Rethinking Our Beginning of the Year Read-alouds

Hello, all!

     As we're gearing up for another school year, I like many of you have been searching online for beginning of the year activities and read-alouds, thinking, "What should I keep from last year? What can I change to make the beginning of the year more successful for my students?"

     Looking through all of the back-to-school read-alouds, I was struck by something I honestly should have noticed long before this...they are all written by white authors with primarily white characters.  And I got to thinking, "Has the practice of beginning the year reading books depicting white students and authors given my students the impression that school success is for white students only?  Have I (whether consciously or unconsciously) been telling my students of color that my classroom, and maybe school in general, isn't really for them?"

     That's not to say that the books listed on the typical back-to-school read-aloud list aren't good books. Many of them are. I personally love First Day Jitters, The Recess Queen, Enemy Pie, and Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun. However, in the same way that high school literature teachers are looking to rethink the "classic" texts long thought of as required reading in order to include great literature written by women and authors of color (see #disrupt texts movement), shouldn't elementary school teachers also be rethinking what we consider to be "classic" read-alouds? 

     For myself, the answer is, of course, yes. I did a little digging online and in my local library and found some great beginning of the school year read-alouds featuring diverse characters brought to life by diverse authors.  (One of my pet peeves is "diverse" literature written by middle class white Americans. Just because we went on a mission trip in a different country, grew up in a diverse neighborhood, or have a spouse/best friend/other family member of color does not qualify us to write from their point of view or tell their stories. Sorry.)

    So, here are a few great stories that I will be adding to my repertoire of back-to-school read-alouds.  I hope you'll find a few that speak to you.  Diversity adds to all of our lives and opens us up to new experiences and different points of view that enrich our souls and help us better understand our fellow human beings.

 Click on the pictures to find out more about each:

                            

                                   

                                           

                                  

Enjoy!!  And best wishes for a successful start to the new school year!!

Jacquie  

Hi, all!

     It's been a while!!  I moved to Florida last year, and spent the last school year as a fourth grade classroom teacher.  It has been 14 years since I was a classroom teacher, and the standards have changed a lot!  Luckily, the majority of my students were ELL's (21 out of 25), so at least some of my ESOL experience was helpful!  Now that I've moved to Florida and am a classroom teacher, rather than solely an ESOL teacher, I need to learn more about teaching all of my students; most especially my US-born students of color.  Luckily for all of us, there are many educators out there who have been doing the work of researching and writing about the issues that impact students of color in public school classrooms. Our job is to listen, learn, and incorporate what these educators know in order to elevate our practice.
     

     With that, here we go! 

     I have some suggestions for a starting place for those of you just entering the world of social justice and education. For those of you that have been in this world for a while, you probably know most of these amazing educators already!

     Many fantastic educators impart their wisdom on twitter. I have several suggestions for you to follow. You'll get links to articles and books that will aid you on your journey to becoming a more culturally responsive teacher. I'll be talking about many of those resources here on my blog, reflecting on what the information in them means for me as a teacher as well as for my students. (This is not an exhaustive list, and people are listed in no particular order.)

     Anyway, here are some people to follow (you won't be disappointed!):

• Laura M. Jimenez
• Marian Dingle
• Ebony Elizabeth
• Christopher Emdin
• Jose Luis Vilson
• Shana V. White
• Val Brown
• Xian Franzinger Barrett
• Lynell Powell
• Sara K. Ahmed
• Mariana Souto-Manning
• Leigh Patel
• Kim Parker
• Sabrina Joy Stevens
• Cornelius Minor
• Dulce-Marie Flecha
• Kelly Wickham Hurst
• Julia E. Torres
• Clint Smith
• Rosa Perez-Isaiah
• Rebekah Cordova
• EduColor Movement
• Teaching Tolerance
• HipHopEd
• Teaching for Change
• All Y'all Social Justice Series
• Rethinking Schools

     

Anyone you follow that is not on my list?  Please share!!

💜 Jacquie

So, this Muslim ban...

Sudan

Like most of you, my news feed has been filled with articles and op-ed's about Trump's immigration ban that targets seven majority Muslim countries--Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, and Libya.  If you're reading this blog, I assume you have some ties to ELL's, and so you probably know immigrants from at least one, if not all, of these countries.  If you teach ELL's, as I do, you probably also have students from at least one of these countries, and you're outraged and hurting for your students and their families, as well as your friends and neighbors who are impacted by this executive action.

Maybe you've written e-mails or postcards, made phone calls, donated to causes, or attended a rally in opposition to this action.  I hope you have. Want to do something? Click here to find out who your representatives are.  Need to contact your Senators?  Click here.

