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How might we ignite emotions of empathy in our students by creating spaces that serve as "mirrors and windows" in terms of diversity?
I love considering this question. By filling our classroom libraries with books that offer compelling storylines and diverse topics, characters, and authors, we as teachers can demonstrate to students that there is not a universal experience. I am thrilled to welcome you to this experience and am ready to together SPARK ideas and IGNITE wonder with you and your students! Are you ready to get ON FIRE? Let's go! |
A little inspiration from me to you before jumping in...
A primary focus of this experience is empathy---when we fill a classroom library with books, we think not only about the kind of books we like, but also about the books that others will enjoy as well, and throughout this experience, we will be finding ways to help our students make connections between books and relationships and empathy. Let's start building the fire with some inspirational SPARKS. Inspired by music? Here is a special playlist for you! Do visuals and quotes motivate you? Create your empathy image that can be printed and clipped to your planner or digitally downloaded to post on your computer desktop! Welcome, welcome! I am happy you are here! ☮️+💟 -- Jen
A primary focus of this experience is empathy---when we fill a classroom library with books, we think not only about the kind of books we like, but also about the books that others will enjoy as well, and throughout this experience, we will be finding ways to help our students make connections between books and relationships and empathy. Let's start building the fire with some inspirational SPARKS. Inspired by music? Here is a special playlist for you! Do visuals and quotes motivate you? Create your empathy image that can be printed and clipped to your planner or digitally downloaded to post on your computer desktop! Welcome, welcome! I am happy you are here! ☮️+💟 -- Jen
CONNECTIONS
Heart and Soul Connections
This experience is all about making connections and getting classrooms ON FIRE, and for us, the most important connection is between the learning and the hearts and souls of you and your students. Here are a few emotional responses that might arise from this experience. As we go through the next several weeks, I'd love to invite you to share on Slack or Twitter other emotional responses you feel in yourself and see in your students.
This experience is all about making connections and getting classrooms ON FIRE, and for us, the most important connection is between the learning and the hearts and souls of you and your students. Here are a few emotional responses that might arise from this experience. As we go through the next several weeks, I'd love to invite you to share on Slack or Twitter other emotional responses you feel in yourself and see in your students.
Enthusiasm
Compassion
Empathy
Self-Awareness
Metacognition
Perspective-Taking
Reflection
Compassion
Empathy
Self-Awareness
Metacognition
Perspective-Taking
Reflection
Academic Connections
Let's also consider connections between this experience and your curriculum. Here are a few possible connections just to get you thinking. There are many others that we will discover as we go, and we can continue to add to this list in our Slack group.
English-Language Arts Curricular Connections
Use knowledge of literary structure and point of view to build comprehension & an appreciation of literature.
Use author’s purpose and message to build understandings.
Evaluate specific claims and synthesizing and connecting ideas.
Produce content by planning, drafting, revising, editing, and collaborating with others.
Build knowledge about the research process.
Develop and apply effective communication skills through speaking and active listening
Develop and apply reciprocal communication skills by participating in a range of collaborative discussions
Develop and apply active listening and active speaking skills in a variety of situations.
Use author’s purpose and message to build understandings.
Evaluate specific claims and synthesizing and connecting ideas.
Produce content by planning, drafting, revising, editing, and collaborating with others.
Build knowledge about the research process.
Develop and apply effective communication skills through speaking and active listening
Develop and apply reciprocal communication skills by participating in a range of collaborative discussions
Develop and apply active listening and active speaking skills in a variety of situations.
TimelineWeek 1: Inspiration Week 2: Ideation & Implementation User Research timeline: Oct-Nov: Dive into the Experience - the actual activities of the Experience could take 1-2 weeks, however we want to give plenty of time to make it work for your schedule. December: Follow-Up 1-hour conversation with us - we’d love to hear your feedback on the Experience, so that we can improve it. |
Grade LevelsThis experience is custom-designed for students and teachers in grades K-12. |
Introduce Yourself
Before getting started with this experience, let's get you set up in the community. You'll be using the tools below to communicate with the rest of the folks in this experience.
Click on each one to set up your account and get to know everyone else!
Click on each one to set up your account and get to know everyone else!
Use Twitter to share your experience with the world! Photos, resources, etc. Tag your posts with #ourdiversebooks to pull them into our feed. Use Participate to engage in our chat! |
Use Flipgrid for reflecting and sharing excitement in video form. No need for an account. Click the above image and please introduce yourself!
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Use Slack for ongoing chats with this community: ideas, questions, advice, victories, and high fives. Click here for help getting started. |
Use a Participate collection as a portfolio of all the amazing stuff you and your students do! |
Inspiration
Build Your Base Read about the importance of a diverse classroom library. Depending on the grade level, these articles could also be shared with your students throughout the experience.
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Open Up to Creative Possibilities
The process of building a diverse classroom library is an intentional one that involves dedicated time and thought. Consider the students in your class and the topics in your community that you want to ensure are represented by the books on your shelves.
