Author Archive for edinger

Here’s Cindy!

Published on November 4, 2009 in Cinderella. 0 Comments
Today we are going to begin a new Language Arts unit on Cinderella. I have been teaching this unit for a long time and still love it. (I’ve written about it in a book, in articles, and, with Ms. Feldman, have taught a graduate course on fairy tales featuring Cindy!).

We will begin by telling the story we knew as a class. It may well turn out that we all have slightly different ideas of what it is, understandable because there are so many different versions floating around out there.  After this I will ask you to read five tales in common.  Some may seem very familiar to you, but some may surprise you.  For the first time this year, I’m going to ask you to read three of these online (using your eepcs).  Here they are:

Then read two picture books (we have plenty in the classroom):

Once you finished these, go ahead and read as many of the others in the classroom as you like. Just be sure to record every one that you read in the data sheets.

Who is a REAL American?

Published on November 3, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

articleLarge

As some of you probably already know, the winner of Sunday’s New York Marathon was Mebrahtom Keflezighi who immigrated to America from Eritrea (in East Africa) when he was twelve years old.  While many are celebrating the first American to win the race in a very long time, others are saying Meb was not a real American because he was not born here. What do you think?  Must you be born in the United States to be an American?

E.B. White Boxes

Published on October 18, 2009 in E. B. White and Sketchbooks. 0 Comments

Now it is time to take all you know about E. B. White and his books for children and create a work of art that beautifully and creatively represents his books’ themes and ideas.  Yes, you will be using your shoebox for this, but no, it is not to be a diorama.  A diorama is a scene and I hope you can do something more — a something that represents what is special and unique about E. B. White and his children’s books. In fact, what I hope you will do is create a box modeled on those of artist Joseph Cornell, an artist who created remarkable boxes and collages using all sorts of stuff.

51BAX60M7GL._SL500_AA240_

To learn more  I will read aloud  Joseph Cornell: Secrets in a Box and then show you a very special object — The Joseph Cornell Box: Found Objects, Magical Worlds.  As I do so, you might want to jot down or draw some ideas in your sketchbook to use when creating your own box.

51SGRI3ZPBL._SL500_AA240_

After that you can begin to create your own E. B. White Box!  First of all, come up with a plan in your sketchbook.   Think about the themes of the books — White’s focus on animals, nature, friendship, life/death, changes, love, and more.  How can you create a box that shows this?   Use writing and drawing to represent your ideas.  (And you may want to think about the materials you will need to do this. I have some, but you may want to bring in stuff from home as well.)  While your plan may not be detailed, you must have an idea before you start the box.

After having your idea okayed by me you can begin the box itself.  And before doing anything else cover all the insides of the box (so we can’t see any of the cardboard).  Once that is done think about how you might divide up parts of the box. Maybe you want to do a border?  Be sure to think about words, letters in addition to objects. I can’t wait to see what sort of wonderful boxes you come up with.  Have fun!

The Year of the Sketchbook

Published on October 18, 2009 in Sketchbooks. 0 Comments

DSCN0230

DSCN0229

sketchbookkids2

sketchbookkids3

Wasn’t Friday’s assembly with David Macaulay terrific?  I don’t know about all of you, but he really inspired me to think of all sorts of cool ways we can use the sketchbooks this year.  The above photos of you with your books (and my apologies to the person whose cover is hidden) are also on the sketchbook blog along with a few of your Cosmic sketches.  I’m sure we will have many more sketches for the blog as the year goes on.  (I was so excited after Friday that I did a post on my educating alice blog and twittered about it too.  Several people said they wanted to be in 4th grade again — me too!)

Ellis Island Trip

Published on October 14, 2009 in Field Trip and Immigration. 0 Comments

Some things we learned on our trip to Ellis Island:

Old Country and Journey

  • Money from the old countries came in all shapes and sizes.
  • You were inspected before you came by the steamship company so they would not have to pay for you to go back.
  • Some steamship companies required you to come three days early for inspection.
  • If you were under 16 you had to have $25 to enter alone or you had to be with an adult.
  • People came from places with very different sorts of cultures.  (For example, the case of baby shoes from different places.)

