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I wrote before about the concept of "windows" and "mirrors" and the importance of "window" texts in the classroom. Basically, windows in this analogy are texts--including videos and short reading passages and, of course, read-alouds and independent reading books--that help students' gain understanding of others' realities. Mirrors are texts that reflect the students' reality back to them. They are essential because they validate students' experiences and identities. White students--especially white middle & upper class students--are constantly mirrored in so many excellent texts. But students of color--including poor, immigrant and migrant students of color, indeed any student who is part of a marginalized group--are usually exposed to far fewer mirrors. This reinforces the marginalization they experience elsewhere in society. But, as teachers, there are so many ways we can work to make sure that the many facets of our students' different realities are represented in their classrooms. Here are a few! Given the choice, choose mirrors: Personally, I choose to buy a lot of books to use in my classroom (again, I don't have my own kids). Plus, there is a branch of our local public library, one stocked with tons of Spanish-language children's books, two blocks from my school. But even if you aren't able to buy or check out new books, it's possible to put emphasis on your existing mirror books. For example, one of the first books I'm going to read for our community helpers unit is Quinito's Neighborhood (from my favorite publisher, Lee & Low). It's a bilingual book about a boy walking through his neighborhood, observing and interacting with people at work. There are a lot of books about community helpers to choose from, but this one has characters and, critically, community helpers like pan dulce bakers, who reflect my students' experiences. As an added bonus, the author and illustrator are Latino. Simply telling students the creators' names and showing their pictures helps expand students' understanding of the possibilities open to them. Making your own resources: I'm not advocating abandoning functional resources we already have. But, on those occasions when the exact item I want doesn't seem to exist and I decide to make it myself, I try to use images that reflect my students. One example is this sort to help reinforce the differences between fiction and nonfiction. The visual that I chose to represent the attribute "has photos" (tiene fotos) is a photo of a Latino family. I could have chosen any photo from the internet; I took just a few extra seconds and chose one with people who look like my students. Include your actual students--and their families--in classroom texts: We create so many texts in our classrooms. We make anchor charts, we engage in shared writing, we model how to write the kinds of texts that students are creating in writer's workshop. All of these are opportunities for creating mirrors. I included two examples above: An anchor chart featuring an example of a focused reader, and a shared writing book to which each student contributed a portrait of his or her family. I also invited families to answer the prompt, "Our family is special because..." and included their responses on their students' page. The full book is now part of our classroom library. As teachers, each of our choices shapes our students' perceptions of the world.
We have so many chances to show them that they matter, that they have the power to shape the world itself. One afternoon, toward the end of the school year, I gathered my class in a circle to teach a Second Step lesson (www.cfchildren.org/second-step more on this great program in a future post). In these social-emotional lessons, the teacher holds a large card with a photo on one side, for the students to see, and a lesson guide on the other side. That day's card featured a photo of an Asian American girl.
As I told the lesson story, a group of boys could not stop giggling--which, for first graders on a June afternoon isn't that unusual. I tried my typical strategies for refocusing them, but they just kept laughing. Eventually I heard them murmuring, "China, china," and caught one of them pulling the sides of his eyes with his fingers. At that point, I realized I had to stop the lesson and address the issue directly. |
AuthorI'm Ms. Howland. I teach first grade in Spanish and English in a transitional bilingual model. Click any photo to learn more!
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