This article will not have an admin option. It will address a group I left out last time instead: librarians. Guiding students in book choices is not an administrator’s role, as I understand it; we trust the mentors directly speaking into students’ lives for that.

This article is about book choice as well, but it’s about the choice to say no (how to say no, how to tell when you should say no, what are the ramifications of saying no, what to do when you maybe should have said no but said yes instead, and how to turn a no into a consenting yes). I hope to offer you, teachers, tools for discussions about abstaining from certain books and tools for guiding students to choose books for themselves; I hope to offer you, students, with tools for discernment as well as tools for defense of your right to read. I will structure this post similarly to the aforementioned article with suggestions for action and research embedded for each group so that you could, feasibly, only read the section referring to you and be enabled to face your context. I also repeat certain parts of research across multiple sections but not every source is copied to other sections.

I want to preface again that my context is different from many of the writers of teacher blogs because I work at a private Christian international school with an American curriculum in Asia. The problems we are facing look different from those faced by public school teachers in Arkansas or Charter school teachers in Illinois. I’m also limited by my experience as a secondary teacher; these conversations have less controversy in lower elementary, though discussions about appropriateness do surface more commonly in the upper elementary/middle school transition. May you take what you need and may it be useful to you.

By this point, you teachers, students, parents, and librarians have entered the room of this conversation and taken your seats somewhere in the audience. Maybe you’re ready to verbally spar because of genuine concerns you have about the content being pushed to young children in the wide range of media accessible to them. Maybe you’re angry about book bans. Maybe you’re fed up with trigger warnings or content warnings. Maybe you think removing upsetting books from school libraries is the best thing for your child.

Regardless, I hope that you can take a step back and examine certain questions that have been previously unaddressed in certain contexts surrounding this conversation.

Teachers: curate, investigate/communicate, equip, compromise, and do not ban.

Curate.

Your classroom libraries, core texts, optional reading, and on-the-fly suggestions have great power in developing your students’ love of reading, leading them to new understanding, and nurturing their empathy. That is encouraging but it also carries some weight. For your classroom libraries and your optional reading list, there should be more flexibility for challenging or more mature books. I have my own system of leveling and genre sorting that works for my students and I with some flexibility, and I have yet to have a parent or student protest my choices (fingers crossed).

As I mentioned in my book choice article, I served on our school’s taskforce last year for choosing the English curriculum for the next 6 years. Our book choices were based on three bits of accountability:

1. At least two taskforce members had to read the book proposed.
2. They both had to agree that the book worked for the grade in which it was being proposed.
3. The book couldn’t be used in another grade.

These are straightforward considerations, but when we discussed the grade level matching for certain books, inevitably, conversations of “appropriateness” came up. Is 8th grade too young to look at police brutality? Is 12th grade too young to see certain swear words or innuendos in print (I say “certain” because many longstanding classics for secondary have slurs, innuendo, and swear words- see To Kill a Mockingbird, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and any Shakespearean play, to name a few)? Now, these conversations are in seemingly every school district in the US and many make it into the news.

In a perfect world, teachers would be able to make choices for their students in perfect harmony, but I recognize that is not the case in every school or even most schools. Nevertheless, let’s assume that you have some measure of guidance over what your students read both for fun from your resources and for your class. Under that assumption, our teacher profession has a spectrum of options about what a student should read and when. Whether you are in the “all the books for all the students” camp or “reading inappropriate content is harmful for minors” camp or somewhere in between, you should know that the research is mixed for a few reasons:

1. Studies on the effects of media on adolescents’ social, emotional, moral, or sexual behaviors often don’t examine books, and there are more variables to measure when examining books’ effects.

They sometimes specify only graphic novels under books rather than all books. They sometimes only focus on social media or TV. The Collaborative Trust for Research and Training in Youth Health & Development released a report in 2019 for the Broadcast Standards Authority of New Zealand. It mentioned books only in the context of media in China being more likely to be controlled by the government. Even though it uses the term “media” throughout the study, it specifies “traditional media” including books and only in the aforementioned passage.

A more famous example would be a study conducted in 2019 with the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio. It found that watching the controversial Netflix show Thirteen Reasons Why caused in uptick in suicide for teens in the US (more on that in the next section). However, it excluded purposefully “focus on other exposures (e.g., having read the book on which [Thirteen Reasons Why] is based)” (Inclusion And Exclusion Criteria).

Most of the research on suicidal behavior after consuming certain types of media are looking at two trends: the “Werther effect” (“i.e. that media coverage of suicide can trigger actual suicidal behavior in vulnerable individuals in the audiences”) or the “papageno effect” (“whether media recommendations on responsible reporting suicide cases have a protective influence”). According to researchers with the British Journal of Psychiatry, that protective influence had only been previously discussed on a theoretical basis but was confirmed empirically by the study.

“Books and films may act as sources of social support or mental health literacy and thus reduce the suicide risk constituted by low sense of belonging” according to that NHI study, but they conclude that, because “motivations for the students to engage in reading” could change the outcome (“was the motivator a form of avoidance/escape, or a desire to ‘belong’”?), more research must be done to “specify the target of belonging.”

2. Some studies about media and behavior find mixed results (or correlation rather than causation).

The NCAC noted that some evidence has been presented for “harm for minors” in consuming certain content but with mostly correlational studies (see subpoint 14). The aforementioned NHI-sponsored study on Netflix’s Thirteen Reasons Why TV show needed to be revisited.

Even though the results claimed to have “[accounted] for seasonal effects and an underlying increasing trend in monthly suicide rates,” Data Curator Daniel Romer, with the Annenberg Public Policy Center at UPenn, recognized a potential need for data reaggregation. He found in a 2020 study that there was a natural (though this word seems callous to use here) uptick in suicide rates worldwide because of the many external factors about which we hopefully are all aware. The study recognized that where they saw causation before, they should have seen it as correlation with even possible benefits for students who are contemplating suicide, such as this study found:

“Unexpectedly, current students who watched the entire second season reported declines in suicide ideation and self-harm relative to those who did not watch the show at all (ps < .01). Moreover, those who watched the entire second season were also more likely to express interest in helping a suicidal person, especially compared to those who stopped watching.”

This isn’t about the book, but it is about a narrative that came from the book, and that might make a difference in how the show was arranged. The book had staying power on bestseller lists for years after its release for a reason: it spoke to the ones who needed it. “Reading books… may compensate for lacking social support if, for instance, the reader can in some way identify with the narrative, situational factors or protagonists in the stories.” (NHI)

When studies do examine books with content that could cause a behavior change– the overall fear behind reading controversial or mature books from certain parents, according to a featured article with the International Literacy Association –  they find that the “forbidden fruit” isn’t the focus for students. There’s not an obsession with the behavior.

Here’s the research:

“This finding supports what other research has shown in relation to young adult literature: Adults focus on potential controversy, whereas students see literary elements and draw connections to social themes (Freedman & Johnson, 2000). What it also illustrates, however, is that the stance from which the actual reading of a book occurs is key to understanding these clashes [emphasis added]. Adults might benefit from consciously attempting to read and understand from the perspective of youths so they can better empathize with adolescent populations and entertain discussions related to tough topics.”

3. Using the term “harm for minors” has more to do with parent perception and cultural norms than it has to do with psychological, emotional, or sexual consequences.

There is a broader spectrum than you may think for what is perceived as “harmful” behavior for adolescents. A study conducted in 1998 interviewed men and women and found that even their gender altered their perceptions for certain sexual behaviors in adolescents compared to judgments of the facilitators such as sex abuse experts, therapists, etc. Marjory Heinz with the NCAC said this of using the term:

“… ‘harm to minors’ is at bottom not a scientific, but a moral and ideological concept.”

The Broadcasting Standards Authority of NZ report noted the following:

“The empirical literature is divided as to whether exposure to [sexualised] media content leads to harmful impacts for children and young people. Some studies found no causal link between exposure to [sexualised] media content and risky sexual behaviours in children and young people. Other variables, such as the influence of peers and parents, rather than media, had more impact on the sexual attitudes and beliefs of adolescents.”

Another article from researcher Yuval Gozansky discussing the exposure of puberty on children’s television explained this:

“The contradiction between the moralistic ‘protective discourse’ promoted largely by adults, and children’s rights to sexuality education and information, raises the question of children’s television’s ability to address the subject of puberty without being accused of immorality or inappropriateness for children.”

In other words, the cultural piece of expectations from parents is both more effective on child behavior and more “wronged” by a violation of the sexual attitudes and beliefs of a person being outside of their expected level. Cultural and parental expectations can complicate efforts to offer healthy discourse or exploration of ideas. There’s no need to drop the evidence for this point because of not discussing books because the conversation still stands.

Consider how fiction changes your perceptions positively. Another potential benefit of reading fiction is also “perspective taking,” a development of understanding from someone else’s experience. What possibilities open up when empathy can develop in tandem with open discussions about hard topics?

Many of you may know teachers who were fired for merely the presence of a book with certain themes, characters, words, or scenes depicted. That must have given many of you pause the next time you were in a bookstore holding a potential classroom library purchase. It can also feel unfair considering how widely books get rated in “appropriateness” for age level or grade based on what metric or leveling system you use. For example, Edutopia notes that the popular Twilight books are rated differently across 3 main leveling scales: Fountas and Pinnell (for high school students), Accelerated Reader (for fifth-grade readers), and Lexile (for early elementary readers).

The history of book bans and censorship spans millennia with the Comstock Act of 1873 (later creating a noun similar to “crusader”) and the Obscenity trials. Supreme Court Case such as Roth v. United States (1957) propelled the conversation on defining obscenity which has still not been fully defined today, though questions about prurient interests, intent of consumption, and the dominance of specific themes appealing to those prurient interests continue.The Court ruled in Miller v. California (1973) that the [first amendment] should not protect “obscene” works “which, taken as a whole, do not have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

In Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), it was ruled that students and teachers do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate,” a conclusion which should be freeing to you as educators. When choosing what books should go into your library, remember that you are defended in your choices on the grounds of the first amendment to the Constitution and “literary merit” from Pope v. Illinois (1987).

Yet, this only applies if you’re in a US public school; private schools are not protected by the first amendment and thus need to make choices based on “ethical principles”, says the ALA. There are some holes in your defense if you teach in this context and you can equip your students to face censorship. Nevertheless, the NCAC says “students in private schools should be accorded the same intellectual freedoms and civil liberties as their peers in public schools. Free speech is not just a legal imperative; it is a core educational principle.”

If you can defend the book’s cultural or literary value, it should hold up against scrutiny.

Investigate/Communicate.

If a parent raises concern about a particular book in your library, you should already have a procedure in place that is approved by your administrator for your classroom library. Check your school policy on classroom libraries, choice reading, and parent approval for book lists. Build your policy based on what your school has in place already, but formally challenge portions of the policy if they do not offer accountability or review processes that include voices of the school staff outside of the administration.

Your policies might include…

• Sending home a letter to parents before beginning a core text with the proviso that they have to sign and return the form to opt out of their child reading the book.
• Putting a policy about book choice into your school syllabus
• Emailing parents before giving students access to your classroom library with your sorting options (ex. If a middle schooler wants to read books you have marked as “HS Only”, parents can write you back with permission for them to have access for the year)

If you are at a school where there is little-to-no freedom of choice in what goes into your students’ reading lists, work with what you can to ensure that your students have some choice baked into your class. We know that choice helps engage students and if your particular combination of student body needs and locked-in canon doesn’t afford that on its own, you’ll need more support to get their buy-in. The other way to get student buy-in without alienating parents is to…

Equip.

I currently teach 8th-12th students with many language backgrounds and cultural experiences having access to my classroom library. For the sake of clarity, I’ll focus on my 8th grade practices;I teach my 8th graders to choose books that they might enjoy, to recommend books they like to friends, and to try to challenge themselves in their reading level.

My bare minimum rule is this: “open to the first page, and if there’s at least one word that you’re not entirely sure you know what it means by the end of the first page, it’s a good challenge for you.” This rule is dangerously close to the more outdated practice of leveling, but I’ll get to how I help that later.

These encouragements and suggestions don’t address when a student doesn’t like what they’re reading, though. I use a version of book reviews (thanks to Kelly Gallagher’s “Book of the Month” resources) as one way for my 8th graders to tell me when a book has made them uncomfortable or helped them grow (and often it is with the exact same aspect of the book).

In the book reviews, I ask, “What are some things that made this book a good choice?” and “What are some things that made this book a not-so-good choice?” Even though these questions aren’t directly asking about maturity level or “appropriateness”, they often give me a window into any opinions or concerns students may have about content that might not match what they are thinking about. They also get honest about the vocabulary level being too easy for them while telling me that there was a scene or character that made them uncomfortable. We have a conversation about how they can read books that aren’t challenging in vocabulary on their own but not for their book reviews, and I follow up about the scene or character with them.

If they have content concerns, I ask them, “Do you think other 8th graders should be able to read this book?” No matter their answer, I ask for their reasons why. If they say yes even though they were uncomfortable, how they answer shows their understanding that books don’t have to be everyone’s favorite in order for everyone to have a chance with them.

I use the word “everyone” loosely here, though, as “common sense” is still a voiced expectation from some anti-censorship voices. Even the NCAC (“We believe in freedom of choice for all people but we also believe in common sense, and common sense will tell you that it is extremely unusual for a young child to check out adult material.”) suggested that there is a “common sense” line to draw.

Giving students permission to exercise their common sense shows them that they are people, too. The whole point of my classroom library is to give them choice in what they read so that there’s buy-in for exercising their reading muscles. If they can’t choose to walk away from a book, their choice is more limited. They are less likely to make riskier reading choices such as trying a long nonfiction book when they usually read shorter fantasy novels. On the subject of trying new genres, note also that students can find a book challenging even if it’s not challenging in the same way they’d find a classic novel challenging. I ask my students to try at least 1 new genre per quarter because new genres afford new vocabulary. It also helps them get variety in their “training” away from basic leveling, as literacy expert Tim Shanahan notes:

“Top runners don’t train at one level: They take long runs, fast but shorter runs, and also can lift weights to build specific muscles… Kids should read a wide range of texts, and libraries can help. They should read easy books to things that kick their butts. The variation of difficulty does matter.”

That difficulty can be found both in the usual areas of syntax and vocabulary as well as content and theme. However, I also ask for student trust by encouraging them to finish a book if I know it can be growing for them even with some challenging content. For example, you secondary teachers know that Orwell’s 1984 is a staple for classic dystopian lit in secondary (usually high school). There’s a wealth of personal growth possible in those pages. It does have more mature relational content toward the end. However, it has a mature dialogue throughout with its government policing the thoughts and actions of its people, its philosophical points about security versus freedom, and its warnings about surveillance. It’s a book that forces you to think through hard topics. That is its goal, anyway. If a student gets over halfway with 1984 on their own and starts to grow weary, I would encourage them to finish it.

I equip students to dig through my classroom library by teaching them the following:

1. “Read books that are challenging for you. How you can tell is by reading the first page. If there’s just one word you’re not entirely sure you know, it’s the right level of challenge.
2. “Ask yourself, ‘What are some things that made this book a good choice?’ and ‘What are some things that made this book a not so good choice?’”
3. “Do you think this book should be ready by others in your grade or not? Why did you answer that way?”
4. You should try to finish a book that you know is going to be good for you, but you do not have to finish every book you start.

Compromise.

You might be all too familiar with this idea already when it comes to your classroom library. I hope that your school has protected your ability to offer choice reading that is relatable to your students. If you face backlash for a book in your curriculum, library, or optional reading list (even after following your school’s guidelines for curriculum choices or free reading, especially in secondary), the course of action could go something like this:

1. Schedule a meeting with the parties involved.
2. Before you meet with the involved parties, meet with your librarian, administrator, learning specialist, etc. to discuss options for the conversation and for possible alternatives. Ask for their support at the other meeting, if possible.
3. Meet with the involved parties. Remember that you could note precedent with classics having much of the same controversy in their wake while still carrying literary merit.
4. If the involved parties do not consent even by the end of the meeting, compromise with a book that meets similar learning goals as best you can.

I recognize that some school policies do not allow for this kind of dialogue, especially in 2023 as more districts are subject to state scrutiny of their school libraries. Remember that the goal at the end of the day is for your students to learn. That learning is going to be defined differently in the minds of everyone involved in these kinds of decisions. You as the teacher have a clearer path for those end targets, but the “how” does have to involve some level of consent along the way.

I am not suggesting that you get parental approval for every poem, short story, novel, worksheet, or activity in your course plan; I am suggesting that you continue letting your “common sense” go in tandem with transparency with the people who have the most to gain or lose with your students’ growth: their parents. The National Council of Teachers of English’s Guidelines for Dealing with Censorship of Instructional Materials says similarly:

“In considering the role of teachers and the possibilities of young people, it is clear that decisions as to the aesthetic and pedagogical value and developmental appropriateness of instructional materials must be entrusted [emphasis added] to teachers and librarians, working in concert with school administrators, school boards, and parents. In all cases, the primary concerns must be fostering student growth and understanding while protecting intellectual freedom in our schools.”

You shouldn’t have to hide what your students study, and you shouldn’t have to hide the world from them, either.

Do not ban. Practice discernment instead.

