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Children's responses to Birchbark House
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From: Debbie Reese <d-reese>
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 09:38:26 -0500
Morning!
My daughter is in 3rd grade, in a 3rd/4th grade class. In her reading group, they are reading Birchbark House. They take turns reading it aloud. Earlier in the discussion, Eliza asked if anyone could share info about children and their responses, so here's some...
The name "Omakayas."
The children were struggling with the pronunciation of it. It is unfamiliar to them. Some played with it "Omakaka" etc. Liz (my daughter; we are Pueblo Indian; we both have Tewa names) said to her group that she didn't think it was funny, that it is just her name. She told them that she has a Native American name, told them what it is, and that it feels a little like they're making fun of her own name when they make fun of Omakayas name. I didn't probe at that point. This past Saturday, at the Pt of View conference in Madison, I asked Liz to share that incident at our dinner table. She talked about the name play, but told how the children had turned it into something fun in the way they addressed the boy who'd started the name play at first. It seemed like a fond memory she recounted. She is with a good group of children, in an environment in which I believe she feels supported, so I don't think the "like you're making fun of my name" incident was a sad one for her.
Last week as I walked to school to meet Liz at the end of the day, one of her groupmates rode by on his bike. He stopped, removed his helmet, and greeted me
(such a bright face, engaging smile - it was wonderful!) so I asked him if he likes the book. With enthusiasm he said "Yes!" and went on to talk about how he liked all the information about daily life. He liked knowing what it was like for them in that time period. Somewhere - maybe in an earlier post - someone said they thought children might be bored with such detail. Daniel's response gives us one response - bored? No!
Debbie
_________________________________ Debbie Reese, Doctoral Student Dept. of Curriculum and Instruction College of Education, University of Illinois Champaign, IL 61820
Telephone: 217$4?86 Fax: 217$4E72 Email: d-reese at uiuc.edu
Received on Tue 12 Oct 1999 09:38:26 AM CDT
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 09:38:26 -0500
Morning!
My daughter is in 3rd grade, in a 3rd/4th grade class. In her reading group, they are reading Birchbark House. They take turns reading it aloud. Earlier in the discussion, Eliza asked if anyone could share info about children and their responses, so here's some...
The name "Omakayas."
The children were struggling with the pronunciation of it. It is unfamiliar to them. Some played with it "Omakaka" etc. Liz (my daughter; we are Pueblo Indian; we both have Tewa names) said to her group that she didn't think it was funny, that it is just her name. She told them that she has a Native American name, told them what it is, and that it feels a little like they're making fun of her own name when they make fun of Omakayas name. I didn't probe at that point. This past Saturday, at the Pt of View conference in Madison, I asked Liz to share that incident at our dinner table. She talked about the name play, but told how the children had turned it into something fun in the way they addressed the boy who'd started the name play at first. It seemed like a fond memory she recounted. She is with a good group of children, in an environment in which I believe she feels supported, so I don't think the "like you're making fun of my name" incident was a sad one for her.
Last week as I walked to school to meet Liz at the end of the day, one of her groupmates rode by on his bike. He stopped, removed his helmet, and greeted me
(such a bright face, engaging smile - it was wonderful!) so I asked him if he likes the book. With enthusiasm he said "Yes!" and went on to talk about how he liked all the information about daily life. He liked knowing what it was like for them in that time period. Somewhere - maybe in an earlier post - someone said they thought children might be bored with such detail. Daniel's response gives us one response - bored? No!
Debbie
_________________________________ Debbie Reese, Doctoral Student Dept. of Curriculum and Instruction College of Education, University of Illinois Champaign, IL 61820
Telephone: 217$4?86 Fax: 217$4E72 Email: d-reese at uiuc.edu
Received on Tue 12 Oct 1999 09:38:26 AM CDT
