Every year around Thanksgiving, I love to focus on Point of View during language arts. There are so many good Thanksgiving-themed texts that students can use to put themselves in the “character’s shoes.” At this point in the year, we have talked about “character” and “character traits” quite a bit, so students are able to dig a little deeper into what a character might be thinking or feeling.
One of my favorite text to read before Thanksgiving is “How Many Days to America,” by Eve Bunting. It’s a beautiful
book and when I started using it 11 years ago, I had no idea how relevant it would continue to be. There are so many great themes within the book, and we spend a lot of time discussing how fortunate and thankful we are to live in the United States of America. I then complete this lesson with the class over the course of the week.
I start off by reading the book to the class. We read it while they are sitting in the book corner and they are almost instantly sucked in. This book has a more somber tone than they are typically used to, but it also has such a powerful message of family, being thankful, and the true message of Thanksgiving. As we are reading, I urge my students to put themselves in the characters’ shoes. We talk about what it might be like to be the little boy, the little girl, or the parents. Students are encouraged to dig inside themselves and make some wonderful connections.
In the book, the family has to leave their home country and they have to leave their friends and their belongings behind. We talk about what this would look like for them. Who and what would they be leaving behind?
Before reading, I photocopy all of the pictures in the book (I have to set the copier to a lighter setting) and once we finish reading the text, I pass out a page to each student.
Once they receive their page, I often read the book a second time. During this reading, I ask them to pay close attention to what is happening on their page of the book. After the second reading, I have them watercolor ONE character on the page. This will be the character that they will be using for the point of view writing assignment the next day.
The next day, I have my students fill out a simple planning sheet. Since the characters in the book are unnamed, my students create an identity for their character. They give the character a name and an age. They also choose 3 feelings that the character might be feeling on that page. They have to think about the context of the page and what evidence they have to support these feelings.
Once they complete this preliminary planning, they begin to draft their letter. They have to work, using writer’s craft, to write a journal entry that their character might have written based on their page. They are encouraged to reference events from the text as well as the feelings they have brainstormed. This assignment pulls in a lot of different skills we have been working on in class and it really targets “point of view” in an authentic way. The students LOVE it and they love to share their writing with their writing partner.
Once they have worked to edit and revise, I get them into the computer lab or on an iPad and they type their entry. They love to choose a font that looks like handwriting. Then they print out two copies (an extra in case their first copy doesn’t survive the tearing/tea staining portion of the activity…lesson learned).
The next step is tearing their paper to make it look old. I model careful tearing and have them hold their paper flat on their desk as they tear. I show them how to tear off little bits and to GO SLOW! Once it is torn and signed (as their character) we tea stain them.
To tea stain, there is really no right or wrong way. I have a few old dishwashing tubs and I put about one inch of water in the bottom of each (baking pans would work too). Then in the morning when I come in, I throw 4-6 tea bags in each tub. I let the tea sit for a while until we are ready for it. Once the kids have ripped their paper, they place it into one of the tubs, making sure to submerge them in the tea. We let them sit for 4-6 minutes (usually they are doing other things) and then take the paper out. I lay them gently on a piece of paper towel and set them out on a table to dry. The longer they stay in the tea, the darker the paper will be once it dries. Be sure to only put one paper at a tie time in each tub so they don’t stick together.
Once they are dry, students attach their picture to one side of a large sheet of construction paper and they attach their diary entry to the other side. I like to hang these in the hallway because they get a lot of attention. They look so professional and kids love to make them. If you would like the whole lesson with organizers, you can get it here.
~Heather
