Columbus: Friend or Foe?

Encounter written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by David Shannon is a book that gives a different way of thinking about Columbus. Most students grow up hearing about Christopher Columbus every year in school come October 12th, but Yolen takes the reader into the initial visit of the Spanish explorers with a Taino tribe as seen through the eyes of a young Taino boy. The language in this text, alone, is sufficient to use it to teach writing.

I used it to start students writing a persuasive piece and to incorporate what they had been learning about explorers in Social Studies. Before reading the story, students paired up to talk about what they thought about the explorers' arrival in the New World. After some whole group sharing, I asked them to listen to what this Taino young boy thought. As we read, we stopped often to make inferences about what the boy was describing.

After reading the story, students paired up again to discuss what they thought now. I posted the question on the board: Columbus: Friend or Foe?, and I let students talk to each other for a while. Again, we had some whole group sharing. Then I told students they would be writing a piece to state their opinion, including reasons why. We reviewed what it means to persuade and that it should clearly show an opinion supported by reasons.

I am curious to see what these students write. In the past, I have done this lesson with a class of ESOL students, with the majority being Hispanic. They had very strong feelings and saw connections to their own lives as they realized they may not have spoken Spanish if it weren't for those explorers. I wonder what this new group of diverse students will have to say. We'll see. I may have to post some samples.

Students, Speak Your MInds!

Our fifth grade students had been working on recognizing point of view in their reading,while they were studying about slavery in Social Studies. With only 45 minute segments every other week, I try to incorporate as many objectives as possible in a lesson. To review their understanding of point of view, I read excerpts from Julius Lester's book, To Be a Slave and on a sticky note they noted 1st, 2nd, or 3rd point of view and we discussed how they knew. Next, I read aloud a book by Nancy Patz, Who Was the Woman Who Wore the Hat? This is a poem, of how the author took a hat she saw at a Jewish museum to write. The illustrations mix pencil sketches, drawings, and photographs from that time in history, and we spent some time discussing what the illustrations showed that went beyond her words.

After reading and discussing the book, I showed students five pictures (I found them by googling images) that depicted slavery and asked students to turn and talk with partners about what they could say about the pictures, and what point of view they would take. Following this time of thinking about each picture, each student had to choose a picture and decide whose voice they would be. They were assigned to write a piece (poem, story, letter, journal entry) to show their knowledge of slavery and that showed a clear point of view.

This is the third year I have done this lesson with 5th graders and their classroom teachers and I are always surprised at the strong, insightful pieces produced. I think it is because we give them the permission to speak their minds, instead of just bubbling answers on a test. Students receive a writing grade and a Social Studies grade for this one piece of work.

This lesson could be easily done when teaching about the Holocaust, just by substituting the pictures.