Burger Madness!

 

I created a lesson plan this week using the tales of "The Gingerbread Man" and "The Gingerbread Baby" as examples of how stories can be change based on who is telling it.

For the assignment we wanted the students to create their own gingerbread tale with a twist (maybe having a French fry boy or maybe it is set in a jungle). They had to keep the same trouble (the main character runs away) and resolution (the main character stops running) but they could be as creative as they wanted for the rest of the story. We used a CSTAR burger- (character, setting, trouble, action, and resolution) and had them fill out each section of their burgers as a way to help them organize their ideas before they started their stories. Below is the handout I created for them as well as the corresponding smart board lesson I used.

We then emphasized the structure of stories by having the students make their own burger story based on their CSTAR handout. I tried to emphasize which parts of CSTAR go in which structural components of a story. Below is the smart board lesson that corresponded with this portion of their work. I do not have a copy of the handout I gave them but I will try to take a picture and load it tonight. In the mean time it was a large, lined, 2 page worksheet with a bun top for their introduction, a large section for the "meat" (body) of the story, and a large bun bottom for the conclusion of their story.

 

I then turned the tables on them and told them I didn't think they should be the only ones to have homework. I told them that if they worked hard for the period I would use the last 5 minutes to share my story with them and they could be the "teachers" (and judge whether I met all the criteria of CSTAR in my story). The kids lit up at the idea of being teachers and they worked very hard. I was a great way to end the class and everyone had a fun time. I would defiantly do this lesson again with a few small tweaks. I will try to type up my story and add it later.

Lest We Forget...

Today in our school we had a very lovely Remembrance Day Memorial. Many were moved to tears, including me and I wanted to share some thoughts with you about it. First I think that memorials like these give students a true glimpse of how hard soldiers work to protect our freedoms. Several students cried during the presentation and I think it was because they were not just reading about an event in a textbook, they were seeing the faces behind the history. This leads me into my second thought which is; when students become aware of the reality of war it can create empathy and understanding. If we want our children to have a hope of success, they not only have to learn from the past, but understand it so they can make better decisions for the future. These students may be the future leaders and representivies of Canada one day and they need to understand the effects of war, culture, politics, and the economics of society in order to make informed decisions. Lastly, students need to respect those that have helped give us the freedoms we often take for granted.

A tribute done by Global Edmonton for Remembrance Day (Song is Soldiers Cry by Ronald Majeau)

Activities to do with your students:

Write postcards- As a language activity around rememberance day (or as an all around good thing to do) you can have students write postcards to soldiers overseas right now with inspirational or lovely messages written on them. Teachers can contact the Canadian forces and send them out bulk to a group of soldiers.

Students can either make the whole thing from scratch...

or write on the back of a appropriatly designed  postcard.

POETRY-

Have students read inspirational poetry and write some of their own. Ask around, maybe there is a Senior citizen home that has a few Veterans and go and share them with the seniors.

REMEMBRANCE

Long ago and far away

across the ocean

wild and wide,

the young men stormed

an alien shore

where many of them died.

Here and now

old men remember

the valor and the gore,

and the boyish faces

of their youth

that are young for ever more

William Bedford

In Flanders Fields- John McCrae

Bugle Calls-

Teach students why bugles were used historically and play some of the different calls for them (if it is a music class you could have them try some of the calls). Students can help participate in a Remembrance Day Memorial or perform if they are musicians.

Bugles- Wikipedia

Technology and Online Resources

After taking an educational technology class in school, I realize how little I know about technology in the classroom. As someone that has been out of the classroom for over 10 years (most of which have been either working on my Bachelor of Arts or being a stay at home mom), I was shocked to see the advances that have occurred over the last decade. To say that learning about smart boards was a shock would be a gross understatement. So now as I muddle my way through learning the latest digital advances the world has to offer I thought I would share a few online resources I have come to love.

BBC- Online Teaching Resources- I have linked you straight to the Science page to help get you to the teaching resources as it can be slightly difficult navigating this site. This being said it has fantastic ideas, games, experiments, worksheets and teacher resources in most subjects (there is a subject menu list on the right hand side of the page).

Prezi- A New Way of Creating Presentations- This is a unique and fun way to create classroom presentations that have a more fluent transition than your typical forms of presentations. Kids can have a great time with this program but be aware that you do need to "sign up" to use this site.

Graphic Organizers- For the Visual Thinker!- This site has a great array of graphic organizers useful for both assignments and assessment. These are great for fostering creative thinking and teaching students how to organize material in a different way.

As I find more sites and resources that I like I will update this page and add them.

Literature Fair 2011- UofL

I had the privilege of attending the University of Lethbridge literature fair in September. To start the day we enjoyed an informal speech by award winning author Michael Kusugak, followed by small group workshops. The workshops covered a variety of areas (the full list can be found @ Literature Fair Link). Below are the three workshops I attended along with some thoughts I took away from them.

