Kathleen C. Rende
Unit Goals:
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1. To use film to examine multicultural family customs.
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2. To allow for students to discover their own cultural family norms.
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3. To ease the transition between home and school for young learners.
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4. To increase oral vocabulary development through classroom interaction.
In my kindergarten classroom, I have a unique population. I teach in a dual language kindergarten classroom where half my students are learning a second language through content. Throughout the day I must integrate different teaching strategies to make content comprehensible to all students in the classroom. By creating an interdisciplinary unit to explore the concept of family with my students, I can allow the students to investigate a topic with their diverse and individual learning styles.
One of our main goals of the dual language program is the development of oral language. New words and vocabulary are best learned while the concepts for those words are being experienced. When the students carry out the lesson with the teacher, they are always encouraged to talk about the experiences before, after and during to allow for the greatest manipulation of language. By creating a situation where children learn in a small group I help them gain skills like listening and thinking critically about the process in which they and their peers acquire information.
Sheltered instruction plays a major role in teaching a population of second language learners. Strategies such as instructional conversations, demonstrations and modeling can establish optimal learning of concepts and vocabulary. Sheltered instruction includes other methods like contextualizing a lesson to make it meaningful to a child's life. (Echevarria & Graves) The use of graphic organizers or hands on activities can help a student gain a better and deeper understanding of the content and the language.
Instructional conversations dominate in much of my teaching through this unit. An instructional conversation is a goal oriented conversation where the teacher takes a role more of a facilitator, rather then providing the students with information. Instructional conversations provide students with a small group forum to exchange ideas, and engage in thoughtful and reflective learning (Echevarria & Graves, 157-158) Through instructional conversations I can create a safe environment for all students to manipulate language and experiment with ideas. I can accurately assess for content understanding and quickly adjust a lesson to meet the needs of those students. Most of this unit will be taught using Instructional Conversations.
The activity plans are written with both a content and language objective because at this developmental stage in my students' learning, both are equally as important. As I work with my students I will not only be teaching them the content of the unit but since it is the first six weeks of school, I will also be teaching my students conversation skills. Children need help learning how to be an active and valued member of a conversation. By teaching them how to talk to each other, I am also teaching them how to listen to each other. If they are listening to one another, they are one step closer to understanding.
In my classroom, the students work in activity centers for most of the day so the teacher led activities will always have a follow-up center that usually consists of a writing/journal center where they will respond to whatever concept they explore in the teacher led activity center. All concepts and activities need to be clearly presented to the students before hand. The centers allow me to differentiate instruction so that the students will get several different learning experiences that can allow all students ample opportunities to acquire information.
The Use of Film
In some traditional classrooms, film is used to give students direct information, and are sometimes coupled with a viewing guide where students answer questions with the film or are followed by an assignment where students are required to respond a specific aspect of the film. In a kindergarten classroom, children are typically shown a film, usually a cartoon, where the characters are teaching the students about fire safety or teeth brushing. However, films offer many more benefits to instruction than direct information.
Using film in a classroom can benefit students' oral development, expose them to experiences that otherwise require expensive and time-consuming travel along with teaching them using the novelty of the screen. In a society where children are watching television more, teachers feel they are required to "enter-teach". They feel they must find more interesting and unique ways to get and keep a student's attention. The screen attracts the students' attention and the films feature children, so the target audience here will be captivated to watch.
The use of film for the goal of this unit is to provide students with brief sequences and ideas about what happens in other families. How do other families eat dinner? How do other families spend time together? Who lives together? How many people in a "family"? How do children get to school? These brief scenes are selected to initiate a response from the students and to get them to reflect on their own culture as well.
Each of these films features different and interesting scenes that can spark so much discussion among the students. In many of the films the students will see how different families eat together. For example, in the film
Children of Heaven
, there is a scene where the family eats together on a blanket, or in
Maborosi
a movie that takes place in Japan, the family eats at a low table using chopsticks.
As the students watch these carefully selected scenes, they will be given plenty of opportunities to speak with the teacher and each other about what they see and compare that to what they do. Each set of scenes can give the students so much rich information for them to use as output when they are required to create in one of the activity plans further along in this unit. A set of scenes from three different films all showing families going to school can be seen easily and quickly, allowing plenty of time for the children to create. In an already academically cramped day, film allows teachers to demonstrate very quickly.
