Literature Is Where Empathy Is Strengthened

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Hi Everyone,
Wow, I cannot believe it is July!  I just wanted to write a quick post about some thoughts I had as I was reflecting on the book, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.  I finished the story last week, and I am constantly thinking about the characters--Starr, Kahlil, Mav, Seven and Momma.  Their experiences pop into my thoughts at various times during the day.  I think about them when I listen to the news, I think about them when I'm reading an article about anti-racism and white privilege, and I think about them as I write new lessons for the upcoming school year.  Those characters touched my heart.  They have a way of constantly reminding me to reflect on my own implicit bias's.  They remind me about my white privilege.  Those characters are the ones who remind me to keep improving myself as a human being and the need to do my part in healing humanity.

My reflections remind me of why I love children's literature and realist fiction in general.  When a story is well-written with believable characters, readers cannot help but become invested in them.  Readers begin to feel connected to those characters.  They root for those characters and want the best for those characters.  If students are taught to pay attention to their thoughts as they read and are guided to read between the lines and infer the character's thoughts and feeling--they may just start to reflect on their own lives.  Readers may start to remember the traits of good characters and want to emanate them.  They may remember the obstacles and struggles their beloved character went through, inspiring students to be more aware of their actions and behaviors.  Students may be able to see another side to situations.  They may be able to step in someone else's shoes for a moment to see the world from that person's point of view.

I'm almost done writing this learning path!  I'll share it soon.

That is what Starr, the protagonist in The Hate U Give has done for me.  Among other things, she has inspired me to become aware of my thoughts, feelings, actions, and privilege.  She has inspired me to be brave, more compassionate, and to keep myself open to new perspectives.  I've come to love that girl and her family.  Her story, getting a look at some of her daily experiences and interactions in the world, has created a feeling inside of me that a news story or a nonfiction article could ever do.

Still my favorite book ever!

Another book I read last summer, that awakened my awareness of the connectedness of all living things on earth, is Tree of Dreams by Laura Resau.  I still think of that story and the characters Coco, Leo, and Gali. Tree of Dreams is beautifully written to show how our actions, both selfish and altruistic, affect others and our environment.  It was this story that immediately appeared in my thoughts at the start of our world-wide pandemic.  As I recalled the events of that story and the far reaching affects Gali's actions had on others, I was reminded that we are all connected...what we do or do not do will affect us all.  No one is beyond it's reach.  As I see the kindness and consideration of others in this very scary time, I am comforted to know those actions will have powerful, lasting effects on us all. They certainly did for the amazon rainforest, the Huaorani people who live there, and all the other main players in Tree of Dreams.

Gone Crazy in Alabama

There are countless children's books, young adult books, as well as adult literature that I could include in this post, but I won't.  My main point is,  developing greater empathy and compassion for others, as well as developing more awareness about humanity, the earth, and ourselves is why I believe literature is vital in helping to heal our world.  I cannot wait to share new stories, and the experiences of characters from all walks of life, with my class in the upcoming school year.

Here are some new titles I want to read.  Some of these books are just for my own reading, while others I intend to use with my class.

Last Stop on Market Street

The View From Saturday

The Red Crayon

These are just a few of the books that are on my list of "want to read."  As I was doing some research for my new learning path, I came across a website titled 27 best moral stories to read with your kids.  It has titles like The Invisible Boy, Beautiful Oops, and a title I remember hearing about years ago, but never bought...The Empty Pot.


So, I guess this was not a quick post, but I'm just so excited about getting back to school to engage my students in reading and discussing books that will touch their hearts, ignite their compassion and empower them to help make our world a kind, healthy, flourishing place to be.

Have a great holiday.
Kim

                                                                                                 

                                                                                           

Becoming Aware, Learning, Accepting and Changing

Sunday, June 21, 2020

Many of you have probably seen the piece of writing by Leslie Dwight on some social media outlet...

What if 2020 isn't cancelled?

What if 2020 is the year we've been waiting for?

A year so uncomfortable, so painful, so scary, so raw--

that it finally forces us to grow.

A year that screams so loud, finally awakening us

from our ignorant slumber.

A year we finally accept the need for change.

Declare change.  Work for change. Become the change.

A year we finally band together, instead of

pushing each other further apart.

2020 isn't cancelled, but rather

the most important year of them all.

"Become the change" is the line in her writing that I reflect on most often.  It inspires me. It gives me hope. It hovers in the shadows of my mind and keeps me asking the questions... 

'What is my part in becoming the change?'  

'What can I contribute to help heal humanity in this most important year of them all?'  

At first, I was overwhelmed. The answers were elusive and out of my grasp.  It seemed there was nothing I could do. After a bit of quiet reflection, a few thoughts came into my awareness--'I am a learner, a teacher, and a role model.  My actions, my words, and my lessons impact kids, and kids are they key to creating a world with new perspectives and new ideas.'  

