Author: Sharon Ethier

Some time ago, I received a book of quotes and poetry by Maya Angelou.  It’s a lovely, little green display book that stands on its own like a flip chart and each page has a quote or idea inspired by Maya Angelou.  This book has sat on my desk and followed me around from school to school and classroom to classroom as an inspirational grounding for me; in quiet moments of reflection I’ll read a few pages that apply to both personal and professional significance.  My most favourite page has the quote, “You may not think you can change things. Try anyway.”  Inspired by this, I’ve thought about some of the lessons I learned last year and will take forward with me to this year….

You may plan the perfect unit, lesson, or assignment. It might be a subject that you love and you’re certain that it will be the spark that helps the children to love it, too.  Then, your teaching assignment changes.  Plan anyway. 

You may have prepared your lesson plans.  They may be meticulously detailed and you believe you’ve thought of everything.  You may have to shift because the students need more time, there’s a last minute change in the day or a fire drill.  Prepare anyway. 

You may start your year building community in your classroom and you may work at these relationships for a long time together.  It may take many attempts and experiences or it may be a series of small, undefinable moments together. And still, it may not be perfect.  Build it anyway. 

You may learn new and exciting teaching strategies.  You may want to try out some of these lessons with students and see how it makes a difference for them – and it might be messy the first or second or third time.  Be messy anyway. 

You might have days when you are thinking through a problem together as a class or with your colleagues.  Maybe you don’t have an answer right away, maybe the solution isn’t quite what you anticipated.  Think together anyway. 

You will have overwhelming days when everything feels heavy.  It might feel uncomfortable to ask for an extension, some help, or grace from others, but there are friends who want to help you.  So ask anyway. 

I hope we all find courage and inspiration to continue planning, prepping, inspiring, learning, and supporting students and each other. For now, take a breath, be in the moment, find inspiration and joy in the hard work that we do.

Growing up, I’d seen a lot of fun television shows about teaching.  At the risk of dating myself, there were some truly iconic shows in the 1970s and 1980s, such as  “Welcome Back, Kotter” and “Head of the Class”.  I watched them with my brothers, laughing together and loving the characters.  These shows made teaching seem fun and magical and even tough moments always wrapped up in a way that made sense. I knew that I wanted to be in those classrooms when I grew up to become a teacher. 

Back then, I did not yet know about tv magic – the amount of time, people, and unlimited energy it takes to create 22 minutes of seemingly easy fun. I didn’t necessarily connect this with my own classroom experiences which did not look so easy.  Even as a student watching my teachers, I could see how hard they were working. I knew that class conflicts existed amongst students, that life in schools wasn’t always perfect and easy and definitely did not include a well timed laugh track.  And yet, I still believed that schools could be beautiful places. 

And they can be.  Schools can be beautiful and magical places filled with fun and laughter – but it takes so much more than what we saw happening on a short sitcom. Just like in television, there are so many people who help to create those spaces where the magic happens.  From the classroom teacher to the designated early childhood educator to learning resource teachers to the educational assistants; it’s a whole cast of caring individuals who advocate for students daily.  It’s an entire team of educators who are working behind the scenes to try and make those 22 or 45 or 100 minutes of learning seem easy and magical. 

Sometimes the classroom laugh track is loud and fun and memorable, like when the classroom community comes together and students feel loved and experience joy.  Maybe it’s a funny joke someone shares or maybe it’s a moment where students see themselves and who they have the potential to be.  It’s also when we’ve worked hard on a concept, gone through a lot of emotions and tough learning before things finally start to make sense. 

It can happen during moments in the staffroom, too. It’s those moments at break time sharing treats or chatting about our lives when staff build a community of educators with one another. It’s truly special when colleagues lean on each other for support or rally around one another when sharing in celebrations. Though not always visible to students, that work is still meaningful to humanize one another as educators, push each other as learners, and build a staff that is a family. 

