The Role of Values and Character Traits in Overcoming Challenges

The Role of Values and Character Traits in Overcoming Challenges:

A Summary of An Integrated Unit for 5/6 Students

This unit is designed to develop skills in collecting evidence, thinking deeply about fiction and nonfiction text, connecting text with personal values, organizing and elaborating evidence, and writing reflectively. The content focuses on children who cope with challenges which occur in multicultural novels set in Afghanistan, Bolivia and immigration memoirs from life in contemporary United States. The unit is designed for a multiage class of fifth and sixth graders and provides scaffolding for struggling readers and writers. Elaborating evidence and writing reflectively are critical thinking skills for students of this age and will be taught, modeled and practiced throughout the unit. I estimate that this unit will take 3-4 months and will be part of an integrated reading, writing and social studies unit.

The core texts are Breadwinner (Afghanistan), I am a Taxi (Bolivia), The Circuit (Mexican immigration), American Streets, New Kids on the Town (short immigration memoirs) and contemporary realistic fiction (United States, student choice). Students will also be reading nonfiction texts related to these culture groups and practicing nonfiction reading strategies as they develop the background knowledge to help them fully understand the settings of these texts.

All three of the core chapter books effectively develop characters who face challenges for a variety of reasons. Once students have practiced identifying what helps characters face challenges in picture books, many will be able to continue developing this skill while reading chapter books. Others may need the support of modified tasks or small group supported instruction.

The unit will begin with a study of a variety of picture books and other short texts to introduce values and character trait vocabulary, and to begin asking students to think about the role values and character traits have in helping characters face challenges. Students will also be doing a variety of quickwrites that will give them practice in identifying the values and character traits that affect their decisions. The final product will ask students to write reflectively about what they have learned about values and themselves both through reading and writing.

Below is a model essay that may be adapted as the unit unfolds. I do not expect that student essays will be as long. I think we will be writing parts of the essay as the unit progresses as part of the constructed responses when we finish each book. It is my intention that many of my students will be able to do some kind of synthesizing about their lives and the books they have read. Additional details for this unit can be provided by email.

Books, Values and Me

Every year I face new challenges in school and in the other parts of my life. Often books help me think about the values that are important to me as I figure out how to cope with those challenges. My favorite books are historical fiction books that focus on characters who face interesting challenges. Often the book that I find most interesting is whichever book I am currently reading. This week it is The Paris Wife, a book about Ernest Hemingway’s wife and her life married to a s struggling writer in Paris in the 1920s. Why would an American man who is struggling to become a good writer want to live in Paris between the two World Wars? Did Paris have anything to do with why he became a great writer? What about Hemingway and his wife might have helped him be successful?

Reading books often gets me thinking about what is important about characters’ lives and how they cope with challenges and, then, I begin to think about what is important in my life. I can easily do this with most adult books, but children’s books can also make me think about how characters face challenges.

One of my favorite children’s books is Friendship. It takes place in the South during the 1930s when Blacks did not have the same rights as white people. They were not able to go to the same schools or often were treated very unfairly when they went into a store. Little Man, a six year old, is in a store owned by a white family and listens to one of the owners threaten to cut off his hands because he has touched a glass case. “Boy, you disputin’ my word? Just look at ya! Skin’s black as dirt...Best chop those hands off, Dew, they that flithy.” (10) Life in the South was often dangerous for Black people even though slavery had ended 70 years earlier. Later on in the book, the oldest Black man, John, puts his life in danger when he goes into the same store and demands that the White owners wait on him. Is it worth facing the danger of being shot to get what you wanted? I don’t think I would be able to risk my life to stand up for something I believe in. My students and I probably will not have to risk our lives, but courage will play a role as we confront our daily challenges.

Nightjohn is another of my favorite children’s books. It also takes place in the South in the years before the Civil War. Nightjohn, a former slave, risks his life to teach other slaves how to read. Sarny, a slave, fears for life, but is inspired by Nightjohn’s bravery and becomes willing to let him teach her how to read. I can’t think of a better example of the importance of learning. Slaveowners knew how dangerous it was to allow slaves to be educated and that’s why they punished slaves for learning how to read. After the slaves were freed, learning became a very important way for slaves to begin to become independent. Today I value learning both for the opportunities it offers me and what it provides for the future of my students.

On a lighter note, I also appreciate The Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Claudia and her brother decide to run away and live in a huge art museum in New York City. There they sleep on a bed that belonged to a queen and hid from the guards by climbing on toilet seats. The relationship between the two kids is one of the important memories I have from this book. Running away was Claudia’s idea. She was the creative one, but she needed her brother to manage the money. In fact, he was the only one who had money. Claudia could not have gone on this adventure without her brother’s help. No subway money, no food money, no adventure. Kids often need each other as they take risks and face challenges. I see that in my classroom everyday.

So what have I learned from this trip into my love of children’s book? When I started thinking about children’s books I really remember, it wasn’t hard for me to find books that contain characters who faced challenges. While reflecting on these challenges, I identified the character traits and values that helped the characters succeed. When I look at my life would I find some of the same values or character traits?

Like the characters in Nightjohn, I value learning. I wouldn’t enjoy teaching as much as I do if I didn’t value learning. Every year, when I meet new students I am challenged to figure out how each of them thinks and to find out how to I can help them learn. Not only do I have to learn about the ideas I want to teach them, but I have to learn about the students themselves. Each student is different and that makes learning exciting for me. Maybe I get the same satisfaction from watching my students learn as Nightjohn did in helping the slaves learn. Valuing learning about ideas and students makes my challenging job very satisfying.

When I have figured out what one of my students need, it becomes easy for me to stand up for what I believe. While it takes less courage than John had in Friendship, it sometimes takes courage for me to tell other teachers that I think some kind of change is needed so we can better meet the needs of some of the students in my class.

And I know students believe that kids need each other just like Claudia needed her brother. I, too, value others in my life. I value what I can learn from other teachers and I enjoy being a small part of my daughter’s life. While I don’t need my daughter to do what I want to do, I need the enrichment she adds to my life. I travel many miles to watch the plays for which she has designed the sets. Without that focus outside of school, I would have to work much harder to find new interests outside of school.

I believe reading helps me focus on what I value in life and those values help me cope with challenges. Life will continue to have challenges for me even though I am older, but it is reassuring to know that books will help me understand the various situations I will face. Like Nightjohn, Claudia or John, if I focus on what is important to me, I will be better able to cope with those challenges and move forward.