Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Talking to Elementary Students about Stereotypes

I wanted to share some of the lessons and resources that I use when teaching students about issues of diversity and inclusion. My previous post detailed my lesson plans for teaching family history and immigration for elementary . In this post I want to share about a lesson I did specifically to address the idea of stereotypes and misconceptions with younger students.

Discussing Stereotypes through Postcards


I started by having my third graders brainstorm some of their favorite things about Wisconsin (where we live). Then I introduced the definition of a stereotype: a widely held but oversimplified idea about a particular type of person or thing. Together we brainstormed some stereotypes people might have about Wisconsin. My kids were easily able to come up with ideas like “Everybody likes cheese,” “It’s always cold,” or “Everyone cheers for the Packers.”

Then, I shared a variety of images taken from postcards about Wisconsin and asked them to write some notes about what the postcards showed about Wisconsin. The kids could easily draw connections between our discussion of Wisconsin stereotypes and what showed up in the postcards (cows, farmland, winter scenes, etc.).



Then it was time to confront some of those stereotypes directly. I asked the kids to write down their best estimate for the following three questions:

  • What percentage of people in Wisconsin live in a rural area (like a farm)?
  • What percentage of people in Wisconsin own cows?
  • What percentage of people in the state live in Madison?

(Take a minute and make your own guesses before reading on, if you wish.)

Most of my students’ guesses were in the range of 50-80% of the state living in a rural area, 40-60% owning cows, and 10-20% living in Madison. Based on statistics drawn from a few different state sources, the actual answers are that less than 30% of Wisconsinites live in rural areas, less than 1% of residents own cows, and less than 5% of the state’s population lives in Madison.

To wrap up this activity, we reflected on the following two questions:

  • What did you find the most surprising when comparing the actual numbers to people's stereotypes and general ideas about Wisconsin?
  • What do you think other people should know about Wisconsin?

Students then applied those understandings by designing their own postcard about Wisconsin. At the time, we were participating in a postcard exchange as part of the Global Read Aloud, so we sent out our postcards to schools in several different states and a few different countries. The postcards we received back helped us continue our discussion about stereotypes as we pondered what each postcard showed about the place it was from. (Click here for the worksheet used.)




Continue the Conversations


This discussion about stereotypes helped establish a foundation for our discussions throughout the rest of the school year. Every time we read a book about another place or another culture, we could refer back to these understandings.

I encourage all teachers and parents to seek out multiple perspectives on any issue or culture or country. Don’t read one book to a child to teach them about "Africa." Read a whole series of books that feature some of the diversity of people, places, and animals from this very large continent. Don’t read only Native American folktales without also reading books that feature modern Native American peoples and perspectives. Use these multiple sources to encourage kids to ask critical questions and to compare and contrast differing perspectives.

Click on the "Teaching" tag for more lesson plan ideas.

What are your favorite lessons or books for talking to kids about stereotypes?
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Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Teaching Family History and Immigration for Elementary

I taught third grade for eight years, and one of my favorite units was our study of family history in connection to a unit on immigration (mainly focused on European immigration through Ellis Island). This was a powerful way for my students to see how they and their classmates connected to the wider world and to celebrate all the amazing differences that make us who we are.

In light of all that is happening in the world and in our country right now, I thought it was important to share what we did and to support other teachers in getting kids to break down barriers and embrace differences.

I previously shared some of my findings in a roundtable talk at NCTE in 2015 entitled “Reading Another Culture: teaching diversity without reinforcing stereotypes.” You can download my original slides, handouts, and extensive diverse book list here. In this post, I want to talk more about the specifics for doing a family history study.

Family History and Immigration


We did two main biographical activities: a Getting to Know You blog post and a genealogical study. The questions for the blog post were geared towards sharing about our family and cultural backgrounds, such as favorite foods, languages spoken, members of your family, etc. (You can download a copy of the questionnaire here.) This activity generated a lot of conversation about the things we have in common and the things that are different about us, but all in very positive terms.

For the genealogical study, I sent home a four-page packet that included both a family-tree style layout and a genealogical reference sheet (downloaded from Ellis Island). The cover page was a map of the world, and the back page was a questionnaire about names and name meanings. I also sent a note home to parents, reaffirming that everyone’s family and family history is different and that families should fill out what information they know and how it best fit their family situation. (For example, a student of mine who was adopted by his moms filled in his family tree about both of them. Family is so much more than biology.)

The day we shared about our genealogy packets opened with a two-step activity. When students entered the room, they received small circles for as many countries as they had ancestors or connections. They wrote their name on each circle and decorated it. (For my demo circles, I decorated them using the flag of the country, so many followed that approach.) Then we added all the circles to a large world map on the wall - the photo below shows one section.