Arrival

  • Some of the mental tests were unfair because they assumed experiences the immigrants hadn’t had. For example,  people who had never drawn before were asked to draw a diamond.
  • There was testing for trachoma as it was so contagious (especially before antibiotics).
  • They had reading and writing tests in many different languages.
  • There were money exchanges.
  • They put chalk marks on people to indicate something was wrong.  Each mark had a special meaning.
  • If you were detained it was in another area behind a fence. Some people were separated from families.
  • The dormitories were people were detained were crowded with three levels of beds. Sometimes they ran out of beds and people ended sleeping on benches or even the floor.
  • They served the women and children milk, but not the men.
  • If a child under 16 was sent back an adult had to go with them.


Who Are The Heros Of Charlotte’s Web????

Published on October 8, 2009 in E. B. White. 0 Comments

What Makes A Hero???

-saving a life and helping someone intentionally without a reward or being asked

-taking a risk to help someone without worrying about the outcome or doing it for a reward

-being a friend through good times and bad

Fern the Hero

G.N—Fern is the hero because Wilbur was going to be killed by Mr. Arable but Fern convinces Mr. Arable not to kill him.

E.H.—Fern is the hero because she looks after him and if she didn’t Mr. Arable would have killed him.

S.P.—Fern tells her father that is sooo unfair and unjust to kill Wilbur.  She really cares Wilbur and she shows it by taking care of him.

Charlotte the Hero

F.B.—Charlotte is heroic because she writes the words in the web that saves Wilbur.

A.L. —Charlotte had to come up with an idea about how to save Wilbur and finally after thinking for a long time she decided to write the words in the web.

T.R.—Charlotte saved Wilbur’s life because Wilbur didn’t do any thing.

G.I.—She saved Wilbur’s life and was his friend to the end.

J.F.—Wilbur would have lived very unhappily if Charlotte never befriended him. Fern wasn’t enough because she couldn’t get into the pig pen and Fern drifted away.

K.L.—Charlotte was devoted to Wilbur like a mom.  She spent all her time on him.

M.T.—At night she sang Wilbur lullabies and she teaches him things.

R.G.—She reassures Wilbur when he’s going to get killed and makes Wilbur feel okay.

Tempelton????

S.B.—He did his deed but he didn’t have to and that makes him heroic.

D.M.—Templeton was a hero at the carnival when he bit Wilbur’s tail but he did it because he thought it would be funny.

F.B.—He’s not bad but he does things without being bribed like getting the words.

C.M.—He saves Charlotte’s egg.

Sheep????

T.A.—If the sheep never told Charlotte and Wilbur about the plan, he would have been killed.

Annotating Charlotte’s Web

Published on September 29, 2009 in E. B. White. 1 Comment

So here’s the first chapter as we annotated it today on the Smartboard.

Oral History Interview Questions 2009

Published on September 22, 2009 in Immigration and Oral History. 0 Comments

Old Country

Where did you come from and when?

What was the reason you came to America?

What was your old country like? (customs, climate, food, childhood/special memories)

Did you leave anyone or anything behind? If so, would you like to tell us more about it?

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your old country?

Journey

What was it like traveling to America?

How did you get here? (Car/boat/train/plane/other, time it took,)

Do you have any interesting stories that happened while you were traveling?

Did you travel with anyone and if so, who? Tell me more if you wish.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about the journey?

Arrival

Where did you go when you first arrived and what was it like? How did it make you feel?

Where did you finally settle and why?

What did you think America would be like? Was it what you expected? Why or why not?

Did you know anyone here, family or friends, and if so whom?

Did you know English? If not, how did you learn it and adjust to the new language?

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your early days in your new country?

New Country

What are the big differences between your old country and the new country?

Have you been back to your old country? If so, what was that like?

What do you miss about your old country?

What are you doing now? (job, school)

What is your current status in the citizenship process? (Are you a citizen? If not, do you plan to become one? )

Is there anything else you want to tell me?