Consider yourselves bastions of civilization, teachers. You are ensuring that your students have a safe environment to wrestle with tough conversations, philosophical dilemmas, and more mature ideas as they navigate becoming adults. Should murder be punishable by death? Shakespeare tiptoes to this question’s answer in Hamlet. What happens when society’s norms fall away in the wake of desperation and survival? Read Lord of the Flies. How can we develop empathy in middle schoolers? Refugee by Alan Gratz might be a good start. All of these stories have been banned in some form or other in the United States. Teachers, if any of you think that all books that include political messages (Refugee), sexual content (Hamlet), or violence (Lord of the Flies), note that you will have to ban a text that holds greater weight for many in the US: the Bible.

Note that there are different forms of censorship that you might already be using. Trigger warnings, age-leveling for content, and cutting books from your classroom library are all forms of soft censorship or indirect censorship (though calling trigger warnings soft censorship is still up for debate). I wonder if changing my “HS Only” section to say “HS Only (Ask)” would be more fitting with the research and my concerns about the validity of age cut-offs for secondary school-level content. If I have a 19-year-old senior, should they be allowed to read books that I might have only recommended for college students? If my school’s policy allows 8th graders in Quarter 4 to read “HS Only” books, where’s the actual age-leveling line? Changing my labels also ensures that if there’s a student who is not in HS and is interested in checking out one of my books, I can have a conversation with that student about why they are interested and follow up with parental permission.

Trigger warnings have been found to not work, anyway (or, at least, to help in the ways that they could help); trigger warnings have been found to modestly increase anxiety in readers rather than decrease it, put a particular trauma at the center of a person’s life if they have experienced it, and “[increase] in the severity of one’s Post-traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms” if one has the condition, according to Richard McNally, Psychology Professor and Director of Clinical Training at Harvard.

Banning books for all in a certain population limits them from the discourse surrounding that book, inhibits their training for the real world, and removes an opportunity for students to understand harder topics in one of the safest places in the world: the written word. Justin Azevedo, the youth materials selector at the Sacramento Public Library and co-chair of the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee, says it this way: “Reading is a safe place to experience things ­secondhand,” and, I hope, reading as a safe place also includes your classroom space).

Teachers, remember your burdens. As often as we want to forget them, we have a duty to our students that is complex and ever-evolving. Here’s what the NCTE says about our duty:

“Regardless of setting and cultural context, classroom instruction will require teachers to introduce potentially controversial materials into classroom discussion. These are complex challenges that require recognizing the needs of students, the responsibilities that educators hold in day-to-day contexts, and the considerations of power and positionality of adults working with historically marginalized students of diverse cultures and creeds. Despite these challenges, the ability to resist both direct and indirect forms of censorship is a necessary aspect of teachers’ practices if they are to support the civic agency of young people. Consequently, educators must ensure that all instructional materials and resources are available for classroom study and discussion and that these materials are equally accessible to students of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds.”

Protect books as best as you can.

Students: learn, discern, and don’t hide.

Learn.

Students, you are the ones at stake in book censorship conversations. I’m sorry if you have been limited by your school’s book bans from accessing text that might have helped you grow. I trust that you are still trying to access books in any way that you can because reading can change the world. Now that I’ve gotten my proselytizing bit out of the way, let’s talk about your brain and what reading certain stories can do to it.

If you are a student who has grown to believe no one in your school community should have access to a book you find uncomfortable, you should know “risk” to students has little evidence as long as you can choose your own books and “reject ones [you find] problematic”.

More “mature” books often offer “different perspectives” than your own precisely because they are working with a different context than your possible day-to-day life. On the other hand, some more “mature” books deal with conversations that are very much a part of your day-to-day life, such as anorexia. Concerns about Laura Halse Anderson’s book Wintergirls point to the book’s seeming “handbook for anorexia”. The NCAC points this out about the book:

“… [The] critics of Wintergirls may in some ways be right: some people who read the book will also develop anorexia. Readers at risk may well do so even without reading the book. The most significant variable is not the literature someone reads, but the human factor: the medical history (physical and mental) and life experience of the reader.

…The objections to Wintergirls also fail to deal with the reality of eating disorders as both psychological and physical diseases. Whether or not you think the book serves as an instructional manual for readers at risk for developing anorexia, banning the book from school libraries or otherwise keeping it from teens in many ways ignores a problem young people are struggling with. It makes the subject taboo, and it demonstrates the lack of trust we often have in young adults to think critically about what they read.”

In other words, if you don’t want to read things because you are worried about the effect they may have on you, remember that reading is the safest place for you to honestly think through and consider difficult topics. We as adults have to trust you more to make those decisions for yourself, whether it’s a book we want you to read or a book we don’t want you to read. You would be well within your normative bounds to fight back against book bans as well. If you’re currently fighting against book bans in your school, look at resources with the Kids Right to Read Project through the NCAC. On the subject of choosing to read or avoid a book…

Discern.

Recognize the difference between being stretched by what you’re reading and being offended or even traumatized by what you’re reading. Are you uncomfortable with a trauma-filled novel because it depicts a scene of abuse or violence that you have experienced? If so, try not to walk away from it.

“It can be really hard to feel difficult emotions,” says Torres-Mackie, psychologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and head of research at the Mental Health Coalition. “But if you can experience them through somebody else, like a character in one of these books, it allows you to feel your own dark feelings.” (Times)

The Times also interviewed San Francisco psychologist Juli Fraga. She had this to say about those who might have experienced abuse who read books like Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us:

“They’re looking for themselves in the story…Hearing that somebody’s experiences were similar to yours, or even worse than yours, can help you feel less alone—even if it’s merely in a book of fiction.”

There’s potential healing in those more mature books. Consider giving them a try, but remember that you should be able to walk away from any book you chose! Give yourself permission not to finish books, but if you’re just uncomfortable with a harder book, try to hang on. It could have something particularly helpful for you to read. Torres-Mackie suggests using this question to guide your decision, especially if you’re having nightmares or starting to feel unsafe in your usual routine:

“Does it fill you up, or does it deplete you?”

If you’re being asked to read something in class that makes you too uncomfortable to face it head-on and you do not think you have a choice in reading it, consider talking to your teacher directly, especially if you prefer not to read certain kinds of content such as mentions of bulimia, anorexia, suicide, sexual abuse, etc. They might have a suggestion for skipping certain pages (i.e. paperclipping those pages) or reading a summary for a particular scene rather than reading it directly.

Director of Communications at the National Coalition Against Censorship Nora Pelizzari notes that kids can and do self-censor which often results in “bring[ing] the book to their parents.”

It is harmful when “personal discomfort turns into an attempt to censor what others have access to read, view and think,” she notes. For you, you can choose to simply put the book down like other students do…

… But don’t hide (from hard topics, from hard books, from your parents, or from trusted mentors).

You can’t hide from hard topics in the real world (and nor should you). Andrea Burns, a recently retired teacher who taught 4th grade for the last 8 years in Kansas City, Kansas, was interviewed by Good Morning America about the 6 books she used in her classroom to talk about more mature topics that 4th graders alive today absolutely have to face, from grief to hard feelings. One children’s book published by the National Center for Youth Issues is about School Shootings: I’m Not Scared… I’m Prepared! A Picture Book to Help Kids Navigate School Safety Threats. It would be laughable to say that you won’t face shooting scares, know someone affected by shootings, or see them in the news, and schools are a safer place to have conversations about them.

Books that push you to consider other viewpoints aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Know that you are better preparing yourself to face situations in the real world by seeing a book that has a difficult passage, and you will not necessarily be affected negatively in your values by reading it. “Simple exposure to sexual content in the media will not make teens deny or ignore values and information they have absorbed from families, school, religious teachings, and other respected adults.” (NHI)

Bring your parents into the conversations from your books. It might seem scary or painfully awkward to involve them, but it might just show you that they are people who lived through similar life stages as you and care about who you are growing to be.

Parents: discuss/engage, trust, and don’t block for others.

Discuss/engage with your child and their learning.

Parents, it may seem that you have become major players in school curriculum and library choices across the country in recent years, but that negates your own parenting. You have been involved in your own child’s education since before they said their first word. What we’re seeing now is a greater focus on what other students read, sometimes ignited by what your child is reading. Let’s back up to the relationship that matters most to you in all the parties involved with you and your child’s education: your relationship with your child.

By the end of one lower elementary year, I had fallen behind in reading speed and stamina. My mom took immediate action. She took me to my local library all summer long and we both participated in a summer reading challenge. She read to my sister and I before bed every night, books that included death (I remember sobbing at that part in Where the Red Fern Grows) and conversations about good and evil (The Chronicles of Narnia).

At the end of the summer, we had read enough that I had earned a water bottle and a drawstring bag. I now realize that my mom was intervening to ensure my growth as a reader. She engaged with my learning, held me accountable, and spent time talking with me about the books I was reading, partially because she often was reading them to me.

Your direct involvement in your child’s learning shouldn’t start with a book you hear has swear words in it. It should start with an involved relationship with your child’s all-around reading.

Curator of the University of Minnesota’s Literature Research Collections Lisa Von Drasek, says that “although there are no flashing signs of maturity to watch out for, simply paying attention to our kids may be enough.” (Washington Post) “Think about who your child is in the world before you think about the books you don’t want to hand them. Knowing the child is way more important than knowing the book,” she says.

“Knowing [your] child is way more important than knowing the book.”- Lisa Von Drasek, University of Minnesota’s Literature Research Collections Curator.

Here’s what it could look like to be involved in your child’s all-around reading:

• Going to the library with your child to see what kinds of books they check out
• Taking your child to the bookstore and looking at books with them
• Giving your child money for the school book fair with the proviso that they must use the money to purchase books
• Asking them about what they’re reading when you drive them home or while having dinner
• Have a family book that you read a chapter of each day together after dinner or that you listen to in the car when all of you are present
• Having a book that is just for you and one child to read or listen to together
• Enforcing a daily or weekly reading time/place for your household (i.e. no tech before bed, only books allowed in bedrooms, a “reading chair”, etc.) that you yourself follow.

You should also know that reading the book in question is eye-opening, not because of the content inherently but because of your probable reaction to it. Take, for example, an article I mentioned in the Teachers section about student and parent perceptions of the novel Thirteen Reasons Why which deals with suicide, bullying, and rape:

“The conflicts that we documented and analyzed in the dialogue and the rejection of student perspectives are also unique. Students and preservice teachers asserted the reality of the issues presented, such as bullying and suicide, and affirmed the capacity of youths to brainstorm solutions. Yet, in the conversation, the adults seemed to ignore the ability of teenagers to know what sorts of education or resources might best address the topics that parents feel are important from their perspective, even though the students shared the ineffectiveness of the types of programming they received thus far.”

Your denial of access to a book could be seen as a denial of the experience of your children which could disconnect you from them. The researchers suggest that,

“Adults might benefit from consciously attempting to read and understand from the perspective of youths so they can better empathize with adolescent populations and entertain discussions related to tough topics.”

It is possible that trust between you and your child can grow with discussions around books. Those discussions must be handled carefully and with authentic engagement/ accountability on your part. If they are there, you will learn about what makes your child uncomfortable in books and how you can be apart of their wrestling with hard topics. Gary Ivey and Peter Johnston explain what happens when students read disturbing-yet-engaging books in “Emerging Adolescence in Engaged Reading Communities”:

“We have documented countless instances of students recruiting others to their reading (Ivey & Johnston, 2013) because they wanted friends, teachers, and parents to work through points of confusion with them, to offer their perspectives, or just to share the intensity of the experience… Within a trusting community, intermediate and middle grades readers do not have to negotiate on their own unsettling information they encounter, and in our experience, they are not inclined to do so. This should make us less nervous about children who are choosing to read more mature subject matter and, frankly, more realistic, because rest assured, others will be talking with them about what they read.”

Students involve their community in their processing of the stories. There isn’t solo processing happening. They will work through what information is presented to them with the people that they trust which I hope includes you. You can help guide them in how to know when to walk away from a book; you can reexamine your own boundaries with reading to think of what constitutes a good reason.

Can a book have even a “closed door” sex scene for your child while still carrying literary value?

Can it have violence? Torture?

Can it have religious themes?

Can it include swearing?

Can it include relationship violence?

Can it include sexual abuse?

Speaking of sexual content (which is a terrible way to start a new thought but it’s the best I can do), parents of younger children, you should know that it is normal behavior for a 5-9-year-old to ask you questions about what sex is, how babies are made, same-sex relationships, and where babies come from (Government of Canada, 2012; NCTSN, 2009; Stop It Now, 2007; Stop It Now, 2020; Virtual Lab School, 2021). That is different from what the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (a UK non-profit) says is unhealthy behavior for a 5-9-year-old: to “have adult-like sexual interactions [or] discuss specific sexual acts”. What is healthy for each stage of development might be a good filter for you if you are trying to find a line that works for your parental judgment.

As I explained in the Teacher section, the research is unclear about any negative effects of reading mature stories due to “the long-term nature of reading” (Washington Post) and the nuanced influence of media; “Our research found that reading certain things does influence behavior,” says Brigham Young University researcher Sarah Coyne who studied swearing in adolescent literature but “you bring your personality to the situation… if you’re already a hostile or violent kid, the short-term effect may be to act out later.”

Worries about a book making your average child swear all the time should be assuaged. Stetson University psychologist Christopher Ferguson notes that “People’s fear of fictional media is greater than the actual threat, and parents often worry that kids will read and imitate, but I don’t think there is any good evidence for that.” Ferguson notes one exception in a small study he conducted in Texas: adolescents who have been struggling already. He “advises… parents to check in with their teens to determine whether they’re depressed or anxious and to ask why they’re drawn to the books they’re reading. In such cases, he says it’s likely that ‘the problem is not the book, but something preexisting.’”

Note the pattern: you connecting with your child has way more importance than you protecting them from books with “age-inappropriate” content.

Note the pattern: you connecting with your child has way more importance than you protecting them from books with “age-inappropriate” content. 

Author and parent Melissa Scholes Young offered her perspective; she reads books with her children, researches them ahead of time, and attempts to be present with her children’s reading. She also offers this: “I’ve never censored [my children’s] reading. I’d rather watch them stumble on their own reading discoveries than limit their exposure… the safest place for them to stretch their experiences is on the page.”

Don’t block.

Making the choice for your own child is a very different conversation than banning a book from an entire community. A June 2023 Edweek article interviewing librarians puts it this way:

“Librarians largely want to work with parents to accommodate their concerns and requests about what books their child should have access to…

The part that stresses out librarians is when a community member or parent asks for a book to be entirely removed from schools, as opposed to just restricting access for their child…”

Even partial censorship for a whole-school body isn’t the answer to keep content “away” from your child.

I posit that your level of comfort in having hard conversations about book topics should rise to normalcy before you suggest school-wide, grade-wide, or district-wide book bans. More than likely, parts of books you are concerned about are often not what a student will grow from or remember in a more mature book, according to researchers Ivey and Johnston: … students who chose to read disturbing texts were drawn to the moral complexities of the narratives more than any graphic detail.”

You should also know that certain things confound our ability to decide what is “appropriate” for all students who are the age of your student, the first being that “appropriateness” isn’t an agreed-upon standard. It appears that cultural norms, parental expectations, peer expectations and moral principles are what gets the most concern for “harm” rather than the actual effect of students reading “mature” content (see Teacher section).

In fact, rather than the more mature books showing a harm for students in their morals or their psychological health, Ivey and Johnston found that “The books reduced [students’] self-absorption, diminishing personal concerns that might otherwise overwhelm them. Bad words and disturbing scenes simply fed bigger conversations about life and relationships.” The very things that most parents probably want in their child’s growth (empathy for others and deeper conversations about what matters) came from reading books with “inappropriate” elements.

In their 2014 article “The Social Side of Engaged Reading for Young Adolescents,” Ivey and Johnston explain other findings:

“Reading engaging narratives about characters with complicated lives, they reported, helped them become more empathetic, less judgmental, more likely to seek multiple viewpoints, morally stronger, and happier. Yes, happier. They reported improved self-control, and building more and stronger friendships and family relationships…

Central to these changes, they explained, were conversations about the books with peers, teachers, or family members—whoever they could recruit for different perspectives on provocative or confusing parts. They pestered others, including parents, to read the books.”

If you are genuinely uncomfortable with your child reading a certain book, your first step is to talk to your child. If you are still uncomfortable after talking with your child (or attempting to read it yourself), consider contacting the teacher or librarian involved. If the book came from a classroom library, suggest to your child that they simply return it. If it’s a core novel that each student needs to read, consider the following:

• Read the book alongside your child (or, if they’re young enough, read the book to them!). You might find that a review you read about the book pulled a sentence out of context and isn’t as jarring or memorable as you suspected.
• Even if you read the book a long time ago, consider rereading it.
• Ask the teacher for suggestions on how to navigate the story. As I mentioned in the Students section, teachers might have a suggestion for skipping certain pages (i.e. paperclipping those pages) or reading a summary for a particular scene rather than reading it directly, both forms of chosen self-censorship or soft censorship.
• Talk to your student about the story as you go. Working through discomfort affords great opportunities for deep conversations that might otherwise have not happened.
• If you try all of the above and still think a student should stop reading the story, contact the teacher about potential alternatives (preferably in person). Setting up a meeting with the teacher to explain your concerns would not be ideal if you had not read the book yourself, though.

However, you should consider that self-censorship is a choice you might be asking your child to make rather than one you are making for yourself. Any choice of action you take should recognize that a) while you are their parent, b) you might be choosing to remove your student’s ability to grow and engage with a hard topic in a safe context they might not have again in school. Again, do not limit access to a book for everyone in your child’s age bracket or community.

