Just Ask!

This is a terrific new book that all counselors will want on their book shelves. This book is written by US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor based on her own feelings as a child. She felt different because she had juvenile diabetes. She tells of an incident as an adult having to give herself an insulin injection in a restaurant bathroom and then overhearing a woman who was in the bathroom at the time tell her companion that the Justice was a drug addict. Her response was ask do not judge others. The book teaches kids when they encounter someone who is different but we're not sure why, they should Just Ask!

New Resource

Less than 1/2 of US children and teens live in a home with 2 married heterosexual parents in their first marriage. Over 1/3 live in single parent households. Many live with same-sex couples, foster parents, grandparents, and other caregivers. This new book deals with having an event at school that is all inclusive, not exclusive like a Father-Daughter Dance. It was written by a former school counselor. It is a great resource and a reminder as we plan our annual calendar to make ALL events at school welcoming to the increasingly diverse populations we serve.

Ian a short film inspired by a true story

This video would be an excellent resource for a classroom lesson to show the effects of leaving someone out because they are different, empathy, or the power of one positive bystander.

Ricky, the Rock that Couldn't Roll

The company newpaigepress was founded by author and entrepreneur Jay Miletsky, who came up with the idea for his first children's book, Ricky, the Rock That Couldn't Roll, while reading to his daughter, Bria Paige, one night before bed. Bria has cerebral palsy. According to Miletsky, "By dealing with issues metaphorically, we can create books that developmentally typical kids and their families can enjoy and take something positive from, while at the same time giving kids with developmental challenges, and their families, a strong yet subtle message of hope without highlighting or even mentioning a disability." The author actually funded the book through a Kickstarter.
This book has darling illustrations by Erin Wozniak and a simple story line. The rocks spend their days rolling down the hill while enjoying the company of other rocks. The main character is Ricky, and he has a difference that keeps him from rolling down the hill. Rather than his friends leaving him out, the rocks and pebbles band together to help him be included.
All elementary counselors should have access to this book. It would be a perfect read aloud to a class about including students that are different in some way (IEPs, 504, and ELL). It could also be used in a friendship group to teach the idea about including everyone in games at school or problem solving.
Finally, it could be recommended to parents of children (ages 4-8) with some obvious difference or parents of typical children trying to figure out how to include a peer (or sibling) with special needs.

Children's Books About Gender Identity

A 2016 study looked at students in ninth and 11th grade and estimated that nearly 3 percent identify as transgender or gender nonconforming more-u-s-teens-identify-transgender-survey  Youth often express non-conforming or “atypical” gender behavior by kindergarten or earlier. While gender variance is common in individuals of all ages, gender non-conforming behavior in pre-adolescents is particularly visible. Obviously these children have lots of questions and they are particularly vulnerable to peer rejection and even bullying. If you need more information on this topic check out  genderdiversity.org/best-practices-schools/elementary/

Pictured above are some very sensitive picture books which counselors should have available to help normalize and guide gender-diverse youth and their peers.  

My Princess Boy (Kilodavis)

Introducing Teddy (Walton)

Red: A Crayon's Story (Hall)

I Am Jazz (Herthel & Jennings)

The elementary counselors in my district (about 30 of us) reviewed a several books on gender identity and expression and felt these would be a good fit with our community.  We each use them in our school in whatever way is needed. It could be in a classroom, individual counseling, or as a resource for families. 

If you want to see more go to jocolibrary.bibliocommons.com/list

These Students Take Down Slurs and Stereotypes

Multicultural Counseling

Multicultural counseling involves both the recognition of a counselor's own cultural values and biases and an understanding of the client’s worldview and the recognition of a counselor’s own cultural values and bias. School counselors need to continually strive to enhance their awareness, knowledge, and skills dealing with privilege, race, justice, and oppression. Cultural competence involves multiple factors. The RESPECT Model has been around since D’Andrea and Daniels (1997) outlines 10 factors shown above. ASCA published "Making Diversity Work" by Grothaus in 2012. ASCA revised its position statement "The School Counselor and Culture Diversity" in 2015. ASCA has 4 
webinar-on-demand on Cultural Competence presented the past two years. 

As counselors it is increasingly important that we continually revisit our cultural competence as schools become more diverse (see enrollment) For example, our school division like the US is no longer predominantly white. Racial differences is just one aspect of diversity we need to help our students deal with respectfully. My favorite resource for teaching diversity is tolerance.org It has a magazine, lesson plans, free film kits, webinars, and much more.

