|
Lessons Taught, Lessons Learned Vol. II
King Island Christmas: A Language
Arts Unit
by Christine Pearsall Villano
Fairbanks North Star Borough School District
The changes taking place in language arts
education are not just a fad. The integration of reading, writing,
speaking, listening and other curriculum areas is not mere passing
fancy but manifestation of a paradigm shift in education and society.
More and more, researchers in every discipline are acknowledging the
incredible complexities and interrelationships among aspects of the
physical and cultural universe. No longer can we confidently say that
students learn best when fed individual bits of knowledge. Brain
research has shown that the whole brain and thus the whole child
should be involved to make learning more viable.
Whole Language helps educators integrate the
language acquisition process with other curriculum areas. It is
process- oriented. According to the psycholinguistic theories of Ken
Goodman and Frank Smith, language development occurs naturally
through the process of meaning creation. Therefore, language arts
education should focus on meaningful texts rather than meaningless
exercises. Reading instruction should begin with whole texts, whole
works of literature experienced by students, before any attempts are
made to analyze language in small parts or skills. Writing inswuction
should begin with students' own attempts to use language to
communicate rather than with decontextualized phonics or grammar
exercises. In the process of composing meaning in either reading or
writing, oral language is an important factor. Children need to hear
the patterns and rhythms of their language, and they need to be given
opportunities to speak the language in a secure environment that
allows them to take risks and make mistakes. Oral language is a
rehearsal and reinforcement for reading and writing. In Whole
Language classrooms the teachers participate as co-learners to
construct meaning together with the children. Students learn within a
community of learners that encourages cooperative learning.
Thus, my unit based on the book King Island
Christmas by Jean Rogers is intended to facilitate a Whole
Language environment. I plan to integrate reading, writing and
speaking with science, social studies, math, art and music in the
lessons and activities. Because the process approach is
child-centered and developmental, my unit is geared to individual
strengths rather than skill dittos. I tried to include a diversity of
techniques, styles, and student involvement to reflect the philosophy
presented in our Whole Language workshop.
Materials and Centers for
Independent Activity Time
Listening Center
- students
can listen to taped books, our reader's theater pieces, music, or
make their own tapes.
Alaskan Center - books, maps, photographs,
Alaskan art pieces to look at and use for independent
projects.
Art Center - water colors, crayons, markers,
felt, yarn, glue, paper, old socks, fur scraps, ivory soap bars to
work on Alaskan art (puppets, dolls, carvings).
Reading Center - filled with children's
Christmas books.
Writing Center - all sorts of paper, writing
utensils, stationery, old cards, old typewriter, word processor,
etc.
Unit Theme for Second Grade:
King Island Christmas
Part of the second grade curriculum is the
study of people and their cultures. Into this theme I would like to
integrate literature, music, poetry, and arts as they relate to a
special part of Eskimo culture. The unit will also have physical
science, social studies and math segments. The central text would be
King Island Christmas by Jean Rogers. I would read aloud to
the class and we would discuss key elements of the story. Students
would have a chance to reread the book independently or with
partners.
The class would break into smaller groups and
each group would be responsible for brainstorming a list of food,
shelter, clothing, tools, etc. characteristic of the people of King
Island. (They could use illustrations as clues.) Each group would
include a recorder/spokesperson as part of their team. The
spokesperson would share the groups ideas with the class. We would
pool all our ideas on a class chart and compare and contrast King
Island life with life in Fairbanks.
Math/Social Studies
During math time our cooperative learning
groups would locate Alaska, the Bering Sea, King Island and Fairbanks
on a map. Using the map key and a compass, they would calculate with
rulers the distance from King Island to Fairbanks, Nome, Anchorage
and Juneau. Groups would share their information. They would also
have to find another place on the map that was the same distance from
Fairbanks as King Island.
Science/Literature
I would give a presentation on northern lights
(present in the story), what they are and how they originate. We
would watch a video tape about northern lights. During oral reading
time, I would read Eskimo and Indian legends about how the northern
lights came to be. We would touch upon the purposes of legends and
folk tales. On the blackboard we would begin a list of possible
legend topics that we could write about (e.g. why windows get frosty,
why the sun disappears in December, etc.). The legends could be about
natural phenomena or on a Christmas theme. The class would have the
option to write their own legend of the northern lights or create
another one from our class list. Each student would be responsible to
do rough drafts and a finished product. After the rough draft the
students work in small groups (perhaps in pairs) to respond to each
other's papers and then work on mechanics. All final drafts would be
bound into a class book of legends.
Music/Social Studies
Inuit dancing could be introduced here as part
of Eskimo Celebrations and storytelling. The students could view a
videotape of the King Island Dancers. With a guest speaker we could
learn the meaning of the dances, see a drum and other Eskimo
artifacts, and learn a basic dance or song in Inuit.
