Conclusion of Class

At the conclusion of this fabulous social studies class, I have learned a great deal. I have found that the process of inquiry can be a difficult concept to have in a classroom, but at the same time it could be easy. I love the idea because when incorporating the idea of inquiry the students really have ownership in the discussion. Their voices can be heard, which will ultimately give them the okay to ask questions.

During my internship, one of the first things I noticed in my mentors classroom (5th Grade) was a large poster that said something to the affect, "if you don't know, ask." I loved this! Alot of the times our students have questions, but they are afraid to ask. They need to be able to feel comfortable enough to be able to ask their questions. As teachers I feel it is our responsibility to create a classroom where our students feel safe and comfortable enough to ask questions. Our students may know more than we give them credit for, and we need to give them the opportuntiy to speak.

My goal as a teacher is to give my students that opportunity, to know their voices too can be heard.

Website Evaluation Assignment

For this assignment we were given two websites to evaluate using the criteria of CRAAP.

Currency: The timeliness of the information.

Relevance: The importance of the information for your needs.

Authority: The source of the information.

Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the information.

Purpose: The reason the information exists.



The Iriquois of the North East

The first site I evaluated was easy to navigate through, and seemed to be very informational. although I could not find an "updated" date, the copyright date was 1998. There are many pictures, and different areas that you can research. All links kept you with in the site, except for taking you to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. You could read about the different area tribes, and all of their information.



The sight was put together by several doctors who are experts in the field. They committee that put the site together also took different perspectives from 50 natives from these particular areas. I feel that this would be a site that could be used by my students.



Iriquois Indian Tribe History

This site was not as pleasing to the eye. There are ads surrounding the page of information. The ads are not educational or lead you to other sites of Indian nature. As far as I could see, all the information came from 1906 Handbook. The links to find more information led you off of their site onto others. This site was hosted by the Access Genealogy: Indian Tribal Records, but when you go to the name at the bottom, it is a company that is not educationally based. It looked like a interactive site, so anyone could post a link on this site. I would have to research further, but I would not feel comfortable sending my students to this site.

These criteria when followed I believe can help you find dependable sites for your children or students.

Night Book Review

By: Wiesel, Elie

Hill and Wang, 2006.

A fictional story, guided by Elie Wiesel's real experiences. Elie's family is Jewish and is taken from their home and taken to a concentration camp. He is separated from his mother and sister; his father remains with him thought this entire story. You experience the horrific conditions, the fear, the sadness and incredible will power of Elie. He remains strong through all of the inhumane treatment, through watching people die as they lie right next to him. Elie survives all of this, and is able to share his story.

A video summary of Night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtQU88KvUK0

Awards:

Although Night has not received any awards, Elie Wiesel has received:

Nobel Peace Prize, 1986

and was chosen for Oprah's Book Club

Reviews: Recorded Books (Recorded Books, LLC.)For his lifelong work of speaking out as a Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel was awarded both the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional Medal of Honor. Night is this revered author’s best known work, and the first book of a trilogy which also includes Dawn (RBI# 93114) and The Accident (RBI# 93201). A worldwide best-seller and enduring classic of Holocaust literature, Night offers a personal and unforgettable account of the appalling horrors of Hitler’s reign of terror. Through the eyes of 14-year-old Eliezer, we behold the tragic fate of the Jews from the little town of Sighet. Even as they are stuffed into cattle cars bound for Auschwitz, the townspeople refuse to believe rumors of anti-Semitic atrocities. Not until they are marched toward the blazing crematory at the camp’s “reception center” does the terrible truth sink in. George Guidall intensifies the emotional impact as blind hope turns to utter horror. His performance captures the profound agony of young Eliezer as he witnesses the suffering and death of his family and loses all that he holds sacred.

Kirkus Reviews Copyright (c) VNU Business Media, Inc.Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children. He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of ... More Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience—of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald—his father's corpse is already cold—let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions. The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended—to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance.

Other Books by Elie Wiesel:

The Fifth Son (Summit 1985)
Against Silence (Holocaust Library 1985)

Dawn (Hill and Wang 1961; 2006)

Day, previously titled "The Accident" (Hill and Wang 1962; 2006)

Teacher Guide:

This book is could be read in its entirety with older students. The intense nature of the inhumanity, and story line would make it difficult for younger grades. However, portions and excerpts could be used. Themes from this novel that I found were: war, family bounds, determination, holocaust history, and survival.

This is a guide that I found that helps in teaching this novel.

http://media.us.macmillan.com/teachersguides/9780374500016TG.pdf

Coolies Book Review

By Yin ; illustrated by Chris K. Soentpiet.
Philomel Books, 2001.

Keywords: Immigration, Chinese-American Culture, conflict, tolerance and growth, brothers, discrimination, determination.

A young boy's grandmother tells him the story of his ancestors. Throughout the story we learn of the tradition and history of the Chinese people who immigrated to America, trying to find the “land of opportunity.” Conflict was arising in China, crops were not being planted which left many people to starve. Many men chose to leave their homes and go to America. The word got out that they were looking for workers to help with the transcontinental railroad. Two brothers, Shek and Wong joined these men so they could make money, to send back home to their mother in China.

The story tells of the hardships, tiring work, and discrimination that these two brothers went through; but through determination, tradition and pride the boys worked hard, and did their part in completing the transcontinental railroad. In the end, the celebration would go on with out the Chinese workers, but they all knew what they had accomplished and more importantly they were able to bring their family to San Francisco to live.

Curricular connections: This book would be an excellent introduction to lessons dealing with immigration, Chinese-American culture, conflict, racism and or tolerance.

