Bre Avery Zacharski
The refusal to share his scales Mr. Vuong views as Rainbow Fish creating a boundary for himself.
Only after an octopus suggests to Rainbow Fish to share his scales does Rainbow Fish do so, and then the other fish go back to accepting him.
“So, he got acceptance when he gave up parts of who he was,” Mr. Vuong noted. “He had to change to get others to like him.”
And that is the upsetting message Mr. Vuong takes issue with. He uses the book in his classroom to teach his kids how to think critically.
He reads them the book without sharing his views with his kids, then allows them to talk about what messages they see in the book.
“We had a really good discussion about how our relationships should not be transactional and conditional, and you should never have to feel like you have to change yourself in order to feel like you belong,” Mr. Vuong continued.
From there, he had his kids talk about the author’s intention before asking them to come up with alternate endings that don’t involve having “to pay for your friends.”
Mr. Vuong concluded by saying he thinks it’s extremely valuable to teach kids to think critically about the things that they read.
@teamvuong Poor Rainbow Fish. #teachersoftiktok #teachersfollowteachers #teachertok #literacy #therainbowfish #readaloud
