Matchbox Diary & Booktalks

In the book Matchbox Diary by Paul Fleischman, a great grandfather tells his immigration story by showing his grand daughter a cigar box filled with matchboxes that contain objects representing his journey from Italy to the U.S. The grandfather kept the matchbox diary before he could read and write. The illustrations are warm and tender with an inviting vintage quality. Not only does the book recall the immigrant experience, it also shows the timelessness of cross generational bonding through story telling. I am planning on reading it to  5th graders this week who are doing book talks with their classroom teachers on historical fiction. I think this is a unique example of historical fiction that can provide a springboard for creative book talks. Students could create their own matchbox diary to pass around to the audience, they could connect it to a written diary by asking, "How many of you keep a diary?", or they could reenact one of the scenes from the book. It's perfect as a book talk model and I am curious to see if the students enjoy listening to the book as much as I enjoyed reading it.

Pause & Think Online While Using MyQuest

Beginning in third grade, students at Myron J. Francis start using our library catalog's social media component, MyQuest. MyQuest allows students to create their own book list, friend other class and school mates, recommend books to friends and write book reviews. In third grade, MyQuest is part of students' library grade as we learn how to use the system and write book reviews. In fourth and fifth grade, we review MyQuest but participation is optional. Students love the idea of "friending" their class mates. I love the idea of them practicing their social media presence using book recommendations and reviews as the vehicle. Before we begin the actual, "friending" we do a lesson on digital citizenship. Common Sense Media has excellent resources for this. I recently found a video entitled, Pause & Think Online. I think this video is genius -  a cross between Teletubbies and Boohbaah characters singing School House Rock-style about appropriate online behavior. Originally, I was going to show the video to third graders only as it seemed too babyish for fourth and fifth graders. However, last week I had a few extra minutes with fourth graders during our digital citizenship lesson and showed it, prefacing it with, "this is my new favorite song." Half-way through, students were clapping and singing along. I think it might be their new favorite song too. I'm going to try it with fifth graders this week.

Goin' Someplace Special - Unanimous Winner!

Our 5th grade Coretta Scott King Book Award unit is complete. The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are given annually to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values.  I chose 4 books that were either winners or honors from past years. I tried to pick books from different genres and that represent different time periods and regions from the  black experience. Students were encouraged to vote on the best selection based on the following criteria:
o    Portrays some aspect of the black experience, past, present, or future.
o    Promotes understanding and appreciation of all peoples in an American pluralistic society.
o    Contains quality writing elements: Clear plot, well devoloped characters, & accuracy
o    Illustrations should increase the readers' awareness of the world around him/her.

Students enjoyed all of the books. They were fully engaged in The Faithful Friend, a story based on Grimm's "Faithful Johannes" set in Martinique. As a classic fairy tale containing magic, an evil wizard, and happily ever after in the end, they listened intently to see what would happen as the main character turned to stone before his best friend's eyes.  For the final vote, all three fifth grade classes voted for Goin' Someplace Special, a story about a girl in the segregated South who travels on the bus and through the city to get to the desegregated library for the first time. Students commented that this book had "more" of the black experience past criteria than any of the others. While I did push back on this idea noting that our other books had a slave who later became free and became a Deputy U.S. Marshall and a boy who survived a civil war, lost his parents and still persevered, most students maintained Goin' Someplace special fit that criteria best. The two things that stuck out the most for me in  having this unit was
     a. Many students know a lot more about desegregation and the Civil Rights Movement than I did at their age.
     b. Many students' idea of  African American history revolves around the Civil Rights Movement but doesn't go any further back or forward than that.

Later this year, 5th graders will do a unit on the Civil Rights Movement with classroom teachers which begins with a foundation of slavery. Now that students are aware of the Coretta Scott King Book Award, hopefully, they can use some of the past winners as resources for that and future studies as well as for exploring new types of literature for enjoyment and to broaden their perspectives.

Books we read:

• Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U. S. Marshal by
  Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
• Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan by Mary Williams
• The Faithful Friend by Robert San Souci
  
• **Goin' Someplace Special  by Patricia C. McKissack  - unanimous winner!