So, for the past few weeks I have been reading magazine articles about the Black Lives Matter Movement, listening to podcasts created by black people who are speaking about their life-experiences, as well as listening to podcasts created by white people speaking about anti-racism, unconscious bias, and white privilege. I am reading the much talked about book, White Fragility by Robin Diangelo and the realistic fiction book The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.  Diangelo's book is helping me understand the vocabulary terms and the facts about racism, while Thomas' book is allowing me to feel the effects racism has on black lives.

While much of what I am reading can be difficult to "swallow" and heart-breaking, my compassion for others seems to be at the forefront of my awareness and stronger than ever.  I want to show my students how amazing our world can be when we "band together rather than push each other further apart," as Dwight states.  

I will start where I feel the most comfortable, the most secure and possibly the most effective--my classroom.  I am researching ways to make my lessons more diverse, more inclusive, and more mindful about the way we view and treat others.  The most impactful thing I have discovered, thus far, is the importance of exposing my students to literature that celebrates the work black people and people of color have done, and reading stories with diverse protagonists. Diversifying the stories we read, allows everyone a chance to see themselves in the learning and also learn about others. 

It is now more important than ever that I gain a deeper understanding about my students' cultures and weave them into my lessons, classroom management, and academic activities.  These are small steps I can take to deliberately support anti-racism.

100+ Free Anti-Racism Resources

Below are some links I am using as resources when I create new digital and in-person lessons for my third-graders.  My goal is to create lessons that will impact my students' perspective of humanity and our collective connectedness. I will share my first one with you all soon.

Edutopia--full of excellent resources.

Teaching Tolerance

Edchange

Celebrate Difference

I am a learner standing on tip of the iceberg when it comes to understanding anti-racism, implicit bias, and my role in supporting change.  I have a lot to learn and unlearn. I am going to make many mistakes, I am going to say the wrong things, but I will always humbly apologize and continue to expand my awareness, acceptance and learning.

Kim

Graphing Fun

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Wow, we cannot believe we are zooming into the middle of January already!  Our first week back was terrific--slow to get things finished--but terrific all the same.

We just wanted to quickly share a couple of graphing activities and programs we did with our math groups.  One of the end goals with my particular lesson, was to have my students teach Anne's students a new graphing program. Up until this point, my math group has not had the opportunity to be the "teachers."

Anne and I introduced our students to collecting data, making tally tables, and putting the information into bar graphs before winter break.  We showed the BrainPop Jr. video on graphs, and did an old Everyday Math graphing lesson.  The lesson was fun because it had to do with how many letters were in our first or last names.  We also introduced the students to analyzing the data to find the minimum and maximum numbers, range, median, and mode.  On a side note, there is a more advanced version of graphs in Brain Pop.

At that point, Anne's math group was then ready to generate questions and categories about favorite winter activities.  They collected data from their own math group, as well as from my math group.  They made their own tally tables to record the information they gathered, and they entered the information into  Google Sheets to create a bar graph.  Once the graphs were complete, groups of students analyzed the information wrote three statements about it.

After winter break, I wanted to make my groups' graphing experience a bit more concrete.  As a whole class, we graphed how many of each Christmas-shaped eraser were in a bag.  We first made a tally chart so we could record our information. Then, we dumped the shapes onto the carpet. One by one the students took turns picking out an eraser from the pile, and we all recorded a tally in the correct column on our tally table.  The students were focused from the word "Go," because of the novelty of this math lesson, as well as the movement.

The students had more fun using the program Create A Graph, to enter the data and create a bar graph.  They loved choosing different colors for the bars and seeing the words and numbers morph into a graph!   Once the graphs were printed, we looked at the information and wrote statements about what we noticed, including the minimum and maximum numbers, range and median number.

Then it was time for the kids to do the exact same activity in small groups.  This time, the erasers were just a mix of various shapes.   Below are pictures.

This is one of the group's graphs from Create A Graph.

Friday, Anne's group of students taught my students how to generate a question and categories about winter, create a tally table, and survey the kids in the room.  Monday, my students will show Anne's students how to enter the information into Create A Graph, download it to their drive and print it.  Together, they will analyze their information.  I will add pictures to this post tomorrow night, as long as everything comes together as planned.

We will also show them two other videos we just found from Maths With Jacob.  I really like the graphing video because it gives a quick overview about different types of graphs.  As a morning warm-up, the students will answer questions about a line plot graph.  They will have learned about it from the video, and I took a screen shot of a line plot poster from A Math's Dictionary For Kids. This will give the students further information about line plots so they can complete the warm-up.

Created by Jenny Eather.

Knowing how much fun the next few days in math are going to be, Anne and I cannot wait for math time. Tuesday, we will begin our Snowman STEM activity that introduces/reviews 3-D shapes to the kids.