When they finished with their circles, everyone received a handout with a series of “Can you find someone who …” questions, encouraging them to start interviewing their classmates and learning about each other. (A note on the white board defined terms such as “second-generation” and “third-generation” immigrant.)

We finished by each sharing about our own findings about our family histories or the meanings of our names. In my last class of third graders we had 30 students who hailed from 36 different countries on 6 continents and who spoke 9 different languages at home!

Invite in the Experts


A final element of our family history study actually took place all year in our classroom. In third grade, our social studies curriculum was a study of world geography and world cultures, so we spent a few months on each of the inhabited continents. At the beginning of the school year I sent an open invitation to parents to come in and present to the class about a country they had lived in or had a personal connection to, and every year the response was overwhelming.


Kids love visitors and presentations (and asking lots of sometimes off-topic questions, if your class is anything like mine). Most parents put together a short PowerPoint presentation about the country and often brought it artifacts or a food to share. Music or dance videos were also popular, though nothing beats photographs of your classmate visiting another place - especially if it was a few years ago!

In my last year of teaching third grade, we Skyped with a student’s uncle in Cairo, traveled to the Galapagos on a boat trip, learned about a great-great grandfather’s journey from Norway to the US as documented in the family Bible, visited a Mongolian yurt, saw news clippings about a grandparent who worked for the Shah of Iran, and much more. You may be amazed by the wealth of experiences and connections available within your school community.

Read, Read, and Read Some More


Books are another great way to invite the world into your classroom. I have previously put together several different book sets that deal with family history and immigration issues. Please consider reading and sharing these wonderful books with your students!



Do you teach family history or immigration units with your students? What other resources or suggestions do you have for teachers?

(I'll be adding some additional posts soon about other extension activities - and what I'm doing now with my seventh graders.) Click on the "Teaching" tag for more lesson plan ideas.
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Thursday, November 12, 2015

NCTE Presentation: Reading Another Culture: teaching diversity without reinforcing stereotypes


This page is the centralized location for handouts and resources related to my NCTE session, "Reading Another Culture: Teaching Diversity without Reinforcing Stereotypes," (G.40 Equity, Social Justice, and Advocacy for Literacy, 211AB).


Reading Another Culture: book list categories


Scroll on for the book lists or click on any of the category titles to link to another post with more detailed information about the books, including book covers and descriptions.


Books about Modern Immigrants and Refugees


The recent refugee crisis has brought the issues of immigration to the forefront. These picture books help introduce children to modern-day immigrant and refugee children in age-appropriate ways. (Books with a * deal directly with refugees and/or refugee camps.)


Click here to read the full post for Books about Modern Immigrants and Immigration (includes cover images and descriptions).

Books that Celebrate Diversity of/within Families



Click here to read the full post for Books that Celebrate Diversity of/within Families (includes cover images and descriptions).

Africa is Not a Country


A selection of some of my favorite picture books that feature children from a variety of African countries and cultures.


Click here to read the full post for Text Set: Africa is Not a Country (includes cover images and descriptions).

Books Featuring Diverse Grandparents


US Grandchildren Visiting Grandparents in Different Countries

  • Sitti's Secrets (1997) by Naomi Shihab Nye and illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. 
  • Time to Pray (2010) by Maha Addasi, translated by Nuha Albitar, and illustrated by Ned Gannon. 


US Grandchild Whose Grandparents Immigrated from a Different Country



African-American Grandparent-Grandchildren Books


Click here to read the full post for Books Featuring Diverse US Grandparents and Grandchildren and Books Featuring International Grandparents and Grandchildren (includes cover images and descriptions).

International Grandparent-Grandchildren Books

  • Argentina: Abuelo (2014) by Arthur Dorros and illustrated by Raúl Colón. 
  • China: Noodle Magic (2014) by Roseanne Greenfield Thong and illustrated by Meilo So. 
  • Dominica: Look Back (2014) by Trish Cooke and illustrated by Caroline Binch.
  • India: Monsoon Afternoon (2008) by Kashmira Sheth and illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi. 
  • India: My Dadima Wears a Sari (2007) by Kashmira Sheth and illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi. 

Coming Soon: click here to read the full post for Books Featuring International Grandparents and Grandchildren (includes cover images and descriptions).

Rethinking Explorers: alternate perspectives and points of view



Click here to read the full post for Text Set: Rethinking Explorers (includes cover images and descriptions).

Picture Book Biographies about People who Cared for Trees


Celebrate the international power of caring for the environment through these books.


Click here to read the full post for Picture Book Biographies of People and Trees (includes cover images and descriptions).

