Children’s Books with Biracial Characters
Since I’ve started teaching, I’ve been on the hunt for good books featuring mixed-race characters. Finding children’s books with biracial characters is even more difficult. Based on purely anecdotal evidence, it seems easier to find books featuring biracial characters with one Black and one white parent than mixed-race kids from other racial backgrounds. I’ll have to make a longer list of books with mixed-race protagonists later, but for now I just want to share three that I really wish I had access to as a kid. It’s probably no coincidence that all three protagonists are half-Asian and half-white like me.
Classroom Library Ideas: How to build a diversity audit into your classroom library inventory spreadsheet
Making a classroom library inventory spreadsheet doesn’t have to be a complicated process! In this post, I explain how I built a super-simple diversity audit into my classroom library inventory system.
The Power of Chloe Cho: The Importance of Diverse Books for Kids
A few years ago, I read Mike Jung’s Unidentified Suburban Object to my fifth-grade class for the first time. As always, I introduced the protagonist before I began. Her name is Chloe Cho, so I wrote that on the board. One of my students, who shared her last name, shoved his hand up in the air and asked why his name was on the board. “Because that’s the character’s last name,” I said…
Breathing Life Into Your Upper-Elementary Read Alouds
Read aloud time is my favourite time of day in my classroom, and my students love it too. In fact, on the very rare occasion where we have a day without a read aloud, I am almost guaranteed to hear grumbling. This didn’t just happen on its own! Check out this post to see some ways you can breathe life into your read aloud time!
My Favourite Read Aloud Novels for Grade 5
I love how whole-class read alouds level the playing field and help build community by letting all the kids share a reading experience. These are some of the books that my fifth-graders have loved best!