GRADES K–5
Celebrating Girls of Color
SAMPLE TEACHER’S GUIDE
Welcome to Your Sample Teacher’s Guide! The Rising Voices Teacher’s Guide equips educators with the tools to successfully implement whole-class read-alouds, book clubs, and independent reading with the texts in this library. It also features prompts for conferring and connecting with families to expand and increase engagement!
The Teacher’s Guide supports educators with:
• Implementation strategies for integrating the texts into book clubs and whole-class, small-group, and independent reading
• Suggestions on how to support English Learners
• Instructional supports for building social-emotional awareness
• Engaging discussion prompts based on Rising Voices themes
• Tips for creating safe environments for difficult conversations
The Rising Voices Teacher’s Guide Sampler Table of Contents
Contents............................................................................................................. 3
Welcome Letter From Dr. M. Ann Levett......................................................4
Access and Equity............................................................................................6
Rising Voices Themes and Anchor Texts (Grades K–2).............................8
Rising Voices Themes and Anchor Texts (Grades 3–5)...........................10
Building Social-Emotional Awareness.........................................................12
Teacher’s Guide Sampler 1
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2 • Rising Voices: Celebrating Girls of Color
2 Rising Voices | Celebrating Girls of Color
Contents
Welcome Letter From Dr. M. Ann Levett
4
Access and Equity
6
Why Rising Voices?
8
Rising Voices in Your Classroom
9
The Power of Reading Aloud
Teaching With Rising Voices Books Rising Voices Themes and Anchor Texts
10
12
Using the Anchor Texts and Teaching Cards
14
Building Social-Emotional Awareness
16
Linguistically and Culturally Responsive and Respectful Teaching Tips
20
Promoting Independent Reading
21
Writing and Other Creative Responses to Texts
22
Conferring With Children
23
Building Beyond This Rising Voices Library
Additional Resources Connecting With Families
24
26
Using Your Rising Voices Website
27
Rising Voices Research Base
30
Rising Voices Lessons at a Glance
32
Bibliography
Teacher’s Guide • 3
Teacher’s Guide Sampler 3
Welcome!
For as long as I can remember, I have loved books! My father, a very wise, talented, resourceful, and forward-thinking man, was not a highly skilled reader. Thus, he understood the need for my siblings and me to become proficient in reading. “Reading can take you places, little girl,” he told me when I was just five years old. The start of my schooling opened me to the magic of libraries and more books than my mind could imagine and my little arms could carry. I would rush through reading as many books as I could in a day to ensure I could read more titles the next day, and the next, and the next. But the older I got,
the more I realized that most books available to me did not feature characters like me. The characters did not look like me, live like me, or feel like me. Rarely did any story line come close to my reality. Books and other media that provided concrete examples of positive Black and female role models and pathways to success for people like me were often limited in number or completely unavailable. I found significant works by Black authors helped me understand my Blackness, girlhood, womanhood, and the impact of societal stereotypes on my life. These narratives became part of the road map that helped me understand my history, our country’s history, my present, and my potential. This is a growth process every child can and should experience, ideally with the support of caring and informed educators. Literature opens the door to understanding the human experience, especially those experiences that reflect our lives, our realities. Through literature we can see authentic and aspirational representations of ourselves, understand our self-worth, and know the power of belonging we all crave. Books also often introduce us to characters who are different from us with experiences beyond our realities and imaginations, allowing us to see the world from new perspectives. Such understandings are necessary for all children, as they are critical to the development of a global and well-rounded citizenry.