Creating this ‘magic’ isn’t easy. In fact, it’s a lot of consistent work and relationship building and intentionally making time for these important moments we can experience together.  Sometimes it’s making mistakes and forgiving them; other times it’s organically beautiful and just comes together with ease. While I now know about ‘tv magic’, I think about it differently these days.  Instead of framing those sitcoms as irrelevant because they’re fictional and fabricated, I see them as beautiful and idealistic.  Imagine a team of people who come together to bring a little joy, create some positive experiences, and help others learn about the world along the way.  It doesn’t sound so far off from what schools are, after all.

Working with some fellow educators this month, we’ve been planning ahead to next year and some of the texts we will be using intentionally with students. We read a lot of different books by different authors and considered what we wanted to discuss.  We chose several different books to read aloud, some favourites, and also some new ones that we wanted to try with students.  It was a fun project!

While we did a lot of thinking and planning around the literacy block, our main focus was on how to layer texts.  Based on our book study of Cultivating Genius by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, we were intentional about layering each read aloud with different experiences.  In her book, Dr Muhammad highlights the importance of “layering texts – teaching from multiple powerful and multimodal texts.” The addition of multimodal texts can enhance a child’s learning experience and deepen their understanding of themes and topics.  The experience can also help to scaffold knowledge to help students access the information in the book.  Layering texts also offers opportunities to integrate other subject areas with literacy classes and allows children to use a variety of skills in different contexts. While it takes a bit of planning, it is well worth it to cultivate a rich experience for students in literacy. 

While fun, it was also challenging!  Granted, we did plan for approximately 8 texts, so it took us a while to sort through our thinking, explore different options that would work, and develop a cohesive understanding of our goals.  If you are thinking about layering texts in your literacy classes, I hope some of these thoughts will help in your journey.

• Identify the theme of the book.  Be sure to choose other texts that support the theme. Explore the author’s intent and message to ensure you are honouring their work. 
• Consider the conversations you want to have with students. Do they need some scaffolding to enter the conversation or to deepen their understanding? 
• Plan what type of written response you want students to engage in. Perhaps one of the texts you explore will be an example of this. This should also be inspired by the theme and conversations you’re identifying. 
• Prepare a few different modalities, such as lists, illustrations, photos, designs, art, music, video clips, etc.  You may not know your students yet and having a few different ideas can help you to select how they learn best. 

An example might look like: 

         Focus Text

• Eyes that Speak To the Stars
• Author: Joanna Ho
• Illustrator: Dung Ho
  

       Themes to Explore

• Self-acceptance
• Asian heritage and culture
• Family

       Layered Texts

• Non-Fiction: Biography/Fun Facts from the author’s website
• Picture book: A Family is A Family is a Family (Author: Sara O’Leary Illustrator: Qin Leng), The Best Part of Me (Author & Illustrator: Wendy Ewald)
• Visuals: Maps of Asia, Maps of the world
• Music: Sesame Street: I Love My Family
• Companion books in series: Eyes that Weave the World’s Wonders, Eyes that Kiss at the Corners

       Writing Extensions

• Fun Facts Lists: All About Me or All About My Family
• Illustrate: Family Tree
• Journal: Where is your family from?  What is your heritage? 
• Poster: Illustrate and describe what you love about yourself and why. 

In this example, you’ll notice I found several different texts to support the different themes through different modalities.  I’ve also brainstormed different writing experiences and my layered texts support student learning about the themes and the writing forms.  This type of plan provides space for responding to the students’ identities and learning styles.  As an educator, I would choose a few of these activities to take place over one week to help build your lesson. 

I’m so excited to see how these lessons work next school year.  It’s always exciting to try something new and even better when educators can collaborate together!

 

Every year, in my role in Equity & Inclusion, I preview and read through many books.  Children’s books, like picture books and novels, but also professional reading about pedagogy and educator learning.  I love reading and thinking and learning, but this year I’ve been extending some of that reflecting to conversations with educators about what they are looking for in a novel or a story to share with students.  Oftentimes, our department is asked to recommend a book that we love – and there are oh SO many books that I love!  I could rattle off a long list of titles at any given time, but I think it’s more important to engage in thinking about what it is we’re looking for when we are sharing a book with students. 

