WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.360 --> 00:00:07.750 Hi, Carrie Firestone author of Dress Coded. 2 00:00:07.750 --> 00:00:10.010 Which is a middle grade novel 3 00:00:10.010 --> 00:00:12.770 about an eighth grader named Molly Frost. 4 00:00:12.770 --> 00:00:15.790 Who witnesses an ugly dress coding situation 5 00:00:15.790 --> 00:00:16.880 at her middle school 6 00:00:16.880 --> 00:00:19.760 and decides to start a podcast to interview classmates 7 00:00:19.760 --> 00:00:22.510 about her school's unfair dress code. 8 00:00:22.510 --> 00:00:25.370 At the same time, Molly is dealing with 9 00:00:25.370 --> 00:00:28.370 her brother who is struggling with vaping addiction 10 00:00:28.370 --> 00:00:30.870 and taking a lot of time from her parents 11 00:00:30.870 --> 00:00:33.513 which I think a lot of young people can relate to. 12 00:00:35.130 --> 00:00:37.140 I wrote Dress Coded to start conversations 13 00:00:37.140 --> 00:00:40.290 about unfair dress coding situations in schools. 14 00:00:40.290 --> 00:00:43.560 Something that I think is becoming more prevalent 15 00:00:43.560 --> 00:00:48.560 even now than ever before, but I also wrote it to be 16 00:00:48.580 --> 00:00:51.430 what I call an blueprint for activism 17 00:00:51.430 --> 00:00:54.380 because I think it gives young people strategies 18 00:00:54.380 --> 00:00:56.870 to take an issue, 19 00:00:56.870 --> 00:00:58.140 examine that issue, 20 00:00:58.140 --> 00:01:01.820 and then find meaningful ways to address that issue 21 00:01:01.820 --> 00:01:05.290 in their school district, and their communities, and beyond. 22 00:01:05.290 --> 00:01:07.023 So thank you for reading. 23 00:01:12.220 --> 00:01:14.270 I think would use Dress Coded in the classroom 24 00:01:14.270 --> 00:01:15.700 in a few ways. 25 00:01:15.700 --> 00:01:19.300 First, I know dress coding is a topic of lots 26 00:01:19.300 --> 00:01:22.350 of specifically middle school 27 00:01:22.350 --> 00:01:24.330 argumentative essays and debates. 28 00:01:24.330 --> 00:01:28.860 So I think it would be a good text for young people to read 29 00:01:28.860 --> 00:01:31.070 before, while they're preparing for a debate 30 00:01:31.070 --> 00:01:36.010 or in preparation for an argumentative essay. So that's one. 31 00:01:36.010 --> 00:01:38.390 The second is I've mentioned already 32 00:01:38.390 --> 00:01:42.350 that I call the book sort of a blueprint for activism 33 00:01:42.350 --> 00:01:44.050 and I think it would be great 34 00:01:44.050 --> 00:01:47.520 if young people could read the book and then think 35 00:01:47.520 --> 00:01:50.290 of a topic that's interesting to them 36 00:01:50.290 --> 00:01:53.980 and then use that topic to create a podcast, 37 00:01:53.980 --> 00:01:57.080 interview classmates, interview people in their lives, 38 00:01:57.080 --> 00:02:01.130 and then even potentially brainstorm ways to take that issue 39 00:02:01.130 --> 00:02:04.810 and come up with strategies for how to effect change 40 00:02:04.810 --> 00:02:09.310 around that issue in their school or in their communities. 41 00:02:09.310 --> 00:02:11.670 So that's another idea. 42 00:02:11.670 --> 00:02:15.270 And then the third idea is a little more fun and hands-on 43 00:02:15.270 --> 00:02:18.500 and that is one of the topics in Dress Coded 44 00:02:18.500 --> 00:02:21.000 is this idea of a kindness garden 45 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:24.240 and how the actual dress coding incident happens 46 00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:28.483 while Molly's friend is standing in a kindness rock garden. 47 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:32.870 And I think it would be fun to explore what are some 48 00:02:32.870 --> 00:02:37.040 of the phrases or quotes people write on kindness rocks 49 00:02:37.040 --> 00:02:39.160 and then to actually paint kindness rocks 50 00:02:39.160 --> 00:02:42.360 and think of phrases or quotes that are more 51 00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:44.740 maybe empowering or inspirational 52 00:02:44.740 --> 00:02:45.920 or 53 00:02:45.920 --> 00:02:46.890 kind of 54 00:02:46.890 --> 00:02:47.723 not 55 00:02:47.723 --> 00:02:48.850 the same as just 56 00:02:48.850 --> 00:02:49.683 be kind 57 00:02:49.683 --> 00:02:53.060 but maybe something a little deeper and/or different. 