Balancing In-Person and Remote Learning: The Hybrid Model

Most conversations about reopening schools include the hybrid model. This mix of in-person and remote instruction can have many varieties, including 2 days of in-person learning and 2-3 days of remote learning each week, with students split into two teams and alternating the days they are in-person. Other schools are opting for one week of in-person learning alternating with a week of remote learning. While I can only imagine just how much thinking and effort has been undertaken by local districts across the country this summer to implement these models, it does seem like there are some unspoken assumptions driving particular plans. Below I describe what a hybrid model might look like if learning, child care, or transportation and space constraints were prioritized. Though this is a thought experiment, I do think it’s helpful to point out the affordances and challenges of these priorities in order to question whether we’re pulling on the right levers, and which levers we’re not even touching.

Priority: Student Learning

We all learn through interaction and thrive on routine. My earliest posts for this blog highlighted these themes of learning being a social endeavor. So regardless of the learning environment, ensuring opportunities to learn with and from others, with the support of a teacher, is critical. With this in mind, allowing students, particularly our youngest students, to have as many touch points with their teacher seems obvious. Similarly, having the same teacher and a consistent group of peers also seems like an obvious component of a successful learning environment. (This report from the spring sadly notes that only 33 percent of students had regular access to teachers, 15 percent of parents received personal guidance about how to support their child, and just 13 percent of students got one-on-one time with their teachers.) And keeping a schedule as routine as possible is also advisable.

But which of the hybrid options seems to prioritize these components? None of the ones I mentioned above. Instead, half days for two groups of children would accomplish most of these goals. With half days, the same teacher instructs the kids each day of the week and sets them up with independent or project-based group work that they can continue at home. Instructions and support are largely given during the face-to-face time in school and parents are given information to support extended versions of homework. In typical elementary schools, much of the day is spent establishing routines, transitioning, doing independent reading or math work, or working with a partner or in a small group to complete an assignment. Half days are ample time for the instruction a teacher wishes to impart and for checking in with students individually to ensure they are set up for success at home. This model might be a 4-day model with an entirely remote day that allows the full group of students to interact synchronously online for part of the day and then continue with the extended homework for the remainder of the time while the teacher can engage in professional learning and sharing with colleagues around what’s working or what challenges they are facing. While not unique to this model, it also allows for the use of other adults, like special educators, counselors, reading or math specialists, assistant teachers, student teachers, or paraprofessionals to support smaller groups of students both in-person and remotely, and for these other adults to have time to meet with the teacher to discuss any concerns or struggles of individual students. So why is this model not being implemented anywhere? Mainly because of childcare, which brings me to the next consideration.

Childcare

If the hybrid model were to be designed with childcare needs as the highest priority, a consistent schedule that allows for longer chunks of time in school buildings would be optimal. This is largely why we are being offered the 2 full days per week or one week on, one week off models. While this does support working parents to an extent, it’s still a logistical nightmare for any full-time employee. Work does not stop for the 3 days each week the child is home, or for the week when children are home. (And of course there are parents who are the actual teachers too!) And on top of the inconsistent schedule for parents, children have an inconsistent learning schedule as well as inconsistent teachers.

There has been much said about how schools are not daycares. However, implicit in the model of schooling that has existed for over a century is the fact that schools are in fact caring for children while educating them. Ellen Gallinsky, the chief science officer at the Bezos Family Foundation said, “Indeed, the divide between child care and education contradicts our current understanding of child development.” Of course we’d all be up in arms if schools merely supervised children without teaching them. This is why they are not simply daycare centers. But on the flip side, we don’t choose daycare centers without enriching environments either, if we can avoid it. Needs for learning change over time--toddlers need supportive adults who can create environments for safe exploration while elementary and secondary students need structure, resources, and experts in pedagogy to impart complicated concepts, critical thinking skills, and executive functioning capabilities--but these are both equally learning-based environments based around supportive relationships with caregivers. Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, notes, “The driving force for education should not be ‘a parent needs to have a place for her kid to be so she can go to work’. We need to have an answer to that question, which is not school.” Well yes, but if that were the entire story, then wouldn’t we be prioritizing learning and choosing a different hybrid model?

