I think that it is important for students to be able to relate to characters. At the first grade level we are teaching children how to read and enjoy books, but one of the most important factors in a good book is how you relate to a character. Great characters pull you into a book and set the pace for reading. In order to teach my little ones this valuable lesson, we could do a character study. At a young age, my students might not be drawn to a sheet filled with words, so I found these sheets on Ed Helper. They offer a more kid friendly approach to a character study.
Class 10/3/11 RE 5730 October 9, 2011
During class we spoke of words that we automatically thought students knew. I am bad for this, I forget that some students do not have a rich vocabulary home. This week during spelling several of my students had the words sob and blush. While doing the words sorts, I asked do you know what this words means? Most of the studens did not know what sob or blush meant. The students were able to read the word, but if I had not taken the extra time, they would not have been able to use the word in their writing. I am making a promise to myself and my students to always teach vocabulary, and not to assume anything!!!!
Reading With Meaning Chp. 4 October 2, 2011
On page 47, the chapter warns teachers to stay away from chapter books during selected reading in the first grade. Some students can read and comprehend chapter books independently. Several students are motivated because of their love for Junie B. or Horrible Harry, do we take these motivators away?
I do value the thought that not all books are great teachable material. I have often thought that the books people pass along to teachers are the things that no one wants to read. As a teacher I still look through the giveaway boxes, just like a pirate looking for treasure.
Love, Ruby Lavender by: Deborah Wiles June 12, 2011
Love, Ruby Lavender is my favorite Deborah Wiles book yet! I made such a personal connection with Ruby, when children can slip into a character’s life because it parallels their own or that of their peers, they are more inclined to read a book (Realistic and Historical Fiction Chapter 6).
Ruby Lavender is such a character, a girl after my own heart. She skips to her own tune, different from most girls. She spends her days climbing trees, playing ball, and family is everything to her. I first made my association with Ruby and the chickens. When I was young, about five years old, my father and I built an incubator. Dad brought some eggs home from work (he and my grandfather worked at a feed meal). We put the eggs in the homemade incubator and one actually hatched. I named the hen Henrietta, and she followed me everywhere. I can look back on pictures and see myself dressed in navy Oshkosh overalls, a red bonnet on my head and Henrietta with her bright red bandana around her neck.
I, just like Ruby, was always outdoors! I played in the woods beside our house and climbed any tree that I could. In fact whenever something bothered me, Mom would just look in the trees to find me. I was also very attached to a ball glove; it went most places with me. I loved to play catch and when I was not in a tree or fishing, you better believe I was playing ball! My mother tried and tried to paint my nails and fix my hair, but I was a lost cause for all the girly stuff. My hair was always in a ponies tail (my father called it that, I still laugh and think back to saying, “No Dad, it is called a pony tail not a Ponies tail. There is only one!”). I also grew up in a canning family; we ate food from the garden all year long. Two years ago I helped my grandmother can everything from the garden. I wanted to know and learn the art of canning to keep it alive in our family. Actually canning is one of the easiest things I have ever done and can’t understand why more people do not practice this art. I will always have a fond memory of my grandmother, great grandmother (who is now gone on to a better place), and myself sitting at the kitchen table listening to the popping sound of freshly canned vegetables sealing. Granny would say, “Listen there goes another’n, I just love that sound.” We sat at the table for hours talking geography and listening to popcorn sounds coming from the kitchen.
Love, Ruby Lavender can be considered a contemporary realistic fiction. The setting Halleluia, Mississippi reflects contemporary life, and the characters present situations in which the reader can identify (Realistic and Historical Fiction Chapter 6). Many students in a classroom will be able to identify with lost love ones, a small town feeling, being very close to their grandmother, or not getting along with a fellow student. Readers can gain insights into challenging situations they are facing or may face while learning about handling the problem with determination, forethought, and control (Realistic and Historical Fiction Chapter 6).
This book has so many fun activities that you could incorporate within the classroom. My first thought was to study the life cycle of a chicken and actually incubate and hatch eggs. I have done this in a classroom before and it was so fun! The 4-H program will give you an incubator to use and the eggs, as a teacher you have to find a home for the chicks and clean the materials, but the 4-H program will pick everything up when you are finished. You can even candle the eggs and see the baby chicks before they are born. You can also hear peeping coming from the eggs before they hatch, just like Ruby and Dove heard!
I would also love to find another classroom in the county that would read Love, Ruby Lavender parallel to our class. The two classrooms could become pen pals and send the letters through the school’s courier service (Free!). I know that students could easily write to other students in the school, but at such a small school the students seem to know one another already. I would love for the students to reach out and write to a person that they can actually have a pen pal relationship with.
