A presentation of AIT.
Hi, I'm Cassie, and this is my journal. I write in
it almost every day. Sometimes I write about my family,
my mom, my grandpa, and my big sister Mia. She's in
college. We email each other. Sometimes I write
about my friends and all the adventures we had at school, the neighborhood,
and at Club Ride. Club Ride is one of my favorite activities.
There are a bunch of kids in the club and plus Miss Farris, the teacher.
She comes up with cool projects for us to do. We write stories,
plays, poems, letters, and lots of other stuff. Want
to know more? Got to take a look inside my journal book. Come with
me.
Dear Mia, there's a new girl in the neighborhood. Her name is Reyna, and she's from
Japan. She's cool. She's different from the other kids because she
has lived most of her life in Japan and some of her life in America.
The first time I met Rena was at the park. It was Saturday, and all the
kids had come out to play, including Billy Bones. Billy was
famous in the neighborhood. He was mean and liked to pick on other kids.
We usually called him Bully Bones. All right Shorty move it
it's my turn. didn't you hear what I said? Move it.
No, go away and I'm not scared of you. This is my
playground, you know, why don't you go back to your own country.
Hey, what's your problem? She didn't do anything here. Yeah, why don't you
leave her alone? Well you're off the hook
this time. Hey, are you OK?
I'm all right. Rena told us she had just moved to the
neighborhood and she didn't know anyone. Well, she seemed pretty nice,
so we decided to be friends with her. We even asked her to join Club
Wright. Uh, today, everyone, I'd like to introduce
you to a new member to Club Wright. Her name is Rena Sinban
Matsu, and so please make her feel welcome. Say hi, nice to have you here,
Rena. Uh, Rena, why don't you tell everyone a little bit about yourself? Hi,
I'm Rina Savomasu. I'm 10, and
I moved here from California. I lived there for 3 years.
Before that, I lived in Japan. I'm new here so
I don't know many people, but I think Clubbrite is
nice. Today our next order of
business is to talk about our new writing assignment. The new
assignment is for you to write about your family. Now you can
write about everyone in your immediate family. Perhaps you just want to choose one
person, maybe a sister or an uncle or a great grandmother
that you want to know more about. You've got a little freedom with this project, so
be creative, OK? The spirit said that when we finished writing our
story, we would draw pictures to go with it and turn the whole thing into a book.
His first showed us a book that someone had made last year. He had one
chapter about his mom, one about his dad, and one describing how they got
together. It was a cool idea. Now let's
think, who could you write about? Perhaps you could
pick one member of your family, someone like
my uncle Henry. Perhaps you've got an uncle, and you can tell why he is
special, but don't just tell us that he's special. I mean, show
us, I mean tell an event or a story about his life
that really shows why he's brave or talented or
smart.
This project was a little different from other assignments Ms. Farris gave us.
We did a lot of group work with Club Right. In most projects, 3 or more
kids worked together to write, revise, and publish a project. For this
assignment, we were on our own. As you brainstorm about
your family, uh, I really want you to think about who your
audience is, who will be reading your book. Uh,
perhaps your whole family, your classmates and friends, or maybe
just your dad. So I want you to take a few moments and think on
this, and then I want you to share your ideas with a partner.
When I was finished with my web, I shared my ideas with Clay.
We helped each other zero in on the person we wanted to write about. When it
was time to go, Ms. Fierce gave us a new assignment. We had to bring a
draft of our story to the next club right. Hey, Rena, wait up.
Can we all come together? OK.
Oops, sorry, what a. Are you OK?
I'm OK. Why don't you tell Miss Farris what happened?
No, it's not a big deal. I'm fine.
OK, but if it happens again, I think you should talk to your teacher. All
right, well, do you wanna come over tomorrow? We can work on our Club right stuff.
It's Later that week Rena came over to my house.
We played for a while and then worked on our stories for Club Wright. It's hard to
get this started. I can't think of anything to
write. Well, here's what Ms Fast us to think about before we started to
write. Whom do you want to write about? Why
do you want to write about them? Who is your audience? What do you want to
know about your family, and what do you want to share about your family?
Mm Well, I guess the
audience is the kids at school
and I want them to know more about me and my family,
OK. And I want to share some of
the um different things that my family
does. I could write about some
special holidays in Japan and well
what we do is we wear special clothes and
we. Do some fun things together.
that wasn't so hard. Rita and I made outlines before starting our
stories. We used a help sheet from Miss Ferris to make the outline.
After we had outlined most of our stories, we began our rough drives.
I thought about what Miss Farris had said about our writing. We should try
to show, not just tell. I wanted to show that my family was close
and spent a lot of time together. I decided to show that by describing some
of the things we did together, like talking to each other, helping each
other out, and having special family events.
When we finished our rough drafts, Rita and I traded our writing. She
read my first draft, and I read hers. Then we took turns reading the drafts
out loud and talking about what we thought was good and what could be better.
