The challenge in my case is to present a white, nineteenth century middle class author to a population of inner-city children, who might not otherwise care about her. One way to do this is to show the students the similarities between their lives and that of the author, thus making the differences less glaring. The objective met would be to help promote understanding of different cultures and time periods. The work for which Louisa May Alcott is best known is, of course, Little Women, which portrays a loving family living in genteel poverty. The story of the March family, which so closely mirrors that of the Alcott family, has endured through many generations of readers, of all socio-economic backgrounds. When introducing this unit, some of the themes relating to family in both the book and the author’s life are themes that can be related to lives of some of our students. The Alcotts and the Marches lived on the poverty level. Both mother figures are the stronger parent. Both fathers are away from the home most of the time. In both cases, the family members are all very close and mindful of each other. Both families experienced the heartbreak of losing a daughter. In both cases, the daughters went to work in menial jobs as soon as they were old enough. Many of these themes are familiar to our students and ones they can identify with, once they learn about them.
Text materials:
To demonstrate the author’s continuing popularity, I will introduce a copy of “The Scrap-Baggers” newsletter. The Scrap-Baggers are a group of young people, none older than 17, dedicated to Louisa May Alcott, who publish a monthly newsletter. Their newsletters are filled with articles, reviews and discussions about Louisa May Alcott, her family and her works. Obviously, there are students who devour any trivia related to the author.
There are several books that will help ease the students into the study of the classics. These come under the headings of abridged versions, “based on” stories or adaptations. Purists may objects to the use of abridgements, but not all of our students will be able to read through the original work. My strategy is to make these shortened versions available to the students, since one of my objectives is to get them interested in the story of Little Women.
The most simplified adaptation is Little Women by Francine Hughes, published by Scholastic. It has only 32 pages and is based on the 1994 version of the movie. Recommended for ages 5 – 8, it is on a grade 2 reading level.
Another easy “close to the real thing” version is the Little Women adapted by Monica Kulling, as part of the “Bullseye Step into Classics” series. Only 106 pages, it features large print and condenses the story into an easy grade 2 reading level. It simplifies 13 of the more eventful chapters from the original and introduces all of the main characters. As a chapter book, this can be used as a read aloud or for independent reading.
The hardest abridgement would be the Little Women from the Dover Children’s Thrift Classic Series. Adapted by Bob Blaisdell, this includes some illustrations. Although it is only 108 pages long, the print is small. This version also captures more of the essence of Alcott’s original prose. Its sixteen chapters also cover the major events.
All of the above mentioned books begin with the Christmas episode, as does the original. The Christmas episode introduces the March family and sets them all up as caring and giving souls. Each of the four daughters has a dollar to spend on something for themselves. They fantasize about the things they might buy, like sheet music and pencils. But then the girls decide that they will surprise their mother and spend the money on presents for her because they love to make her happy. This chapter can initiate several discussions, such as what would the class buy if they had a ten dollar bill? What do the girls gain from helping others?
Avon Books has put out a series of books by Charlotte Emerson, featuring each of the March girls, with titles like Beth’s Snow Dancer, Amy’s True Prize and Jo’s Troubled Heart. These stories feature each of the sisters at the age of 10 in adventures of their own. Students can pick their favorite sister, read the featured story and then be asked to explain their choices. These questions can be posed: What is it about this sister that attracts you? Do you see any similarities to yourself? Would you be friends if you met? Why?
Other books that can be used to supplement the unit, include An Alcott Family Christmas by Alexandra Wallner, which takes a fictional look at the life of the Alcotts, and is based on a true episode. In this story, the Alcotts are a poor but happy family sitting down to their Christmas dinner. A neighbor comes to the door looking for Mrs. Alcott --he wants her to help his sick wife. “Marmee” quietly suggest that her daughters give their dinners to the needy family. The girls acquiesce, because they feel rich in spirit. In a similar episode in Little Women, the March girls give up their Christmas breakfast to a poor widow with six children.
Journals:
All of the Alcotts wrote daily journals that reveal snippets of everyday family life. In fact, Bronson Alcott kept diaries observing the day by day growth and development of each of his daughters. Students could be also encouraged to keep daily journals--perhaps chronicling the daily events of their own lives-- recording such ordinary things as the meals they eat or the television shows they watch. This will help improve their writing skills as well as develop their powers of observation. At the end of the session or school year, they can review the events of the past year and be encouraged to save the journals for future reading.
In relation to this activity, other journals not necessarily related to this unit can be introduced, such as Dear Levi by Woodruff, Only Opal by Boulton, Polar the Titanic Bear by Spedden and Sally Reed’s Doll by Laugaard. These are all children’s books written in journal form.
Additional Activities:
An after school program or book club can take advantage of Lucille Penner’s book The Little Women Book: Games, Recipes, Crafts and Other Homemade Pleasures. After reading and sharing Little Women or any of the other related books in the units, students can participate in arts and crafts relevant to the literature.
Another project will be to adapt An Alcott Family Christmas into a one act play. Because it is a short picture book with easy dialogue, it would be simple to do. Because the language of the nineteenth century can be somewhat stuffy for an inner-city school, we could modify the dialogue to reflect the community in which our students live.
Another project suitable for an individual classroom would be to institute a Post Office in class. Students would write notes to each other or to the teacher. Replies would be encouraged and students would take turns being the Postmaster. This would help with writing skills and may allow shyer students to tell the teacher things that they might not say aloud.
Small class groups or whole classes will be given research lessons which will focus on the study of family life in the nineteenth century as well as familiarize students with the resources in the Library Media Center. This will be a collaborative effort between the classroom teacher and the Library Media Specialist.
Teachers will discuss with their class school days in the nineteenth century. How is it different from today? Bronson Alcott was controversial for supporting things we take for granted today--kindergarten, recess, student involvement, adult education, sex education, comfortable learning environments. What would school be like today without these “innovations”?
There are several movie versions of Little Women. We will watch the Winona Ryder version and see how it differs from the novel. This film could also be shared with the third grade involved with our team. With a student population that needs encouragement to read more challenging works, a film might prove a bridge to the book.
Perhaps the students could write a “Blood and Thunder” play, much like the Alcott and March girls did. The important thing would be to expose the students to an important American author and help lead them on the quest to developing literacy.