I think that it would also be fun to have a luau, and study about Hawaii. Oh, what fun it would be to have drinks with little umbrellas in them and Hawaiian shirts, lei’s, and hula dancing. We could study volcano’s and the culture.
This book also has a huge focus on family, so why not focus on our personal families? I really enjoy making glogs, and I think that students would love to do this activity as well. I would ask students to make a family glog to show the classroom the special people and traditions of each family. It would also be a great way to remember family members who are no longer with us.
Students would also be asked to pick a character to map. There are so many characters to relate to in this book, that students will automatically feel connected to at least one person. I would ask the class to fill out a and then hold literacy circles to discuss the emotional ties for each individual. To make this activity even more fun, we would enjoy root beer floats during our literature circles (yum!). Students would also be asked to write a short personal connection essay.
I am amazed at how many wonderful and fun activities you can incorporate with all the books we have read. I love teaching first grade; I have the amazing joy of watching children learn to read. However, I would love to extend the joy of reading to students. I want to show students the value of reading and the wonders it can offer. I am not so sure I would not jump at the chance to teach fourth or fifth grade. I have been told that I will be working with a few upper elementary students next year. My principle has seen (and heard an earful from me) the importance of differentiated reading groups. I will be working with these students to find the appropriate levels and guide the teachers in differentiated reading instruction. I have to say, I am so excited about this opportunity! I really see myself as a reading teacher in the future (for all grade levels).
“Dragons and Giants” from Frog and Toad Together June 5, 2011
http://www.teachingchildrenphilosophy.org/wiki/%22Dragons_and_Giants%22_from_Frog_and_Toad_Together
After reading the text to my students we held a group discussion that went a little like this:
Question 1: What does it mean to be brave?
Student 1: To do something really scary, something hard to do.
Student 2: To be brave you have to be tough and strong.
Student 3: I have been brave before, my mom said I was brave when I feel off my bike.
Teacher: Frog says that trying to climb a mountain should tell him and Toad whether they are brave, do you think this is a good test for bravery?
Student 4: Yes, you have to be strong to climb a mountain.
Student 5: Climbing a mountain would be really scary.
Question 2:Have you ever done something really brave?
Student 1: Yes, I have ! I jumped off the diving board in the deep end of the pool
Teacher: Can you tell me why that was brave?
Student 1: Because the water is deep and I use to be scared to jump.
Student 2: I have been brave before, I broke my arm at school and my mom said that I was really brave.
Teacher: Yes, you were really brave, I remember when that happened and I was so proud of you. I know that your arm had to hurt really bad, but you let the nurses look at it and X-ray your arm even when it hurt to move it.
Student 3; My brother is brave, he has big muscles.
Teacher: Do you think you have to have big muscles to be brave?
Student 3: Maybe, you have to be strong
Questions 3: Were you scared when you did that brave thing?
There was a bit of silence so I, prompted more…
Teacher: When you jumped off the diving board were you scared?
Student: Yes, I was scared but then it was fun so I did it again and again.
Teacher: When you broke your arm were you scared?
Student: Yes, it hurt and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I had to wait in the office for my mom to come and it was the end of the day. I was worried about my sister because she wouldn’t know why I wasn’t on the bus and then you came in with her and stayed till my mom got me. I got a pink cast at the doctor’s office and everyone signed it.
Teacher: Do we still think you have to have big muscles to be brave?
All Students: No
Teacher: Can you have big muscles and be brave as well?
All students: Yes
Question 4: Do you think people can be brave and still scared when they do the brave thing?
Teacher: When the snake tries to eat Frog and Toad, they jump away and Toad starts shaking, was he still brave?
Student 1: Yes, because he kept climbing.
Teacher: Sometimes it is scary to be brave. Remember when we had our discussion about the kidnappers in the area? Well I think that it is very brave to scream and say no, even though you are scary.
Student 1: Yes, you told us to yell fire!
Student2: I would be scared, but I know you told us to yell fire so people would look and help.
Student 3: We yell fire because sometimes people don’t listen to kids yelling, they may think we are just playing.
Conclusion:
We have had a great discussion and found out that you can be brave even when you are scared of things. We also found out that anyone can be brave. I want you to look around and notice when you see brave things in either a story that we read or someone that you know. When we share morning news, you can tell us about the brave things that you have seen.
