Thursday, November 20, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Book Review
La Mariposa by Francisco Jimenez and illustrated by Simon Silva.
Author’s biography and awards:
Francisco Jimenez was born in 1943 in San Pedro, Tlaquepaque, Mexico. He was four years old when his family first immigrated to San Joaquin Valley of California. Francisco went to work in the fields when he was six years old.
In 1997, his fictionalized memoir “The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child” was published. Francisco’s books received several honors. They won the Americas Awards. “The Circuit” won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for fiction; it was named the American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults and received a Jane Addams Honor Book Award.
At present, Francisco Jimenez works as a professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Santa Clara University. For more biography of Francisco Jimenez visit: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/contributor.jsp?id=2265
Summary
La Mariposa is an autobiographical story about a young boy named Francisco. One morning Francisco goes to school for first day of classes. He faces a difficulty at school because he cannot speak English. When Francisco does not understand English he uses his native language which is Spanish and a teacher along with the rest of the class cannot communicate with him. There is only one student named Arthur who could understand Spanish a little.
One day their teacher Ms. Scalapino gives Francisco a jacket, Francisco gets into a trouble of this jacket and fights with another student whose name is Curtis because the jacket belonged to Curtis.
Throughout the story we can see that Francisco cannot fit into the class because he comes from a different place and has a language barrier. One day their teacher Ms. Scalapino gives the students an assignment. The students have to draw a picture. Francisco does not understand it and he draws a picture of a butterfly. Then his picture disappears, but after sometime passes Ms. Scalapino tells everyone to sit. She calls Francisco’s name, and she heads to his desk and hands him a drawing with a blue silk ribbon that has number 1 printed on it in gold. Francisco’s family gets very happy about it.
Eventually, Francisco begins to say several English words like thank you to his classmates and his teacher.
At the end of the story when Francisco waits for his bus, Curtis and Arthur approach him. Curtis wants to see the drawing of a butterfly, and then Francisco gives the drawing to him and says: “It’s yours”.
The illustrations by Simon Silva are also fabulous. They are colorful and go along with the text. These illustrations add more flavor to the story.
I think this autobiographical story is very rich in meaning. Throughout the story we can see how a child from another culture and a country faces several obstacles because of lack of English. We all know that children who come to the US with their parents for immigration experience very similar problems, primarily of language barrier. So, this story is very useful to use in the class. By this story we can teach the children how to deal and be helpful to other children who do not speak English until they fit the class. Moreover, this story shows that everyone can learn and be successful despite their native languages.
Jimenez, F., & Silva, S. (1998). La Mariposa. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.
This book review was posted on Barnes and nobles on November 17, 2008 and can be found at:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/La-Mariposa-The-Butterfly/Francisco-Jimenez/e/9780618073177/?itm=2
Author’s biography and awards:
Francisco Jimenez was born in 1943 in San Pedro, Tlaquepaque, Mexico. He was four years old when his family first immigrated to San Joaquin Valley of California. Francisco went to work in the fields when he was six years old.
In 1997, his fictionalized memoir “The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child” was published. Francisco’s books received several honors. They won the Americas Awards. “The Circuit” won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for fiction; it was named the American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults and received a Jane Addams Honor Book Award.
At present, Francisco Jimenez works as a professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Santa Clara University. For more biography of Francisco Jimenez visit: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/contributor.jsp?id=2265
Summary
La Mariposa is an autobiographical story about a young boy named Francisco. One morning Francisco goes to school for first day of classes. He faces a difficulty at school because he cannot speak English. When Francisco does not understand English he uses his native language which is Spanish and a teacher along with the rest of the class cannot communicate with him. There is only one student named Arthur who could understand Spanish a little.
One day their teacher Ms. Scalapino gives Francisco a jacket, Francisco gets into a trouble of this jacket and fights with another student whose name is Curtis because the jacket belonged to Curtis.
Throughout the story we can see that Francisco cannot fit into the class because he comes from a different place and has a language barrier. One day their teacher Ms. Scalapino gives the students an assignment. The students have to draw a picture. Francisco does not understand it and he draws a picture of a butterfly. Then his picture disappears, but after sometime passes Ms. Scalapino tells everyone to sit. She calls Francisco’s name, and she heads to his desk and hands him a drawing with a blue silk ribbon that has number 1 printed on it in gold. Francisco’s family gets very happy about it.
Eventually, Francisco begins to say several English words like thank you to his classmates and his teacher.