Anyway, last night while I was trying to sleep with my mind repeating the news cycle in my head, I realized that while this anti-Muslim action is upsetting to me personally, it is so much more so to my young students.  I'm heartbroken and ashamed by the actions of my country, and I'm mature enough to fully understand the ramifications of this action.  However, my family and I are in no danger of being forced to leave our homes, nor do we fear for the safety of loved ones in other countries.  My students are not able yet, at their young age, to understand all of the information that has been in the news, and they and their families ARE directly impacted by the immigration ban.  So, my thoughts shifted to how I was feeling towards what can I do to help my students through this painful and scary time?

I got up out of bed and started doing some research.  I'm not a counselor, so I'm not in a position to determine the best ways to talk to students about the ban and how it affects them.  I began my search by looking for tips from professionals on talking to young children about tragedies in the news.  I found a wealth of information that not only supported my instincts for how to proceed (I do have a kid, so I'm not new to this!!), but I also found some helpful tips that I hadn't considered.

I read and reflected, and then compiled a list of what I felt were the most useful and pertinent tips for helping younger students (elementary and middle school aged) work through the immigration ban:

1. Do not bring up the immigration ban.  If your students raise the issue, proceed!
2. Ask your students what they already know.
3. Ask your students what, if any, questions they have. When answering questions, be careful to only answer with information you know for sure to be true.  It's okay to tell children that you don't know the answer.  Also, begin with the basics.  Children may not be ready for the full details, so start small.  If your students have additional questions, they can continue to probe until they're satisfied, but we don't want to overwhelm them with information.  Again, we don't know a lot of information yet about the ban and how it will all shake out in the end, so only give answers you know with certainty are true and verifiable.
4. If you feel comfortable, let your students know that you also feel sad about what is going on and that you are happy that they and their family are here with us in the U.S.  They have probably heard, if not experienced, the hateful rhetoric currently being spewed in our country. Let them know that you are on their side and that their school family supports them 100% (if this is the case. And I hope it is.)
5. Reassure your students as much as you are able.  Let them know that there are grown-ups working very hard on the issue, and that there is hope that things will be okay.
6. Most importantly, listen.  If a student honors you with their trust, sit quietly, listen, and validate their feelings.  It's important to clear up any misunderstandings, but it's also important that we not belittle their feelings with a trite, "It's all going to be okay. Don't worry." 

I know, as educators and as parents, this is a tall order.  How do you reassure your students when so much of our country's current political climate is eroding their sense of safety and belonging?  The answer is that there is no easy answer.  We need to surround them with love, make sure they feel safe and welcomed while they are at school, speak out if we hear hateful misinformation in any area of our lives, and continue to give our students the education they deserve so that one day they can be in a position to make sure actions like Trump's immigration ban don't happen again.

Here are the articles I pulled information from:

Talking to children about tragedies and other news events

How to talk to children about difficult news

Helping children cope: Talking to children about tragedy

When bad things happen: Tips for parents and educators

Yours in solidarity,

Jacquie

Making connections: Reading Wonder during Ramadan

Wonder, by RJ Palacio, is a book about a boy named August (Auggie) with a facial deformity.  He begins attending school at the beginning of fifth grade, hoping to be accepted for who he is, rather than ostracized for his face.  The book switches between Auggie's point of view and the point of view of his classmates and others.  The main theme of this heart-wrenching and brutally beautiful story is the importance of empathy, compassion and acceptance.

So, why Wonder and Ramadan?  It happened very naturally for me, as I was using Wonder in a book study during Ramadan.  I wanted to find a way to help students really connect with the text.  Several of the students I was working with were Muslim and the connection happened very organically.  As we continued to explore Wonder through the theme of Ramadan, I watched my Muslim students, especially the girls, gain a new sense of their worth in the classroom as ambassadors of their culture. The other students, I hope, learned about empathy, compassion, and acceptance not only through the medium of the text, but also as their classmates shared pieces of themselves and their culture during our discussions.

Some background on Ramadan:
Each day of Ramadan, every person over the age of 12 is expected to fast from dawn until sunset. The translation of the Arabic word "to fast" is "refrain." This means not only refraining from eating and drinking, but also refraining from idle gossip or unnecessary speech and unkind words and thoughts. The goal of Ramadan is spiritual purification. Many Muslims pray more often during this time. They ask for forgiveness of past sins, focus on positive acts for the benefit of others, and ask God for guidance for future living. The fasting is supposed to induce feelings of empathy for those who are less fortunate, as well as a sense of inner peace.  For more information, try this website, or go to an even better source: your students and their families.

Ramadan is also a time of fellowship, and people will often invite friends and family to share in the sunset fast-breaking meal, the Iftar.  I've been blessed to have been invited to share in many Iftars, and if you get the chance, I highly recommend accepting this invitation.  Not only will you eat some amazing food, but the bonds of friendship and community you'll make are life-long bonds.

