Across our world, many schools are closing in order to prevent further spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), including my own Seattle Public Schools. At first, it felt like I was in the exposition of a suspense movie – innocent students wavering between summer-like excitement and intense sadness, parents worried about their kids falling behind, staff trying to support our community with only two hours notice. It was not until I got home and was finally able to unseal my box of emotions (previously pent up in order to support my students’ feelings) that I finally started crying. Eventually and thankfully, my anxiety and emotion turned to passion and drive. The main question running through my head was: How can I best support families in providing learning opportunities at home for their students?
Immediately, and I am talking like 3 hours after I got home from school, I started making video lessons to put up on YouTube (check out the channel Colorful Classrooms with Ms. B). Families, especially my own, were so appreciative of the support! I realized my action could not stop there, especially when I run a diverse book website that aims to help educators, librarians, and FAMILIES. Therefore, it is time to rev up on the FAMILY SUPPORT here at Colorful Pages!
We are creating a series of blog posts called, “Colorful Pages at Home”. During this series, we will be posting several blog posts with a diverse book list and discussion questions focusing on a specific reading skill. Colorful Pages hopes to alleviate some of the stress of pseudo-homeschooling that is burdening our families due to the coronavirus. We want to help parents see quick and easy ways to integrate more learning into a time most are familiar with: A Read Aloud at Home.
So, stay tuned for our Colorful Pages at Home series! We will be covering the following skills [and linking them to this blog post as they are posted]:
- Wondering
- Describing Characters
- Making Text-to-Self Connections
- Retelling & Summarizing
- Determining the Central Message
- Defining Vocabulary Words
We hope this helps! Stay safe and stay healthy ❤️
Colorful Pages 
Dear Tracy and Jenn,
This is the woman that I met at the NW Social Justice Teaching conference. She is AMAZING and this is so inspiring. I would love to discuss this with you. Can we have our call tonight at 5:15? I am going to get a ZOOM account today and so I will send you an invite.
Luci
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Thank you so much for the appreciation, Luci!! I am hoping that you find Colorful Pages resourceful. Please let us know how we can further our support for you all! (Hope the Zoom call went well!)
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