Summary of Learning:
The three books I chose are all picture books about disabilities. These books are all what I consider quality literature for children of all ages. All of the books I chose portray disabilities in a positive way encouraging discussion and questions after reading the books. These books share what a day in the life is like with the specific disability. All these books share the many things that disabled people can do rather than what they cannot do. The first book I chose is called Someone Special Just Like You written by Tricia Brown. The book shares photographs of children with all different types of disabilities playing and having fun. The second book I chose was We’ll Paint the Octopus Red written by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen. This book is perfect for teaching a family about Down syndrome, especially if a member of that family has Down syndrome. The last book I chose was Looking Out for Sarah written by Glenna Lang. This book shares a story about a day in the life of a guide dog and his owner. All three of these books show excellence in portraying disabilities and constitute as great pieces of literature to inform children and adults disabilities.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Critical Review: Someone Special Just Like You
Someone Special Just Like You
By Tricia Brown
Brown, Tricia. Someone Special Just Like You. New York: Henry Holt And Company,
1984.
“In dispelling the fear of the unknown and showing our common needs for physical affection, community, skills, and independence, this book should do much to help the disabled [child] gain independence from other children” (Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books). I read the book Someone Special, Just like You by Tricia Brown. This quote was written on the back cover of the book. Brown is an outsider yet she wrote this book because of a little girl in her son’s class who had a disability. She wanted to find a book “to help him understand that we should accept one another for the love we have to share with the world and not judge on the basis of physical appearances or limitations” (Brown, 1995). She soon found out that none existed. She originally wrote this book for preschoolers hoping that they will learn to accept other classmates with disabilities. However, Brown soon realized that her book was not only about children with disabilities, but about all of us. “Everyone has their own disability, and each of us is someone special” (Brown, 1995).
This picture book contains photographs taken by Fran Ortiz which shows pictures of children with all types of disabilities. Throughout the book, there was a boy who was visually impaired climbing through a tunnel, and a girl who was using a walker walking down a hallway. There was a boy who was hearing impaired playing an instrument and a girl with leg braces blowing bubbles and sliding down a slide. There was a little boy with Down Syndrome swimming in the pool and playing with toys. There was a boy in a wheel chair at school who was talking to his classmates that were sitting on a bench. There was another picture of a little boy using sign language, and making art projects.
The point of all these pictures was to show children that may not have a disability that other children with disabilities can still do many things that any little kid loves to do. There was minimal text on each page because the main focus was on the pictures. The text just explained the pictures. For example, on the page with the picture of the girl going down the slide with her leg braces it said, “I like to go down the slide like everyone else.” Brown was showing her young readers through her pictures that all kids love to play with toys, take naps, dance, play the piano, brush their teeth, go to a museum, smell pretty flowers, eat ice cream, etc. Even though a child might be in a wheel chair, or have a hearing impairment, they still want to be looked at as being a normal child. They don’t let their disability get in their way, so other kids need to be able to accept them for who they are.
Critical Review: Looking Out for Sarah
Looking Out for Sarah
By Glenna Lang
Lang, Glenna. Looking Out for Sarah. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge Publishing, 2001.
Winner of the ALA Schneider Family Book Award (2004) Looking Out for Sarah tells the day in the life of Sarah and her guide dog Perry. Perry is a Labrador retriever and takes his job very seriously as a guide dog for his blind owner Sarah. During their day, Perry and Sarah go for walks to the grocery store, catch a ride on the train, and play fetch in the yard. Since Sarah is a musician, Perry guides Sarah to a school where she plays the guitar and sings for the children. Toward the end of the story, Perry dreams about the time where he and Sarah walked all day every day for a month along country paths and small town sidewalks meeting many people along they journey. The book portrays her disability is a positive way because it shows all the things Sarah can do with her guide dog, rather than showing her limitations. In the back flap of the book, Lang shares with her readers that this book was based on a real black Labrador retriever named Perry and his owner, Sarah Gregory Smith. Although she is not an insider herself, she informs the reader about this true story of Perry and Sarah and how Perry first met Sarah at a guide dog school in New York. After Perry’s graduation from the school, Sarah and Perry went back to Sarah’s home in Massachusetts to begin their life together. Lang also explains to her readers how Sarah lost her sight as an adult from diabetes. The illustrations in Lang’s story are very captivating and show her readers that Sarah’s disability does not stop her from living her life to its fullest. This is a great story for readers of all ages because it shows how a blind woman did not let her disability stand in the way of living her life like everyone else.
Critical Review: We’ll Paint the Octopus Red
We’ll Paint the Octopus Red
By Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen
Stuve-Bodeen, Stephanie. We'll Paint The Octopus Red. Bethesda: Woodbine House,
1998.