We had our next clubright meeting in the library. Miss Phis had set up a
shelf with some of the books that other kids had made about their families. She gave us
a chance to look through them before our meeting started. Hey
you guys, you can look at these some more after our session today, but for
right now I want you to get into groups of three and help each other
revise your first draft. But I want you to do this. I want you to listen
carefully as each student reads his or her
draft. All right? It's very important that you remember to give your
undivided attention. I want you to drop everything
and completely give your focus to the person in the author's chair.
When we got into our groups to revise, Miss Spears gave us some things to
listen for. Does the story flow? Does the story
make sense? Does the story have useless details you can weed
out, and does the story show not just test? I was in
a group with Sam and Orlando. We took turns reading our drafts out loud
and giving each other suggestions. Everyone followed the rules Miss Ferris had
set. We listened carefully and always said what we liked about the rough
track before talking about the things that could be improved. At the end of the
clubright meeting, Orlando, Sam, and I were just hanging out in the library.
Rena was sitting by herself in a corner. She looked pretty upset.
What's wrong, Rena? Uh, nothing. Is it
bully bones again? Yeah, he keeps calling me all
these names. He calls me names too. You just have to ignore it.
It's not that easy. You don't know what it's like
it's hard to be different. I know what it's like to be different.
Kids tease me all the time because I'm part Indian or part African
American. I get teased too, really? Mhm.
I did a report at my school on Mexico because I'm Mexican on my mom's
side, and after that some kids started calling me
names. Serena, you're not the only one who's different.
And you're not the only one who gets picked on, and you don't just have to sit around
and take it. Let's go to Miss Farris and let's do something about Billy Bones.
OK, so Rena and I went to Miss Farris and told her everything.
Miss Farris was a little upset that we had not come to her earlier. She
said that any time a student is threatened, it is a very serious
matter. Rena, this isn't a problem that
you need to take care of on your own. A bully is everybody's
problem and responsibility. Let me talk to your
teachers and your parents, and we'll decide what to do about this,
OK? OK, that weekend Rena invited
me to sleep over at her house. It was a lot of fun. I got to
meet her parents, Mister and Missus Simboatsu and her little brother
June. They talked to me about their life in Japan and in
America. They showed me lots of pictures, and I learned about some special
traditions they celebrate. Rena's dad took out a pair of
rackets. They were for a special game played on New Year's Day.
Rena's mom told me about a holiday called Girls' Day. On this
day, Japanese families like to decorate their house with dolls.
Rina showed me some pictures from when she lived in Japan. She went to school there
for preschool and first grade. Here I'm wearing a
kimono, a special clothes, um, on a
holiday calledhugosang. Wow, it's beautiful. Do
you still have a kimono? Yes, I'll show you.
When I got home that weekend, I told my mom all about Rena's family.
I had learned a lot about Japan just from hanging out with them for a while.
After we talked, my mom helped me finish up my story for Club Wright.
I had revised my story a couple of times, so I was almost done,
but I had to check a couple of facts with my mother. My mom went over the
details in my story and corrected dates for names of relatives that I had
forgotten or gotten wrong. After that, my mom helped me
proofread my draft.
There are a couple of places where your subject and verb don't agree. What do you
mean? Well, is this right? My family are?
No, my family is right. See, your subject is
singular, so you need to find the verb that fits the singular form.
What would be the correct verb for my family?
All right, very good. So there are a couple of mistakes that you need to go in there and
fix, OK? After looking for the rest of my mistakes and correcting them,
I was done with my draft. All I had to do now was type up my
final draft and draw pictures for my story.
Later that week I got together with some of my friends to finish my project.
Most of the kids were done with their writing and were drawing pictures or putting their
books together. Reyna, what do you want?
You better not be bothering Rena or any of us any more.
You stop calling me names. You stop bugging me, and you stay away
from me. I came to apologize.
Well, I'm really sorry for, well,
everything and. I might get kicked out of school
now. I have to ask you to help me. I have to organize an international
day at school. What? Why should she help you?
The principal said I had to do it. And I had to ask
Rena to help me. If you don't, I might get kicked
out of school. Please, I don't want to go to another school.
OK, I'll help you. Yeah, we'll all help you, but if you ever
bother another kid again, it's over. OK, OK,
I'll be good. I promise. I was
glad the whole bully thing was over. Rena was too. I saw her
family again at the next clubwright meeting. Everyone had finished their books,
and we had a presentation for our families. All the kids got to read
their stories for the audience. Afterwards. We put our books on display
for everyone to read. We also had a pizza party to celebrate.
Wow, a lot happened to me last month. I made a new friend. I helped
stop a bully, and I wrote a book about our family. I learned a lot
too about Rena and her family in Japan. Her family is
different from ours in a lot of ways, but not that different. We both
like being together and doing things as a family. I'm pretty lucky to have
you, Mom, and Grandpa, and you guys are lucky to have me, don't you
think? Well, I have to go now. I'll send you my book. Love you