My teaching philosophy is under construction. As I continue on my journey as a teacher candidate, my views are constantly evolving with each new tidbit of information that is thrown my way, but there is one constant that will remain static until the end of my time as a teacher decades from now: I am an activist teacher. Sound scary to you? Well, it does to me, too, but some of the scariest social justice subjects to broach are the ones that children can grasp faster than adults can, so why not expose them early? My quest to turn the next generation into kind, compassionate, free and critical thinkers has to start somewhere.
I decided to take a risk with my read aloud today, touching on a subject that, while topical and totally relevant to my school district as well as the world we live in, is continually viewed as controversial by many in our community. Pushing the envelope on touchy subjects can’t be easy for some teachers, as there are an infinite number determining factors that might derail your lesson or discourage you from tackling those issues at all, such as the views of parents or even of the wider school community. To combat any backlash, however, I decided to approach the “touchy” subject of gender norms and identity gently and indirectly, through the picture book Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino.
After a suggestion from my SA the morning of, I decided to change things up a bit. When I got to the page where Morris got a tummy ache after dealing with his classmates’ teasing all week, I closed the book and asked the students to think about what course Morris might choose to take and had them write about it in their learning logs! As Personal Identity is listed as a topic in the grade two social studies curriculum here in BC, I used this opportunity to introduce the idea of self-comfort to the Squad, as the ways in which we deal with negative emotions are as much a part of who we are as the nose on our faces.
“No spoilers!” I said, and I sent them away with clear criteria:
- Write the date
- Write the title of the story
- Answer the following questions:
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While observing the children as they wrote, and in the debrief after the lesson with my SA, it became clear how important it is to frame my instructions in a way that will get the desired results. With the questions presented in the way I presented them, most of the Savvy Sharks, instead of reflecting on their answers and writing in full sentences, simply copied the question and provided a simplified answer. If I want more of a thoughtful response in the future, I could re-frame the questions in a way that encourages that. For example, instead of asking, “What did Morris do next?” I could say, “Tell me what you think Morris did next.” Instead of, “What would you do next?” I could say, “Write about how you would react if you were in that situation.” For a group who requires further prompting, I could provide sentence starters that they could then complete in their logs. By doing this, the students would be encouraged to think about the things they do for self-comfort and why, and that thinking would be reflected in their writing.
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Though the story is about a boy who loves to wear the tangerine dress in his classroom’s dress up box, I decided to focus on the more obvious lesson of discovering ways in which you can provide self-comfort in times of sadness, anger and frustration. The gender lesson, however, was not lost at all, despite my subtle approach. When I presented the book cover to the Squad, the general assumption was that Morris was a girl. “But is Morris a name usually chosen for a girl?” I asked, and the Sharks shook their heads, some in confusion. As we learned more about Morris, I could see that some of the Sharks had been exposed to gender issues before and already had informed, positive opinions about them. For others, the idea of a boy wearing a dress and that being completely acceptable were foreign ideas. In the end, however, the whole class agreed that Morris, or anybody who so chooses, can wear a dress if that’s what makes them feel comfortable in their own skin. It may not be your choice, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad choice for someone else.
https://instagram.com/p/-SfO2XPQoT/?taken-by=ms.bayne
After recess, with the class at the carpet, I read the story again from the beginning, this time pausing for predictions before finding out what Morris did next, and at the end of the story, the Sharks shared some of the ways that they self-comfort. The discussion warmed my heart as the Sharks discovered that some of their friends use the same self-comforting techniques as they did. This Squad of Savvy Sharks is truly amazing.
https://instagram.com/p/-SfWDevQog/?taken-by=ms.bayne
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