In social studies we would go back to our maps
and talk about islands. Each group would have to come up with four
facts about islands and what makes them different from our
environment. Using the story and our maps, we would see how our facts
pertained to King Island. We would add these facts to our
compare/contrast charts.
We could also sing traditional Christmas carols
with the class and have the class change the words of a popular carol
to give it an Alaskan theme.
Science
Another science lesson would focus on how and
why water freezes. Each student measures an amount of water, puts it
outside, records how long it takes to freeze, measures the frozen
water and records any changes. They would record how long it takes to
thaw and then measure the volume again. We would talk about what
happens to waterways in Alaska. How does this affect the way people
live and do things? How did ice affect King Island? What was the
problem in the story? We would write Haiku or acrostic poems about
cold, ice or winter and share them with the class.
Language Study
For spelling and phonics we could take words
from our book, from our compare/contrast chart, and from our study of
the culture of the King Island Eskimos. Thus the learning of sounds
and spellings of the words would be presented in the context of our
unit rather than as an isolated spelling list or phonics
worksheet.
Integrating math with language study, we would
learn to count from one to ten in Inuit. Children could do basic math
problems orally in Inuit together. We would keep a list of the number
names and compare them to other languages we study during the year.
We would also learn to say "hello," "goodbye" and "thank you" in
Inuit and keep our new words as part of our on-going language
bank.
Writing/Speaking
The class could write letters to the Catholic
diocese of Fairbanks to find out more about Father Carroll, who is a
person in the book. If Father is still alive, we could invite him to
class to tell his story of King Island Christmas or have someone who
knew Father tell us the background of the story.
Another worthwhile writing/speaking activity
would be to have the students help rewrite King Island Christmas into
a readers' theater piece. The students could assume different
villagers speaking parts and divide the narrator's part. This is an
excellent way to incorporate repeated reading of the book. The steps
for this activity are as follows: 1) provide some consumable copies
of the text; 2) students come up with characters and abbreviations
for each character; 3) discuss concept of narrator; 4) begin marking
the text together and discuss dialogue and why you don't need words
like "said the elder" in a readers' theater production; 5) after
students get the hang of marking their parts, they can proceed
individually or with a partner to mark the rest of the story, and
groups could be designated to add dialogue for characters; 6) type up
the completed version of the play. The class can figure out who will
play each part. The play can be taped to take home to share, or it
can be performed for parents or other students in the
school.
Life Skills
As a cultural cooking project the class can
learn about Eskimo foods either by reading simple recipes or from
resource people in our community. I have had children make Eskimo pan
bread and akqutak. Cooking projects are great because they involve
reading skills (directions), math skills (measuring) and a valuable
life skill.
Art/Language
A combined book sharing and art activity would
be to make King Island Christmas tree ornaments. Students would be
divided into small groups to work on ornaments that will share
King Island Christmas in a unique way while
serving to decorate the classroom. Each group makes six construction
paper circles that are six inches in diameter. Have them measure the
diameters with rulers. These circles will form the ornament. Each
student in the group takes a circle (or two, depending on group size)
and works on one (or more) of the following activities to decorate
each circle on the group ornament:
1. write the title and author of the
book on a circle
2. draw a picture of a main character and
add a caption
3. draw a picture of a most exciting part
and a caption
4. write a note to a character in the
book
5. write a poem about King Island
6. write an opinion about the book.
Construction of the ornament goes as follows:
1) after each circle has been decorated, fold the circle in half; 2)
glue or tape the blank sides of the circles together one half at a
time until you have five and a half sides down; 3) before the last
half is glued, put a piece of yarn down the center of the ball and
glue it in place; 4) tie a loop and glue the final half circles
together. The ornament is now ready to hang on a Christmas book tree.
After the experience of working on the book ornament in the group,
students could make their own individual ornaments. Additional ideas
could come from reading other Christmas or seasonal books that could
be made available to them in the class reading center.
We could write to Rie Munoz, the illustrator of
King Island Christmas, and look at other prints
of Rie Munoz in children's books and in her art book collection. The
class could talk about things they liked about her work, how it makes
them feel, how Rie must have felt painting the various pictures. The
class could try their own water color illustrations for our class
book of legends.
With scrap fur pieces the class could make
Eskimo dolls or finger puppets to act out parts of the book, their
own legends or spontaneous improvised plays.
Science/Social Studies
We could take a trip to the University of
Alaska Fairbanks Museum to see tools, art and artifacts that ancient
and modern Eskimos have used. The class could divide into groups and
do a no-touch scavenger hunt of animals indigenous to the King Island
area. They could gather facts about one of the animals to share with
the class.
