Students then were asked to focus on 1-3 identities that they felt were the most important or most meaningful to them. In 3rd grade, students do a lot of work around character development and mapping in order to create a strong realistic fiction piece. Building upon that, 4th graders had to model their main character around these shared identities. To really get inside the character’s head, each student was interviewed while role playing his/her main character. Some students were really excited about pretending to be their character. They also wrote “I Am” poems from the perspective of their fictional character.
As this is all going on, students are looking at characters in their Independent Reading books and Read Alouds. They are exploring the characters’ identities and any conflicts those play, or could play. In my class, we read Freak the Mighty. The main characters have very distinct identities as being both abled and disabled. This helped my students understand an issue of identity while promoting a supportive classroom community. Furthermore, we read the picture book Keep Your Ear on the Ball. In Liav’s 5th grade class, the main mentor text was a short story by Langston Hughes in the book America Street. Also, her students had already read books about the Civil Rights Movement and Jim Crow laws. Such books included Leon’s Story and Fire From the Rock. Students were clearly able to see how somebody’s racial identity can cause them conflict, and even danger.
Hi Alissa,
I am interested in learning more about this unit. I teach 4th grade at an all boys school in Brooklyn and I’m working on planning our realistic fiction unit. I came across this page and was impressed by your ideas. Can you give me any more information?
Thank you,
Jessica
Hi Jessica!
Sorry it took me a while to reply. I am new to working with this blog and couldn’t quite figure out how to respond you. Last year I taught 4th grade on the lower east side and my class of 18 kids had 12 boys. They are quite a handful, huh!?
Some of the boys were a little more engaged than others but overall I was happy with the unit. Many of my boys wrote about not being able to speak spanish with family members, being too young to participate in some activity, and sometimes about disabilities (i.e. needing glasses). Interestingly enough, few of them wrote about gender issues. On the other hand, many girls wrote about girls with boy best friends, girls who wanted to play sports, etc. I am not sure if that was just my classroom or some sort of trend. I’d be interested to see what my next class writes about and what your boys choose to discuss.
Also, there are many things that I will be reconsidering as I do this unit again. Some of the activities that Liav tried in her 5th grade classroom were quite successful (like the stereotype activity “All _____ are ____”). I am excited to try this out. Also, I found that many of my students had a hard time giving a name to things they knew and felt about themselves. Its like they lacked vital vocabulary to discuss identity. For example, they knew they spoke spanish or were from Puerto Rico but didn’t know the word “Latino.” Many knew they celebrated Christmas but didn’t know what “Christian” was. That was something that I didn’t anticipate and will now revise as I try this unit again.
Anyway, I am all about sharing with colleagues and not reinventing the wheel. I have a rough outline of the unit on my computer. If you would like me to email it to you, just let me know.
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask! I hope I was remotely helpful! And thank you again for your interest in the unit!
Best,
Alissa
You’ve put together a thoughtful plan on exploring realistic fiction. I took notes to use with my own students. Thank you!