4 • Rising Voices: Celebrating Girls of Color
4 Rising Voices | Celebrating Girls of Color
Throughout my long career in education, I have been committed to ensuring that all students see themselves and their experiences reflected in literature and curricula. I saw, repeatedly, that this commitment promoted cultural pride and awareness, and increased academic engagement, personal validation, empathy, compassion, and a stronger understanding of self and others. Books have the potential to make a meaningful difference in the lives of readers, thus the issue of comprehensive and authentic representation continues to be an area of concern. While we are seeing more reading materials that feature characters and text that help girls of color construct a healthy sense of self, these girls live in a society that often conveys negative stereotypes of women and girls of color through news media, social media, and reality shows. These negative images and portrayals of them do not reflect the multilayered identities and positive character traits that are more indicative of who they are. As educators, we have a responsibility to share stories that reflect their authenticity and enhance their identity development, self-esteem, and worldview. I am proud that the books curated for this collection, Rising Voices: Celebrating Girls of Color , will help many girls realize how intelligent, powerful, and beautiful they are already. This series will answer the question, “How are we represented in texts?” and create spaces that afford girls of color untold opportunities to make meaning of their true identities—not those promoted by others with different perceptions and values of them. When empowered with the knowledge of who they really are and who they can be, girls of color will defy the stereotypes ascribed to them, break through ceilings, and create new models of success. Girls of color will be unstoppable!
Dr. M. Ann Levett
Teacher’s Guide • 5
Teacher’s Guide Sampler 5
Access and Equity
Equity requires that we provide all children with the resources they need to reach their full potential. As educators, our goal must be to build learning environments where we have high expectations for every student. Inclusive books and culturally responsive, respectful learning supports are essential in helping to achieve this goal. Why Rising Voices? In 1990, Rudine Sims Bishop published an essay about the importance of providing all young readers with diverse books. She used the phrase “windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors” to emphasize the need for all children to experience diverse stories through the characters and real-life people they meet in books. When children read books that serve as mirrors, they see aspects of their own experiences and cultures reflected in texts. When children read books that serve as windows, they gain insights into the world beyond their own personal experiences. All children need access to books that allow them to look in and look out, making text-to-self and text-to-world connections. Ideally, every classroom would contain a robust classroom library, filled with hundreds of books that reflect the mosaic of our society. Yet, excellent texts with accurate, dignified, and appealing portrayals of people of color are still largely lacking from most classroom and school libraries (Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, 2018; Regie Routman, 2018). And this lack of diversity takes a toll. Messages are embedded in the textual mirrors and windows. When children do not see themselves in books—or worse, see only distorted or stereotypical reflections—they can internalize negative views and feel as if school is not a place where they or their cultures matter. Positive textual images can change that, resulting in children who have higher self-esteem, better social-emotional functioning, and increased classroom engagement (Sarah Schwartz, 2019).
“It’s not just the kids of color, kids from the margins, who need diverse literature and media. It’s all kids who need stories about all kinds of people.” —Ebony Elizabeth Thomas (2018)
Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania Literacy, Culture, and International Education
6 • Rising Voices: Celebrating Girls of Color
6 Rising Voices | Celebrating Girls of Color
Your Rising Voices Library was curated in conjunction with Dr. M. Ann Levett to help fill this gap. This collection provides elevating and engaging fiction and biographies that highlight some of the most underrepresented literary protagonists: girls of color. While the focus of this library is specific, it is a tool to support all learners. Although all of the protagonists within this collection are girls and women of color, these books were selected due to their universal appeal to be enjoyed by all boys and girls. By fostering a classroom community that supports more positive representation and equity, all children will benefit as they build empathy, respect, and understanding. Rising Voices. . . • provides 50 books per grade (25 titles, two copies of each) selected by librarians and educators after reviewing more than 700 texts—to ensure that each grade-level collection validates the multifaceted identities of girls of color. • celebrates the talents of many authors and illustrators of color —because the perspectives that authors and illustrators bring to the texts they create are also important windows and mirrors. • includes biographies of accomplished women who have contributed to society in a variety of ways, contemporary realistic fiction, historical fiction, humor, fantasy, and science fiction so that children see female protagonists of color as the stars in all kinds of texts. • is organized around five essential literary themes (see pages 10–11) that children and teachers can use to make cross-text and cross-cultural connections within and beyond this library. • uses five anchor texts per grade, each supported by a robust Teaching Card , to highlight each of the five themes, prompt comprehension, and scaffold higher-level thinking skills and deep discussion, as well as social and emotional learning.