HB 900, or the READER Act, passed in Texas in 2023. It mandates every book vendor label any book with sexual content being sold to schools with either “sexually relevant” or “sexually explicit,” blacklisting any vendor that does not comply under Sec.35.0003.c. (or doesn’t meet the deadline for labeling all of their books, which has since passed). One parent in a Texas school reacted this way: “I am tired of people saying ‘parent choice’ and not giving me a choice as a parent. You can’t choose for all the students.”

Instead, trust (your librarians, your teachers, and your children).

If you have a healthy relationship with your school-aged child, you’ll know at least some of what they are facing, but if you have a reading relationship with your child, you’ll see how they’re growing in exploration of ideas in real time.

Your school staff have systems built in place to help them make wise choices concerning curriculum and free choice. If you’re involved, there will be no break between you being a part of their learning and you finding out about a hard topic in a book.

The Ivey and Johnston’s 2018 research published in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy noted this:

“Parents reported welcoming opportunities for conversations, conveniently through book characters, about drugs, sex, relationships, and depression. The image of young people reading “dangerous” books alone, in secret, and in distress, was neither what we observed nor what the students described…The image of young people reading “dangerous” books alone, in secret, and in distress, was neither what we observed nor what the students described.”

Again, if you push for a book challenge that removes the book from your school’s curriculum, there are other implications. The NCAC’s open letter to Common Sense Media in 2010 explained it this way:

Unlike requests for alternative assignments, which most schools offer to parents who object to a particular reading assignment, most book challenges seek to have a book removed from the curriculum, library, or reading list, limiting access by all students. When they succeed, these challenges impose one set of views and values on everyone, including parents who don’t want to have the book removed. More importantly, the students are deprived of the opportunity to read important literature under the guidance of a teacher.

Isn’t it better to think of your child reading mature books knowing that they can process what they’ve ready with you?

Librarians: provide, know, and don’t be afraid or self-censor.

We already know that librarians across the US are tending towards not putting books in displays that have controversial topics. This is a dangerously slippery slope because it can lead to books being hidden from the readers that might enjoy them or even need them. Even something as innocuous as content ratings (on sites such as Common Sense Media) can have potential censorship implications. The National Coalition Against Censorship partnered with other non-profits and published a letter to Common Sense Media in 2010 detailing concerns in 3 main areas against content ratings:

1) the implication that certain kinds of content are inherently problematic,

2) the negative attitude towards books, and

3) the potential that the ratings will be used to remove valuable literature from schools and libraries.”

They also decry that by reducing a book to “a few emoticons that focus on only a small part of the content of the book, the ratings take material out of context and deny the message, intent, and value of the book as a whole.” It removes the ability for parents to make an informed decision about the book relative to the relationship they have with their child, let alone the self-censorship potential for a child. The letter goes on to say that “[parents] can make better and more informed decisions if they have information about the age appeal of a book, its literary merit, topical interest, thought-provoking potential, and entertainment value.” At least a few of those points are what you can speak to by virtue of your training as a librarian. Speak to their concerns rather than letting only rating services speak for you.

Provide.

Do what you do! Keep looking for books that are well-received by critics and other patrons, have literary awards, and/or are relatable to students.

We know that books representing the experience of our students are important, and censoring out books purely for a character having a particular experience can be negative; Azevedo says “I want every kid to see themselves in a book, and by taking a reductive view of a certain story, you are diminishing their lived experience.” Consider using the American Library Association’s Toolkit for choosing books “appropriate” for age level. However, you should not rely on one metric for checking book “appropriateness”, as slippery of a term as that is, for a few reasons:

1. Appropriateness isn’t an agreed-upon standard.

The National Coalition Against Censorship explains it this way in The Free Expression Educators Handbook:

“Some school officials conflate their duty to provide a safe learning environment with an obligation to suppress any material deemed “inappropriate.” The problem with using subjective standards such as “appropriateness” to evaluate learning materials is that they may conceal underlying ideological biases.”

When librarians have to decide what is inappropriate, they have to start by defining inappropriate; the American Library Association has guidelines for what variables should be a part of that equation, but it’s not a cut-and-dry answer. If the equation has only a “parent complaint” variable, each community’s “appropriateness” would be defined by the school’s demographics and biases.

The Free Expression Education Handbook, created in conjunction with the National Council of Teachers of English, also explains that red-flagging or labeling content as “inappropriate… encourages complaints and often leads to censorship”.

The Davis School District near Salt Lake City, Utah, banned the Bible from its elementary and middle school libraries after a parent filed a complaint in December of 2022. The outcry since shows that the intended target was not every book that had the objectionable topics.

2. Marking books as inappropriate for certain readers often slides to action rather than honest review.

PEN America released a Banned Books Week statement in 2016 explaining the situation another way:

In most cases, the complaint is reviewed by a school board or a special committee to determine the book’s future availability. In other cases, books are immediately removed from shelves or reading lists by teachers, librarians, or school administrators eager to avoid complaints and criticism. Even if a particular book challenge fails, teachers and librarians fearful for their jobs can sometimes avoid increased scrutiny by simply not assigning potentially controversial books or keeping them out of circulation or off displays. [Emphasis added]

PEN points out that book challenges are often aimed at works that “address race and sexual orientation, or that portray diverse characters;” that limits the availability to students to read about the “ full range of human experience.”

In 2016, a children’s book called A Birthday Cake for George Washington was stopped from further distribution because of public outcry against the portrayals of “happy slaves” (the author’s statement quoted elsewhere has since been removed). PEN America and the National Coalition Against Censorship wrote a joint statement recognizing the problematic portrayal while decrying its removal:

“There are books that can—and should—generate controversy. But those who value free speech as an essential human right and a necessary precondition for social change should be alarmed whenever books are removed from circulation because they are controversial.”

Know your books, your patrons, and your system.

Consider a system of “ask a librarian” rather than “MS or HS Only” because it can inform students if they could access books that might be cut off to them by school policy as long as they have parental permission and/or have a check-in with a librarian. Librarians, ask students if they have experience with particular topics, if they’re willing to talk about their experiences, and why they want to read the book if you’re concerned. Talking about it doesn’t increase their likelihood of doing the thing or a negative step in their health journey; sometimes, it’s exactly what they need to do (Suicidal Ideation or eating disorders, for example).

This isn’t a perfect solution and is still a form of soft censorship; I am aware. We don’t live in a perfect world, and this seems to help with that conundrum.

Don’t simply buy a book to stock your shelves because you’ve heard it’s good; this could reinforce your purchaser bias, according to researchers at the Cato Institute, an American Libertarian think tank. Use your 5 variables from the American Library Association to determine literary merit:

1. Authenticity
2. Public demand
3. General interest
4. Content
5. Circumstances of use.

The ALA also suggests “Be appropriate for the subject area and for the age, emotional development, ability level, learning styles, and social, emotional, and intellectual development of the students for whom the materials are selected.” (I know there is wide room for professional judgment here, but that’s hopefully the point). Here are some other guidelines from the NCAC’s “Adopt and Follow Book Selection Procedures” section of the Educator Handbook:

“School officials, including teachers and librarians, generally have broad discretion to select and review materials. However, this discretion is balanced by a professional responsibility to prioritize educational objectives and a legal and professional responsibility to maintain a viewpoint-neutral stance. Without clear objective criteria for the selection and review of instructional materials, schools are more likely to suppress educationally rich content in response to complaints. In schools, such pressure can come from parents, students, staff or members of the broader community.

Remember:

1. All decisions concerning instructional materials should be based on

sound educational criteria.

2. Decisions that are motivated by hostility to controversial ideas or by the

desire to conform to a particular ideological, political or religious viewpoint

violate the First Amendment.

By adopting and following clear policies for material selection and review, schools can make the resolution of challenges easier.”

If you’re being asked to swap out books, try to replace them with books that are still intellectually matched. There are some authors who are beloved because their novel templates are familiar, not because they encourage growth or engagement. I once tutored an ESL student who would only read Roald Dahl books because they could figure out what was going on partially from Quentin Blake’s iconic illustrations. Strive not to lower the level of the library overall if you are being required to swap out certain more mature texts.

The American Library Association presents another aspect that makes this work more important: sexuality and young adult patrons.

“For this age range, a greater range of sexuality is both more marketable and more widely accepted than ever before. Teens are faced with both family and community expectations for their sexual orientation and activities, yet they can and should reflect on their own feelings in the matter, as well as their peers’ activities and expectations. What can young adult librarians do to better serve this population? Know your community, know your collection, and aim to provide truthful and accurately written materials on your shelves in order to promote healthy sexuality in young adult patrons and a healthy environment for our young adult patrons to learn more about themselves.” [Emphasis added]

You should already understand your school’s policy for challenging books; if you need resources for that, the ALA has a guide for challenge support. Above all, look to help your patrons grow.

Don’t self-censor.

Librarians have already been asked to block books with soft censorship systems. Practices such as “leveling” books and reviewing books for “age-appropriateness” are already normal practice libraries. Some librarians have, as PEN America mentioned, stopped displaying books with certain themes, character experiences, etc.

If you are afraid of losing your job, I understand how you would adjust your expectations for yourself and the library space. I cannot judge the choice of librarians worried about being fired, especially knowing that many have been fired for far less. However, about ⅔ of school librarians in the US say that no book should be fully banned from a school library, according to a survey conducted by the Edweek Research Center in April 2023. You are backed by precedent to say that books belong in libraries, but context is key. It’s important for you to already know your school’s system for external parties challenging library books. It has been happening around the US from political groups who do not necessarily represent all parents in a particular district (or do not even have children in that district’s school system).

In Conclusion…

Regardless of whether you love book bans or hate them, I suggest to you that we should each practice book discernment rather than book banning. We should each make choices for what to read for ourselves and our own families but not for the families of others. We should each work to better understand what actually happens when students read challenging books. Here’s what Amande Mellili, head of the University of Nevada Las Vegas’s Teacher Development and Resource Library, has to say:

• Books help students “feel less alone, to help us make sense of a confusing world, and to help us understand the lived experiences of others.”
• “[Diverse] stories… feed our complex imaginations and allow us to develop empathy for people who are different from us, and this ultimately leads to communities built on foundations of decency.”
• “Not every book will appeal to every reader, but that doesn’t mean those stories shouldn’t exist or shouldn’t be made accessible. We would all love to live in a society where traumatic issues don’t exist, but ignoring the stories does not make the issues go away; it just makes people feel more isolated.”

Parents, at the end of the day, we teachers have to trust you to make the choices that are right for your child and your child alone. The NCAC says that “Ultimately, we believe parents know what’s best for their children, and each parent is responsible for supervising his or her child.”

At the end of the day, we all want to grow to be better people. Hopefully, we all see the value and power of reading as a gift, a weapon to tear down walls, a foundation on which to lay knowledge, a skill protected by book-curating educators everywhere, the last stronghold of civilization.

Privately, discern books. Publicly, protect books.

May they be read widely.

If you’d like more resources, visit the links below:

The History and Present of Banning Books in America (lithub)

United Against Book Bans

Sign ALA’s “Freedom to Read” Statement

Elementary Teachers, this blog post has some thoughts for how to guide student book choice.

Illinois Passes a Ban on Book Bans

Guidelines for Dealing with Censorship from the NCTE

The post What role should a teacher play in choosing books kids read? appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

This is partly because of my own professional development around different classroom management philosophies, partly from my own mental adjustment in response to student misbehavior, and also partly from listening to the way other teachers and myself talk to students. I feel enormously blessed to work at the school I do, and I think teachers in general have the best interest of students at heart. There are phrases, however, that I’ve heard both uttered from myself and other teachers that have made me wince. It’s not that any of these phrases below are inherently bad, rude, or would only be said by a teacher who is out of touch. These are just phrases that have left me questioning after I’ve heard or said them.

As I turn these phrases over in my mind, I want to think about the impact of our language as teachers. There is a lot of gray area when it comes to things like jokes and sarcasm, but more and more, I think about how something might be misinterpreted or remembered in a way that doesn’t put me in a positive light. I don’t want that to be my legacy in a student’s mind. I want to leave behind a positive, professional impression. I also don’t know what my off-handed comment might lead a student to think, either positively — in that they never saw themselves as a writer or good at math — or negatively — in that now they think I don’t believe they are capable or happy.

For these reasons, the phrases below are ones I try to actively avoid. Below I will also offer the replacement phrases that I have tried to use in my interactions with students. I believe that this is a work in progress, not just professionally but personally for me. Our language should be flexible and mindful. One of the most uncomfortable things I’ve done is record myself teaching and watch it back, but it really helps me reflect on what I’m doing and what I’m saying. This is the power of reflection, and I hope that this article, even if you don’t agree with everything I say, helps you reflect on your own teacher language.

#1 You must say yes if someone asks you to play.

Replacement: Is it possible to include them? What is your choice: play the game with ____ or play a different game? Is there a reason you don’t want them to play (talk to the student off to the side)?

As an elementary school teacher, this phrase is actually an expectation within my school that has been stated by the assistant principal and counselor, and it has bugged me for a long time. The intention behind it is that no student is purposely excluded from a game or bullied. The way this is often phrased to students is: “What do you say when someone asks you to play?” “Yes!” I think it is important to make space for students in a game, teach them to compromise, and work out our differences; however, I have found that when students don’t want to play with someone, it might be for a reason that’s more complicated. This is a chance for problem solving which requires nuance and not merely a command: you must play. Here are some problems I’ve come across:

• They just spent 10 minutes sorting out groups and don’t want to renegotiate teams
• That person was mean to them the last time they joined
• The group is getting too big for the game to work effectively
• That person tends to cheat, and they are tired of dealing with it

In these instances, saying “yes” and letting the person join in does not solve the problem. Instead, maybe consider these solutions to talk through with students:

• Let’s discuss what’s important and not important. Since this is just a game at recess, anyone can join in anywhere, and it’s okay if the teams are not perfectly balanced.
• Share your feelings with an “I statement.” I feel worried that you will be mean to me when you play this game. Can you be nice? If you are not nice to us, I will not want to play with you and will leave the game.
• Can we split the group into 2 separate games? Is there another game we can play instead that’s better suited to a large group?
• If you don’t want to play with them, you can leave and play a different game.

I personally think it’s helpful to teach students that if they are mean, if they cheat, if they are physically rough, others will not want to play with you. That is a logical consequence. As an adult, I love to play board games, but if I pitch a fit over rules, try to cheat, or brag about winning, others will not want to play with me. As a result, I will not be invited to play at other people’s houses. Perhaps we should be more open with that information with one another. If my behavior is inappropriate, I should not expect others to just include me because I want to play.

This whole scenario of being forced to say yes just because someone else asks is also an issue of consent. There is mutual consent going on when people are playing together. I do not think that consent is something that can only be taught as students get older. In fact, the earlier we can teach the idea of consent, the easier it can be applied to situations where it is more harmful if not followed. If someone asks you to do something, do we want to teach students that you have to say yes? Is that the message we want to send?

I think I have been taught that I have to say yes to someone’s request if someone asks me nicely, but I now believe that I can say no, even when someone asks nicely. I think there is a difference between bullying and targeting someone, telling them no repeatedly, and just being able to tell someone no in an isolated instance. So many teachers (women) were trained as children (girls) to say yes and be helpful and include someone regardless of how it made them feel. I think forcing a “yes” out of someone is a consent issue, and it’s one we can address better.

#2 “Friends”, “Boys/Girls,” “Gentlemen/Ladies” for students

Replacement: Scholars, Writers, Mathematicians, Scientists, Readers, Students, [4th…] Graders, Everyone, Caring/Kind/etc Students

There are many names we use for “students” and “class.” I personally have always told students that they were not my friends. A friend is a dynamic where the two participants are equal. They do not have to be the same age, but a teacher/student dynamic is not equal. As a teacher, even when I feel powerless in the school system at large, I have power in my classroom and authority over students. I determine many things about our space and time together. Therefore, I do not call students “friend” or “buddy”.

While this is arguably more important when teaching older students, younger students also need that professional line to be drawn. I have noticed that teachers or adults who use “friends” to address students tend to be more personally affected by misbehavior and students and they tend to experience a lot of disrespect from students in small ways (calling out, talking back, etc.)

One trend that is fading out is naming student genders (boys/girls, gentlemen/ladies). This approach varies widely where some teachers feel it is respectful, some teachers feel it is harmful to our LGBTQ+ students, some parents are upset when it is said, some parents are upset when it is not said. When I moved grade levels to teach younger students, I often felt that they were more obsessed with gender and more vocal about it than older students. They see things in black and white and want to know if an ambiguous character or video persona is a boy or girl.

I do not think we need to reiterate gender separation with constant reminders that this is who you are – a boy or a girl. With our language, we can give students an identity. If a student is unsure of their gender identity, then I am reminding them of that all day long if I use gentlemen/ladies. If a student easily identifies as a girl but feels like they are different from other girls, we might be reminding them of that feeling all day long without knowing it. Instead of making students feel respected and included, we are likely alienating certain students.

However you feel about pronouns, one small shift you can make is to not use gender-specific naming for your whole class. According to the Trevor Project, “having at least one accepting adult can reduce the risk of a suicide attempt among LGBTQ young people by 40 percent.” We as teachers are constantly informing the identity of students and their role socially. I believe this gender-neutral language is important at all levels of education. You can read more about LGBTQ-Inclusive and Supportive Teaching Practices here. 

#3 Sit down. Be quiet. 

Replacement: Show me how we listen to our classmates. How can you show respect to your classmates? What are the options for sitting on the carpet? Think about what you need to start class. Show me how to sit at your desk. What are the expectations for ____?