Celebrate Diversity Theme: Judgmental Flower

One of my favorite authors and former school counselor and teacher, Julia Cook’s strategy is ‘Read a Book, Teach a Child a Life Lesson’. In her book The Judgmental Flower, she talks about a purple flower who appeared in a blue flower patch. It is a great book for grades 3 and 4 to discuss cultural diversity and racial prejudice. It promotes being open-minded and looking at another's point of view - very important life lessons especially for upper elementary students. I use it in small groups because we use Second Step and MindUp for class lessons mostly. If you are not using an evidence-based curriculum this would make a great starting point for a class lesson on celebrating diversity.
Check out another resource for free lesson plans and materials that go along with Julia Cook's books published by Boys Town boystown/lesson-plans

Celebrate Diversity Theme

Our school is becoming increasingly racially diverse and we want all children to feel welcome and accepted. Our community and country are becoming more diverse and children need awareness about differences and help understanding how culture influences beliefs. We have to get along with people who may have very different values. Culturally sensitivity begins with an awareness of our own background. We need to teach young children about race and culture because stereotypes can become fixed by age 9 http://identity_stages.pdf Each fourth grader did a family interview about their heritage and background before I taught the counseling lesson in January. As part of my lesson they each decorated a hand cut out with symbols of what makes them uniques. Many of the fourth graders told me how much new information they learned about their family from this assignment and they love seeing their hands on the bulletin board. I would definitely repeat this lesson!

Historical Picture Book on Segregation

I was about the same age as the girls in this book when I realized black kids had separate and unequal schools. Growing up in a all white neighborhood I did not realize many of the limits placed on people of color. One summer my camp went to the black school to play volleyball. I had never been in a run down school with ceiling tiles falling and a ripped net. That is when I really got it that all kids were not being treated equally. My second realization came when my brother wanted his black friend to come to his Halloween Party and my mom told him if he included that friend they could not trick-or-treat because many of our neighbors would not open their door if a black child knocked. My brother never went trick-or-treating again. This book does a terrific job of showing how some black people "fought" against Jom Crow by supporting one another. It is a perfect read aloud as we approach MLK day.

Diversity Resource

Teaching Tolerance believes that students learn best when they’re empow­ered, and a key way counselors and other educators can do this is to give students a curriculum that reflects and respects their identities and the identities of others. The curriculum promotes identity, diversity, social justice and action.
http://www.tolerance.orgUser_Guide_2017.pdf

Diversity Lesson Grade 1 or 2

Maria Dismondy is one of my favorite authors. She has several books that address diversity but my favorite is Chocolate Milk, Por Favor! My first and second graders love her books and she explains abstract concepts like empathy and diversity in a way they understand. She also provides a whole reader's guide with lots of follow-up activities. http://mariadismondy.com/ Another blogger has developed some high quality free downloads for this books as well  books-teachers-love This one includes a vocabulary frame for both empathy and diversity. This is based on the Frayer Model which we are encouraged to use at our school. If you don't know about the Frayer Model watch the video here http://www.theteachertoolkit.frayer-model
By the way if you get a new ELL student that does not speak much English this is also a great book to prepare the rest of the class. We are getting a new first grader who just arrived from Turkey today and I did this lesson with the class yesterday.

If the World Were a Village

This year I moved my lessons on diversity to January. In third grade I am using the video (about 12 minutes on YouTube) or reading the book "If the World Were a Village" as the basis for the lesson. I ask the students to make some predictions and mark their opinions at the beginning for a pre-survey and then respond to the same questions for a post-survey plus one on defining diversity. The students are always shocked by some of the information and hopefully makes them more aware of the world and appreciate how good they have it. It gives some of the spotlight our ELL students who come from parts of the world with many more people than America. I use a chart with the Frayer Model to teach the meaning of Diversity: definition; image; synonyms; and sentence.

If The World Were A Village

Here is my pre-post survey for this lesson:

The Inner-Beauty Secret

Keisha Howard is a school counselor and a girl's self-esteem coach. You can follow her on Twitter @MyCoachKeisha. The Inner-Beauty Secret published by https://youthlight.com addresses character and body image. It emphasizes the importance of kindness and caring over "beauty." I have used it with a self-esteem group and a girl's empowerment group. The message and illustration are appealing to Pre-Kindergarten through third graders. The people in the book are racially diverse. At the end of the story are 10 discussion questions and tips for parents and educators. There is also information how to download free follow-up worksheets. There is also a comprehensive list of other resources on this topic including pearl-girls.org/ and bodypositive.com/

Great video for teaching second or third graders about diversity

Collage: A Short Film on Children & Diversity from p.s. baron on Vimeo.

Diversity Lessons

One of the major themes we teach in our curriculum is Diversity.  We choose to start the year on this important topic but you could also do it in October which is Diversity Awareness Month.  We use the Teaching Tolerance Anti Bias Standards and the resources on this fabulous site
perspectives.tolerance.org

Multicultural and Anti-bias Children's Literature

My school is adding Spanish for all students this year so we are searching for additional resources about Spanish culture and especially children's literature we want to have in the classrooms and library. Two good resources I came across are:
1) A checklist by the Anti-Defamation League on criteria for selecting books
http://adl.org/bibliography/

2) A  web site contains links to annotated bibliographies of children's multicultural books appropriate for the elementary grades (kindergarten through grade six). Cultural groups currently listed include: African Americans, Chinese Americans, Latino/Hispanic Americans, Japanese Americans, Jewish Americans,  Native Americans, and Korean Americans.
multiculturalchildrenslit.com

Celebrate Uniqueness

Our administrators gave the staff this book, The Only One Club,  to share with our students as we approach our winter break.  I think it is perfect for second graders who frequently get hung up on being different in some way.  It addresses children's need to belong to a group. Flashlightpress.com has activities to go with each of their books, many of which could be used in counseling.