The Immigration Oral History Project

Published on September 21, 2009 in Immigration and Oral History. 0 Comments

We often think of history as something written down in a book, but many cultures have not had written languages and relied on oral means to maintain their history. Today, firsthand oral accounts are as valued as written documents, letters, photographs, and artifacts when doing history. In this project you will learn the techniques of being a good oral historian and then use them to interview an immigrant and then take your interview and craft it into a picture book – one that captures as accurately as possible his or her immigration experience.

Oral History Techniques

• How to create good interview questions.

• How to listen during an interview, how to create good follow-up questions on the spur of the moment.

• How to use a recorder.

• How to transcribe an interview.

• How to select the most significant parts of the transcript.

• How to take these parts and craft them into a piece of historical writing.

A Model Immigrant Book
You will observe how someone interviews and develops the interview into a book.


Book Study
You will study a variety of picture books that all present immigration stories
in different ways. We will also look at other innovative picture books for ideas
on how to create your own books.

Individual Student Project

Subject Selection.
Each of you is required to interview an immigrant to the United States. This individual can be a family member, friend, or acquaintance. It is important to be sure that whoever is chosen is completely comfortable telling his/her story. In particular, you need to be aware and sensitive to those who are uncomfortable telling their stories. Some people love to do so, others do not. It is important not to press someone to do so, if it clear he or she does not wish to. If you are unable to find a subject we have many willing subjects in the school. Many teachers, administrators, and staff members known to you would be delighted to serve as subjects for this project and have done so in the past.


Interview Preparation
To prepare for the interview you will need:
- A working recorder and extra batteries and tapes (unless it is digital).
- A carefully prepared set of questions. (You will create this with your class.)
- A release form.


Interview
Do the interview outside of school. As soon as it is done bring all the documents, the tape, and the recorder to school.


Transcription
You will do this in class.


Follow-up interview
You may decide that your interview is not sufficient and may need to contact your subject for more information on certain topics.


Selecting Good Quotes
Go through your transcript and highlight those quotes that you feel most present the subject’s immigration story.


Craft an Immigrant Narrative
•Draft your subject’s immigrant story. Some possible approaches:
First Person
“I was five years old when I first came here….”


Third Person
“Mary immigrated when she was five years old….”


Question/Answer,
Q: How old were you when you immigrated?
A: I was five years old.


Subject’s View/Author’s Response.
Subject: I was five when I immigrated to the United States.
Interviewer: Boy, that must have been incredibly scary!


•Revise as necessary
You will be continually conferring with teachers and peers during this stage.
•Proofread and Teacher edit


•Plan Illustrations
Decide on medium, how they will work on the page, etc.
Also do research so the illustrations accurately reflect the subject’s story.


•Create final copy in bound book.


Oral History Celebration
Once all books are completed we will invite friends, family, and subjects mto an Oral History Celebration.

Author Blurbs

Published on September 15, 2009 in Author Blurb and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Often books have one or two paragraphs about the author, which are called blurbs. In fact, there are people who specialize in writing blurbs. It is a tricky job because the blurb writer wants to provide as much interesting information as possible about the author in one or two paragraphs.

For your first writing project, you will be interviewing a classmate and using your interview notes to create a blurb.

Looking at a Model of a Blurb

First we are going to look at two different blurbs for the same author, E. B. White to give us some idea what blurbs are like.  Then I will do a model interview of Ms. McQuillan.  After that you will get to do your own interview.

Each of you will be assigned a partner (and, in one case, it will be a threesome) to interview. This will be practice for an interview project you will be doing involving interviewing an immigrant. This is a much shorter interview, but you should be sure to listen carefully, take good notes, and allow your partner to say as much as he/she wishes in answer to each question.

Once you have completed the interview you will write a first draft of the blurb.  You may or may not want to include everything from the interview — depends on how you want to approach this. You will want to revise (read over and perhaps make some changes), have the author read it and say it is okay), proofread, and then do a final copy.  We will also take photos of all the authors and then you will be able to put the blurb and the photo together in a beautiful final presentation!