• offers Rising Voices stickers and bins that can be used to identify each book as part of this special collection. • provides online resources to support your teaching goals with standards correlations, theme videos, family letters, graphic organizers, and other printable resources to share with children. See page 26 to find out more information about the Rising Voices digital resources.
Teacher’s Guide • 7
Teacher’s Guide Sampler 7
Grades K – 2
Rising Voices Themes and Anchor Texts
Rising Voices texts are organized by five culturally relevant themes. These themes provide springboards for all children to connect to concepts that resonate with their lives, experiences, and interests. The themes provide a lens for reading that guides readers to consider concepts and ideas that affirm, celebrate, and foster pride and confidence in their identities. In addition, you and your children will be able to use these themes to make connections between Rising Voices books and other texts you have been exploring in your classroom. Use Rising Voices books to help build discussion of these five essential themes within and across texts. Connect to Texts and Expand Thinking Anchor texts for each of the five Rising Voices themes are intended to be shared through an interactive, teacher-led, read-aloud experience. Teaching Cards for each anchor text provide discussion questions and activities that bring the theme to the forefront, promoting discussion, conversation, and deep thinking. Building on anchor text instruction and discussion, you and your children can read on in the collection, continuing to make connections and deepen their exploration of each theme.
Expand Theme Connections to Other Texts • What problem do the people in the book face? • What makes the people in the book special? • Which friends and family members is the main character closest to?
Anchor Texts Theme
Questions to Reflect On
Someone Like Me/ Memorable Characters
• Do things the main character says, does, or thinks remind me of myself or someone I know? • What might the author want me to take away from this book? • Do things the main character says, does, or thinks make me feel seen, respected, and valued for who I am and the experiences I’ve had? • What do I like most about my family? • What do I like most about my community? • How do my family and community help me? • What can I do to be helpful in my community?
Grade K
How does finding ways that people
Grade 1
I read about are like me help me to better understand myself and others?
• What makes the main character feel proud?
Grade 2
Family, Culture, and Community How do the people around me help me feel safe and enrich my life? How can I help others around me? How do the people around me help me feel like I belong?
• Who are the characters in the book? • How do families or community members in the book help each other? • What do people in the book do to help their family or community? • How are the people in this book like people in my family and community? How are they different?
Grade K
Grade 1
Grade 2
10 • Rising Voices: Celebrating Girls of Color
8 Rising Voices | Celebrating Girls of Color
Expand Theme Connections to Other Texts • What problems do the people in the book face? • What makes the people special? • How do they use their skills and talents to creatively solve problems?
Anchor Texts Theme
Questions to Reflect On
Heroes and Role Models What makes someone a hero? What can we learn from reading about people who have done important things?
• Do these people seem like heroes? Why or why not? • Might I want to be like these people in some way? Why or why not? • What lessons might I take away from this book?
Grade K
Grade 1
Grade 2
Strong and Resilient What qualities help people succeed when they face challenges?
• What problems do the people in the book face? • How do the people keep trying to solve problems? • What makes the people good problem-solvers? • How do the people show their feelings when things are hard?
• When was a time that I felt proud because I kept trying? • What have I learned from this book about what it can take to solve a problem?
Grade K
Grade 1
Grade 2
Thinking Beyond Today How do people make their dreams come true? What can I learn from this?
• What are the dreams of the people in the book? • How do the people try to make their dreams come true? • What gets in their way? • How do others help them?
• What are my dreams for the future? • Are the dreams of the people in the book like mine? • What might I do to make my dreams for the future come true?