This year I’ve started to ask educators more about their opinions and thoughts about choosing a great book. Through engaging in these conversations, I’ve learned a lot about different perspectives and purposes for a really great book.  I’d love to share some of my learning from these conversations. 

Time of Year

At the beginning of the year, most often educators are looking for books that help nurture a love of reading for the children.  It’s usually something exciting or heartfelt, easily accessible language, and relatable for the students.  Reading a text with students helps to create a community of learners, engage in sharing easy conversations, and open discussions about reading.  Later in the year, these text selections might look differently.  Perhaps we know a little more about our students’ identities or what they like to read about, genres they prefer, authors love, and styles they find interesting.  Choices might be more tailored to the students’ voices and opinions. Some educators are looking for a few different options so that students can choose the next book.  As students learn and grow throughout the year, educators adapt to who they are becoming and the parts of themselves that they share with us. 

Purpose

Representation is a common request.  When educators know more about students, families, and identities they hold they will strive to offer texts that are mirrors for the students.  They want to create a classroom culture where students feel represented in joy and living authentically true to themselves. Educators may also be seeking out a text that provides perspective on an event, such as a historical event, and they are looking for an engaging way to humanize that time period. This might be historical fiction or nonfiction biographies, for example. Sometimes educators are looking for identity specific books to open conversations with students about different systems of oppression. These texts take a little more thought and selection because they can resurface trauma or be conducive to emotionally charged conversations.  Preparing the classroom to be as safe as possible for all can take some time to anticipate and prepare with care.  Selecting the right text for these purposes requires more care, planning, and cultivation of relationships before reading. 

Conversations

Choosing a text that has the opportunity to engage in conversations is another important consideration.  Whether we’re modeling comprehension strategies, such as predicting or whether we’re building the opportunity to share personal opinions about the book, the best part of  a read aloud is the conversations that educators can have with students. It’s such a great opportunity to engage in learning together in a way that allows students to share their ideas with others, practice listening skills, and to learn about each other.  It does take a moment to anticipate what the conversation will sound like; however, it also means that we need to be flexible in the direction that students want to go with the conversation. When choosing a text for this purpose, educators consider the types of conversations they want to have with students and plan the questions they would like to ask. 

Choosing a read aloud to share with students can be a thought provoking exercise.  Many educators I work with make intentional choices about texts, always considering the students through different lenses and perspectives.  Whatever our purpose is for choosing a great book to read together, every educator centres student experiences at the forefront of their planning. 

What would some of your considerations be when thinking about choosing a text to share?

I can remember the time of my environmental awakening. It felt like overnight, there were suddenly a lot of commercials about recycling, signs on hairspray bottles stating “No CFCs”, and I became keenly aware of the growing hole in the ozone layer.  We talked in science class about this scary thing called ‘global warming’ and all the ways in which we, as humans, were destroying the environment. I can still remember my teacher telling us that scientists were looking for ways to help, but hadn’t figured anything out yet. If brilliant scientists couldn’t think of a solution, how could a bunch of  12 year olds? In these terrifying conversations, I couldn’t figure out how recycling pop cans could possibly help. It left me with a lot of worry and concern that buying the wrong hairspray would end the planet. 

At it’s worst, this worry can manifest into a condition called ‘Climate Change Anxiety’ (also referred to as  eco-anxiety, eco-grief, or climate doom).  It’s a helpless feeling in the face of very real climate related disasters.  Climate change is important to recognize and to mitigate, but there are also approaches to consider that may help students to feel that there are actions they can take for positive change.  A promising study by Dr Sarah Lowe, a clinical psychologist and associate professor at Yale School of Public Health, suggests that engaging in collective action can be a way to help navigate climate change anxiety.

