"Different, Not Deficient"
During our recent inquiry into normalcy and transition into world cultures we have read many books that describe the mistreatment of people based on some difference to the established norm at that time. These struggles included segregation during the civil rights movement, the fight for education for females in Pakistan, the exclusion of a child because of their socioeconomic status, schools created to "civilize" Native American children by taking away their culture, and teasing a child because of their Korean name. As our chart demonstrates below, we identified what was being made to seem normal, who had the power to do this, what problems resulted, who fought back against this and the outcome. Throughout this process, I have been touched by the kids compassion for the mistreated and their resolve to stand up for others' rights.
On Friday we watched a video from the show "What Would You Do?" where a Muslim woman is refused service at a bakery in Texas. The bakery employee and the woman were actors, but others in the bakery were unaware of the set up. I was amazed at how our class paid attention to the details of this video. The hateful attitudes and speech really tugged at their heartstrings. Classmates were ready to defend this woman and became frustrated with the six people who supported the employee. Most interesting to me though was the fact that one of our classmates pointed out the fact that 22 people stood by and did nothing. This led to a discussion of why they did nothing. Possible reasons the kids gave included fear that something violent might happen, they didn't want to get in trouble, and they didn't want to make someone angry. In the end, the kids agreed in this situation it would have been best to stand up and help this woman because this is the only way to move towards change and fair treatment for all.
We have now begun our study of China. The kids are working to collect facts of their choice right now. We will gather these together and sort them to see what categories are represented. This will help us to create our class expert project and provide the structure for the kids to complete their independent research projects of their chosen countries.
We have also been publishing our fiction stories this week and working to learn about multi-digit subtraction with regrouping. With the use of base ten blocks, the kids are becoming more comfortable with this process. If you get a moment ask, them to demonstrate for you how to illustrate this process.
This Week
Please talk with your child about their choice of country. I would like to know their top 3 choices by Wednesday. Please make sure they choose something that will have plentiful research. We hope to have no more than 2 students do the same country and begin researching by Friday.
Important Dates
March 7 SIC/PTP Meeting
March 8 Sandhills Library (Shealy/ Hass 11:30)
March 11 Spring Pictures
March 14 Curriculum Night #4
March 15 Student Holiday
March 22 Parents Night Out
March 25-29 Book Fair
Below are some of the books we have enjoyed and analyzed during our inquiry into normalcy followed by our chart so that you can see the ideas we were pulling out of each.
A lesson on China from one our expert grandparents.
Here are some examples of Chinese money and how it has changed over time.
Pajama Day.....at last!
We have a new addition to our room: Legos!