As you begin the book study with a focus on Ramadan, modeling making connections will help students frame their own connections.  While non-Muslim students may be tempted to make connections between the book and their own culture, I recommend gently encouraging them to stick to keeping connections linked to Ramadan--especially if the other students are of the mainstream culture.  Muslim culture gets such little airtime in U.S. classrooms, so if you've made the decision to give your Muslim students the opportunity to really use their voices and be heard during this book study, be sure to keep that space open to them.

Some possible connections to make while modeling are:

Page 46: Precepts: rules about really important things

Page 47: What kind of person am I?

Page 48: When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.

Page 65: Your deeds are your monuments; we are remembered for the things we do

Page 77: Other students talking about August

Happy reading,
Jacquie

Checking back in after a loooooong year!

I just want to preface this post by saying I love my job.  I truly do.  There is NOTHING else I can imagine doing with my life other than teaching English to my immigrant and refugee students.  Best. Job. Ever.

That being said, this has been an especially hard year, for many reasons.  The insane amount of testing we implemented this year in the great state of Ohio was the cause of some of the stress of the year, but I'll write about that and the implications of constant testing on ELL's in another post.  We enrolled more emergent ELL's this year at our school than any year past, and the ESL team was the target of some classroom teacher anxiety and hostility because of that.  However, we (ESL teachers) love, love, love emergent students, so any negativity thrown at us we eventually deflected with our joy at getting to know our new students and helping them acclimate to their new home.  As far as health goes, my daughter and I were sick almost all year.  No exaggeration.  If a virus was around, it paid us a visit this year.  Not fun.  As a single parent, she and I are together all the time, so we tend to share everything, including germs.  In addition to all of that, this year an ongoing personnel (not personal!) issue came to a head, but even that wasn't the lowest point of the year.

What was the lowest point of my year?  The day I lost a student.  She wasn't a current student.  She attended our school two years before, and she was a student that no one forgets.  Nebiat was a sweet and beautiful girl and so, so much more.  This girl worked harder than any other student I've had in my years of teaching.  She was self-motivated.  I didn't have to convince her that learning was important.  She knew that, and she demonstrated that knowledge by attacking every lesson in every subject with all of her energy and excitement.  Our sweet Nebiat was the student we compared others to, and most students, quite honestly, looked unfavorable compared to her.  Nebiat's thirst for learning, and willingness to work hard, are sadly uncommon characteristics in many students these days.  In one of her first days in ESL, she shared her shame at being unable to read.  After several weeks of working with Nebiat, it was obvious that her difficulty with reading did not lie with her, but rather with poor previous schooling.  She grew as a reader, and her confidence grew along with her reading ability.  Nothing could stop her.  Nebiat could have been ANYTHING she wanted to be, and she wanted to help others.  Her bright light was dimmed far too soon, and I'm sad and angry about it.

Nebiat wasn't part of my biological family.  She only attended our school for a little over a year.  So, why am I so devastated?  I almost feel unworthy of my grief.  She wasn't my daughter.  She wasn't even a current student, although I consider all of my students to be my students for life--regardless of age.  So many other people were close to her and deserve to grieve for her.  It makes sense for them to feel a grief so deep that it's hard to pull out of it.  Why am I feeling this way?

It's because of who Nebiat was as a person.  This girl was amazing.  After she moved on to middle school, I would still see Nebiat at her apartment complex where I frequently visit to spend time with students and their families.  Even if she was in a group of her middle school friends, she always broke away to come over and talk to me.  She asked about my daughter and the other ESL teacher she worked with at our school.  She excitedly shared what she was learning in school, what her teachers were like, and how her grades were.  She told me about her friends and the silliness they got into. That sweet girl would hang out with me and talk for as long as I wanted, never looking over to her friends as if she needed an escape from this crazy teacher who won't stop talking to her!  I can't explain how much that meant to me coming from a middle school girl!

Nebiat deserved a long, amazing life. Her short, amazing life touched mine in ways that I probably still haven't realized.  I thought her funeral would bring me "closure," but I don't know that there ever is closure when a child dies.  I just know that I will never forget her.  As cheesy as it sounds, she really will always be in my heart and on my mind as I go throughout my life.  I feel a strong need to make sure no one forgets that she was here and that she was amazing.  and that I loved her.

I wish I had a book to recommend for teachers dealing with grief over the death of a student. Throughout the past few weeks, I have looked for such a book or article.  I needed to know that what I was feeling was normal.  I found many resources on how to help students deal with grief, but nothing that was written for teachers.  So many of us love our students as if they are our own.  When we lose a student, it is a profound loss for us.  At least, it is for me and for Nebiat's other teachers.  If you know of a book or article that is dedicated to helping teachers deal with the death of a student, please leave a comment below.

