Traveling Back in Time

guest post by Deborah Kalb

What would it be like to travel back in time and meet the early presidents and their families? That’s what the fifth graders in George Washington & the Magic Hat and its sequel, John Adams & the Magic Bobblehead, get to do.

Sam and Ava are regular 21^st century kids, living across the street from each other in Bethesda, Maryland, dealing with issues a lot of kids face. Sam and his former best friend, Andrew, aren’t speaking to each other any more. Ava, in a newly blended family, can’t stand her stepbrother, J.P.

And then, thanks to a crotchety hat, in Sam’s case, and a talking bobblehead, in Ava’s, they are transported into a completely different time.

Students can focus on the historical figures--George Washington, John and Abigail Adams, and more. What do they know about the Founding Fathers and Mothers? Is there one that they’re particularly interested in and why? What do they think these historical figures would make of today’s world if the time travel were reversed?

And then there are the contemporary issues. How do the students identify with Sam? With Ava? How do the students try to resolve the issues that bother them?

If they had a magic hat or a magic bobblehead, which time period would they like to visit, and why? Is there a particular person they’d like to get to know? 

Any of these questions can prompt a discussion or writing assignment that will get students thinking about history or today’s issues or a combination of both.

Here are links to George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon, in Northern Virginia, and to the Adams National Historic Park in Quincy, Massachusetts.

   

Deborah Kalb is a freelance writer and editor. She spent two decades working as a journalist in Washington, D.C., for news organizations including Gannett News Service, Congressional Quarterly, U.S. News & World Report, and The Hill, mostly covering Congress and politics. Her book blog, Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, which she started in 2012, features hundreds of interviews she has conducted with a wide variety of authors. She is the author of the new children’s book The President and Me: John Adams and the Magic Bobblehead (Schiffer, 2018), the second in a series — after The President and Me: George Washington and the Magic Hat (Schiffer, 2016) Visit http://www.deborahkalb.com/

Cooperative Learning with Brave Like My Brother

by Jacqueline Jules

As a teacher, I was thrilled to discover Brave Like My Brother by Marc Tyler Nobleman. This slim title will make a perfect read-aloud and writing model for the upper elementary classroom. Told entirely in letters, Brave Like My Brother depicts a touching relationship between two brothers writing to each other during World War II. Joe’s letters home to younger brother Charlie share a fascinating account of an American soldier’s life abroad. The portrayal of war is neither too sugar coated nor too frightening for upper elementary students. Charlie’s letters to Joe share his struggles with a bully at home in Cleveland. The book’s large font and 100 page text should make it attractive to reluctant readers. 

Letter writing is a wonderful vehicle for sharing information. After reading Brave Like My Brother, students could work in pairs, each one taking on the role of a person separated from a loved one by war or circumstance. The letters could involve research into either a historical era or geographic region. It could be an exciting cooperative project. Here are some suggestions.

Student 1: Write letters to a sister/brother/friend describing your life as you travel to a new country and build a new life.

Student 2: Describe your life at home in response to these letters.

Student 1: Write letters home to a sister/brother/friend while you are at summer camp or on a vacation.

Student 2: Describe your life back home in response to these letters.

Student 1: Write letters to a friend during a move to a state across the country.

Student 2: Respond to the letters with information on how things are going in your friend’s old city.

Student 1: Write letters to a parent/sister/brother who is away on business, deployed, or incarcerated.

Student 2: Respond to the letters, explaining your current life situation.

Student 1: Write letters to a grandparent asking what life was like for them and explaining what your life is like.

Student 2: Write letters answering your grandchild’s questions.

In an age, when most people communicate by email or text rather than speaking on the phone, the ability to express ourselves by means of a letter is more important than ever. A cooperative letter writing exercise will give your students practice in both writing and essential life skills.

www.jacquelinejules.com

Heroes and Historical Fiction – The Six-Day Hero

Guest post by Tammar Stein

The Six-Day Hero tells the story of Motti, a scrappy 12-year-old Israeli boy living in Israel on the eve of the Six-Day War. Idolizing his older brother, a soldier in the Israeli Defense Force, Motti dreams of being a hero. As the Six-Day War begins and his brother is called up to fight, Motti realizes that war isn’t a game. Motti knows his older brother is a hero, but through the six days that will decide Israel’s fate, he discovers other heroes in surprising places. He may even be a hero himself.