When we redirect behavior, we do not want to get into a power struggle or debate over our choices as educators. Since we do not want to linger and have to explain a myriad of reasons why a student should just be following the rules, we can clip our language to statements such as “sit down” or “be quiet.” I have heard these words come out of my own mouth when I was frustrated, but I did not like the way it made me feel even if everyone started behaving afterwards.

I’ve been trained in Responsive Classroom which is a classroom management philosophy. The teacher language I’ve learned through that course and their books has revolutionized my practice, and it’s something I continually try to improve. There are 3 types of teacher language: Reinforcing, Reminding, and Redirecting. Reinforcing language is positive, and I’ll talk about that next. Reminding language is a chance for you to help students adjust their own behavior. This is the difference between telling a student what to do and helping them recall a procedure they’ve already been taught.

Phrases such as “Show me…”, “What did we…”, “How can we…”, and “Think about…” are great sentence starters. I will force myself to just say “Show me…” and try to finish the sentence with an expectation so that I’m training myself to not just tell students what to do but help them be more successful in the long term by thinking about the consequences of their actions and how to participate in the classroom more fully. If you’d like to learn more, The Power of Our Words by Paula Denton and The Power of Our Words for Middle School are great resources.

#4 I like how….is doing it

Replacement: I notice…Did you notice…I see…You _____

Something I heard stated over and over again in classrooms when I was first in practicums by other pre-service teachers and younger teachers whom I felt I wanted to emulate was “I like how the class is getting started. I like how John is starting his work. I like how Bella is working quietly.” I heard these affirmations and thought they sounded like cheap praise which felt a little gross, but it also seemed to work. I was confused by what I didn’t like exactly. I never picked up the practice because it just didn’t work for my personality, but I wanted to provide encouragement to students and let them know when they did something well.

The solution I needed but didn’t know I wanted was reinforcing language. As I mentioned above, Responsive Classroom names 3 types of teacher language. Reinforcing Language should be the majority of our language with students. As most teachers will quickly tell you, some students need a large amount of attention and positive language. It is often those students that we end up reminding about behaviors so often that also need the most positive language reinforcement. We need to balance all of that redirection and reminding with reinforcing language about when they are meeting expectations.

These are not shallow statements meant to just praise following rules; these should be statements that specifically identify a strength in what the student is doing in the moment:

• I noticed you picked up those pens that fell out of Aidan’s bag.
• I see that you have checked your work for capital letters and periods.
• Did you notice how everyone in the room was so focused during writing class today?
• You made sure everyone was included in the math game today.

Here are more examples. This takes more effort than just stating “Good job!” but it’s more helpful to students when you specifically state what they’re doing well. What we notice and name is what students will pay attention to, also. If I slip up and say a generic comment or I’m starting to just say something like, “Nice work!” I will just tag on an “I notice” statement afterwards. Again, these are sometimes patterns that are quite ingrained, so it takes time to develop new patterns of behavior in ourselves. I will force myself to just start with “I notice…” when I come up to a student and look for something nice to say.

#5 Wow! You did that so fast! You’re so smart! 

Replacement: That seemed to be easy for you since you did it quickly. What can we do to challenge you a little more? Was there a part that was more challenging for you so we can work on that? Wow! You worked hard on that. I see your brain growing while you’re working on this. That mistake is helping you learn. 

The initial comments of “You’re so smart!” and “Good job!” might feel like positive praise that a student needs to hear. Again, when we are thinking about reinforcing language, we do not want it to sound empty and vague. We want to be specific and praise students for sticking with a problem. Since learning and reading about growth mindset, I have strongly steered away from praising speed. I explain to students that fast reading does not necessarily mean it was good reading, and I discuss the different paces of reading. I talk with my slowest readers about how sometimes they are the deepest thinkers (which is true; students with dyslexia tend to make deeper connections and are more global thinkers even though their fluency is slow). I talk with students about how being able to come up with multiple strategies in math and being able to think flexibly is more important than getting the right answer quickly.

Now, my reinforcing language is often about recognizing when students are sticking with the same math worksheet and focused instead of getting frustrated about why they haven’t moved on. Or I’m glad they’re reaching for a difficult text and working through the words instead of giving up. Believing that students can achieve difficult things, trying to find appropriate challenges for them, and encouraging challenge is all part of having a growth mindset focus in your classroom. I have found this to be particularly important in math class where students, parents, and teachers all have held onto the belief that some people are capable of doing math or have a “math brain” and others don’t.

Here are some resources specifically around growth mindset in math from the fantastic website youcubed started by Jo Boaler. One resource that I have personally used in my classroom is her Week of Inspirational Math. You can select videos and resources to share with students that set up your classroom at the start of the year (or restart your math classroom midyear) with challenges. The lessons include such mindset shifts as “Brains Grow and Change,” “The Importance of Struggle,” and “Speed is not important.”

I have also worked to not get too excited when a student makes zero mistakes. I might instead point out to a student that they are ready for a more challenging page in their packet. When I select worksheets for students, I put together a variety of pages that have varying levels of difficulty. I can then direct students towards different pages and allow students to self-select their differentiation. If a student is choosing the easiest pages to complete and then is bored, I can have a conversation with them about their focus in class and how they should be persisting through a more difficult page instead of completing whatever they can the fastest. This also helps my conversations with parents because I can refer to their work in a way that shows if their child is on grade level and achieving or reaching for challenges or needing remediation.

Similarly, if a student is reading 3 books in their 15-minute independent reading station, I can have a conversation with them about “just right” books. It’s okay to read easy books, sometimes; we all enjoy a treat every once in a while, but it’s not helping you grow. I can point out to students that it seemed too easy for them because it was so fast, so they should try to slow down and read a more challenging book.

#6 You must write before you draw. 

Replacement: Do you need to draw before you write to get into a flow? Use a sentence frame to get started. Could you draw out the word problem first?

I don’t remember where I first heard this phrase, but I think even when I was supporting in classrooms doing pre-service hours I noticed that there was a push towards focusing on the finished product. I’ve become more open to the idea of a thinking classroom where I want students to explore ideas and use thinking routines. I am less focused on the “correct” answer or final product when we are learning a new concept or in the beginning or middle of a unit of study. I realized that student writing tended to be better after they took time to think and draw. I also realized that student work in math tended to be deeper when students took time to draw or use manipulatives first. The way I feel I was trained to think was that drawing was something you did afterwards to explain what you wrote, add on if you had time, and make your work “prettier.”

I have almost gone the opposite way and tell students they should typically draw to get going and thinking or they should use manipulatives first. I noticed that most students benefit from the freeform thinking first; however, I think it should still be the student’s choice. We can present both starting with writing in sentences or in math, starting with numbers, or starting with pictures or manipulatives as valid options. Our brains work in different ways and the more we can share with students how to work WITH their own strengths, the better off they are. I have loved hearing students over time, share with confidence how they approached a problem. I also loved hearing how students might change their strategy day to day. “Today I felt like writing first because I had a great idea…” or “I wasn’t sure what to do first so I started with counters.” I love that the different approaches help students feel more confident in their own learning choices. It is empowering.

#7 We don’t need to talk about that at school.

Replacement: What makes you say that?

When a kid says “That’s gay” or brings up a high-tension subject or mentions someone’s race, I think many educators worry about saying the wrong thing or getting in trouble with a parent or an administrator. While not everyone has the privilege that I do as a white woman in society, since so many teachers are white women, I think it’s important for teachers in particular to take on the challenge of addressing these topics in the classroom. If a student says something that might feel uncomfortable for you to address, instead of shutting it down with “We don’t talk about that at school” or “Talk about that at home, please”, maybe try asking, “What makes you say that?” Your genuine curiosity might help a student reflect on their own word choice. What did they mean when they made that comment?

Help them reflect on whether it was truly kind or whether it comes from a place of knowledge or ignorance. In certain cases, it may help to define a word for a child, The word, ______ means _____. Is that what you mean right now? Can you see how using ____ word does not match what is going on here? If a child is pointing out a race, you can address an assumption head-on on such as, “What makes you say they come from Mexico?” or “What makes you think they are poor?” I can explain to students where someone was born and offer another perspective they might not have considered.

Almost every year I’ve taught I’ve had a student come in as an English learner with little to no English. These students have often gone to school in a home country where it was a very different experience of schooling for them there as it is here. My 2nd graders are particularly excited for new students and love the prospect of teaching someone English, but the lack of English often means in their mind that someone is uneducated.

They will tell me something like, “Wow! ____ did the math game with us and he understood how to add the numbers together!” They were genuinely happy, so maybe my first instinct would not be to chastise them saying, “That’s not nice” which it could be if they were saying he couldn’t play the game at all. I can still approach this interaction with curiosity, though. “Why might he still be able to play the game?” If they can’t answer me, I can explain, “He went to school before and he understands math. Do you think you can help him make more connections to math even without fully understanding English?” This type of dialogue can help students see their classmates as fully human with rich, complex lives they might not always see or understand. These types of conversations also remind me as the teacher of the language I’m using and how I want to talk about students and our classroom community.

#8 Always do your best

Replacement: What is your best today? Is this the best you could do with the time you had? How much time did you work on this? How focused were you during that time? Is this meeting expectations? Let’s look at the rubric/checklist together.

I brought this idea of avoiding the phrase “always do your best” up in a podcast interview I did with Angela a couple of years ago, and she ended up doing a full podcast episode around this idea. As a child, I was extremely perfectionistic. I loved pleasing teachers and doing the right thing. I enjoyed doing work well (and I still do!). I truly appreciate something done to a high standard; however, this can also get me into trouble.

In middle school, I was shifted from all general education classes to “extended” classes (aka advanced/gifted classes). I was quite stressed out by the changes in courses I had; the whole environment of 6th grade was a lot for me as an introverted, fairly shy student. I got an ulcer that year from the anxiety and stress of my school day and had to take medicine for it for a while. In fact, even when I felt better, I remember being anxious about going off of the medication. I would not have let this show to my teachers. I kept it all inside, and there was no way they would have known because my grades were exceptional, and it appeared as if I did all of my work without issues.

Also, I liked challenges so there were times when I was bored of the work I was doing and it would not have looked like I was stressed out over it. The messages I received from teachers were to do my best no matter what, to always raise my standards, to do more than was expected. Considering I naturally have this tendency, I could kick it into hyperdrive if a teacher focused on “doing your best” which to me translated as “do it perfectly and be THE best.” Since I became a teacher, I knew I didn’t want students to have this mindset reinforced by me. Sometimes good enough is good enough.

Instead of asking students for a generic “best,” have them compare their work with the standard. The standard might be a rubric or checklist you have provided. One thing I like to do in class is have students assess mentor papers or projects. They can use the rubric to grade a piece of work I’ve saved from previous years or one I’ve created. Often, students are quite critical of this work so it can help to clarify for them how I graded it. Their views and my views need to be in alignment in order for those evaluative grades to make sense. I would have appreciated this as a student instead of just imagining what I thought the teacher might want.

Some teachers worry this will stifle creativity, but I have not found that to be true. It helps students know where they should focus their effort and energy. Similarly, if I was stuck on something and would not stop my work, I can’t tell you the relief I would have had if someone had talked to me and said, “This is great work for 30 minutes. If you have more time, maybe you could have done more, but I only gave you 30 minutes.” As a student, I was expecting my absolute best at every moment. I panicked over timed writing assessments and timed work in general. If we can remind students that time affects our quality, I think that would be helpful in training students to focus on what matters most in each assignment. This is not just helpful for the classroom but helpful for life. We need to know as adults where to put our time and energy, what to prioritize, and how much time we have to spend on something.

#9 Okay? Right?

Replacement: Make your directions into statements and drop the questions.

One thing I’ve heard teachers say is adding “okay” or “right” onto the end of their directions. For instance, they might say, “It’s time to get out your notebooks, okay?” “You’re going to put that aside, right?” “We need to be nice, okay?” “First, you’ll open up a new Google doc, okay?” I think there are a few reasons why this might be a tendency. Foremost, it might be because teachers are actually looking for affirmation that students are paying attention and following along. I think it projects to students, however, a level of insecurity. It sounds like teachers are always asking for permission. If you’re asking students questions, they actually can say no to you.

When you add okay or right to a command, you’ll lift your voice up in tone and pitch because natural English speakers know this is how you ask questions and show you’re interested in an answer. The problem is when you’re giving a direction, you are not actually that interested in hearing a response. Even if you’re seeking confirmation that students are listening, no is not an answer you want. If you’re not genuinely asking a question, make it a direction and drop your pitch. When giving directions, we want to use a falling intonation where our tone of voice descends towards the end. If you’re not sure what I mean by this, here’s an article with examples of falling intonation.

#10 Silence

Replacement: What makes you say that? Does anyone else see it differently? What else could I say about that? What else might be true? Do you think that’s what _____ thought about it? (Introduce a hidden perspective)

It happens to me fairly frequently that I will hear a student say something or notice a student doing something that truly surprises me or makes me take a second glance or wonder if I actually heard them correctly. It might be easier to just brush these weird instances aside or tell other students, “Don’t worry about it” or just ignore it with silence, but there might be some great moments for conversation in these statements. For example, I was sharing some images with my class this year of American Indian artifacts. One of the images was of a doll. A student called out in the moment, “That’s creepy!” I could have handled this in a variety of ways.

First, I could have reminded the student to not call out and to raise their hand. I could have nodded or made some complicit gesture that showed I understood what they meant. I could have stated, “That is not nice” or “That is a rude comment” which likely would have shut down the comment and conversation altogether. To be honest, with many of these types of comments, I want to jump in and say, “That is not kind.”

A very common solution, though, is to just be silent. If I don’t know what to say, I might just dismiss it. I was extremely tempted to do this, but I asked instead, “What makes you say that?” and then “Does anyone else see it differently?” In fact, several students DID see it differently. They shared connections that it reminded them of other dolls they’d seen, they shared how they made connections between this doll and their doll at home, they explained how it was more difficult to find materials to make those dolls so they thought it was really creative how the American Indians used natural materials to make toys. I didn’t have to have the solution. I didn’t have to defend the ideas I wanted to present; I could let my students speak and allow that discourse to happen. Was this a bit of a divergent topic from my original lesson? Yes. Was it meaningful? Absolutely! It was even something I came back to when we worked on creating our own dioramas of American Indian homes.

“What makes you say that?” has become one of my all-time favorite phrases. I first learned about it through Project Zero as a thinking routine. I use it all day long for responses to correct answers, incorrect answers, puzzling comments, and unkind phrases. I love that it gets students to pause and think. It’s not a command to explain their thinking or justify an answer; it comes from genuine curiosity. It helps me stay focused on the student and where their thinking is because that helps me be a better teacher.

I hope that this article has given you some food for thought and reflection in your teaching practice. I believe this type of reflection on our words is ongoing, and I hope that this is something I continue to practice in my own growth as an educator.

The post 10 things I no longer say to my students appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

– Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori’s quote hangs on my wall at school, reminding me that in all I do, I am striving to create engaged, independent learners who take ownership of their learning. I do what I can to limit the time children are expected to sit and listen for long periods and try to encourage workshops where children can work at their own pace with autonomy and agency. This is when I see my students happiest, and the best learning occurs. But how do you make that happen for a room full of children with different needs? Math Menus are one way that has successfully worked in many of the classrooms I work in as an Instructional Coach.

In the classroom

My school has time every day devoted to Math Skills Block.  Some schools call it WIN time or “What I Need.”  It’s a time when instruction is differentiated to meet the needs of all the learners in the classroom. If you were to walk into a classroom during Skills Block, you would see some children working in small groups with a teacher, classroom aide, or specialist.  Some children may be pulled out of the classroom to receive IEP services.  Others may work independently or with a partner on math menu activities.  The room has a buzz, and people are moving about, working at tables, on computers, or gathering with friends on the floor to play a game together.  Overall, there is a sense of engagement where everyone works on math, but not all in the same way.

Some teachers use math menus with the whole class, and others use them for independent work, as they work with small groups of students for differentiated instruction.  Either way, it is a valuable way for children to practice and have fun with the math skills they are learning by using them in games and other activities.

Creating the menu

When creating a math menu, I always ask, “What skills do I want my students to have more practice with? What games or activities can help them practice these skills? What computer programs would be a valuable use of their time?” Then I gather ideas and organize them on a grid so children can choose between activities they want to do.

Before using the menu with kids, teaching, modeling, and practicing each activity with the whole class is essential to ensure students can work on each task confidently and successfully.  This can be done in small groups or with the entire class.

I always make sure to go over guidelines with students, such as making sure each choice is complete before repeating any of the activities on the menu or differentiating expectations on how many activities each student should complete by the end of the week and which ones are “must do.”  We also discuss which activities should be completed alone and which can be done with a friend.  Having a math folder available for students to keep their incomplete work during the week helps organize student work so children know what still needs to be finished.

Here are some examples:

Math Menus can be designed from simple to complex.  Some teachers just list the work choices on a grid, and others have a more elaborate theme, such as comparing math choices to choices on a restaurant menu with an order to complete them. One thing that most menus have in common is they often include review worksheets, games to play with peers, and time on a math computer game such as IXL, Prodigy, or Dreambox.  Children rotate between these activities to complete their choices within the time frame chosen by the teacher.

Sources for games

An excellent place to find activities for your math menu is in the math curriculum you use with your class.  Many math programs have game components you can teach to the whole class and then use as menu options.  Here are some of my favorite activities and games that I have included on math menus:

Tenzi:  Kids of all ages love this simple dice game and other dice activities.

Loops and Groups:  A simple game to practice multiplication facts.

Addition Top-It:  This can be played with number cards or dominoes to practice addition facts.

