Using Chalk Talk to Set Distance Learning Norms

From Hybrid to Distance

After roughly 10 weeks of teaching fourth graders in the hybrid model (half the class in-person, two days a week), our county has superseded the COVID infection rates that make it safe to continue in-person teaching and learning. So, we're shifting to distance learning, which will mean new routines, new procedures and new norms.

Essential Agreement

Just like at the beginning of the year when we collaboratively created our classroom norms, we needed to collectively develop agreements about how we would behave in our new online setting.

At the beginning of the year, we agreed to be empathetic, responsible, helpful and trustworthy.

Chalk Talk

During our last days of in-person learning, we used the thinking routine "Chalk Talk" from Making Thinking Visible (Ritchhart, Church and Morrison) to get our thinking out on paper about how we will continue to honor our essential agreement in our new distance learning setting. This routine worked particularly well as the two cohorts of students contributed their ideas on two different days. I enjoy this routine because it is a silent conversation; it gives time and space for students to think, contribute their own ideas and respond / react to others.

To facilitate Chalk Talk, follow the directions from the book Making Thinking Visible:

Looking at the topic or question written on the chart paper:

• What ideas come to mind when you consider this idea, question or problem?
• What connections can you make to others' responses?
• What questions arise as you think about the ideas and consider the responses and comments of others?

The following four charts represent my class's collective thinking about how they will be on Zooms so that we can continue to learn, think and grow.

Respond in a happy, clear voice
Mute yourself when others are talking
Think about other people's feelings
Golden rule
Use the blue hand
Have a nice and loud voice when you talk
Don't blurt
Listen to other people
Wait to talk. It could hurt someone's feelings if you don't.

Make sure you don't do funny business on Zoom
Do not unmute when its not your turn
Listen when someone is talking
Stay muted unless called on
No backgrounds
Do your best
Try your hardest
Keep your head in front of the camera
Be in a quiet place
Be on time
Do what the teacher says
Use the buttons instead of talking
Come prepared

Listen
Sit still
Raise your blue hand button
Do your best to not screw off
Don't do funny business
Remind people to grab something if they forgot it
Help kids that are stuck
Don't interrupt and talk nice
Help others
Only unmute if you're allowed to

Do all assignments
Be on time
If the teacher asks you to do something, you do it
Don't play with the buttons
Do not unmute yourself if someone else is speaking
Don't do funny business
Be ready before the call
Always be nice and just unmute yourself if someone says you can talk
Be prepared
Don't lie
Be prepared

Making students' thinking visible helps me as a teacher because it allows me to respond appropriately. and in a timely manner. Using the thinking routine "Chalk Talk" to set distance learning norms gives students voice in this process and helps me best understand their thinking as we shift from hybrid to distance learning.

Windows & Mirrors in Planet Omar: Accidental Trouble Magnet

Windows and Mirrors

In an August post (Organizing a Representative Classroom Library During a Global Pandemic), I wrote about the importance of making sure that the books available for students to read are both windows and mirrors; books in which students can see themselves (mirrors) and also books that help them see the world's different perspectives (windows). This metaphor was originally used by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop to explain to educators, librarians, parents, and children themselves how we must read books that are self-affirming and books that offer us views that differ from our own.

A display in my classroom library. Credit for the images goes to Grant Snider. 

To make these books available to children certainly is a good first step. But giving students the opportunity to reflect on the ways in which the books they read are both windows and mirrors is a critical part of the reading process.

Global Read Aloud

During the 2020 Global Read Aloud (sadly, its last year), I read Planet Omar: Accidental Trouble Magnet (written by Zanib Mian, illustrated by Nasaya Mafaridik) to my fourth grade students. During the Global Read Aloud, our school's learning model was hybrid, meaning half of my students were always at home when I was reading aloud to my in-school students. A shout-out to the 24 other educators from across the globe who helped record chapters of the book so my at-home students could still keep up with the story!

Theme

After we finished the book, we reflected on the book's themes. By identifying these timeless, abstract, universal and transferrable ideas (aka concepts), students were able to more deeply connect to the text. To help students identify the themes, I ask them, "What do you think Zanib Mian wants us to understand? What is she trying to teach us?" Students respond by using the sentence stem, "The author wants me to understand that ..." During this brainstorming process it is imperative that students give evidence from the text that backs up their theme idea.

Themes students brainstormed are pictured below.

