Difficult Topics / Kids on the Cusp
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 03/20/2018 · Last modified 03/21/2018
How do we help our learners apply fiction to real life challenges like school shootings? Maybe, writes Mary Tarashuk, by sharing our own experiences and helping them see that, as Pax’s author says, “Just because it isn’t happening here, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.”
Difficult Topics / Kids on the Cusp
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 01/30/2018 · Last modified 11/25/2019
Middle grades teacher Mary Tarashuk confronts the line between preserving childhood innocence and honestly exploring the real world. Are her sudden tears during the daily real aloud of The One and Only Ivan encroaching uncomfortably on that unidentifiable boundary?
Difficult Topics / Kids on the Cusp
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 05/09/2017 · Last modified 11/17/2019
As teens respond en masse to the Netflix series Thirteen Reasons Why, the story of a girl who chooses suicide, Mary Tarashuk considers how difficult topics can be part of learning for her 4th graders and how their read-alouds and personal writing can build empathy.