Board Games:  Games are a great way to reinforce math skills while playing with a friend.

Printable Math Games: Here are many printable math games and resources all in one place.

Illustrative Math Games:  Games for all ages sorted by skill and grade level.

Love Maths Games: Minimal materials are needed to play these games, usually just dice or cards.

Chalk Games:  If an adult can bring a small group outside, chalk games are always fun, like this multiplication labyrinth made for friends to hop along.

Assessment

One thing to consider is how you will assess students’ work on their math menus.  After students finish each activity, I ask them to have a teacher in the room initial that square on the menu to show it was completed, and they showed their work to an adult. For any paperwork students finish, I staple it right to the math menu so that at the end of the week, I can look through a child’s work packet and assess understanding by how many activities were completed and the quality of work attached to the menu.

When looking through students’ work, I may group kids by abilities and decide to pull small groups the following week based on skills they need more practice on.  For example, if a group of kids struggled with adding multi-digit numbers, I would pull them together to play a specific game with me the following week and reteach that skill.  The work samples I collect during skills time and the observations from myself and other teachers in the room help me form these groups.  At the end of the week, all work is sent home with a note commenting on how much each child accomplished.  It is an excellent way to communicate with parents and show them what their child is learning in math.

For my record keeping, I take a class list and record a check, check plus (+), or check minus (-)  to track who is completing grade level, above grade level, or below grade level work during math menu time.  Sometimes I will add a one-sentence note with observations from the week for each student.  I don’t always have the time to do this, but when I do, it is a valuable way to collect informal assessments for report cards and parent conferences.  It also helps me plan my instruction for the following week by assessing which skills students are mastering independently and which skills need more instruction.

Benefits of math menus

Using math menus is a great way to make math fun for your students.  Giving them autonomy and choice in their math learning helps them build independence, learn from their peers, and practice needed skills.  It also frees up teachers to pull small groups of students and differentiate review work as needed while the rest of the class works independently.  And it gives teachers time to step back and observe their students at work.  Teachers can pop in and out of groups, have informal math conversations with students, and get an overall sense of who their students are as math learners.  It is informative to watch and see which activities draw their attention and which ones they tend to avoid.  These reflections are valuable information when planning your math curriculum and deciding which activities best engage your students. The best thing about math menus is that they make math time fun!

The post The complete guide to independent math menus appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

As an educator and adult with ADHD, attention threatening to pull away from the person talking to me every few seconds can be quite damaging to the relationships I try to build with students. I’ve noticed as more things demand my focus, I am listening less. Last fall, I decided to improve my own listening by signing up to teach a workshop on it (deadlines are an excellent motivator for my learning).

My workshop was titled “How to Listen ‘Actively’ rather than ‘Deeply.” Researching for the workshop helped me to identify my own weaknesses in listening quickly. It still takes practice to use what I’ve learned, but recognizing where I was standing in relation to a mountain peak of “Great Listener” was a helpful first step.

You might be thinking, “Isn’t listening deeply important?”

Absolutely! Deep listening is a popular term across educational communities and beyond as good practice for engaged listeners. However, let me propose a visual:

You and a friend are waiting in the ocean for the next big wave to surf. Your friend is talking to you while they gently paddle alongside their surfboard. Suddenly, your friend tenses up. You sense something is wrong so you quickly dive the deepest you can go in the water. You are searching the ocean floor for signs of danger. While you are doing this, your friend is coping with a jellyfish sting meters above you as wave after wave crashes over them and their surfboard.

This is what can happen when our only focus is deep listening. What’s the disconnect here? You dove deeply to find the cause of the friend’s pain rather than paying attention to what was on the surface (or very close to it). This sounds counterintuitive for listening to someone, but it’s something we are missing (I say “we” but I really mean “I”). Jesus once told Martha that Mary had found the “one thing worth being concerned about:” sitting at his feet and listening to his words (Luke 10:38-42, NLT). Steve Covey writes this in his bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

Rather than listening to someone to figure out what you’re going to do about it, listen actively. This isn’t the opposite of deep listening, per se; rather, it’s taking deep listening— to pardon the ocean metaphor-turned-pun— deeper.

Take your listening deeper by noticing the surface

Dr. Roger K. Allen describes the “Art of Deep Listening” from his research. For the purposes of this article, I’ll be exchanging what he uses to describe “deep listening” for “active listening” since deep listening has somewhat lost meaning as a term in education circles.

Dr. Allen defines deep listening as “suspending judgment & being fully present with another person to understand his or her experience or point of view.” From what I have found in other sources, deep listening— especially with students— requires active listening, checking what is happening on the surface of the conversation as well as looking for what is happening underneath.

The United States Institute of Peace defines “Active Listening” as “a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding.” The institute points out that active listening “is an important first step” to calming tense situations and finding solutions, an important first step that we are sometimes skipping in our attempt to “really understand” what others are saying.

Here are some of the ways that I have found to listen not just deeply but actively.

1. Pause, seriously.

Wait a few seconds after someone finishes a thought to see if they have more to add. You might be surprised at how people are more likely to fill in their own blanks when given a few seconds (consider counting up to 7) to think back through what they just told you.

“Don’t rehearse your response while the other person is talking. Take a brief pause after they finish speaking to compose your thoughts. This will require conscious effort! People think about four times faster than other people talk, so you’ve got spare brainpower when you’re a listener. Use it to stay focused and take in as much information as possible.” (Harvard Business Review)

The United States Institute of Peace calls this concept “interested silence.”

2. Take notes, especially when you notice the person is opening up in an unintended way.

You could try saying, “I want to be sure I don’t miss what you’re telling me- is it ok if I write this down?”

This communicates to the other person that their words matter to you, that you are genuinely interested in what they have to say. Sometimes, apparent interest alone is enough to bring more important details to the surface.

3. Repeat the person’s words back to them at appropriate times (trying to leave it in their words rather than rephrasing it).

Use sentence frames such as “What I think I hear you saying is ____________________. Is that right?” or “So it sounds like ____________________. Is there anything I’m missing?”

These communicate that you are open to having your understanding so far adjusted for nuance. Oftentimes, nuance is the reason behind misunderstandings; with tenuously-balanced relationships or teetering conflicts, this can be vital.

5. Maintain attention.

Abrahams, Robin, and Groysberg in The Harvard Business Review suggest that “If you often find yourself distracted when trying to listen to someone, control your environment as much as possible.”

The article describes you setting intentions before you begin, using a written agenda (a more formal version of the notetaking strategy above), or even a whiteboard. I use the last method when helping a student brainstorm their Common App college application essay. For some students, this is the first time that they have to think seriously about their life narrative. Writing down their thoughts as they come out can help them see patterns.

Abrahams, Robin, and Groysberg add this:

“ If you do have a lapse in attention, admit it, apologize, and ask the person to repeat what they said. (Yes, it’s embarrassing, but it happens to everyone occasionally and to some of us frequently.)”

Admitting when I lose focus has been simultaneously difficult and freeing. It enables me to fix smaller mistakes in understanding that could have compounded to something much more difficult to surpass later such as losing the speaker’s trust.

6. Don’t impose your own opinions or solutions.

In many areas of our lives, we are required to both tell and listen to difficult topics. The British Heart Foundation offers suggestions for talking about health-related problems. Their suggestion: ask if the other person wants to hear your thoughts at all.

“In other areas of life too, most people prefer to come to their own solutions. If you really must share your brilliant solution, ask first if they want to hear it – say something like “Would you like to hear my suggestions?”

In Chapter 1 of How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber & Elain Mazlish, the authors give a list of possible ways to show children that you are really listening. These reasons work for adults as well.

1. Listen with full attention.
2. Acknowledge their feelings with a word—”Oh”… “Mmm”… “I see.”
3. Give their feelings a name.

Give them their wishes in fantasy. [The authors later explain this as a process similar to imaginative rehearsal, an opportunity to play out scenarios with possible decisions to see the end results.]

6. If the other person is getting more emotional, thank them for the effort it took to share. 

This was something I learned in a lecture on helping students feel safe in conversations with their peers in a controlled environment such as a socratic seminar. The speaker said it can really help to simply say “Thank you” when someone shares, regardless of the emotions of their words. Now, this can come across as cheezy if the context doesn’t fit, but if we are reading the room right, this can be a useful tool. It can teach the listener to be grateful for when others open up or share when it might seem more difficult to share their ideas at all.

Active listening has to be a choice

We have a running joke in my family about a vacation we took to Chicago a few years back. Every few minutes, one of us would point out a beautiful piece of architecture or an art installation; inevitably, moments later, someone else would point out the exact same thing, and we would laugh because we were all so engrossed in the sights as to not hear each other’s observations.

While this story makes me laugh, imagine if I had been on a field trip with students. Imagine if those students had vitally important things to talk to each other about while we were on that trip. Conflicts might have manifested simply from not being heard, the kind that could be seemingly insurmountable for a student.

While the “Deep Listening” model is a popular one for teachers to study, going back to basics- actively watching what cues the speaker is giving to us, seeking more information rather than a solution right away, even offering silent engagement as an indicator of processing- might be just as worthy.

Resources

Abrahams, Robin, and Boris Groysberg. “How to Become a Better Listener.” Harvard Business Review, 21 Dec. 2021.

British Heart Foundation. “10 Tips for Active Listening.” 10 Tips for Active Listening – Heart Matters Magazine, British Heart Foundation.

Covey, Steve R. (2004). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

What is Active Listening? (n.d.). What Is Active Listening? | United States Institute of Peace.

Allen, Roger K. “The Art of Deep Listening.” Dr. Roger K Allen, Conflict Management, Listening Skills, Self Empowerment, 27 Jan. 2021.

Testa, Italo. “The Imaginative Rehearsal Model – Dewey, Embodied Simulation, and the Narrative Hypothesis.” Pragmatism Today, 10 July 2017.

Faber, Adele, and Elaine Mazlish. “Chapter 1: To Help With Feelings.” How to Talk so Kids Will  Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk, Lagom, London, 2022.

The post How to listen actively (rather than deeply) in difficult or vulnerable conversations appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Middle schoolers could keep track of assignments, due dates, and the length of time it would take to complete their assignments. They also were traveling to and from school on their own. Some of them were responsible for younger siblings as well.

In high school, the level of responsibility for students increases even more. Some students are juggling school and work. Some are caretakers for family members and may even have children of their own. High schoolers are also thinking about their next step — whether it’s to enter the workforce full-time, attend an institution of higher education, or a combination of the two.

As both a classroom teacher and an instructional coach, I’ve developed tips for supporting students in cultivating and developing their time management skills.

Learn your students’ why and invest them in committing to it

Part of adolescence is figuring out who you are and what is important to you. Here are some prompts to encourage students to reflect on why managing time is important to them:

• What will change when your time is effectively managed?
• What changes will others observe in you when your time is effectively managed?

Ask students to reflect on a time when they effectively managed their time.

• How did you do it?
• Describe the process.
• What was the result?
• How did you feel before, during, and after the process?
• What, if anything, is transferable from that experience?
• What did you learn about time management and about yourself throughout that process?

Also, consider brainstorming scenarios and examples with students so that the students who aren’t able to recall or articulate moments of well-managed time can begin to develop insight and experience.

Provide time to use a planner in class

Break work into manageable chunks when you can. Show students how to break their work into manageable chunks on their own. This is a great use of the gradual release method!

When I was a middle school homeroom teacher, I fashioned a section of the whiteboard to look like a page in my students’ planner. It was divided into their core subjects and also had an “other” section. We had 30 minutes of homeroom in the morning and thirty at the end of the day. 10 minutes during the morning homeroom was dedicated to students familiarizing themselves with what they had planned for the day; 10 minutes of the afternoon homeroom was dedicated to students updating their planners.

Additionally, I displayed a large calendar in the classroom with important dates such as assignment deadlines; midterm and finals weeks; showcases; science fairs; conferences; and assemblies.

Your goal as a teacher is to model and aid habit-building both visually and verbally with students. Prioritize practicing on a predictable, low-lift basis.

Engage the research about proven strategies

Encourage students to learn more about how others around them manage their time. This is a culturally responsive approach to time management since no one size fits all when it comes to students finding a method that works for them.

Also, introduce frameworks such as the Pomodoro technique, to engage in focused work. You can also gamify the Pomodoro technique. Here is a link to ideas on how to do so: FTW: 4 apps that make a game out of getting things done | PCWorld

You can also share the neuroscience of procrastination and deep work.

• Here is a great book to help teachers help their students: GTD for Teens – Getting Things Done®
• Here is a great resource for students from the National Honor Society:  Time Management | NHS

Partner with parents/guardians and colleagues

Along the lines of conducting research as aforementioned, consider how can parents and guardians can be partners in this effort to help students cultivate and improve their time management skills. They know their children best. Invite them to weigh in via survey or through a session. When possible, they can support the process of creating and holding students accountable to individualized plans.

Furthermore, partner with your colleagues. For example, perhaps your colleagues can offer a study hall period with a menu of options for students to not only study but to organize, reflect, make decisions, and plan ahead. Another idea is to norm as a grade team or content team on which methods you will incorporate into your classes to support students in building their time management skills.

Student-created accountability plans

Teach students how to create accountability systems–one of them being selecting an “accountabilibuddy.” This person should be someone of the student’s choosing since accountabilibuddies need to share a positive rapport. Here is an inspirational Twitter post to inspire you! Miss Ervey Class- Accountabilibuddies

Normalize asking for help

Unexpected things happen! De-emphasize perfectionism and feelings of shame when students mismanage their time. Instead, have students create backup plans. It can sound like “If ____, I will_____.” This allows students to lean into a growth mindset and stay on track after a setback. Empower students to ask one another for support, to ask a trusted adult, and to do their own research (there are plenty of books and websites with effective strategies and tools!).

After all, the word “management” is derived from the Latin word “manus”, which means “hand.” In this sense, managing something — in this case: time — means it’s in one’s hand to control. Empower students to believe that the way they handle their time is within their locus of control! The big picture is that developing and fine-tuning time management skills is a timeless endeavor and lifelong skill!

The post Culturally responsive time management strategies to empower middle/high school students appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

And I get why. We spend a ton of time with our students. It’s inevitable that we notice odd bruises, outsized reactions, or a persistent wheezy cough.

But the truth is, we’ve had extremely limited training to deal with concerns beyond education. We simply aren’t qualified, and in my case, it’s not why I became a teacher in the first place. I became a teacher because I love education and kids, and the confluence of those two things inspired me. It still does.

And yet, our students’ home lives, which are sometimes riddled with traumatic events and circumstances, do affect their ability to learn. So I want to suggest, not that you become an ad hoc therapist, but rather that you consider classroom practices that can help your traumatized students learn.

What are ACEs and how do they present in the classroom?

Adverse childhood experiences (also known as ACEs) can have profound and lasting effects. When people experience traumatic events or situations as a young person, such as having an incarcerated parent or experiencing abuse, there are effects, and the effects are sobering. Consider a few:

• Serious chronic health conditions, such as heart disease and cancer
• Mental health conditions
• High-risk behaviors
• Poor social outcomes, such as lower graduation rates and persistent underemployment

You’ve seen the effects of ACEs in your classroom. Students who have had multiple adverse experiences are far more likely to have chronic truancy, repeat grades, behave unpredictably, and fail to make learning gains.

Here are other ways trauma-connected behaviors might show up in your classroom:

Marguerite seems unable to control her body. She never sits at her desk but instead constantly roams your classroom, touching other students and their stuff. 

Joseph seems incapable of showing empathy or compassion. For example, last week, when another student cried because an elderly relative had died, Joseph laughed.

Mikayla freezes when faced with new situations or transitions. Movement between classes, a new activity, or even a simple quiz immobilizes her.

Josh isn’t making any learning gains even though he participates in targeted interventions. A thorough evaluation showed no evidence of a learning disability.

Davon has poor response flexibility, which is the space between impulse and action. The threat of consequences has little effect. He seems unable to pause before acting out. 

As it turns out, though, there is good news. Researchers at the Harvard Center on the Developing Child note that the younger the brain, the less effort is required for that brain to change. You elementary school teachers have so much power to help students quickly overcome trauma. But even we high school teachers can take heart. The brain remains elastic enough to undergo change throughout our lives. It’s not until we reach our 20s that the effort becomes more difficult (although still very much possible).

How to help traumatized students experience success at school

There are four main ways we can help traumatized students be successful in our classrooms—and, at the same time, improve the school climate for all of us.

Technique #1: Coaching behaviors

When faced with unpredictable student behavior, my inclination is to take it personally. I think, Well, if I had a better relationship with this kid or if I’d done a more solid job of establishing classroom routines, Marguerite wouldn’t be wandering around or Davon would stop acting out.

But the truth is, I didn’t cause the trauma. And depending on how long it’s been going on, it may take some time to reverse its effects.

Once I’ve reminded myself that the situation isn’t a personal attack, I can better respond.

It’s important to take a moment or two to consider my own reaction and how it may be contributing to the situation. A good guiding question is, How can I respond in a way that helps the student regulate their behavior, feel more connected to our environment, and disarm all of our fears?

Allowing students to re-do the moment is huge, and that’s where coaching comes in. When Jose kicks desks on the way to the bathroom, consider saying, “Jose, let’s try that again. Show me you can walk to the bathroom without kicking any desks.” Do-overs are an extremely effective way to retrain our brains.

Incorporate compromise into your interactions with traumatized children. I was recently at an incarceration site when a student threw his papers on the floor and told me, with a very colorful vocabulary, that he was declining to participate. I picked up the papers, set them on the corner of his desk, and wrote the answer to the first question on his paper. A few minutes later, I saw the student working. Even though we didn’t talk through a compromise, I demonstrated how to (“I’ll do the first one …”), and it worked.

