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