Transportation/Space

If there were enough transportation for everyone to ride a bus at a social distance or for students to be housed in learning spaces with enough room to be socially distant, then perhaps there wouldn’t be these conversations in the first place. But the reality is that there are not enough buses and drivers or classroom spaces to allow for this. That’s how we’ve ended up in the current bind. Public education is bound by many regulations that make creative possibilities extremely constrained here, so this section may be pointless. But for the sake of beating my head against a wall, let’s imagine a possibility for creativity. What if we could explore common public spaces, like libraries or community centers or even abandoned schoolhouses? What if some of the government pandemic spending went to renting out commercial spaces that are currently empty because of forced closings during COVID? What if we recognized that secondary students are more capable of remote learning than elementary students and we converted high schools into more early childhood spaces? This is all to say that there could be ways of finding space if there were room to explore (pun intended). Of course, national leadership in this realm could be helpful. (And that’s as political as I wish to get!)

Instruction Renovation and Innovation

When school buildings suddenly closed in March, educators and parents were thrown into totally new educational waters. They tried to tread water and cling to rafts, keeping themselves and their students and children afloat. But now we’ve had a whole summer to contemplate this reimaged landscape. And as plans for the new school year are beginning to be floated (I do like a good extended analogy), many of us are trying to figure out how to swim with the rip current.

This instructional renovation is going to require a lot of innovation. And while this remodel is still emerging, it is clear that in-person versus remote teaching is not the only consideration. Regardless of learning environment, there are key considerations around the best uses of synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning; the importance of non-cognitive skills to successful learning; and the need for children to have social interactions and emotional support. (There are also individual student needs by grade level, family situation, and learning factors, as well as the sociological shifts in schooling due to the pandemic, but let’s not get carried away!) For now I’m mostly raising questions within each of these areas to begin a conversation building our collective wisdom to inform the infrastructure of this new enterprise, but I do hope to think more deeply about each in subsequent posts in the hopes of supporting wading through the floodwater of information in making a decision for your children and family.

Synchronous and Asynchronous Teaching and Learning

Thinking about ways of learning that are best suited to in-person instruction, how might this translate to live virtual teaching in terms of maintaining interaction through the screen (e.g., nonverbal signals)? What digital tools can support breaking into small groups to continue effective pedagogical practices (e.g., think/pair/share)? Similarly, what kinds of instruction are best suited to asynchronous remote learning (e.g., project-based learning activities or recorded activities that build home routines like The Listening Song)? Research over the last decade on the flipped learning model can also provide guidance on the balance between live and recorded instruction. Furthermore, we know there are challenges of limited broadband internet or device access. How can these challenges be overcome (e.g., PBS programming)?

Non-Cognitive Skills and Habits of Mind

We know the importance of non-cognitive skills (e.g., executive function skills like time management, prioritizing assignments, maintaining focus and avoiding distractions) for academic success generally, but they are critical when learning happens independently or remotely. How can in-person or virtual teachers (or other adults) support students in developing and applying these skills? Common Sense Media recommends these apps, but many parents with sufficient means are resorting to pandemic pods so their kids can have meaningful engagement in educational activities without the support of a working parent. How can schools utilize this idea to support remote learning while also avoiding the inevitable inequalities resulting from such experiments outside of the public school system? For example, school staff and community volunteers might be leveraged to enable a consistent adult to support, engage with, and monitor a small group of students. Professional development time could be used to build a community of these small group leaders to effectively work with their students in building these essential skills.

Social and Emotional Learning

Schools are not just for academics. They also provide opportunities for socializing and emotional support (not to mention child care!). While some students have thrived in the absence of the pressures associated with peer interactions and the opportunities for more individualized participation (e.g., private recordings to teachers with tools like Flipgrid), many students are missing friends and parents are desperate for other adults to support the emotional turmoil their children are experiencing. Furthermore, the pandemic and the heightened awareness of racial injustice have increased these needs for many students. What risks arise for students who typically rely on traditional classrooms for critical support? What structures and systems can be put in place to highlight the affordances and mitigate the risks of remote learning for individual students? How do we adapt these ideas for students at different grade levels?

Turning Planning for Summer On its Head

In my most recent post, Planning for Summer, I offered ideas for structuring open-ended summer time using checkboxes. I also suggested attaching screen time to checking off boxes in order to motivate kids to keep up with productive and educational opportunities. While this system was working for us, I also worried about unintended consequences. Like many reward systems, things that one might have done anyway or out of interest get turned into things to get through to earn a reward. I saw my kids scheming about the fastest and easiest ways to check off boxes rather than diving into things they normally would have done and enjoyed. So before I inadvertently eliminated all of their intrinsic motivation by offering extrinsic rewards, I took a different approach.

