Entry #4- Childrens' Book Review

  We are currently learning about Patricia Polacco in my 3rd grade classroom. For the most part, my students are really enjoying her stories, but I have definitely come across some obstacles when trying to describe certain components of her books to the English language learners in my classroom.
   In the book,  The Keeping Quilt,  Patricia recaps the life of her immigrant grandparents who came to America by boat from Russia. Before reading the story, I plan to build on my students' schema by showing them a map of the world. I will point out to my students where the continent of Russia is and what it mean to "immigrate" to another country.
   Because the main characters in this book are Russian, I will make sure to review some of the Russian words that Patricia Polacco uses throughout the story before reading it to my students. A few examples are " babushka", (blanket) "border" (the edge of something), "challah" (bread), "huppa" (canopy), "poverty", "Jews", and "bouquet".
    Patricia also mentions throughout the story many different kinds of Russian customs and ceremonies. I would discuss with my class traditions that their families might have for weddings, birthdays, clothing, crafts, etc.
    In addition, I would also describe the art of quilt making.  To demonstrate, I would have my class create their own family quilt using "pieces of their past".  What would they use as their border? What would their squares look like and what would they represent from their family's past?
      The other book I plan on reading is Patricia Polacco's Mrs. Katz and Tush.  This story is about the beautiful relationship that develops between a lonely, old widow and a little boy. The woman is from Poland, and the story begins with her telling the boy that she is saddened because she will be all alone for Hannukah and Passover.
        Before reading this story, I would explain to my students what it means to be "widowed", and I will also review what it means to be an immigrant from another country. I will also prompt their background knowledge about what religion celebrates Hannukah and Passover. I would then point out the location of Poland and the feelings that Mrs. Katz might have had coming from another country.
      As in a lot of Patricia's books, she uses a lot of words that are in a different language. This book contains some yiddish words, such as "bubeleh" (a yiddish term of enderament), "kugel" (a jewish pudding), "kaddish"(a Jewish prayer), "shalom" (Jewish, for "peace"), "kattileh" (Yiddish word for "kitty") , "seder" (a Jewish feast served at Passover), and "matzoh" (Jewish cracker). 
      As a class, we would also discuss the different Jewish customs described throughout the book. One being that some people of the Jewish religion do not eat meat and dairy off of the same plate, and the story behind the Passover holiday.
      Overall, I love the personal narrative nature of Patricia Palacco's work, and I feel that students can not only connect with many of her childhood memoirs, but they can also learn a lot about language, religion, and different cultures from her writing.