In schools, the way that we address climate justice can help students to feel hopeful and empowered instead of anxious and helpless.  There are some traditional activities that can partner whole school activities with individual class discussions, such as community clean ups or  garden planting.  When classes are preparing to participate in these activities, try asking students what they think an environmentalist is and explore the conversation together.  Encourage them to think about who they are as environmentalists and involve them in brainstorming ways they can actively care for the environment and our responsibility to do so. 

If you are looking for something to move from whole school activities to specific classroom lessons, I encourage you to log into your ETFO secure account and access many different lesson ideas, webcasts, and learning that can help to inspire and guide you.  There is a resource called Creating Environmentally and Socially Active Communities that has classroom ready lessons from kindergarten to grade eight.  These lessons range from age appropriate experiences of noticing and appreciating the natural world to climate justice and environmental racism.  They include suggestions for assessment, curriculum links, and ways to engage students in collective activism.  What I love about these lessons is that students and educators are encouraged to learn together and work together to identify issues and solutions. 

Though still adamant about recycling and responsible consumerism, I’ve grown in my climate justice. I know that there are ways to support and work with like minded folx to identify issues. As I start to think about policies and values alongside the do’s and don’ts of the blue bin, I find myself understanding that there are many different powers at play that can influence change. It turns out that creating a community of environmental activists who can move collectively from climate anxiety to climate justice might just be beneficial for all of us. 

Learn about ETFO’s climate justice resources: 

https://www.etfo.ca/socialjusticeunion/climate-change/environment-and-climate-justice

Learn more about Dr. Sarah Lowe’s research: 

https://ysph.yale.edu/news-article/collective-action-helps-young-adults-deal-with-climate-change-anxiety/

 

Asian Heritage Month is celebrated each May in Canada.  The federal government of Canada has announced their theme as, “Unity in Diversity: The Impact of Asian Communities in Shaping Canadian Identity”. This theme acknowledges the abundance of diversity present among Asian Canadian communities, and how this richness has contributed to building a unifying Canadian identity. The diverse nature of Asian Canadian communities is considered as one of their strengths, just as it is in our Canadian identity.” 

When I spent some time last month with a wonderful group of educators to collate resources that acknowledge Asian identity here in Canada, we kept this theme in mind.  There is so much diversity in Asian identity – not just in regionality, but also within regions, the global diaspora, culture, and more.  Celebrating and representing this diverse identity is something that requires some thoughtful planning. 

We started locating books for representation; ones that addressed topics that many Asian children experience.  We thought about our own experiences as Asian teachers as well as the experiences of Asian students and families we knew in schools. We decided to address a few different topics; name stories, immigration experiences, food, language, and clothing.  For each of these categories, we selected texts, such as picture books, visuals, and websites that could be explored for cultural representation.  We tried our best to ensure that we weren’t building stereotypes;, that we had characters from a variety of countries and regions and intersectionalities. It was wonderful to meet with like-minded educators who were interested in bringing their ideas to reality!

Through our discussions, we also realized the joy and understanding that happens through highlighting changemakers and trailblazers during heritage months.  To acknowledge this, we made sure to include links to useful resources that provided information about Asian Canadians, such as government websites, websites built by those who identify with that ethnicity, or texts that were written from their own cultural perspective.  There was no shortage of resources to find; in fact, we found so many that were new for us to comb through and learn more about our own identities and others.  Seeing these mirrors and windows into our Asian heritage inspired us to walk through those sliding glass doors and into possibilities of what we could do in the classroom.

During this planning session, I realized that we needed to include Asian Canadians that are recent trailblazers – it wasn’t only about focussing on the past achievements, but making these moments come alive for students in the time period that they are living.  Some of these include Kevin He, the first Chinese born Canadian to sign an NHL contract in 2024;  politician Rechie Valdez, the first Filipino Canadian woman to be elected as a Member of Parliament in Canada and who has been recently announced as the new Minister of Women and Gender Equality. There’s also Lauren Chan, a model, editor and founder of the plus-size clothing brand Henning.  This champion for diversity in the fashion world also identifies with the LGBTQ+ community and has Chinese-Armenian heritage. 

