The survey about ranking what is most important to you really made me stop and think. Only 20% of those students surveyed ranked caring for others as their top choice?!? Modeling compassion is more important now than ever before if we want to change this.
Don Graves' challenge - do we see kids as they want to be seen or how we think of them? This is a tough challenge in that I see almost 400 kids between my 2 schools, but I'm going to work on it - maybe instead of 10 things, I'll go for 5 or as many as I can and keep adding over the years. One of the best parts of library is having kids for 5 years - K through 4 - and watching them grow over that time.
Decenter your normal - this is so hard for me to do after living in "my normal" for so many years. I am curious how kids do - it really takes some work to think about what someone else's normal is like. I can't wait to dig into this more.
Enter with humility - So interesting to see this written down. I wrote in my notebook: "...our culture values knowing over messing learning is evident in the way we revere experts and correct answers" (xxix). In my library world, we make time for kids to explore, play, get messy as they read, use items in makerspaces and take charge of their own learning. I hope that by providing times for there not to be an answer, kids are learning that it's ok.
All of these ideas I've written about seem to be to be about listening to others, which of course flows into the ideas in Chapters 1 & 2. I'm excited to hear from others about how they are tweaking lessons like Identity webs, Stories of Our Names, and Where I'm From poems with K-2 students.
Identity Webs - Reading aloud picture books are a great way for me in the library to include Identity Webs. I was thinking too, that I could partner with classroom teachers on this.
Stories of our Names - This resonated with me so much! I had all kinds of trouble with my names growing up. First, my first and middle names are considered nicknames to many - Jenny Kate. So many teachers would start out the year calling me Jennifer. And my mom worked in my school! Then, my last name was Wajda. Vida. It was always mispronounced and mixed up. Names really do matter.
I am From poems - I have written these with students in the past and they are amazing. It takes time sometimes, to think about something beyond just the obvious, something that really gives the reader/listener a sense of who you are. Like the Identity Webs, perhaps the I am From poems can continue to change as the year progresses.
Listening is so big! So important! Really listening, not just thinking about what you are going to say next when that person is finished speaking. I am so excited to use the strategies in this chapter, including the sentence starters. Because some of this is new to me, I may not catch some of the great things kids say, so having models for myself is important. But I bet my students will have their own amazing versions to share.
I want to add that I appreciate so much the two sections that are included at the end of each lesson and chapter: Addressing Tensions and Synthesis: Making Thinking Visible. Both of these give tips and suggestions of problem areas and also ways to keep reflecting and growing as we do this work together.