Grade K
Grade 1
Grade 2
Teacher’s Guide • 11
Teacher’s Guide Sampler 9
Grades 3 – 5
Rising Voices Themes and Anchor Texts
Rising Voices texts are organized by five culturally relevant themes. These themes provide springboards for students to connect to concepts that resonate with their lives, experiences, and interests. The themes provide a lens for reading that guides readers to consider concepts and ideas that affirm, celebrate, and foster pride and confidence in their identities. In addition, you and your students will be able to use these themes to make connections between Rising Voices books and other texts you have been exploring in your classroom. Use Rising Voices books to help build discussion of these five essential themes within and across texts. Connect to Texts and Expand Thinking Anchor texts for each of the five Rising Voices themes are intended to be shared through an interactive, teacher-led read-aloud experience. Teaching Cards for each anchor text provide discussion questions and activities that bring the theme to the forefront, promoting discussion, conversation, and deep thinking. Building on anchor text instruction and discussion, you and your students can read on in the collection, continuing to make connections and deepen their exploration of each theme.
Expand Theme Connections to Other Texts • What problems does the main character face? • What issues or ideas are most important to the main character? • What are the main character’s talents or strengths? • Which friends and family
Anchor Texts Theme
Questions to Reflect On
Someone Like Me/ Memorable Characters How does understanding ways that people I read about are like me or people I know help me to better understand myself and others?
• How do the main character’s actions, thoughts, or words remind me of myself or someone I know? • What does the author want me to take away from this book? • What important ideas does the book inspire me to think about? • How do the main character’s actions, thoughts, and words make me feel seen, respected, and valued for who I am and the experiences I’ve had? • Who makes up my community? • What do I appreciate most about my family? • What do I appreciate most about my community? • How do my family and community support me when things get difficult? • How do the people around me help me feel like I belong?
Grade 3
Grade 4
members does the main character have strong relationships with?
Grade 5
• What makes the main character feel proud?
Family, Culture, and Community How do the people around me help me feel safe and protected and enrich my life? How can
• How are different family members important to the main character? • What community does the main character belong to? • In what ways do the main character’s family and community support him/her when things get difficult? • What does the main character do to help his/her family or community?
Grade 3
Grade 4
I help others around me?
Grade 5
10 • Rising Voices: Celebrating Girls of Color
10 Rising Voices | Celebrating Girls of Color
Expand Theme Connections to Other Texts
Anchor Texts Theme
Questions to Reflect On
Heroes and Role Models What qualities make someone a hero? What lessons can be learned from the courageous actions of people from the past?
• What challenges do the people in the text face? • What are the people’s
• Do I see the people as heroes? Why or why not? • Do I see these people as role models, or people who I want to be like in some way? Why or why not? • What lessons might I take away from the stories of these people’s lives? • How does learning about people’s achievements inspire me? • How are the challenges faced by people in the text like challenges I might face? • How have I succeeded in solving problems or facing challenges? • What can I learn from the way the people dealt with challenges? • What might the author want me to take away from this book? • What are my dreams for the future? • How are the goals and dreams of the people in the text similar to mine? • What can I learn from the way the people in the text tried to make their dreams real? • What steps might I take to make my dreams for the future come true?
Grade 3
greatest talents or strengths? • How do the people use their strengths and talents to solve challenging problems? • How do others react to the people’s ideas and actions? • Why are the stories of people’s lives important for people to know about? • What challenges do the people in the text face? • How do the people keep trying to solve challenging problems? • How do others react to the people’s ideas and actions? • Why are these events and stories important for people to know about? • How do people acknowledge
Grade 4
Grade 5
Strong and Resilient What qualities help people succeed when they face challenges?
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
and express their feelings when things are difficult?
Thinking Beyond Today What can I learn from how people I read about turn their dreams for the future into reality?
• What are the goals and dreams of the people in the text? • What steps do the people follow to try to realize their dreams? • What challenges get in their way? • How do others support them or challenge them?
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
Teacher’s Guide • 11
Teacher’s Guide Sampler 11
Building Social-Emotional Awareness
Researchers have reported that children who participate in social and emotional learning programs perform about 13 percentage points higher in their grades and standardized test scores (Taylor et al., 2017). The benefits of social and emotional learning extend beyond test scores. Examining the social and emotional skills displayed in the books they read may help children connect to what they’re reading, and by discussing these skills as a class they can understand how reading can relate to real-life situations. Additionally, by connecting their reading to social-emotional learning, children are scaffolded to build a positive self-image as readers, learn valuable analytic and executive function skills, and develop and build upon essential life skills that help them understand and navigate the world around them. Core Competencies The social-emotional skills explored in the Rising Voices Library align with the tenets found in many SEL programs, including the CASEL framework. CASEL—the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning—identifies five core competencies that should be prioritized in children’s social-emotional learning as described in the chart below (CASEL.org).