A year or so ago, my husband and I noticed we were having nightly battles with our kids about how much of their dinner they needed to eat to get dessert. How had we turned into the stereotypical parents we swore never to be? He had the idea of deciding on what a reasonable amount of dessert would be and making it available regardless of all other consumption for the day. So even if you don’t eat the broccoli at dinner, you can still have a cookie or a scoop of ice cream. For most of us, this freed us up to actually try more things, linger over the meal more, and not place more value on the dessert than the dinner. (One of our kids remains a very picky eater, so I certainly do not proclaim to have all the answers!)

Building from this same approach, we decided that 1 hour of screen time each day was an amount we felt comfortable with, regardless of what happens during the rest of the day. So we separated screen time from the checkboxes. Instead, screen time was added to the list for the day, and the boxes were reframed as boredom busters to be chosen rather than responsibilities that were non-negotiable. Suddenly they seemed more appealing!

We did have a conversation about this switch with our kids, discussing which boxes would be easy to continue checking off and which ones would be harder for them to motivate themselves to do (chores!). We did not say that all boxes had to be checked daily, but we did remind them of our expectations of being a part of a family team. We said we’d circle back at the end of the week to see how things were going. Not surprisingly, our avid reader was reading a ton. But our more reticent reader was finding times within the day to read in shorter bursts--to his younger sisters or to himself--and was actually enjoying it more since he wasn’t setting a timer and getting through a reading session. I was enjoying being able to ask for help with things more in the moment, rather than trying to come up with helpful things in bursts so they could get to their videos and then refuse to help me later when I needed help with something else. It seemed like a win-win.

This whole experiment also got me thinking about what I value and pass on to my kids. Why was reading a check box but not math games or puzzles or calling a friend or drawing? Marion broached this topic in her earlier post about Skipping the Vernal Pool. I know we pass on our values in all we do and often don’t even notice we’re making these choices. So I’m glad I am at least questioning it. Again I don’t have all the answers, but as I think about the upcoming year and the very real possibility that parents will continue to be managing a lot of time with our children, I can imagine including my children in a conversation about values in much the same way that teachers might include their students in a conversation about classroom culture and expectations. What feels important to them? What are they interested in and motivated to do? What are their own aspirations? What do they want to do for others? What do they wish from others? What are they avoiding, perhaps out of worry or feelings of inadequacy? What is something new they might like to try? What might make something easier to try or harder to share with others? I’m sure we all would have our own ways of asking. I don’t have all the questions either!

Planning for Summer

With July upon us, summer is in full swing. School ended and we took a week off from everything, enjoying being Unplugged. But then I felt a need for some kind of structure to the open-ended days that lay ahead of us. I wanted a way to harness my kids’ potential for finding fun and being creative while still maintaining the freedom and spirit of summer and allowing me to remain a step ahead of the stream of questions about what they could do. And I’m not going to lie, if they could keep up some learning activities, that wouldn’t be too bad either.

I do love a good checklist, so that’s where I started. Our daily chart has 5 boxes with minimum time requirements (more is always allowed):

• Music: 15 minutes
• Household help: 30 minutes
• Reading: 45 minutes
• Movement: 1 hour
• Other (arts & crafts, puzzles, games, writing, building, etc.): 1 hour

Then I sprinkled in some motivation. Checking off 2 boxes earns you 30 minutes of screen time. If your kids are like mine, they will already have figured out that they can check off 4 boxes and have an hour straight on screens, and that if they combine efforts and do each of their hours back-to-back, then they can watch a movie. If your kids are also like mine in their eating habits, then you may have to require eating meals before doing screens. (And you probably notice this doesn’t fill the day. That’s intentional so that they can practice filling their time. These boxes can be great starting points.)

