Text Set

I did my text set on Native Americans, as I am teaching a summer program this year with one of the themes on this topic. As it is only a one week theme with 1st-5th graders I needed to find a large number of books that are for different leveled readers. One thing I did not include in my text set was fiction chapter books. I had checked out & read a few, but I will not really be able to read them... it would be a time issue.

Some of the activites we are doing consist of: reading various picture books from tribes all over America, creating totem poles, dream catchers, making are own stories as to why something is the way it is... and any other ideas and activies that interest the kids around Native Americans.

One Author I rediscovered was Paul Goble, who writes many orgin stories on the Great Plains Native Americans. His books are filled with great pictures as well as authentic stories from the Great Plains Native Americans. I also found great non-fiction books on many tribes wtih great photographs of people, trible grounds, artifacts, and much more.

I am excited to share all these great books with my class, and hope they will love teh books as much as I have!

Vacation

I will be in South Dakota for the next two weeks. I will look at my blog while there, but it will be after the weekend.

Thanks & good luck on your text sets!

AA

Freedom Writers... Junior & Senior Year

"When I was born, the doctor must have stamped "National Spokesperson for Plight of the Black People" on my forehead; a stamp visible only to my teachers. The majority of my teachers treat me as if I, and I alone, hold the answers to the mysterious creatures that African Americans are; like I'm Rosetta Stone of black people" (p. 112).

I've quoted this part from Diary entry 54 on page 112 because this is something I see teachers doing a lot of. Just because someone is of a certain race or nationality does not mean they know everything about it or that they even want to share with the group. Couple of examples come to mind:

1. When I was a teachers assistant a few years back, I was helping get ready for a Cinco De Mayo celebration. I was stuffing pinatas with a few other teachers, when one teacher said, "Man, I can't figure out how to get this pinata open... wheres the Mexican kids when ya need um." Other teachers started laughing. I was shocked & left the room. I could not believe someone would say this. So according to this teacher, every Mexican knows how to stuff a pinata?

2. At the same school, I was on a birthday committee. The month I had happen to have a women from Brazil in it. The note in my box from the person in charge of the month said, "in honor of_____, lets have a Mexican theme." I asked the teacher in charge, "oh does she like Mexican food?" She said, "She's from Mexico." "Well no", I say, "she is from Brazil". I think the other teacher got it then, and felt really stupid.

3. In a college class I had at Pacific University we had a guess speaker one night. The lady was talking about diversity. We had a very diverse group in our class (about 1/2 was from a different country). She looked at one man who said he felt stupid sometimes at schools because he didn't understand parts of speech. the speaker said, "Why because you speak Spanish?" Well he is from Indonesia... boy did she turn 3 shades of red!

The point of me sharing this is that just because someone appears to be from particular culture does not mean they are or that they know everything about that culture. The only thing that person can tell you for sure is about their family and traditions. After all, because I'm American does that mean I have the same beliefs, values, and traditions as every American... & I'm not a spokes person!!!

The Freedom Writers have really helped me to understand what many teenagers go through in inner cities. I hope they are all doing well, and all their dreams are coming true!

Visualizing

Visualizing is something I have not done too much of this year, but I have done it in the past with older kids. I really do like vizualizing, but it's one of those thinks I forgot about. I really like this book because it reminds me of those things I forget about.

Freedom Writers: Freshman & Sophomore Year

I must say that I really did not want to read this book at all! I’m not sure why, but I think it had something to do with it being a movie. Sometimes I feel like many books gain popularity just they are made into movies. Where that statement could be true in some cases, I am glad after only reading the first two years of this four part journey that its story exists in several different mediums so it can reach more people.

Ms. G, the teacher in Freedom Writers, is a true hero in this story along with her many students. All of the “writers” in this book come from many different backgrounds, but they all have to face the reality everyday of hate and discrimination of what they call “an undeclared war”. I really had no idea how many factors were/are stacked against these kids from day one. I knew/know that violence of many forms exists within America, but didn’t realize that kids everyday die and get beat up because of it. I think one student said, “kill or be killed”, as being the choice given in his daily life.

As for me, I had a great childhood growing up on Mitchell, South Dakota. I just assumed everyone else did too. When I moved to Oregon, I started to realize that others did not have the same education and beliefs as myself. (Odd, I know that it took me until I was 18+ years of age to figure that out!) I really feel cheated that I did not know about these problems within my own country… you don’t hear about it on the morning news. Nobody wants to talk about it…why? I think many, like my brother, want to believe we live in the best country in the world. Hmmm… do we really? We live in a country that tells other countries how they ought to be treating their people, but refuse to look at out problems and lead by example.

I look forward to finishing the rest of the book over the next few days. I hope everyone in my group is finding it to be eye opening.

PS: Final thought:

It’s not that these kids have done anything original in writing diaries to help them reflect and workout their problems, but it’s how it made them change that makes what they did original

Reading Groups

I was able to get Freedom Writers last night at the library... last copy too!!!! So do we have a plan for reading and posting responses? I just don't want one of us to post something that another has not read yet.

We could read all the way up to Junior Year & post over the weekend; and then read the rest of the book and post by Wednesday (when it's due.) How does this sound?

Thanks,

Autumn

Book Groups

So a book I've wanted to read for some time now is My Own Two Feet by Beverly Cleary. What do you all think?

AA