In 1967, Israel teetered between existence and annihilation. By winning the Six Day War, it averted annihilation…and began the modern dilemma of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This summer (June 5-11) marks the war’s 50th anniversary.

I wrote The Six-Day Hero after discovering there was nothing on the topic for Middle Grade readers. Well-researched historical fiction can open a door into the past. By letting readers feel what those historical events were like, not just dry facts like places and dates, but also sounds, smells, tastes, and emotions, history sudden leaps to life.

Because historical fiction can be the doorway to understanding historical events, I felt that I had a responsibility to make sure my facts were correct. The plot and the characters are fictional. But the facts in The Six-Day Hero are all real. The order of events leading up to the war and during the war are true. The quotes from foreign leaders on the radio are true. Even the color of the public bus that the boys ride is historically accurate. In order to make sure that each fact in the book was correct, I read nonfiction books, pulled newspaper articles from the time period and interviewed a dozen Israelis and Americans who had lived through the Six Day War.

Reading The Six-Day Hero is a wonderful way to introduce current events into your curriculum. The Six Day War happened 50 years ago. That probably seems like ancient history to your students. But since this is the war that started the situation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, it still has a big effect on millions of people. It’s not ancient history, it’s current events.

Ask your students to find Israel on the map. Have them find Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Find Morocco and Tunisia. Compare them to the United States. Notice their size difference and their distance from each other. Discuss whether a country’s size correlates to its influence. What are some reasons that countries go to war? What are the risks and rewards of war? What are the risks and rewards to refusing to fight? Ask your students to write an essay on one of these topics.

Ask your students to collect newspaper articles and do research on a place frequently mentioned in the news. Could they create a character sketch of a fictional person who lives in this place? Could they write a description of the setting?

Discuss the differences between fiction and non-fiction. Between plot (fiction) and setting (which could be fiction or non-fiction). Ask students to name examples of fictional settings and non-fictional settings. Discuss the novel and have your students separate fact and fiction. Knowing that the historical facts are correct, where is the fiction?

Books can open new worlds to us. They can introduce us to distant lands and make us feel kinship with strangers. I hope your students walk away from The Six-Day Hero with a new appreciation that behind every news story is a story of people.

Tammar Stein is the author of four young adult novels, including Light Years, an American Libraries Association Best Book of the Year, a Virginia Reader’s Choice, and a Texas Summer Reading List book. The Six-Day Hero is her first Middle Grade novel. It is a Junior Library Guild Selection. You can visit Tammar at www.tammarstein.com

Writing Connections with Shawn Stout

by Mary Quattlebaum

Family can be inspiring, as Shawn Stout discovered when writing her eighth novel A Tiny Piece of Sky.  In an interview for KidsPost/WashingtonPost, Stout talked about the prejudice her German-American grandfather dealt with right before World War II.  Shawn fictionalized her family’s experiences, but she asked her mother and aunts many questions about their childhood.  She wanted to convey a child’s perspective of the townspeople’s boycott of her grandfather’s restaurant and of their (false) perception of him as a German spy.

Below are writing lessons for the classroom or for individual writers ages 8 and up.  Stout’s website http://shawnkstout.com/ includes a teachers’ guide.

RETURN TO THE PAST:  As the youngest in her family, 10-year-old Frankie Baum feels she lacks the respect and privileges accorded her two older siblings.  She is determined to prove that her father is no spy.  As she gets to know some of the African American staff in her father’s restaurant, Frankie also becomes more aware of the injustices suffered by blacks in the segregated Maryland town.  She speaks frequently about her favorite book “The Wizard of Oz” and its movie adaptation.