I have to say that my favorite part of this chart is the household help. The kids have always had chores that took them less than 10 minutes to do. So now I have 20 minutes of their help each day for things that I was always scrambling to fit in before the twins sprinted down the driveway or dumped out the toys we just cleaned up or decided to eat yogurt with their fingers and then hop like frogs around the house. I was inspired by this podcast with Dr. Deborah Gilboa, a parent of 4, family medicine doctor, and parenting advice giver extraordinaire, where she gives great actionable tips about how to keep kids engaged in helping around the house and is totally clear on why this is so important. Here are some of the amazing things I’ve discovered my kids are quite capable of doing on their very own:

• Making and packing lunches for everyone (turns out they can make pasta, eggs in several varieties, sandwiches…)
• Loading and unloading the car with bikes, scooters, and helmets
• Gathering towels and floaties, and then hanging them up to dry when we get home 
• Cutting vegetables, opening cans, and even following a recipe to make soup for dinner
• Resupplying bathrooms with toilet paper or bedrooms with tissues

As always, flexibility is key. If we go out for the day, we don’t make a chart or worry about it. Most likely we’ve been hiking or swimming and everyone is tired, and relaxing with screens for half an hour is in everyone’s best interest. I’ve also been trying to have a weekly outing, inspired by my summer camp days with weekly field trips. It’s nice to break up the stream of summer days that can leave you forgetting what day it is, and it also gets everyone out of the feeling that there are no new choices available. Even if you don’t have the flexibility to take your kids somewhere, you might think about how to make one day “special” during the week, perhaps with pancakes or a longer project (talent show anyone?) or bedtime stories under the stars.

And speaking of shaking things up, that “Other” checkbox category is probably your ticket to never having to answer the question, “What can I do?” or respond to, “I’m bored!” Here are some ideas for that box, which may even take the form of a jar with suggested activities that kids can choose randomly:

• Wide Open School by Common Sense Media has virtual summer camp ideas and activities, as well as schedule templates for you to use in planning for your family
• TED-Ed has tons of short video lessons for kids on interesting topics that might spark ideas for a creative project or investigation, or simply make for some interesting dinner conversation
• The Boulder Public Library does a great toddler/preschooler story time, and they’re posting all their episodes so it can become a part of a routine that your kids get to know over time. Many local libraries have similar programs and even suggested crafts to go along with the theme of the stories.
• Even young children can play independently, and here’s a short piece with tips on how to encourage it
• Mommy Poppins put out this list of 100 activities for kids this summer that don’t involve screens
• PBS Learning Media Camp activities for pre-K to 2nd graders and for older students to keep learning fun and alive during the summer
• Finally, some thoughts about virtual camp and a list of ways to make happy campers from home!

Noticing and Acting on Difference

In this NY Times article, How to Raise an Anti-Racist Kid, the author emphasizes the starting point of talking, noting that we should not shy away from comparing and contrasting people, experiences, media, interpretations, reactions, and ideas in order to focus on the differences. (Speaking of which, this Nick News with Alicia Keys on 6/29 should be a great conversation starter!) While focusing on differences may seem obvious now (after all, variety is the spice of life!), it wasn’t always obvious to me, and it’s definitely not comfortable to me yet. Different means change, and change is hard.

In my own life, I notice myself being stuck in the same interactions. Why do I keep having this same fight? Why do I keep putting other people’s needs ahead of my own? Think of what being “stuck” looks like for you. I’m sure it’s there because, after all, we’re only human.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about some of my “stuck” points, and I keep coming back to the need for trying something different. And more and more I’m realizing that different is just that: different. It doesn’t have a judgment attached to it. It’s more of an observation, or something to experiment with. Doing something different is pretty likely to lead to a different outcome. For example, try meeting that person in your argument with curiosity, or try saying no to something you might have normally said yes to. See what happens. My husband shared this Autobiography in 5 Chapters by Portia Nelson with me that captures this so well:

Chapter 1: I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost. I am helpless. It isn’t my fault. It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter 2: I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost. I am helpless. It isn’t my fault. It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter 3: I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it there, I still fall in. It’s habit. It’s my fault. I know where I am. I get out immediately.

Chapter 4: I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

Chapter 5: I walk down a different street.

I love this quick description of life. And just like with our other “stuck” points in life, it’s incredibly applicable and powerful within the context of institutional and systemic racism. We’re going to keep walking down the same street and falling in that same hole if we don’t open our eyes to the hole and do something different. And though it takes time to even notice the opportunity to do something different, once you see a different path, there’s no going back down that same street again.

I also really appreciate that this autobiography starts in observation and lack of responsibility and ends with agency and action. One of the people quoted in the article from the start of this post said: “Don’t frame anti-racist work as an extracurricular, but rather as an integral part of life...Art, coding, policy, statistics--all of these can be harnessed for anti-racist work on a daily basis.” To really make change requires commitment, putting intention and action together to do something different.

