Week two:
Text Sets!
**Books above are linked to purchase or read online**
Won the Pura Belpré Award in 2011
Summary:
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Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin is a story that follows two little cousins who live in very different places. They have never met, but write letters to each other. Charlie lives in a city in the United States and he writes to his cousin, Carlitos, who lives in Mexico. The story shows us snippets of both of their lives from what their favorite food is to how they get to school. At the end of the book, the boys decide to go visit each other. Duncan Tonatiuh does a wonderful job of showing us that although they are in different places, they have a lot of similarities! It is extremely cool to compare both of their lives and settings.
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Check out his website: http://duncantonatiuh.com/
My Response:
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Not only did I love reading this story independently, but I also loved being able to follow along in the literacy cast and see how other teachers read this aloud. It was really cool to see how some of the students in the literacy cast resonated with being able to speak both Spanish and English at home! I think this book is an incredible asset to the classroom to build community and empathy in students. I love that we are able to see both of their lives. This book would be an incredible way to teach setting. The pictures and diction in the book are rich with imagery. Professor Buchholz, at Appalachian State University, showed us a neat website called Window Swap which shows you different places in the world. This would be a great way to engage students with this book as well. I also loved the Author's Note and Glossary at the end. I think the Author's Note is an incredible thing to share with students as well. I will link it below.
Summary:
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Stella Diaz Never Gives Up is a wonderful chapter book. It is about a little girl named Stella and her life. She lives with her Mom and brother, Nicholas, in the United States. Stella was born in Mexico and moved when she was four years old. Stella is EXTREMELY passionate about conservation and saving the Oceans. She is over the moon when she gets into the Shedd Aquarium summer camp. Before she goes there, she visits Mexico and swims in the Ocean for the first time. While she is at camp, she thinks of different ways she can help save the Ocean and reduce her plastic use. She not only creates a pledge and club to save the ocean, but she also has a bake sale to donate money. Stella continues to learn more about her culture and herself throughout the book.
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Check out her website: https://www.angeladominguezbooks.com/
My Response:
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Stella Diaz Never Gives Up is a wonderful story that is a must have in your classroom library. I loved how it included both words in English and Spanish in the story. It is so important to be able to have books that all of your students can use as both a mirror and window into another's life. Stella is a passionate and driven little girl who shows us that you can make a difference no matter how old you are. She is also inclusive and compassionate which are two characteristics that I hope to invoke in my students. For example on page 25, she says "I am determined to learn a little Vietnamese and be a better party guest" (Dominguez, A. 2020). I think it is amazing that this little girl thought of her own experiences at family parties where everyone spoke Spanish and decided she wanted to dive into her friend's culture. The author also included an "About Me" and pictures from her childhood. The chapter book included pictures which helped the student to visualize and put themselves in her shoes.
Are
these stories Culturally Authentic?
Based off of ​Short et al's criteria, I believe that both of these books are culturally authentic. One way to see if a book is culturally authentic is by researching the author to see if they are apart of the culture, or if they researched the culture extensively with valid websites and books.
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Angela Dominguez was born in Mexico City and grew up in Texas just like the character Stella. In many ways, it seems as if Stella is based off of her childhood. She is writing from an insiders perspective. She also integrated culturally authentic language into the story.
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Duncan Tonatiuh was also born and raised in Mexico. He is from Miguel de Allende, Mexico and attended a college in New York City. This shows he is culturally authentic because he has lived in both places that are talked about in the story. He also includes both Spanish and English in the story.
Connections to Reading to Make a Difference: (CHAPTER 6)
Below I have modeled Laminack and Kelly’s Framework for connecting text sets to a critical issue.
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STEP ONE: Selection (select the issue)
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Each story had different social justice issues such as saving the oil pipelines (We are Water Protectors), reducing plastic waste(Stella Diaz Never Gives Up), and learning about other cultures (Dear Primo). I decided to select the topic of "building empathy and awareness of others" within this text set. Each book shows us more about a different culture which can act as a window and mirror for students.
STEP TWO: Connection (build connections between the books and students)
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I would have my students connect the similarities between them and the different children in the books. For each book, I think the students could relate to the characters despite differences in culture. By building connections and learning more about a culture through the character's eyes students can put themselves in their shoes. They could do this through a concept map or venn diagram/
STEP THREE: Reflection (have students build empathy through reflection)
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Students would be able to reflect on what they read by comparing themselves to the character in the story. Similar to how Dear Primo is written, students will compare and contrast themselves with the character of the other culture.
STEPS FOUR AND FIVE: Action and Next Steps
For the action part, I would have students in my classroom dig deeper into their own culture. They will go home and ask their parents or guardians questions to learn more. Once they have learned more about it, they will move into the next steps where they draw a picture or write a poem about their culture. This will be shared and then sewn into the classroom culture quilt. An example of this is shown below. I would encourage students to use bilingual text similar to how the mentor book set did.
Sources:
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Dominguez, A. (2020). Stella Diaz Never Gives Up. New York: Roaring Brook Press.
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Laminack, L. L., & Kelly, K. (2019). Reading to make a difference: Using literature to
help students speak freely, think deeply, and take action. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
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Lindstrom, C., & Goade, M. (2020). We are water protectors. New York: Roaring
Brook Press.
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Tonatiuh, D. (2010) Dear Primo: a letter to my cousin. New York: Abrams Books for young readers
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