58 00:02:53.060 --> 00:02:56.450 So I thought that would be a good kind of 59 00:02:56.450 --> 00:03:00.873 end of the book activity for students of all ages. 60 00:03:05.370 --> 00:03:06.820 So I wrote essay about 61 00:03:06.820 --> 00:03:10.810 the more philosophical inspiration behind this book. 62 00:03:10.810 --> 00:03:14.350 But I also had a couple of other things I had in mind 63 00:03:14.350 --> 00:03:17.500 as I was writing from back in my teaching days. 64 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:19.650 And that is that I think as we all know, 65 00:03:19.650 --> 00:03:22.760 as teachers a lot of young people are drawn 66 00:03:22.760 --> 00:03:25.970 to books with shorter chapters, with more white space 67 00:03:25.970 --> 00:03:28.050 books they can really kind of wrap their heads around 68 00:03:28.050 --> 00:03:31.030 in a different way visually. 69 00:03:31.030 --> 00:03:36.030 So I was very mindful to kind of play with the chapters 70 00:03:36.040 --> 00:03:37.590 and I had many short chapters. 71 00:03:37.590 --> 00:03:41.250 I have lists, I have letters, I have podcasts formats. 72 00:03:41.250 --> 00:03:44.280 I have some chapters that are only one sentence long. 73 00:03:44.280 --> 00:03:47.610 And I was really thinking about those young people 74 00:03:47.610 --> 00:03:49.650 who need a lot of white space 75 00:03:49.650 --> 00:03:51.130 to process what they're reading 76 00:03:51.130 --> 00:03:56.130 and to help them get through the book a little more easily. 77 00:03:56.490 --> 00:03:58.770 And one of the first readers of the book 78 00:03:58.770 --> 00:04:02.730 was my stepdad who actually has a traumatic brain injury. 79 00:04:02.730 --> 00:04:04.750 And he said that it was really 80 00:04:04.750 --> 00:04:06.890 so much better for him reading this book 81 00:04:06.890 --> 00:04:09.620 than other books he reads as an adult 82 00:04:09.620 --> 00:04:11.900 because the chapters were shorter. 83 00:04:11.900 --> 00:04:14.480 He felt accomplished after each chapter. 84 00:04:14.480 --> 00:04:16.020 He was able to process 85 00:04:16.020 --> 00:04:20.590 and understand the chapters in a different way. 86 00:04:20.590 --> 00:04:24.370 And so I'm glad that resonated with him 87 00:04:24.370 --> 00:04:26.893 and hopefully it resonates with other readers. 88 00:04:30.970 --> 00:04:33.310 I think I would pair Dress Coded with 89 00:04:33.310 --> 00:04:35.120 this middle grade novel 90 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:39.130 by Beth Vrabel called the Humiliations of Pipi McGee. 91 00:04:39.130 --> 00:04:41.660 And this is a book about 92 00:04:41.660 --> 00:04:42.493 Pipi 93 00:04:42.493 --> 00:04:47.020 who decides to face the embarrassing demeaning incidents. 94 00:04:47.020 --> 00:04:48.910 She's had to experience since 95 00:04:48.910 --> 00:04:51.560 from kindergarten all the way through middle school. 96 00:04:51.560 --> 00:04:54.100 And ultimately she 97 00:04:54.100 --> 00:04:57.060 finds courage and redemption in her choices. 98 00:04:57.060 --> 00:04:59.170 And I found myself really cheering for Pipi 99 00:04:59.170 --> 00:05:00.750 throughout this book. 100 00:05:00.750 --> 00:05:02.880 And I also found myself thinking about 101 00:05:02.880 --> 00:05:06.030 how there are many parallels and similarities 102 00:05:06.030 --> 00:05:07.970 between Pipi McGee 103 00:05:07.970 --> 00:05:11.490 and Molly's story in Dress Coded. 104 00:05:11.490 --> 00:05:12.870 So I think as a teacher 105 00:05:12.870 --> 00:05:15.770 I might encourage students to read the books 106 00:05:15.770 --> 00:05:19.610 and then create a chart or a list of similarities 107 00:05:19.610 --> 00:05:23.730 and differences between Pipi and Molly's experiences. 108 00:05:23.730 --> 00:05:25.140 But then I think I would also try 109 00:05:25.140 --> 00:05:28.110 to do a more creative exercise. 110 00:05:28.110 --> 00:05:30.770 I like to pull characters out of books 111 00:05:30.770 --> 00:05:33.280 and kind of give students the opportunity 112 00:05:33.280 --> 00:05:35.930 to play with those characters in different ways. 113 00:05:35.930 --> 00:05:40.930 So I think I might assign like maybe Pipi and Molly are 114 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:41.873 on vacation 115 00:05:41.873 --> 00:05:45.220 and they meet each other at a resort or something. 116 00:05:45.220 --> 00:05:47.990 And then students can be assigned. 117 00:05:47.990 --> 00:05:50.180 One student is Pipi and one student is Molly 118 00:05:50.180 --> 00:05:53.530 and they can write a dialogue to each other 119 00:05:53.530 --> 00:05:56.080 or they could come up with a short story 120 00:05:56.080 --> 00:05:58.220 or a flash fiction about 121 00:05:58.220 --> 00:06:00.280 this interaction between Pipi and Molly 122 00:06:00.280 --> 00:06:03.130 and kind of how they're sharing their experiences. 123 00:06:03.130 --> 00:06:05.590 So I think there are all kinds of fun things you could do 124 00:06:05.590 --> 00:06:08.113 with the characters of both these books.