This also got me thinking about Carol Dweck’s revolutionary idea of growth mindset, that believing one can learn and improve allows one to put in the effort required to actually learn and improve. Like anti-racism, it’s a pervading idea and way of life that cannot be siloed into a specific context. Just as I said at the beginning that change was not comfortable to me yet, I can work at it and grow in my relationship to change. The same is true of anti-racism. It may not pervade my everyday experience yet, but I can work at it and I can change. Like this Mom of All Capes on a new podcast I’m enjoying points out, we have the power to “turn talking into action” and to see that “the world isn’t falling apart; it’s coming together.” Let’s notice our differences, see our opportunities to try something different, and put in the effort to be a part of that change!

There Are No Stupid Questions

You know the adage, “There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers.” I’ve found myself wondering about that lately. I have a lot of questions, and I’m worried to ask some of them because it makes me vulnerable. Vulnerable to exposing my ignorance, to being met with criticism or disdain, or being told that my question is hurting someone else. In effect, feeling humiliated, or even worse, being mean. In that context, it feels hard to believe there are no stupid questions.

Then I listened to this powerful conversation with Lama Rod Owens on Dan Harris’ Ten Percent Happier podcast. It is long but well worth the listen. One of the points he gently offers is that a big challenge of difficult conversations is when one or more participants ignore the relevant feelings that are present within the conversational space, and instead remain in the intellectual realm. In the context of race, this might look like a white person asking questions to try to understand the Black experience at a cognitive level while remaining separate from the emotional level, which may be where the experience largely exists for that Black person. When the people conversing are in different realms, they fail to connect in a meaningful way. A safe space is not provided for actual talking, listening, learning, growing, and building a relationship.

So, maybe it does turn out that there are stupid questions? Just kidding! I don’t think it’s the question that is stupid, nor do I think “stupid” is a helpful label. So I’ll try to stop using that word, just like I ask my kids on a regular basis. Like Lama Rod points out, the feelings matter. How we ask a question has a lot to do with our emotional intent, and how we hear a question or receive an answer also has a lot to do with the emotional state we’re occupying.

This all makes me think of shame and defensiveness. Feeling shame can help us, while being shamed is likely to do the opposite. I listened to Brene Brown’s podcast with Ibram X. Kendi on anti-racism. It’s amazing, and has this valuable metaphor in it: Racism is raining down on us, and powerful people are raining it. But these same people are telling us we’re dry, when in fact we’re wet. Along comes someone who offers us an umbrella. To feel shame is to suddenly realize we are wet. But we can still accept the umbrella and thank the person offering it to us.

In this metaphor, we (or I, as a white person) are not even asking a question, and by not asking, we have been complicit in a system of racism that we may not have even known existed. However, once we are offered the umbrella, we can either feel the shame of not having ever asked the question (Am I wet?), or we can be defensive (I’m dry) and continue to perpetuate a racist system, but now a little less blindly. At that point, the questions, no matter how “stupid” they might seem, need to be asked so that one is at least in the conversational space. And once we step into the arena, as Brene Brown would say, we begin to break the cycle of being both the victim and perpetrator of racist propaganda.

Similarly to not asking uncomfortable questions, silence can send a message of shame, regardless of whether or not that was our intent. For me, I have experienced this in the world of fertility. You might have family or friends who hide their sexuality in this way. Sometimes it feels like it’s up to the person assumed to be experiencing the shame to take control of sharing or explaining, like we might put people on the spot or be insensitive by bringing up uncomfortable subjects. But for me, I welcome the questions because it gives the opportunity to celebrate something beautiful and wonderful that brings me pride. But getting there definitely took some emotional work. I imagine it might be similar in racial conversations. Questions may actually be welcomed and answers received openly once some emotional work has been done to trust the conversational space.