Classroom Discussion, Part 1:  Ask students to read the book and to jot down some details of clothing, food, transportation that have changed since the late 1930s. What were some examples of prejudice experienced by Frankie and her family?  By the African-American staff?  In their own families,  where are students in the birth order (oldest, youngest, middle)?  Do they ever feel like Frankie, trapped in a particular family role (responsible one, jokester, lazy lout, etc.)?   Do the students try to break out?  What do they do/have they done?

Classroom Writing:  Ask students to interview a parent or grandparent to get a view of certain events that is both personal and reflective of childhood at the time.   (They can do this orally or ask for written answers.)  Kids might ask adults to go back to a certain age–10 years old, for example. Questions might include:

1.  What was your family pet?  Describe one or two adventures or times you shared with this pet.  (Frankie has a dog and a pony.)

2.  What was your favorite restaurant as a kid?  Name three things about its appearance, sound , or smells that you remember.  What dish did you like best? Least?  Why?

3.  What chores or responsibilities did you have as a kid?  Which did you like least?  Most?  Why?

4.  What was your favorite book?  Movie?  Why?  Can you describe the first time you read or saw this?

5.  What was your favorite item of clothing?  Toy or game?  Can you briefly describe?

6.  Did you ever witness or experience prejudice?  What did you say or do?  How do you feel about that incident now?

7.  What were some important events of that year (war, presidential election, Civil Rights movement, etc.)?  How did you feel about them then?

Students might then take one of these answers and write a short description or fictional tale, much as Stout did.

Classroom Discussion, Part 2: Once they have done the interviewing and writing, ask students what they learned, both about the time period and parent.

www.maryquattlebaum.com

Writing Connections with Dan Gutman

by Mary Quattlebaum

Like a master alchemist, Dan Gutman can take ordinary stuff and turn it into comic gold.  As the best-selling author of 125 books, he knows how to keep kids laughing as they turn the pages.  I recently interviewed him for KidsPost/WashingtonPost about the first book (The Lincoln Project) in his new history series, “Flashback Four.”  With its time-travel shenanigans, the new series is sure to be as popular as Gutman’s “My Weird School” and “Baseball Card Adventure” series.

Below are writing lessons for the classroom or for individual writers ages 8 and up.  Gutman’s website www.dangutman.com includes puzzles and games related to his books.

VIEWS OF HISTORY:  In the “Lincoln Project,” the four main characters travel back to the time of the Gettysburg Address, in 1863, for a wild adventure.  But each experiences that time differently, depending on race and gender.  Luke and Julia are white, Isabel is a scholarly Hispanic girl and David is an African American boy.

Classroom Discussion:  Ask students to read the book and to jot down differences between the way boys and girls dressed or were treated.  How about African American and white people?  What is David worried about?

Classroom Writing: Ask each student to list what they would have liked/disliked/been worried about if they had traveled on Miss Z’s invention back to Gettysburg, in 1863.  What would have been their favorite thing? Now, ask them to be someone from a different race and/or gender and do the same thing.  How were the answers different?

Classroom Writing:  Miss Z has tapped you to be one of her time-traveling students.  What point in time would you like to travel back to—and where?  (It doesn’t have to be the United States.)  What important moment would you take a photo of?  Write Miss Z a letter explaining (1) why you are the best person to go, (2) why this place and time are important to visit, and (3) why it is important that this moment be photographed.  To prepare the most persuasive letters, ask students to do some research into their point in history.  Ask them to write down what excites them and what they may be afraid of.  How do they think they will be treated back then?  Give some reasons why.

www.maryquattlebaum.com

FICTION VS NONFICTION: REAL OR IMAGINARY?

guest blog by Karen Deans

My two books, Playing to Win and Swing Sisters, are picture book biographies based on the lives of some remarkable women who defied racist and sexist barriers to become champions and superstars in their respective fields. They are written for children who are beginning to identify the differences between fiction and non-fiction writing. I often explain to students that my books are nonfiction, and based on real people and events that actually happened in the past. I talk about the importance of research, because non-fiction depends on it. Fiction, on the other hand, is a story that comes from the author’s imagination. It may require research, too, but it can be as fantastical as an author wants it to be.