Compromise conversations can be effective, too, especially when you encourage the student to make the proposal. This gives them a sense of agency and control when their home experiences may have given little of either.

Last, offer students choice — positive choice. A choice between “sit down or get a referral” isn’t really a choice. Plus we know that punishment without a relationship can backfire. Consider, instead, offering a pencil, pen, or marker to complete an assignment. Or, allow a student to choose odd or even numbered problems, select the order of worksheets to complete, where in the classroom they’d like to work, or whether or not they want to partner with another student.

One more word about coaching behaviors … there absolutely are times when a consequence for inappropriate behaviors is the right answer. I would never suggest letting inappropriate behavior go unchecked. The idea is to think about how. Studies tell us that punishment can actually reactive a person’s trauma. That’s the last thing you’d want to do, of course. What works for me is to correct with kindness.

Remember, too, there’s a delicate balance between structure and nurture. Adherence to routines and rules can be very helpful for some students with multiple ACEs, but for others, those very same rules can feel insurmountable.

Technique #2: Emotional regulation strategies

I confess, I’m not great at the coaching behaviors with my students, but I shine with regulation strategies. These are tricks you can arm your students with to help them regulate their own behaviors. I think that’s why I like this group of ideas so much; I can let go of my own monitoring by giving students more agency to attend to their needs.

Essentially, your goal with regulation strategies is to help students create a tiny self-distraction. This gives them to space to calm down, re-focus, or simply take a breather.

Examples include listening to music through headphones, doodling, taking a few deep breaths, running a quick errand for you, coloring, or doing a puzzle. These are not meant to last a long time. These are quick activities that can give a student a moment to get it together.

Over time, your traumatized students might be able to reach for these self-monitoring strategies on their own. That’s the magic of self-regulation strategies … they can free you from having to constantly monitor issues that feel unrelated to teaching.

Keep in mind, regulation strategies are not meant to replace classroom work. If Damien insists on coloring instead of completing his lab report, it’s time to back up to some of those coaching behaviors we talked about earlier. Compromise might be just the ticket.

Technique #3: Engagement practices

The number one question I get from teachers is how to be more engaging. The teachers in my community are constantly looking for ways to engage their kids that are fresh and effective, especially in this current climate of incessant testing.

I tell you this to say, engagement strategies are good for all of our kids, not just ones who’ve had past trauma. This is a win. Using engagement strategies is likely something you already do, but there are particular ones that can be especially helpful for our traumatized students.

Two easy ones to incorporate with zero preparation are eye contact and voice quality. Students suffering from the effects of ACEs do well with quieter voices, spoken to them from a close range rather than from across the room. Similarly, sitting down next to a student or squatting down to their eye level reduces their anxiety. This is called behavior matching and research shows, it lowers a student’s heart rate and stress.

Also consider adding games and playfulness into your routines, especially with older students who may not have experienced these at home. Even something as simple as a riddle of the day can help a student with unease. When a student is laughing, their defenses drop and they don’t feel afraid.

All of these engagement strategies create a slight increase in dopamine. That’s the feel-good chemical our brains release when they’re relaxed and happy. And we all know, relaxed and happy brains are brains that are ready to learn.

Technique #4: Instructional ideas

Good news! The instructional ideas that will help your kids with ACEs will help all of your students. The difference is that the efforts described here have been known to be especially effective for students dealing with the effects of trauma.

Traumatized students frequently experience overwhelm. This overwhelm results in fight (misbehavior), flight (avoidance, shut-down), or freeze (brain unable to learn) responses. The best way you can combat this overwhelm is through chunking. And I do mean chunk everything.

Break down every aspect of your lessons into bite-size pieces. This is where you want to be thinking about the order of instruction in your lessons and gradual release for student practice. If these ideas are unfamiliar to you, set up some time to work the instructional coach on your campus.

Be sure you are also making your expectations for student work clear. Model exactly what you’re looking for when you engage in whole or small-group instruction. Provide anchor papers and sample work. Even providing partially completed assignments for your overwhelmed students can be extremely helpful and encouraging as you gradually move them to more independent work.

Clear expectations are critical for students with ACEs. The research tells us that these particular kids struggle with “gray” areas or instructions that leave them guessing. Concrete, black-and-white examples and clear directions set them up for success.

One more thing to consider … kids who have experienced challenging backgrounds may be completely unfamiliar with effective study practices. Explicitly teach these study habits (in very small chunks!):

• Time management
• Organization
• Note-taking
• Memorization tricks
• Goal setting
• Active listening
• Testing tips

Final thoughts

It may feel like having to get crafty with our students who have unpredictable behavior, extreme emotions, or frustrating learning issues is just one more thing on our already very overloaded plates. I fully acknowledge we are asked to do too much.

Perhaps, though, incorporating just one or two of these ideas into your teaching practice might actually reduce your workload. As you provide a safe learning environment for your students who have experienced trauma, the amount of time you spend re-teaching or correcting will likely decrease.

For more information about ACEs and toxic response, check out Nadine Burke Harris’s book The Deepest Well (2018). Also, consider screening Paper Tigers (2015) with your colleagues. This documentary follows six high school students over the course of a year as they participate in a trauma-sensitive program.

Last word, and perhaps the most important one of all: be sure you are attending to your own needs through this process. Working with traumatized students can be, well, traumatizing. Build yourself a support system and self-care practices that ensure your own good health. As one of my favorite teachers frequently reminds me, “Take good care of you.”

The post 4 trauma-informed approaches that help kids with ACEs (and benefit your entire class!) appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

I can relate.

When I taught 6th grade, at times I had English learners with limited literacy in their home language or English, and I also had students who were reading above grade level by years and interested in Young Adult literature. That is a huge span of reading levels, but they are all emotionally 6th graders. They typically watch the same tv shows and movies, are interested in the same pop culture trends, are curious about the same current events in the news, and are obsessed with the same YouTubers or TikTok trends.

Most books are written in such a way that they are geared towards the typical aged reader for that level. This works for the “average” reader, but teachers know that classrooms do not merely comprise grade-level readers.

While I would personally say the task of curating a classroom library has been easier as a 2nd-grade teacher, I still have students spanning kindergarten-4th grade reading levels.

I love my classroom library. It is my pride and joy. So, I have put effort continuously each year I’ve been teaching to gather up more books that are windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors to my students, that are highly engaging for book clubs, that are appropriate for all levels of readers. I am an avid reader myself reading 1-3 books per week. While enjoyable, it can be an arduous task to select books for a diverse classroom of readers.

The purpose of this article is to provide a few recommendations for each grade band and give you some tools to support readers within different text bands. I’ll share my recommended lists, including free decodables for students learning to read cvc words, picture books with diverse characters, engaging novels in verse and graphic novels to hook reluctant readers, and more.

Use text bands to broaden a student’s reading “level”

I first heard about text bands at a TCRWP Reunion in New York. The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project promotes a workshop model for reading and writing and has numerous units of study as a curriculum and many resources available for teachers. When I was at a session on reunion day, I heard about using text bands to help select books for readers.

There are certain text levels that are more pivotal turning points than others. Here is an example document of characteristics of different text bands. The levels here refer to guided reading levels. There are multiple ways to level texts and one level does not accurately state everything there is to know about a book. When we look at text bands, though, we can group students within a band together to read for a book club.

For instance, if a classroom has a group of students reading across N, O, P, and Q levels or approximately in that range, they can be grouped together to read, for example, a text labeled as P. The N and O-level students may need some scaffolding and support, but the students can still be reading within the same text band since those book levels are grouped better together due to the characteristics of that level of the text.

If a student is reaching within their text band (at the lower end of the text band) then they may need some extra check-ins with the teacher or stop and think post-it notes planned ahead in their book. This will help the student reach for that more difficult text while still being within a zone of proximal development. Consider how you can work within a range of reading levels for each student versus only one cut-and-dry number or letter designation.

I am not a fan of leveled classroom libraries or leveling books with only one measure (Lexile, Guided Reading, etc.). Levels can however help us get information about a book’s characteristics or writing style even though it’s not going to tell us everything about a book.

A student’s reading level similarly does not tell us everything about a reader. Just because the student’s level J and the book’s level J line up does not mean that that book will be a good fit for that reader. This is another reason why it’s helpful to keep in mind a broader band of options for each reader where they can read within a range of levels. If you want to read more about why I think you should Let Readers Reach you can check that post out.

A word on audio: decoding and comprehension

In this article, I am not going to discuss audiobooks or podcasts. Those are excellent sources for readers, and I am not discouraging them at all. If you’d like to learn more, you can listen to a great interview and Truth for Teachers podcast episode with Angela on Listenwise which details the benefits of integrating listening skills into your classroom.

How to use podcasts in the classroom as a tool for equity and differentiation (with Listenwise)

When we think about reading as comprehension and following a story or synthesizing a main idea, listening is 100% reading; however, we also need to teach students phonemic awareness – how to sound out words, manipulate phonemes/sounds, recognize spelling patterns, how speech and text are connected, etc.

Decoding is a main thread in the world of reading and as teachers, we can’t dismiss this entirely. Therefore, in this post, I’m going to share book recommendations with the idea that students are decoding these words in print and/or decoding while listening to an audiobook concurrently.

In my experience, even readers who are far behind grade level desperately want to read a book in their hands and keep up with their grade level peers. The recommendations I’m sharing are intended to make that experience happen for kids.

Keep in mind that I am grouping grade levels together for ease of skimming for you as the teacher. By all means, look at any grade level and any book; it may be what you were looking for even if it’s not labeled with your particular grade range.

Picture Books

For primary students, picture books can be a great equalizer. While picture books can be great at all grade levels, for independent reading, they tend to be more popular in primary grades.

Many reaching readers will enjoy rereading a text you’ve read aloud in class since they can fill in the gaps they otherwise might have missed independently. I also have found it easier to find picture books with more diverse characters than early reader series. Picture Books also offer rich vocabulary in an accessible package. Here are my favorites.

• Abuela by Arthur Dorros
• All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold
• An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long (Nonfiction animal series)
• Dreamers by Yuyi Morales
• Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson
• Eyes that Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho
• Home is In Between by Mitali Perkins
• Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball by John Coy (Nonfiction)
• Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall
• Just Ask! By Sonia Sotomayor
• Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena
• Over and Under the Pond by Kate Messner (Nonfiction animal series)
• Powwow Day by Traci Sorell, Madalyn Goodnight
• Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn
• Same, Same, but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki Shaw
• Saturday by Oge Mora
• Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean’s Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating (Nonfiction)
• The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson
• The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
• Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto
• What Will You Be? By Yamile Saied Méndez

Decodable Books

For students learning to read, decodable books are those books that can be sounded out easily. They follow predictable phonics patterns and include very few high-frequency trick words/sight words that break rules.

Decodables reinforce word patterns and build confidence in readers. These are essential for students learning to read and are great for those students who need more explicit practice reading word patterns, so they could be used for older students building confidence in reading skills as well.

Decodables for Learning to Read:

• UFLI Toolbox (all free) – also includes lessons in slides to use
• Just Right Readers Decodables e-library (all free)
• Beyond Decodables (all free)
• SPELD SA Decodables (all free)
• UFLI created this Decodable Text Guide which links not only to their decodable passages but to other passages as well from different sites and collections by text feature. Some of the links in the spreadsheet are to reputable companies where you can purchase books (Alphabet Series, Flyleaf, etc.)

Book recommendations by grade level

There are many, many lists out there of which books are the right level for each grade. Below, I am aiming to narrow down that list by doing two things. First, I’m purposely including texts that have more cultural diversity. This is because I find that “Top 10” lists for grade levels and books you may have inherited from retired teachers tend to lack these titles.

Second, I am trying to give you the titles I’ve seen as the most popular among students I’ve taught. That is not to say it will be the same in your context, but I think it’s a good starting point. Also, I am sure that every person reading this will think, “How could you not include THIS book?!” I might have forgotten it or I might just not know about it.

Feel free to add it in the comments! I’d love to hear other recommendations. Also, I can’t list every single book I love in the lists below (although I think I’ve almost tried!)

2nd & 3rd grade Reaching to Read:

• Dav Pilkey Graphic Novels: Mighty Robot, Dogman, Captain Underpants – graphic novels (F series)
• Dragon by Dav Pilkey (F Series)
• Elephant and Piggie Books by Mo Willems (F series)
• Hi Fly Guy! By Tedd Arnold (F Series)
• J.D. the Kid Barber by J. Dillard (J.D. and the Great Barber Battle – F Series)
• Katie Woo Series by Fran Manushkin and Tammie Lyon (Katie Woo Series – F)
• Katie Woo and Pedro Mysteries by Fran Manushkin (F Series)
• Ling and Ting by Grace Lin (F Series)
• Meet Biscuit! (I can read F series) by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and Pat Schories
• Meet Yasmin! by Saadia Faruqi (F Series)
• Pedro’s Mystery Club by Fran Manushkin (Pedro Series – F)
• Princess in Black by Shannon and Dean Hale (F Series)
• Ruby Lu, Brave and True by Lenore Look (RF Series)
• Sadiq and the Pet Problem by Siman Nuurali (F Feries)
• The Toad: Disgusting Critter Series by Elise Gravel (NF)
• Vivi Loves Science by Kimberly Derting (also available as I Can Read F series)
• Your Friend, Parker by Parker Curry, Jessica Curry (Ready to Read F series)
• Zoey and Sassafras by Asia Citro (Dragons and Marshmallows – 1F Series)

2nd & 3rd grade Strong Readers:

• A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy (F)
• Amelia Bedelia by Herman Parish (F Series)
• Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey (F series)
• Gone Fishing by Tamera Will Wissinger (RF, Novel in Verse)
• Matilda by Roald Dahl (F, Fantasy)
• One and Only Ivan (and One and Only Bob) by Katherine Applegate (novels in verse) *also great for reaching readers in secondary if you’re doing a novel in verse or poetry unit
• Precious Ramotswe by Alexander McCall Smith (RF Series)
• Spy School by Stuart Gibbs (F Series)
• The Witches by Roald Dahl (F, Fantasy)
• The Year of Billy Miller & Billy Miller Makes a Wish by Kevin Henkes (RF series)
• Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland (F Series)

I Survived Series Lauren Tarshis (HF Series) *also great for reaching readers in secondary if you’re doing a historical fiction unit

4th & 5th Grade Reaching to Read:

• Ada Lace on the Case by Emily Calendrelli (F Series)
• Annie Sullivan and the Trial of Helen Keller by Joseph Lambert (NF graphic novel)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (F series, lots of visuals)
• Dory Fantasmagory by Abby Hanlon (F Series)
• Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows (F Series)
• Jada Jones, Rock Star by Kelly Starling Lyons (F series)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
• Franny K. Stein by Jim Benton (F Series)
• My Weird School Series by Dan Gutman (F series, humor)
• Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea by Ben Clanton (F graphic novel)
• Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales by Nathan Hale (HF series, graphic novel)
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Narnia series) by C.S. Lewis (F series, fantasy)
• What if you had Animal Hair? by Sandra Markle (NF Series)
• Who Is?…What Is?…. Series (ex. Who Was Anne Frank? NF series, biography)
• Who Would Win? by Jerry Pallotta (NF Series)
• Zapato Power Series by Jacqueline Jules (Freddie Ramos Takes Off – F series)

4th & 5th Grade Strong Readers:

• Allies by Alan Gratz (HF; other books by Gratz also are great)
• Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston (Fantasy series)
• A Night Divided by Jennifer Nielsen (HF; other books by Nielsen are also great)
• Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation by Ari Folman (NF graphic novel)
• Big Fat Zombie Goldfish by Mo O’Hara (F Series)
• Crossover by Kwame Alexander (RF, novel in verse)
• Little White Duck: A Childhood in China by Na Liu, Andres Vera Martinez (graphic novel, NF)
• The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen (HF)
• The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer (Cinder – 1st book in F series, sci-fi)
• Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell (HF, novel in verse)
• Track Series by Jason Reynolds (novel in verse, F series – Ghost, Patina, Sunny, Lu)
• Voyagers: Project Alpha by D.J MacHale (1st in F series, sci-fi)

Secondary readers

I am not going to list recommendations for stronger readers for middle and high school since I think those are easier to compile for educators. As students get older, there are two genres in particular that I find helpful to keep engagement up: Novels in Verse and Graphic Novels.

Graphic Novels offer picture support for students and can be rigorous for comprehension still. Novels in Verse allow students to read a book that feels big or “grown-up” while still offering bite-sized lines to read. These also tend to get to the essence of a story more quickly which can be engaging for readers. You can read more about why I love graphic novels here & novels in verse here.