Students' Thinking

Next, I asked my fourth graders to thoughtfully answer these two questions:

• In what ways was Planet Omar a window for you?
• In what ways was Planet Omar a mirror for you?

For those in-class, we quickly made our thinking visible on a t-chart. For those learning at-home, I gave students the option to share their thinking in whatever way they wanted. I intentionally left it open-ended, so students could creatively respond. The following are some examples of responses I received.

"It was a window to me because it gave me a view of what some people experience when they’re different from us or from different places. And that did give me an experience of how some people might feel because they’re bullied because they’re from a different place. Kind of like Omar was bullied from Daniel. But that can all change. Just like how Daniel did. So I’m pretty sure this is more of a window to me."

Other video responses that thought the book was more of a window (I'm including the transcript of the students' responses here, as they recorded themselves and I'd like to protect their privacy)

• Omar is a window for me because he’s from a different culture. In that way, it is pretty interesting to read a book about a different culture from us.
• Planet Omar was a window for me because I don’t celebrate Pakistani traditions or any traditions like that, but I celebrate different traditions like Christmas and Halloween. I’m sure some Pakistanians do celebrate those.
• I’ve never been to London. I’ve never been out of the United States. I’ve never had a bully either.

Video responses that thought the book was more of a mirror (I'm including the transcript of the students' responses here, as they recorded themselves and I'd like to protect their privacy)

• Omar is a mirror for me because he showed me that standing out is not always a bad thing.
• Planet Omar was kind of a mirror for me because I can relate to him having to move to a new place and go to a new school and being kind of worried because I’ve done that a bunch of times.
• Omar’s parents are scientists, my grandpa is a scientist. He studies rocks and stuff.
• When I was in first grade, someone was mean to me and then they were nice to me.

When we expose children to all kinds of books - ones that reflect their experiences and ones that let them live through new situations from perspectives different their their own - we give them the opportunity to learn more about others and more about themselves. Helping students reflect on the ways that the books they read can be both windows and mirrors is an essential part of the reading process that we must lead students through with the books we read to them with the ultimate goal of them independently reflecting with the books they read on their own.

Exploring Humanity, Protest & Justice: 4 ideas for teaching BIG ideas to little kids

For a long time, but especially ever since George Floyd was tragically killed earlier this year while in the custody of four uniformed Minneapolis police officers, I've been reading, thinking, reflecting on and discussing how best to help elementary-aged students explore the concepts of humanity, protest and justice. Surely, these young students have heard the news, their parents and older kids in their lives talking about these issues, so avoiding the topic all-together would not a responsible approach.

Here are four big ideas that I will continue to consider as I plan the most developmentally appropriate ways to help my class of 9- and 10-year-olds navigate these important, yet sensitive ideas.

1. Dialectical Thinking

Dialectical Thinking is being able to look at an issue from multiple perspectives and to arrive at the most "reasonable reconciliation of seemingly contradictory information". It is our jobs as educators to help students understand the importance of looking at an issue from several possible angles; to weigh the many sides of very complex events and issues so that they might then come to a rational conclusion on their own. Using Project Zero's Thinking Routines such as Circle of Viewpoints or Step Inside (or the version that includes Stepping Out and Stepping Back) are essential tools for any classroom where dialectical thinking is a goal.

Disclaimer: this does not mean that all viewpoints should be explored and considered. Especially in our current public discourse, there are individuals who share views that are not based in fact, reason and/or civility. These perspectives do not get a place at our table. 

2. No Tragedies Before Fourth Grade

In his book Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart of Nature Education, David Sobel suggests that "big, complex problems beyond the geographical and conceptual scope of young children" should not be considered, in most cases, well beyond fourth grade. He offers teachers the question: "When do children have the emotional and cognitive readiness for dealing with overwhelmingly sad and conceptually complex issues?" This is not to say that concepts of humanity, protest and justice should not be explored with children, even those much younger than fourth grade. But it is to say that horrific details of specific tragic events should be avoided, as many children do not developmentally have the capacity to take on such subject matter. We must remember that far too many young children in our classrooms are living through adverse situations and experience trauma first-hand on a daily basis. This unfortunate reality only strengthens our commitment to sheltering our students from further trauma, not exposing them to more of it. 

