Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods that Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis Illustrated by Laura Cornell
Copyright 1998
Summary: The book covers the many emotions and moods that we all encounter through the eyes of a little girl. She narrators the story describing how she feels today and then what she does based on the feeling. It is a great book for young students as it validates their moods, feelings and ways of expressing those feelings. It is nice because emotions are universal and shared between all people.
Components of the Book that may affect Comprehension due to Cultural aspects:
1) Slang used to describe moods. Examples: "My life's getting hairy," "My mood is first-rate"
The direct translation of these phrases and other can greatly change the meaning of the text
2) In some cultures expression of some feelings is frowned upon or deemed unacceptable
3) The illustrations do not flow or set a clear context without the narration
4) The girl in the story often addresses particular incidents that affect her mood. These incidents may not be shared experiences with the reader. Examples: "I tried rollerblading" "I did my first solo in hip-hop and jazz."
Teaching and Introducing Schema to ELL learner:
1) Slang: A mini-lesson to develop a sense of how we might play with words, games where the class can practice silly sayings or expressions. Also in text discussions as to what the slang means. Translating the phrases into more direct language. Depending on the age of students have them share some of their cultural sayings or slang. These lessons would benefit all students in the classroom. Slang is often difficult for all students to process and understand, as well as use approriately.
2) Expression of Feelings: Lesson on emotions or feelings with basic non-lingusitic representations, smiley face, frowning face. Reading a variety of books from varying cultures that address emotions and how different cultures embrace feelings. Reinforce idea that feelings are ok but we all express them differently.
3) Illustrations: Have students discuss in groups what is happening in the illustrations. Conversation can allow students to help each other develop meaning and understanding. Offer simple emotion photos to help set context of emotion. Have students share photos of themselves experiencing different emotions.
4) Shared Experiences: Again offering non-linguistic representation that clearly illustrate the situtations described. Have the students discuss and share their experiences. A student talking about rollerskating, ice-skating, and so on can help to build a schema for "rollerblading."
Fancy Nancy By Jane O'Connor Illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser
Copyright 2006
Summary: Nancy is an imaginative little girl who enjoys being "fancy." She wishes greatly that her family, mother, father and sister, were "fancy" as well. She decides that she will teach them how to be fancy and decorated. She gives them clothes to wear that are brightly colored, decorated and exgtravagent. The family goes out to dinner wearing their "fancy" clothes. After dinner they order ice cream. Nancy drops the ice cream and is very upset. The family goes home and cleans up. They enjoy the ice cream and go to bed. The family tells each other they love each other and good night.
Components of the book that may affect Comprehension due to Cultural Aspects:
1) Language: Nancy chooses words that are "fancy" to describe simple things. Examples: "Purple =Fuchsia, Plume =Feather, Parfaits = Ice cream" Also the use of French within the book.
2) Illustrations: Nancy is seen wearing a crown, fancy costumes, fairy wings, and appears to have pink/purple hair
3) Context of Experieces: Nancy is shown and described being bossy and telling her parents what to do.
4) Written from a Girl's perspective
Teaching and Introducing Schema to ELL students:
1) Language: Create word images that demonstrate the varying words to describe something. Example the words ice cream, parafait, sundae, written on an image of an ice cream cone.
2) Illustrations: Talking with students about imagination and dressing up. Allowing students to discuss in groups what is real and what is make believe. Bring in dress up clothes, allow students to play and explore costumes. Possibly have them take photos or draw how they appear in costumes. Have students share costumes or make believe games of their culture to help broaden schema.
3) Context Experiences: Talk about how we share ideas with other. Have students discuss a time they taught someone how to do something or shared an idea. Empower students by allowing them to teach a skill or idea to the class or peer or teacher. Relate in context that Nancy is sharing her ideas with family.
4) Perspective: Relate the book back to the experience of imagination and playing pretend. Offer books or images that demonstrate boys playing dress up. Have students share things they imagine or pretend.
Hi Colleen,
ReplyDeleteYou chose such fantastic books to examine cultural barriers to student comprehension! I think oftentimes we as teachers look at the general reading level of a story and forget to take cultural relevance into account.
By utilizing Jamie Lee Curtis’ book, Today I Feel Silly, students are able to examine universal emotions and explore different cultural approaches to manifesting and coping with those feelings. Culturally speaking, students could teach each other different cultural values that lead to different types of cultural behavior. While the illustrations in the book are visually appealing, I absolutely agree that they do not often offer enough imagery to be the sole visual guide to comprehension for a student who is struggling with a new language. By pushing students to use this story to share their own personal experiences, they are all seeing the importance of valuing other people’s beliefs/cultures, and it will only help to reinforce an atmosphere of familial trust in the classroom.
I just read my first Fancy Nancy story this summer, and I was excited to see how taken my tutoring student was with the series. The little girl I tutor is very much like Nancy—she dresses up, enjoys manicures, makeup, fashion, and telling people what to do. Even so, there is so much vocabulary within each story that needs to be reviewed, or much of the story would be lost, even for a native speaker. The realia you suggested would incorporate vocabulary in an interactive and creative way, and your extension activity of making students the expert on something lets them act like a star, just like Nancy. You were very thoughtful to incorporate boys into the equation by finding stories for them.
Hi Colleen!
ReplyDeleteFirst off, you picked two of my all time favorite books. I use both of these in my classroom for read aloud, and I will be honest, you definitely opened my eyes to a few components to these books that I did not notice before.
In the book, I Feel Silly, I never thought about the amount of idioms used throughout the text. "My life's getting hairy." would surely be a confusing sentence to an ELL student!
I also never thought about how some cultures do not express themselves as openly as others, and that this would be a great opportunity to discuss this component of the story before reading it.
I feel like the illustrations in the story make the story even more entertaining, but again, it has never dawned on me that they are extremely exaggerated and dramatic, which could leave an ELL student feeling very lost and disconnected to the character's world. This could possibly prompt a discussion on how some authors use exaggeration to entertain, and that it might not always be true to life.
Fancy Nancy is another favorite of mine, and I especially love to use this series when teaching new vocabulary to my students. However, again, I have never thought about the family dynamic in this story. It is not the "norm" for a child to be basically "running" the household, or to be wearing 3 inch heels to the ice cream parlor. Fancy Nancy pretty much runs the show in these books, and I agree with you that their comprehension of this character would be more effective if a discussion on "imagination" and "pretend play" took place prior to reading the book.
Thank you for your fantastic ideas and insight into the cultural aspects of these two books.
Hi Colleen,
ReplyDeleteGreat choices of books for this assignment! I just read Fancy Nancy to my class and I did notice that it was hard for some of the ELL students to understand all of the 'fancy' words in it. The ice cream cone idea is great and the visuals would benefit all learners! This way of introducing it would be fun and engaging for students as well as helpful for the ones who need the extra visuals. I also like how you talked about distinguishing with students the differences between what is real and what is made up. Students, especially ELL kids, don't always understand this concept. I like how you talked about getting in small groups and having the students talk about this and dress up! Students would have fun with the assignment and could relate to Fancy Nancy.