Social Action Project Update

I started the girls group and we are meeting twice a week but I decided that I wanted to take a different direction with my social action project after reading The Breadwinner and A Heart Divided.  Part of this idea also came from EDU 619 where one of our assignments was to go to a local library to see what types of books were there.  Well, I also checked out the library by me in Arlington and my schools library.  Both are greatly lacking books of diversity and ones that deal with social issues.  My school library is particularly lacking in this department.  After reading The Breadwinner with my class my students have been obsessed with finding books dealing with different issues.  Of course, when we go to the school library there are not any available.  I have spoken with my school librarian and I'm going to start developing a list of books/text sets that would be a great addition to our library.  Once these start arriving I'm going to do book talks about them before school with the kids.  I'm really excited about this because I think it will really open up the kids minds and engage those students in reading that aren't always excited about it. 

The Breadwinner

I really enjoyed reading this book for class.  I loved how it dealt with a part of the world that is in the news all the time.  I thought Parvana was a strong main character and I enjoyed learning about how she dealt with the changes in her life.  I actually ended up using this book as a read aloud with my class because I enjoyed it so much.  My students were so engaged by it and I was able to pull in a lot of current events with the book reading.  We studied what a burqa was and how women are treated differently in many Middle Eastern countries than they are in the United States. I heard the phrase, "that's not fair" many times.  My students were amazed about arranged marriages and what happened to the prisoners in the stadium.   Even my students who are usually not that engaged by read alouds truly enjoyed this book.  

I thought that I really taught the children something through using this book in class that was meaningful.  Sometimes I feel we get away from meaningful curriculum due to standardized testing.  I was astonished how many of my students had no idea where Afghanistan was and how different life is in other parts of the world.   I am going to order the sequel to the book, Parvana's Journey to read since my students were begging to find out what happens next (plus I would like to know too!!!)

Class Blog 3/3/09

Comment: I liked the idea of having the kids do a multimedia text set instead of a traditional book report. I think I would get some really neat results from that. Pedro Noguera was amazing on Saturday! I truly enjoyed his insights. The story about the New York school with the internet cafe and clubs after school, which was open until 9 P.M. was awesome! I also liked his view on standardized tests, and how we are doing so much testing that its hard to actually teach. I couldn't agree more!

Question: I loved how that principal in NYC was able to create such a supportative school with so many resources. I wonder how she was able to get the money to do that? It seems like just getting a little resource is like fighting a war. :)

Connection: I really connected with our discussion both in class and on Saturday about how young teachers need to be mentored and have support. While, I did feel that I was very prepared to begin teaching, there were days where it would have been nice to have someone there to help out. Also, not giving a new teacher all the behavior problems would be a great thing to do. I think part of the reason that teachers burn out and leave the profession is due to behavior issues.