Pandas at NCTE 2022

Dear school systems,sorry to break it to you, but you cannot be culturally-responsive or sustaining if you do not involve,ask,validate parents’,caregivers’ and communities’ ways of knowing and being.

Early Career Teacher Fellowship NWP & Panda Foundation

● 2020 Panda Foundation-charitable arm of Panda Express supported an early career elementary teacher year-long fellowship with a focus on family literacy and family engagement

● 100 teachers started the program and 80 finished. They were from Georgia,Texas,Illinois,Arizona,Nevada,California and Washington State.

● Requirements: attendance at monthly meetings,facilitation of family literacy event and writing about this event on The Current.

Becca Beltramo- Family Recipe Unit

● I was a professional chef in San Francisco before becoming a teacher.

● I wanted to bring that knowledge into the classroom.

● We started with a crepe recipe, which I filmed on Youtube and did a shared write with the recipe.

● Then we worked on Jamboard to create a recipe brianstorm of all the recipes we know.

● Interview with parent or family/community member.

● We then worked on google docs to write down at least 1 recipe.

● Recipe books were made and distributed.

● I continue this unit in person as well with the same elements.

Introduction

Cooking and food is very much a part of each of us and I wanted to celebrate the traditions and heritage of each person in the class. We learned about lots of different food from around the world and read a variety of read alouds that were about food and culture.

I wanted to create a unit that incorporated my history of professional cooking and incorporate families in the process.

How to make recipes with families

Some highlights from the unit…

● Students interviewed families about a favorite recipe in the family.

● We used jamboard to brainstorm ideas and google docs to write in our recipes.

We learned that writing, like cooking, is a process. Interviews Brainstorm

02 03

Students interviewed a family or community member about a dish.

Students wrote out all the different recipes they knew how to cook.

Write and Revise

Students used google to help them spell and write.

Reflections from the unit

● I learned that this unit went well with one of the Black History month themes of Globalism.

● This unit was part of our informational unit writing- I have made it the opening to our nonfiction writing unit since the first time.

● Students and families were able to learn more about their cultural backgrounds and also brought them closer together.

● Recipe books were created and distributed after the unit.

● Students were able to edit their work using google docs/jamboard/google classroom.

● Students and families came together to do a recipe celebration which we shared recipes with other people from our 2nd grade community.

Joyce Balcos Butler: Connecting Families Through Digital Poetry Night

1. During the pandemic, students at Winder Elementary School in Winder, Georgia had an opportunity to collaborate with parents at a 5th grade family poetry night sponsored by the Panda Foundation.

2. As a Panda Fellow, we were tasked with fostering and engaging our families to participate in a Family Literacy experience.

3. I thought it might be fun for our students and families to learn about poetry while creating their own shared works along with family members.

Introduction to Digital Desks

The idea behind digital desks was for students to be able to create their own works while sharing with others in the classroom.

● Digital desks can be created in Google or Microsoft platforms and can then be shared with students in Google classroom or Teams.

● The following slides show examples of some of the student work.

● In addition to writing poetry with their families, students were also able to record their works together using Flipgrid and Padlet.

.Ms. Butler

Verse| Burgherissosweet, Heislikecandy. Whenheprodsaroundthehouse, Heissilentlikethenight. Hegoesandcreatesagang, Toattackthedog.

issosweet,

islikecandy.

Yellow Almost Ready Green Ready

Red Not Ready

LARRY

hereisalink tomyflip grid thatI made.click onthewords thatarein Grayabove

Prose: Thisishowmyschool yearwentsoiwakeupinthe morningbrightandearlyand gettingdressedbrushmy teethandgettingmystuff readytogotoschoolandIit wasashockbecauseIdon't reallydon'tbreakwakeup thisearlysoitwashardand thenIgotoschooldifferent singallyournewclassmates andseeingyourfriendsand thatwasgoodmathscience andsocialstudieswaspretty easy.that'showitwent

Verse: LOVING Caring

Pandas

Enjoying make sure my work is done stay on top of me Listening and having fun And enjoying life LOVE YOU MOM.

Silas

Verse: Thereisamonkeysheis chonkyheeatstoomany bananaandthemonkeyname washanna

Family Poetry Night

Family Poetry Night was a fun night of collaboration with families while learning about poetry. This event fostered family fun through engagement tand authentic shared writing.

LaToya Burns-

This is How We Do First Grade! My Year in First Grade Vs. Your Year in First Grade

-In 2020 I was asked to become apart of the National Writing Project. I was presented with the task of creating a Family Engagement Night. However, my district had VERY strict COVID-19 protocols in schools. Which meant, we could not have any clubs, events, or programs that year. Everything had to be virtual, including class.

- I read the story, This is How We Do It, by: Matt Lamothe. The story is about the day in the lives of 7 students around the world. After reading this I had the idea of beginning a virtual book club.

This Is How We Do It- Matt Lamothe

First Grade Book Club

The school year of 2020-2021 I taught my class virtually. I had a total of 30 students and I taught 15 students in the morning for 2 hours and 15 students in the afternoon for 2 hours. I announced to parents that class would be extended an additional 15 minutes to begin our book club meeting.

The book that I selected was Junie B. Jones, First Grader at Last, by Barbara Park. I selected this book because students were familiar with Junie B. Jones books from their Kindergarten year. Also, this story told the hilarious tale of the ups and of Junie B. Jones entering First Grade.

Junie B. Jones- First Grader at Last

Book Club Procedures

Students had to read a chapter every night with their parents. After class, we had our “meeting time”.I re-read the chapter to the class and we had a discussion about each chapter. During this time, we began to compare and contrast Junie B. Jones’ First Grade Experience to their own. We discussed the difference between Junie B. Jones’ teacher, to theirs (me), friends, and even assignments.

Reflection

Even though Covid restrictions made this project less engaging than usual, this experience was very enlightening because it allowed families to read together, learn more about each other, and also allowed them to reflect.

Students realized that they accomplished something that they felt was “hard”. Which was completing First Grade solely online. This experience was also eye opening to them because they learned that even though many things were different between their parents and themselves. There were still things that were the same.

Virtual Learning

First Grader to First Grade Teacher

Noche de La Lectura/ Literacy Night

Cristina Ramos

My family literacy night revolved around a storytelling exchange between students and their parents

This was the agenda for the night. I wanted to add images wherever there was text.

¿Preguntas? O Comentarios/ Questions? Comments

During this time parents shared out how much they enjoyed this event. Some parents mentioned this was their first time having a conversation about their childhood and school with their own child. One parent mentioned he didn’t get a chance to ask his child how she felt about school until this event. The event was near the end of the school year.

Many of the children were surprised to learn their parents were in kindergarten. Some even learned that their parents struggled in school too. Families said they were happy to color together and talk about their child’s hopes.

One family member mentioned to their child that they don’t like to talk about their childhood often because it was hard.

I saw students completely engaged in listening and oral expression when they can connect to the content. I also saw parents open up and become vulnerable to connect with their children. This is meaningful learning.