books

Room 712

by Kendal Privette on February 27, 2012

Immaculée Ilibagiza

Immaculee Ilibagiza

A first. One of my students sat in her desk on the front row literally dancing in her seat and said, “I couldn’t wait to get back from Christmas break so I could find out what happens in our story.” Wait. What? I’ve heard kids say they wanted to get back to see their friends, but for curriculum? But it happened. Right here in room 712.

I keep a running list of the books I read in my personal life, and I noticed, after recommending a few for a friend, that I love cross-cultural stories. A lot, apparently. A direct result of my reading habits is a decent knowledge of several cultures and/or events in history.  Although most of the books I read are intended for adults, I decided to try adding literature to my social studies curriculum. This is nothing for an elementary school teacher, I know, but in the upper grades, not so much, in my experience. So, during our study of Africa, I began reading Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza aloud to my classes. Left to Tell is an autobiographical account of a woman who survived the 1994 Rwandan genocide by hiding in a small bathroom for 91 days. I read from my Kindle everyday for the first fifteen minutes of class. Because I alone had the text, I could skip paragraphs and pages that either didn’t pertain to our unit or were too graphic for twelve-year-olds. The kids were hooked early on, begging for more each day. So many teachable moments arose from our reading. My students learned far more about Africa’s geography, European imperialism, civil war, genocide, ethnic differences, religion, economy and forgiveness than they ever could have from a social studies book, news articles,  web pages or character education lessons. The story allowed them to build a schema connecting their world to one vastly different.

My favorite teachable moment came when I asked students what question they would ask Immaculee Ilibagiza if they could talk with her. Invariably, they said, “How could she forgive the men who killed her family?” I posed questions back to them, “What if she had not forgiven them? What are the implications for Rwanda as a country had she chosen hatred?” The class discussion about the cycle of violence many African nations face would not have happened had I just explained the genocide. Or if they had merely viewed a news report and then moved on.

Another benefit I found in this approach is the support I can offer the language arts teacher on my team. With Left to Tell I was able to reinforce their knowledge of the elements of plot and strengthen writing skills. Furthermore, piquing the students’ interest in Africa, genocide and Rwanda led them to seek related books for their individual reading.

Does reading a two-hundred-page book take time out of the “regular” curriculum? Yes. Was it worth the time spent? Absolutely. Will I do it again? Already am.  We are reading Iqbal by Francesco D’Adamo – a novel based on true-life Iqbal Masih, a child slave from Pakistan. Maybe I am late at discovering the value of a literature-based social studies classroom. Perhaps I should have read an article like this eighteen years ago.  Whatever the case, I am enjoying this journey here in room 712.

 

Kendal Privette blogs at a spacious place

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Kindness and the Water Bucket

by Laura Parker on September 27, 2011

Wondering how to make your students just be nicer to each other? Perhaps the following character education idea and adapted story from the NY-Times Bestselling book entitled How Full is Your Bucket? {by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer} will help. Though it’s a children’s book, it would be a fantastic tool to read to students of any age.

You’ll Need:

*Several clear pitchers of water {glass/plastic bowls or jars would work fine, too}

*a large “supply” bowl of water

*a small cup

To Do: Tell the following fictional story, pouring water with the cup from supply bowl to pitcher and back again to illustrate. Depending on the ages of your students, you may need to change the examples in the story to be more age-appropriate.

The Bucket Story: A 4th grade boy named Owen was sitting down to breakfast when his younger brother Trey spilled milk all over the table and got Owen’s new jeans wet. Owen was furious, lost his temper, and yelled at Trey that he “always messed things up!”

Owen and Trey’s dad was there at the table and after the milk was cleared told Owen a little secret.  He told him that everyone has a bucket over their head filled, or not filled, with water. {Hold half-filled bucket over your head as example.} Owen’s father said that for every unkind word or action, water was taken out or put in to another person’s bucket.  Owen was late for the bus, so he didn’t give it much thought.

However, when he got on the bus, he tripped over the step, an older kid made a snide remark. {Take the cup and take a cupful of water out of “Owen’s” pitcher.}

Then, he forgot his homework in first period and the teacher embarrassed him in front of the class. {Take another cupful out of Owen’s pitcher.}

At reading class, he was called on to read in front of everyone, but he wasn’t a strong reader. And, so, when he stumbled over the words, the guy beside him snickered at his mistake. {Another cupful out.}

Later, Jack said he wasn’t Owen’s best friend anymore but that the new guy was instead. {Another cupful out.}

ETC. {Feel free to make up more sob-story, but real-life, examples here, each time scooping out more water from Owen’s bucket.}

At lunchtime, Owen was feeling depressed and moody and angry.  But as he sat down at the lunch table, he remembered what his dad said about the buckets of water, and he started wondering if maybe it were a bit true. He figured his own bucket was by this point pretty low, but as he started looking around him in the lunchroom, he began to notice that other kids probably had low water levels, too.

He saw a boy that was new to school sitting by himself at the next table, so Owen invited him over to his group. {Pour water from Owen’s pitcher into the second pitcher.  Then pour a large cupful of water from the supply bowl back into Owen’s pitcher.}

At recess, Owen noticed that a girl had fallen and hurt her hand.  He was one of the first ones to go get the teacher and tell the girl he was sorry she was hurt. {Scoop of water from Owen’s bucket into third jar. Scoop cupful of water from supply bowl back into Owen’s pitcher.}

ETC. {Continue with examples of kind acts Owen did throughout the day. Each thing he does for others, take water from his bucket and put it into another bucket. But, also, be sure to fill up Owen’s bucket with water from the big bowl.  By the end of the activity, have Owen’s bucket be filled to the top, if possible.}

Owen quickly realized that the more he chose to fill up other people’s buckets, the more water he got himself. Doing kind things for others made him feel happy, confident, and less lonely. In filling other’s buckets, he was really filling his own.

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flickr {sweetonveg}

And a Little Further:

Begin to ask your students– “Did you fill up someone’s bucket today? How?”

Leave the pitchers/buckets in front of the room as a visual reminder for the week.  You could even let students put a cup of water into the bucket for kind acts that you notice. If the bucket is full by the end of the week/day, the class gets a reward.

Have them draw a big picture of a bucket on a piece of paper.  Let them write or draw ways they can fill up the buckets of the people around them.

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Try this out, and let us know how it went in the comments.

Any other practical ways to encourage kindness in your classroom?

- Laura used to teach 7th graders and now teaches her kids. She blogs at ALifeOverseas.com.

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