I want to extend courage and patience to Lilah for her visa troubles and anything else that may be affecting her stay in Jordan. I hope you work it all out soon!
For the past two weekends I've felt like a Wesleyan student on some sort of extended trip to the city. Not so! I am an Urban Education Semester student, and I will maintain that. After this weekend's Pledging visit (yes, I am returning to Wesleyan again this Friday), I have no more officially scheduled visits back to the school.
It's been nice to see Todd and have him get to know my life here in the city. We went to the Columbia pledging ceremony, which was a great experience. I am so happy to have siblings here, right at 116th and Broadway : ) Besides going to the lower east side + alphabet city, we ran into Michelle Katz! Great fun and great Wesleyan reunions seem to happen spontaneously.
My UES project is developing smoothly. I'm making a timeline for it now, which should be done by tomorrow. Basically, I'm introducing historical fiction to the students by having them read and listen to ballads. We've read a children's book about women pirates (The Ballad of the Pirate Queens), and we've discussed what we think makes a ballad.
- Who writes them?- What kind of stories do ballads tell?
- What makes them easy or hard to understand?
- Can you read them, sing them, or both?
- What do you notice about the language?
Next, I'll give them handouts explaining the components of a ballad. One may be about subject matter, one may be about verse, and one may be about rhyme scheme. I have to play around with what makes sense. Hopefully I can get some fun ballads on CD's. After we've talked about what ballads are (maybe two to three weeks), we will embark on our own mission: To create a ballad based on a piece of history that the students are drawn to. This will link to their study of historical fiction. I am really enjoying the study of their interactive read-alouds. It's a treat to hear their conversations about the text.
Writing and illustrating these ballads should be super exciting, and I have confidence that the students are capable of it. We've already discussed how to make illustrations informative, and I think they will use this knowledge in their books.
Classes at Bank Street are going well. I can feel the reading and the work a-piling up, especially now that I have a more active role in the classroom. After this weekend of merriment, the work really begins.
Cheerio,
Becky
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