diff --git a/xblock/plugin.py b/xblock/plugin.py
index 6b5888d0c..3f1574c4b 100644
--- a/xblock/plugin.py
+++ b/xblock/plugin.py
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ def select(identifier, all_entry_points):
             if select is None:
                 select = default_select
 
-            all_entry_points = importlib.metadata.entry_points(group=cls.entry_point, name=identifier)
+            all_entry_points = list(importlib.metadata.entry_points(group=cls.entry_point, name=identifier))
             for extra_identifier, extra_entry_point in iter(cls.extra_entry_points):
                 if identifier == extra_identifier:
                     all_entry_points.append(extra_entry_point)
diff --git a/xblock/utils/resources.py b/xblock/utils/resources.py
index 778007cd1..f3f2ac69f 100644
--- a/xblock/utils/resources.py
+++ b/xblock/utils/resources.py
@@ -22,7 +22,11 @@ def load_unicode(self, resource_path):
         Gets the content of a resource
         """
         package_name = importlib.import_module(self.module_name).__package__
-        # Strip leading slash to avoid importlib exception with absolute paths
+        # TODO: Add encoding on other places as well
+        # resource_path should be a relative path, but historically some callers passed it in
+        # with a leading slash, which pkg_resources tolerated and ignored. importlib is less
+        # forgiving, so in order to maintain backwards compatibility, we must strip off the
+        # leading slash is there is one to ensure we actually have a relative path.
         return importlib.resources.files(package_name).joinpath(resource_path.lstrip('/')).read_text(encoding="utf-8")
 
     def render_django_template(self, template_path, context=None, i18n_service=None):