Start your experience by openly sharing with your students and express your dedication to building a diverse classroom library and share reasons why you feel this is important. Show a hand mirror and classroom window or print a photo of a MIRROR and a WINDOW and discuss how books can offer opportunities for reflection of oneself and views into worlds beyond our own. |
Tangible Conversation Starter
Materials: Offer different forms of media for sketches: pencil/paper, Paper 53 app, Tayasui Sketches app, water colors, avatar builders, magazine clippings. Be open to ideas students bring that perhaps you hadn’t considered. Prompt: Consider what you see in the mirror. Sketch self-portraits [think messy and detailed]. Use as many words as possible to help convey what you see in the mirror. |
Student Reflections Provide question prompts to students and invite them to respond. Questions can be presented daily or in any way that is best for your students. Question prompts for students could include:
Through open and safe sharing, read or post responses to allow students to be immersed in the ideas of the class. |
Student Interviews Have your students interview one another to find out what books they would like to see in the classroom library in terms of characters, cultures, settings, topics, etc.
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Share Thoughts & Ideas
What moments have inspired you during this phase? How do you feel? Click above & share your thoughts in our collaborative Flipgrid.
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Take some pics! Share photos of the self-portraits at #ourdiversebooks on Twitter.
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What are you wondering? What ideas were shared by students? Jot down quotes and share in Slack.
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Ideation
Take Inventory Together with you students, take an inventory of the books you currently have in your classroom. Evaluate books against your criteria, in terms of both text and illustrations. Consider donating or storing books that do not meet your classroom needs or find ways to showcase titles that perhaps have been hiding in the back of shelves and deserve to be revisited. Build in time to allow students to share on reasons they would select to keep or remove books from the classroom library. Revisit the Criteria Checklist and continue to make edits or revisions based on reflections and new thinking. Invitation to Curate Print full size color copies of 5-8 book covers that are under consideration. Post the book covers around the room and invite students to use sticky notes with comments or dot voting. During the voting they should consider the criteria points identified in earlier activities. |
Judge a Book by Its Cover Invite students to research books through online searches [Social Justice Book List and Diverse BookFinder] or school library visits. With new focus on searching for diverse books, students may discover books in their own home libraries or from family member recommendations. Welcome students to share book titles during group lessons and invite students to read excerpts or favorite pages to give other students “previews” of stories. Favorite and treasured books can be placed on display for all to see and review. Encourage students to build on others’ ideas. Bring together ideas in a final curated listed of book titles. What’s Missing As a class, finalized and review the curated list of book titles and ask students to ensure that all perspectives and requests from the Criteria Checklist (the whats and the whys) are represented or addressed. |
Share Thoughts & Ideas
What collective idea is igniting your class to move to the next level of implementation? How do you feel at this point? Share in the above Flipgrid!
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Have books to donate to another class? Consider sharing photos or titles on Twitter at #ourdiversebooks.
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What connections are students creating between empathy & books? In what ways are they ON FIRE about learning? Share in Slack!
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Implementation
Make it Happen Prompt: How might we bring these books into our classroom library? After hearing each others’ reasons for selecting each book, the students should be able to build compelling and emotional reasons they can use for raising money. They could consider posting sound bites of their explanation of why that book is important to themselves, or to practice empathy, why it would be important to a classmate. Consider creative options for funding:
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Fill Shelves. Feel Something. Celebrate the arrival of each new book as if it is a new member of the class. Invite students to add sticky notes to inside covers to share feelings and thoughts they have once reading. Did the book meet expectations? What was surprising? How do the new books offer “mirrors and windows?” How do you feel? Student Sharing: Invite Your STUDENTS to Share on Flipgrid |
Share Thoughts & Ideas
Share your voice! As you have observed your students, what have you noticed is new or enhanced in terms of empathetic behaviors? How do you feel?
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Creating a fund-raising campaign? Be sure to share on Twitter using #ourdiversebooks so we all can help to spread the word!
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Following an experience of finding connections with empathy through planning a diverse classroom library, what are other areas of your classroom that could be considered in terms of diversity and empathy? Share in Slack.
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Craft a story about this experience. This story can look like anything (video, blog, interpretive dance, etc), but think about the stories that catch other teachers on fire. These stories have the following in common:
- Visual: What did this actually look like in your classroom? Show us! Even the messy parts!
- Student Impact: Talk about your kids! Did they love it? What did they learn? How do you know? (Need help assessing this? Consider using a rubric like this.
- Educator Impact: Be honest: how was this for you? What did you love? What made you super uncomfortable? What does this mean for you as a teacher moving forward?
- Real Voice: Be yourself and avoid eduspeak; jargon doesn't make anyone feel like they're on fire! How would you talk about this with your colleagues, family, and friends?
- Shareable: How will you get this out to the world and into the hands of people who need to hear this story?
What's next? I think you and your students would like these other Experiences: