Reflecting on Read-Alouds

 This Monday will be the beginning of the fifth week that my students and I have been together learning online. This week looks like it will be a stressful one, for many different reasons. To keep things grounded and centered, I'm going to think about something I like - books (and reading out loud).

Time is precious and therefore, selecting a book to read aloud to a class takes serious consideration. Right now, I am just about to read the fourth book in The Spiderwick Chronicles series by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi. (We just finished the third book.) This was a deliberate choice for many reasons.

1. I wanted to choose a short novel because of our attention spans online.
2. I wanted to choose a book that had sequels so that if the students enjoyed it, we could continue enjoying the characters, themes and writing style.
3. My students requested that one of the text types we study (read/write/explore) was horror. It can be tricky to find age-appropriate horror material. I felt like this book (and the prequels/sequels) had enough elements of suspense and supernatural events to make it horror-like. During the first book, children were squealing that this was too scary to hear, but they overcame their fears to request more.
4. Some of the students are experiencing things in their lives that are similar to the characters in the book. Jared Grace has difficulty controlling his anger. The Grace children feel powerless. Watching how fictional characters deal with common issues can be helpful and semi-instructive.
5. My own children loved reading these books.
6. Students who love movies have heard that there is a movie adaptation, and they are keen to do a compare and contrast.

There are many other reasons for choosing particular titles as choices to read aloud. Bryan A. Brown (@Doc_B_Brown on Twitter) recommended a task that his colleague, Felicia Moore Mensah (@docmensah on Twitter) uses. I adapted it for the Additional Qualification course I'm writing. Consult this tweet for the original inspiration. She suggests you post a collage of photos of all the authors you cite in a course you teach. Creating an author picture collage is a striking example of how diverse (or not) your sources may be. I went back into my lesson plans and listed every author and illustrator I included as part of a read-aloud from September 2020 - January 2021. This is the list:

• Jacqueline Woodson (author)
• Rafael Lopez (illustrator)
• Derrick Barnes (author)
• Gordon C James (illustrator)
• Tiffany Jewell (author)
• Aurelia Durand (illustrator)
• Jerry Craft (author / illustrator)
• Saumiya Balasubramaniam (author)
• Eva Campbell (illustrator)
• Holly Black (author)
• Tony DiTerlizzi (author/illustrator)

This is the author / illustrator collage.

This blog goes live on Monday, February 1, which is the beginning of Black History Month. I really like this tweet I read. (In case you cannot read it, it says "If Black lives didn't matter to your school in January, your students won't be fooled in February".)

If Black lives didn't matter to your school in January, your students won't be fooled in February. #BlackHistoryMonth

— Maria Ramirez (@Maria_Advocates) January 28, 2021

Don't just read books with Black characters or by Black authors in February. Read them all year 'round. Don't just focus on slavery and segregation - read books that celebrate various current Black experiences. This is not meant to be a pat-on-the-back for me, but I am pleased that 2/3 of my read-aloud choices are by BIPOC authors and illustrators. I need to read more Canadian authors and I need to read more from Asian Canadian authors. This will coincide with I Read Canadian Day. Part of my plan to improve my Canadian content is to read aloud the 2021 Blue Spruce nominees. I'll have to buy the books with my own money (since I am not the teacher-librarian right now) but I think they will be a worthwhile investment.