Your walking tour of the Lower East Side takes place on Tuesday, December 1st. We will leave after math class and take a bus to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.  After our program there you will meet the parents who are coming along at the museum’s visitor’s center and head off checking out places for our online guide book.

You have received two assignments as a group: a lunch stop  and a dessert stop. While at both be sure to take notes, collect information (menus, business cards, etc), and get a good sense of the place so you will be able to write it up back in school for the guidebook.  Otherwise, have fun checking out the neighborhood — and look for other signs of immigration — try to find one new place for us to add to the guidebook.  We need places of worship, shops, and other places like that.

Last year Pauline Frommer told us about her research for the guide books she writes. She pointed out that it is important for you to see what you can learn about these  for others.  (Don’t just say the food is  “yummy.” Give us a sense of what the place looks and feels like as well as what the food is like for others — even those whose taste may be different from yours.). You are the second class to do this map and so we are counting on you to make it really worthwhile for others to use!

Here are the assignments. Please go in the order given (as there is no way you can all be at Economy Candy at the same time).

• Group 1: Rosario’s Pizza (for lunch), Economy Candy, and Cafe Roma (for dessert)
• Group 2: Economy Candy,  Grand Italian Food Center (for lunch) and Ceci Cela Cafe (for dessert)
• Group 3: Economy Candy, Nyonya Cafe (for lunch), Sugar Sweet Sunshine (for dessert)
• Group 4: Creperie (for lunch), Economy Candy,  Century Cafe and Bakery (for dessert)
• Group 5: Economy Candy, Lombardi’s (for lunch),  Rice to Riches (for dessert)
• Group 6: Sushi Hana (for lunch),  Economy Candy,  Ferraras (for dessert)

Today we are introducing the Ellis Island Simulation, a grade-wide event that will take place on Tuesday, November 24th.  We did this for the first time last year and it was a blast. This year because Mr. Andre and Ms. Gordon worked very hard on the materials, it will be even better!

So here are the basics you need to know:

• Each of you will be receiving a description of a made-up immigrant to play during the simulation (which we are calling “an identity”).  These are based on real people who came through Ellis Island. ( You can download a document with all these here.)
• Next Tuesday you will go to a special lab to learn more about the country your immigrant is from.
• After this lab you will be (hopefully!) ready to consider your costume (to be put together at home with whatever you can find — please do not go out and buy things for this) and to write your autobiography.
• This autobiography is something you will write in class next Wednesday morning (with Mr. Andre’s help).  You MUST have this with you on the day of the simulation.
• You will  also need to have a passport, an immigrant check-list, money (in most cases as some of you are so poor you will have none) — all of which we will give you.

Model Identity, How to Read it,  and What to Do With It

Pierre Escargot (France) – 24 m

Living in the countryside of France, he works in his uncle’s bakery helping to make bread and manage the store; he has always dreamed of pursuing his love of painting and has saved enough money to join his brother in America where he hopes to attend art school; literate with several years of schooling; he is healthy but walks with a limp after an unfortunate bicycle accident involving a cow – Catholic, Republican

Consider the following for the autobiography

• The role of the autobiography is to develop the story you are given.
• Here, in the first paragraph, he works in his uncle’s shop.  Does he live with him?  Are his parents alive?  Where are they?
• Where, in America, is his brother?  What’s his name?
• Where in France does he live?  Name of village or region?
• Tell more about the bike accident, details about injury
• Consider the vocabulary words —  “republican” is not the same in France as it is in the US, for example.

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:

• Charles Perrault’s Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper translated by Angela Carter.
• The Grimm Brothers’ Aschenputtel translated by D. L. Ashliman.
• Philip Pullman’s retelling of Mossycoat.

• Louie’s Yeh-Shen
• Steptoe’s Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters.
  

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!

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!)

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.

-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.

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?