3. There Are No Monoliths

Ibram X. Kendi, who wrote How To Be An Antiracist, reminds us to attribute racist behavior - nay all behavior - to the individual. We must avoid the temptation to generalize the actions of individuals to an entire group. Individuals do not, and should not, represent an entire race. Humans are biologically wired to look for patterns in order to survive and we instinctually form biases, unconscious and conscious, to better make sense of the world. But our logical brains must overcome this temptation because ascribing particular thoughts, motivations and perspectives of individuals to a large group of people is not fair and it does not represent truth.

4. Involve Families

Public school teachers are charged with helping shape the next generation of an informed citizenry. We are tasked with developing young people into active citizens who are ready and able to participate in their communities and have the skills of critical thinking to weigh all evidence before they do. We mustn't back away from our charge of exploring complex issues and ideas with students so that they are prepared to live in our increasingly changing and complex world. However, we are not our students' only teachers. Students' families must be informed of what we're doing in the classroom and invited to be involved, so they can help their child process and reflect the big ideas that we're exploring in the classroom. Further, when we bring families into the conversation, we broaden the perspectives to which students are exposed and thus they're better able to develop their dialectical thinking (see #1).

Ron's Big Mission

One way that our teaching team decided to help our fourth grade students explore the timeless, abstract, universal and transferable ideas of humanity, protest and justice was to do a deep dive into the book Ron's Big Mission by Rose Blue & Corinne Naden, illustrated by Don Tate (listen to the book here).

Our team chose this book from a collection of approved books our district had given us to use during our integrated unit of study at the beginning of the year. The book details an episode (based on an event in the childhood of astronaut Ron McNair) where a young black boy in South Carolina is denied a library card. After peacefully, but forcefully, demanding the right to check out books, he is eventually given that right. During his on-the-counter stand-in, several people are called to help intervene, including police officers.

Before reading the book with our students, our team had a thoughtful conversation where we discussed the importance of providing students a safe place to explore ideas presented in the book, but also not steering the conversation in any particular direction. We agreed Blue and Naden's book would help our fourth graders explore the concepts of humanity, protest and justice in a developmentally appropriate way.

In addition to exploring the aforementioned concepts, our goal was also to help our students as readers develop their abilities to deeply think about texts. Our instruction was carefully designed to give students the opportunities to meet these two Minnesota reading benchmarks:

• 4.1.1.1. Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
• 4.1.2.2.Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.

Gist

To kick off our study, we had the students listen to the book and then write out what the book was "mostly about" or the book's gist. We had the students reflect on what the book was mostly about in ~20 words so that we could check for their understanding of the big idea of the book. We had the students use this character counter website to help them keep their gists to around 20 words.

Story Structure

Next, we had the students map out the story's structure, which gave them the opportunity to "see" the action and gave us the chance to see the students' thinking. We had them use a story structure map and the framework "Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then".

Summary

Next, we had the students use their story structure maps completed previously to write a summary of the book Ron's Big Mission. We gave them success criteria to help them know if they had a successful summary. 

Ron's Big Mission: Ron wakes up. He gets offered breakfast. He said, "no." He went outside. He starts to walk. He gets offered a donut. He said, "no." He walks. He gets offered to play basketball. He said, "no." He goes to the library. He gets his books. He tells the librarian, "I'd like to check out." The librarian doesn't answer. He steps on the table. "I'd like to check out." She calls the police. She calls his mom. She said, "Get off the table." He doesn't get off. The librarian gets him a card to check out with.

Theme

Next, we had students infer the theme of the book; the big idea that the author wants the reader to understand. First, the students brainstormed big ideas they thought the author was trying to communicate. Then, they picked one of those ideas and provided evidence from the text that would support their selection. Although our chosen text took place in the past, exploring the theme helped the kids understand how big ideas presented in the book can apply authentically to our lives, regardless of time, place or circumstance.

Application

Finally, we asked students to reflect on the character traits Ron showed and think about how they too could demonstrate those same traits. 

By using the text Ron's Big Mission, we were able to help our 4th graders begin to explore the concepts of humanity, protest and justice. Continued exploration of these and related concepts will continue with books from our district-approved E.B. Lewis [Illustrator] unit of study like The Other Side and Across the Alley. Clearly, simply reading books, however thoughtfully, will not give students enough of a chance to understand these abstract and complex concepts. Discussion and out-loud thinking will have to continue to take place throughout the academic year. Why? Because our students deserve it. Ignoring that our students hear about tragic events isn't an option. We must insist on helping them, with their families, make sense of our sometimes chaotic world in developmentally appropriate ways.