So where does that leave us? Getting back to Lama Rod, I think it leaves us creating safe spaces for questions and conversations and building relationships. And in building those relationships, uncomfortable topics will not only become more comfortable, they will also become more pressing and personal, and impossible to ignore. I already wrote about updating media to be more representative and inclusive, which I think is a huge step towards educating ourselves about history and the typical experiences of other people, from their perspectives. And that helps a lot with the emotional work of asking questions from a place of empathy and receiving answers without defensiveness. But then I think we need to make it a bit more personal in order to find a place of action. And while personal is necessarily individual, here are a couple of my own thoughts:

• My kids were walking with their friends in the neighborhood and came across a house with 3 dogs, 2 white and 1 black, playing outside. My oldest son commented on how hard it is to imagine treating the black dog differently than the white dogs. His friend agreed, “I mean, they’re all dogs. How could you treat them differently?” Obviously I don’t want to equate humans and dogs with this example, but I do want to point out that this experience brought this topic to the personal level for them in a way that they could talk about it, empathize with the arbitrariness of racism, and have some thoughts about unfairness that might percolate for them and perhaps lead to some action.
• Books and other media can bring up uncomfortable topics and can model language for having difficult conversations. I’m a huge fan of podcasts, as you might have noticed. In this Parent Trapped conversation with Allison Briscoe-Smith, she brings up the parallel discomfort you might feel in a conversation with your kids about sex and in a conversation about racism. Even though it’s uncomfortable, we can agree that it would be irresponsible to not have a conversation with your child about sex, and the same applies to racism. And she notes that starting with your children’s questions and being alert and sensitive to their reactions and discomfort is also important. For me, listening to podcasts about talking to kids and having conversations about racism and social injustice is helpful in thinking through and imagining such conversations, preparing me for some of the emotional work of being in such conversations, and framing the importance of having the conversations amidst the discomfort. And she concludes by noting the importance of emphasizing resilience and how far we’ve come and how far there still is to go, which in itself is a call to action.

The Learning that Cannot Wait

For my family, this is the final week of school. Wherever you are, some version of school has likely already or will soon be coming to a close for summer break. We’ve heard about summer slide and there has been amplified worry over the COVID slide, given the loss of learning that has already happened from disrupted schooling this spring.

I had already been gathering thoughts about ways to stay engaged and learning this summer, while still feeling the fun and freedom of summer. I had been returning to my ideas around sparking curiosity with media and engaging in project based learning. But suddenly it is abundantly clear that there is learning that cannot wait around social justice and racial inequities.

Media is helpful for creating meaningful and engaging learning opportunities. It often has fun and playful contexts that are motivating and can facilitate and accelerate skill building. It can build from prior experiences or create a foundation from which to build skills in new contexts.

With all of that in mind, below are some media resources for getting started. I hope you will spend some time being thoughtful about the books, movies, games, and experiences you select to specifically engage your children and family for maximum impact. You may have seen the saying going around about resistance not being a one lane highway. Think about what lane you and your family are currently in (having conversations, understanding the messaging in language, making signs, joining protests…), as this is the best way to ensure you will actually engage your energy in a sustainable way. My hope for my own family is that books will shine a light on new perspectives, paint new characters from different backgrounds, share new lessons and draw from rich histories that are different from our own. From there, we can question, listen, understand, and seek out more. We can be spurred to action and broken from our silence. And just like with reading and math, we must use it or lose it to avoid that backward slide towards complacency.

• NPR’s Talking Race with Young Children: You might listen to this episode with your children, as it helps start the conversation about skin color and other physical differences rather than avoiding it. Beverly Daniel Tatum and Jeanette Betancourt (who were also on the Sesame Street/CNN Town Hall) are featured speakers, and I really appreciate their clear, child-friendly language and messages.
• Social Justice Books, referenced on the Sesame Street Town Hall by Beverly Daniel Tatum, has book lists by age group and around specific areas of social justice, and is also a great place to start conversations and educate yourself around race, racism, anti-racism, and social justice.
• There are so many other book lists, like these by Common Sense Media for younger kids, The Brown Bookshelf, The New York Times, Black Books Matter, and even Little Passports, so you should be able to find some books that work for you. And one thing I appreciated in these lists is that, while some of the books are on the topic of social justice, many of them are fictional or non-fictional accounts about the experience of Black children and families, or even fantasy stories by Black authors, like this Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky that I ordered for my Percy Jackson fan.
• While Daniel Tiger definitely targets our youngest viewers, this episode on Not Hurting Your Friends, with this song in it, just feels so applicable to everything right now: “Stop, stop, stop. It’s okay to feel angry. It’s not, not, not okay to hurt someone.”
  
• This PBS blog post gives ideas on sparking conversations about Black history through art and stories.