These films show children from other countries interacting with their families and engaging in everyday routines. Films should not be shown in their entirety, with the exception of
The Red Balloon
.
The Red Balloon
is a short film that the children would really enjoy watching. The films are included merely to show scenes of international families performing daily rituals and routines. Films that are chosen are chosen solely to spark conversation for the students to compare their own daily routines to those of families from far off places.
Films Synopses
This is a list of the foreign films with a brief synopsis of each film. These films are not rare, they have been found in either national video-rental stores or the local library. It is easier to use films on DVD rather than VHS, since DVD's allow you to quickly move through the film to find feature scenes. These movies are just a suggestion to supplement this unit. If there are other countries that need to be covered you may want to use different films. Just be sure to view the films ahead of time to find the scenes you'd like to use and to make sure the film is appropriate. Some foreign films do not have the same rating standards as the United States.
Not One Less: China
A thirteen-year-old girl takes over a class in a rural Chinese province in this film about determination and the importance of education. The girl takes over the classroom when no one else will. The original teacher has to leave and as he leaves he tells the substitute that she cannot lose one child. They have already had a drop in the population of the students due to poverty among the families of the small village. These families need to send their children to nearby cities to earn a living. Unfortunately, the substitute does lose a child to the workforce and stubbornly travels to the city to retrieve him. This film is chosen because it shows children walking to school, children in school, and children going to bed.
Yi Yi: China
This film shows a family as they deal with an emergency concerning the grandmother of the family. When the grandmother suffers a stroke all members begin to think deeply about their lives. The story follows this family around Taipei and Tokyo. The young boy in the family engages in different routine activities such as brushing teeth and taking a bath. There are also scenes where the family eats a meal together.
The Secret of Roan Inish: Ireland
When a ten year old is sent to live with her grandparents in Donegal, Ireland, Fiona learns about her ancestors and how she is part "selkie" or a seal that turns to a human. After returning to an island her family formally lived on she spots a child who she believes is her missing brother. The film shows many different scenes where the family gathers to tell stories and eat meals.
Mostly Martha: Germany
This film contains more adult themes and issues; I chose it because it contains wonderful scenes where people sit down to eat, children go to school, and bedtime routines. The story centers on a talented chef who works in an upscale restaurant in Germany. The chef learns that her sister has died tragically and her niece will live with her until the father can be located.
The Red Balloon: France
This is a short film and can be shown in its entirety. There are images of children going to school and home. This is an enchanting film about a boy who finds a balloon and the two become quick friends. The balloon follows the boy wherever he goes and in turn the boy takes care of the balloon.
Vovochka: Russia
Vovochka is a ten-year old boy who causes trouble and wreaks havoc all around his town. Although he doesn't mean to do the things he does, he does seem to enjoy himself even when he is running from authority. This movie has scenes of a family celebrating the New Year, extended family and preparing and eating meals. This movie can also be shown in its entirety if the unit is adapted for use in older classrooms. It is a light, funny comedy and could spark much discourse in the class.
The White Balloon: Iran
This movie takes place in "real-time" during the Iranian New Years celebration. A little girl named Razieh wants to buy a goldfish for the celebration. After careful persuasion she and her brother convince her mother to give her the money but she loses it on the way to the store. This movie is included because of the scenes of family involvement.
Children of Heaven: Iran
Within the first 22 minutes of this film we see an Iranian brother and sister running errands for their family, talking with their family, doing homework, washing dishes and eating dinner. This film is perfect for this unit because it meets most of the characteristics of the Finding Families matrix. This film is about a brother who loses his sister's shoes. They have to share the boy's shoes until they find an opportunity to win a pair of shoes in a race.
Maborosi: Japan
When this family is destroyed by an apparent suicide by the father, the mother struggles with putting herself together for her infant son. Yumiko remarries and moves with her son to join her new husband and his daughter. She still struggles with finding meaning for the loss of her first husband but settles into her new life. Although the themes and story in this film are very "adult" there are many beautiful scenes where the family eats together with traditional Japanese customs. WARNING: there is some brief nudity in this film about an hour in so it's not an appropriate film to show in it's entirely but there are some other scenes that are so detailed and beautiful involving Japanese traditions.