We’ll Paint the Octopus Red, by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen is a picture book written for children from the ages of 3-7 years old. This story is about a little girl named Emma who just found out her new baby brother has Down syndrome. At first Emma did not even want a baby brother but then she had a talk with her dad about the things she could do with her brother. When the upsetting news came home to Emma that her baby brother had Down syndrome things got a little more complicated. Emma began to ask all the questions again about having a baby brother and her dad soon explained to her that her brother with Down syndrome will be able to do all the things that a little brother can do but it will just take a little more time and help from their family to teach him new things. Every page in the book has water color pictures with vibrant colors and minimal text. The pictures were very inviting and written in a way where a child could understand the positive messages. The back few pages of the book contain questions about Down syndrome written at a childs level. These questions answer the basics about what Down syndrome is and how a baby cannot grow out of Down syndrome. These questions also explain how a person with Down syndrome will act when they are older and why they are special. This book is perfect for teaching a family about Down syndrome. The pictures throughout the story reveal a baby with his family, and not a baby with Down syndrome. This showed young readers that babies born with Down syndrome can do the same things that babies do without Down syndrome. The author, Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen wrote this book as an outsider, however she has background on disabilities from getting her B.S. in education and teaching early childhood classes at the YMCA.
Professional Resource
Tingstrom, Dh, and Lb Bischoff. "Siblings of children with disabilities:
Psychological and behavioural characteristics.." Counseling Psychology
Quarterly 4.4 (1991):311-321.
"Siblings of children with disabilities: Psychological and behavioral characteristics"
In this article the reader learns about a study they conducted to “assess the behavioral and psychological characteristics of siblings of children with disabilities and the perceptions of parents and children regarding sibling relationships” (Tingstrom and Bischoff, p. 311). I found this article very interesting especially after reading, We’ll Paint the Octopus Red, by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen. I have always been interested in finding out about siblings of children with disabilities and how it affects their lives. This article was very long, so I chose to focus on the beginning of the article when the authors, Tingstrom and Bischoff, talked about their research on the sibling relationship and how many factors affect the outcome of the relationship. Tingstrom and Bischoff stated, “Sibling relationships in families with children with disabilities are complex and may be mediated by a number of variables. Care-taking responsibilities, age, birth order, individual temperament, socioeconomic status, and severity of disability may determine whether siblings are negatively or positively affected by the presence of siblings with disabilities” (Tingstrom and Bischoff, p.311). Throughout this article they talked about how “Although many studies have found negative effects for siblings of children with disabilities, a number of studies suggest that the presence of children with disabilities does not necessarily indicate that siblings without disabilities will develop problems” (Tingstrom and Bischoff, p.311). They even indicated that, “several studies suggest that the presence of a child with a disability may provide siblings with an opportunity for positive growth” (Tingstrom and Bischoff, p.311). In this article they also include a quote from an older brother of a child with autism. He stated, "Being in a family with someone 'special' to take care of not only makes you mature faster but gives you more experience and a better understanding of how to handle people as well"(Tingstrom and Bischoff, p.311).
This article made me realize that there are many factors that determine how positive or negative a relationship is with siblings of children with disabilities. I believe this article was written in a very clear and concise way, showing different ways that siblings can be affected by other siblings with disabilities. After reading this article and reflecting on the pictures books about disabilities, I learned that specifically the books I critically reviewed on disabilities can become great teaching tools to inform anyone on specific and general disabilities and would be a great start to begin forming positive relationships for siblings.
Psychological and behavioural characteristics.." Counseling Psychology
Quarterly 4.4 (1991):311-321.
"Siblings of children with disabilities: Psychological and behavioral characteristics"
In this article the reader learns about a study they conducted to “assess the behavioral and psychological characteristics of siblings of children with disabilities and the perceptions of parents and children regarding sibling relationships” (Tingstrom and Bischoff, p. 311). I found this article very interesting especially after reading, We’ll Paint the Octopus Red, by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen. I have always been interested in finding out about siblings of children with disabilities and how it affects their lives. This article was very long, so I chose to focus on the beginning of the article when the authors, Tingstrom and Bischoff, talked about their research on the sibling relationship and how many factors affect the outcome of the relationship. Tingstrom and Bischoff stated, “Sibling relationships in families with children with disabilities are complex and may be mediated by a number of variables. Care-taking responsibilities, age, birth order, individual temperament, socioeconomic status, and severity of disability may determine whether siblings are negatively or positively affected by the presence of siblings with disabilities” (Tingstrom and Bischoff, p.311). Throughout this article they talked about how “Although many studies have found negative effects for siblings of children with disabilities, a number of studies suggest that the presence of children with disabilities does not necessarily indicate that siblings without disabilities will develop problems” (Tingstrom and Bischoff, p.311). They even indicated that, “several studies suggest that the presence of a child with a disability may provide siblings with an opportunity for positive growth” (Tingstrom and Bischoff, p.311). In this article they also include a quote from an older brother of a child with autism. He stated, "Being in a family with someone 'special' to take care of not only makes you mature faster but gives you more experience and a better understanding of how to handle people as well"(Tingstrom and Bischoff, p.311).
