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.

Parts, Purposes, and Complexities

Various researchers working at Project Zero (PZ) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) have been working to make Thinking Visible. Their work has resulted in thinking routines which are tools, structures, and patterns of behavior that give thinkers the ability to make sense of abstract ideas.

Researchers involved with Agency by Design are working to investigate the promises, practices, and pedagogies of maker-centered learning. They too have created thinking routines that help thinkers slow down and look carefully.

Currently, the first graders at our school have just started their unit of inquiry during which they are exploring how making careful and close observations leads to discoveries. One way G1 students are constructing understanding of this abstract concept is by investigating rocks.

During the unit, they have a rock kit that is organized in the same way that the rock layers are situated underneath the grass in our neck of the woods (to learn more about this kit, visit this website: Understanding Rocks: What's Under the Grass?) To introduce the students to the rock kit, I led them through the thinking routine Parts, Purposes, & Complexities developed by the researchers at Agency by Design.

First, I set the rock kit in the middle of the students and gave them a couple of moments to observe the entire kit.

Next, I gave the G1 students a chance to see the separate containers, so they could get a better look at the parts of the kit.

Then I asked, "What are the different parts that you see?"

As students responded, I asked them what they thought each of those parts did by asking, "What is its purpose?"

Below is the recording sheet we used to document the students' thinking.

To examine the complexities, I asked the students how the parts were connected. One student responded with:

Since we understood that the containers were there to help us organize the rocks and the papers and that the rocks and the papers were there to help us learn, we agreed it made sense to keep the rocks and the papers with their original containers as we began exploring each individual container.

Introducing the rock kit to the G1 students with this thinking routine gave them the opportunity to explore how the kit worked, gave them the chance to set up expectations about how they'd use the kit, and really got them excited about exploring the rocks further. As they were considering the parts of the kit and what purpose they had, they wanted to touch, explore, look closer, and ask questions. It was a wonderful way to start using the kit, as it really captured their minds, hearts, and attention.

After reading about how G1 students used this routine to slow down their thinking to make careful observations of a system, how could you use this routine to explore an object or a system with your students?

Using Compass Points to Structure Student-led Conferences

Right now, teachers and students are busily preparing for the second round of conferences of the school year. This round of conferences are led by the students.

Because this can seem like a formidable task to such young learners, teachers provide structures that help support students as they reflect on their progress with their families.

One teacher in G5 used the thinking routine Compass Points (p. 93 from Making Thinking Visible by Ritchhart, Church, & Morrison) as the structure her students would use to communicate their successes, needs, excitements, and worries in fifth grade.

She started by providing the students with a Google Slides presentation template with just one slide that said: 

"Usually when you think of a compass, it helps you find directions: North, South, East, West

This set of compass points helps me reflect on the learning I’ve done and the learning that’s coming up: Successes, Needs, Excitements, Worries"

Students then reflected and documented their thinking on the subsequent slides. Here are some examples of what the students shared at conferences with their families. Many thanks to the G5 students who shared their thinking with us, so can learn from them!

Some of the print on the slides is small and hard to read. Click on the images to make them bigger to read the students' thinking more easily.

After reading about how G5 students used Compass Points as a structure to reflect on their learning, how could you or have you used thinking routines as a structure to help students' collectively and individually initiate, explore, discuss, document, and manage their thinking?

Don't teach concepts to children

Yep! You read it right. Don't teach concepts TO children.

Instead, give your students opportunities to EXPLORE concepts.

Let them DISCOVER the complexities of concepts by INVESTIGATING concrete examples from a variety of times, places, and situations.

In doing this, children will CONSTRUCT UNDERSTANDING of these timeless, abstract, universal, and transferrable ideas that we call concepts.

Letting students construct their own understanding of life's BIG IDEAS is known as inquiry, which is more than question asking. Teaching in this way doesn't come naturally to me, so until it does, I've been trying to follow these five steps.