Teacher Thoughts:
I found this a very rewarding activity, I really found out new ideas about my students. It is a great way to compare and contrast, and to get the brain working. I also like the way that students wanted to add to the conversation. So many kids wanted to tell stories about a book they had read or something they had heard on the news. I like to have discussions in my classroom, so this was not a new process for the students but I found out a lot about what makes someone brave. I also think this is a topic that need to be addressed more in the classroom or at least in my classroom.
Questions for Deborah Wiles
What influenced you to become a writer?
What are you reading for pleasure right now?
When can we expect your next book in the 60’s trilogy?
What do you enjoy most about teaching writing?
Freedom Summer by: Deborah Wiles
Freedom Summer is a great book to use with lower grades, such as kindergarten thru second. I always consider it a treasure to find rich multicultural literature for our younger students. It is so hard for younger students to realize what the world was once like. The wonderful thing about children is that everyone is equal, stereotypes and judgments have not been made yet. It is important as a teacher to help students keep this open mind. Our country is full of different cultures and people, we can learn so much from these cultures if we just open our hearts and minds.
Freedom Summer introduces children to a once segregated world, a world where black and white people were not allowed the same rights. John Henry was a black boy but also the best friend to a white boy. As the book unfolds we see the boys love the same activities, the same foods, and jokes. This is a perfect opportunity to ask students, are these two boys different? Students will probably answer only their skin color. At this point in the books students are introduced to the type of realistic fiction this book offers, living in a diverse world, which addresses racial and ethnic diversity (Chapter 6 Realistic and Historical Fiction).
Students dig deeper into this story to find that John Henry has a wish, a wish to be able to share the same experiences as his friend. It is so easy for the white boy to tell John Henry that he did not want to swim in the public pool, but together with Deborah Wiles words and Lerome Lagarrigue’s paintings we see the pain and hurt that John Henry carries when he says, but I wanted to. Young children can start to understand that things that were as simple as going to the pool, running by the store, or eating out, where not so easy for all people in days of segregation. Even when the laws of segregation were lifted and black people had the right to do and use the same things that white people used, the hate was still there.
The underlying theme of love is truly spoken as the boys walk into the old store together. John Henry has his nickel in hand to buy his first ice pop, one that he himself gets to pick out. Love and equality is what I want my students to take from this book!
Countdown by: Deborah Wiles
Countdown is such a powerful book! I had no idea the personal impact of the Cuban Missile Crisis until people started asking, “What are you reading?” When I began to tell people about the book, stories began to flow from the people that lived through this era. My mom told me stories of the duck and cover routines and how scared everyone was. My Dad spoke of Kennedy and how hard times where for him, he had a lot of weight to carry on his shoulders. Although, this even happened 50 years ago people still remember it’s affect on the nation, like it was yesterday. This of course got my brain to going trying to pull events and find a feeling that I could associate with this event. It didn’t take long to realize that the September 11th attacks held the same feelings for my generation. I can remember exactly where I was when the news began to spread! It was like the whole world could only stop and just watch! We, as a nation had no idea what was coming next!
I, just like a group of fifth graders can only read about the chilling thirteen day torment of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I, as well as a group of students need to know the emotions of the people within the story. It is one thing to read, but another to associate a feeling with the book, to actually jump inside the pages and the emotions of a character. I have had many years of reading, but I am teaching a group to appreciate the value of a book and the characters, so I must dig deep and create the atmosphere for them.
I would introduce this book first by asking the students to think back to the September 11th Attacks. What do you remember, how did you feel, what did your parents do, where were you? I would ask the students to remember these feelings as I introduced a glog to the students:
http://destinysizemore.glogster.com/glog-8182-5956/
As a teacher I would tell the students about the Cuban Missile Crisis and the affect it had on the nation. I would also like to transform students into the 1960’s time zone, with music, people, trends, and fashions. Deborah Wiles does a fantastic job including music and trends, which really help this book, come alive. I would have to let the students listen to the songs mentioned in the book, before hand, so that when they read about the song they could make an immediate association. I would also show the students what penny loafers were, pedal pushers, and other styles of the sixties.
Once the stage was set the book would begin. Key elements are introduced as the book goes along, so I feel that discussion during the read is necessary. I would have to stop the book and show the Bert the Turtle video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-5jw60. I would also stop the book after President Kennedy’s Speech and share with the students the same speech that Frannie and her family watched together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOnY6b-qy_8. The book itself is such a powerful resource with all the pictures, articles, and news from the Crisis. I am sure the students will be flowing with questions, I had to stop and research items that I wanted to know more about.