Have a great week!
Kim and Anne

Officially In The Halloween Spirit

Sunday, October 13, 2019

October 13th!?!?  This month has flown by faster than a wicked witch on her broomstick!  Anne and I love the month of October and don't want it to end so quickly.  We have a myriad of Halloween and fall activities to keep our students engaged, excited, and challenged.  We are excited to pack in as many as we can in the next few weeks.

Last week, we introduced the students to Haiku poetry by reading aloud the adorable book, Boo! Haiku by Deanna Caswell.  Needless to say, the kids went crazy for this book.

To deepen their understanding of this type of poetry, we showed a PowToons video and a slide show.  Then, we dove right into writing some fall haiku.  We wanted to guide them in writing a few haiku poems and help them feel secure before sending them off on their own.  Once we were confident they understood this genre, we allowed them to find a partner and begin writing Halloween haiku poems.  Their drafts are great and need to be published.  As soon as they are we will upload some examples.

This is the outside of the Haiku.

This is the inside.

 We had an impromptu SEL lesson that focused on Habit #1 Be Proactive due to  a video I saw on a social media site. It is important for Anne and me to help the kids understand that, for the most part, they can choose their moods, attitudes, and actions each day.  We feel that having students understand this will give them a sense of security and control over themselves and their lives.  It was also important that the students realize the can impact others' lives, positively or negatively,  depending on the mood/attitude they choose. 

We read the lovely book I Am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness by Susan Verde.  (I loved the book so much I bought the other two--I Am Human and I Am Love.)  The lesson took two days.  The first day, we had the kids brainstorm a list of positive mood and attitude words.  The following day, we watched the kindness video, linked above, and had an amazing discussion. To follow up, the students wrote what attitude/mood they chose to have that day and added details about their chosen word. Lastly, they drew a picture of what they would look like having that mood.  Of course, I forgot to take pictures of the kids' work, but I will upload my sample on Tuesday.

The above SEL lesson will be a perfect flow into our writing lesson.  We are going to read aloud the book Crankenstein  by Samantha Berger.  It's about a boy (Crankenstein)  who wakes up in a cranky mood.  Throughout the book, the author details the character's negative, grouchy behaviors.  By the end of the story, Crankenstein is motivated to change his mood and attitude.  We anticipate an amazing conversation before, during and after our reading making connections back to Habit #1.  Our students will then write a focused personal narrative about a time they remember being "Crankenstein."  We will focus on adjectives, elaboration of details, first-person point of view, and narrative elements.

This is just an old sample of mine.  We will share the students' writing soon.  This project was inspired by Amy Lemons.

Lastly, these little gems will be displayed in our classrooms for the next week.  Hopefully, igniting curiosity and wonder in our students.  We will let you know the fun, but rigorous reading and fluency activity we will be doing that connects to them.  We also have a super cute project to go with the reading rigor.

We are so excited about these little critters.

Have a fabulous week and enjoy the beautiful month of October.  It is quickly slipping away.

Kim and Anne

Shortest Blog Ever...I Think

Sunday, October 6, 2019

Good Morning!  Anne and I decided this blog would be super short so we can continue to focus on some amazing activities and lessons we have in the works.  Those will be shared soon, and they may or may not have to do with all things Halloween.  :))))

Last week we wanted students to demonstrate their level of understanding multiplication and division.  At the knowledge level our students can compute easy multiplication and division equations.  They can also employ a variety of strategies to solve those equations.  We wanted to know if they were able to write about the meanings of the factors and products in those equation and explain how they matched an array.

Click here to grab this page and the other one we did previously.

This proved to be a challenge for the students; however, as Anne and I assessed the situation, we realized our students are beginning to develop a deeper understanding of what multiplication means.  This week we will model how to add more depth to their explanations, as well as, provide them more opportunities to discuss the connections between pictures and equations.  This will help the kids gain more precise vocabulary and guidance to use as they talk and eventually write about these math concepts.

This week we are going to have the students engage in a See, Think, Wonder activity about multiplication and division.  It is our intention that these discussions will, once again, guide them to a deeper level of understanding.  We want this activity to lead into a writing activity called Connect Two.  As with last week's math activity, we want our students to use precise math language and details as they explain how these Tier Three vocabulary words (multiplication and division) go together.  We will share the students' work in our next blog.

I will link this page too.

Until then, have a wonderful rest of your Sunday.  May you have all things October on your mind.  :)

Kim and Anne

Science and SEL--What could be more fun?

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Good Morning!
We hope everyone had such a fabulous week with their students that they cannot wait to get to school tomorrow.  I know Anne and I did!  This blog is just going to be a snapshot of some of those fabulous moments.

Monday morning, a boy who is really excited about the rocks we give away, decided to paint one for Anne and me. It says "Inspire."  That really set our week off on a positive note!  We are thrilled that he is inspired this year and has proven that many times already.  He is a hard-working, positive, helpful, kind-hearted boy!  What a leader.