This article made me realize that there are many factors that determine how positive or negative a relationship is with siblings of children with disabilities. I believe this article was written in a very clear and concise way, showing different ways that siblings can be affected by other siblings with disabilities. After reading this article and reflecting on the pictures books about disabilities, I learned that specifically the books I critically reviewed on disabilities can become great teaching tools to inform anyone on specific and general disabilities and would be a great start to begin forming positive relationships for siblings.
Final Blog Post
During our last class session we talked about the syllabus and what we accomplished during the semester in TE 448. We covered the definitions of stereotypes versus generalizations which I have learned, throughout this course, that I have misused these words in my writing. We covered identity and self discovery when discussing different cultures and religions throughout the novels we read. These issues of self discovery allowed me to think of what I consider to be my own culture and religion and how important those are to me. We covered the insider/outsider debate and how literature from different views can make the reader review the work as quality literature or not quality literature. I have never thought about the author’s point of view before when reading a book, and this debate allowed me to analyze what is quality literature to me. In our final project we were allowed to chose books to critically analyze in our own way. I really enjoyed this assignment because even if someone may not agree 100% with our review we were allowed to back it up with what we believe is quality literature not what someone else believes.
Another big portion of our class was blogging. Before this class I had never created a blog on Google that my other classmates could respond to. I loved reading my classmates blogs and seeing their opinions on different issues we discussed in class. Through my own blog writing, I was able to construct and organize my thoughts in a professional way because I knew that they were going to be public on the internet. For me, I know that during class I had things I wanted to talk about that I did not know exactly how to bring up during discussion. This blog allowed me to formulate my thoughts and allow others to read what I had to say.
Finally, we had to write many questioning the text papers on different novels. When going into my first QTT paper I had no idea where to start. I had never written a paper like this before and I had lots of trouble trying not to answer my own question. However, as the papers progress I believe I got better with understanding why we were writing papers like this. As teachers, we will have to bring up questions that allow for thought provoking discussions in our classrooms. These questions will not have a straight answer because the author is not present, and it is up to our students to bring their own thoughts and opinions to the discussion. It is not the teachers’ responsibility to answer the question.
All I all, I really enjoyed this class. It opened my eyes to literature that I did not know even existed. I had never read books on disabilities, GLBT, Asian-American…etc. This class forced me to critically analyze professional articles and books. Before this class I would have just read through these books and not thought anything of them. However, I did more analyzing and reflecting on pieces of literature in this class than I have in my entire life. I would recommend this class to any future teacher because I feel that it is very important to include many different types of literature into you classroom to make every student feels safe, comfortable and happy to come to school everyday.
Another big portion of our class was blogging. Before this class I had never created a blog on Google that my other classmates could respond to. I loved reading my classmates blogs and seeing their opinions on different issues we discussed in class. Through my own blog writing, I was able to construct and organize my thoughts in a professional way because I knew that they were going to be public on the internet. For me, I know that during class I had things I wanted to talk about that I did not know exactly how to bring up during discussion. This blog allowed me to formulate my thoughts and allow others to read what I had to say.
Finally, we had to write many questioning the text papers on different novels. When going into my first QTT paper I had no idea where to start. I had never written a paper like this before and I had lots of trouble trying not to answer my own question. However, as the papers progress I believe I got better with understanding why we were writing papers like this. As teachers, we will have to bring up questions that allow for thought provoking discussions in our classrooms. These questions will not have a straight answer because the author is not present, and it is up to our students to bring their own thoughts and opinions to the discussion. It is not the teachers’ responsibility to answer the question.
All I all, I really enjoyed this class. It opened my eyes to literature that I did not know even existed. I had never read books on disabilities, GLBT, Asian-American…etc. This class forced me to critically analyze professional articles and books. Before this class I would have just read through these books and not thought anything of them. However, I did more analyzing and reflecting on pieces of literature in this class than I have in my entire life. I would recommend this class to any future teacher because I feel that it is very important to include many different types of literature into you classroom to make every student feels safe, comfortable and happy to come to school everyday.
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