have to set those expectations just like you would for any other students. Give them tasks on their level. I have baskets with different animals on them (my students do not know they are grouped by level)-they can choose activities from their bin to work on with a partner.

* Have projects and independent studies that the students can work on when they finish their work. Let them choose what they want to learn more. You can print articles from Scholastic or other sources and let them create a project in any way they want to present the information. They can watch videos on Discovery Education or Brainpop and then synthesize that information into a a presentation. It can be an ongoing activity they are allowed to get out and work on when they are done with their independent work. And when they are done they can present it to the class. This is a much more exciting solution that "go read a book".

I don't want this to sound preachy, but I see students who are full of potential not grow the way they should because a teacher assumes they already know what they need to know, these students are not a concern. The "low" students get the attention, but in actuality ALL students deserve to have that attention. Everyone can better at a skill no matter how well they already do it!

Diverse Titles Not Social Justice Themed

So much going on in the world right now. I am infuriated by the way protesters are being treated, and inspired by the dedication of particularly the young people to make a change. In my Kindergarten class we don't shy away from big ideas-in fact, I encourage those discussions in my class often. This past year we talked about themes of social justice and read about famous people like Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman. And those are important discussions.

However, I also think it's important to include diverse titles in your classroom libraries and read-alouds that portray diverse families doing every day regular things as well. The past few years we are thankfully seeing more and more books featuring more diverse characters. It's important for our students to see themselves in the books we share-not just protesters and slaves.

Here are some of my favorites:

A new baby is expected and she isn't sure she wants a sibling.

An adorable story about how the library works.

A great story when you are using the theme of families.

A common game of peek-a-boo-the students often relate to playing with their baby siblings.

A self explanatory title-I love to share this one the first week of school

Jabari is nervous about jumping off the diving board and dad is very understanding.

Ezra Jack Keats wrote a number of books but this one is my favorite.

Also about a new brother that is not entirely welcomed at first. He messes up the toys and insists on watching his own shows. But his brother soon warms up to him.

D & C Frames to Sum Up Kindergarten

Frames are a great way to sum up what students have learned about a topic. These are from previous years but I plan to post one for my students to complete as their last online assignment this year. They are writing Unanswered Questions about Kindergarten, write from the Perspective of a Kindergartener, Rules-what is always true about Kindergarten and the Big Idea of Kinder.

Books To End the School Year

Usually the end of the school year is emotional but even more so this year. I am grateful that our principal is having a time for us to see our students one last time before their summer vacation officially begins but it is going to be hard to stay stoic with them. I did get some good news-I am going to be looping up to 1st Grade with my kiddos next year! What a perfect year to be able to start off knowing exactly where they are academically and already having a relationship with parents.

So as we wind down our online learning I have several last read-alouds that I will be doing with my students. I wanted to share the titles because you may be looking for a good way to end the year as well:

Everything I Learned About Teaching I Learned From My Dog

Ok maybe not EVERYTHING. But I did learn a lot.

So 11 years ago I was looking for a puppy and came across this bundle of ears at a rescue event. She had been at the shelter a month but they couldn't tell me anything else about how she had gotten there.

I asked my mom if she thought I should buy a carrier for the car to take her home and she said they always just carried their puppies in their laps. I decided to name her Ruby and brought her home. She bit and scratched me the whole way. I was like-aren't rescue dogs supposed to be grateful-did you not get that memo? :) The next few days she paced constantly. She had so much anxiety-she just wouldn't lay down and relax. I actually would put her in a crate several times a day just to give her some peace. She was also very mouthy (she would nip whenever she felt stressed which was basically all the time).

Signed up with a trainer who came to our house and observed her. They said "she's always like this? she never jumps up in your lap and cuddles". Yes she's always like this. "Well, I think you should return her to the shelter because she will never be the kind of dog you want her to be". What?! I even said to this woman-I'm a teacher. Imagine first meeting a student and telling the parents-he's never going to be the kid you want him to be. I was so offended. We had paid for 5 sessions up front and never let them back into our house.

Trainer #2 called her his little alligator because she keep untying his shoelaces with her teeth. He was all about giving her enough exercise and teaching her how to heel. We practiced and practiced but it didn't make her behavior any better. She was still nipping and still pacing. He suggested putting her on a treadmill to release all that energy. Yeah, not going to happen.

Trainer #3 called himself the Dog Whisperer for our city. He took out a prong collar and said you need to be tougher with her. You need to show her who is boss.

Trainer #4: A friend of my mom's suggested a dog trainer in her area that worked with challenging dogs. From the moment we met her I knew she was different. She understood Ruby. She channeled that nervous energy into agility training. She gave me permission to let Ruby be who she was. Maybe she was just never going to walk behind me in a perfect heel. Why not put her on a long lead at the park and let her roam in front of us? If she's nipping at you on walks-then don't take her for walks right now-you are just reinforcing that behavior. This trainer saved us.

It took a lot of work, but Ruby became a great companion. She wouldn't always listen and there were some behaviors-like barking at EVERY SINGLE PERSON who walked down our street that we could never get rid of. But when I let her be who she was and accepted that, she blossomed. 

The same goes in our classrooms. Sometimes we have ideas of what we think kids should be, how they should act. Not every child is capable of conforming to that. We have to let little things go and meet them where they are. 

Ruby was diagnosed with leukemia and I had to put her down today. I was thankful the vet let me go in with her because with all the distancing right now that is not usually the policy. That stubborn girl fought until the end. I am so thankful to have been home with her these past few months. I would joke that she was getting spoiled but I believe things happen for a reason. If we were at school right now there would be activities I couldn't miss-I couldn't take off for a vet visit or even just to grieve.

I am loving the messages from the families of former students who looked at Ruby like our class mascot. She even jumped up and took over class a few times during online learning. It's so hard to say good-bye but heartening to me that she will be remembered.

Anyway, remember one size does not fit all. We have to face every student with a different set of tools and do what works for them. I hear teachers all the time say things like "he does that on purpose" or "this kid won't obey". Every behavior is a need. We have to figure out what that need is and fill it. And any preconceived notions we have about how students should act need to be tossed out the window. Be flexible.