Single Story Continued

In July of 2009 there was a Ted Talk posted from the amazing author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I didn't watch the video that year, but I have for at least the last five. The notion of the “single story” of a person was new to me, somewhat. It boils down to stereotyping, but in a way that makes me think, wonder, push myself to ask questions, explore bias, and more.

For the past four years I’ve used a blog post by Jess Lipshitz as a jumping off place for this exploring this topic. You can check it out HERE. Using Jess’s ideas, I’ve added videos and articles to explore with my students and consider when we boil down a group of people to a single story. Why do we do that? We ask questions, push each other with gentle nudges, and grow.

This year, more than ever before, that unit from September has stayed with us. For example, every day I read a picture book in our challenge to read one each day of this school year. Always, when we’re done, I’ve asked the kids what they’ve noticed or wondered about. Recently when discussing the picture book Ada Twist, Scientist, a student pointed out how important it was that a female was the main character in the book because sometimes the single story we might believe about scientists was that they were male , but of course that isn’t true. I nodded while they went on to discuss the reasons they felt the author and illustrator had made the choices they had. It was fascinating to sit back and observe their conversations.

The single story came up again last week. We do daily quick writes, often from videos that hopefully inspire them to think and wonder. Then we write for a set amount of time. Last week I was watching three videos from a YouTuber named Louis Cole with them. You can learn how I used those videos in this old blog post HERE. In my first hour class on the second day, one student wondered aloud whether Louis' videos were giving us a single story of Kenya. I agreed that that could be true, so I pulled this video to watch the following day.

We then had an amazing conversation about the Kenya we’d have in our minds had we only watched any one of those videos, but by seeing all of them we had a more complete picture.

Single Stories. It’s so easy to reduce people, places, or beliefs we aren’t familiar with to one thing, but we are all far more complex than that. And inside that complexity lies true beauty. That’s what I want to strive for, to learn from. I’m grateful to this class for pushing me to do just that.

Perception

 

I start each reading class the same way, with a quick write. Sometimes I share poems, sometimes picture books, sometimes videos. Whatever I share, the next step is to write our reaction to that item for two minutes. Occasionally I have the kids share their quick write with each other. More often I have them keep it just for them.

Today’s quick write was a bit unusual. I projected my iPhone up on our whiteboard using the Reflector app. The kids cheered as I opened Instagram. I told them that our share today would be to look through my own pictures that I have shared. We scrolled through the top twenty or thirty, and I gave a comment or two to let the kids know what they were looking at. Many of the kids follow me, and I follow them. And that was the impetus for this lesson.

After scrolling through Instagram this past weekend, I noticed an inordinate amount of selfies. Some kids posting upwards of fifteen in a twenty-four hour period. Looking at their feed I wondered, how was this feeding them? What image did they think they were projecting?

So, I shared my photos. After looking through the past month, I stopped and looked at my students. I asked them to be honest. If all they knew about me were the photos I posted on Instagram, what would they think about me? Their replies were:

·      You like Starbucks, books, reading.

·      Your family is important.

·      You go to a lot of basketball games.

·      You like nature – specifically sunrises and sunsets.

·      You have two sons.

·      You have a dog.

·      You seem nice.

·      You seem happy.

The last two really got me. All three classes said a version of that. Each time I asked, what about the pictures made you think that. The answers varied, but a lot of it centered around a positive feeling they had when looking at my feed.

I then scrolled through again and asked them to look for pictures of me. They found three – all with a friend or loved one. No selfies.

I asked them to pause for a moment and think – if they had Instagram, ponder what their feed would say to someone else. And whether they had Instagram or not, to think about what message they are putting out there to others? Would they be willing to stand in front of their class and ask what the others thought about them? Were they afraid of what would be said? If so, why?

And then, they wrote.

I watched each class for those two minutes. They were focused. Some, a little emotional. Two minutes was over and many continued to write. I brought them back and asked them to look over what they wrote and think, were they happy with what they believed to be others’ perception of them? If so, awesome. If not, how could they change it.

We looked back at my feed and I reminded them, what I put out there online, I am proud of. I don’t post a status that I will regret later. I don’t post photos I am ashamed of. I’m well aware of who I am, and I absolutely like that person. I smiled and looked at these beautiful kids. I want them to like themselves. Selfies won’t necessarily get them there. They aren’t all bad; we found one on my feed – when I got coffee. We looked at it and talked about why I took one that day. I asked them if they use Instagram; use it to share, to inspire, to teach us about who they are. Not to look at it to fill themselves up, but to fill up others. In doing so, they will be happier too.

I don’t think you’ll find today’s quick write tied to any Common Core State Standard. I’m also 100% certain there is nothing else I should have been doing.

Quick Writes

My brain has officially switched over to school mode. I still have twenty-one days until I go back, twenty-three until the students do, but I’m thinking about school a lot. The classroom is close to being ready, which is a minor miracle. I decided to take some student advice and reorganize my library this summer. There are over three thousand books in my room, which made it a bit of a nightmare. All books are back on shelves, so the room is getting closer. When the physical room is set up, the planning can begin. There is so much to think about, so much to consider, but this is the stuff I love. Thinking about units, considering picture books, articles, skills I want to share. I love this part of preparing for the year. Each year is different, students shape what I need to teach and what standards need to be covered in depth. There are some things I know upfront I have to plan for, some wait until the year begins.

With curriculum constantly on my mind, I tend to find things I can use almost anywhere I turn. Quick writes have become one of my favorite parts of workshop. Whether it is a reading or writing class, I like to open with something to get my students writing. We can then share and move on to the mini-lesson from there. Linda Rief’s Quick Write book helped me start out, she has many poems you can use as you begin. From there I’ve pulled my own writing, student poems, and articles to use for our quick writes. One of my favorite things to write off of would be videos. If you want to try it with your students, here is a video I plan on using at the start of school. It is from Jack and Finn – twins from England that run a YouTube channel. I think the video is wonderful and could start a powerful discussion in our class—describe what you love.