The Power of Girls and Schools: a look through time and place



Click here to read the full post for The Power of Girls and Schools (includes cover images and descriptions).

Around the World in a Single Book

These are books that do a good job of highlighting a variety of people, languages, cultures, etc from around the world.

Children Around the World


Click here to read the full post for Around the World in a Single Book, part 1: children (includes cover images and descriptions).

Cultures in General Around the World


Click here to read the full post for Around the World in a Single Book, part 2: cultures (includes cover images and descriptions).

Languages and Schools around the World



Click here to read the full post for Around the World in a Single Book, part 3: languages and schools (includes cover images and descriptions).

Cinderella Stories from around the World


Cinderella Stories from Asia


Cinderella Stories from Africa and the Middle East

Cinderella Stories from Europe


Click here to read the full post for Cinderella Stories from the Old World (includes cover images and descriptions).

Cinderella Stories from the Americas


Click here to read the full post for Cinderella Stories from the Old World (includes cover images and descriptions) as well as Fractured Cinderella Stories and Teaching with Cinderella Stories.

For even more great book recommendations, check out the Multicultural Book List, which includes additional topics like folktales, holidays and religion, world issues, and more.

Happy (diverse) reading!

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Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Student-Led Book Recommendations


Recommending books to each other is a huge part of my third grade classroom. Informal recommendations happen everyday, as kids are constantly returning books, swapping books with each other, and forcing books upon friends with a "You MUST read this now!" attitude.

We also do more formal book recommendations during the course of the school year. This year we used KidBlog, and my students were able to write their own blog posts to recommend books to students in their own classes as well as our partner classes around the world.

I thought it would be fun to share some of their recommendations over the summer. If you are looking for great books with a third-grade stamp of approval, this will be the place to look! (Please note that my third graders read a wide variety of books across a wide variety of genres, levels, and topics. Do not think that these books are "only" for third graders.)

Student-Led Book Recommendations: Format

For teachers or parents interested in the behind-the-scenes, here is the format that I have found works well for helping kids structure a book recommendation post. (This was originally given out as a handout with a few lines for note-taking after each question.)

Directions: This week, you will be writing and sharing your first blog post on KidBlog. Use the categories below to help you plan what to include in your post. Remember to add transitions, so it all makes sense.

1. Think about a book that you think your classmates would like to read. Use this sheet to brainstorm ideas for your book recommendation post.

2. Introduce the book: include the title and the author

3. Summary: tell about the book, but don’t give away the ending!

4. Review: what makes this a great book? How do creativity, plot, characters, language, or other features make this book one that you would recommend?

5. Tell your favorite quotable quote from this book or make a connection

6. Give a recommendation: “If you like … , you will love this book” or “I recommend this book to anyone who likes …”

7. Write a concluding sentence for your review and/or include a rating

Student-Led Book Recommendations: Example

To set students up for success, I also shared a mentor post with an example book review that I had written. Dragon Slippers had been recommended to me by a student a few weeks before, so I knew that it was one that was just starting to make the rounds among the class. Here is my review:


I would like to recommend the book Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George. It is the first book in the Dragon Adventures series.

Dragon Slippers tells the story of Creel, who is sent to a dragon's cave by her aunt. The aunt wants a knight to rescue and marry Creel so that the aunt doesn't have to take care of her anymore. Creel, however, has other ideas, and she is soon off on an adventure of her own after meeting and becoming friends with the dragon. She also receives a soon-to-be-important pair of slippers.

This is a great book, because the characters are brave and interesting. Creel is not helpless, and she has great adventures. She also is clever and cares about her friends. This book connects to another book I have read, called Dealing with Dragons, because in both books a girl meets up with a dragon, but she does not need anybody to rescue her.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes books about dragons, brave main characters, and funny and unexpected situations.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars!

Third Grade Book Recommendations

Stay tuned during the summer as I share recommendations written by my students! I will compile a linked list of them here as well.
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Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Teaching Cinderella Stories from around the World


To wrap up my recent series of posts on Cinderella stories from around the world, I wanted to share a little bit about how I use them in my third grade classroom and how you might think about incorporating a study of Cinderella stories into your own home or classroom. First off, check out any of the posts below for a round up of dozens of Cinderella stories to draw upon.



Cinderella Basics: the Venn diagram

One of the easiest ways to have students read and analyze different Cinderella stories is to have them choose two stories and organize their thinking using a Venn diagram. My students regularly use Venn diagrams in math class for sorting numbers, but you may need to spend a little more time introducing its purpose as a graphic organizer if it is a new tool for your students.

Click once to enlarge, right click to save. Prints at 8.5 x 11".