In fact, he inspired some girls to paint their own rocks.  They collected rocks outside and painted them during their recess time. We thought they were painting the rocks for themselves.  How wrong we were! While painting, one of the girls asked if we would bring the kids together once she decided who should earn the rock she was painting.  She wanted it to be a special time, kind of like Anne and I do when we are ready to present someone with a rock. The four other girls also want to eventually give their rocks away to kids in our classroom.  We cannot believe the positive energy that is permeating throughout our room!  As soon as the girls are finished painting, I will upload their pictures.

Our leadership portraits are complete, and we sent them home Friday with some very excited kids.  They could not wait to get them home and show them to their families.  We hope they display the clay creations some place prominent in their homes so they are reminded that they are leaders. Their writing communicates exactly how they are going to show their leadership this year. This project was inspired by an art teacher I found online.  He had second graders create their own portraits out of clay.

We did our first science experiment of the year.  This is an oldie but a goodie.  Anne and I have not done this experiment for a few years. We forgot the excitement it provokes.  We only did Part One...Tuesday we will begin Part Two.  There are three parts with each one building on the other.  We know that STEM is the buzz word in science, but we still want to teach the students how to think through the scientific method.  If nothing else, it helps them activate their creative thinking and problem solving skills.  The discussions that surrounded each part of this experiment were deep and insightful.  Not to mention the energy and enthusiasm to participate in such a fun activity.

We used Steve Spangler's water cubes. After using four of our five senses to observe the cubes and record those observations, we asked the question, "What will happen to the cube if it is placed in distilled water over night?"  The hypothesis were interesting.

We did make observations after about an hour.  The cubes were doing some funky things.  The kids went wild; simply wild over what they saw!  But, that was nothing compared to their reactions when they took the cubes out of the water the following day.  Take a look at our results.

This is such an exciting activity.  We cannot wait to embark on Part Two.  We will let you know how it goes next time.

Well, have a wonderful rest of your Sunday.  We wish everyone positive vibes for the upcoming week.

Kim and Anne

Monday, September 2, 2019

Happy Labor Day Everyone!

Wow, we cannot believe it is Labor Day, and that we have already been in school for seven days!  The time has have flown by, but we have to say we have been having a lot of fun.  Our students are amazing!

Once again, our first-day explorer kick-off was a hit.  The kids loved coming into the classroom to find their desks filled with explorer gear that they could put on immediately.  After exploring the classroom and completing their checklist, the students wrote about what they saw.  It was fun to read what they focused on during their exploration.

Anne and I also gave out three of our painted rocks!  The students' faces lit up like twinkling stars on a clear summer night when we announced their name!  They were shocked, but so proud of themselves.  One boy even said, "I'm going to keep this forever."  He received the "leader" rock. Another boy received the "thoughtful" rock, and a third boy received the "helpful" rock.  I know the kids loved them, but it made us feel even better to give them because they were so well deserved and unexpected.

Now we just need to incorporate a rock writing lesson or SEL lesson so we can use the rocks we bought from the science store.  In that lesson, each student will receive their own rock to write about and keep.  We will write about it here once we plan it.

We've decided to begin our math unit as an inquiry lesson about multiplication.  When we went to Teachers Pay Teachers to find vocabulary sorting cards for Eureka Math Grade Three Module One/Lesson One, we did not find exactly what we wanted.  What to do????  I made a set.  Anne is going to put them up for free in our TpT store incase the link I gave you does not work.  Before beginning the lesson, we are going to have our students get into groups of 3-4 and match the words as they see fit.  Then, they will watch a Module One/Lesson One video to learn about the lesson.  They will complete the homework page with a partner.  Then, after they have "played" with the concepts of that lesson, we will do the Problem Set together.  Hopefully, they will have a complete understanding of the concepts on that page, but if not I will fix any misunderstanding or confusion on the spot.  Finally, the kids will go back and correct any mistakes they made on the homework page they did independently.  Our goal is to have the students more engaged in the lesson for a longer period of time.  We have found that these long Eureka math lessons are an invitation for kids to "tune out."  We will let you know how it goes.

**As a side note, we have decided to not send home the homework pages from Eureka Math.  Instead we will send computation pages home so the students can meet the standard for memorizing all for operations up to 12.**

For Module One/Lesson 2, I have decided to begin with an activity called "Odd One Out."  That lesson focuses on rows, columns, and products.  I'm hoping this activity activates my students' thinking about those concepts.  I will also incorporate some of the lessons from Amy Lemons The Magic of Math Multiplication Grade 3.

Students decide which picture does not belong with the others.  They must have reasons to support their decision.

That's all I have for now.  I'm going to type up my plans for the week before enjoying the rest of my Labor Day.  I hope you all do the same.

Kim and Anne