lilitarutyun-blog

[lilitarutyun-blog]

-Elizabeth Nargizyan 

[lilitarutyun-blog]

Secret Coders Response to Bryanna Hammett

“I was wondering how you, as future teachers would interpret Hoppers and her mother’s relationship to the students reading the book? How would you explain the significance to the students to get a better understanding of what’s happening in the comic book?” - Bryanna Hammett

If I were to have the comic book “Secret Coders” written by Gene Luen Yang and Mike Holmes incorporated into my class lesson I would have to touch on multiple points. One point being Hopper and her mother’s relationship. With over 50% of marriages failing, there will be a high chance that multiple students of mine will have gone through or are going through their parents separating or getting divorced. I would begin by asking my students what they believed happened. Having them explain the reasoning behind their explanation. From here I would begin letting my students know that it is difficult having to watch your own parents separate but as long as you know that they will always love you and that they will do anything to continue making you happy then nothing will be able to bring you down. With this I would also mention that Hopper shows in the book how frustrated she becomes with her mother. Being upset over her parents’ separation id not wrong, every child has the right to be upset about this in their life. I would ask my students to write about if they thought Hopper’s mom was facing the situation appropriately or not.

I would also like to point out that Ms. Hu and Hopper’s complexities of their relationship is just because they are related but because it seems that Ms. Hu avoids her duties as a mother of making sure her daughter feels safe, secure, and loved with using the school as a shield she block off any questions Hopper has. On page 66 when Hopper states that her mom has ruined her life, all her own mother had to say about it was, “I’m going to tell you one last time. When we are at school, you will address me as Mr. Hu.”. Completely ignoring the emotional distress her daughter is going through and walking away when she felt as if she was being asked to many questions that she did not want to answer.

-Lilit Arutyunyan 

[lilitarutyun-blog]

Dream Drum Girl

Hello class, this week’s discussion is Dream Drum Girl by Margarita Engle. As I was reading I couldn’t help but think of all the ways that I could incorporate this into my classroom and the lessons that can be taught. I used my imagination and thought of a student; boy or girl going home and telling their parents that they want to start playing the drums or any instrument because there are no restrictions. Instruments aren’t meant for a specific gender as we all know and I feel like that could be a great lesson to teach as you read this book to your class. I also thought about incorporating this book when its Hispanic Heritage month because music is a huge part of the Hispanic culture and probably a lot of your students can think back to there households and think of all the music that they hear at family parties or get togethers. It’s a great book to get your students to think together and to understand that instruments are meant for everyone. I’m sure that there are people who are still “old- school” and still believe in the gender roles such as pink is for girls and football is for boys but this book breaks the ice for these young children because your students can do anything that a boy or girl can do. If we want to turn this into an art project than we can print out blank instrument pictures such as guitars, drum sets, trumpets, violins, or even microphones and the students can create their dream instrument. Their instruments can be displayed around the classroom for a week or the whole month but I feel that if the students are doing something that is considered “fun” then they will always remember the story behind the project. These are just a few ideas that came to my mind when reading this book and I would like to know how you would incorporate this book into your classroom and what lessons you could teach your students.  

Vanessa Castellanos

[lilitarutyun-blog]

Hello Vanessa, 

I admire the different strategies of incorporating the book into the classroom for the students to learn different lessons from different angles of the book. I too believe that musical instruments do not obtain any gender roles and should be free for everyone’s use. Even though some parents would push their children to play more “feminine” or “masculine” instruments it is important to help our future student know and understand that it is not wrong to go play an instrument that their parent or guardian assigns to the opposing gender. Helping our students keep an open mind to all ideas in the world rather than confining them to a certain role in life. Hopefully the book would present itself in way that the students begin to feel free about who they are or who they want to become. You could also have the students make music themselves; this does not necessarily mean that each student needs an instrument. The teacher can lead with a beat and the students could follow, this leading to a small singing session where the teacher and students unite in a song they all know. Another idea would be students getting together in groups and being assigned an instrument. Together they could come up with ideas of where the instrument would be played, the colors it usually comes in, some songs that use the instrument, and how people dance when the instrument in played. This could be put on a poster and become decorated and placed around the classroom. I definitely will be incorporating a few of these ideas into my future lesson plans and hopefully some of my ideas with be of use to you as well.

Lilit Arutyunyan

Dream Drum Girl

Hello class, this week’s discussion is Dream Drum Girl by Margarita Engle. As I was reading I couldn’t help but think of all the ways that I could incorporate this into my classroom and the lessons that can be taught. I used my imagination and thought of a student; boy or girl going home and telling their parents that they want to start playing the drums or any instrument because there are no restrictions. Instruments aren’t meant for a specific gender as we all know and I feel like that could be a great lesson to teach as you read this book to your class. I also thought about incorporating this book when its Hispanic Heritage month because music is a huge part of the Hispanic culture and probably a lot of your students can think back to there households and think of all the music that they hear at family parties or get togethers. It’s a great book to get your students to think together and to understand that instruments are meant for everyone. I’m sure that there are people who are still “old- school” and still believe in the gender roles such as pink is for girls and football is for boys but this book breaks the ice for these young children because your students can do anything that a boy or girl can do. If we want to turn this into an art project than we can print out blank instrument pictures such as guitars, drum sets, trumpets, violins, or even microphones and the students can create their dream instrument. Their instruments can be displayed around the classroom for a week or the whole month but I feel that if the students are doing something that is considered “fun” then they will always remember the story behind the project. These are just a few ideas that came to my mind when reading this book and I would like to know how you would incorporate this book into your classroom and what lessons you could teach your students.  

Vanessa Castellanos

[lilitarutyun-blog]

Test

testing testing 123