Here are some classroom activities that will help develop and deepen an understanding of fiction and nonfiction writing.  Have fun!

1. Create a classroom chart: Make two columns with headings: Fiction and Nonfiction. Ask students to brainstorm words that relate to each heading and write them in the correct column. Fiction: poetry, pretend, imaginary, fantasy, talking animals, etc. Nonfiction: facts, biography, history, index, bibliography, etc.

Create a duplicate chart and brainstorm books they have read or will be reading in class. Add them to the new chart in the correct column. Have students describe elements from the first chart that were found in the books they mention. For example, Swing Sisters is both non-fiction and biography. While it doesn’t have an index, it has a bibliography. It is based on facts and not something imagined by the author.

2. Share a Story: Have the children write (or tell) a brief story, either from their imagination or from factual events. Then take turns reading them aloud and let the class determine if they are fiction or nonfiction. Sometimes it is obvious, but sometimes it is not. A fantasy story about a spaceship will obviously be identified as fiction. But someone describing a vacation to the beach might be creating something from her or his imagination. Discuss the elements that lead to their conclusion.

3. Historical Fiction Fun: For older children, depending on their ability, ask them to identify a real event from history, such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Ask them to write some factual elements from this event, answering the basic who, what, why, when and where prompts. Next, have them create a character, maybe a cat that sneaks into the room chasing a mouse. What happens next? Does a desk turn over? Is there laughter? Maybe a servant spills a pail of water and shrieks before climbing on top of a chair. How do the real elements mix with the imagined ones?

Karen Deans is a writer, painter and owner of a decorative art business, WoodenTile.com. She has written two picture books for Holiday House, including Swing Sisters: The Story of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, which came out in March. She has worked as head scenic painter for the children’s theater Adventure Theatre MTC. This work has taken her to Broadway, as set painter for a musical adaptation of the children’s book Three Little Birds, based on the music of Bob Marley. She is the mother of three grown children and lives with her husband and kitty in Bethesda, MD. Visit her at www.karendeans.com

Writing Connections with Rita Williams-Garcia

by Mary Quattlebaum

Rita Williams-Garcia includes family secrets, sibling dynamics, and the rural South in her novel Gone Crazy in Alabama (HarperCollins, 2015, ages 8-12).  I talked with Rita recently about this third and final book in her historical series about three sisters—Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern Gaither—growing up in the late 1960s.  

Click here for the KidsPost/Washington Post interview.

Below are a few writing prompts for the classroom or for individual writers ages 8 and up.

Family Tales:  The book revolves around the sisters’ discovery of secrets that have affected their family for several generations.

Classroom Discussion:  Ask students to find an old family photo, keepsake, or heirloom at home or at an older relative’s house.  Have kids brainstorm and prepare questions in class and then interview several family members about that object and ask them to jot down the different answers.  Did they think of more questions based on the answers they received?  What family member seemed to know the most?  Why?  What did students learn about the object and/or the family member doing this?  What was a big surprise?

Classroom Writing:  Ask students to write down a description and brief history of this object and to give a sense of how they feel about it.  They also might share their writing/interview responses with a few family members (siblings, a parent, a different, older relative) and then talk about their relatives’ reactions in class.

SOCIAL JUSTICE/ANIMAL RIGHTS:  The novel deals with the sexism and racism of the times in thought-provoking, nuanced ways.  It is also one of the few novels with a young character who actively protests what she sees as the inhumane treatment of animals.  

Classroom Discussion:  How does Fern make her views known and how does she stage her protests?  How do others react?  Ask your students to list, as a group, some injustices they see in this country and in the wider world.  Does each kid have a cause that he or she feels strongly about?  Like Fern, how might students help to create change in a peaceful manner?   