Illustrator's view: http://www.soentpiet.com/coolies.htm#note1

Awards: Asian Pacific American Award for Literature, 2004 (Honorable Mention Illustration United States )
Children's Book Award, 2002 (Winner Intermediate-Fiction United States )
Parents' Choice Award, 2001 (Gold Picture Books United States).

Review: School Library Journal Review: Gr 1-4-When the western line of the transcontinental railroad joined the eastern line at Promontory Point, UT, in 1869, the engraving commemorating the event left out an important group of workers-the Chinese. Derisively called "coolies" by their white overseers, these refugees from Southern China came to California desperate for any work that would help them feed their starving families back home. This picture book, cast as a story told by a modern Chinese grandmother, transforms the familiar ethnic slur into a badge of honor. Large double spreads, reminiscent of epic murals, portray the perilous adventures of two brothers, Shek and Wong. After bidding their mother good-bye on the dock, they endure cramped quarters in a stormy passage across the Pacific to arrive at "The Land of Opportunity." Soentpiet's art, consistently amplifying the text, provides an ironic counterpoint, showing dazed Chinese disembarking while hostile white men stare. Subsequent scenes, painted in vivid yellows, oranges, and deep blues, dramatize the achievements of these slight, tough workers who ply sledgehammers under a blazing sun, set dynamite charges, and brave freezing temperatures and avalanches to lay track over high mountain peaks. The callousness of the railroad bosses, who pay the Chinese less than their white counterparts and starve them out of a strike, is contrasted with the devotion of the two brothers, tenderly depicted in art and text. An informative author's note is appended. Soentpiet's impassioned paintings add new emotional resonance to the heroic saga of despised immigrants whose heroism matched the towering mountains of the west.-Margaret A. Chang, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Other books by Yin: Dear Santa, Please Come to the 19th Floor, Brothers

Stone Soup Book Review

Stone Soup

Muth, Jon J.. Scholastic Press, 2003

Keywords: Community, folklore, Chinese, culture, food, happiness.

This traditional folklore has many different versions, perspectives from different countries, Jon Muth chose to retell this story using the Chinese culture. Having Chinese in my heritage I was drawn to this book. It has beautiful illustrations and a wonderful message about coming together and how it can create much happiness.

It begins with three monks, Hok, Lok and Siew who were walking along a mountain road, one of the monks asked the question, "What makes one happy?" One of the other monks suggested they find out as they came upon a village. This village had been through many trials and had become very untrusting. When the monks arrived at the village, they knocked on doors but no one would answer; they closed their blinds and locked their doors to the monks. With a plan, the monks decide to make stone soup, as they began a brave little girl came and asks them what they were making. This began a line of events that brings this village together again and reminds them what happiness is. As the monks leave the next morning, they discuss how happiness can be found by making something simple as stone soup.

Teaching strategies: In reading reviews for this book the suggested grade levels are younger grades. I believe this book can be a great opening to any type of community building lesson, at any grade level. This story has strong reference to working together to create something wonderful.

I would even go a step further and make something together as a class. Each student would be given something to contribute to the project and the final product would be something everyone could eat, or something to display in the room that they all took part in.

To introduce other cultures, I would use this book, accompanied by other versions from other countries to show the differences and similarities among the cultures. The students would be able to see how the same stories/folktales can be passed down from generation to generations.

Awards: National Association of Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA), 2003 ; and Nautilus Book Award, 2004 (Finalist Children's Illustrated United States)

Reviews: School Library Journal Review:
–Muth has taken this old tale and transplanted it from its traditional European setting to China. The tricksters are no longer hungry travelers or soldiers but Buddhist monks. Their goal in fooling the villagers is not to fill their own stomachs but rather to enlighten them about the happiness that comes from sharing. Muth's characteristic watercolor illustrations, with their striking use of misty hues contrasted with bright primaries, are expertly done and convey a distinct sense of place. In his author's note, the reteller details the elements of Chinese folklore that he incorporated into the story as well as the symbols from Eastern culture used in the artwork. However, Muth's decision to alter the motivation of the tricksters also depresses some of the humor in the story and gives it a moralistic tone. In addition, the likelihood that these initially suspicious and reclusive villagers would become truly happy people as a result of their own gullibility is slim. This is a beautifully executed book with a flawed story line.–Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ --Grace Oliff (Reviewed March 1, 2003) (School Library Journal, vol 49, issue 3, p222)

Other books by Jon J. Muth: Zen Shorts (Caldecott Honor Book), The Three Questions

Talk Show

I found it amusing today, as I was on my way home from class and listening to talk radio, Glenn Beck started talking about how things were left out of our history books and lessons. He even mentioned Woodrow Wilson and how he had held 150 people captive..."who knew?" he said. It is fascinating that people are now figuring it out, and if they've known they are starting to talk about it. Conversation.....one of our greatest teaching tools!

History Through a Child's Eye-Favorite Answers

Assignment, History Through a Child's Eyes, after my interview with my students, I chose just a few of their answers I thought were funny. It is interesting what children remember from their history lessons, here are some of their thoughts:

Michelle-6th grader

Question: Who do you think is the most important woman you've ever hear of?

Answer: My mom.

Question: That's great but can you think of a famous woman you've heard of?

Answer: Well......I want to say Taylor Swift.



Brandon-5th Grader

Question: What do judges do?

Answer: Well when people fight against each other, one is lieing and one is telling the truth and he has the final decsion on who goes to jail.



Susan-7th Grader

Question: Tell me about Mother Teresa.

Answer: She is nice and trustworthy and likes to help sick people with her fellow nuns.