1. Start with a concept.
2. Pick a specific, concrete example of a person, place, situation, or thing that illustrates that concept.
3. Create an opportunity for students to explore that concrete example. 
4. Check for understanding by having them write a concept statement.
5. Reflect on their thinking and decide next steps.

If you think using these steps could help your students construct their own understanding of life's BIG IDEAS, try them out and let me know how it goes. That is exactly what one second grade teacher did recently. Here is her story:


1. Start with a concept.

In grade 2, teachers collaboratively decided to have their students explore how people influence the world. During this unit of inquiry, students also explore the genre of biography, as they read about various heroes.

2. Pick a specific, concrete example of a person, place, situation, or thing that illustrates that concept & 3. Create an opportunity for students to explore that concrete example.

During the last several weeks, students in second grade have read, listened to, and watched biographies and have learned a lot about specific heroes.

After all this learning about individual heroes, the teacher posed two questions to the students: "Who is a hero?" and "What is a hero?"

Students responded using the Chalk Talk thinking routine (for more on Chalk Talk, see p. 78 of Making Thinking Visible by Ritchhart, Church, and Morrison). In the last step of the thinking routine, when students were sharing the thinking, they identified common themes and ideas that emerged. Those were notated by the teacher and are written in black marker and boxed in the pictures below.

4. Check for understanding by having them write a concept statement. (This step is very similar to the thinking routine Headlines found in Making Thinking Visible by Ritchhart, Church, and Morrison, p. 111)

The next day, the teacher simply gave students a blank piece of paper and prompted them to write all they understood about heroes. The following were the student responses:

They stand up for people.

(they) doing awesome

Then, the students worked collaboratively to create one, concise concept statement.

When each individual statement was read, the teacher confirmed with the class if it was true or not. Then, students had to decide if the statement had any new information to be added; if it said anything different.

If it did have some new and different information, students had to work together with their teacher to revise the existing concept statement. The images below show the progression the concept statement went through as the class collectively constructed their understanding of the concept of hero.

First, the students started with ...

Next, they added a couple of attributes and took out the pronouns.

2nd graders then added how heroes did this.

To fit better with the vocabulary of the IB Learner Profile, they decided to replace kind.

2nd graders realized that heroes don't just help people.

The students struggled with what is the "right" thing. That value-laden statement is based on one's perspective and is not an absolute truth, so they knew they had to get rid of it.

But the students felt something was missing when they took out that phrase, so they put the idea back in, while acknowledging that "right" is subjective, based on the perspective of the "hero".

At this point, the teacher invited me into the conversation to see what a fresh eye could add. To make sure that "hero" was front and center, I suggested moving the dependent clause to the end of the independent clause.

Then, I suggested to the students that they change some of the wording so that it sounded more like a second grader. Often times when crafting concept statements (sometimes called generalizations, central ideas, or enduring understandings) we create hard-to-understand statements that don't sound like how we normally talk. Concept statements should be written in language that is easy to understand to all who read it.

Finally, I had the students test the statement to see if it was true in any time and in any place. To do this, we briefly brought up "heroes" from different times and from different places that they had already learned about. We decided their definition of a hero held up when applied to all those heroes, so it was indeed timeless and universal.

The students were comfortable that their concept statement encapsulated all the learning they had done up until that point, so the teacher wrote it down on their whiteboard.

5. Reflect on their thinking and decide next steps.

The second graders' understanding of hero is certainly deep and complex. The next step now is to continue to explore the concept of hero: read more biographies, watch age-appropriate biopics, read age-appropriate news articles, interview heroes local to their community, reflect on how their own actions could lead others to believe they themselves are heroes, etc.

As they continue to learn about other "heroes", second graders should be encouraged to continually revisit and revise their definition of hero as needed.

After reading about how one second grade teacher set up opportunities for her students to EXPLORE the concept of hero, instead of directly teaching this big idea to her students, how could you or have you had your students construct understanding of life's BIG IDEAS, known as concepts?