Above is the basic Venn diagram handout that I use with students for directly comparing two Cinderella stories. I have students work in partners to read the two books to each other, and then they work together to fill in the Venn diagram with important similarities and differences between the two stories.

Cinderella Motifs: direct comparison

 

If you want to, you can take the comparing and contrasting a step further by providing students with a starting list of Cinderella motifs. I recommend spending the day before reading a European version of a Cinderella (like either of the books above: Cinderella translated by Marcia Brown from the French version by Charles Perrault (Caldecott Award Winner) or Cinderella: a Grimm's Fairy Tale by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and illustrated by Ulrike Haseloff) and helping students to brainstorm the list of common motifs and patterns common to Cinderella stories.

Click once to enlarge, right click to save. Prints at 8.5 x 11".

This is the final chart that I came up with, with suggestions from students in establishing the motifs in the left-hand column. I put together packets for them with three copies of the chart (for reading three different stories). After they read all three stories and filled in the charts, the last page of the packet contained discussion and thinking questions.

Click once to enlarge, right click to save. Prints at 8.5 x 11".

Cinderella: three-way comparing and contrasting

Another chart I have used in the past with students has them directly comparing and contrasting three different versions of the story. With this two-sided chart, students take notes on each story separately in its own column. Then at the end, they go back and evaluate the three stories for each category, thinking about the similarities, the differences and the conclusions (big ideas). These are the forms I use most often with my students, because I want them to be reading as many culturally-distinct Cinderella stories as possible.



How do you use Cinderella stories with your students?


Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday Challenge is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and is a weekly roundup of educator blogs that are sharing nonfiction picture books. Click the link to check out other nonfiction posts.
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Friday, October 3, 2014

We are Bloggers

My third graders have started blogging! As part of our efforts to connect to other students through the Global Read Aloud, I introduced the basics of blogging, and students have officially launched their own blogs via KidBlog. This post lays out the steps I took when introducing blogging to my students, as well as links to some of the many wonderful articles out there that helped me get started.

(For now, our privacy settings allow only registered members of our class to read and comment on our blogs, so I will not be including any direct links to the students' blogs. If you are a teacher of another third grade class and are interested in connecting via KidBlog, please let me know in the comments.)

Paper Blogs: an introduction to best practices for blogging

Much of the credit for encouraging me to start having students blog goes to Pernille Ripp at Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension and Franki Sibberson at Click Here Next. Both sites have incredibly useful and encouraging posts about how to get started with student blogging. (I highly recommend using some form of Technology Permission Slip with parents. I modeled mine off of Pernille Ripp's version, available here.)
Given their lead, I also started by having students write and learn how to comment using paper blogs. I designed a simple blog format (above) around the question of "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I figured that this would be a topic that would give students a wide range of things to talk about and one that would encourage discussion and conversations among the comments.

Student wrote out the 'post' parts of their blogs and had the option of adding designs the border as well. The day the paper blogs we due, we all gathered around and watched this video by Mrs. Yolis's third graders on How to Write a Quality Comment (H/T Franki at Click Here Next).


This video sparked a useful conversation among my students and gave them a better sense of what blogs are and why and how to leave comments. (I think the "grammar panda" may need to make a reappearance soon. Many of my students scoffed at the need to be reminded to use capitalization and ending punctuation when commenting, but then many got so excited while blogging that they often forgot.)

Students left their paper blogs out at their spots and armed themselves with post-its for commenting, once the blogs ran out of space. We rotated around the room quietly, allowing everyone time to read and thoughtfully respond to their classmates' posts. I was very impressed by the quality of their comments and how thoughtful and encouraging many of them were to each other and their ambitions for the future.



Launching KidBlog

The next week, we kicked off our first actual blog posts by sharing book recommendations. Students were given a handout with the basic outline for writing a book recommendation, as well as a step-by-step introduction to using KidBlog. I also posted both the outline and an example book recommendation post on my KidBlog account. An email was also sent home to parents inviting them to set up parental accounts and leave comments too.

It took a few tries before most students were comfortable navigating to KidBlog, finding their accounts, entering their passwords, and knowing where to go next to work on their posts or to start reading and writing comments, but by the end of the week, many students were confidently zipping through, exploring the customization options, and volunteering to help each other solve problems.

The book recommendations were an immediate hit, and we quickly started a new bucket in our classroom library to house copies of books that had been recommended. (I also have a growing list of other titles to try and add to our collection.) Students were very enthusiastic about seeking out their classmates recommendations or sharing their enthusiasm for books they had already read. I think this effort will really help us continue to grow and see ourselves as a community of readers too.

Looking forward to seeing how we continue to grow in our "virtual" community as we learn more about blogging and about each other.

Have any questions or advice on student blogging? Please share in the comments below.
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