Learn Create Inspire
Sharing successes and challenges through teaching while becoming a (hopefully) published author.
Self Talk & Emotions: Three activities to explore 54 Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers
Using literature to unpack self talk and build class community is powerful. Three more activities to do with 54 Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers. I also share a few ideas for how I design lessons linked to books I am reading. Making a novel do double or triple duty in the intermediate classroom makes engagement with the text even deeper.
54 Things Wrong With…how kids have been talked about!
I introduced the book 54 Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers by Caela Carter today. This book is amazing and hard. It is one of the Surrey School Book of the Year Nominees for 2022/23.
The activity I did to introduce the book broke my heart. I learned so much about how kids see themselves as well as how they think adults see them. This post reflects on the lesson and my learning.
Social Justice Symposium: Creating and Learning about PSAs
We spent one intense week making TWO PSAs: one visual and one video. The kids learned all about public service announcements and used what they had learned about social justice topics to make PSAs for a student audience. We also made a Kahoot! to test our knowledge after watching and reading all of the PSAs.
Banned Books: Exploring Representation in Literature
Kids literatures is being banned at an alarming rate, which limits access to diversity and #ownvoice authors. This post explores a banned books lesson that I designed for my class. It moves from input to co-creation to transformation in the understanding of book banning with my class. I also reflect on personal experiences in diversity in literature and questions you can ask yourself about literature you have used in your own classroom.
Found Poetry: Success for All
April is National Poetry Month, what will you do? Here is an example of found poetry created with student generated language from the last six chapter of Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. This post also includes tips for painting in a portable without water and ideas for why this lesson was successful.
A Message to the Teachers and Students in Quebec: Loose Parts and Poetry to Unpack Ideas
Bill 21 is a racist law in Quebec. Today my class read The Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammad and used loose parts to craft messages of support for the teacher removed from her classroom in Quebec for wearing a hijab as well as her students. We used these messages to build a poem of support that we hope will get to this educator as well as all of the other educators in Quebec fighting overt institutionalized racism.
Using loose parts is a powerful way to explore challenging topics and it worked well for this lesson. I have included the poem, photos, and lesson information in this post.
Picture Books Part 4: How to Read Out Loud to kids
Reading out loud well isn’t magic…but it does take practice! Here are a few strategies to up your read aloud game!