To wrap up the book in class I would have the students do an internet workshop using the Think Quest website (http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/) that Deborah Wiles has listed in her resources. This is a great site that would be easy for fifth graders to navigate. I also created a resource sheet to go along with the Think Quest asking the students to explore people, places, and the events.
Cuban Missile Crisis Think Quest
The book also had so many interesting characters, Franny, Jo Ellen, Uncle Otts, Drew, and Margie. I would invite the students to use glogster (http://www.glogster.com/) and create a glog for one of the characters. I think this would give the students an in-depth look at each character, especially when the students shared their glog.
Because this book is such an educational tool, I looked up the fifth grade curriculum to see what each student could benefit by reading Countdown.
2.03 Recognize how the United States government has changed over time.
2.04 Compare and contrast the government of the United States with the governments of Canada, Mexico, and selected countries of Central America
3.03 Identify examples of cultural interaction within and among the regions of the United States.
3.07 Describe art, music, and craft forms in the United States and compare them to various art forms in Canada, Mexico, and selected countries of Central America.
4.01 Define the role of an historian and explain the importance of studying history.
4.05 Describe the impact of wars and conflicts on United States citizens, including but not limited to, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, and the twenty-first century war on terrorism.
4.06 Evaluate the effectiveness of civil rights and social movements throughout United States’ history that reflect the struggle for equality and constitutional rights for all citizens.
4.08 Trace the development of the United States as a world leader and analyze the impact of its relationships with Canada, Mexico, and selected countries of Central America.
Countdown is written in such a way that every student can somehow relate to at least one of the characters in the book. When children can slip into a character’s life because it parallels their own or that of their peers, they are more inclined to read a book (Chapter 6 Realistic and Historical Fiction). We also meet also meet Franny who shows so much character development in this book. When we meet Franny she is scared to tell her teacher Mrs. Rodriguez that she has been skipping her during Social Studies reading time. She also has only one friend and keeps to herself. Franny is very embarrassed of her Uncle Otts and does not understand why he has to be so crazy all the time, but we see Franny change in several ways during this books. She becomes a heroin, historical fiction transports the reader to historical contexts in which heroism and courage become real attributes of character (Chapter 6 Realistic and Historical Fiction).
Students will also enjoy the knowing that the places in the book are real, places they can visit and research. Debra Wiles grew up living this life, although the characters and story are fictional, students can relieve a horrific even through the eyes of the author. This also gives the students a great discussion. Students could pick out the real elements of the story and compare the fictional elements. This book is loaded with classroom activities and ideas.
The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles illustrated by George Ford May 30, 2011
Presenting an actual historical event involving young activist provides real models to help children understand the abstract concepts of literacy and democracy (Ciardiello page 140). The Story of Ruby Bridges does just this. First grade students will be able to relate to the age of Ruby and the grade level in which she entered into an all white school. Several questions can be brought to the student’s attention. What is it to be brave? What makes a person brave? Have you ever had to be brave? These questions would make a great opening discussion for Ruby’s story.
Students also need to recognize social barriers and crossing the borders of separation (Ciardiello page 143). Ciardiello suggests asking students if they have ever felt excluded or left out. This would also be a great place to talk about the type of feelings that come with exclusion. Students need to realize such feelings before the story is read in order to make a connection while the text is being read.
While The Story of Ruby Bridges is being read, I know that there will be a million questions. Students have a hard time realizing why African American students were not allowed in the same school as white children. We look around the classroom today and see a wide variety of races and ethnicities. Students will also be shocked to find that Ruby is the exact same age and in the same grade as they are. I would have to ask the students, how would you handle this situation? Would you be scared? How do you think Ruby felt? Ruby forgave the people around her and even asked God to forgive them, do you feel like you could forgive people if you were the students walking into that school?
I think this is a powerful story! I chose Ruby Bridges because I cannot imagine the strength she had at such a young age. I had to ask myself if I could be as strong as Ruby. Because of Ruby’s courage, school changed into what we know have, an equal opportunity for all students. As a teacher this is very close to my heart. The bravery, courage, independence, and strength in this young girl amazes me!
Students also have the opportunity to see current photos and learn about Ruby today. She is still alive and has a family of her own now. There is even a blog that you can post your classroom thoughts too, like leaving Ruby a message. I really want to implement this idea next year! I would also end the discussion in the same way as Ciardiello suggests, with the question… What is a hero? Do you have a hero and do you think Ruby is a hero. We could even make a classroom hero bulletin board or even a glog about a nonfiction hero of the students choice.
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