As you explore different ways to recognize Asian Heritage month in May and beyond with your students and staff members, I encourage you to look at the ways Asian Canadians are still becoming ‘firsts’.  Join in the celebrations that are happening right now and consider how history is still in the making. 

 

I  often find myself running at the speed of “As Soon As Possible”.  First thing in the morning, I look at my list of priorities from the day before (that are often incomplete) and then reorganize them into the ASAP list…. What must be done this moment, can wait until prep time, tomorrow, or later this week.  It’s like constantly running background noise in my brain while I’m teaching and spending time with students.  

But what if I changed that list?  Not the content or the timing; I can’t change due dates or even the list itself most days, but I’ve been thinking of changing my approach. As soon as possible doesn’t have to be the only title for this list. 

ASAP could stand for As Softly As Possible.  What if I could plan assessment with softness, ensuring that our classroom conversations were emphasizing care and compassion instead of completion?  How would it look differently if my approach was to ensure students believed I genuinely care about their learning?  Perhaps, the questions that I asked them would reflect authentic curiosity about their thinking instead of focussing on whether they could give me the right answer so I can give them a mark.  Perhaps there would be space to share thinking and not just products.  Perhaps assessment As Softly As Possible would help us to all feel better and more purposeful about teaching and learning. 

ASAP could stand for Allow Space And Pause.  Instead of hearing the constant buzzing of deadlines, I could pause and replace that sound with joy.  Our class could cultivate our spaces together in community.  My Allow Space And Pause list could include time for us to build relationships  – both with me and with one another. Maybe I can allow some space for fun in our community after moments of hard thinking or before beginning our day together. Allow Space and Pause reminds me that we all need to take a moment to pause and reflect and, sometimes, begin again. 

ASAP could stand for As Sustainably As Possible.  I could  remind myself that when something goes on my ASAP list, something else has to come off.  It means that I am consciously trying to sustain my momentum; choosing to go slow and steady instead of sprinting as fast as I can.  As Sustainably As Possible means that I give myself space and time to think, feel, and enjoy teaching instead of allowing that stressful rushed feeling to frustrate me.  I want students and colleagues to feel more joy at school and less overwhelmed with that ever expanding  to-do list – and I want that for myself, too!

While I don’t think I’m ready to give up my ASAP list (after all, it IS a strategy I need to stay organized), I can change how I move forward with it. Whether that’s reminding myself to slow down or shifting to take a softer approach, I think there is a lesson here somewhere for me to find.  I’ll just have to add it to my list of things to do As Simply As Possible.

I love when ETFO releases their heritage month posters.  They are such a valuable resource that teachers can use all year long and not just during heritage months. Annually, ETFO releases heritage month posters for Black History Month, Asian Heritage Month, Women’s History Month, and Jewish Heritage month. You can find the past years’ posters on the ETFO website. 

These posters are an important way to bring acknowledgement and celebration of different identities to the classroom.  You can be rest assured that the poster designs were created by artists who self-identify with that heritage and they are engaging and beautiful.  Accompanying each poster you will see background information for you, the educator, to feel confident in teaching and learning about the message of the poster.  You will also find a lesson plan or discussion prompts with some of the posters that help to guide conversations with students around the visual. Because they are posted on the ETFO website, you can project past and current posters to a screen or on a device so that you can look at all the details together. 