Social Studies
I could present contemporary pictures and
stories of the Eskimo/Russian Orthodox celebration of Slavik during
January as an example of another religion's celebration of Christmas.
Our class could start a Slavik celebration with other classes in the
primary grades or even the whole school. A "starboy" could carry a
huge star from class to class with everyone in the procession behind
the star bearer. At each classroom the hosts would share something
with the followers and then join the procession to another
room.
This unit could be used as a whole, or it could
be abbreviated and/or used as a lead-in to other pieces of seasonal
literature, songs or customs from around the world. I have also tried
an international day of customs and legends of the holiday season in
which students are broken into small groups and are scheduled into
stations which represent a culture. They can learn about a custom,
craft, song, or legend at a particular station which is manned by
parents, specialists, etc. at the school. The length of time at the
station depends on the group and complexity of the projects. This
unit could also lead into a larger unit on Native Alaskan cultures,
animals, geography, etc.
Assessment
Assessment in a Whole Language classroom is
based more on teacher observation and record keeping of individuals
than on testing. The students' teamwork in their cooperative learning
groups would be observed and successes/failures would be noted to
determine whether the group was functioning together. The students'
creativity, spelling, use of language, mechanics, would be checked in
their various writing assignments: legends, letter, book-share
ornaments, facts sheets, original Christmas carols, etc.. Writing
assessment would follow the analytical assessment model, which
assesses the content, organization, voice, word choice, syntax and
mechanics of writing on a one to five scale. Math skills would be
evaluated by how individuals figured out recipes, map point mileages,
measuring craft projects and experiments.
If children were having trouble reading the
material, individual conferences would be done with them and
mini-lessons on skills such as phonics, use of dialogue, etc. would
be given to individuals or groups as the need arose. Each student
would, of course, keep a folder of dated work samples so that
progress could be assessed over time. Each student would also keep a
learning log of daily accomplishments and concerns. I would have a
reading conference with each student once a week. Audio or video
cassettes of each child's oral reading that include samples of a
child reading a favorite selection and a selection slightly above
level chosen by the teacher could be used as an evaluation tool. In
this way I could observe the literacy strategies used to deal with
print. In conjunction with the tape, my notes of the reading would
serve as a record. Skill checklists used to mark observed student
competencies in a variety of areas can be used to record student
progress on designated criteria.
Foreword
Ray Barnhardt
Part I *
Rural School Ideals
"My
Goodness, People Come and Go So Quickly Around
Here"
Lance C. Blackwood
Parental Involvement
in a Cross-Cultural Environment
Monte Boston
Teachers and
Administrators for Rural Alaska
Claudia Caffee
The Mentor Teacher
Program
Judy Charles
Building
Networks
Helen Eckelman
Ideal Curriculum and
Teaching Approaches for a School in Rural
Alaska
Teresa McConnell
Some Observations
Concerning Excellent Rural Alaskan Schools
Bob Moore
The Ideal Rural
Alaska Village School
Samuel Moses
From Then To Now:
The Value of Experiential Learning
Clara Carol Potterville
The Ideal
School
Jane Seaton
Toward an Integrated,
Nonlinear, Community-Oriented Curriculum
Unit
Mary Short
A Letter from
Idealogak, Alaska
Timothy Stathis
Preparing
Rural Students for the Future
Michael Stockburger
The Ideal
Rural School
Dawn Weyiouanna
Alternative
Approaches to the High School Curriculum
Mark J. Zintek
Part II *
Rural Curriculum Ideas
"Masking" the
Curriculum
Irene Bowie
On Punks and
Culture
Louise J. Britton
Literature to Meet
the Needs of Rural Students
Debra Buchanan
Reaching the Gifted
Student Via the Regular Classroom
Patricia S. Caldwell
Early Childhood Special
Education in Rural Alaska
Colleen Chinn
Technically
Speaking
Wayne Day
Process Learning
Through the School Newspaper
Marilyn Harmon
Glacier Bay
History: A Unit in Cultural Education
David Jaynes
Principals of
Technology
Brian Marsh
Here's Looking
at You and Whole Language
Susan Nugent
Inside, Outside and
all-Around: Learning to Read and Write
Mary L. Olsen
Science Across
the Curriculum
Alice Porter
Here's Looking at
You 2000 Workshop
Cheryl Severns
School-Based
Enterprises
Gerald Sheehan
King Island
Christmas: A Language Arts Unit
Christine Pearsall Villano
Using Student-Produced
Dialogues
Michael A. Wilson
We-Search and
Curriculum Integration in the Community
Sally Young
Artist's
Credits
| 
