Schaenen-catching up on April

MAP tests and odd schedule messed up the 4th grade schedule for 2 weeks, so here we go, a little behind.

Second grade round up – April 2, April 9, April 16, 2008

We had a long talk in class about what it means to “talk white.” It all started with adjectives – we were going to highlight the adjectives in the first chapter of The Hobbit, and somehow when reviewing what an adjective was, we got on the subject of color and ethnicity. We tried to emphasize that people of any color can talk in any way, that color was not necessarily attached to the way one sounded. But this was tough and complex – I’m not sure how or whether any of this “got through.” After a long talk, I asked the students to write three adjectives that described who they were and then some sentences about why they chose those three. Some examples:

“Black
African American
Kind
Precious
Sweet
I chose those trhee because they are true about me and my teacher told me half of the words and my mom told me all of them both of them are my favorite teacher and mom.”

“ I am light. I got short hair. I am African American. I pick those three because I have all those adjectives on my skin. I’m kinda white.”

“I am a African American. I love myself. I am in the second grade. I am JB. I am the tallest in my classroom. I am light brown. That’s who I am and I love my family.”

“I am African American from Rochester, NY and St. Louis, Missouri. I am crazy colors of the world. I am a person who writes and reads.”

The next week we then proceeded to read through a handout of The Hobbit,first aloud, then on our own, circling adjectives and defining them so we would know what they meant. Working in pairs, the students made lists of all the adjectives they could find and then picked three to use in sentences that they could make up on their own. Many of the kids used colors, but a few used the more interesting words like sandy, comfortable, oozy, nasty, wet, and respectable.

On April 16th, we played Two Truths and a Lie. I put my example on the board, and we played one round with me as a group. Then they wrote theirs and everyone got a turn, got to call on someone to guess, and feel at the head of the class.
Mine: If I could have any superpower, it would be teleporting.
I eat a banana every day.
I would always rather eat at home than go out.
Keeping track of what’s true, what’s not, and why we guess one and not the other exercises critical thinking every single time.

Third grade, same weeks:

We had the same talk on the 2nd about “talking white. I got some of it on audio tape. Then we did the same thing as second grade – pick 3 adjectives that describe yourself and use them in sentences:

“I am a African American. I speak English. I do not speak any other language. I like school. I really like writing class.

I like those these because they were the first thing in my mind. They are also true. I am a African American. I so speak English I don’t know a nuther language. I like school. And this really true. I like writing class. All these things are true. I really like to write.”

Naturall, this warmed my heart beyond belief – written by a very shy by hardworking and attentive student who is really coming into her own, expressively.

April 9, we talked about how language could sound different even if the words were speled the same. We said GIRL shaped in AAE and GIRL shaped in SE. Some feedback from listening to family out in the world – one girl reported that she heard her cousin, granny, auntie, other cousin, and unclfe all switch from AAE to SE when on the phone with certain people. Another girl heard her uncle switch when talking to the electric company.

Then read through The Hobbit and looked for adjectives, harvested them, is how I referred to the process. Then they used as many of these cool words as possible in a story they made up themselves. Silent good writing time, sound of pencils ONLY for many many minutes. Most kids wrote two solid pages of story. One question posed to me, “Is it OK if you are the evil queen?”
K looking at T’s work: “She write neat. I like how she write.”

Great work from everyone.

On April 16, I spread out all these cards of famous accomplished African Americans and the class chose one to read about and write about. Lots of vocabulary learning and deciphering. Lists of words to look up.

Fourth grade, April 16

Great to see everyone after a month!
Before getting started with anything, I asked the kids to write me letters to tell me anything they wanted me to know – what they’d been up to, any feelings, thoughts, anything about spring break, anything…activities. “What’s been up with you?”

Some reports on the MAP tests, some adventures from break, many addressed to me personally like a letter. All so sweet and focussed. I let them write for 20 minutes or so, and then we chatted about the upcoming collaboration day with the John Burroughs kids. We planned the menu, and some of the flow of the day. Then they wrote their 2 truths and lie for the program of that day. The second hour did the same thing – free write followed by two truths. They also browsed in their folders for their favorite work to go in the lit journal we publish at the end of the year. Sorry this is all so short and brief, with few examples – I’ve been wanting to catch up for a while – I will try to infill or backfill some examples at some point. We only have a few more meetings this year and there is a lot to pull together. I am really looking forward to the JBS day.

Inda