Authors

In addition, here are a few authors I’d highly recommend for approachable and engaging books:

• Elizabeth Acevedo
• Kwame Alexander
• Don Brown
• Joseph Bruchac
• Matt de la Pena
• Alexandra Diaz
• Alan Gratz
• Thanhha Lai
• Jason Reynolds
• Angie Thomas
• Padma Venkatraman
• Jacqueline Woodson

More Accessible Texts for 6th & 7th & 8th Grade:

• A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park (NF)
• Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon (NF, biograph, graphic novel)
• Behind Rebel Lines: The Incredible Story of Emma Edmonds, Civil War Spy by Seymour Reit (HF)
• Booked by Kwame Alexander (RF, novel in verse)
• City of Ember by Jeanne du Prau (F series, dystopian)
• Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans by Don Brown (NF graphic novel)
• El Deafo by Cece Bell (F graphic novel)
• False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen (F series, Fantasy)
• Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson (F, dystopian)
• Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins (F series, The Underland Chronicles)
• Hidden by Helen Frost (RF, novel in verse)
• Holes by Louis Sachar (RF novel)
• House Arrest by K.A. Holt (RF, novel in verse)
• Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai (F, novel in verse)
• I Survived Series Lauren Tarshis (NF Series)
• Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina (RF)
• Miles Morales: Spider Man by Jason Reynolds (F, fantasy)
• New Kid by Jerry Craft (F, graphic novel)
• Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas by Jim Ottavani and Maris Wicks (NF graphic novel)
• Refugee by Alan Gratz (HF)
• Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow by James Sturn (NF graphic novel)
• Save Me a Seat by by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan (RF)
• Taking Sides by Gary Soto (RF)
• Tetris: The Games People Play by Box Brown (NF graphic novel)
• The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya (RF)
• The Great American Dust Bowl by Don Brown (NF graphic novel)
• The Thief of Always by Clive Barker (F, fantasy)
• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (F, mystery)
• Trapped in a Video Game by Dustin Brady and Jesse Brady (F Series)

More Accessible Texts for 9th – 12th Grades:

• All American Boys by Jason Reynolds (F)
• A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman (RF, novel in verse)
• Brief Histories of Everyday Objects by Andy Warner (NF graphic novel)
• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (novel in verse, memoir)
• Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham (HF, RF – two timelines)
• Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy Delisle (NF graphic novel)
• Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai (F)
• Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson (novel in verse, RF)
• Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (F, novel in verse)
• March: Book One (and Two and Three) by John Lewis (NF graphic novel)
• Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish by Pablo Cartaya (RF)
• Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Rex Ogle (modern Little Women graphic novel)
• Messi: The Inside Story of the Boy Who Became a Legend by Luca Caioli (NF)
• Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga (RF, novel in verse)
• Overturned by Lamar Giles (F)
• Santiago’s Road Home by Alexandra Diaz (RF)
• Survivors of the Holocaust: True Stories of Six Extraordinary Children by Kath Shackleton (NF graphic novel)
• The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater (NF)
• The Disappearing Spoon and other true tales of rivalry, adventure, and the history of the world from the periodic table of the elements by Sam Kean (NF)
• The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (RF, novel in verse)
• The Unwanted: Stories of Syrian Refugees by Don Brown (NF graphic novel)
• T-Minus: The Race to the Moon by Jim Ottavani (NF graphic novel)

If you teach High School English, I also recommend Betsy Potash from Now Spark Creativity for lots of ideas. Some of her posts about choice reading include “What To Do When a Student Says I Hate Reading”; “Got Reluctant Readers? There’s help”; “How to Match Readers with Books”.

Where to find more appropriately-mature books

It would be ideal for us to read every single book we put in front of students but that is impossible. It’s not a goal we could ever achieve. Apart from taking advice and recommendations from fellow educators, another great resource is Common Sense Media.

This website is great for educators as they’re scanning books to see if it’s appropriate for students. The site rates positive messages, positive role models, diverse representation, violence and scariness, sex, romance, and nudity, language, products and purchases, and drinking, drugs, and smoking for each title.

Common Sense Media is also great for parents and has meaningful information for them. I find that parents sometimes enjoy their child reading a “challenging” book but they don’t necessarily realize all the mature aspects that go into that novel.

Final tips on using hi-lo texts and text bands

1. Equity not equality

You will not be able to spend equal time with each reader or writer. This is not only unrealistic to expect but also not beneficial to all students. If a student is confident in reading and writing, sometimes they just need the time to practice those same skills and become fluent.

Also, not every student will get the same level of enjoyment out of your class. You’re aiming to give students what they need within the constraints of your time and energy, not create an identical experience and level of enjoyment for every student.

2. Opportunities, not perfection

Your goal is not to make sure that every student has the perfect book for them all the time; your goal is to provide reading opportunities that are within a reasonable range for each student. Your goal is to set students up for success in reading, but you cannot make the stars align for every book and every unit for every kid.

There will still be books kids don’t like; that’s just life. I personally sought to get kids to LOVE at least one book in my class so much that they raved about it at home and school. That one really positive experience can propel growth in multiple areas.

3. Use themes to tie a classroom together

Whenever I am in a unit that is centered around a genre (nonfiction text features, literary nonfiction picture books, science fiction and fantasy, historical fiction, etc.), I try to find books that are appropriate for different leveled readers within each genre.

What I typically do if everyone is reading in a book club is create a google form with book trailers or at least images of books. Each question is a duplicate. The first question they select their first choice, the second they select their second choice, and the third they select their third choice. I also have the books out physically to flip through.

I personally found that students are excellent at selecting books that are appropriate for themselves, but even if they reach too high or too low, I can usually find one of their top 3 choices that lines up with my assessment of their skill. After a book club unit, the books are available for independent reading, so they are not cut off from their first choice in any case.

If a student really wants to read something, I’ll have an honest conversation with them that it might be hard, so they’ll have to put in extra time and energy to keep up with the group. If they think they can do it, great; if that makes them nervous, I tell them it’s a “not right now” book. It’s something they can try later.

4. Set up a positive climate towards all books

Some of the things I did that seemed to support my reaching readers were to read aloud different types of books. When I finished reading aloud a picture book, I’d raise it up asking who would like to read it. The more I did this, the more popular it became to read picture books. I would create book clubs for just graphic novels and just novels in verse towards the beginning of the year to establish that these were real genres with lots of options that I valued.

5. Privacy matters

Even as young as 2nd grade, I notice students who are struggling become self-conscious about their reading abilities. They deserve some discretion on your part. Group them with students who need the same skill work so they feel on par with peers. Give them opportunities to listen to you read aloud from a popular series that on-grade-level readers are experiencing. Then, they may be able to reread that book again on their own.

Give them hidden differentiation where everyone has the same type of decodable book/same genre or worksheet or word work choice board but they might have different activities, an easier text, or different words to choose from. If you have an older student working on primary activities such as letter and sound matching, word sorts, or books that look geared towards very young readers, let them work in a quiet, private corner or in the hallway.

Just a little move might make them feel more at ease to work on their skills in confidence. I write about a few more of these strategies in my blog post, “How I teach reading to a class that spans 7+ grade levels.”

18 manageable ways to differentiate when kids have gaps in their learning

I hope this article gave you some resources for building up your classroom library and/or selecting books for book clubs for students that will be both age and level appropriate. This is not meant to be comprehensive, but I hope that some of these ideas will support you. I know that finding engaging books for struggling secondary readers was a huge challenge for me, and the more we share as educators, the more opportunities our readers have to thrive.

The post Hi-Lo Texts: Reaching fringe readers with text bands appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

On the one hand, regular practice outside of the classroom can help students retain information and reinforce learning. On the other, it’s also difficult to motivate students to do the work without coercion or consequences.

While the debate over the efficacy of homework continues to rage on, one thing remains clear: there will always be students who seemingly refuse to submit their homework. So how in the WORLD do we get these kids to just DO IT?

If you’re struggling to get students to submit work on a regular basis, there may be a problem in your systems that, once fixed, can increase not only the likelihood of your students submitting but also increase their academic success. Here are four common mistakes that teachers make about submitting homework, and what you can do instead.

Mistake #1: Not understanding the real reason why students don’t submit homework

Before we delve into tactics, it’s important to understand WHY students won’t submit their work. We often chalk it up to laziness, forgetfulness, not paying attention in class or just poor time management. While these can definitely contribute to the problem, the issue often lies much deeper than that.

First, fear of failure or overall confusion plagues many of our students. They don’t understand the assignment or concept and lack the motivation or resources to get help. A lot of times, they don’t speak up in class and ask questions for these same reasons, so they’re less likely to practice something that they’re confused about.

Also, many of our students are perfectionists and won’t submit work if it’s “not right.” As illogical as it sounds, if they didn’t have time to complete the assignment, they’d rather take the zero and not submit rather than give you incomplete work. Or if it’s not up to their unreasonably high standards, they won’t turn it in.

Additionally, general overwhelm and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression definitely play a role for many of our students. Not all parents have been able to address these concerns in their children, and some may be inadvertently exacerbating the symptoms with their own high expectations. If a student simply can’t handle even looking let alone starting your assignment, you definitely won’t get any work from them.

Finally, students may just not want to do your assignment because they don’t see the point. As harsh as it sounds, students know when they’re given “busy work.” To them, meaningless packets with 100 of the same problem are not only demoralizing but also a waste of time. So some students may just choose to not do it at all or they may start and eventually give up.

Mistake #2: Not setting and maintaining expectations

At the beginning of the school year, we’re VERY good about training our students on what our work submission processes are. You may even have a syllabus with these expectations spelled out, assuming that our students and their parents read it.

Most of us have a routine set, which works for the majority of the kids. But there are always a few that seem to slip through the cracks due to reasons in the first mistake. Maybe they have an IEP and need more intentional organization. Maybe they fell asleep in class and didn’t hear you give the deadline. Or perhaps they were in the bathroom when you announced it. Either way, we can preach responsibility  and accountability all we want, but if they’re just incapable of doing it on their own, we can decide to help them or let them fall and “learn their lesson.”

If we’re unwilling to consistently help these students that struggle with deadlines, then honestly, we have to share the blame. They’re still developing good habits, and what we try to reinforce only goes so far if it’s not reinforced at home. While it’s not our job to parent our students, we can still help with teaching and modeling what the expectations are and give grace when students stumble.

Basically, if it’s that important to you that they submit an assignment on time, then don’t assume that all of the students know what to do or how to meet those deadlines.

Mistake #3: Utilizing a one-size-fits-all approach to submission

As mentioned in the previous two mistakes, there are a lot of reasons why students aren’t submitting their homework. In terms of solving that problem in your class, you have two options: 1) Being frustrated but still letting them suffer the consequences, or 2) working with the students that struggle the most.

It may seem unfair to make special accommodations or arrangements for certain students, but that’s like saying it’s unfair that, at 5’1”, I need a stool to reach the top shelf while you may be able to easily stick your hand up there.

Does it REALLY matter if we both get what we need from that shelf?

Some students may need extra time or personal invitations to submit something. You might even have to modify the assignment for them just so that you have some form of work from which to assess. This can be annoying and time-consuming since you have so many other students to worry about.

But if it really bothers you that Jason doesn’t ever turn in his work, and asking or reminding him each time actually results in him turning in something, then ask yourself if it’s worth it.

If eight students regularly fail to turn in their homework, investigate what’s holding them up and what you can do to encourage them. Maybe they need an accountability partner. Perhaps you could show and remind them how to set a notification on their phone or device. You could encourage them to use a paper planner to stay more organized.

These definitely take more effort, and sometimes the lack of rewards makes it unsatisfying. But often, a student just doesn’t know how to advocate for themselves, and you being persistent can lay the foundation for them to be successful in other classes and in the future.

Mistake #4: Not involving parents and other adults

Along with the previous mistake, sometimes we forget that we can also deploy the troops, i.e., our students’ parents/guardians. While at times we feel at odds with some parents since they have such a negative perception of teachers and the education system in general, many are willing to do their part if we are explicit about how they can help.

It can be scary to send out notices to parents because they sometimes reply with an angry response or something completely unrelated. There have definitely been times when I wished that I hadn’t sent an email at all because I was inundated with responses.

But in the case of having students turn in their assignments on time, it just might be worth it. Students don’t necessarily talk to their parents about their work, and if they are experiencing one of the aforementioned reasons why they won’t do work, they’re certainly not going to divulge. So just a simple email with a calendar of deadlines or just a reminder of an upcoming due date would greatly increase the rate of homework submission.

For larger assignments, I’ve also explained what is due to parents so that they can help their student double-check that they completed everything. You’d be surprised how many parents want to sit down and help their student, but they don’t understand what’s expected. It does take a bit of time to do this, but with new tools like ChatGPT, you can craft these messages in a matter of seconds.

If you’re using an online grading system, they often have the capability for parents to see your grade book and online calendar. If you have this, then taking the time to train parents with a screencast video that you send out will also help them stay on top of their student’s progress.

What this means for your policies

It might be a bit of a philosophical shift to avoid these mistakes. After all, real change doesn’t happen instantly, especially if you want it to stick. During a time when we’re all trying to master work-life balance, it can seem preposterous to take on what seems like more work.

But what’s the cost – both to yourself and your students — if you DON’T do something different?

Left to their own devices, students will try to stay under your radar so that they don’t have to do any work, but we both know what the long-term consequences of that are. If they don’t turn in their homework or assignments in general, you can’t assess them, which means they can’t get feedback, which in turn means you have to hope that they’re gleaning SOMETHING from your lectures and class discussions. How will you know if they’re improving in your class if they won’t submit their work?

And you’ll continue to be frustrated about your low homework submission rate (if you weren’t frustrated, you wouldn’t have made it this far). Over time, that can leave a bad taste in your mouth and overall disdain for students that seem “lazy and useless.” Morphing into that kind of cynical teacher is not something anyone wants, so ask yourself — is it worth putting in the effort?

The post Students not turning in homework? 4 common mistakes to avoid (and what to do instead) appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

One of my proudest teaching moments happened the day I helped three students simultaneously write their own short stories. They’d been referred to me for academic support. The rest of their class was done writing, but these three still had blank pages.

This is a common issue, but it is not one I saw much of when I taught general education — I was really good at stacking layers of swiss cheese, as Angela says.

If you’ve had it with late papers, I hope you can walk away from this post with some simple practices that will bring more ease to you and your students.

1. Build background knowledge

The old adage is “write what you know,” but so often, we expect students to write without the background knowledge to succeed. They might be asked to write about something they read and feel insecure that they are enough of an expert to do so successfully. I think this is why students so often shy away from analysis in favor of saying, “It was a really good book.”

Ensuring that they students had tons of time to talk with peers and even plan essays together can help with this. While they might write the final essay independently, good writers incubate their ideas with others. This process builds background knowledge around an unfamiliar topic.

Sometimes students are asked to write about self-selected topics and stories, and they still struggle. This comes from a different type of background knowledge gap. It could be missing the academic language to write about any topic. For example, teaching the words people use when writing with analysis, research, or argument.

In other cases, when you want students to write how they would speak to a friend or family member, they may need explicit acknowledgment that their language is supposed to take center stage. Without this, they may get confused, thinking they have to write about something they love but in a “teacher’s way.”

It could also be a gap in structural background knowledge. I often hear students say they don’t know where to start, and that’s because they can’t envision how the piece could unfold. Providing some simple options for approaches can help, as the next practice suggests.

2. Make sure everyone has a roadmap

For the runners in the classroom, they can relate to the idea of visualizing a course before you run it. A roadmap in writing is the same thing. This metaphor applies across a variety of contexts for different students since humans are wired to think about something and how it might go before it happens.

To this end, we make roadmaps. They are very simple, not at all like elaborate graphic organizers which can become another hurdle for some students. In the case of my three students who needed to write three different short stories, I asked them the following questions.

1. Who is your story about? What does that person want? What’s going to get in the way of that in the story? These questions established the general overview of the story.
2. What’s the character doing? A lot of times people like to give details about the setting at the beginning, so where is it? What time of day is it?
3. What could happen next to move the character closer to the problem?
4. How does the problem happen?
5. How does the character solve the problem?
6. What does the character realize at the end?

For each question, the students jotted down notes on a blank Google doc. It didn’t have to be in complete sentences, just whatever they thought of for the answers. Since I was helping the three of them simultaneously, I would ask a question and then circulate to see their answers before asking the next one.

In a whole-class environment, asking a set of guided questions is a little trickier. Instead, I have students make a little drawing of their papers, so they can see the sections along with the topics.

This was an example I did for a piece on where to eat in New York City. After this process, students who are still stuck can get pulled together for direct questions.

For an argument piece, I could ask:

• What is your topic? What do you want people to know, do, think, or believe?
• Why do you think or believe that? Each reason they give could become its own paragraph.
• Why do you think it is so important for people to know, do, think, or believe that? This provides for a strong conclusion.

3. Train students with writing sprints

This roadmap process is what I used to write every paper in college and graduate school. Once I have my little list of topics, it’s time to write my way through them one by one.

A constant practice in my classroom is writing sprints. Some people call them quick writes. Basically, the idea is that you write without editing yourself or stopping. We practice this almost daily with smaller topics, like speed training for a runner, so when it comes time to write something longer, the students rely on their training.

Often, writing days in the classroom become a winnowing between the students who can keep themselves on task and those who cannot. This is a missed opportunity. Instead, I tell students that we are going to use a writing sprint to write the next thing on their topic list. I give them a word count goal and a time limit they are used to.

The students are consistently stunned by how many words they can write in a certain amount of time. They often think that writing the paper will take forever, which is similar to how I feel about cleaning the house. I used to put it off, saying I didn’t have enough time to finish, but when I actually timed myself and saw how long it took, I realized that it really didn’t take that long. This use of a timer and a word count goal will pay dividends for students who will need to learn to manage their own progress in writing (or a variety of project-based tasks) in their lives.

One issue that could come up in writing sprints for a major paper is research. Nothing has stopped my writing faster than convincing myself that I need to stop writing to find the perfect fact, quote, image, or hyperlink.

When I use this process and I know students need to have research, we write after we have gathered some research and taken some notes. Students can review the notes before the writing sprint, but once it starts, they are not allowed to use their notes. Instead, we follow the “medical medical” protocol.

