Rock Your Differences: Promoting Inclusion and SEL at DigCit Summit

When Marialice Curran asked me if I wanted to read Strum and The Wild Turkeys for DigCit Summit hosted on Belouga, I was elated. I love this book, and I am drawn to sharing it with classrooms around the world because of the social emotional aspects of the story and how it can positively impact students. For those who don’t know, I was originally commissioned to write a story from a real life event, but when Strum and The Wild Turkeys was finished, I felt compelled to have it in classrooms. Thanks to Edumatch, this book is (mostly) globally accessible. You can learn more about the origin story of the book in this post. Getting to share the story with these four classroom in one week was fun and formative.

Marialice invited some educators to sign up for time with me. I started in a school Ottawa, which was cool because I’m Canadian, and Ottawa is the capital of our country. Mrs. Bennett’s class joined with another Grade 3 class, and she helped ensure an interactive reading with the classes. The next day, I met Mr. Lewis who was with my friend Michael Drezek in Angola, New York ( I made an error and called it Buffalo- my apologies to all) . I started with a picture walk to connect with how the characters were feeling, as I had done the day before. The artistry of Alana McCarthy who illustrated the book come not only from her vivid colour palette but her ability to communicate complicated emotion through her drawings. The class connected to the images, and we tried to embody the contrast in how Strum’s brother was feeling, walking with dignity and pride to when we first meet Strum at the end of a row of his siblings looking sad and insecure. Mr. Lewis’s class was also noticing the emotions of the characters and participating in explaining the change in Strum over a few select images that I had posted without the text. Beginning the story this way allows me to help the students see more in the story when we get into the actual book.

Writing the song to go with my story was an epic accomplishment for me, and it has become an anthem to complement the book, adding some verve to my readings and keeping kids singing. Different is Good started as an inference to a song lyrics in of the story to reflect Strum's evolving sense of self. It was unfinished until I came up with the melody for the chorus right before a reading event with a few hundred students. It became clear that it was something worth developing, especially when the melody caught on and kids kept singing it after my virtual visit. I thought about crowdsourcing the lyrics, but other things happened to give me the wings I needed to write this song and take my melody to a musician, Marc Shapiro, who composed it. You can read more about that in my Strum Into Song post that has links to the music and lyrics. Hearing the Year 1’s in Scotland sing the song was so sweet, but as I take the story and the music global, I have some new learning to do, and it’s the essence of inclusion as defined by The Digital Citizenship Institute.

​When preparing to read to kids in Ms. Jalland’s class at Carmuirs Primary School in Scotland, I could have spent more time considering their context. Those children, like others I had met, hadn’t seen any peacocks before except at the zoo. They did, though, have a man in town who shepherded turkeys around, so we did find a text to self connection. It was a good reminder that digital citizenship requires a lens on with whom and where we are connecting, and considering my audience is something I will get even better at now that my awareness has been piqued in a new way. It was so sweet to see the kids' drawings afterwards and to know that they were inspired to write a shared story based on my book and song. The drawing and collective story they shared with me are now posted in the Creative Corner of the book’s website, which is also full of great ways to use Strum and The Wild Turkeys at home and school.

Preparing to read to the students in Kakuma, Kenya was humbling. I began to learn a bit more about where they lived and knew that they were older than many of the students to with I had read so far. Luckily, this book really is for people of all ages, and I was hoping that I could tap into their thinking and writing skills through the reading experience. I used a map to show our locations and I showed an image of the Congo peacock as part of a Peafowl of the World graphic to respect their context and differentiate Strum, who is an Indian Peafowl also referred to as a common peafowl or Indian blue. Hearing the group sing my song filled me with joy. I was not sure how they felt about the story because they were mostly quiet and composed. Finally, I was asked a question that has stuck with me: How do you write a story. I wish I could have a take 2 for that because I have better answers upon reflection than I did at that moment. I wish I had more time to talk about story with them and to share how Strum and The Wild Turkeys was inspired by real-life events. I was honoured by the chance to read to the students in Mr. Narukako’s class and grateful for the experiences I had over the whole week.

To use tech for good and be truly inclusive, it is important to build empathy and understanding about your audience and their contexts. I look forward to having more opportunities to further develop these skills and share my book with kids from around the world. Compiling the video for DigCitSummit reminded me that, though it is not my strength, having basic editing skills allowed me to have aspects of each visit interspersed throughout the recording to help me tell the story of these readings in a meaningful way . I hope that even more teachers will see why this book is so special in a classroom anywhere in the world. Fundamentally, no matter where we are, we all have a need to belong, and I want to help kids of all ages see and be themselves and promote inclusion through and beyond Strum and The Wild Turkeys.