More Than Wheat and Snow: Canadian Literature in High School

-         Empathy and Reality- I’m encouraged to see this more controversial type of literature being incorporated into the curriculum because children need to understand what is happening in the world if they are going to help change it. I do not think we help our children by ignoring the "elephant" in the room. Children, like adults need to process, explore, and talk, about those issues that are important to them. It gives students that may be lost a sense of identity, those that feel like outsiders, acceptability, and those that fear what's different, empathy. I loved the quote presented “If it can be born in a story, it can be endured." Sometimes it is easier to deal with our own feelings when we read (especially through books as I think they are a powerful medium) and know that others have gone through something similar, even if it is just a character on the page.

-        
Fostering new writers- These types of stories have an air of realism to them and because of that I think that students may feel a bit more that they could do something like this. As a potential teacher I believe that it is important to give children every available resource they may need to succeed. Having stories they can relate to that make them think, feel, and write is a step in the right direction.

Integrating Literature into Social Studies

-          You can use books!- The actual concept of using literature in social appealed to me because I a) LOVE to read and b) LOVE social, therefore the idea of combining the two makes me ecstatic. It was particularly interesting to hear ideas on how to use literary books as a springboard for lesson plans. There were many good idea’s suggested to us like how to use a fiction and factual book to explain a point from two different angles, or how images could sometimes speak louder than words.

-          What makes a good book? - I neve considered what actually made a book good for teaching. The idea that something may look good but can actually be offensive to some caught me off guard. It made me look at the books I have considered for lessons in a new light. We also talked about how a book should broaden or deepen our understanding of social studies, and that we need to be age appropriate.

Exploring FNMI (First Nation, Métis, and Inuit) Literature

-         There are so many ways to implement FNMI literature into your teaching- I loved the suggestions that we were given on how to implement FNMI into all subject areas. This gave me several ideas of how I could use FNMI literature not only in my social studies lessons but in all areas of my teaching.

-         Using literature with props- It was suggested that we not only ask questions of the students to get them thinking about a subject in a book but that we bring in a object that correlates with the story.

Three Books From The Fair I Would Recommend

 Is a story about a young teenage girl in foster care named Tamara (Skinnybones) and Miss Barclay (The Wrinkle Queen) a ninety year old former high school teacher that lives in a senior's home. They meet when one of Tamara’s teachers pairs students up with seniors at a nearby facility.They end up on a Thelma and Louise style roadtrip to the coast to pursue their different passions—the Wrinkle Queen wants to go to the Ring Cycle Wagner operas staged in Seattle one last time while Tamara is desperate to take a modeling course in Vancouver.

Is about a little girl that goes out shopping and finds a box of crayons that do not like each other. The story helps the crayons realize that everyone is important and they can all help each other make things much more beautiful that if they work together.











Children in an urban school are curious about a classmate’s moccasins and ask, Where Did You Get Your Moccasins?

GRAPHIC NOVELS IN THE CLASSROOM AND RECOMMENDATIONS

In our Literature Class we often discuss the different literary forms we may use when teaching. One of the more controversial forms of literature (in my opinion) is the graphic novel. That being said I have seen a shift in recent years from skepticism to tentative acceptance in the classroom. A few years ago I actually had the pleasure of reading Art Spiegelman's Maus, (my first real introduction into the world of graphic novels), in an English literature class. As my final assignment I wrote an essay defending graphic novels, and specifically Maus, as a literary form. Below is an excerpt from my essay I would like to share with you.

The biggest criticism of Spiegelman’s novel Maus comes from the implication the word “comic” invokes. Rather than being commended for the potential genius of Maus as a graphic novel, Spiegelman is often accused of trivializing the sacredness of the holocaust by depicting it in comic form. Though the word comic usually conjures up images of Marvel super heroes and Archie, they are not exclusive to this genre. The graphic novel can be an innovative medium for those that understand that images like words have power, and that combined the two can create a remarkable story.  Hillary Chute’s literary analysis “A Shadow of A Past Time,” quotes an excerpt from an interview with Art Spiegelman in which he states “I’m literally giving a form to my father's words and narrative [...] to claim that comic’s makes language, ideas, and concepts "literal" is to call attention to how the medium can make the twisting lines of history readable through form” (Chute 200). Spiegelman chosen medium was able to capture the starkness of the holocaust while his approach invoked a sense of understanding in the reader.  Spiegelman achieved this through the honesty in which he showed his father’s imperfections, revealed their strained relationship, and pointed out his own faults, all within the broader holocaust story. He also incorporated panels of his and his father’s interactions as they played out in the development of Maus, within Maus. In another interview Spiegelman stated “I've entered myself into the story. So the way the story got told and who the story was told to, is as important [...] as my father's narrative” (Smith 30). The interactions between father and son form the base of the narrative, and by tell his story within the story it forces the reader into a relationship with the novel. These panels scattered throughout the novel convey a more realistic quality to the events unfolding on the pages.  Even though the characters are portrayed as animals and it is written as a graphic novel those interactions give it a more authentic feeling.