I read somewhere once that when people write medical dramas like Gray’s Anatomy, the scriptwriters write the script like this: “Quick! We need to MEDICAL MEDICAL before she MEDICAL MEDICAL.” Later on, the doctors on staff fill in the script with accurate terms and information.

In class, this looks like students writing, “According to ****, ******.” They go back to their notes after the sprint is over to plug in the information. Not only does this process keep their momentum up, it helps them write with research rather than over-relying on research.

4. Keep the cursor moving

While students are completing their writing sprints, I am constantly walking around. This is not the time for me to catch up on grading or planning. This is the time for me to prevent anyone from ending up in a late work situation. My entire focus is to keep their cursors moving, to eliminate the blank page so they can see that they have so much to say.

I only talk to students whose cursors aren’t moving. I say, “You stopped. What are you thinking about?” This question helps me solve the present dilemma to get the student feeling momentum again. I only get a couple of answers to this question.

One is that they don’t know how to spell a word or want a piece of information. I tell them to spell it the best they can or put in asterisks for the research and come back to it later.

The other is that they don’t know what to write about. I ask them what the next thing is on their roadmap. They tell me, and I tell them to write about that. Yes, I know how ridiculously simple that sounds, but often the student is starting to think about the writing as a whole. When someone asked Stephen King how he writes so much, he famously said, “One word at a time.” My job is to just help them find the next word.

5. Make it social

One of the strange things about an extended writing project is that it becomes a time of silence and individualism in the classroom. Group work, discussion, games, and chatter are shut down so everyone can “focus.” This sudden change does not benefit all (most?) kids.

After a writing sprint ends, I make time for students to talk. Maybe we do a word count contest and celebrate the top three word counts. Maybe students turn and talk about what went well and what didn’t. No matter the prompt, I want to remind students that while they may be doing parts of this alone, we are actually alone together. This alone togetherness normalizes the struggle everyone is experiencing as writers. We celebrate how much fun it is to do hard things together.

6. Accept “unfinished” work

Most of this list is aimed at getting a first draft from everyone. Ideally, after each writing sprint, students would have time to “reread it and make it better” through revision. Eventually, they could share with classmates and me to keep revising. Yes, I want as much of that to happen as possible. However, when it’s the due date, time is up.

I have students write on Google Docs that I own, so I am always able to access their work. I grade it on the due date, no matter if it isn’t done. No writing is ever really done; it’s just due. From here, I allow students to revise and resubmit for a higher grade (again, on my deadline). Some students need this grade feedback before they’ll take revisions seriously. That pragmatism is okay with me.

If I’ve employed all the other practices successfully, the only students who won’t have anything at all to turn in are the students who have been absent for the life of the project. I have those students too — several of them. I am done being surprised that this is a thing, so for every unit, I have a backup plan.

I know it doesn’t seem fair for a student to skip out on steps (and they are definitely not learning as much), but a chronically absent student often has a mental dilemma going on. Their work has to be perfect before it can be done but they don’t have the time to get to perfect.

I love teaching students how to accept reality and commit to the idea that done is better than perfect (see Angela’s post What Could Be Possible If You Aimed For B+ Work?). For a chronically absent student, my goal at the high school level is to be a reason that student believes they can come back to school, not another reason they feel they don’t belong at school.

Here are some ways I have students make up writing in a hurry:

• Give them research notes to write from. I am always modeling with my own example, so I just give them my notes. They don’t get full credit for doing the research, but at least they can write something.
• Give them a topic they can complete in one writing sprint. If I don’t know when a student will be in school again, I capture what I can on the day they are present. This could be the story of a moment as opposed to an extended story or an argument paragraph rather than an entire essay.

Of course, how this is graded is up to you. My guiding light has been this interview with Cornelius Minor (“Antiracist” Grading Starts With You). My approach feels very in line with 5 Grading Practices Teachers Can Use To Promote Equity Now. For another approach, check out Ending the Late Work Debate: Try Issuing Students a “Credit Score.”

Staying in the Present

Dragging ourselves and our students back through late work keeps us all stuck in the past. It can become a cycle of guilt for our struggling students, and a never-ending slog of paper-chasing for us. We are only ever truly alive in the present. Let’s stay there with our students as much as possible. These practices will help you and your students enjoy the present and accomplish more at the same time.

For more ideas on how I help students write on a deadline, check out Spend More Time on These Three Techniques of Teaching Writing. These underutilized practices also support my students in completing their writing on time.

The post 6 practices that ended late work in my ELA classroom and finally got students writing appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

The following three scenarios are the most common based on my observations as a teacher coach and literacy specialist:

Scenario One: Students are sleeping, moody, or completely disengaged in class.

Scenario Two: Students have a hard time staying in class. They are always in the bathroom, hallway, locker, or constantly asking for breaks during instruction (even right after a “break”).

Scenario Three: Students struggle to control emotional outbursts, resulting in verbal and physical altercations with adults and other students.

If any of these three scenarios are happening in your classroom, I’m going to dig deep into each one and discuss the context for each type of behavior, along with some tried and true strategies to re-engage students and keep them engaged in their education for the rest of the school year.

All the strategies I will be sharing are rooted in SEL (Social Emotional Learning), Restorative Practices, and Equity best practices for K-12 educational settings. If you’d like to learn more about these three frameworks, links are at the bottom of this article.

But first, two reminders:

Reminder #1: Stay student-centered

Before we start, you’ll probably notice my student-centered language in each scenario. This is part of the process of re-engaging students. Checking in on our own mindset toward students is a critical step that a lot of educators tend to skip because they honestly don’t think they need to do it.

However, think about how you describe students who fall asleep in class to another colleague, for example. Which of these descriptions sounds like you?

Teacher A: “Jonathan is ALWAYS sleeping in class. He never does any work and he’s going to fail my class! Sleepers never prosper. If he’s going to sleep in class every day, I’m just going to let him. His parents must not make him go to bed on time.”

Teacher B: “Jonathan has really been struggling to stay awake in my class lately. I’m concerned that he is falling behind with his assignments and grades. I’m going to have to figure out something I can do to support him and get him back on the right track.”

You may think to yourself that you’ve been both Teacher A and Teacher B at different points this year, or in your career. You may think there’s no harm in venting about Jonathan the way that Teacher A did, if we come back around to addressing the issue like Teacher B.

The issue with the words used by Teacher A is that by the end of that statement, the teacher has already made a handful of assumptions about Jonathan and his family. They have also already decided that Jonathan’s situation can’t be changed for the better and they will not be going out of their way to try.

Teacher B, on the other hand, admittedly does NOT have the answer to the problem in this conversation. Supporting students who are struggling is a year-long process that will require the teacher to be proactive, communicative, and supportive to both the student and their family at various points in the year. Teacher B understands this and yet understands that there are some things they can try to help Jonathan get re-engaged with his education.

I should also note here that in some cases, students will need more support than you provide just within your classroom. Lean on your school social workers, psychologists, and special educators to give you suggestions and referrals when needed for students who have needs beyond what you can provide.

Reminder #2: Don’t take it personally

For all the students described below, it’s almost NEVER personal towards the teacher. More likely than not, you are NOT boring your students to sleep or chasing them out of your classroom!

Teachers who come to me with questions about students who sleep or refuse to do work often have already tried a plethora of things to get students motivated. They’ve usually already implemented class-wide systems to positively reinforce student behavior with team points of some sort, and there’s one or two students who are still not responding the way the teacher hoped.

If you already have a supportive classroom culture in place but you still have students disengaging from the learning, the first step is to look for patterns in the behavior:

• Are they going to sleep as soon as they come in in the morning, or are they waiting until it’s time to complete an undesirable task in class?
• Do they leave class at the same times every day, or does it depend?
• Do they put their head down ALL day, or are they up and participating during activities like Physical Education or recess?

These types of questions will help you narrow down when and how often you need to step in with your additional support.

Now, let’s look in-depth at how to address each of the scenarios I identified at the beginning of the article.

How to motivate and engage reluctant learners

What to do when: Students are sleeping, moody, or completely disengaged in class

There will certainly be cases where a student sleeping is due to something serious going on in the home, and if you suspect this is the case you should reach out to your administration for the appropriate next steps before you do anything else. Student safety and care comes first. However, I caution teachers often on assuming students who sleep are doing so because they aren’t getting enough sleep at home.

Most of the time, disengaged students are often simply craving connection.

They may not feel like they are truly part of your classroom community for one reason or another. They may be experiencing bullying. They could be struggling with their own mental health and are unsure how to ask for help. They may be struggling academically and are embarrassed to be “found out.” Once you know what is hindering your student from feeling like part of your classroom community, you can make your plan for support accordingly.

Disengaged students need the adults in their life to not only create safe spaces for them, but also to encourage and invite them into those spaces daily.

They need to be reminded every single day that they are an important part of your classroom community, that you care about them and their ideas, and that you will be there to support them if they start to struggle throughout the day.

You can do this easily during morning meetings when students are typically still awake and alert. Build in a daily affirmation routine that all students will benefit from, but particularly the students you are focused on supporting. A quick online search for “daily affirmations for students” will get you started with videos and activities that you can choose based on the age of your students, but the idea is simple! Spending just 2-3 minutes each day engaging with affirmations will help students understand and see their own value within the classroom.

Beyond your morning meeting routine, your students will need proactive, planned check-ins with you or another trusted adult. They may be motivated to try to stay engaged, but become quickly frustrated and shut down before you get the chance to offer them redirection or encouragement. Their learned habit of shutting down has protected them from feeling frustrated, but that means they don’t have much in the way of coping skills to work through challenging tasks.

Conference with these students individually about growth mindset to help them understand that they may not be able to complete the task independently YET, but if they keep working at it, they will be able to soon!

Share with them things that you do when you get frustrated by something, such as take a few deep breaths, take a short break, or ask for help from someone else (identify peers or adults who can help).

You may feel like everything you are doing stops working when your student comes in and goes right to sleep one day after a few weeks of working hard. Don’t be discouraged!

This doesn’t mean your student has given up all over again, but it does mean they need more check-ins and possibly additional coping strategies. This type of student support is a “roll with the flow” kind of support that will change and evolve throughout the year in response to what your students need.

What to do when: Students have a hard time coming to class or staying in class.

Students may seem to always be in the bathroom, hallway, or locker, or constantly ask for breaks during instruction. With older students, they may even cut/skip classes altogether.

Many of the strategies described above for students who sleep or refuse to work in class will apply to students who leave class as well. Students who have built a habit of wandering the school building when they are frustrated or faced with an undesirable task can be challenging to re-engage, but with the right level of pro-active planning, you can help your students see the importance of staying in class and engaging in the learning with the rest of their peers.

For students struggling to stay in class, a little bit of positive attention goes a LONG way. Students will often leave class to seek out something that they would rather do instead. They want to feel successful, challenged, or validated more so than the rest of their classmates.

I find that having a direct, respectful, open conversation with students (yes, even in elementary school!) about their actions is the best first step. In the conversation, you will want to ask at least these three questions, and pay careful attention to their answers:

1.  “I’ve noticed you ask to go to the bathroom every day when it is time for word work. How do you feel when it’s time for us to do our ____ lessons?” Make sure you name the behavior that you’ve noticed, without judgment. This lets students know that you are aware that their actions are intentional, and it allows you to have an honest, non-defensive conversation.)
2.  “When it’s time for us to do our ___lessons, is there a place in the room that you would like to sit?” This won’t work for every student, but often a preferential seating change for the part of the lesson or subject that students struggle with the most can offer a quick fix.
3. “I want to help you stay in class so that you can learn the same ___ as your classmates. What do you think we should do to help you stay in class during this time? “This lets students know that you are still holding them to the same expectations as their peers, but that you are willing to take extra steps to make sure they feel supported. Most likely they won’t know exactly what they need you to do (they will probably shrug or tell you they don’t know), but the point of this question is to let them know that you have some ideas to share, and they are part of the process of deciding which strategies to try. I let students know that whatever strategy we agree on together will be used for at least two weeks, and then we will check in again to see if it’s working for them or not.

What to do when: Students struggle to control emotional outbursts, resulting in verbal and physical altercations with adults and other students

First things first: If students are a danger to themselves or to others, you will need to go through your administration team to follow the appropriate protocol for keeping yourself and your students safe. Once any immediate safety concerns have been addressed with the support of your administration, then your work on supporting students experiencing emotional dysregulation can begin.

It’s unclear yet whether we are seeing an increase in emotional or physical outbursts from students, or if we are just hearing more about it from our collective media and social circles. Regardless, many of the strategies described from the first two scenarios can be used as first steps for students struggling emotionally as well!

If you have worked through those strategies and still find students struggling to regulate their own emotions appropriately, you may need some slightly more sophisticated systems in place.

I like to think of support for emotional regulation in four stages:

Stage 1: Name it

In this stage, students need language to describe the emotions they are feeling. This stage needs to be proactively planned out, ideally WITH the student, like the conference in Scenario Two. Together, decide on the emotions that most OFTEN lead to an outburst (usually anger, frustration, or even sadness). They need a sentence to say out loud to you or another trusted adult to let you know what they are experiencing. “I” statements are a great tool we can teach children here.

“I feel _____ when _____ happens in class.”

“When we ______, I feel ______.”

“When you or a classmate _____, I feel ______.”

This helps students start to identify their own triggers and be more aware of them as they continue to develop emotionally. Don’t assume that because a student is in High School that they already know how to do this! Teach them anyway. Even if they do “know,” just like adults sometimes, they may benefit from a reminder to embrace a healthier habit.

Stage 2: Express it

Imagine getting a distressing phone call in the middle of your workday (I’m sure many of us have experienced this). Now imagine that your principal or administrator knows what happened, but still expects you to pick up your next class on time from the cafeteria in five minutes. For students who struggle with emotional regulation, their emotions can feel as intense as that phone call. Expecting students to take a five-minute break and go on like nothing happened is unreasonable and can be more harmful for students who have experienced trauma or adverse childhood experiences.

Instead, students need a safe place and manner to express the emotion they are feeling.

Students may need to leave your classroom to meet with a social worker or psychologist when they are experiencing an emotional outburst, but there may be times when service providers are unavailable to them. My “cool down corner” is usually a relaxing space with cushions, a comfy chair, or even a couch where students can go when they need more than a minute or two to get themselves together.

Once you have the space designated, you’ll want to have a bin or a folder of age-appropriate activities or fidgets that students can use while they are in the corner. It will be important to norm the use of this space and those materials with your entire class (everyone has a bad day sometimes!) and make sure students don’t take advantage of the system.

While we want to give students the flexibility to determine when they will be “ready” to rejoin the class, there needs to be structure and parameters for the system to work long-term. Decide with specific students (ahead of time) whether they will need 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or 15 minutes to rejoin class if they need an emotional break.

Explain that if they feel they will need more than 15 minutes to decompress, they will need to check in with you to see if another trusted adult is available (they would ideally meet with their social worker or psychologist if this is the case, but a “buddy teacher” could be just as effective if they have a good relationship with another teacher in the building).

Stage 3: Let it go

The goal of emotional regulation is of course to be able to rejoin class, feel calm, and ready to learn. Teach your class ways to welcome students back from an outburst with kindness and understanding. Teach them not to pepper the student with questions the moment they come back, but rather to give space when it’s needed. Explain to students that when their classmates come back to the group, they may need some support and that it’s okay to ask their friends what they need. Even with younger elementary students, I watch them support and uplift one another after the most disruptive moments – let them surprise you with their empathy.

Your students will most likely be ready to rejoin class in an unceremonious way. If their outburst did no harm (no one was hurt or verbally assaulted), I will allow them to rejoin class and move on. However, if harm was done, my students know that before they can rejoin class (or before the end of the day depending on the situation/student), they need to right their wrongs.

Stage 4: Make it right

If a teacher (yourself included) or a student was harmed physically or mentally during your student’s outburst, it is important for your entire classroom community that the harm is repaired in some way. If only one or two people were affected, a private restorative conversation is needed. If most or all of the class was affected, a restorative circle with the group is needed. During these conversations, you have three goals:

1.       Establish the harm done
2.       Decide how to make it right
3.       Make it right

The student who caused the harm needs to be completely de-escalated before this conversation. Keep your discussion centered on the three goals above. If an apology is all that is needed (as determined by the person affected negatively), the apology can happen and the class can move on. If something was torn or broken and needs to be repaired, come up with a plan to fix it with the student. This is teaching students accountability for their actions in a way that doesn’t humiliate or shame them.

I always end conversations with students the same way. I remind them that they are a part of our classroom community and that they matter to me. I let them know that it is okay to feel the way that they feel, there is nothing wrong with having emotions. I also let them know that in school we must respect one another’s boundaries and it’s not okay to take out how you feel on another person.

Final thoughts

It’s my hope that at least one of these strategies helps you reach your students in new meaningful, supportive ways.

While the strategies above are meant to give you a place to start, you may need to come back to this list throughout the year for new things to try over time.

Remember that our students are not static characters in a television show.

They are complex humans with emotions, stress, and triggers just like adults. Most of all, they are children who need the adults in their lives to model appropriate responses to stress for them as much as possible.

Instead of looking at students in terms of their “problems,” we must look at students in terms of their needs whether they are academic, social, emotional, or physical. If we can embrace the idea of authentically supporting the “whole-child” sitting in our classrooms, many of the disengaged behaviors we are seeing will lessen or even disappear over time.

References

Fundamentals of SEL

Restorative Practices in Schools

9 Ways to Promote Equity in Our Schools

Are the kids alright? A deep dive into the pandemic’s toll on students

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