"Yertle the Turtle"

Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss

This book is a collection of children's poems all written by Dr. Seuss. They all illustrate the style, humor and silliness that he tends to portray in his literature. These stories usually become wildly popular because of their silly nature but usually have a moral message to the story as well.

The book opens up with the story of Yertle the Turtle, a turtle who is king of the pond and realizes that his pond is so small; his throne of stone is not tall at all. He rounds up his turtle friends who climb on top of each other to create a new make-shift throne so Yertle can see further and rule further than just the boundaries of the pond. He is pleased... for a time, until he wants his throne higher so he can see more. When a small turtle on the bottom, named Mack, starts complaining about pain from having so many turtles stacked on top of him, Yertle is unsympathetic and orders 200 turtles to stack on top of each other. Eventually they topple over and the story ends with "all the turtles are free / As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be." The underlying message is that there should not be one ruler that decides everything. People should have freedom and choices for themselves.

The following two stories feature Gertrude McFuzz who learns about beauty and intelligence and the rabbit and bear who learn about bragging and how everyone has their own talents. The artwork accompanies these stories in the classic Dr. Seuss design. All three of these stories are fantasy, which is clear by the content, but the format is through poetry because all of Dr. Seuss' work rhymes throughout.

Grades: 3-5

"My name is Jorge On Both Sides of the River"

“My Name is Jorge On Both Sides of the River” was written by Jane Medina. Fabricio Vanden Broeck illustrated the book. This book story focuses on a young Mexican boy, Jorge and his struggle to make a new life in a new country. His family is from Mexico, which they had to across the river to get to America. He navigates his way into his school where all instructions and speakings are in English. Jorge’s experiences are recorded in poems in two languages, Spanish and English. The collection poems are told from his perspective. In addition, illustrations are drawn in black and white.

The book is realistic fiction. The genre is poetry. The author, Jane Medina is an elementary teacher. She teaches students like Jorge and encourages them to share the richness of their heritages with one another. Students such as American ELLs or immigrants can read this type of book and sense connections through similar experiences. I could sense Jorge's struggles because we both share similar experiences. We moved to America at a young age, trying to adapt to the culture. The themes are the struggle between adapting and maintaining cultural heritage, identity, and friendships. It is critical for ELLs and/or immigrants to be aware that they are not alone in this type of journey and that other American students should be exposed to this awareness more.

As I read this book, social justice is valid. It displays Jorge having self-identity and cultural conflicts. Two elements of social justice were covered: self-love and knowledge and respect for others. This book could introduce students to learn about who they are and where they come from. At times like this, students can be provided with opportunities to build their pride inter culture, heritage, and ethnicity. This could build their respect for others as they learn about varied experiences coming from their classmates. Students can share their cultural knowledge with classmates. This can deconstruct stereotypes. Cross-cultural environment can be build in a classroom. 

Example of a Vlog of Nonfiction

Here is an example of how to do a Vlog for picture books including information about the book (title, author, illustrator, summary), genre evaluation, references to social justice and diversity demonstrated in book and insights of how you would use this book in your classroom.

A confession: my background isn't ideal for this type of assignment and should have been done against solid colored background.

Example Blog of Historical Fiction

 

The book I chose is Good-bye Havana! Hola New York! by Edie Colon and illustrated by Raul Colon.

The story takes place in early 1960 in Cuba during the time of the revolution, when Fidel Castro ruled Cuba. The main character, Gabriela  tells of how her family moved to the Bronx, in New York. They immigrated in order to escape the harsh hand of Castro.

Good-bye Havana! Hola New York! is a historical fiction. The author Edie includes an editor's note explaining that the events all happened to him and that he invented the character of Gabriela to better tell the story. I chose this book because this story reminds me of a friend and what they went through in the 1960's. This story seems superficially innocent, but, within it the underlying reality of life in Cuba during that time can be seen. Growing up, I heard all of the stories from my friend and learned a great deal of how life was like there. Knowing where we come from is important to self-identity. This book is a good starting place where I can begin to explain where we are from and introduce our cultural hertiage. 

The social justice portion of the book is evident withing the political tones threaded throughout the book. Included are the resistance, the overthrow of the old government and the takeover of the country by Castro as well as what happened after Castro came to power. According to Six Elements of Social Justice Curriculum, the themes covered in this book include self-love and knowledge where students learn who they are and where they come from as well as respect for others in learning about other students' experiences. This also allows for discussion about social injustice and how these forms of oppression affect different communities.