Take care of yourselves and your students,
Jacquie

Choosing Texts for Early Readers

As an ELL teacher, choosing texts to use with my students is perhaps one of the most challenging parts of my job.  Each week, I struggle with how to focus my text selection: vocabulary topics?  grammar function?  fluency?  literary devices?  And then, from where should I pull the texts: guided reading room?  library?  from the same publisher each time, or mix and match?  In her book Becoming Literate, Marie Clay asserts that "it is the individual child's achievements and where he next needs to go that [should govern] the selection" (p. 182).  So, with the multitude of information our lower-level ELL's need to know, how do we choose a text that will meet their needs, but still foster a love of reading?

Some tips from Marie Clay:

• Use texts you have previously read to students.  Known texts are "still new and challenging because the child is bringing that prior knowledge to the text...using a different kind of support from the interactive sharing of the task with the teacher" (p. 184).  Be sure to couple the re-reading of the text with a new focus.  If the original sharing of the book focused on vocabulary, have the re-reading experience tackle a literary device used by the author.
• Be wary of using contrived texts: "If [students] have only read controlled vocabulary texts [they] will have difficulty with texts that do not control the vocabulary" (p. 187).  Relying on contrived texts can also have a detrimental effect on oral language development if students learning English are presented with one way of "speaking" English in texts and then are expected to understand and respond to the language those around them produce naturally. 

• Story books should be an integral part of a student's reading journey, but should not be the only method used to teach students to read. "To learn to anticipate the language and situations found in stories children have to build up a vast experience with children's story books...Some children do not get those experiences before they come to school and teachers who use a story book reading programme must provide them with make-up experiences" (189).  ELL's often come to school with very little knowledge of story structure or the purpose of reading.  It's therefore imperative that we provide as many opportunities for our students to interact with quality literature as possible.  However, story books are not often written for beginning readers to read on their own.  Portions could be read by students in a big-book or projectable format.  Language Experience Approach texts could be created by students based on the story books to give students a pathway into the text.

• While LEA's do give children who are learning English a textual experience with which they can connect, "it is not enough to read only natural language or language experience texts.  Children need book experience to read books.  Book language has different forms and different frequencies of occurrence from spoken dialects.  Natural language texts can be regarded as transitional texts, used when the child is just beginning to relate what he knows about oral language and print to the written texts he is trying to read"  (p.191).

For slower readers and those who are learning to read while at the same time learning English, natural experience texts and repeated contact with familiar literary texts initially presented by teacher are a natural starting point for literacy development.  Consistently working only with simple, controlled material can "develop habitual responding for that type of material.  This learning will not transfer readily to more complex texts" (195).  Staying away from such contrived texts is especially critical for ELL's.  Students must be exposed to rich language use and have the opportunity to swim around in it and be immersed.  This is the only way their oral language, and then later their written language, will develop to the depth of meaning that native English speakers enjoy.

Happy reading,
Jacquie

Directionality and Storybook Reading

In Chapter 6 of Becoming Literate, Marie Clay writes that children face three main challenges after their initial experiences with print.  One of those challenges is the directionality of print.  In English text, of course, this means learning that print goes left to right.  Period.

I hadn't considered this skill to be anything unusual for children to learn until Clay opened my eyes: "The child's everyday experience has actually trained him in different habits from those he needs in reading.  An orange, a dog or a favourite toy must be recognized from any viewing angle.  Meaning is constant when the object is small or large, is upside-down, back-to-front, or sideways to the viewer...On entry to school he has to learn that in one particular situation, when he is faced with printed language, flexibility is inappropriate."  (Clay, 1991).  DUH!  I had never thought of directionality in reading as something entirely foreign in its adherence to one serial direction in the world of a child for whom every other experience has been multi-directional.

After that "ah-ha" moment, I decided to check out whether or not my kindergarten students truly understood the directionality of print.  Using the Sulzby Storybook Reading Assessment, I had my students read a Goldilocks book to me.  The students were already familiar with the text from a read aloud the previous week.  The book has multiple lines of print on each page, so I was able to gauge whether or not students had learned the following:

• directionality
• return sweep
• high frequency words
• using pictures to gain meaning
• the language "style" of story telling

In addition, I was also able to take notes on what aspects of oral English the students have acquired.  For example, whether or not they correctly form and use plural nouns or regular past tense verbs. 

The Sulzby assessment taught me a lot about my students!  I was surprised to learn that one of my students has not yet mastered directionality.  Not surprisingly, he was also the only one who didn't use the pictures to tell a story, but rather just labeled what he saw in each picture.  He jumped back and forth between right and left pages of the book and only attended to the pictures.  He paid no attention to the print.  My other two kindergarteners demonstrated knowledge of each of the skills I was assessing.  One of the students even made a serious attempt to read each word on the page, and he did a great job of it!

Now, I know which of my students are ready to move on, and which needs more work with simple, one lined texts and retelling stories after read alouds.  I highly recommend reading the Sulzby article (link above) and trying this assessment with emergent readers.

Happy reading!
Jacquie