There are a few different strategies that I’ve used to engage with the heritage month posters.  I do suggest that you read the background information for educators to prepare for questions and guide conversations as students usually have lots to look at and ask questions about when they first see one of these designs. While I sometimes will engage in a whole class discussion or follow one of the ETFO lesson plans more closely, other times I will have an opening activity for students to engage with a few different posters. Two activities that I’ve used this year are: 

Carousel Walk

• Select a few posters to display around the room.  I’ve kept physical versions of past year’s posters, but you can display them on devices or project them onto a board. 
• Place a chart paper with each poster.  Have students circulate in small groups and with a marker or pencil, they write down anything they see on the poster or one word about how the design makes them feel. 
• Discuss and debrief their ideas together as a large group.  I always like to end with an exit card asking the students what they are inspired to learn more about from the posters. 

Think & Mingle

• When I use this strategy, I engage with one poster at a time and display it so everyone can see, whether projecting or a physical poster.  
• Each student receives a sticky note and writes down what they notice and wonder about the visual. 
• After a few minutes, ask students to stand up.  I usually play some soft music and ask them to move around the room and when the music stops they find a partner
• They share what they wrote with their partner and discuss.  It’s great when the teacher also participates in sharing ideas with a partner and really listens to what the students are noticing and wondering
• To wrap up, we create a class t-chart and to use their wonderings to guide a class inquiry

If you’re looking for resources that will spark conversation and inquiry in all grade levels, the ETFO Heritage Month posters are a perfect start.  They provide a launching point for so much rich conversation and are well researched documents that are ready and easy to use in the classroom.  

The Program Planning document on the Ministry of Education’s digital curriculum site is applicable to all curriculum documents from kindergarten to grade twelve. It includes an important part called the Transferable Skills.  This content is part of officially issued curriculum and, as educators, we are obligated to consider this information to guide the implementation of the curriculum and in creating the environment in which it is taught. 

The seven categories of transferable skills, or competencies, are: 

• critical thinking and problem solving
• innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship
• self-directed learning
• collaboration
• communication
• global citizenship and sustainability
• digital literacy

These broad competencies are designed for students to transfer skills from one subject to another.  For example, self-directed learning skills are applicable in every subject from language to math to physical education. It allows educators to think about developing skills that will be useful for students in any subject area and any grade level. When you read the document, you’ll see that each of the seven skills has a definition and student descriptors.  For example, the document’s definition for digital literacy is:

Digital literacy involves the ability to solve problems using technology in a safe, legal, and ethically responsible manner. With the ever-expanding role of digitalization and big data in the modern world, digital literacy also means having strong data literacy skills and the ability to engage with emerging technologies. Digitally literate students recognize the rights and responsibilities, as well as the opportunities, that come with living, learning, and working in an interconnected digital world.

The first student descriptor is: 

• Students select and use appropriate digital tools to collaborate, communicate, create, innovate, and solve problems. 

These skills are intended to be learned as part of all subject areas and not in isolation.  They are developed through student engagement in practice and in explicit teaching and learning methods.  In planning, this means that we should be considering how we can integrate digital literacy into our teaching, how students can engage in becoming digitally literate, and understand their responsibilities as digital citizens.

Students always seem to be ahead of me in areas of technology; they have more time to consume media, information, and to develop confidence in using tech.  However, when I think about Digital Literacy in respect to the curriculum documents, I recognize that it isn’t just the confident ability to navigate websites and use new technology.  The student descriptors actually lend themselves toward understanding and analysing HOW they use digital tools to enhance their learning. Being able to select the best digital tool to help them learn, critically looking at data, and even understanding how to manage their own digital footprint look differently at every grade level.  

As you look through the curriculum documents, you will also notice that the overall expectations will specifically link to the transferable skill or skills that can be developed through those expectations.  For example, in grade seven language, overall expectations D2 (Creating Texts) and D3 (Publishing, Presenting, Reflecting) both tag Digital Literacy as a competency students should be developing through these expectations. 

How does this inform my educator lens and decisions in the classroom?  I think it looks like decisions that I am making with students, for example including them in the decision to use different digital tools for communication.  Every student I’ve taught loves to create a slide deck, but that isn’t always the easiest way for students to collaborate on a project or to communicate information.  Maybe it’s having whole class conversations to categorize the purpose of different digital tools, e.g., a recorded news report vs a slide deck vs a canva poster. 

