I’m a kindergarten teacher by day and a picture book writer by night. I thought it might be useful to share my insights as both a veteran teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District and an agented, traditionally published kidlit author. At the core are two different processes that often intersect and ultimately inform each other for me.
This post, the first of 4, focuses on Using Picture Books to Facilitate Student-Centered Discussions Around Social Emotional Learning.
I spend my days with 5-year-olds so I read no less than 15 picture books a week. I believe that my job as a teacher is primarily to listen to children and surface what is alive for them. Building the conditions for emotional intelligence to develop has been a passion for over 30 years. To my delight, Social Emotional Learning or SEL has become a hot topic especially in elementary education for the past decade. This is reflected in the publishing world as well. Picture books that reflect Social Emotional Learning are plentiful. And manuscripts on this topic always seem to be in demand.
Picture books are a great way to elicit student-led discourse around social emotional learning. As authors, we specifically write them for young children. We take great pains to create developmentally appropriate manuscripts using accessible language. We create characters that children relate to. As a teacher, I tend to use books that address social emotional learning through stories. Stories help my students make sense of their world. They recognize and form their identities, and experiences. Stories shape their interactions and connections. Stories help them connect to others. Children can step into stories and transform into the characters. They can experience their feelings as well as those of others in an authentic and safe way. They develop empathy and compassion through these reading experiences. I especially like to read stories with SEL themes and wait for students to ask questions or lead discussions that are relevant to their social emotional growth. Often I find books that push the discourse or themes further to provoke deeper thinking.
I have to be honest, I steer away from picture books that blatantly try and teach my students “lessons.” Adults who impose their morality onto unsuspecting 5-year-olds usually don’t hold the student’s interest. I am particularly sensitive about books that aren’t respectful of young children, seeing them as blank slates and not the interesting, thinking humans that they are. Children want to hear stories. They don’t want to be preached to and believe me, they know.
But find a good story where universal themes are woven into the characters and their relationships, and you will hold the rapt attention of an entire class. I’m always on the hunt for these great stories that leave us hankering for a good discussion or leave us with a feel-good moment. Lately they feel like they’re few and far between.
Don’t get me wrong. The books my fellow picture book authors are writing and that publishing companies are buying are beautifully written. But compared to the literature from earlier decades, many feel like they are leaning out of storytelling as we knew it and are more no-nonsense books with sparse wording or non-fiction subjects. All have their merits and are well produced. They just lack the storytelling of years gone by when the wordcount hovered well above and over the current 500-word norm and were not influenced by the Common Core Standards. Books like Stella Luna and Chrysanthemum come to mind in contrast to current books with blatant “you’re beautiful,” “be you,” “be brave,” messaging.
In 2010, the Common Core Standards were adopted for education across the country. It’s my understanding they were not developed by educators but rather came out of the business and political community. Technically they came from The National Governor’s Association (a political organization founded in 1908) and The Council of Chief State School Officers. At the time, I remember noticing a huge shift away from reading and writing fiction and a move toward non-fiction literature only. This was a shift in language arts instruction in the standards and the standards dictate what teachers teach. They moved us from fiction and fantasy to non-fiction and informational text, even in the primary grades.
As a kindergarten teacher, it didn’t make sense. It was completely out of balance. Literary learning shifted away from a focus on imagination and pushed us toward nuts and bolts, cut and dry, no-nonsense reading and writing. I worried about how it would affect young children and their desire to read and write. I worried that storytelling would be devalued. I worried that the publishing industry would shift their product to meet the new demand. I think I was onto something fifteen years ago.
As authors, we write books that serve the current market. If we ignore the trends and requests, we run the risk of creating books that are irrelevant. We run the risk of writing books that don’t sell. But I have faith that complex stories will return despite the education trends. I believe that children will eventually demand them and we will all have to listen, especially if we are writing books that address Social Emotional Learning.
By Zeena M. Pliska
Zeena M. Pliska spends her days immersed in the joy of 5-year-olds. She is a public school kindergarten teacher by day and a children’s book author by night in Los Angeles, California. A progressive public-school educator, she believes that the most important aspect of teaching is listening to children. A social justice activist and organizer for over 30 years, she brings race, class, and gender analysis to everything she does. She is half Egyptian and half Filipino. A lifetime storyteller, she has facilitated stories as a theater director, visual artist, photographer and journalist and most recently as a short film screenwriter/producer/director. Her debut picture book, Hello, Little One: A Monarch Butterfly Story from Page Street Kids came out May 12, 2020. Her second picture book Egyptian Lullaby from Roaring Brook Press came out April 18, 2023. Two board books in the Chicken Soup for Babies series from Charlesbridge came out in the fall and winter of 2023.
Her blog posts can be found at www.teachingauthors.com and on social media, Instagram @zeenamar, X (formerlyTwitter) @zeenamar1013, Bluesky @zeenamar, and on Facebook @Zeena M. Pliska or Zeena Mar.For more information you can go to www.zeenamar.com