Classroom Writing:  Have them choose a cause and develop a campaign/do some things (either individually or in small groups) to deepen school or public awareness and possibly lead to positive change.

 www.maryquattlebaum.com

Inhabiting Your Character or Historic Subject

by Mary Quattlebaum

How might we bring a greater awareness of our characters or historic subjects (George Washington, Harriet Tubman) to the page?

This is one of my favorite exercises as a writer—and one my students of all ages seem to relish and learn from. It’s playful and illuminating.

*Be your character or historic subject for a day (or at least a few consecutive hours).   Try to bring all your senses to it.

*Put on the clothes (or at least some) she would wear.  Eat the breakfast she would.  Do chores of the time (wash dishes, for example, or find a stable and pat the horses).  Play a game or read a book in the way your character would.

*Move like your character.  Let yourself inhabit that excited child or hungry dog or frightened slave. Skip down the street or sniff your dinner deeply or hide in a shed at night and peek out.  Walk as your character walks.  (For my picture book Underground Train, I rode the Metro in Washington, DC numerous times while inhabiting my child narrator, trying to experience the sounds and sights as she would.)

*Enact certain scenes, especially if they have intense action or emotion (within reason, of course).  For example, for an escape scene, have someone truss you up and feel yourself first bound and then trying to figure out how to escape.

*What does your character really like to do?  Do that!  What does your character hate to do?  Try that too, always being your character.

*Take on the physical proportions and usual posture of your character.  If your character is short, get down on your knees and see/experience as she would.  If your historic figure is tall, stand on a chair.  Is a character aggressive?  Puff out the chest.  Sad?  Let yourself slump.

*Jot down your reactions, thoughts, feelings, etc.  Weave into the writing or be conscious of as you revise.

*This can be done at any time during the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising) to deepen a sense of character/historic subject and their world, provide more telling details, and heighten kinesthetic awareness.

www.maryquattlebaum.com

HOPPING OFF HISTORY

by Mary Quattlebaum

As writers (and teachers of writing), we’re all familiar with that old adage “write what you know.”  Sometimes, though, that advice can limit  or just plain bore a writer.  How might we challenge students to try writing what they don’t know or, in other words, to write to discover more?

One approach might be to have them explore the intersection of family history with larger historical events.  How was my family involved in the Civil Rights era?  What did Grandpa do during the time of the Vietnam War?  Why and how did Lola emigrate to the United States?

This approach works especially well for ages 12 and up, and is one I’ve used with advanced and adult writing students.

1.  Share children’s and YA books that portray young people involved in historical events.  Some of my favorites encourage readers to take a closer look at an era or event not widely known or studied in school.  Many include author’s notes about the author’s tie to the story and how she came to research and write the novel.

* The Great Migration by Eloise Greenfield. A series of poems about African Americans, including the author’s parents, who left the South between 1915 and 1930 for the greater freedom they hoped they would find in the North.

* The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Shang.  Contemporary novel, set in America, about a smart, funny 12-year-old girl who learns about China’s Cultural Revolution from an elderly relative.

* The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez.  Historical fiction about two Cuban children who emigrate alone to the United States as Castro clamps down on their middle-class parents in the early 1960s.   Based on experiences of author’s parents and mother-in-law.

* A Troubled Peace by L. M. Elliott.  Historical fiction focused on the chaotic years in Europe just after World War II.  Inspired by the author’s father’s experiences as an American pilot during the war.

2.  Encourage students to choose a relative and think about what they would like to ask him or her.  Have them jot down questions about a given 5-year span in the relative’s life.  What was your favorite item of clothing?  Food?  What did you and your friends like to do?  What was your favorite book or TV show?  Why?  What did you like best about living during that time and in the place you did?  What did you like least?  What was the biggest lesson you learned?  What were three historical things that happened during this time and what do you remember about them?  Is there something you can show me (photo, memento) from that time period?

3.  Have students interview their relative and write down the answers.  Then have them shape their material into a coherent piece of writing entitled something like “What Grandpa liked about  this time period” or “Grandma comes to the United States.”

4.  Share pieces with the class and have students discuss what they may have learned and been surprised by.

www.maryquattlebaum.com