As I spend time reading through all of the new curriculum documents, I am finding myself thinking more and more about how students learn and getting curious about how to shape and plan learning experiences that explicitly engage in developing these transferable skills.  Even as the teacher in the room, there’s always so much to learn! 

I am a self-proclaimed avid reader.  During summer holidays, I can’t wait to get to the local library and pick up a stack of books.  Spring break?  I’ve already got a hold of the Canada Reads list to make my way through.  I do love a great story. 

It’s funny how stories can take on different meanings for me throughout my life.  As I’ve heard, then read, then re-told the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, I notice that it has taken on different meanings for me.  As a child, I felt like this was a serious warning: respect others’ privacy and property, be careful when you’re out alone.  As an adult, I thought about Goldilocks as a curious child getting into mischief. And as of late, I’ve learned of interpretations that compare the story to gentrification and colonization.  In all the ways I have thought of this story over the years, I’ve found it interesting to revisit, to turn it over in my mind, and consider different messages. 

As an educator, I think of Goldilocks’ story as a metaphor for the way children try different things to discover what they like and don’t like. Those famous phrases, “This porridge is too hot!  This porridge is too cold!  This porridge is just right!” are the ways I hear children moving through the world.  I hear them trying on clothing, activities, identity, and yes, even the ways they figure out what they like about school. 

Building a love of reading in students can look like this as well; trying out many different stories and authors.  Reading a variety of genres helps students to know what they like best: mysteries, drama, science fiction, comedy, non-fiction, etc.  There’s also different forms of writing: poetry, prose, verse, graphic novels, and more.  There are so many more options for children to explore and love than I had when I was a student. Libraries have a beautiful, wide selection for students and learning how to navigate that space can expose them to many different worlds. 

I used to be a real stickler for reading the entire story.  For myself, I used to insist on reading a book right to the end – even when I didn’t fully enjoy it, I powered my way through every page.  My perspectives have now changed; life is too short to spend reading books that don’t resonate with me.  I might try a ‘bite’ of a chapter or two and then decide it’s too wordy, the setting isn’t quite right, the pacing feels uncomfortable.  It’s just not for me.  And, like Goldilocks, I am giving myself permission to put it down and try something else. 

Extending this invitation to students also gives them the opportunity to think about themselves as readers. Of course, I want them to find a book they love and read it through to the end, but sometimes the book they’ve selected just isn’t the book for them.  If students aren’t finishing books they’ve self selected, that also speaks to them as a reader.  Perhaps they need to think about what they like or what style of writing works for them.  If they want to ‘take a bite’ of a book then put it down for another, a conversation may help to guide some of this self-reflection.  Using questions like:  

• What’s this book about? What made you pick it up?  
• Why isn’t this book for you? What made you change your mind about this book?
• What type of book do you think you would like to try next? 
• How can we track the types of books, authors, styles you like so you will know what to look for in the school library? 

These conversations may help to guide your discussions with students.  Taking on a curious stance means that it’s less about students feeling like they are wrong for not finishing their book and more about how we care about helping them find the right fit book for them.  When the educator takes on a guiding role, mentoring students from a position of care, we are developing relationships. Instead of telling them what kind of reader they should be, we are helping them to learn more about themselves and what kind of reader they are. 

What makes Goldilocks and the Three Bears interesting is that there is no wrapped up happy ending, like in other fables.  We don’t know what happens to Goldilocks as she is “never seen again” at the end of the story.  I wonder where she went and if she told anyone what she saw or did. If I could rewrite this ending from my educator lens, I’d love it if the surprised bears taught Goldilocks how to make porridge and build furniture she thought was best. Goldilocks would learn these skills from the bears, perhaps even sharing some skills and knowledge of her own that the bears could use in their cottage.  And both of them would learn that there are many different ways to be ‘just right’.