At the end of the story when Francisco waits for his bus, Curtis and Arthur approach him. Curtis wants to see the drawing of a butterfly, and then Francisco gives the drawing to him and says: “It’s yours”.
The illustrations by Simon Silva are also fabulous. They are colorful and go along with the text. These illustrations add more flavor to the story.
I think this autobiographical story is very rich in meaning. Throughout the story we can see how a child from another culture and a country faces several obstacles because of lack of English. We all know that children who come to the US with their parents for immigration experience very similar problems, primarily of language barrier. So, this story is very useful to use in the class. By this story we can teach the children how to deal and be helpful to other children who do not speak English until they fit the class. Moreover, this story shows that everyone can learn and be successful despite their native languages.
Jimenez, F., & Silva, S. (1998). La Mariposa. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.
This book review was posted on Barnes and nobles on November 17, 2008 and can be found at:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/La-Mariposa-The-Butterfly/Francisco-Jimenez/e/9780618073177/?itm=2
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Journal: Ruby Lu, Brave and true by Lenore Look and illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf
This is a book about a little girl named Ruby. This little girl likes to try everything. She has a little baby brother. Also, she wants to drive a car with her little brother in the backseat.
Ruby seems to be very smart and definitely she is brave.
The author of this book covers a little girl’s life, her relationship with her parents and her friends.
Overall, I liked reading this book. But there is only one thing that I did not like much at all. In other words the pictures in the book were not colorful. I think this book would have been much more interesting to read if the illustrations were colorful.
Ruby seems to be very smart and definitely she is brave.
The author of this book covers a little girl’s life, her relationship with her parents and her friends.
Overall, I liked reading this book. But there is only one thing that I did not like much at all. In other words the pictures in the book were not colorful. I think this book would have been much more interesting to read if the illustrations were colorful.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Craft Lesson 3
Title: Learning to become story writers
Materials: Henry’s Freedom Box by Kadir Nelson
Papers/ pen/pencil
Discussion: As we teach in class, we try to cover all language skills to teach the children. In my opinion, sometimes writing skills do not get too much attention. I think writing should be taught and practiced systematically. Children should be able to write their own stories or to write a story by looking at the pictures in the book.
How to teach it:
First, I will introduce the book Henry’s Freedom Box to children. I will show them the cover and ask what they think this book might be about. After a short conversation with them I will read it aloud to them. Then I will choose a passage from the book and I will write it on the chalkboard. I will ask several students to read this passage. After this, I will erase one or two words from each line. And again I will ask children to read it, this time they will have to guess or choose a word/s instead of the erased ones. I will continue the class in this manner. When I have few sentences left on the board I will ask children to write a story. I will show them the pictures in the book and I will ask them to write a story according to the pictures in the book. At the end of the class, I will ask the children to read aloud their stories to the whole class.
Materials: Henry’s Freedom Box by Kadir Nelson
Papers/ pen/pencil
Discussion: As we teach in class, we try to cover all language skills to teach the children. In my opinion, sometimes writing skills do not get too much attention. I think writing should be taught and practiced systematically. Children should be able to write their own stories or to write a story by looking at the pictures in the book.
How to teach it:
First, I will introduce the book Henry’s Freedom Box to children. I will show them the cover and ask what they think this book might be about. After a short conversation with them I will read it aloud to them. Then I will choose a passage from the book and I will write it on the chalkboard. I will ask several students to read this passage. After this, I will erase one or two words from each line. And again I will ask children to read it, this time they will have to guess or choose a word/s instead of the erased ones. I will continue the class in this manner. When I have few sentences left on the board I will ask children to write a story. I will show them the pictures in the book and I will ask them to write a story according to the pictures in the book. At the end of the class, I will ask the children to read aloud their stories to the whole class.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Journal: Stuart goes to school by Sara Pennypacker, illustrated by Martin Matje
To tell the truth I did not enjoy a lot reading this book. I think Day one when Stuart goes to school was not so good. I mean if we let read this book to children who moved to a new place with their families recently might have the same feelings and not feel comfortable at all.
The illustrations were not as good as I expected them to be. Anyway, I always think that nothing is done without any reason, so, the author probably had some reason to write this book. Maybe we can work out how we can use this book in our classes.
The illustrations were not as good as I expected them to be. Anyway, I always think that nothing is done without any reason, so, the author probably had some reason to write this book. Maybe we can work out how we can use this book in our classes.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
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