CASEL Competency
Goals and Assessment
Focus
• Identifying emotions • Accurate self-perception • Recognizing strengths • Self-confidence • Self-efficacy • Demonstrating honesty and integrity • Examining prejudices and biases
Self- awareness
The ability to accurately recognize one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior. The ability to accurately assess one’s strengths and limitations, with a well-grounded sense of confidence, optimism, and a “growth mindset.” The ability to successfully regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in different situations—effectively managing stress, controlling impulses, demonstrating agency, and motivating oneself. The ability to set and work toward personal and academic goals. The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds and cultures. The ability to understand social and ethical norms for behavior and to recognize family, school, and community resources and supports. The ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups. The ability to communicate clearly, listen well, cooperate with others, resist inappropriate social pressure, show leadership in groups, negotiate conflict constructively, and seek and offer help when needed. The ability to make constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions based on ethical standards, safety concerns, and social norms. The realistic evaluation of consequences of various actions, the demonstration and development of critical thinking skills, and a consideration of the well-being of oneself and others.
• Impulse control • Stress management • Self-discipline • Self-motivation • Taking initiative • Goal-setting • Organizational skills • Perspective-taking • Empathy • Appreciating diversity • Respect for others
Self- management
Social awareness
• Communication • Social engagement • Relationship-building • Teamwork • Demonstrating cultural competency • Standing up for others
Relationship skills
• Identifying problems • Analyzing situations • Solving problems • Evaluating • Reflecting • Ethical responsibility
Responsible decision- making
14 • Rising Voices: Celebrating Girls of Color
12 Rising Voices | Celebrating Girls of Color
“Social-emotional learning (SEL) skills can help us build communities that foster courageous conversations across differences so that
Embedded Social-Emotional Learning The embedded social-emotional learning in Rising Voices forms a link between social-emotional learning, literary texts, and life. Under the “Build Social-Emotional Awareness” heading in the “Extend Literacy” section of every Teaching Card, the teacher is offered a suggestion to tie the reading to something children can consider about their own lives and the world around them. For example, in the Kindergarten Teaching Card for Usha and the Big Digger, the teaching prompt says: “ At first the three girls argue about the right way to describe what they see when they look at the stars. But by the end of the book,
our students can confront injustice,
hate, and inequity.” —Dena Simmons, Ed.D. (2019) Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
they finally understand why they saw things differently. The author shows us that how we see something depends on our position or point of view. How is this also true about understanding another person? How might knowing more about what others are thinking and why they think as they do help us get along with others? ” This focus on understanding others’ perspectives targets the core competency of social awareness. Once children have had the opportunity to discuss among themselves, a few children should share their thinking with the class. Social-emotional learning must be taught with a lens on equity. While working with diverse groups of children in the classroom, it is important to understand how culture and personal experience can have an effect on a child’s understanding of social-emotional skills. Research shows that students’ social-emotional development is significantly impacted by their view of their cultural identity (Gee et al., 2014). By reading culturally responsive texts and discussing them in context, children will be given a safe space to explore the core competencies of social-emotional learning. This practice also allows children the opportunity to apply these core competencies to their own lives inside and outside of the classroom. “Social and emotional skills matter for many areas of development, including learning, health, and general well-being. Furthermore, recent research has demonstrated that high-quality, evidence-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programs produce positive outcomes for students, including reduced stress and improved behavior, attitudes, and academic performance.” —Stephanie Jones, Katherine Brush, et al. (2017) Harvard Graduate School of Education
Teacher’s Guide • 15
For more information, visit scholastic.com/risingvoices
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